Field of pray

 I have seen prayer committed on football fields. Many times.

I have it seen committed on football fields where self-appointed arbiters of when it's appropriate to pray, and for what, and by whom, have booed it lustily. A sitting Vice-President, in a thoroughly choreographed act, once even walked out of a stadium to protest it.

On a certain Friday in 2001, I saw coaches and players from two public high schools kneel together in a small Indiana farming community while smoke still stained the sky over Manhattan.

One night, I saw a public high school kid named Drue Tranquill call his teammates and opponents together to pray for an opponent who'd been seriously injured in their just-concluded game.

So pardon me if I don't get the big deal over the Supremes ruling that a high school football coach fired for kneeling on the field with his players was free to do so. I've seen it a million times, so often it was just part of the backdrop of all the Friday nights I spent in high school football stadiums across 38 years. And you know what?

At no time did any of the kids who knelt with Coach look coerced  or emotionally scarred or, God forbid, violated in a constitutional sort of way. Even though peer pressure can be a powerful thing, kids are kids. What puts their parents in a lather, they just shrug at.

Know what else?

Like all such rulings and laws that attempt to govern public behavior, this one will have consequences. And those consequences may not play out the way supporters of the decision envisioned.

See: Prohibition.

See also: Last week's decision overturning Roe v. Wade.

There are a bunch of historic parallels between the two, and just as the former didn't work out the way those who pushed for it hoped it would, neither will the latter. If enough people want to drink, they'll find a way to make it happen. If enough people think women, and not the state. should control their own medical decisions, they'll find a way to make that happen, too. 

Ruling or no ruling. Law or no law.

And Coach kneeling to pray on the football field?

That his school overreached in canning him seems pretty obvious, given that there apparently was never any conclusive evidence he blatantly coerced any of his players to join him. But those who see this decision as a victory for religious freedom perhaps haven't fully considered what "religious freedom" means.

To them it seems to mean freedom for their religion. But what it really means is the Muslim coach kneeling at midfield to lead his team in a round of "Allah akbar!" is protected by this ruling, too. Or a Hindu coach who sends up prayers to Vishnu on behalf of his team.

In a multi-faith society, that could happen. And the celebrants of yesterday's ruling will of course be the first to say "Wait a minute ..."

But, hey. You sow, you reap. That's the name of that tune.