{"id":42353,"date":"2025-01-15T15:34:20","date_gmt":"2025-01-15T20:34:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/?p=42353"},"modified":"2025-01-15T15:34:20","modified_gmt":"2025-01-15T20:34:20","slug":"ohio-state-opens-cotton-bowl-in-prayer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2025\/01\/ohio-state-opens-cotton-bowl-in-prayer.html","title":{"rendered":"Ohio State Opens Cotton Bowl in Prayer"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
@GrahamAllen_1 \/ X<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Ohio State players are earning praise after participating in a pregame prayer prior to the start of the Cotton Bowl. The team was getting ready to play against the University of Texas at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas when nearly every player<\/a> for Ohio State took a knee on the field to pray prior to the game. Former Cotton Bowl Athletic Association, Fred McClure, led the prayer for the team after a moment of silence was observed for those suffering during the LA wildfires and the victims of the New Orleans terrorist attack. \u201cLoving father, we seek your blessings today for all those gathered here and especially for those on the field as we come together to celebrate the 89th Cotton Bowl Classic, we lift up the young men representing the Ohio State Buckeyes and the Texas Longhorns. Keep them safe from injury and harm. Instill within them a deep respect for one another, and reward them or their perseverance,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Ohio State has been known for acts of faith throughout the year, including several members of the team<\/a> being involved in a \u201cCome to Jesus\u201d Gospel event on campus. ESPN aired the prayer on its station, seemingly as a way to make amends for not airing the National Anthem during the Sugar Bowl, which had been postponed one day after Shamsud Din Jabbar drove a Ford F-150 into crowds celebrating the New year in the New Orleans’ French Quarter, resulting in the death of 15 people. The emotional performance of the National Anthem was met with cheers of \u201cUSA\u201d but the moment was not shared during the broadcast, sparking outrage from ESPN viewers across the nation. \u201cWow. ESPN didn’t air the national anthem or the moment of silence for the New Orleans terror attack victims…and they continue to label the terror attack a ‘truck attack’ on screen,\u201d wrote Clay Travis<\/a>, founder of the sports commentary site Outkick.<\/p>\n

After ESPN aired Ohio State\u2019s prayer, Travis noted it was most likely due to backlash. \u201cESPN got so crushed for not airing the moment of silence for the New Orleans terror attack victims at the Sugar Bowl that they are now airing the pregame prayer tonight,\u201d he wrote<\/a>. \u201cI\u2019ve legit never seen this on TV before.\u201d Ohio State took the win 28-14, advancing themselves to the National Championship on Jan. 20 at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, Georgia.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ohio State players are earning praise after participating in a pregame prayer prior to the start of the Cotton Bowl. The team was getting ready to play against the University of Texas at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas when nearly every player for Ohio State took a knee on the field to pray prior to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":627,"featured_media":42338,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3630,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-42353","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-athletes","category-pop-culture"],"yoast_head":"\nOhio State Opens Cotton Bowl in Prayer<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2025\/01\/ohio-state-opens-cotton-bowl-in-prayer.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Ohio State Opens Cotton Bowl in Prayer\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Ohio State players are earning praise after participating in a pregame prayer prior to the start of the Cotton Bowl. The team was getting ready to play against the University of Texas at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas when nearly every player for Ohio State took a knee on the field to pray prior to…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2025\/01\/ohio-state-opens-cotton-bowl-in-prayer.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Idol Chatter\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-01-15T20:34:20+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/87\/2025\/01\/cotton-bowl-prayer_credit-@GrahamAllen_1-X.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"900\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Cecilia Buchanan\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Ohio State Opens Cotton Bowl in Prayer","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2025\/01\/ohio-state-opens-cotton-bowl-in-prayer.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Ohio State Opens Cotton Bowl in Prayer","og_description":"Ohio State players are earning praise after participating in a pregame prayer prior to the start of the Cotton Bowl. The team was getting ready to play against the University of Texas at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas when nearly every player for Ohio State took a knee on the field to pray prior to…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2025\/01\/ohio-state-opens-cotton-bowl-in-prayer.html","og_site_name":"Idol Chatter","article_published_time":"2025-01-15T20:34:20+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":900,"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/87\/2025\/01\/cotton-bowl-prayer_credit-@GrahamAllen_1-X.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Cecilia Buchanan","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2025\/01\/ohio-state-opens-cotton-bowl-in-prayer.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2025\/01\/ohio-state-opens-cotton-bowl-in-prayer.html","name":"Ohio State Opens Cotton Bowl in Prayer","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2025\/01\/ohio-state-opens-cotton-bowl-in-prayer.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2025\/01\/ohio-state-opens-cotton-bowl-in-prayer.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/87\/2025\/01\/cotton-bowl-prayer_credit-@GrahamAllen_1-X.jpg","datePublished":"2025-01-15T20:34:20+00:00","dateModified":"2025-01-15T20:34:20+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/#\/schema\/person\/f0820942b588b1bdba133d7ca3c8eb6e"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2025\/01\/ohio-state-opens-cotton-bowl-in-prayer.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2025\/01\/ohio-state-opens-cotton-bowl-in-prayer.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2025\/01\/ohio-state-opens-cotton-bowl-in-prayer.html#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/87\/2025\/01\/cotton-bowl-prayer_credit-@GrahamAllen_1-X.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/87\/2025\/01\/cotton-bowl-prayer_credit-@GrahamAllen_1-X.jpg","width":1200,"height":900,"caption":"@GrahamAllen_1 \/ X"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2025\/01\/ohio-state-opens-cotton-bowl-in-prayer.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Ohio State Opens Cotton Bowl in Prayer"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/","name":"Idol Chatter","description":"Beliefnet Entertainment blog, TV blog, Movie blog, Religion in entertainment blog","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/#\/schema\/person\/f0820942b588b1bdba133d7ca3c8eb6e","name":"rdewing","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/61e\/61e772313b3ddff45ee0c1a275e8dfc5x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/61e\/61e772313b3ddff45ee0c1a275e8dfc5x96.jpg","caption":"rdewing"},"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/author\/rdewing"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42353","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/627"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42353"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42353\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":42359,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42353\/revisions\/42359"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42338"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42353"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42353"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42353"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}