1 00:00:17,280 --> 00:00:21,280 We're back with another edition of The Federalist for Radio Hour. I'm Emili Jashnski, 2 00:00:21,320 --> 00:00:24,239 culture editor here at The Federalist. As always, you can email the 3 00:00:24,280 --> 00:00:28,239 show at radio at the Federalist dot com, follow us on x or Twitter 4 00:00:28,280 --> 00:00:31,760 depending on the day if I remember to say that at FDR LST. Make 5 00:00:31,800 --> 00:00:34,719 sure to subscribe wherever you download your podcasts, and if you want to support 6 00:00:34,719 --> 00:00:37,920 our work, you can head on over and subscribe at the premium version of 7 00:00:37,960 --> 00:00:43,640 our website as well. We are joined today by somebody who made just a 8 00:00:43,960 --> 00:00:47,759 huge ripple effect around the country with a simple act of prayer. That would 9 00:00:47,799 --> 00:00:51,520 be coach Joe Kennedy, who's out with a new book. It's called Average 10 00:00:51,600 --> 00:00:55,719 Joe. One Man's Faith and the Fight Change a Nation. It's also going 11 00:00:55,799 --> 00:00:59,159 to be made into a movie soon as well. Coach Kennedy, thanks for 12 00:00:59,240 --> 00:01:03,399 joining the show. Absolutely always great to talk to you. I mean, 13 00:01:03,560 --> 00:01:07,079 just a remarkable story. A lot of people probably know your name, they're 14 00:01:07,079 --> 00:01:12,480 probably familiar with the case Kennedy, the Bremerton School District over in Washington State, 15 00:01:12,519 --> 00:01:15,079 and I thought before we dive into that, Coach, it might be 16 00:01:15,079 --> 00:01:19,120 helpful to just start with a little bit of your background. You've led a 17 00:01:19,200 --> 00:01:23,439 very interesting life. If you could tell us just a little bit about Yohia 18 00:01:23,599 --> 00:01:30,079 ended up coaching football at Bremerton, that would be great. Yeah, real 19 00:01:30,159 --> 00:01:34,439 easy background is you know, the unwanted kid from you know, even from 20 00:01:34,599 --> 00:01:40,719 childbirth all the way through me growing up. And so I decided to join 21 00:01:40,799 --> 00:01:44,519 the Marine Corps to get away from it all and become something. And after 22 00:01:44,560 --> 00:01:48,079 I served for years, I got out of the Marine Corps, got married 23 00:01:48,079 --> 00:01:53,599 to my childhood sweetheart, and she was working in the school district and they 24 00:01:53,640 --> 00:01:56,920 want into coaches. So next thing you know, I'm working as a high 25 00:01:56,959 --> 00:02:02,599 school football coach and I made the commit into prey and that's what I did. 26 00:02:02,640 --> 00:02:07,159 It was something so simple as that. You know. I was also 27 00:02:07,200 --> 00:02:08,960 going to ask me, you spent eighteen years in the Marines, if you 28 00:02:08,960 --> 00:02:14,120 could tell us a little bit about your service. You know, again you 29 00:02:14,439 --> 00:02:17,439 mentioned you you joined, like so many people, to escape from some bad 30 00:02:17,479 --> 00:02:23,360 circumstances. Tell us just about where you served, a little bit more about 31 00:02:23,400 --> 00:02:29,240 why you served. I'm so curious. Yeah. So, yeah, when 32 00:02:29,240 --> 00:02:32,479 I say I was a bad kid, that's kind of an understatement. Yeah, 33 00:02:32,520 --> 00:02:37,240 I was. I was headed down every wrong road, and I needed 34 00:02:37,280 --> 00:02:43,319 something in my life. I remember even in grade school I was I had 35 00:02:43,319 --> 00:02:46,520 a nun who told me that I brought nothing to society except pain, and 36 00:02:46,560 --> 00:02:51,159 it really stuck with me. When people tell you your whole life you're never 37 00:02:51,199 --> 00:02:53,960 going to amount to anything, it really sticks with you. And I wanted 38 00:02:53,960 --> 00:02:58,560 to prove them wrong. I didn't want to be a victim of my environment, 39 00:02:58,840 --> 00:03:01,960 and I wanted to proved that I could become something. So my second 40 00:03:02,000 --> 00:03:07,960 love was finding the love for my country, and serving was something that I 41 00:03:08,000 --> 00:03:12,560 wanted to do. I wanted to prove that I was worthy of something and 42 00:03:12,599 --> 00:03:15,840 I belonged to something greater than myself, and I wanted to prove that what 43 00:03:16,280 --> 00:03:20,879 I had is something that not everybody could do, which is you know, 44 00:03:20,919 --> 00:03:25,000 the Marines being the toughest branch service. So yeah, I just totally just 45 00:03:25,319 --> 00:03:31,400 wanted to become something incredible. And I needed the discipline, and I needed 46 00:03:31,599 --> 00:03:36,479 the team building. I needed all the the intangible things that come along with 47 00:03:36,560 --> 00:03:42,120 the service. And I served all over as you can imagine, about every 48 00:03:42,120 --> 00:03:46,319 three years you changed duty stations. And I started out as a simple, 49 00:03:46,400 --> 00:03:51,879 a decent mechanic, and I had a natural knap for training, and so 50 00:03:51,919 --> 00:03:55,919 I kind of went down the training road and I was the training noncommissioned officer. 51 00:03:57,039 --> 00:04:00,560 I was a swim instruct marshals instructor, rife range kind of things, 52 00:04:00,639 --> 00:04:04,960 and explosive training. So anytime there was straining going on, I was involved 53 00:04:05,000 --> 00:04:10,319 with that. And when I retired, I was the I was the company 54 00:04:10,360 --> 00:04:13,639 guy in the first sergeant for our unit. So I was a senior enlisted 55 00:04:13,759 --> 00:04:15,959 guy for our unit. And I had in my own company, which was 56 00:04:16,240 --> 00:04:20,560 simply amazing, and I just got to serve with the best people in the 57 00:04:20,600 --> 00:04:25,839 world. Yeah, and you've already talked about this a little bit, but 58 00:04:25,959 --> 00:04:28,920 could you tell us more about your faith? And you know, you mentioned 59 00:04:28,959 --> 00:04:32,120 having that that moment that must have been really poignant, must have stuck with 60 00:04:32,199 --> 00:04:36,319 you hard with a nun. But you know a lot of people I think 61 00:04:36,360 --> 00:04:41,279 have maybe gone through an experience like that, a sort of negative experience, 62 00:04:41,439 --> 00:04:46,680 unfortunate experience with faith, and it's you know, come out on the other 63 00:04:46,839 --> 00:04:48,680 end you sort of like you did. Can you just tell us about why 64 00:04:48,680 --> 00:04:53,800 faith became so central to your identity and to your life? Oh? Sure, 65 00:04:54,040 --> 00:04:56,560 well a little bit. I know when I was in and out of 66 00:04:56,600 --> 00:05:00,160 group homes and foster homes and a boys home, that all these people were 67 00:05:00,199 --> 00:05:04,199 trying to plant seeds in my life of you know, trying to mentor me 68 00:05:04,319 --> 00:05:09,399 and trying to put me on the right path. And these people that were 69 00:05:09,439 --> 00:05:13,399 trying to give me to understand, you know, God's love. I totally 70 00:05:13,439 --> 00:05:16,959 rejected it when I was a kid, and it didn't it didn't take until 71 00:05:17,040 --> 00:05:20,079 after I got out of the marine. I was getting ready to retire and 72 00:05:20,120 --> 00:05:25,000 I met up with my childhood sweetheart, and she was she grew up in 73 00:05:25,040 --> 00:05:30,319 the church. She was a good church kid, and I was always the 74 00:05:30,720 --> 00:05:33,759 good girl. And I was just smidten with her from the moment we met 75 00:05:33,839 --> 00:05:39,800 and here it is thirty one years later, and I really, I mean, 76 00:05:39,879 --> 00:05:43,040 this was a girl that I've been in love with forever and had a 77 00:05:43,120 --> 00:05:46,279 chance to marry her. So man, I took it. And we weren't 78 00:05:46,319 --> 00:05:50,560 equally yoked. I never understood that term before, but boy, it's so 79 00:05:50,759 --> 00:05:56,680 true. And she went through a rough childhood when with abuse as a kid 80 00:05:56,800 --> 00:06:01,600 and also as an adult in one of her previous marriages, so she had 81 00:06:01,600 --> 00:06:06,720 a lot of barriers. And I was terrible at marriage. I already ruined 82 00:06:06,720 --> 00:06:12,920 to other marriages. I lived for the world. I was atheist, so 83 00:06:13,040 --> 00:06:15,759 there was no way I knew what to do to how to break down these 84 00:06:15,800 --> 00:06:19,439 barriers. I didn't know how to meet her on the level that she needed 85 00:06:19,560 --> 00:06:24,560 and to take care of. And the only way I could do that was 86 00:06:25,040 --> 00:06:30,920 finally after a year of about a year of failing as a husband and a 87 00:06:30,959 --> 00:06:34,480 father, was to finally surrender to God up on the halter, and I 88 00:06:34,560 --> 00:06:36,639 made a deal with him. I say, God, if you saved my 89 00:06:36,720 --> 00:06:41,800 marriage, it was God. If you say my wife, I would give 90 00:06:41,839 --> 00:06:46,079 you my life. And so that's, you know, my bomb that I 91 00:06:46,240 --> 00:06:48,720 end my word that I had made with God. And I never turned my 92 00:06:48,800 --> 00:06:54,680 back from that moment on. And as long as he kept up his book 93 00:06:54,720 --> 00:06:58,439 into the bargain, of course, I couldn't keep mine. So yeah, 94 00:06:59,240 --> 00:07:01,519 I'll serve him the rest of my days. So that's kind of how I 95 00:07:01,639 --> 00:07:04,959 started out. I was a atheist guy, and next thing I know is 96 00:07:05,040 --> 00:07:10,000 that you say my marriage. So yeah, I totally was on his side 97 00:07:10,000 --> 00:07:13,720 from then on. You know, all of these experiences, the Marines, 98 00:07:14,120 --> 00:07:17,480 the group homes, is that really what made you love coaching young men in 99 00:07:17,480 --> 00:07:21,519 football? I mean, it seems like a really rewarding and kind of natural 100 00:07:21,560 --> 00:07:25,959 way for you to give back after, you know, as a young man 101 00:07:26,040 --> 00:07:30,959 struggling so much. Absolutely, and you know, in the military you're just 102 00:07:30,079 --> 00:07:34,279 constantly training men and women and it's just part of your job and you never 103 00:07:34,360 --> 00:07:39,519 really think about that's you know, what you're you know, you're called to 104 00:07:39,600 --> 00:07:42,920 do. When I got out, I had no idea I was going to 105 00:07:42,920 --> 00:07:46,759 be a coach. I didn't want to have anything to do with coaching or 106 00:07:46,639 --> 00:07:49,759 really I thought I was done working. I thought I was going to retire 107 00:07:49,800 --> 00:07:53,839 and live happily. Ever after I was here, I am you know, 108 00:07:53,879 --> 00:07:57,519 I got the girl of my dreams and every I got a great job. 109 00:07:57,680 --> 00:08:01,920 Everything is going the way perfectly, the way that I thought life should be. 110 00:08:01,600 --> 00:08:05,079 And then God calls me to be a coach, and you know, 111 00:08:05,199 --> 00:08:09,319 it really came down to, really, what what am I going to do 112 00:08:09,399 --> 00:08:13,240 with my life? Here? I am so many people sewed into my life, 113 00:08:13,319 --> 00:08:18,079 and there's so many kids out there suffering, you know, single parent 114 00:08:18,160 --> 00:08:22,920 families, and I think back to when I was a kid, I had 115 00:08:22,959 --> 00:08:26,279 nobody there on my side. There were very few people that would put up 116 00:08:26,279 --> 00:08:30,480 with anybody like me and the people that did they tried so hard, but 117 00:08:30,519 --> 00:08:33,679 a lot of them couldn't understand where I was coming from. That's why I 118 00:08:33,720 --> 00:08:37,000 rebuilt so much against them. And here was my chance. And I felt 119 00:08:37,000 --> 00:08:41,960 like, you know, here here what I was. You know, I'm 120 00:08:41,000 --> 00:08:46,279 rejecting the very thing that I rejected. And so I'm I, you know'd 121 00:08:46,360 --> 00:08:50,519 say, come to Jesus moment about that. And it's like, here's my 122 00:08:50,639 --> 00:08:54,240 chance for penance and to give back. And hopefully no kid will ever to 123 00:08:54,320 --> 00:08:58,039 go through the things that I did. And I really found my calling and 124 00:08:58,679 --> 00:09:03,639 in coaching, And man, I tell you, I can't think them a 125 00:09:03,679 --> 00:09:07,799 higher calling than serving these young men. That was that was even so much 126 00:09:09,000 --> 00:09:13,399 more rewarding than the military was, because I never I never saw this as 127 00:09:13,679 --> 00:09:18,159 as something that was going to be such a life changing event for me as 128 00:09:18,320 --> 00:09:22,440 as coaching was. And people have heard your story, and I think a 129 00:09:22,440 --> 00:09:26,000 lot of people are actually familiar with your story. Some people have unfortunately heard 130 00:09:26,000 --> 00:09:31,200 it through the filter of the legacy media, which is a very different version 131 00:09:31,240 --> 00:09:33,080 of the story. But Coach, if you could just walk us through a 132 00:09:33,120 --> 00:09:35,519 little bit, you know, people can read this in great depth in the 133 00:09:35,519 --> 00:09:39,679 book which goes through the whole story. And again that's that's out now you 134 00:09:39,720 --> 00:09:43,039 can you can read it now, no need to pre order. It's right 135 00:09:43,039 --> 00:09:46,039 there for you to to buy if you're curious to hear more about this incredible 136 00:09:46,080 --> 00:09:52,000 story. But coach, what are the basic facts of how this case started? 137 00:09:52,000 --> 00:09:54,360 It ends up going to the Supreme Court. But take us back to 138 00:09:54,399 --> 00:10:00,240 the basics, just a quick overview of what happened. Yeah, So I 139 00:10:00,279 --> 00:10:07,120 was offered a job on Friday afternoon, and I said, give me the 140 00:10:07,159 --> 00:10:09,000 weekend to think about it. And in the middle of the night on that 141 00:10:09,039 --> 00:10:13,159 weekend, I saw the movie facing the giants and it was like, God, 142 00:10:13,320 --> 00:10:16,919 just you know, get punched me and said, you know, I'm 143 00:10:16,960 --> 00:10:22,200 calling you to take this on. So I made my covenant and my commitment 144 00:10:22,240 --> 00:10:24,879 to God that I was going to give thanks after every game winner lose, 145 00:10:26,000 --> 00:10:30,080 right there on the battlefield. So that's where that all originated from. And 146 00:10:30,200 --> 00:10:33,639 from that moment, on every Friday nights hunder the lights, right after the 147 00:10:33,679 --> 00:10:37,240 game, we shake hands with the opposing team, I meet with the other 148 00:10:37,320 --> 00:10:43,759 coaches, and I turned to walk back to my side of the bench or 149 00:10:43,799 --> 00:10:48,000 to our side of the field, and I just stopped taking me for about 150 00:10:48,080 --> 00:10:52,600 ten fifteen seconds, and you know, thank God, and I walked back 151 00:10:52,679 --> 00:10:56,039 over to my side. Well, over time, the kids finally started asking 152 00:10:56,039 --> 00:11:00,039 a coach, what are you doing out there? And I said, I 153 00:11:00,159 --> 00:11:03,080 thing, just thanking God for what you guys did. And they wanted to 154 00:11:03,120 --> 00:11:05,159 know if they could join me, and I said, you know, this 155 00:11:05,279 --> 00:11:07,600 is America. You can join me, but I want to say no. 156 00:11:07,399 --> 00:11:11,279 And so they started coming out and hit and miss over the years. You 157 00:11:11,279 --> 00:11:16,840 know, if depending on the situation, sometimes the kids are you know, 158 00:11:16,360 --> 00:11:22,559 really too excited about a great win and they want to just go celebrate cool. 159 00:11:22,720 --> 00:11:26,279 And sometimes if they really got their butts kicked, and you know, 160 00:11:26,320 --> 00:11:28,399 they they're not grateful about anything, and they want to go lick their wounds 161 00:11:28,399 --> 00:11:33,600 and just go home, and that's fine. So it was hit and miss. 162 00:11:33,639 --> 00:11:37,399 And then over the years they asked if because it's a small community up 163 00:11:37,399 --> 00:11:41,720 in Upham, Washington, they played pee wee's, and you know, they 164 00:11:41,759 --> 00:11:43,919 played in middle school together and once you get to high school, kids kind 165 00:11:43,919 --> 00:11:48,279 of dripped apart. But you know, this community is small, so they 166 00:11:48,360 --> 00:11:52,039 knew a lot of the other kids, and they wanted and they came and 167 00:11:52,279 --> 00:11:56,879 my captains came and asked if if the other team could join us, and 168 00:11:56,919 --> 00:11:58,919 I said, if you want to mate them, that's cool, but you're 169 00:11:58,919 --> 00:12:01,879 going to be the ones to do it, because I'm not getting involved with 170 00:12:01,879 --> 00:12:05,159 that. This is your team. So they started inviting the other team and 171 00:12:05,159 --> 00:12:07,559 then so this went on, no big deal for eight years. This was 172 00:12:07,639 --> 00:12:11,159 just something that we did. And we did this for eight years. And 173 00:12:11,240 --> 00:12:16,559 in the middle of the eight season, somebody saw what we are doing out 174 00:12:16,559 --> 00:12:24,039 there after the game, and an administrator from another school district and felt compelled 175 00:12:24,080 --> 00:12:28,159 to call our principal and comment on what he saw. And he so he 176 00:12:28,240 --> 00:12:31,440 called our principal and said, I just got to tell you what I saw 177 00:12:31,519 --> 00:12:37,120 on Friday night. Your football program is doing some awesome things. So really 178 00:12:37,200 --> 00:12:41,639 all of this started from the compliment, and so of course with any compliment, 179 00:12:41,720 --> 00:12:48,240 you want to of course do investigation. And their lawyers got involved to 180 00:12:48,279 --> 00:12:50,120 find out, you know, well, what did the policies say. And 181 00:12:50,200 --> 00:12:54,720 the policy only the only policy in the state of even in the state of 182 00:12:54,840 --> 00:13:00,039 Washington, says that you cannot encourage nor discourage kidne in prayer. And I 183 00:12:58,919 --> 00:13:01,399 was like, well, I don't care if they come out or not, 184 00:13:01,399 --> 00:13:05,919 not a big deal. So that was we were just fine there. Well 185 00:13:07,279 --> 00:13:09,919 then you know, I started getting in the news started people started breezing the 186 00:13:11,000 --> 00:13:13,360 eyebrows about it. And next thing you know, they said, well, 187 00:13:15,720 --> 00:13:18,000 yeah, well, coach, we don't want you to pray with the kids 188 00:13:18,039 --> 00:13:22,600 anymore. And I said, well, that's unfortunate, but I mean, 189 00:13:22,679 --> 00:13:24,919 your school, your rules. So they gave me a letter direction not to 190 00:13:24,919 --> 00:13:28,799 pray with the students anymore, and I stopped. I immediately stopped and never 191 00:13:28,840 --> 00:13:33,600 prayed with my players again after that. But I continued doing my prayer like 192 00:13:33,679 --> 00:13:37,679 I originally made my commitment to God that I was going to do well. 193 00:13:39,440 --> 00:13:43,279 This school still saw that, and people said, look, he's still doing 194 00:13:43,320 --> 00:13:46,039 it. He's in defiance of the school district. And so they gave me 195 00:13:46,080 --> 00:13:52,039 another letter direction and told me that I needed to choose between my job and 196 00:13:52,519 --> 00:13:56,279 my faith, and said I was going to be put on suspension until I 197 00:13:56,320 --> 00:14:03,039 applied with the school district's directives to stop in my prayer because this could possibly 198 00:14:03,039 --> 00:14:09,120 eventually become an establishment clause violation. And I was dumbfounded. I was like, 199 00:14:09,200 --> 00:14:13,039 are you kidding me? You're talking about something hypothetical that might happen in 200 00:14:13,080 --> 00:14:18,600 the future. So I had no other choice except for to get somebody who 201 00:14:18,679 --> 00:14:22,159 understood the Constitution a lot more than I did or the school did. And 202 00:14:22,399 --> 00:14:28,559 that's where first Celebrity Institute came involved and backed up, backed me up and 203 00:14:28,600 --> 00:14:31,919 said, no, you're You're well within your rights, as I naturally assumed 204 00:14:33,279 --> 00:14:37,000 what the First Amendment says is. You know, you have the free speech 205 00:14:37,000 --> 00:14:41,360 and the free exercise clause in the First Amendment, and I exercised that right 206 00:14:41,480 --> 00:14:46,120 and they ended up, you know, putting me on suspension and then I 207 00:14:46,159 --> 00:14:50,399 lost my job over it. So that's where everything all started in a nutshell. 208 00:14:50,480 --> 00:14:54,440 I know that was a long winded statement, but that's where it went. 209 00:15:00,879 --> 00:15:03,799 The Watchdout on Wall Street podcast with Chris Markowski. Every day Chris helps 210 00:15:03,879 --> 00:15:07,519 unpack the connection between politics and the economy and how it affects your wallet. 211 00:15:07,600 --> 00:15:11,799 We are getting our pockets picked as we send billions of your tax dollars to 212 00:15:11,919 --> 00:15:16,360 countries like South Africa to stop burning coal. Are they cooperating? No way. 213 00:15:16,559 --> 00:15:20,799 What's the Climate Agenda's next goal going after methane? Be prepared to get 214 00:15:20,840 --> 00:15:24,279 our pockets picked once again. Whether it's happening in DC or down on Wall 215 00:15:24,320 --> 00:15:28,320 Street. It's affecting you financially. Be informed. Check out the Watchdout on 216 00:15:28,360 --> 00:15:31,879 Wall Street podcast with Chris Markowski on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get 217 00:15:31,879 --> 00:15:39,720 your podcast. No, I mean for the breadth of the story and everything 218 00:15:39,720 --> 00:15:43,720 that happened. I thought that was very concise, because you've been there a 219 00:15:43,720 --> 00:15:46,720 lot. This story has so many kind of twists and turns. And actually, 220 00:15:46,759 --> 00:15:50,840 I think there are a couple of really important things. One is that 221 00:15:50,879 --> 00:15:54,320 the students asked you. You didn't ask the students to pray. You weren't 222 00:15:54,360 --> 00:15:58,840 demanding the students pray. They come, They came up and they asked you. 223 00:15:58,000 --> 00:16:04,519 And two is that you weren't seeking a major conflict. You weren't seeking 224 00:16:04,559 --> 00:16:08,559 publicity. You stopped when you were asked to stop. You were just a 225 00:16:08,639 --> 00:16:12,519 normal guy who wanted to pray. And I think you know, your story 226 00:16:12,639 --> 00:16:15,480 was kind of twisted by a lot of people in the media. I'm curious 227 00:16:15,519 --> 00:16:19,960 about your experience with that coach and how people sort of acted like you were 228 00:16:21,399 --> 00:16:26,519 coercing, abusing your position of power to force religion on people, to become 229 00:16:26,559 --> 00:16:34,799 a celebrity and a sort of Christian champion hero something like that. Your story 230 00:16:34,879 --> 00:16:40,120 is does not support that narrative at all. You're just a guy who wanted 231 00:16:40,159 --> 00:16:44,399 to pray. Yeah, that was the most amazing thing that they kind of 232 00:16:44,440 --> 00:16:48,399 took a life on its own from the other side. And I don't know 233 00:16:48,480 --> 00:16:52,080 where that came from, how that narrative started. And I knew it started 234 00:16:53,480 --> 00:16:57,480 right when we went to court because it originally when the letters of direction came, 235 00:16:57,919 --> 00:17:03,440 it came on because it could be establishment clause violation. And I understood 236 00:17:03,440 --> 00:17:07,839 that that it could possibly be. And I told Aaron, the superintendent, 237 00:17:07,920 --> 00:17:11,759 who was and still is a dear friend of mine. I mean, the 238 00:17:11,759 --> 00:17:15,440 school district are my friends. These guys are not my enemy. We've been 239 00:17:15,519 --> 00:17:19,000 friends for a decade. My wife worked for the school district for fifteen years. 240 00:17:19,440 --> 00:17:23,119 I mean, we spent holidays together, we go to church together, 241 00:17:23,960 --> 00:17:29,359 We're family up in Birmerton. So I didn't want to have anything to do 242 00:17:29,480 --> 00:17:36,160 with something like a lawsuit. This was so ridiculous over something so trivial as 243 00:17:36,240 --> 00:17:40,839 taking a you know, a thirty second prayer of thanks after a football game. 244 00:17:41,000 --> 00:17:47,000 So once once they're lawyers, and then I found out why is because 245 00:17:47,000 --> 00:17:52,720 their lawyers had their own agenda of there's this group I'm not even going to 246 00:17:52,799 --> 00:17:56,079 say the real name. I'm going to call them the freaks from a religious 247 00:17:56,079 --> 00:18:00,839 foundation, because that's all they want is to remove prayer and religion from the 248 00:18:00,920 --> 00:18:06,720 public square. And they're the ones who were the ones backing this whole their 249 00:18:06,759 --> 00:18:11,319 whole agenda, which is I thought that you know, the school district should 250 00:18:11,319 --> 00:18:15,359 be you know left, you know, lead that up to the judge to 251 00:18:15,440 --> 00:18:18,880 decide not not take the east side, but you know, just kind of 252 00:18:18,960 --> 00:18:22,559 be neutral in it and just have a judged rule on this. Is this 253 00:18:22,960 --> 00:18:26,240 or is this not an establishment college violation? That was the original question and 254 00:18:26,359 --> 00:18:30,480 what I ran the whole entire time was you know, am I allowed to 255 00:18:32,079 --> 00:18:34,319 pray after a football game? Because that's the only thing I asked That was 256 00:18:34,400 --> 00:18:37,799 my question from the very beginning. The only things I asked for was to 257 00:18:37,920 --> 00:18:41,720 be able to pray after a football game and to or to be a coach 258 00:18:41,759 --> 00:18:45,680 and to pray after a football game. Only two things I ever asked for 259 00:18:45,720 --> 00:18:49,920 from day one was those two things. Their story changed over the years that 260 00:18:49,960 --> 00:18:52,160 I was trying to see glory, and you know, I had to do 261 00:18:52,200 --> 00:18:55,319 it out there in the bright lights, so, you know, on the 262 00:18:55,400 --> 00:18:57,720 fifty yard line when nobody else was around, so everybody could see me. 263 00:18:57,880 --> 00:19:02,079 You know, I'm going, where do you guys get this? And they 264 00:19:02,079 --> 00:19:04,079 started saying things like, oh, they have to pray to play, and 265 00:19:04,119 --> 00:19:11,039 I'm going, you guys obviously have never bringed Bremerton, And it was so 266 00:19:11,039 --> 00:19:14,920 so ridiculous that I was like, find somebody. From the very first time 267 00:19:14,960 --> 00:19:17,480 I did in my first interview, I said, try to find somebody who 268 00:19:17,480 --> 00:19:21,599 felt compelled that they had to pray. Find one person, just one kid. 269 00:19:21,680 --> 00:19:23,559 I mean, I coached there for eight years. There's sixty kids on 270 00:19:23,599 --> 00:19:26,920 a team. That's a lot of people that have opportunities that you have. 271 00:19:27,359 --> 00:19:32,359 Please find one person. They couldn't find a single person in the school in 272 00:19:32,400 --> 00:19:37,200 their depositions, and even admitted it in court that nobody ever felt pressure to 273 00:19:37,240 --> 00:19:41,680 break because that wasn't even a thing. It was so such a ridiculous story 274 00:19:41,720 --> 00:19:45,359 to me, and that kind of bothers me to this day that none of 275 00:19:45,400 --> 00:19:48,160 the courts, all the way to the Supreme Court, never once even looked 276 00:19:48,160 --> 00:19:52,920 at the facts of the case on that. That was so that boggles my 277 00:19:52,039 --> 00:19:56,960 mind. What happened to our courts is oh, okay, got me fired 278 00:19:57,039 --> 00:20:00,799 up? No, no, no, no, that's great because I can't 279 00:20:00,839 --> 00:20:04,559 imagine the level of frustration you must have experienced as this story kind of bounced 280 00:20:04,599 --> 00:20:08,880 around national media and people reacted to it without you know, again, even 281 00:20:10,039 --> 00:20:15,079 being familiar with your community, your football community, your school community, your 282 00:20:15,079 --> 00:20:18,799 school district. And that's where I want to go next. Coaches. It's 283 00:20:18,039 --> 00:20:22,480 crazy to me, especially now in the age of social media, how cases 284 00:20:22,559 --> 00:20:29,359 like this can affect communities, and how communities can be affected by national media, 285 00:20:29,480 --> 00:20:32,960 social media and what you said. The reason I wanted to ask this 286 00:20:32,960 --> 00:20:37,400 particularly is you said something so interesting about the school district and the superintendent and 287 00:20:37,440 --> 00:20:41,480 sort of being part of a community with them, and national groups sort of 288 00:20:41,559 --> 00:20:45,119 ending up being involved in this local case. You know, it's not entirely 289 00:20:45,240 --> 00:20:48,920 unusual in the course of history. That's kind of how the court system works. 290 00:20:48,960 --> 00:20:52,279 You have local cases that ping around and work their way up to the 291 00:20:52,400 --> 00:20:56,680 national court system, and then the media catches on to them. But you 292 00:20:56,759 --> 00:21:00,920 mentioned the sort of national anti religious group that got involved pretty early on and 293 00:21:02,200 --> 00:21:06,559 was putting pressure, applying pressure in the community to get involved early on. 294 00:21:06,759 --> 00:21:10,599 What was that like to have a pretty local story that affected you and your 295 00:21:10,640 --> 00:21:14,440 players, and you know, your friends that were part of your community in 296 00:21:14,480 --> 00:21:18,480 your school district that were working this out on their own, then get roped 297 00:21:18,559 --> 00:21:23,519 into this big kind of national conflict. Yeah. I was very confused by 298 00:21:23,559 --> 00:21:30,240 that because the school district, I'm going to say the school district lawyers, 299 00:21:30,240 --> 00:21:33,200 I'm not even going to say the school district. The school district lawyers. 300 00:21:33,400 --> 00:21:37,240 They gave me a letter that I was not going to have any communication with 301 00:21:37,319 --> 00:21:40,920 the school anymore unless it was three lawyers. And to me, that was 302 00:21:40,960 --> 00:21:45,240 the most frustrating thing in the world. Here we are as adult in print 303 00:21:45,839 --> 00:21:49,400 co workers, and I was still I mean, I was considered on suspension, 304 00:21:49,440 --> 00:21:53,240 so I'm actually still an employee of the school district while this is going 305 00:21:53,319 --> 00:21:57,680 through the courts, and I was not even allowed to talk to my employer. 306 00:21:59,319 --> 00:22:02,720 And I I was so dumbfounded by this, and I'm like, who 307 00:22:02,839 --> 00:22:06,839 are these clowns that are making up these rules. I'm talking, you know, 308 00:22:06,920 --> 00:22:10,880 through my wife. She was the human resource director for the school district, 309 00:22:11,160 --> 00:22:15,559 and I'm asking her go talk to Aaron, the superintendent, and find 310 00:22:15,559 --> 00:22:19,400 out what's going on with this, and not because I'm feeding her information from 311 00:22:19,480 --> 00:22:22,440 my side to find out, you know, what's going on on their side, 312 00:22:22,880 --> 00:22:27,400 and poor Aaron and the school board had absolutely no idea. They were 313 00:22:27,480 --> 00:22:32,000 left in the dark the whole entire time. And I'm going, who is 314 00:22:32,119 --> 00:22:37,640 running this train? You know? I was just amazed that this lawyer group 315 00:22:37,799 --> 00:22:41,960 is the ones that are defending all of the state of Washington, which is 316 00:22:41,039 --> 00:22:47,640 run by an outside organization that has this agenda on their own. They're not 317 00:22:47,720 --> 00:22:51,759 even from Washington. Why are they even involved with this? This makes no 318 00:22:51,839 --> 00:22:56,039 sense to me. And why are they making such a national big deal over 319 00:22:56,480 --> 00:23:00,960 something as trivial as kicking a knee? I mean, I can't take them 320 00:23:00,960 --> 00:23:03,759 anything more boring in the world. And seeing somebody taking a knee and to 321 00:23:03,880 --> 00:23:07,519 saying, hey, thanks God, you're awesome and walking off, I mean, 322 00:23:08,799 --> 00:23:12,240 why is that even in the news? And I always agree with people, 323 00:23:12,559 --> 00:23:15,880 And when I thought, why is this, you know news or and 324 00:23:17,119 --> 00:23:19,799 I agree with them, why is it it isn't. This makes absolutely no 325 00:23:19,880 --> 00:23:23,759 sense to me whatsoever. Why this is being heard before the Supreme Court of 326 00:23:23,799 --> 00:23:32,079 the United States over something so stupid? Is thanking God, I got nothing 327 00:23:32,519 --> 00:23:36,359 and so obviously protected. As First Liberty pointed, out, you know, 328 00:23:36,559 --> 00:23:42,640 it's actually discrimination to it's religious discrimination to say one thing is prevented because it's 329 00:23:42,839 --> 00:23:47,640 religious, when another thing wouldn't be prevented if it weren't religious. They use 330 00:23:47,720 --> 00:23:49,920 the example of, for example, a phone call or for instance a phone 331 00:23:49,920 --> 00:23:53,319 call, And yeah, it seems very obvious to people, but even the 332 00:23:53,359 --> 00:23:56,319 most obvious things, I suppose we have to litigate in the Supreme Court these 333 00:23:56,400 --> 00:24:00,200 days. Coach tell us a little bit about how this affected your community. 334 00:24:00,640 --> 00:24:04,759 I'm really curious about that, because it sounds like you had a lot of 335 00:24:04,799 --> 00:24:08,519 support from the community. It sounds like, you know, there are a 336 00:24:08,519 --> 00:24:12,079 lot of people who understood that it was silly, this had become national news. 337 00:24:12,200 --> 00:24:18,079 Even so, I imagine that there was still some tension. Oh yeah, 338 00:24:18,119 --> 00:24:21,359 there's always going to be some tension, but that's always year one percent. 339 00:24:21,519 --> 00:24:26,279 And they're loud and obnoxious that and I agree to meet with anybody. 340 00:24:26,359 --> 00:24:30,200 You know, you're going to get your threats from these keyboard commandos and these 341 00:24:30,519 --> 00:24:33,880 tough guys who live in their mom's basements and each Cheetos all day, and 342 00:24:34,240 --> 00:24:38,720 you know, you know, I mean, they're the tough guys. But 343 00:24:40,039 --> 00:24:42,319 I would I would meet with these guys and say, you know, if 344 00:24:42,359 --> 00:24:45,039 you got a problem with me, let's talk about it. Because I'm an 345 00:24:45,079 --> 00:24:51,240 adult. These fights that they do, you know, behind computers and social 346 00:24:51,359 --> 00:24:53,720 media, I'm not used to those. I'm used to dealing with everything man 347 00:24:53,759 --> 00:24:56,839 and man, you want to talk about it and you want to fight, 348 00:24:56,920 --> 00:25:00,680 let's go meet out back and let's fight about it. But yeah, this 349 00:25:00,880 --> 00:25:06,359 this for the community. They my community was so awesome, and you know, 350 00:25:06,799 --> 00:25:10,279 I was. I was. I hate to say I'm a good guy, 351 00:25:10,359 --> 00:25:12,640 because I'm not really a good guy. But I loved the kids, 352 00:25:12,680 --> 00:25:18,039 I loved the team, and my whole entire job was not to dox's and 353 00:25:18,079 --> 00:25:22,039 o's in football. I still don't know any offense or defense in football. 354 00:25:22,440 --> 00:25:26,680 My whole entire job was to take care of the guys that were doing it, 355 00:25:27,359 --> 00:25:30,319 doing thes and o's, and that freed up to other coaches. They 356 00:25:30,319 --> 00:25:34,079 didn't have to worry about Johnny and his mom and his girlfriend and his homework 357 00:25:34,119 --> 00:25:38,279 and anything else going on in his life. They only had to worry about 358 00:25:38,319 --> 00:25:42,519 teaching Johnny how to do football. Now, me, I worried about them 359 00:25:42,559 --> 00:25:45,440 with their parents and everything. So their parents called me. I worried about 360 00:25:45,480 --> 00:25:48,960 their grades. I worried about their girlfriends. I worried about it. They 361 00:25:48,960 --> 00:25:52,440 had to eat, or they needed clothes to wear, they had roof over 362 00:25:52,480 --> 00:25:56,680 their head. That was one hundred percent my responsibility. And I loved it. 363 00:25:56,920 --> 00:26:02,160 And the community really underst stood that that's what my role was and it 364 00:26:02,200 --> 00:26:06,519 was such a need in our community. And they knew I didn't care about 365 00:26:06,759 --> 00:26:11,680 football and it was just about the kids. So I was well respected for 366 00:26:11,119 --> 00:26:17,279 that reason. And yeah, they were very upset that over something so dumb 367 00:26:17,279 --> 00:26:19,480 as this, and you know, it's not you hear a lot of things 368 00:26:19,480 --> 00:26:22,599 about the home Left Coast set all you know, crazy, it is. 369 00:26:23,000 --> 00:26:29,759 Well, we're just far enough removed from Seattle, Washington that were not as 370 00:26:29,799 --> 00:26:34,440 insane as them, and there's still some conservative, good people and they understood 371 00:26:34,440 --> 00:26:41,039 that a lot of military there and they understand that the Constitution and the amendments 372 00:26:41,200 --> 00:26:45,359 mean something. It was still and that it is worth standing up and finding. 373 00:26:45,599 --> 00:26:48,920 Did this experience change your perspective on the media at all? I mean, 374 00:26:48,920 --> 00:26:52,960 I've talked to people in the past who go through these crazy media circuses 375 00:26:52,000 --> 00:26:56,400 and maybe went into them without any particular thoughts about, you know, whether 376 00:26:56,440 --> 00:27:00,480 the media is honest or whether the media is dishonest. I know, like 377 00:27:00,559 --> 00:27:03,799 real political leanings when it came to the media. But as you watch your 378 00:27:03,880 --> 00:27:08,720 own story, your own details, things that you know so well because they're 379 00:27:08,759 --> 00:27:15,559 happening to you, be told by journalists and cable news and all of that, 380 00:27:15,079 --> 00:27:19,759 did any of that affect the way you saw the media? Absolutely? 381 00:27:19,880 --> 00:27:26,440 And I agreed. I agreed to do every in any I didn't care who 382 00:27:26,480 --> 00:27:27,759 it was. Now, my lawyers had a different look on it. They 383 00:27:27,799 --> 00:27:30,319 wanted to do friendly ones, and I was like, no, I want 384 00:27:30,359 --> 00:27:33,119 to do MPR, I want to do PBS, I want to do CNN, 385 00:27:33,440 --> 00:27:37,559 I want to do every I want everybody to hear the story, because 386 00:27:37,559 --> 00:27:42,000 this isn't a conservative thing, this or a Christian thing, or this thing. 387 00:27:42,119 --> 00:27:45,680 This was a very much an American thing. This all had to do 388 00:27:45,799 --> 00:27:49,920 with the Constitution and the first and then that's all I had to do with 389 00:27:51,000 --> 00:27:55,519 And this applies to every American. So there should not be a side on 390 00:27:55,559 --> 00:27:59,720 this of a liberal or a conservative, and I wanted everybody to hear the 391 00:27:59,759 --> 00:28:03,799 fact, the case, and the real story. Unfortunately, I found out 392 00:28:03,839 --> 00:28:08,920 that the truth side of the way media works. Now I'm not going to 393 00:28:08,960 --> 00:28:15,480 say that media lies, because they really don't lie, but they will tell 394 00:28:17,119 --> 00:28:22,480 parts of the truth to get that part of the truth to tell a narrative. 395 00:28:22,559 --> 00:28:26,240 They will tell their narrative in the way that they want, and they 396 00:28:26,240 --> 00:28:30,240 don't have to tell a single lie about anything, but they'll omit a lot 397 00:28:30,279 --> 00:28:33,720 of things, and they could tell that. You can make any It's kind 398 00:28:33,720 --> 00:28:37,559 of like statistics. You can make them say anything you want. You can 399 00:28:37,559 --> 00:28:41,079 make numbers say whatever they want. You can do the same thing with emitting 400 00:28:41,279 --> 00:28:47,319 the facts of certain things and only representing certain things. So I really started 401 00:28:47,359 --> 00:28:52,079 to understand that when I do some of these interviews, be very careful what 402 00:28:52,319 --> 00:28:56,799 I say because things could be taken out of context. As you very well 403 00:28:56,880 --> 00:29:00,880 know, with Trump, he can't open his mouth without anything taken out of 404 00:29:00,920 --> 00:29:06,440 context. You can't even make any actions without being taken out of context. 405 00:29:06,440 --> 00:29:08,880 And that's happened so many times with me, and I just grin and bear 406 00:29:08,960 --> 00:29:12,319 it now, because you're not going to make everybody happy, But I'm going 407 00:29:12,359 --> 00:29:17,640 to keep trying to reach out to everybody and try to get more people to 408 00:29:17,720 --> 00:29:22,559 understand that your job is to report the news and let us figure out what 409 00:29:22,680 --> 00:29:26,079 side it to be on and that's just the way, you know, how 410 00:29:26,119 --> 00:29:30,319 America unfortunately has turned into is us versus them, and that's not the way 411 00:29:30,359 --> 00:29:33,680 that things should be here in America. That is really well said that it's 412 00:29:33,759 --> 00:29:37,440 not so much if they don't have to tell a single lie. Because they 413 00:29:37,480 --> 00:29:41,480 have so much control over how the narrative is presented. You can take, 414 00:29:41,640 --> 00:29:45,279 you know, anything and spin it in a different way. And coach I 415 00:29:45,279 --> 00:29:49,720 wanted to actually also ask a little bit more about your players and how all 416 00:29:49,759 --> 00:29:53,599 of this you know, a when this hits the community and starts to become 417 00:29:53,640 --> 00:29:57,599 a local news story, it starts to become a conversation you know, in 418 00:29:59,279 --> 00:30:03,000 the coffee shop, in the PTA meetings and all that good stuff. Uh, 419 00:30:03,160 --> 00:30:06,880 that's hard enough, but then it sort of becomes national. How did 420 00:30:06,880 --> 00:30:10,920 this you know, as they're they're growing into young men, how do you 421 00:30:10,920 --> 00:30:15,200 think this affected them? And how did it affect your relationship with them? 422 00:30:15,240 --> 00:30:18,279 It's it sounds like they stuck by they stood by you. Yeah, they 423 00:30:18,359 --> 00:30:23,720 really did. Uh. At first, it was it was something really cool 424 00:30:23,759 --> 00:30:29,640 because we were trending on Twitter and Facebook and everything. We're trending number one 425 00:30:29,680 --> 00:30:33,119 for a long time. That's all that they cared about. And I thought 426 00:30:33,119 --> 00:30:36,640 that was, you know, really cute that that's all that they cared about, 427 00:30:36,720 --> 00:30:38,839 is that we were trending, and you know, you gotta laugh. 428 00:30:38,880 --> 00:30:42,440 And I have kids, and I had two kids in the high school at 429 00:30:42,440 --> 00:30:45,920 the time too. I had my daughter and my son in high school at 430 00:30:45,920 --> 00:30:48,839 the time, So I thought it was really cute that that's all they cared 431 00:30:48,839 --> 00:30:53,039 about. And anytime we did interviews and stuff, they got to show off 432 00:30:53,160 --> 00:30:56,000 and got to talk to the media if they wanted to, you know, 433 00:30:56,119 --> 00:31:00,200 I mean, all glory goes to, you know, into the team at 434 00:31:00,200 --> 00:31:03,839 all times. If they wanted to talk to me, great, if they 435 00:31:03,839 --> 00:31:07,400 want to talk to the kids. It was something we were experiencing together. 436 00:31:07,599 --> 00:31:11,839 Was the biggest story that happened in Bremerton ever, I mean ever, in 437 00:31:11,920 --> 00:31:17,480 the whole entire history of Bremerton. This was the biggest thing to ever happen, 438 00:31:17,839 --> 00:31:21,440 and it got to unfold in front of these young men and they were 439 00:31:21,519 --> 00:31:23,920 very much part of the story. It wasn't like this was happening to coach. 440 00:31:23,960 --> 00:31:30,000 This was happening to our football team. And I kept them involved in 441 00:31:30,200 --> 00:31:33,759 every single aspect of it. When we did get down to the nitty gritty, 442 00:31:33,240 --> 00:31:37,440 the news and stuff. They thought that was just a trip to be 443 00:31:37,519 --> 00:31:41,279 on the news and it was a national story and Bremerton was on the now 444 00:31:41,559 --> 00:31:45,359 and they could turn on every Friday and see them on the football field and 445 00:31:45,599 --> 00:31:48,720 at the games. Every game was highlighted. It was on the news. 446 00:31:48,039 --> 00:31:52,519 So they thought that was cool. The thing they didn't think was cool when 447 00:31:52,519 --> 00:31:56,200 it got really serious, and I was my job was put on the line. 448 00:31:56,599 --> 00:32:00,279 And we sat down the night before, right after practice when we have 449 00:32:00,359 --> 00:32:05,720 our pregame practice, and I said I want to talk to the team, 450 00:32:05,960 --> 00:32:07,759 and I had them all on a knee in front of me and I said, 451 00:32:08,240 --> 00:32:13,119 guys, here's here's what's going to happen. Is that if I take 452 00:32:13,119 --> 00:32:16,400 a knee tomorrow night, I'm going to be put on suspension after the game. 453 00:32:16,920 --> 00:32:20,119 And they were like, oh, coach, you can't do that. 454 00:32:20,119 --> 00:32:22,839 That's a bunch of bs, you know. I mean, they really flipped 455 00:32:22,880 --> 00:32:25,000 out and they were like, we're gonna play our helmets down and walk off. 456 00:32:25,039 --> 00:32:28,680 And I was like, whoa, whoa, whoa, slow the boat. 457 00:32:29,000 --> 00:32:31,880 No, you are not doing that. And I had to get really 458 00:32:32,240 --> 00:32:36,759 cerned with them. I say, your job is on the battlefield, which 459 00:32:36,799 --> 00:32:40,200 is this football field here. That's where your fight is. My fight is 460 00:32:40,240 --> 00:32:45,200 my fight. Your fight is out here. So you guys, you want 461 00:32:45,200 --> 00:32:46,559 to you want to support me, you do it out on the field and 462 00:32:46,640 --> 00:32:52,759 win. You don't do anything that you jeopardize that. So they totally understood 463 00:32:52,759 --> 00:32:57,200 that, and they said, Coach, can't you just give in and go 464 00:32:57,279 --> 00:33:00,680 along with the with what they said? It would be so much easier. 465 00:33:00,720 --> 00:33:05,680 And I knew at that exact second that there is no way that I wasn't 466 00:33:05,720 --> 00:33:08,599 going to take a knee. Could you imagine here? I asked these guys 467 00:33:08,640 --> 00:33:13,599 to basically almost kill themselves on our Friday night. I don't care if their 468 00:33:13,680 --> 00:33:16,519 leg hurts or they're bruised, or you know, you've got a busted finger 469 00:33:16,680 --> 00:33:22,599 or whatever. I want you to fight until there's nothing left on the clock. 470 00:33:22,680 --> 00:33:24,480 I don't care how much it hurts. I don't care how inconvenient it 471 00:33:24,640 --> 00:33:29,480 is. Because your mom and dad's going through divorce or whatever's going on in 472 00:33:29,480 --> 00:33:31,920 your life, You're going to fight for your team and because it's the right 473 00:33:31,960 --> 00:33:36,200 thing to do, and there's time on the clock, and now, all 474 00:33:36,200 --> 00:33:38,400 of a sudden, I have a chance to prove this I'm not just going 475 00:33:38,480 --> 00:33:42,880 to talk. I'm going to be able to show this in real life how 476 00:33:42,920 --> 00:33:45,759 this applies to your life. You know, here it is thirty forty years 477 00:33:45,799 --> 00:33:51,119 down the road that I have opportunity lead by example, and I'm going to 478 00:33:51,160 --> 00:33:54,200 give in and just quit because this is going to become uncomfortable for me and 479 00:33:54,279 --> 00:33:59,359 I might lose out or No, I'm going to stand up and do what's 480 00:33:59,440 --> 00:34:02,519 right, even if it's not popular thing to do. So I had to 481 00:34:02,559 --> 00:34:07,320 do this and the team I told them that this is where I'm telling you 482 00:34:07,400 --> 00:34:12,519 that you're going to be faced with life to make choices between right and wrong. 483 00:34:12,639 --> 00:34:16,039 And you could fold and give into things like not doing the prayer, 484 00:34:16,400 --> 00:34:19,840 but it's the right thing to do. So I am going to do that 485 00:34:19,880 --> 00:34:22,440 even if it cost me everything. So that was a learn lesson that they 486 00:34:22,480 --> 00:34:27,840 got to see in real life, and it did cost me everything. Now 487 00:34:28,199 --> 00:34:30,559 tell us correct me if I'm wrong. You made the decision earlier this year 488 00:34:30,559 --> 00:34:35,280 to stop coaching, tell us a little bit about how you made that decision 489 00:34:35,599 --> 00:34:38,199 and what you're up to these days. Yeah, so, you know, 490 00:34:38,320 --> 00:34:44,199 I knew I was going to catch Black on that, and you know they 491 00:34:44,239 --> 00:34:45,920 always try to use your words against you. You said you'd be on the 492 00:34:45,960 --> 00:34:50,639 first flight back, and I said, I absolutely was. I was true 493 00:34:50,679 --> 00:34:53,320 to my word. They reinstated me in I think it was March. I 494 00:34:53,320 --> 00:34:58,559 don't have the exact date, but the day they reinstated me, I was 495 00:34:58,639 --> 00:35:02,159 in Bremerton. I flew back Bremerton from Pensacola, Florida. I was there 496 00:35:02,199 --> 00:35:07,000 at the high school and I received my letter of reinstatement. I got it 497 00:35:07,079 --> 00:35:10,920 hand delivered to me in the in the office at the Bremerton School District office. 498 00:35:12,199 --> 00:35:15,159 So that was the first step of what I asked were out of the 499 00:35:15,199 --> 00:35:19,320 Supreme Court and what I've been asking for the whole entire time. Now, 500 00:35:19,360 --> 00:35:23,679 that's when spring ball started, and so we had two weeks of spring ball. 501 00:35:24,480 --> 00:35:29,039 Well they hit me with they had me in the paper and said, 502 00:35:29,119 --> 00:35:31,880 all right, you're reinstated, but you can't do anything until you comply with 503 00:35:31,920 --> 00:35:37,239 all these roles and regulations of training and this and that. So I wasn't 504 00:35:37,280 --> 00:35:40,000 even allowed to step on the football field for all the spring and I was 505 00:35:40,039 --> 00:35:44,239 like, well, that's unfortunate, but I'll play your silly little game. 506 00:35:45,039 --> 00:35:47,199 And I said, we'll try again in the fall. So in August, 507 00:35:47,239 --> 00:35:51,320 we have our fall camp, and I showed up the first day of fall 508 00:35:51,360 --> 00:35:54,199 camp. I was there every single day with our football team. I got 509 00:35:54,199 --> 00:35:58,360 to meet all the kids, all the coaches, a bunch of the parents, 510 00:35:58,559 --> 00:36:04,079 and we practiced every day getting ready for the upcoming season. And then 511 00:36:04,239 --> 00:36:07,599 after the first game, which I was really nervous about, because here's the 512 00:36:07,639 --> 00:36:12,280 second part that I never thought I would be at, is actually being able 513 00:36:12,320 --> 00:36:16,840 to take in me after another football game. And you know, I knew 514 00:36:16,880 --> 00:36:21,800 I was going to catch some flack from people at the school because here these 515 00:36:21,880 --> 00:36:27,079 kids were in grade school when this was going through, so this is so 516 00:36:27,239 --> 00:36:30,760 far down the road. They don't really even understand what was happening, and 517 00:36:30,800 --> 00:36:36,079 what was going on at the time, really what happened with I mean, 518 00:36:36,119 --> 00:36:40,480 this was old news and you know, the whole new coaching staff, whole 519 00:36:40,519 --> 00:36:45,840 new administration. So you know, here I am now I'm the enemy because 520 00:36:46,400 --> 00:36:50,760 all they've heard is bad stuff about me for years. And I knew they 521 00:36:50,760 --> 00:36:53,199 were going to be trix to me. That was nothing new. I expected 522 00:36:53,239 --> 00:36:59,280 that and they kind of were and I just rolled with it. I was 523 00:36:59,320 --> 00:37:01,440 like, you know, let them be kids, and you know, I'm 524 00:37:01,440 --> 00:37:05,039 talking about the adults and if they want to, you know, play their 525 00:37:05,119 --> 00:37:08,719 little games with me, and you know, beach Eric slid them. I'm 526 00:37:08,840 --> 00:37:13,199 focused on the kids. And then so we got to the first game, 527 00:37:13,280 --> 00:37:20,440 and the game went so perfect that the people that showed up that I thought 528 00:37:20,760 --> 00:37:23,639 it was going to be insane and there's gonna be protesters and you know, 529 00:37:23,760 --> 00:37:28,599 out of control. They had so many cops there. I had people following 530 00:37:28,639 --> 00:37:31,400 me and making sure I wasn't doing anything wrong, and I'm going, oh 531 00:37:31,599 --> 00:37:35,760 god, this is so out of control. But the game was so good 532 00:37:35,880 --> 00:37:38,760 and that fans were so perfect. It was a perfect evening. And the 533 00:37:38,840 --> 00:37:45,519 game was so good that everybody forgot about the prame coach and they only focused 534 00:37:45,519 --> 00:37:50,400 on the game. And we won, and nobody really paid attention to me, 535 00:37:50,719 --> 00:37:52,039 which is the way it should have been from the very beginning. I 536 00:37:52,079 --> 00:37:55,000 took a knee, walked out the field, and everybody goes, did he 537 00:37:55,119 --> 00:37:59,880 even pray? I mean, it wasn't no big deal, because it never 538 00:38:00,159 --> 00:38:06,519 was a big deal. So I went to practice on Monday and everything was 539 00:38:06,559 --> 00:38:09,159 good, and my wife and I started talking about how long do we stay 540 00:38:09,199 --> 00:38:13,000 here? Because I had a one way ticket to Seattle and I said, 541 00:38:13,119 --> 00:38:16,199 I don't know. So we prayed about we talked about it because this is 542 00:38:16,239 --> 00:38:21,119 the first time we've been able to make a decision in eight years, and 543 00:38:21,199 --> 00:38:23,039 so we talked about it, we prayed, and we were like, let's 544 00:38:23,039 --> 00:38:28,599 see what happens. And Tuesday morning, we got test results from my father 545 00:38:28,639 --> 00:38:30,960 in law. We got a CEP back and his heart was leaking on a 546 00:38:31,000 --> 00:38:35,199 repair job that they just had. He had a hangarism that got fixed, 547 00:38:35,599 --> 00:38:39,440 it was leaking, and thank god, we just found out through that sat 548 00:38:39,679 --> 00:38:44,119 that he's got a stage three kidney disease, which we knew we never would 549 00:38:44,119 --> 00:38:47,159 have caught it. They didn'ted the CTEAM. So we were like, we 550 00:38:47,239 --> 00:38:50,719 got to make a decision. You know. The whole reason we moved to 551 00:38:50,719 --> 00:38:55,119 Pensacola was to take care of Dad, and that was a relatively new thing. 552 00:38:55,199 --> 00:39:00,039 We moved down three years ago. And so we talked about it and 553 00:39:00,320 --> 00:39:05,159 I went to practice on Tuesday, and Wednesday morning, I woke up and 554 00:39:05,199 --> 00:39:07,840 I said, yeah, let's go, And so I just signed a letter 555 00:39:07,960 --> 00:39:12,960 resignation. And it was the first time in eight years that it was a 556 00:39:13,000 --> 00:39:17,800 decision that Denise and I was actually able to make just by ourselves the first 557 00:39:17,840 --> 00:39:23,000 time in eight years, and it was wonderful. There's nothing over our heads 558 00:39:23,079 --> 00:39:28,599 now, nothing at all, no school division, no law, nobody else 559 00:39:28,639 --> 00:39:32,119 to make this decision except for me and her, and it was a wonderful 560 00:39:32,159 --> 00:39:38,159 thing. So we moved back to Florida and we're taking car Dad. I 561 00:39:38,159 --> 00:39:42,199 mean, it's amazing how long this case went on for. I mean years, 562 00:39:42,239 --> 00:39:45,719 Oh my god, eight years? Are you kidding me? Eight years 563 00:39:45,719 --> 00:39:51,639 and nine football season? That is insane over something so ridiculous. So was 564 00:39:51,679 --> 00:39:54,800 it twenty fourteen when you first took the knee? It was it was the 565 00:39:54,840 --> 00:40:00,599 season in twenty fifteen. So you've got to count out football season, a 566 00:40:00,679 --> 00:40:05,559 doctor, twenty three football season. I count everything in football seasons. That's 567 00:40:05,599 --> 00:40:07,639 a good way to do it. Well, you know, as we're sort 568 00:40:07,639 --> 00:40:10,519 of winding down here, coach, Yeah, I have two final questions. 569 00:40:10,559 --> 00:40:15,360 One is just if people I know, we have some listeners that are on 570 00:40:15,400 --> 00:40:19,239 the left and you know, maybe don't come from Christian backgrounds, and they 571 00:40:19,320 --> 00:40:22,800 might be skeptical that the story is you know significant, You know, who 572 00:40:22,840 --> 00:40:27,480 cares if a high school football coach, you know, is able to pray 573 00:40:28,400 --> 00:40:30,360 without you know, ending up in the Supreme Court, what's the big deal? 574 00:40:30,599 --> 00:40:32,880 You know, we have to be able to work through these things as 575 00:40:32,920 --> 00:40:37,840 a country. You know, I would argue that this has national importance, 576 00:40:37,920 --> 00:40:39,559 that you know, as the title of your book goes, you're an average 577 00:40:39,639 --> 00:40:45,119 joe who faced a major hurdle, an eight year court battle, just to 578 00:40:45,159 --> 00:40:47,400 pray. That would be my argument. But Coach, what would you say 579 00:40:47,559 --> 00:40:53,360 to people who are skeptical that this story matters, that the story is, 580 00:40:53,519 --> 00:40:58,840 you know, does have national significance. What would you say to people who 581 00:40:58,840 --> 00:41:02,159 take that position? Yeah, well, you know, I support and defend 582 00:41:02,280 --> 00:41:07,159 their right to say those things, and I will always fight and defend that 583 00:41:07,239 --> 00:41:12,920 the same. So a lot of people on whatever side they're on, they 584 00:41:13,000 --> 00:41:16,239 might not agree because of the reason. You know, it just happened to 585 00:41:16,280 --> 00:41:21,480 be because I was a Christian. Say it was I don't know, some 586 00:41:21,559 --> 00:41:27,719 other football player that was taking a knee in protests of social injustice will hypothetically 587 00:41:27,719 --> 00:41:30,360 say there was somebody doing that, Kaepernick or something. You know, if 588 00:41:30,360 --> 00:41:35,239 somebody did that, when is he allowed to do that? To you know, 589 00:41:35,360 --> 00:41:38,079 at the national anthem, I would say, yes, he is allowed 590 00:41:38,119 --> 00:41:42,199 to do that? Is it appalling? To me, absolutely, but is 591 00:41:42,239 --> 00:41:45,280 he allowed to do that? Yes, I will support and defend anybody's right 592 00:41:45,360 --> 00:41:51,239 to free speech, their free exercise. I will fight for the Second Amendment. 593 00:41:51,599 --> 00:41:57,039 If you lose your amendments, the rights as an American citizen, no 594 00:41:57,159 --> 00:42:01,159 longer are we America. And we need to understand that that this applies to 595 00:42:01,679 --> 00:42:07,360 everybody. This isn't a left a right, it's not a liberal conservative. 596 00:42:07,880 --> 00:42:13,199 We need to look at as far as Americans go, all these agendas that 597 00:42:13,239 --> 00:42:16,719 are going on, and you hear stupid words like the woke and this and 598 00:42:16,760 --> 00:42:22,719 that, all these terms do nothing but divide us. And if you want 599 00:42:22,760 --> 00:42:24,679 to take a look, read my book. And if you still want to 600 00:42:24,719 --> 00:42:28,480 judge me and say I was wrong, I will eat that. I will 601 00:42:28,519 --> 00:42:31,199 own that and say you know, fine, you're absolutely right. Then, 602 00:42:31,559 --> 00:42:36,840 but I was supporting to defend their rights every single time to be able to 603 00:42:36,920 --> 00:42:40,599 stand up and hopefully nobody will ever be faced with the having to choose between 604 00:42:40,639 --> 00:42:47,639 their job and their rights as an American in any way, shape or Yeah. 605 00:42:47,760 --> 00:42:52,599 That's a really helpful perspective, Coach. And my last question is what 606 00:42:52,599 --> 00:42:54,320 can you tell us about the film? It's got to be wild to have, 607 00:42:54,760 --> 00:42:58,800 first of all, to have the book done, but then to have 608 00:42:58,880 --> 00:43:01,199 people working on a movie about your life and your story. What can you 609 00:43:01,239 --> 00:43:06,639 tell us about the film. Yeah, so we started out actually before we 610 00:43:06,679 --> 00:43:10,800 started writing the book. The book was actually a byproduct of the screenplay that 611 00:43:10,840 --> 00:43:16,920 we started writing eight years ago when somebody I went spoke at an event and 612 00:43:17,000 --> 00:43:22,599 I was telling my whole story of my background, and they were more impressed 613 00:43:22,639 --> 00:43:27,480 with my background story of me and my wife and our childhood and the things 614 00:43:27,559 --> 00:43:30,960 that we went through just to get to this point. And you know, 615 00:43:30,039 --> 00:43:34,519 this was at the beginning of the trial, so you know, we were 616 00:43:34,599 --> 00:43:38,039 zero and seven at the court and they were so impressed with the backstory. 617 00:43:38,039 --> 00:43:42,920 They were like, this is like a movie. And he you know, 618 00:43:43,679 --> 00:43:45,920 he was the guy that did God's Not Dead, and he said, this 619 00:43:46,159 --> 00:43:50,480 definitely sounds like a movie to me. We need to do this. So 620 00:43:50,559 --> 00:43:54,239 we started working on a screenplay eight years ago. And you know, with 621 00:43:54,639 --> 00:44:00,000 COVID and all the stuff going on in Hollywood and strikes and everything else, 622 00:44:00,199 --> 00:44:02,559 everything that's just been put on delay for so long, but we could continue 623 00:44:02,599 --> 00:44:06,800 to write. So we wanted to get the story out. That's why we 624 00:44:06,840 --> 00:44:09,199 wrote the book. So people could get the story out there first. And 625 00:44:09,239 --> 00:44:15,000 it's not that boring story about law and the Supreme Court, because that would 626 00:44:15,079 --> 00:44:19,840 be boring. That's like book nerds stuff that I would I would drive me 627 00:44:19,960 --> 00:44:24,559 crazy if that's all I just about. And so so we developed a movie, 628 00:44:24,639 --> 00:44:30,199 and yeah, it's right up there with Forrest Gump. It's it's the 629 00:44:30,360 --> 00:44:34,360 average guy. That's just to me. I feel like Forrest Gump, I'm 630 00:44:34,360 --> 00:44:38,119 a little below average to bs me. And it just goes through my entire 631 00:44:38,199 --> 00:44:43,480 life and and just a great representation of the things that I've been through. 632 00:44:43,639 --> 00:44:52,480 And yeah, it was so weird to watch three different actors a different level 633 00:44:52,480 --> 00:44:59,320 of our ages playing somebody that for my wife and I at grade school and 634 00:44:59,360 --> 00:45:05,920 then teenage, it's like twenties and then at fifty where we are today and 635 00:45:06,920 --> 00:45:10,559 exposing our entire life. And we had to face some things in our past 636 00:45:10,599 --> 00:45:15,880 that we have never even addressed with each other, so we had to do 637 00:45:15,000 --> 00:45:19,760 some real soul searching. And it's kind of scary also. I mean, 638 00:45:19,800 --> 00:45:22,519 it's cool, and it's so weird, so weird to see your life being 639 00:45:22,679 --> 00:45:27,599 played out by other people, but it's kind of scary that you're going to 640 00:45:27,800 --> 00:45:30,639 everybody's going to know all your deep dark secrets and there's no hiding it. 641 00:45:30,719 --> 00:45:35,760 After this, it's everything's out there. Amazing. Well, the book again 642 00:45:35,880 --> 00:45:39,519 is called Average Joe, One Man's Faith and the Fight to Change a Nation. 643 00:45:40,079 --> 00:45:44,280 Coach Joe Kennedy, thank you so much for stopping by the show and 644 00:45:44,360 --> 00:45:47,079 sharing your story with us. Absolutely, Hey, I want to thank you 645 00:45:47,119 --> 00:45:51,400 for keep finding a good fight and I'm always there for you on your side. 646 00:45:51,599 --> 00:45:53,760 I appreciate that so much. You have been listening to another edition of 647 00:45:53,760 --> 00:45:58,519 The Federalist Radio Hour. I'm Emil Jaschinski, culture editor here at The Federalist. 648 00:45:58,559 --> 00:46:00,760 We'll be back soon with more. Until then, be lovers of freedom 649 00:46:01,039 --> 00:46:02,280 and anxious for the fray.