The Freedom From Religion Foundation is again writing to the University of Colorado after learning that Coach Deion Sanders is continuing to intertwine his religion with his duties as head football coach.
Sanders has persisted in entangling the university’s football program with religion and engaging in religious exercises with students and staff. A video showed Sanders after the Sept. 22 game once again making religious remarks and holding a team prayer in the locker room. Sanders appears to have invited Pastor E. Dewey Smith from the House of Hope Church in Atlanta to deliver the following prayer:
God, we thank you tonight for victory, thank you that you kept us relatively safe. Thank you that in spite of our imperfections you still blessed us, Lord. And thank you for being with us to the end. Lord, some people call it Hail Mary, some people call it karma, some people call it luck, but in my faith tradition, we call it Jesus. Grace, thank you for your mercy, bless us, help us to grow from this, learn from this, and take it to the next level. We give you praise, we thank you, in your name we pray, amen.
Smith appears to be acting as the team’s chaplain. A July 29 pregame video refers to him as the “spiritual adviser” to Coach Sanders and the “Chaplain for the Colorado Buffs.” The video features Smith discussing the upcoming football season and team dynamics in a sermon-like manner, intertwining lessons from biblical scripture with his remarks to the team. Sanders may have invited Smith to act as team chaplain when Sanders was previously coaching at Jackson State. It seems Sanders is yet again allowing Smith to act as a team chaplain, this time for the University of Colorado Buffaloes.
Notably, this is not the first time FFRF has fought back against Sanders’ proselytization. In early 2023, FFRF wrote to the college to assert that Sanders must not misuse his position as coach to entangle the football program with Christianity. Shortly afterward, the college assured FFRF that Sanders was provided “guidance on the nondiscrimination policies, including guidance on the boundaries in which players and coaches may or may not engage in religious expression.”
“It appears that Coach Sanders was not as receptive to the training as the university may have initially thought,” FFRF Staff Attorney Sammi Lawrence writes to University of Colorado Boulder Executive Vice Chancellor and Chief Operating Officer Patrick T. O’Rourke.
FFRF reiterates that the U.S. Supreme Court has continually struck down school-sponsored proselytizing in public schools, and that it is no defense to call these religious messages and activities “voluntary.” Coach Sanders’ team is full of young and impressionable student athletes who would not risk giving up their scholarship, playing time or losing a good recommendation from the coach by speaking out or voluntarily opting out of his unconstitutional religious activities — even if they strongly disagree with his beliefs. Coaches exert great influence and power over student athletes and those athletes will follow the lead of their coach. Using a coaching position to promote Christianity amounts to unconstitutional religious coercion.
FFRF is once more asserting that the University of Colorado must take action to protect the First Amendment rights of student athletes. Sanders needs to understand that he was hired to coach football, not to force student athletes to engage in his preferred religious practices. He must cease infusing the football program with Christianity. In addition, FFRF has submitted an open records request to learn more about Smith’s involvement in the football program and the university, and any policies and records provided to Sanders relating to making religious remarks, holding or leading prayers, promoting religion or otherwise entangling the football program with religion while acting as head coach.
“Sanders is showing his brazen disregard for not only the Constitution, but also the rights of all his players when he decides to force his religion upon them,” says FFRF Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor. “Students undoubtedly feel extra pressure to abide by his will at a collegiate sporting level.”
The Freedom From Religion Foundation is a national nonprofit organization with around 40,000 members and several chapters across the country, including more than 1,300 members and a chapter in Colorado. Its purposes are to protect the constitutional principle of separation between state and church, and to educate the public on matters relating to nontheism.
