Prayer should be added to Super Bowl festivities

I recognize it's not a very manly thing to say, but I don't follow professional football. I could spend far too much time explaining just why but that doesn't really matter.

Of sure, I can recite in great detail Tiger Woods' "greens in regulation" statistics and, like many of you, I bleed Cardinal red.

But pro football, not so much.

But this weekend - and only this weekend - I'll be partially glued watching the Super Bowl.

This final match-up of the NFL season has become a huge tradition in this country from Super Bowl parties to office dollar wager pools.

More people will watch the Super Bowl than watched the President deliver his State of the Union address. Okay, that's not a fair comparison. Let's just say that more eyes will be watching the game Sunday than any other single event on television this year.

There's the commercials - which are watched as closely as the game. And then there's the halftime show which has become an oddity sometimes worth watching.

I heard this morning that you can even place a wager on how long it takes to sing the National Anthem or which team wins the coin toss not to mention the final score on which millions of dollars will be won or lost.

I grew up in an era of baseball domination where the largest sporting event of the year was the World Series. But times change, our tastes change and the Great American past time has given way to the football giants on a cold February day/evening/night.

Another sporting event - the Winter Olympics - will begin in a week or so but that weeks-long snowfest won't attract nearly the attention.

With one exception.

The expectation at the Olympics does not revolve around some favorite skater or skier but with the potential threat of terrorism in the dangerous area of Russia.

The same concern is present at the Super Bowl but hopefully that will not happen. Not here. Not now.

Given our concerns for some radical lunatic trying to capture his 15 minutes of fame at virtually any large gathering, maybe we should try a slightly different approach.

Instead of this obsessive interest in the small things this football weekend, maybe we should put a spotlight on a Super Bowl prayer.

Come on folks, it couldn't hurt.

Maybe we should build interest in an annual selection of just who should offer a Super Bowl prayer prior to the game. And maybe the television networks could give as much attention to a prayer as they do to the halftime show.

It might do this nation some good to watch 50,000 fans bow their heads in unison and reverence and hear the words that this nation desperately needs to hear.

Maybe we should place some great honor on the individual selected to lead the crowd and the millions upon millions watching in just a moment to give thanks for those who protect us and to ask for guidance.

In all of the hoopla of this Sunday afternoon/evening/night, a minute devoted to a prayer seems a small request.

And perhaps an appropriate one as well.

And one final note. The American Atheists Association has erected a large billboard just outside of the football stadium mocking prayer and the belief in God.

Now doesn't make that a valid argument to pause before the game - as a nation - and put on display what the overwhelming majority of Americans believe?