Religion plays a role no matter what career you are working in. In sports broadcasting, you would have to deal with many players with different religions. Specific examples include when interviewing an athlete, when broadcasting a sports game or event, and helping to understand the players and who they are. In sports, many players get interviewed; most of them using religion in their answer. For example, in boxing, Manny Pacquiao always prays at his corner before every fight before the match would even start, and post- fight interviews he always thanks God in his answers.
I’ll have to come across different fighters like Manny Pacquiao who are very religious. When interviewing many controversial athletes, I would have to be unbiased on the things they say. Many other athletes just like Manny Pacquiao always like to bring up God to their answers. Another example of an athlete bringing up God in his answer during an interview is a football player, Terrell Owens.
Terrell Owens had broken his leg and tore a ligament in his ankle a month before the Eagles went on to play in Super Bowl XXXIX. He was required to get surgery and he received two screws and a plate. The doctors didn’t clear him to play in the Super Bowl, but he did end up playing. As a result, he played an amazing game for someone who had a small recovery time. In an interview he stated that, “Spiritually, God is healing me, and I’m way ahead of where a lot of people expect me to be.
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“ Amazing as always, gave her a week to finish a big assignment and came through way ahead of time. ”
” Terrell Owens showed that he had a strong faith in God while in the healing process for him to play in the Super Bowl. Many athletes in the future will thank their God in future sporting events and I will come across those many athletes in the future and it will help me understand their religious background.
While broadcasting a sports game you will have to witness many different players who have different ways of expressing their religion. For example, Tim Tebow always kneels and prays before the start of a football game. This is how he shows his thanks to God. Many kids who watched Tebow while growing up now feel that they are allowed to express their religion when they play sports. Not only he would kneel and pray before a game, he would write biblical verses on his eye paint during his college years. The NCAA didn’t allow him to write the biblical verses on his eye paint which the NCAA made a rule called “The Tebow Rule,” banning anything written on the eye paint. The fact that Tim Tebow would write the biblical verses on his eye paint displays his strong faith in Christianity. Once I’m in my career field I will probably have to experience different people like Tebow. Another case of seeing religion play a role during a sports game happened in 2009. A Ghanaian soccer player named Sulley Muntari was effectively replaced only playing 30 minutes of the soccer match playing for Inter Milan against Bari.
The manager of the soccer team at the time, Jose Mourinho explained that Sulley Muntari wasn’t able to play due to not being fit because of him fasting during the month of Ramadan. Ramadan is the most sacred month of the year in the Islamic culture. This shows that Sulley Muntari would do anything to practice Ramadan even if it is to sacrifice his well-being. The fact that this happened, and it was out of nowhere in the middle of the match can help many of sports broadcasters find a greater understanding in one’s religion. Helping to understand the players and who they are is necessary to working in sports. For example, in 2014 NFL player Husain Abdullah prayed Sujood (Islamic prayer) to celebrate a touchdown he scored. The NFL penalized and fined him for the act, which could have been avoided had they understood his religion more. For future references, the NFL should accept prayer as a form of celebration. Another athlete to understand is the boxer, Amir Khan. Amir Khan is Muslim, and he does practice Ramadan.
In the year 2014, he had the chance to fight one of the best boxers of all time, Floyd Mayweather Jr. But he didn’t end up fighting Mayweather due to the fact he was observing Ramadan. If he were to fight Mayweather, he would be receiving big time cash for the match. He didn’t receive proper training since he was fasting for 17 hours for the whole of Ramadan. Many spectators were curious on why he wouldn’t take on the fight because he would make millions for this one fight. Since now people knows the fact he is Muslim, they can now understand the fact he didn’t take the fight at that time. Amir Khan shows his faith when observing Ramadan. He would rather show his faith in his religion than to make millions of dollars for one fight. In the future we can understand why many Muslim athletes would rather skip out on their sporting event to observe Ramadan. One wouldn’t expect religion to play a role in sports broadcasting, but it definitely does. Religion plays a role in every career one can imagine. Ways that religion plays a role in sports broadcasting are: when interviewing an athlete, when broadcasting a live sports game, and helping to understand the players and who they are. Understanding how religions play into everyday life is key to the progress of society.
Religion And Sports Broadcasting. (2021, Dec 25). Retrieved from https://paperap.com/religion-and-sports-broadcasting/
