There should be a big crowd Sept. 1 when the Bremerton Knights take to the high school football field for the first game of the season.
That’s because Coach Kennedy is back.
The Bremerton School District, on Washington’s Puget Sound west of Seattle, had booted assistant coach Joe Kennedy eight years ago.
Kennedy’s offense? Taking a knee at the 50-yard line to pray after games.
That’s right. In an era of increasing gender-bending, propaganda in social justice and identity politics, school violence, declining test scores and increasing chaos, Coach Kennedy crossed the line by praying.
Except the U.S. Supreme Court sided with the coach. In a 6-3 June, 2022, decision, the court ruled the school district violated Kennedy’s First Amendment rights and ordered him reinstated.
So Kennedy is back in the game, literally, and he said messages and calls from local supporters indicated they plan to be there for the Bremerton team’s first Friday night lights.
“I’m a little nervous, to tell you the truth,” Kennedy said in an exclusive interview with Seattle’s KOMO-TV. “And it’s more just because the first game is coming up and … I got to … knock the rust off. It’s been a while.”
To KING-TV, Kennedy commented about his eight-year ordeal to keep his job: “I wish I could say that it was easy.
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“You know, looking back it’s been a long road,” he said. “And many heartbreaking years. But, you know, it’s great that it’s finally worked out, but it’s been tough.
“To everybody that’s been supporting me, praying for me across the United States, I mean [it was] millions of people,” he continued. “That’s what’s kept me going and kept me in this fight.”
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The school district indicated it wanted to put the issue behind them and that it will fully comply with the high court’s order, KING reported, and that the district will treat Kennedy’s religious beliefs the same as those of other district employees.
Following two decades with the U.S. Marines, Kennedy joined the school district in 2008, according to court documents. Initially, he would take a knee at the 50-yard line and silently pray. Players asked if they could join him. “This is a free country,” was Kennedy’s reported response. “You can do what you want.”
Soon, most of the team would join Kennedy’s prayers, and eventually opposing players also would join.
Sometimes Kennedy’s prayers included him giving short, motivational speeches and there were pre- and post-game locker room prayers, which were reported to be a tradition that pre-dated Kennedy’s tenure, court documents said.
Kennedy never pressured students to participate, and his prayer activities continued until 2015, when the school district’s superintendent learned of them.
Kennedy was ordered to stop what he was doing. So he did.
“Driving home after a game, however,” according to an account in the majority opinion by U. S. Supreme Court Justice Neal Gorsuch, “Mr. Kennedy felt upset that he had ‘broken [his] commitment to God’ by not offering his own prayer, so he turned his car around and returned to the field.
“By that point, everyone had left the stadium, and he walked to the 50-yard line and knelt to say a brief prayer of thanks.”
After that, Kennedy engaged in silent prayer after games, but the school district, believing the action represented the district endorsing religion, eventually fired him.
Legal actions followed, with Kennedy eventually winning at the Supreme Court.
Returning to the field for the 2023 season, Kennedy was asked by KOMO if the school district had placed any restrictions on his mid-field prayers.
“I don’t have any guidance on that yet,” he replied. “They’re still trying to figure that out. I know that I’m allowed to pray after a football game, and that’s what I intend to do.”
Kennedy was queried by KOMO whether he had to take a knee — couldn’t he just bow his head instead?
“I could, but my commitment was, you know, that’s the way I’ve always done it, when I said I was going to give God the glory after every game — win or lose — on the football field,” according to Kennedy.
“That’s my tradition; that’s what I’ll do,” he said. “I’ll be just as good, really makes no difference.
“God doesn’t care, but I want to be thankful. I don’t know if I’ll be able to stand after the game. I might be a little emotional about it and taking a knee might be a good thing.”
So the battle for freedom of religion continues with one more victory. Thanks, Coach, and ultimately, thanks be to God.
