Has Football Become Too Big?
- Ken Kalis
- 5 days ago
- 4 min read
I have loved football for a long, long time, when
---Players played both sides of the ball.
---There were only eight NFL teams.
---Players needed outside jobs because salaries were so low.
Lots has changed, but the game is the same as long as we remember it is just a game.
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Has Football Become Too Big? A Christian Reflection
Football used to be a game — boys in a dusty lot tossing a ball, men cheering from metal bleachers, families gathering around a black-and-white TV on Thanksgiving Day.
Today it is a system — enormous, consuming, all-encompassing.
Everywhere we turn, football surrounds us: Sunday afternoons, Monday nights, Thursday nights, college Saturdays, bowl games, playoffs, endless analysis, mock drafts, fantasy leagues, betting apps, podcasts, talk shows, highlight reels.
A Christian has to ask, sooner or later:
Has football become too big? And if so, what does it do to us?
The answer has less to do with touchdowns and far more to do with time, money, and the human heart.
1. When a Game Becomes an Empire
Football is now one of America’s greatest idols, and like all idols, it demands sacrifice.
A single quarterback earns $44 million a year. Another signs for $500 million. A third has a contract richer than some nations’ GDPs.
Championships are no longer earned — they’re purchased. The richer the franchise, the better the chance of hoisting a trophy.
Nothing about this resembles fair competition. It is economics disguised as athletics.
And the disease is spreading.
College quarterbacks — teenagers — now receive $2 million per year through NIL deals. Universities scramble to keep up or risk being left behind. What began as one program’s indulgence has metastasized into a national system.
And who pays for it?
Taxpayers do.
Cities build billion-dollar stadiums with public funds while:
children attend underfunded schools,
neighborhoods crumble,
families who paid for the stadium cannot afford to sit in it (a single seat can run $200, a hot dog $12).
We are subsidizing millionaires while our own children sit in classrooms that leak.
It is hard to justify such priorities in the light of Jesus’ words:
.”
“Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also"— Matthew 6:21
2. The Most Precious Thing Football Takes Is Time
Paul warns us:“Redeeming the time, because the days are evil.” — Ephesians 5:16
A football game lasts one hour on the clock…
…but the TV broadcast lasts 3½ hours.
And of that one hour of official game time, only 16 minutes are real plays.
Everything else is:
commercials,
beer ads,
insurance ads,
endless commentary,
replays,
dramatic pauses,
more commercials.
Last week I stopped in a coffee shop to check a score.
I waited twelve full minutes — all commercials, not one play.
Twelve minutes of my life, gone.
Not stolen violently, but wasted quietly — the way the enemy loves to work.
When I think of what Jesus could have done with those twelve minutes in my life, the contrast hurts.
A prayer. A verse. A moment of worship. A word of encouragement to someone lonely.
A phone call to a friend. A step toward holiness.
Football subtracts what the Holy Spirit seeks to redeem.
3. What Does Football Do to the Soul?
It shapes desires.
It builds loyalties. It stirs passions. It consumes evenings, weekends, conversations, and attention.
None of this is sinful in itself — until it becomes first.
Until it becomes a functional god. Until it shapes the heart more than Scripture does. Until it teaches us to cheer more loudly for men carrying a ball than for the Savior who carried a cross.
That is when a Christian must step back and say:
“As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” — Joshua 24:15
A Christian Alternative: Joy Without Idolatry
I am not calling for the abolition of football.
I am calling for discernment.
Enjoy the game if you can. Be grateful for athletic excellence. Appreciate teamwork, grit, courage, and strategy.
But do not let the game take:
your money,
your children,
your Sabbath,
or your soul.
Jesus Christ is still Lord over every stadium, every screen, every passion, every hour of our lives.
Let football be a pastime —but let Jesus remain your King.
Closing Prayer
Lord Jesus Christ, You are the Lord of time, the Lord of truth, and the Lord of our hearts.
Teach us to love what You love, to value what You value, and to spend our lives on what will last forever.
Deliver us from every idol, even the ones our culture celebrates, and help us seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness.
Amen.
King of my life I crown Thee now,
Thine shall the glory be;
lest I forget Thy thorn-crowned brow,
lead me to Calvary.
Refrain:
Lest I forget Gethsemane,
lest I forget Thine agony,
lest I forget Thy love for me,
lead me to Calvary.
2 Show me the tomb where Thou wast laid,
tenderly mourned and wept;
angels in robes of light arrayed
guarded Thee whilst Thou slept. [Refrain]
3 Let me like Mary, through the gloom,
come with a gift to Thee;
show to me now the empty tomb,
lead me to Calvary. [Refrain]
4 May I be willing, Lord, to bear
daily my cross for Thee;
even Thy cup of grief to share,
Thou hast borne all for me. [Refrain]
Source: Our Great Redeemer's Praise #240
Author: Jennie Evelyn Hussey (1921)