
Photo Credit: Jonathan Moreau
Faith and work? Some view the concept with puzzlement. Others with suspicion. And yet others with relief, that they can finally live an integrated, holistic life, and not have to park their soul outside the office with their car.
Faith and football? Some view it with mockery, and roll their eyes when the first words of the post-game player interview is to give thanks to God. Others snidely say they don’t think God cares whether the Giants or the Patriots win the Super Bowl. And yet some quietly admire these players for their sense of perspective, and that giving thanks is a rather admirable trait.
So, whether you are a fan of such proclamations or irritated by them, I encourage you to read the below witty and ultimately thoughtful Time Magazine article by Joel Stein, “Most Valuable Prayer.” Stein decided to approach the question by interviewing with the team chaplains for both the current Super Bowl Champion NY Giants and the New England Patriots.
Full disclosure – George McGovern, the chaplain for the NY Giants, is a friend of mine (and I was rooting for the Giants). It’s with his permission that I include the following note from George, and the article from Time Magazine:”
You’ve heard the saying, “15 minutes of fame”, and that everyone experiences it at some time in his life. Well, mine came (and went) during this past week with the Giants being in the Super Bowl.
I received a call from Joel Stein, columnist for Time Magazine. He wanted to write a feature on the role that faith in God plays in determining the outcome of sporting events, namely the Super Bowl. We had a lively discussion in which I informed him about specific activities of sports team chaplains, and he entertained me with an array of humorous responses. The result was a clever satirical essay. Stein is quite the wordsmith. I hope you enjoy the read.
TIME February 13, 2012 / U.S. Edition / Volume 179 / Number 6
Most Valuable Prayer.
Forget the stats. For the Super Bowl, I’m betting on the team with the winningest chaplain
By Joel Stein
I’ve watched enough post-game interviews to know that what wins football games isn’t the quarterback or the offensive line; it’s God. So to figure out which team is going to win this year’s Super Bowl, I went straight to the guys who serve as middlemen between God and the players. The team with the best chaplain isn’t just going to win but, from what I understand about theology, will also totally cover the spread.
Almost every NFL team has a chaplain who runs weekly Bible study and holds a short service on Saturday nights before games. Although I’m sure honesty is a key part of each of their belief systems, it is not a huge part of mine, so I left out the part about wanting to talk to them strictly for gambling purposes.
The Giants’ chaplain, George McGovern, is a kindly, white-haired man who is paid by Athletes in Action, a ministry of Campus Crusade for

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Christ that places pastors with most of the big football colleges and pro teams. After being a campus chaplain at Rutgers, he worked with the Jets and Mets from 1990 to 1995 before getting traded to the Giants and Yankees. McGovern is going to his third Super Bowl with the Giants, and the Yankees have won five World Series under him. God loves this guy more than he loves Tim Tebow.
I asked McGovern why his speeches have been so much more successful than those of any other George McGovern, but he said he has nothing to do with the outcome of the games. Which seemed like exactly the kind of Job-like humility that God loves. McGovern insisted that when he meets the 25 or so players and coaches–the most attendees in team history–for the Saturday sermons, he doesn’t even talk about the game. “It’s not a pep talk. It’s not a ‘God, help us win tomorrow.’ I’ve never heard a player or coach ask for a victory. It’s always thanking God for opportunities or health or ‘Give us the strength we need to play with passion,’” McGovern told me. I did not like the sound of this. From what I know about the Old Testament, God doesn’t respond to the soft sell. He’s more of a tie-your-firstborn-to-the-altar kind of guy.
When I asked McGovern to inspire me, he gave me a bit of the 20-minute sermon he delivered the night before the Giants beat the 49ers in overtime. It was actually a very thoughtful, touching talk about fatherhood that quoted Moses and the apostle Paul. But it didn’t make me want to win a game. It made me want to skip the Super Bowl party I was going to go to and take my son to the park.
I was about to put a lot of money on the Patriots when I learned that the Patriots are one of the very few NFL teams without a chaplain. They do, however, rely on Don Davis, who was the team’s chaplain until 2010, when he moved to Virginia. Davis, who is going to Indianapolis to give the team sermon on Saturday, is a two-time Super Bowl winner and ex-Patriots linebacker. This guy sounded like a King David–level winner, the kind of guy who would talk about parting seas of linebackers and the fact that if God wanted the Giants to beat the Patriots, he would have landed the Pilgrims in East Rutherford, N.J.
But when I asked Davis to lay some of his pregame sermon on me, he said he wasn’t sure what he was going to say yet. This was like

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hearing that Bill Belichick hadn’t started working on his Super Bowl playbook or Tom Brady hadn’t selected a hairstyle. When I pressed Davis, he said he was thinking of speaking about legacy. This seemed great until he explained that he meant the legacy the players would leave besides the Super Bowl. “I’ve played in a few of these Super Bowls and coached in one. They were big deals when you played, but life goes on,” he said. “It’s the things you do outside that have an impact forever.” When Davis gives this downer of a speech, he isn’t even going to wear his Super Bowl rings. He says that sometimes when chaplains who aren’t ex-athletes give their sermons, they try to talk about the game, which comes off as “cheesy.” Davis seems to be the one American who does not understand what a big deal the Super Bowl is. I’m sure Davis would have told Moses that asking God to let his people go would be “cheesy.”
After talking to both chaplains, I realized that when players thank God at the end of a game, they’re not saying God liked their team better. They’re actually being modest, saying they realize how small a part they played and expressing gratitude–just as they would for a meal, their health or a Friday. A chaplain doesn’t have anything to do with the game. He’s with the team for the same reason the caterer and the travel agent are: to provide basic services for guys who travel a lot.
So I’m not going to make a bet. Which I’m guessing is what both chaplains wanted all along. Man, they’re good.
So, what do you think you about Stein’s article? Please share your comments below… and be honest… let us know if who you were rooting for colored your view!
Best,
David
“Toxic and Destructive… Who?”
March 16, 2012 by faithandworkinitiative
On Wednesday, I was in London for meetings with a professional services firm discussing their ethics program. On Thursday, I was in their Madrid office doing more of the same. Guess what everyone wanted to talk about in each location? The resignation shot that was heard around the world.
Greg Smith
Former Goldman Sachs executive director, Greg Smith’s dropped a media bomb by writing a highly public resignation letter, published Tuesday by the New York Times as an Op-Ed piece entitled, “Why I am Leaving Goldman Sachs.” If you missed it, you should take a moment to read it.
This has to be – or will soon become – one of the most legendary corporate resignation letters in modern times. Even Martin Luther would be proud! The esteemed – but publicly beleaguered Goldman Sachs – received a broadside attack from resigning employee, Greg Smith, as he swung the door behind himself. Smith’s resignation letter is probably doing more public relations harm and rattling of shareholder and client confidence, than the now infamous 2010 Rolling Stone article that called Goldman Sachs “a great vampire squid.” Outside stone-throwers like Occupy Wall Street could never have hit their target as well as this insider’s resignation letter.
To be sure, Smith did this with intentionality and for maximum PR effect. And the New York Times was thrilled to be complicit in publiciz
ing the attack. And Goldman’s new PR director was quick to help them craft an immediate response, which essentially sought to downplay Smith’s seniority (and by inference, his credibility), and portray his views as being out of step with the majority of other employee options.
All spin-doctoring aside – from Smith and Goldman Sachs – I’m extremely interested to know the truth… Was Smith the classic disgruntled employee with an axe to grind, akin to the selfishly motivated whistleblower, who spreads lies about a former employer? Or was he more or less accurate in describing a “toxic and destructive” culture of a once-legendary bank. If the former, I’m less interested, though I feel bad for Goldman Sachs and their unfairly maligned employees. But if the latter, I am extremely interested… How did this happen? How does leadership change it? What do you do if you’re one of the clients?
Assuming Smith told the truth (a BIG assumption!):
Assuming Smith exaggerated or even lied:
What do you think? Please comment below…
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