The Freedom From Religion Foundation is calling on two public school districts to stop using official football apparel that promotes Christianity.
FFRF recently contacted school districts in Colorado and Ohio over religious messages emblazoned on official high school football gear. At Niwot High School in Colorado, student-athletes have reportedly been instructed to wear team shirts displaying a bible verse. At Logan High School in Ohio, school-provided coaching apparel prominently declares “Jesus Won.”
Colorado football players forced to wear bible quotes
FFRF wrote to the St. Vrain Valley School District after a concerned parent reported that the Niwot High School football program distributed official team T-shirts featuring the phrase “HERE AM I, SEND ME” across the back, a quotation from Isaiah 6:8.
According to the parent, the head football coach handed out multiple shirts to players and told them they were expected to put them on for games and on bus rides when they were not wearing their jerseys. Coaches reportedly wear the same shirts on the sidelines, making the religious message prominently visible at school-sponsored athletic events.
Students were reportedly given the shirts without any explanation of the biblical message. Some players did not realize the phrase came from the bible until they searched for it themselves.
The evidence indicates that the biblical reference is intentional. The coach uses a longer version of Isaiah 6:8 in his official school district email signature: “Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, ‘Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?’ and I said, ‘Here am I. Send me.’ Isaiah 6:8.” The football program has also used the verse as a hashtag on its social media account.
The parent who contacted FFRF said the practice “made our family feel uncomfortable and, honestly, somewhat indoctrinated.”
Their student “felt pressured to publicly wear and display a bible verse in connection with a team activity at [their] public school despite the fact that we may not all share the same religious beliefs,” the parent explained. “It felt less like a message about positive team values and more like a public expression of a specific religious belief that we were expected to participate in.”
Ohio coaches wear ‘Jesus Won’ gear
FFRF has raised a similar concern with the Logan-Hocking Local School District in Ohio.
A concerned community member reported that Logan High School’s official school-provided football coaching gear displays the explicitly Christian message “Jesus Won” across the back.
FFRF Patrick O’Reiley Legal Fellow Charlotte R. Gude has written to Superintendent Christy Bosch that placing “a blatantly religious message on official athletic gear provided to coaches” conveys government favoritism toward Christianity.
The fact that the message appears on coaches’ official apparel is significant. Coaches are school representatives and authority figures to their players. When school-provided clothing carries an explicitly Christian declaration, the religious message is intertwined with the public school and its athletic program.
Public school athletics must remain inclusive
The First Amendment prohibits public schools from favoring religion over nonreligion or one religion over others. These concerns are especially acute in school athletics, where coaches exercise substantial influence over students and where participation, playing time and team standing can depend on maintaining a positive relationship with coaching staff.
The religious messages at Niwot and Logan high schools also risk marginalizing the significant number of students who are not Christian. Under half of 18 to 29-year-olds are Christian today at 47 percent, with 44 percent of Generation Z identifying as religiously unaffiliated and 9 percent with non-Christian faiths.
Whether the message is a bible verse students are expected to wear or “Jesus Won” emblazoned on official coaching gear, public school athletic programs should not be used to promote religion.
FFRF has requested written responses from both districts detailing the steps they will take to remedy the violations.
“It is abhorrent for public school football programs to turn players or coaches into walking billboards for Christianity or someone else’s religion,” says FFRF Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor. “Students should be able to play football without their public school putting religious messages literally on their backs.”
The Freedom From Religion Foundation is a U.S.-based nonprofit dedicated to defending the constitutional principle of separation between state and church and educating the public on matters relating to nontheism. With over 40,000 members and several chapters across the country, including 1,370 members and two chapters in Colorado, and 1,158 members and three chapters in Ohio, FFRF is the largest association of freethinkers (atheists, agnostics and humanists) in North America. For more information, visit ffrf.org.
