Christianity on the playing field

Godball: How Athletes Are Saving Christianity (Center Street, 288 pp.) offers a fairly comprehensive look at the recent trend of college and professional athletes using their platforms to promote the gospel to national—and sometimes worldwide—audiences.

Author Steve Eubanks gives readers a lot to like in this exploration of Christians’ participation in athletic competition, from the days of Roman gladiators through Christian influences on modern-day sports. Eubanks pays homage to influential pioneers who paved the way for today’s athletes while still giving considerable space to the boldness of modern sports figures.

Two things struck me while reading Godball. First, whenever I found myself wondering whether I’d see anything about a certain athlete, sport, or topic, for the most part, Eubanks got there eventually. In one case, his treatment goes in-depth: He devotes an entire chapter to All-American swimmer Riley Gaines’ faith-based fight to keep men out of women’s sports. In many other cases, though, he could have gone deeper. For instance, he barely touches upon ice hockey, and then only near the end of the book. Eubanks also makes cursory mentions of Tim Tebow, the Heisman Trophy–winning quarterback whose bold witness at the University of Florida in the late 2000s exposed masses of college football lovers to Christ’s message. 

Which brings me to the other thing that struck me—namely, some disappointing omissions that were worth delving into. The first involves ice hockey: Back in 2023, multiple Christian NHL players refused to don LGBT-themed warm-up jerseys at their respective teams’ Pride nights. This moved league commissioner Gary Bettman to ban teams from requiring players to wear Pride-themed gear—a major victory for Christian inclusion in America’s least-churched pro sport.

In fact, with the notable exception of his chapter on Gaines, Eubanks gives LGBT-related topics a wide berth. He doesn’t discuss the blowback soccer player Jaelene Daniels (formerly Hinkle) suffered for refusing to wear a Pride jersey in international competition for the U.S. women’s national team, and he barely alludes to retired Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw pushing back against his own team for honoring drag queens who mock Christian beliefs. Eubanks also highlights comments women’s basketball star Paige Bueckers made about “leaning on God’s strength” after leading the University of Connecticut to the 2025 NCAA title, but fails to mention that mere months later, Bueckers—now with the WNBA’s Dallas Wings—announced that she was in a lesbian relationship.

I have other quibbles, too. I found multiple factual errors, the biggest being an overemphasis on former University of Georgia football coach Mark Richt’s role in the 2006 faith-based film Facing the Giants. Also, a chapter on the evils of gambling seems out of place in a book celebrating Christian athletes’ bold stands. To be fair, though, Eubanks exhorts believers in the sports world to use their platforms to address a topic that sorely needs addressing.

Those issues aside, though, Christian sports fans should find Godball a satisfying read.