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The weird thing for me about prayers in sports is that, constitutional or not, they make very little sense.

What are these folks praying for? Are they praying for their team to win (and, necessarily, for the other team to lose)? How do they know whether God wants them to beat the other team? What hotline do they have that I don't know about?

God might want them to lose. The sport itself, for all we know, might be vile in his sight.

Seems to me that it makes sense, just about, to pray that the game is played fairly and that the best players win; but to pray for God to support the Cowboys over the Broncos seems like a species of insanity. Doesn't he have better things to worry about?

Similarly, it kind of ticks me off when contestants on TV shows suggest that they won because God wanted them to (which happens a surprising amount). When you come across anyone who says that they know what God's thinking, you should use extreme caution!

When Jesus talked about what we should pray for, he says nothing about these kinds of prayers - quite the reverse - he talks about not praying where everyone can see you, about praying that God's will be done on earth, and about praying for your enemies and those that persecute you. I don't see where all these mass public prayers for victory fit in with that.

The prayers prayed at sporting events that I am talking about or in the locker room are prayers for the safety of the players. If you have ever been to a game where this is done, both sides are involved in the prayer. Its not done to show off. When Jesus is talking about praying out loud he is speaking about doing it to get attention of those around you to show how Godly you are. Daniel prayed out loud and broke the law doing it, was sentenced to death by lions, but God saved him and killed his accusers.

That said I would clearly ask God to support the Cowboys over the Broncos if the Cowboys were my team. That doesn't mean he would answer me but I wouldn't be ashamed to do it. I pray for the Seahawks to win and do well, I don't spend all day on it but I have no problem praying it. Some might say God answered my prayers last week against the Giants.

I would rather be hot than warm in Gods eyes. If I follow the word of God, seek his will in my life then he is obligated to be with me. If not that would make him a liar. If the Bible is not true, at least I went for something and didn't wallow around in indecision. I think God will deal properly with me.