First off, let me just say that none of those kids did that voluntarily--there may not have been an announcement or a visible adult telling them to go and pray upon entering the stadium--but these kids did not come up with this idea on their own.
Sports in the south is inundated with needless references to the Christian faith: from scripture used as inspirational quotes to taking a knee for an injured player.
These kids--these teenagers--had this idea (like most every other idea teenagers have) planted in their heads. Teenagers are impressionable and (while they will never admit it) easily persuaded by authority (by this I mean, their actions are always a response to an authority figure's action whether that be in adherence to in opposition to).
The second thing that irked me about this post was the comment made by the poster that made it sound as though these teenagers were some sort of saints for having the courage to take part in the prayer. WRONG! It doesn't take courage to follow a large group of people--it takes courage to do what's right. It would have been far more difficult for player to not have participated because of the amount of grief they would have received for it.
And on another point, these teenagers aren't saints or heroes--they're teens and unless we have become blinded by age and having our heads stuck so far up our on asses; we were teenagers once too. And I don't know about you, when I was a teen, all I was worried about were girls, fun and how awesome it would be to be out on my own--I was on the straight and boring path of teenage existence. But these jocks, after the games, they were about sex, drugs and parties not Bible study, prayer circles and living the word.
Basically, what I'm getting at is that these kids weren't being brave, they were being hypocrites and these parents or adults that are trying to use them as some sort of message aren't spreading the word; they're willfully feigning ignorance of their own past.
