Football and Religion Just Don't Mix

by Eric Horowitz, ShakedownSports

Gene Chizik's plan to get a chaplain for his Iowa State football team is proving more difficult than he could have possibly imagined. The struggle began soon after his public campaign for team chaplain induced 100 professors to sign a petition opposing the idea. The professors claimed it's not proper for a public university to hire a clergy member, and that having a chaplain would favor Christianity. The ISU Athletic Council met and eventually decided to let Chizik hire a "Life Skills Assistant"--whatever that is.

Well, last week the man was hired, but this thing is nowhere near over. A number of professors are now angry the school chose to hire a Baptist minister pastor named Kevin Lykins. They're so angry they put out a press release outlining what was wrong with the selection.

“athletics selected the person that they had indicated all along was their preferred choice, namely a pastor associated with the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, whose own stated goal is to use athletics as a vehicle for Jesus Christ.”

I guess Chizik is either a nice guy who just wants to have somebody for his players to talk to, or a closet Christian missionary. Either way, it's probably not a good idea to send the message to your players that they need the help of god in order to have a good season.