TAMPA, Fla. - There was Kurt Warner, addressing the godless - notebook-toting cynics who worship at the altar of the free media buffet. Our saviors are sharp-eyed copy editors, and our gods were the Babe and Unitas and Jordan. Who has time for Jesus talk?
Unfortunately, our subject behind the microphone has nothing more important to talk about.
No, it wasn't surprising that it took Warner just a couple of minutes before his talk turned from football to faith. But - and I suspect this was a news conference first - there were no groans from the assembled flock of hacks.
"It makes all the difference in my life," the Arizona Cardinals quarterback says. "Everything I do and everywhere I go, I'm trying to represent Jesus."
You'll have to forgive sportswriters a tad. Most have seen too many athletes espouse their spiritual side yet indulge their criminal. When an athlete mentions God, eyes roll and tape recorders shut off. When thanking Jesus is considered cliche, you know we have problems.
I was engrossed, though. I'm not sure whether it was the message or the messenger, but as I age and as the world around me becomes increasingly unreliable and unpredictable, it's refreshing to see someone who has every reason to get caught up in a peripheral storm of money, ego, celebrity and excess remain so grounded.
"My faith helps me with everything," Warner says. "The biggest thing about my faith is it helps keep everything in perspective. You understand the highs and lows. You understand what's going on sometimes with the highs and lows when other people don't see them."
I'm no trend spotter, and there's no way to quantify this, but from David Tyree to Tony Dungy to Tim Tebow, it seems as if faith has been enjoying an increasingly prominent role in football in America. If it really helps control temperament, I dare say God might be the best performance enhancer you can use legally.
It's obviously not just the Super Bowl and not just Warner. You notice it in every locker room in the NFL. The league is a workplace where Bibles rest next to cleats, where Scripture is inked permanently on biceps and where winning and losing are explained through the prism of something much bigger than the NFL.
"It's just a matter of understanding that God does care about anything you do, including a football game," Ravens kicker Matt Stover told The Baltimore Sun's Kevin Van Valkenburg not long ago. "Some people feel like he doesn't. Well, he does. Or, they feel like, 'There are so many other problems in the world, why would he worry about football?' Well, because he loves you. You're one of his children."
