It's hard to miss the facts about faith, and scripture, in Tennessee QB Hendon Hooker's life

This post has nothing to do with the game in which the University of Tennessee Volunteers hung on to defeat the Gators of the University of Florida (click here for highlights).

Well, there is some connection. But the goal here is, once again, to urge sports journalists to listen to what many athletes have to say when asked questions about what makes them tick — as people and as leaders in their sports communities. I’ve written a hundred or so posts (it seems) on this subject during the past 18 years or so.

Consider this a refresher memo on that topic, since Vols senior quarterback Hendon Hooker — after the post-game shows this past weekend — has officially entered the Heisman Trophy chatter zone.

In this case, Hooker isn’t the stereotypical athlete who uses vague God-talk during sideline interviews or in his post-game press conferences. While that kind of language can be important, I have always thought that journalists need to look for deeper signs of faith — in friendships, family ties and concrete actions in daily life.

Thus, let me note a story of two in East Tennessee media that spotted crucial faith facts about this calm, steady quarterback and worked them into a sports-page basic — the pre-game rituals feature. The headline at the Knoxville News Sentinel read: “How Hendon Hooker will calm his nerves before Tennessee football plays Florida.” The faith issue even made it into the overture:

Neyland Stadium will be rocking before Tennessee football plays Florida … , but Hendon Hooker will go into slow-jam mode and lean on his faith.
ESPN’s College Gameday will rev up the crowd. Checker Neyland will create quite a scene. And the sellout crowd will shake the stadium moments before the Vols run through the Power T.

A few lines later there is this basic quote:

“I just go into meditation mode and put my gospel playlist on,” Hooker said Monday. “I really just listen to a lot of slow jams and really just relax. I kind of go through the locker room and dap up everyone, just to make sure that I’m ready to roll. And they give me the reassurance back by the look in their eyes that they’re ready to roll too.”

Believe it or not, college football season is days away. As always, this opens up a whole new playing field on which religion-news ghosts can play.

In fact, the game has already started. Several GetReligion readers have written to ask for my commentary on a new ESPN: The Magazine piece that ran with this epic double-decker headline:

The Lightness of Being Christian McCaffrey

Stanford star running back Christian McCaffrey, who broke Barry Sanders’ collegiate single-season all-purpose yardage record last year, is on a quest to dispel the misconceptions and stereotypes about athletes, both black and white.

This is another one of those in-depth "We will tell you who this person really is" features. You can tell that at the very top, with this novelty, first-person, talk-to-the-reader opening:

QUICK: WHAT DO you see when you look at Christian McCaffrey? Don't think. Just answer. Say it out loud -- commit to it.

OK, next question: How confident are you in your answer -- that what you say you see, and what you see, are one and the same?

One hundred percent, no doubt. Because the answer is as straightforward as the question is stupid, right? He's an athlete, after all, a visually explicit human being. Call up a YouTube highlight. The who and the what become obvious in five seconds.

At this particular moment, I happen to be watching a Christian McCaffrey high school highlight on YouTube ... while in the presence of the living, breathing, real-time Christian McCaffrey.

Let's turn this around for the ESPN crew: OK, when you look at Christian McCaffrey, who and what do YOU see? What about his name?