Most of our greatest athletes are devout christians.
I know a few Cubs that have told me that their faith helps them get through the tough times and doubts etc and through the hard work of even getting there entails.
I know it to be true. Perhaps I should have stuck a /sarc tag on there.
It's possible that sports writers feel they have to try to sound serious because their job is to write daily about an aspect of life that has absolutely no significance to anything, so they take after the usual targets.