I Was Happy for him Until he Opened his Mouth

I found myself rooting for the Colts in the second half of Sunday's AFC Championship Game. I do like Peyton Manning, because he makes the best commercials. I figured it would be nice to see him in a Super Bowl. Also, I thought I respected Tony Dungy's perserverance in face of continued defeat as a coach. But then I read this story in the Boston Globe, which quotes Dungy four times and uses religious references in three of them. I've pulled them out for you.

• "But they've been that way all year. They've fought back and they just give so much effort. They're such a unified group. I just have to thank the Lord. He did it in such a way that nobody would believe it. We got to give the Lord a lot of credit for giving us the strength to do it."
• "I think it's great that we're able to show the world not only that African-American coaches can do it, but Christian coaches can do it in a way that we can still win."
• "I came here five years ago and this was our goal. This is what [Colts' owner] Jim Irsay and I talked about. He wanted to bring a championship to Indianapolis and for me to be a part of it with the group that we have is special. I think the Lord really tested us a lot from last year."

Irsay, in his postgame speech on the field, also referenced God, which seemed to be in especially bad form. The Patriots are owned by Robert Kraft, who is famous for, among other things, endowing a Center for Jewish Life at Columbia. If I had realized that Pats-Colts was actually a religious war, I certainly would have been rooting the other way.

I'm sort of a loss now for how to go in the Super Bowl. I'm not sure supporting the Bears will be much better, given that the second quotation above is in reference to Lovie Smith, Chicago's coach. I didn't care as much about that game, so can't say for sure if he was equally God-centric in his postgame remarks. By all means be religious, but please stop talking about it in postgame interviews.