Courts

School Prayer Football Coach Quits On Team Because It Was Always All About Him

Supreme Court victor bails on the job he claimed he was fighting for... and no one is surprised.

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525287In Kennedy v. Bremerton, a high school football coach asserted that his sincerely held religious belief compelled him — not just to pray about playing a game — but to pray on the taxpayer’s dime in a public display. Normally, Free Exercise cases involve some public employee complaining that their boss won’t let them take a religious holiday as opposed to allowing part-time employees to commandeer school facilities and, indeed, high school students themselves, to put on their personal Passion play for the assembled crowd.

If his goal was prayer, he could’ve quietly bowed his head on the sidelines. He took a knee at the 50 after the game for the exact same reason T.O. spiked the ball on the Dallas star — to showboat.

And so it’s no big surprise that after not showing up to the job that the Supreme Court gave him back for a whole year, Kennedy told the press he felt a duty to return to the team. He returned for one game and promptly quit.

From his press release:

“As I have demonstrated, we must make a stand for what we believe in. In my case, I made a stand to take a knee. I encourage all Americans to make their own stand for freedom and our right to express our faith as we see fit. I appreciate the people of Bremerton, the coaches, staff and especially the students and wish them all well. Bremerton will always be home,” he concluded.

His new book, AVERAGE JOE: THE COACH KENNEDY STORY, is available late October 2023 that tells the in-depth story about his battle for religious liberty. A film about his life is in pre-production.

So coming back was a publicity stunt in advance of a new book? Cool. Bremerton once again converted into a public platform for Kennedy’s personal gain.

Kennedy blames his brief tenure on the school seeking to diminish his role. He was a part-time assistant coach making less than $500 per game. What were they diminishing him to?

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More likely, he performed the quick turnaround because, as the record before the Supreme Court reflected (and then ignored by the majority), Kennedy had already moved to Florida well before the decision and was unlikely to commute 3,000 miles every week for a $5K stipend. He’d already committed to being the face of the assault on the First Amendment’s historic balance between Exercise and Establishment. All that was left was the perfunctory curtain call to pin the “blame” for the end of his coaching career on Bremerton in the last chapter.

Besides, a glory hound knows when they’ve outgrown their tiny pond.

The legal fight transformed Kennedy’s life in ways he never anticipated. He has a book coming out in October called “Average Joe,” with a number of release events planned. He appeared at a 2016 rally for Donald Trump, and he and his wife recently had dinner with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a GOP presidential hopeful who asked for his help on the campaign trail.

“He’s like, ‘I want you to be on my faith advisory board.’ And I’m like, ‘Let me get back to you on that,’” Kennedy recalled. “And he just invited me to Iowa and he calls me and he says, ‘Hey, I really need to know, are you in my camp or not?’ And I said, ‘Well, I’m sorry. My loyalty is to Trump.’”

Of course it is.

Showboaters stick together.

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Earlier: School Prayer Coach Told Supreme Court He Wanted His Job Back… He Hasn’t Bothered To Show Up
So Long, Establishment Clause. What Now?

HeadshotJoe Patrice is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news. Joe also serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search.

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