Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
All right, my friends, weare back, and I'm thrilled to have
with me Coach Joe Kennedy. He, you may remember, was the football
coach who took his case right upto the Supreme Court, who ruled that
the school could not keep him fromdoing an on field prayer that violated his
First Amendment rights, and they saidthe school district could not restrict him.
Now, Coach Joe, do theycall you coach? Do? Or should
(00:21):
just call you coach? Whatever makesyou good? What I found interesting about
your story is that right after yougot that ruling, you said I'm done.
Yeah, well I went back earlyfor spring ball, okay, and
that you know, that's a twoweek thing. They hit me with all
the red tape and I was Ididn't even get a step on the field.
I said, let's try again thisfall, and so I came back.
I did fall camp with the entireteam, so that was a month
(00:43):
long. And then after the firstgame, my wife and I decided what
was best is to actually let theschool heal and let him just get a
move on. Yeah. Yeah,that's unfortunate, but I think that that
was a kind choice. Let's talkabout why this became an issue in the
first place. You know, Ireally don't understand that still because it was
(01:04):
just a compliment that started everything.And from there, of course, when
you get a compliment, you haveto do an investigation. Things got out
of control, and then the lawyersgot involved. Right once the school district
lawyers got involved and everything broke down. You couldn't talked to the school board
members, you couldn't have talked tothe superintendent. Everything was just shut down,
and I had no legal recourse unlessI fought court. Now, to
(01:27):
be clear, you were doing anon field prayer before football games. Was
it voluntary? Absolutely voluntary. Nokid was required. Never was it a
parent that complained or was it someonein the community. No, it was
actually somebody from another school district cameto one of our games and saw what
we were doing and called the principalthe next day and said, hey,
I want to tell you what yourfootball program is doing is awesome. So
(01:49):
this was a compliment. Ah,once you got into the news, then
you get the people coming out ofthe woodwork and start rebelling against it,
and it became a mess. Obviously, your man of faith or this,
we wouldn't even be talking right now. You would be coaching football somewhere,
working in the summer, getting readyfor the season. How important is your
(02:09):
faith in your life? And obviouslyit was strong enough that you went,
I'm I'm going to die on thishill. You know this, this is
what I'm gonna do. Tell meabout that thought process as those decisions were
made. That's a hard one togo through because as a as a you
know, a believer, what doyou do? Do you love these people?
Do you give into what they're saying? I mean, who's right in
(02:31):
this? As a United States Marine, it really really bothered me as a
Christian. It bothered me, butnot as much as the American side of
me. And I said, ifthey're doing this to me, who else
are they doing this to? Right? And I was going to die on
that hill. This was one hundredpercent all about the principle of it.
And nobody in America should ever haveto worry about between their job and their
(02:53):
faith. I agree, And Ihave to ask this question, what was
were you in the Supreme Court whenthe arguments were being made? It was
just post COVID. So yeah,so they allowed two lawyers from each side
and the press, but not me. Oh my gosh, go figure that
out. Robbed on that one.What did your players? What are your
players? And you're obviously you're notcoaching right now, but what did the
(03:15):
players say as you were going throughthis whole process? They were one hundred
percent behind me. They couldn't understandwhy I couldn't just give in, and
it would have been the easiest thingto do, and there was a lot
of me that wanted to do that. But could you imagine me as being
a coach and telling these guys tokeep fighting even if it's the tough you
know, tough times, All ofa sudden, I'd be the biggest hypocrite
(03:36):
in the world. This is mychance to actually show leadership by example and
go through something that's hard because it'sthe right thing to do. And that's
a powerful message for any group ofyoung people. Since you went through this
process, you've now stepped down.What do you do with your life now?
It's gotten really crazy. We didthe book Average Joe and it told
the whole story of my life,and we just got done film in the
(03:59):
movie show that comes out October eleventhnationwide, So hopefully everybody will be inspired
by that, and it's a goodhigh quality film that everybody's going to be
able to take their family to andtheir friends and really send a message to
Hollywood that you don't need just junk. We need more uplifting things to be
out there. You know. Iam I'm a woman of a certain age,
(04:19):
and I grew up in the eighties, and I am also a Florida
State University girl. So I rememberBobby Bowden, one of the greatest coaches
of all time in college football.After practice, he would invite the young
men who wanted to come and doa prayer. And a friend of mine
who was on his team, Isaid, you know, does that bother
(04:43):
anyone? Is anyone? Because atthis time I was a dirty foot hippie
liberal, so it was, youknow, a different time. And I
said, how don't you feel likeyou're making it? He goes, he
does it for us, not tous, right, And I thought that
was a really interesting way of lookingat it. But growing up in the
eighties and the Deep South, wehad prayers before every single football game over
the loud speaker. Oh yeah,this is nothing, this is not so.
(05:03):
The fact that this required the SupremeCourt to weigh in just shows you
how far we have changed in thelast forty years. Yeah, our nation
has just gone crazy. It reallyhas, it really has. Coach Joe
Kennedy. His book is Average Show, his movie is Average Show, and
it's coming out k October. Whomade that movie with you, God's Not
(05:24):
Dead? The ones that also did. We had Dean Kana on you a
couple of days ago, American Sniperand The Blind. Yeah, those guys,
Yeah, they were just fantastic.What a wonderful time to be alive
when you can get a movie likethis made and you don't have to worry
about the studio system to do itexactly. Yeah, we just went right
bypass all of that and had highquality people doing it. Coach Joe Kennedy,
(05:46):
I appreciate your time today, enjoythe rest of your whirlwind tour of
the RNC, and best of luckto you in the future. I hope
your movie does. Thank you,Ross. We will be right back.
All right, my friends, weare back, and I'm thrilled to have
with me Coach Joe Kennedy. He, you may remember, was the football
coach who took his case right upto the Supreme Court, who ruled that
the school could not keep him fromdoing an on field prayer that violated his
First Amendment rights, and they saidthe school district could not restrict him.
Now, Coach Joe, do theycall you coach? Do? Or should
(00:21):
just call you coach? Whatever makesyou good? What I found interesting about
your story is that right after yougot that ruling, you said I'm done.
Yeah, well I went back earlyfor spring ball, okay, and
that you know, that's a twoweek thing. They hit me with all
the red tape and I was Ididn't even get a step on the field.
I said, let's try again thisfall, and so I came back.
I did fall camp with the entireteam, so that was a month
(00:43):
long. And then after the firstgame, my wife and I decided what
was best is to actually let theschool heal and let him just get a
move on. Yeah. Yeah,that's unfortunate, but I think that that
was a kind choice. Let's talkabout why this became an issue in the
first place. You know, Ireally don't understand that still because it was
(01:04):
just a compliment that started everything.And from there, of course, when
you get a compliment, you haveto do an investigation. Things got out
of control, and then the lawyersgot involved. Right once the school district
lawyers got involved and everything broke down. You couldn't talked to the school board
members, you couldn't have talked tothe superintendent. Everything was just shut down,
and I had no legal recourse unlessI fought court. Now, to
(01:27):
be clear, you were doing anon field prayer before football games. Was
it voluntary? Absolutely voluntary. Nokid was required. Never was it a
parent that complained or was it someonein the community. No, it was
actually somebody from another school district cameto one of our games and saw what
we were doing and called the principalthe next day and said, hey,
I want to tell you what yourfootball program is doing is awesome. So
(01:49):
this was a compliment. Ah,once you got into the news, then
you get the people coming out ofthe woodwork and start rebelling against it,
and it became a mess. Obviously, your man of faith or this,
we wouldn't even be talking right now. You would be coaching football somewhere,
working in the summer, getting readyfor the season. How important is your
(02:09):
faith in your life? And obviouslyit was strong enough that you went,
I'm I'm going to die on thishill. You know this, this is
what I'm gonna do. Tell meabout that thought process as those decisions were
made. That's a hard one togo through because as a as a you
know, a believer, what doyou do? Do you love these people?
Do you give into what they're saying? I mean, who's right in
(02:31):
this? As a United States Marine, it really really bothered me as a
Christian. It bothered me, butnot as much as the American side of
me. And I said, ifthey're doing this to me, who else
are they doing this to? Right? And I was going to die on
that hill. This was one hundredpercent all about the principle of it.
And nobody in America should ever haveto worry about between their job and their
(02:53):
faith. I agree, And Ihave to ask this question, what was
were you in the Supreme Court whenthe arguments were being made? It was
just post COVID. So yeah,so they allowed two lawyers from each side
and the press, but not me. Oh my gosh, go figure that
out. Robbed on that one.What did your players? What are your
players? And you're obviously you're notcoaching right now, but what did the
(03:15):
players say as you were going throughthis whole process? They were one hundred
percent behind me. They couldn't understandwhy I couldn't just give in, and
it would have been the easiest thingto do, and there was a lot
of me that wanted to do that. But could you imagine me as being
a coach and telling these guys tokeep fighting even if it's the tough you
know, tough times, All ofa sudden, I'd be the biggest hypocrite
(03:36):
in the world. This is mychance to actually show leadership by example and
go through something that's hard because it'sthe right thing to do. And that's
a powerful message for any group ofyoung people. Since you went through this
process, you've now stepped down.What do you do with your life now?
It's gotten really crazy. We didthe book Average Joe and it told
the whole story of my life,and we just got done film in the
(03:59):
movie show that comes out October eleventhnationwide, So hopefully everybody will be inspired
by that, and it's a goodhigh quality film that everybody's going to be
able to take their family to andtheir friends and really send a message to
Hollywood that you don't need just junk. We need more uplifting things to be
out there. You know. Iam I'm a woman of a certain age,
(04:19):
and I grew up in the eighties, and I am also a Florida
State University girl. So I rememberBobby Bowden, one of the greatest coaches
of all time in college football.After practice, he would invite the young
men who wanted to come and doa prayer. And a friend of mine
who was on his team, Isaid, you know, does that bother
(04:43):
anyone? Is anyone? Because atthis time I was a dirty foot hippie
liberal, so it was, youknow, a different time. And I
said, how don't you feel likeyou're making it? He goes, he
does it for us, not tous, right, And I thought that
was a really interesting way of lookingat it. But growing up in the
eighties and the Deep South, wehad prayers before every single football game over
the loud speaker. Oh yeah,this is nothing, this is not so.
(05:03):
The fact that this required the SupremeCourt to weigh in just shows you
how far we have changed in thelast forty years. Yeah, our nation
has just gone crazy. It reallyhas, it really has. Coach Joe
Kennedy. His book is Average Show, his movie is Average Show, and
it's coming out k October. Whomade that movie with you, God's Not
(05:24):
Dead? The ones that also did. We had Dean Kana on you a
couple of days ago, American Sniperand The Blind. Yeah, those guys,
Yeah, they were just fantastic.What a wonderful time to be alive
when you can get a movie likethis made and you don't have to worry
about the studio system to do itexactly. Yeah, we just went right
bypass all of that and had highquality people doing it. Coach Joe Kennedy,
(05:46):
I appreciate your time today, enjoythe rest of your whirlwind tour of
the RNC, and best of luckto you in the future. I hope
your movie does. Thank you,Ross. We will be right back.
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