The Alabama High School Athletic Association has turned down the Hoover High School football team’s request to participate in a nationally televised football game over Labor Day weekend. The reason? It’s scheduled for Sunday, and “Sunday is a day of worship”, according to AHSAA Executive Director Dan Washburn. Saturday or Monday would be okay, but not Sunday.
There is no specific written rule that prohibits games from being played on a Sunday, Washburn said, but it is “policy established through practice.”
…Hoover coach Rush Propst said the ruling was unfair for several reasons.
“I understand it is a day of worship,” he said. “I have no problem with that. But the problem I’ve got is that it’s not during church service time.”
The lack of a solid rule prohibiting Sunday play also bothers Propst.
Uh, hello? Hoover High is a public school, and I seriously doubt the student body — or even the football team — is exclusively Christian. The AHSAA has no business making decisions based on religious concerns.
Oh, and just in case you’re wondering, I’m no fan of the Hoover Bucs (Hoover and Vestavia Hills are big sports rivals), but this decision is stupid and narrow-minded. The AHSAA needs to reconsider.
hey, i think the most scaring people are the ones who are not resonables. Also here, in Italy, we have this broblems, but usually the fight here is between muslims and the Vatican,,,, i don’t know, but i think it would be so easy to finish with this stupid things…. mah….. VINCENZO
Absolutely ridiculous! Please accept my apologies in advance to all native Alabamians–but ONLY in Alabama! This kind of nonsense would never go over in NY, PA, CT, NJ, MA or even in Florida!
I’m wondering if Mr. Washburn watches Sunday afternoon and evening pro games at his house, or if he goes home from church and reads Scripture until bedtime. Guess he’s had to miss the Superbowl all these years, too. Maybe God doesn’t mind if he TIVOs it.
I agree, this is an incredibly stupid decision. The opening sentence of the article makes it sound like there’s a possibility Hoover can dispute this and still get to be on TV. Hope that happens.
The truth is that this decision had more to do with hating Hoover than loving God.
Vincenzo, it is crazy, but I think Kiki’s right — only in Alabama (well, maybe a couple of other Bible belt states).
Del, I wondered the same thing. And, given the game time, what’s to prevent all the Christian players and their families from attending church in Cincinnati that morning? No matter if the game is played Saturday, Sunday, or Monday, they’re all going to be absent from their home churches that weekend.
RahRah, I hope you’ll come back and expand on your comment. The coach made a similar statement. Why would the AHSAA hate Hoover? Is it the typical Alabama response to success?
Remember when they (don’t know who, some church leaders in Alabama here, perhaps?) moved Halloween from Sunday to Monday a few years ago? So silly. Ad we all had to go along with it!
First of all, let me say that Alabama certainly has more than its share of religious zealots and small minded people that use religion as an excuse for just about anything. Second, I kinda hate Hoover, too. Much too much emphasis on self promotion of the coach and the football team. Having said that, I do think that a lot of this stems from jealousy of Hoover’s obvious success in athletics and the MTV series. I believe that if it was another school that asked to play on Sunday, it is very possible that there would have been no objection.
[...] But even if it doesn’t violates the first amendment, it’s a dumb rule. The title to Kathy’s post says it best: “Good Thing There’s No Jewish Kids on the Team.” To put the same thing another way, I don’t want to have to give up my activities so that someone else can worship Allah, so I’m not going to make anyone else curtail their lives so that I can go to Mass. [...]
RahRah, you may be right about the jealousy of Hoover. Not being from here, but having been a visitor and now a resident for most of my life, think how this looks to others who don’t live in this state. They probably don’t know a thing about any high school football rivalries here in the state or B’ham metro area, but when this hits the headlines, “Kids can’t play football game on Sunday.” believe me, people will continue to say how backwards Alabama is!!!
Well, Kiki, of course they had to move Halloween. We couldn’t worship Jeezus and Say-tan on the same day, could we?
I’d bet RahRah is correct and the Sunday restriction is just an excuse, but you’re right as well — this headline will get just the reaction you predict outside of Alabama.
So if say, the University of Alabama, was offerred a big pay day to play on, say ESPN, on Sunday, Satan would unleash the Beast and we would all be in a world of shit?
Or would we just scream Roll Tide and do our usual thing?
I’m surprised; I thought football definitely trumped religion, or rather, was considered a major point of dogma.
And I’m with Probst: the game’s after 1 pm, everyone’s out of church by then, anyway.
Heathens, all of you!! Sunday is the Lord’s Day!! It says in the Bible “thou shalt not play any games of the pigskin on the Sabbath…” It’s one of the commandments for crying out loud!! And that’s why there are no Jewish or Muslim kids on the team…they can’t touch the pigskin! I think football should be banned and we should turn all the stadiums into open air churches and have revivals there on Sundays. But that’s just me…
Oooohhhhh, now I see! Thank you Sister Jennifer for opening my eyes. I will meet you at the river for my dunking promptly at noon!