Coaches pray for the same reason that men preparing for battle pray.
Because you never know if this is your last hurrah.
Is this your last time on the field, the last time you will suit up with your brothers?
The last time to eat with your best friend, or to see a sunrise?
For that last reason, I don’t know, it seems like a decent reason for the rest of us too.
I mean, doesn’t every day hold this same potential of finality?
Boy, I remember the huddled prayers before basketball games in high school.
Butterflies in your stomach, the hum of the crowd, and the beginning riff of AC/DC’s Thunderstruck.
Football coaches lead their men in prayer for the same reason God is on the mind of army grunts: because no one knows when the hammer will strike steel.
-Rich Cohen, Monsters