DUANE PATTERSON: ESPN’s Scott Van Pelt to Houston Texans’ QB C.J. Stroud: Let’s Talk About Something Besides Your Faith, M’kay?
When I saw this, I had two immediate reactions. First, what a humble, decent young man Coleridge Bernard Stroud, IV seems to be. He is fearless about his Christian faith, and it genuinely seems to animate him in a way sufficient to provide calm in the middle of the chaos of a professional football team needing a win to make it into the playoffs. That was very refreshing to see. My other thought was that ESPN must have hated this with the heat of a thousand suns. He’s one of the brightest young quarterbacks on the horizon – tons of talent, lots of poise, but…that constant Jesus talk. I’m sure suits at the sports network are trying to figure out how to get him to tone that down a bit, or even better, a lot. Then, he’d be the perfect Cinderella story.
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Niko Collins is one of the Texans’ new wide receivers, and he had himself a phenomenal game as well, literally from the first play to the final winning drive. He also happens to have graduated from the University of Michigan, who will be vying for the national championship this week. Stroud is an alum of The Ohio State University, two opposing teams of perhaps the fiercest rivalry in college football. Van Pelt tried to exploit that rivalry and how it affects their working relationship. Stroud answered it about perfect, but being a young player, gave Van Pelt what he was looking for. “Yeah, it sucks that he went there.”
Van Pelt laughed out loud. He got his payoff. He replied with, “You finally answered a question honestly.” [Emphasis mine — Ed.] Excuse me, what was that? All of his previous answers about his faith were dishonest? C.J. Stroud is a liar when he professes his faith? No one honestly believes in Jesus? Those that tell you publicly they do are scam artists? Is that what I’m sensing from the anchor of ESPN? I know he was trying to do jock talk, but the kid is who he is, not who Scott Van Pelt or some sports network would like him to be. It makes you wonder if there’s any record of hostility towards Christianity from Van Pelt.
Van Pelt is used to being the interviewer, not the interviewee, but in the heat of live TV, it was quite a Kinsley gaffe from the veteran sports anchor. I had flashbacks to listening to California Bay Area sports radio’s KNBR 680 in the late ‘90s and early 2000s, where the anchors would invariably get the vapors after they played audio clips of an athletic superstar thanked God for his talents and career success. (And openly loathe on the air about having to follow the simulcast of Rush Limbaugh’s radio show in the morning.)
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