It’s hard not to pay attention to what the winner of the Most Valuable Player award has to say after the Super Bowl.
Thus, a few mainstream media features after the Los Angeles Rams’ victory focused on a bit of very personal testimony by superstar wide receiver Cooper Kupp. In a way, what he said resembled the kind of stereotypical Godtalk that filters into the news when believers are asked to express their first reactions after a major event — glorious or tragic — in their lives.
Long ago (pre-Internet), I interviewed the late, great Dallas Cowboys coach Tom Landry about all of this. People tend to think that believers pray to win football Games and either God hears them or not, he said. The reality is more complex than that and, most of the time, players and coaches are trying to make sense of these events — wins and loses — in the context of how God is working in their lives.
In the case of Kupp, this win in The Big Game linked into what he claimed was a vision after a Super Bowl loss. Here is the top of a story from The Athletic: “How the Rams’ Cooper Kupp’s quiet vision became reality in front of the whole world.” This is long, but essential:
INGLEWOOD, Calif. — The vision arrived with unbelievable clarity. Cooper Kupp long ago saw an unmistakable image of himself not only playing in and winning a Super Bowl but also earning the Most Valuable Player award.
But what was notable about this visualization was its peculiar timing. It came as Kupp was walking off the field at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta after watching — not playing in — the Rams’ Super Bowl LIII loss to the Patriots. Kupp missed that game with a knee injury, but he says he received confirmation that night that he’d be back.
“What it was is just this vision that God revealed to me that we were going to come back and we were going to win it and somehow I was going to be the MVP of the game,” Kupp said. “I shared that with my wife because I couldn’t tell anyone else, obviously. But from the moment that this postseason started, there was such a belief in every game. It was written already, and I just had to play free knowing that I got to play from victory, not for victory.”
Kupp finally shared his vision with the world Sunday night. By then, the world had already seen the manifestation of it all. It was no longer was a vision. It was Kupp’s incredible reality.
Note this phrase: “I couldn’t tell anyone else, obviously.”
Cynics will say that this is because they believe that he is making all of this up. His fellow believers will say that he kept this private, telling only his wife, because this kind of a conviction is both powerful and highly mysterious.
In other words, Kupp is not boasting. He’s trying to make sense of experiences in his life.
Is any of this relevant? In two recent GetReligion posts (and a podcast), I argued that this faith material is relevant — precisely because this is (a) part of how this newsmaker talks about his life and (b) it fits with some of the unique aspects of his character and football skillset that are constantly being discussed by those around him. See “Emerging NFL superstar — Cooper Kupp — puts his faith on his hat, not that reporters notice” and “Podcast: Reporters who ask the right questions will find lots of NFL religion stories.”
Kupp is in the news. Thus, his life is part of that story. You can see a bit of that in this summary later in that same piece at The Athletic:
… Kupp took his usual, humble approach to the situation. He didn’t boast about scoring the winning touchdown in a Super Bowl. He was instead reflective about what has been a long journey from the high school player no one wanted to the pinnacle of his sport.
It’s what makes Kupp so likable, his self-deprecating approach to the game despite possessing talent worthy of significant celebration.
“I just felt so undeserving of that moment because the people that I’ve been able to play with, the people that I’ve been around … the coaches that I get to work with and collaborate with, it’s just been the perfect team, the perfect setup,” he said. “And I’m so thankful for everyone that’s been around me. It still really hasn’t hit me.”
It is possible, of course, to find totally faith-free coverage of Kupp’s achievement. USA Today is always a logical place to look for that, if that is what you want: “How Super Cooper Kupp went from overlooked to Super Bowl centerpiece.”
It’s interesting to note that ESPN produced a sidebar — “Los Angeles Rams WR Cooper Kupp named MVP of Super Bowl LVI after 92-yard, 2-TD effort vs. Cincinnati Bengals” — that led with a shorter summary of this “vision” angle. Like I said, it’s hard not to listen to the MVP.
It was Feb. 3, 2019, and the Rams had just lost Super Bowl LIII to the New England Patriots in Atlanta. Kupp was inactive because he was recovering from a torn left anterior cruciate ligament. As Kupp tells it, he was walking off the Mercedes-Benz Stadium field, and just before he reached the tunnel, he turned around and had an epiphany of sorts.
"I don't know what it was, there was just this vision that God revealed to me that we were gonna come back, we were gonna be a part of a Super Bowl and we were gonna win it," Kupp said. "And somehow, I was going to walk off the field as the MVP of the game."
It all came to fruition Sunday night after Kupp did what he has done for most of the season.
However, I thought it was interesting that ESPN also offered an updated version of its long, long profile of Kupp and his wife, Anna.
This is the same piece — “The making of Cooper Kupp: Los Angeles Rams receiver credits wife's inspiration for superstar turn” — that played a major role in those previously mentioned GetReligion posts about the Kupps. I wondered if the ESPN team might have updated or expanded some of the religion material in that piece.
Nope. Check out the interesting hole that is still there in the account of Anna reaching out to her husband’s teammates back in college:
… On game days, Anna would put together goodie bags, with cookies and a passage or note written by Cooper, to set at players' lockers.
"This can't get me into too much trouble now, but I had a key to the facilities and was able to get into the locker room whenever I wanted to," Kupp admitted. "So I'd just give her the keys to go into the locker room and she would put them in guys' lockers and get out of there."
Still gotta wonder about those handwritten “passages” in the goodie bags. Song lyrics? Maybe pieces of poetry from “The Prophet” by Kahil Gibran? Maybe we are talking about Bible verses? Like the verse (1 Corinthians 9:25) featured on Kupp’s signature hat: “Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever.”
Wanna bet?
FIRST IMAGE: Once again, that signature Cooper Kupp hat, featured at his own website.