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"AVERAGE JOE" KENNEDY | Praying at the 50-Yard Line (Ep. 707)

January 21, 2025 52m 17s Full transcript available
"AVERAGE JOE" KENNEDY | Praying at the 50-Yard Line (Ep. 707)
0:00 / 52m 17s
In this episode, Kyle Thompson interviews Joe Kennedy, the former high school football coach who fought for his right to pray at the 50-yard line after games. Joe shares his journey from being fired to winning a landmark Supreme Court case that upheld religious freedom in public spaces.
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0:59 This is Undaunted Life a Man's Podcast.
1:24 I'm your host Kyle Thompson.
1:25 Let's get into it.
1:27 All right, guys, we've got a special guest on the podcast today.
1:29 His name is Joe Kennedy.
1:30 So he used to be an assistant football coach at a public high school in Bremerton, Washington.
1:34 And after games, he decided at one point that he would start praying at the 50-yard line by himself.
1:39 And then some coaches, some of the players on his team, they noticed that he was doing that.
1:44 And some of them actually decided to join in with him and pray after the games.
1:47 And then some of the players from the other teams and coaches from the other team would come in
1:51 and pray after the games.
1:52 And this went on for years.
1:53 And no big deal, right?
1:55 I mean, we live in a free country.
1:56 We have freedom of religion.
1:57 We have freedom of expression.
1:59 Well, apparently not in the ridiculous state of Washington because the members of the school board
2:03 did not like this at all, like surprise, surprise.
2:06 They said that they were worried that it would not only violate the establishment clause
2:10 of the United States Constitution because they're moronic numb skulls.
2:13 They said that it was potentially dangerous, that it was endangering students somehow
2:17 to pray after a football game.
2:19 So they tried to force Coach Kennedy to stop praying, he refused as he should have.
2:24 And the school responded by not renewing his coaching contract at the end of that season.
2:28 They essentially fired him as essentially what they did.
2:31 And then he rightfully decided to sue the school board.
2:34 And that fight, you know, through the different appeal courts and everything like that,
2:37 made it all the way to the Supreme Court in 2022.
2:40 And no spoiler alert here because this is old news.
2:43 But the court actually ruled in his favor, in the favor of Kennedy and his team,
2:46 voting six to three, you want to guess who the dissents were.
2:50 They voted six to three that the government cannot suppress an individual's expression
2:53 of religious observance.
2:55 And if they do so, they are violating the right to free exercise and free speech.
3:00 And this entire story, which again, this thing took, I think he said like eight years was
3:03 from, you know, soup to nuts is how long this process took.
3:06 This entire thing was turned into a major motion picture last year, 2024, called average
3:11 Joe.
3:12 And this was made about Coach Kennedy and his life and the struggle for religious liberty
3:15 and what was going on in his personal life.
3:17 And so that's what we talked about today.
3:18 We just went right from, you know, what was your upbringing life?
3:22 You know, why did you join the Marine Corps?
3:23 Why do you want to be a coach?
3:24 Like, you know, why did you feel like God was telling you you needed to be a coach,
3:27 even though spoiler alert, he didn't have any football coaching experience or football
3:31 experience whatsoever.
3:32 He was a wrestler and a boxer.
3:33 And then the entire process, so everything that I just gave you there in the intro, we
3:37 talk about in detail in this interview.
3:38 So guys, I'm not going to keep him from you any longer.
3:40 So without further ado, let's get into it.
3:43 Joe Kennedy, welcome to adult to life and man's podcast.
3:46 Hey, good to have you.
3:48 I mean, appreciate it, buddy.
3:49 Yeah, this is great.
3:51 I'm excited to talk to you about your story, crazy story, but don't worry, guys, we will
3:54 get there, but we do kind of need to start small here.
3:57 And so you have a, I guess you're, you have very interesting track record, but it all
4:02 comes because you decided to follow some dead Middle Eastern Jewish carpenter and those
4:06 types of things and dedicate your life to following Christ.
4:08 And so for you, like, when did that happen?
4:11 Did you grow up in a Christian home, is this something that, you know, just kind of came
4:14 to you as an adult?
4:15 Let's just start there.
4:16 Yeah.
4:17 I grew up in a Catholic family and it really didn't take.
4:20 So I pretty much was a rebel, just didn't want to have anything to do with God.
4:24 And it wasn't until I got out of the Marine Corps before, before I found actually my
4:28 faith and started living for the Lord.
4:31 So it was well into my late thirties.
4:33 Okay.
4:34 And so what was it specifically for you that led you?
4:37 Okay.
4:38 Catholic upbringing.
4:39 You hear that kind of a lot.
4:40 Catholic Catholics, but then they don't actually have any faith whatsoever.
4:43 So did that maybe have an impact in you going into the Marine Corps or kind of what was
4:48 the impetus behind that?
4:50 Well, it did.
4:53 It definitely sent, you know, as the planted seeds when I was a kid for, for, to, to kind
5:00 of have some things grow up there.
5:02 But I wasn't, yeah, it didn't take it, it, it, I pretty much was in so much trouble when
5:08 I was a kid and had such a rough childhood that I didn't, I couldn't believe that there
5:12 was actually God.
5:13 So yeah, those seeds finally took root.
5:17 It wasn't until I really right when I was getting out of the Marine Corps.
5:21 My last year, the Marine Corps is when I really am got married.
5:25 That was when God really took a hold of my heart.
5:29 Okay.
5:30 I kind of feel need to ask you because most of the people in this audience are going to
5:34 be Protestants.
5:36 And so we have some Catholics.
5:37 Now there are people kind of in Protestant circles that look at Catholics, almost like
5:40 they're apostates.
5:41 Like, look, these people believe in some random, you know, dude with a pointy hat in Rome and
5:47 they think that he's magical and they worship at the altar of Mary and all this kind of
5:50 weird stuff.
5:51 And so, but like with me, I believe that there are Baptists that aren't saved, just like
5:55 I believe that there are Catholics that are not saved.
5:57 I believe that there are people in all walks of Christian life that have not actually put
6:01 their faith in Christ for the propitiation, the payment and full of their sin debt.
6:05 But I kind of feel like with Catholics, they're more box checky because like Southern Baptists
6:10 I grew up in Oklahoma.
6:11 And so as long as you're born in Oklahoma and listen to country music and vote Republican,
6:14 you get to go to heaven because God's pro all those things.
6:17 But with Catholics, it's like, okay, as long as I tend mass a couple of times a year and
6:21 as long as I've been confirmed, then I'm good to go.
6:24 Do you kind of experience that with what you've seen in your life?
6:26 Oh, absolutely.
6:27 And you see that with a bunch of different ones, you know, 70 ampedists, Jehovah Witnesses.
6:33 I mean, you could just warm it and see you pick them out of the line up and unless you
6:37 have that relationship, you know, but who am I to say who's right and wrong?
6:42 I just know that my walk with the Lord is the best that I could do at this time right
6:47 now and just trying to do the best I can because I'm not a check in the box kind of
6:52 guy and I don't follow rules very well at all obviously.
6:57 So yeah, just doing the best I can, man.
7:00 Yeah.
7:01 Well, we'll certainly get there.
7:02 All right.
7:03 So military, you get married, all the kind of stuff, you know, God snatches you up at
7:06 some point.
7:07 But at what point do you think, hey, I want to coach football, like where does like coaching
7:11 football come into your world?
7:13 Yeah.
7:14 So I was failing as a husband and that's where I really turned to the Lord.
7:19 And then it seemed when I made that promise of God that, you know, hey, if you give me
7:24 my wife, I'll give you my life, he took me up on that.
7:27 And next thing I know I'm being asked to coach high school football and I don't know anything
7:31 about football.
7:33 I was 410 to my sophomore year as a wrestler and a boxer and stuff.
7:37 So I was never a big guy.
7:39 I was just a little guy.
7:41 And so football just seemed kind of like a very weird thing for God to ask.
7:46 But that's what where it came about is that God asked me to coach and help these young
7:50 men.
7:51 And I just, what was I going to say?
7:52 No.
7:53 Yeah.
7:54 So I definitely had to.
7:55 Well, you could have said no.
7:56 A lot of people would have said no.
7:57 They would have been like, that must have been indigestion.
7:58 That couldn't have been God.
8:00 So how do you go because what's funny is I actually know several wrestlers that have
8:04 been forced into coaching football.
8:06 It's really strange because it's like football is a complicated game.
8:09 I mean, yeah, you're trying to move, you know, an inflated piece of pigskin from one place
8:13 on the field to another place on the field.
8:14 But man, it's complicated.
8:15 There's a lot of moving parts.
8:16 There's 22 guys on the field all at one time.
8:19 Like how do you, how do you do that?
8:21 How do you go from a wrestling boxing background?
8:23 I'm sure you watch football, but how do you figure out how to like coach?
8:27 Yeah.
8:28 There's a beauty of it because I was in the military in the Marine Corps for 20 years.
8:32 So leading men was just a natural thing that I've been doing my whole entire life.
8:37 And I didn't care anything about football.
8:39 This was just something that was my calling.
8:43 So I never had to worry about learning the X's and O's.
8:46 We had some of the best coaches you could possibly imagine.
8:49 Guys that played college, professional was even in the Super Bowl.
8:53 And these guys knew X's and O's.
8:55 So the only thing I had to focus on was a little Johnny and Timmy.
8:59 And that's what my whole thing was, is getting the most out of those young men out on the
9:03 football field.
9:04 Okay.
9:05 And so let's talk a little bit about that because you've got some coaches.
9:07 Excuse me.
9:08 I know for a fact that there are some coaches, high school coaches of a lot of different
9:12 sports listening to this podcast right now.
9:14 And you have guys that may know the X's and O's of baseball, football, wrestling, basketball,
9:18 whatever the sport is, but they struggle with making sure little Johnny's not a moron and
9:22 making sure that little Johnny's there on time and that he gives full effort and all
9:25 that.
9:26 What were some things that you kind of picked up on and learned along the way that kind
9:29 of helped you realize, all right, well, I've led men, but these are 14, 15, 16, 17 year
9:34 old boys.
9:35 I can't exactly make them drop into the sand and do pushups, right, or anything like that.
9:39 But like, how do you, how do you kind of like have an impact and influence on those young
9:42 men?
9:43 Yeah.
9:44 And I think I think that was just a natural blessing that I had growing up and not having
9:47 anybody in my life as far as a father figure, a lot of these young men that I was coaching
9:52 single families, pretty poor backgrounds and stuff.
9:57 And they really just needed somebody to teach them how to become a young man.
10:01 And that was the beauty of it is that only thing I had to do was just listen to them,
10:06 love them, and be hard on them at the same time, teach them about discipline and team
10:11 building and leadership.
10:13 And I didn't hold any punches with them.
10:16 I was probably one of the meanest guys, but in the next minute, put my arms around them,
10:22 hug them and tell them I love them at the same time.
10:25 So you know, you draw that line in the sand of where you're going to stand and they will
10:30 fall in line because kids, especially men, they crave to be around men and to be men
10:36 and to be able to be leaders.
10:38 And just teaching them that they just fall right into line because they crave that kind
10:43 of desire.
10:44 Well, also Joe, it's, it's high expectations because there are a lot of young men, because
10:49 I've explained this a lot of different ways on the show, but it's like, if you set the
10:51 expectations for a man right here, and then they end up here, that's bad because they
10:56 didn't meet the expectation and they're still really low.
10:58 And for those of you just listening to this, I obviously have my hands towards the bottom
11:00 of the screen.
11:01 But as I put my hand at the top of the screen, if you set the expectations here and they miss
11:05 it here, there's still this delta here, this tremendous amount of impact and improvement
11:10 that they've made.
11:11 So I think one of the problems that we have with men and young men is that we set the expectation
11:14 bar so low and we don't demand anything more of them than what the minimum is.
11:19 And then when they fail, we're shocked.
11:20 It's like, well, we shouldn't really be shocked.
11:23 And so you've got this job, you're working at Bremerton High School.
11:26 You're wearing a Bremerton Knights shirt right now on the show.
11:29 So guys watching on YouTube and rumble, you can see that.
11:31 And so obviously a lot of people know where this story went.
11:35 I mean, we're definitely going to ease our way into the story.
11:38 But obviously you're not in a very conservative place.
11:41 You're not in a state where it's not like Oklahoma where every single county votes red
11:45 in the general election.
11:46 And so you had to kind of know there was going to be some anti-Christian anti-faith, anti-conservative
11:52 sentiments working for the government schools, because you're working in a public school
11:56 in the public school system that gets their funding from the atheistic, I guess, federal
12:02 government and state governments.
12:03 So did you get the sense that the people that were working there or maybe the school board
12:08 that there were going to be a bunch of folks that were maybe not, you know, cool with the
12:12 things that you believe, you know, behind closed doors?
12:15 No, really it was quite the opposite.
12:18 I know that the whole entire left coast is absolutely insane.
12:22 And especially in the cities, you know, how crazy the liberal mindset is, and they just
12:28 kind of group thought they have no original thoughts by themselves.
12:32 But the people in our school was these people are my friends.
12:35 We've worked together for almost a decade.
12:38 And most of them are good, you know, God-faring to go to church, at least respected, you know,
12:45 my faith.
12:46 And I never thought that I would have a problem with this, and I always heard rumors about
12:51 people, you know, getting in trouble for doing this kind of stuff.
12:55 But I didn't care in the slightest bit because I was always open and honest about who I was
13:00 in my faith.
13:01 And I was going to exercise my rights as an American, it really wasn't a big Christian
13:07 thing.
13:08 It wasn't a big churchy thing to me.
13:09 This was really all about me exercising my rights as an American to exercise my first
13:17 amendment rights.
13:18 Okay.
13:19 So with that in mind, let's go ahead and get to what caused all the kerfuffle.
13:23 And so obviously you were in your coaching duty, so you're wearing your Birmingham Knights
13:28 gear and all that.
13:29 And at some point you decide that you were going to start preying on the field at the
13:34 50 yard line.
13:36 So this is not an uncommon practice, right?
13:38 So we see this in high school and college in the in the pros.
13:43 We see players gather and hold hands with coaches before games where you see it a lot
13:48 of times after games where guys will join up and do a prayer circle.
13:51 This is not an uncommon thing, but for you specifically for Joe Kennedy, what was the
13:56 impetus behind you deciding, okay, at this point of the game or before or after the game,
14:02 I'm going to go pray at the 50 yard line by myself.
14:05 Take us through that.
14:06 I was offered the job as a coach on a Friday and over that weekend, I said, you know, let
14:12 me think about it.
14:13 It's a big decision.
14:14 I just got a Marine Corps.
14:15 Do I really want to just start a whole new career now that I'm married and trying to
14:20 raise a family.
14:22 And so I'm up in the middle of the night watching TV and the movie facing the Giants
14:27 came on and it was like God just stuck his fist right through the TV set, grabbed onto
14:33 my heart and threw me on the ground.
14:36 And I said, God, I'm all in for the first time in my life.
14:38 I heard my calling and I right there on my living room floor and, you know, crying mess
14:44 and I'm just sobbing and I'm like, God, I'm all in and I will give the glory after every
14:49 game, win or lose right there on the 50 yard line.
14:52 And that's the way it really started was just my covenant with God right at the very beginning.
14:58 And from that moment on, I was, I was after every game taking any thanking God after every
15:03 game and it was no big deal.
15:05 Okay.
15:06 And so did you have any consternation, any like hesitation?
15:09 Cause I know some people, I remember when Tim Tebow would, you know, the tebowing thing
15:12 was a thing and he'd be on the sidelines in Florida and he'd be praying and people would
15:15 throw that scripture out there like, Oh, I should be praying by himself.
15:18 He shouldn't be making a public display of it.
15:20 But it was like, guys, he wasn't telling, you know, uh, CBS where to point their cameras,
15:25 like he just went to a place on the sideline by himself to go pray.
15:28 And you know, you decided to, to put it on national television.
15:31 But for you, was there any of that consternation for you whenever you're deciding, Hey, this
15:35 is what I'm going to do?
15:36 Yeah.
15:37 Not at the beginning, uh, when the school kind of, you know, started poo pooing it.
15:41 That's when I started questioning and people kept saying, well, why are you doing this?
15:46 And I had that real struggle because what do you do as a Christian?
15:50 I mean, I, heck, I don't know.
15:52 I don't know what the rules are.
15:54 You know, they always threw that one verse out, go praying your closet.
15:57 And man, I'm, I'm on the opposite spectrum of that and it's always give thanks to God.
16:03 And it doesn't matter where you are, you could be in church.
16:05 You could be on the 50 yard line, it could be at a restaurant.
16:09 It shouldn't matter.
16:11 I was looking at purely from an American lens and saying, it doesn't matter where
16:16 you pray.
16:17 I'm not, you know, I'm not the rule follower.
16:19 I'm just going to think gives God, thanks for whenever and wherever it's due.
16:23 Okay.
16:24 And so at some point you're not doing this alone.
16:27 At some point, people notice what you're doing and they start to join in with you.
16:30 So take, take us through that.
16:32 Like kind of, you know, what were you feeling?
16:33 What was the sense?
16:34 Like obviously, were you inviting people?
16:36 Were you telling people, Hey, come and pray with me or else you're fired?
16:39 Like what, what exactly were you doing?
16:41 Yeah.
16:42 I, it must have gone on for, I don't know, the three, six months, something like that.
16:47 Kids saw me out there after the game taking knee and I had a couple of my captains come
16:52 up and ask coach, what are you doing out there after the game?
16:55 And I said, just thanking God for what you guys did out there and for being part of it.
16:59 And they want to know if they could join.
17:01 I said, man, this is America and this is your team.
17:03 You guys could do whatever the heck you want to do.
17:06 And so they started coming out and it kind of grew and grew.
17:09 And they asked, hey, can we invite the other team because, you know, it's a small community.
17:14 These kids go to, they play pewees together and then they end up going to different high
17:18 schools.
17:19 And they said, Hey, can we invite our friends from the other team?
17:22 Yeah, your team, you guys could do whatever you want.
17:25 So yeah, nobody ever cared if they showed up or if they didn't, it was never a big deal.
17:31 Nobody even cared.
17:32 And there was times that, you know, if you lose by 60 points, obviously kids aren't wanting
17:37 to be thankful and, you know, sometimes if they win by 60 points, they're, they're so
17:42 excited that they forget about giving things to the one who made them.
17:46 So, but my thing was winter lose, job, didn't matter what the weather was, I was, I'd taken
17:52 knee in the mud and just thank God after every single game.
17:55 And as the years went on, it just did grow.
17:59 And we did have everybody on our team, well, almost everyone on our team.
18:03 And every team in our league out there praying together after, after the games in our last
18:10 season, we had everybody out there.
18:12 Okay.
18:13 So this, this went on for years.
18:15 As you said, it's kind of no big deal.
18:17 This is something that that happens all over the place all the time, but apparently someone
18:21 in a group of someone's did care about that and that was a school board.
18:24 And so at what point did you become aware that the school board was at the very least expressing
18:31 concerns over the practice?
18:34 Well, I first heard because my, my wife, she, she was the HR director for the school district.
18:41 So she heard all the buzz going on and you can imagine being in HR, you hear everything
18:46 going on and we thought it was no big deal at first because everything came from a compliment.
18:52 One of the school officials sought from another school district, saw what we were doing and
18:56 called their principal and just relayed that what we were doing was awesome with our football
19:01 program.
19:02 So everything stemmed from this and we thought we would just ride it out.
19:06 It's not a big deal.
19:07 It wasn't until the outside groups and it got it, you know, it goes viral overnight that
19:12 next thing, you know, that it's in the news and all these haters start showing up and
19:16 then the school starts getting all that pressure and that's when we knew that this was going
19:22 to just become a cluster and it, it became a mess really fast.
19:28 Okay, Joe, so I, as I understand it, and so correct me if I'm wrong, you began to, to
19:34 meet with a school board.
19:35 I think it was their request for you to meet with them and they, they wanted you to stop.
19:40 They said that this action, again, you praying after a game at the 50 yard line with where
19:45 people could just do it willy-nilly if they wanted to, that they said it was endangering
19:49 students somehow, which makes me think that the school board is full of illiterate dunces.
19:54 If that's what they believe somebody praying after a game that they safely made it through
19:59 is doing and that it's actually a dangerous thing.
20:02 But so did they request to have meetings with you and how did those meetings go?
20:06 Yeah, we met quite a bit.
20:08 The superintendent is actually a really good friend of mine and yeah, we, we, we thought
20:15 we could work it all out just being, you know, normal people and talk it out and figure out
20:22 how to, how to navigate through this.
20:24 And we went through a couple different iterations of the, where they said, you know, we'll stop
20:31 praying with the team.
20:32 So I stopped praying with the team.
20:33 I never prayed with the team after they told me to stop praying with them.
20:37 And then about a week later, the, uh, adjoining or the, the team that we were playing against
20:45 came and, and joined us.
20:47 So they didn't know what to do with that.
20:49 And they said, well, we just will eliminate the prayer altogether.
20:53 That's where I knew, um, I had to make a stand in a, I had to draw a line in the sand and
20:58 say, no, this is just crazy.
20:59 This is stupid.
21:00 You guys are talking about hypothetical things here that somebody might be offended and, you
21:06 know, this could cause a lawsuit.
21:09 And I was always straight up and honest with these guys.
21:12 And I was like, man, I guarantee I will fight for this because the rights of Americans is
21:16 more important than somebody's feelings.
21:19 And that's really what it came down to is, is, uh, they got scared.
21:24 And I said, I'm not going to live in fear, especially in this country.
21:28 And I stood up for my rights.
21:30 Yeah.
21:31 Cowardis is a disease that is infecting so many places in society and certainly bureaucrats,
21:36 uh, really utilize, uh, cowardice at a lot of times.
21:40 And so obviously you decide you're going to continue doing this.
21:42 You decide that you're going to make a stand.
21:44 And then the school board decides, well, we're just not going to renew your contract to be
21:48 a coach.
21:49 And so it's, it's essentially being fired, but people be like, oh, they just didn't
21:52 renew his contract.
21:53 It's like, what is that called dummy?
21:55 Whenever you're a contract person is that, that basically means that you're being fired.
21:58 Okay.
21:59 And so you're fired from your job.
22:01 You're no longer doing this thing that if we go back to the beginning of this conversation
22:04 that you felt like God was calling you to do, take us through that.
22:07 What did that feel like?
22:08 I was very confused that something so stupid like this.
22:13 And, you know, I mean, we all work together.
22:17 We're all, this is a small community and we can't work this out ourselves.
22:21 I, I mean, even to this day, I can't understand why, why it made such a big deal.
22:26 And when they put the stamp on there that says, do not rehire, you know, that sealed
22:31 my fate on there.
22:32 And I just, I mean, I was in shock, I couldn't believe it.
22:37 And there's certain things that are worth fighting for.
22:39 And I didn't know if this was one of them at the time, you know, what, what do you do
22:44 with this?
22:45 This is a 15 second prayer on a football field.
22:47 Is this really worth losing your job, your team, potentially my marriage, all the things
22:53 that were going on and the fight that it took our community into?
22:57 And I really struggled with it and so did the school, but I was just, I, there was something
23:04 in my spirit that said, you know, it's those little things.
23:07 I tell these guys to fight for what is right, even if it's not popular.
23:11 And now all of a sudden I'm going to give up because it's become what difficult for
23:16 me.
23:17 I mean, I would have been the biggest hypocrite in the world.
23:19 I had to stand up for what was right.
23:21 And this was obviously something so simple that that, that, you know, if I gave this
23:26 up, what's next, you know, the, if the first amendment falls, then the second and the third,
23:31 I mean, it just tumbles out of control.
23:33 And we've given up so much as the society of being, you know, backed up into corner
23:38 saying, well, that doesn't affect me.
23:39 That doesn't affect me.
23:40 Well, this affected me and it was going to affect everybody else.
23:44 And they knew that the right thing to do was just, you know, let us pray on, on the field
23:50 afterwards.
23:51 But instead of that, they wanted to live according to their fear.
23:55 And if they didn't want to stand up, well, heck, I, I sure the heck would.
23:59 And I was willing to give up everything for this so other people didn't ever have to be
24:04 put in this position.
24:05 Hey, guys.
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25:40 Well, I think it's very interesting and I've said this law on the show, but especially
25:44 with conservatives and Christian conservatives, they never find a hill that's worth dying
25:48 on.
25:49 The way Eric Metaxa says it is they're leaving powder for tomorrow's battle, but the war
25:53 might be over by then.
25:54 And so you have all these people that they never really find something.
25:57 I mean, you go back to, we started a war over taxation, which is a fraction of the taxation
26:02 that we're experiencing now.
26:03 And apparently we're all just okay with it.
26:05 So at some point, you know, you obviously, Joe, you could have just, you know, taken
26:09 it and, you know, licked your wounds or just did something else, but you obviously made
26:12 a different decision.
26:13 You decided to sue.
26:14 And so you filed suit in the United States District Court for the Western District of
26:18 Washington.
26:19 You sued to regain your job, but what was the, I guess, the scope of the lawsuit that
26:24 you filed?
26:25 Yeah.
26:26 It was really super simple.
26:27 The only thing that I asked for was for them to clarify, you know, I wanted to be reinstated
26:33 as a coach, and I wanted it to be able to exercise my rights to pray after a football
26:39 game.
26:40 It was only two asks that I had, and it was something so simple as that.
26:44 It never changed.
26:45 It never varied from that.
26:46 And from the very beginning, for the next eight years, that's all I fought for was just
26:50 my right to be able to pray after a football game, and I mean, it was the simplest thing
26:56 in the world.
26:57 That's why it was so shocking to me that it went all the way to the Supreme Court twice
27:01 over something so simple as, can you pray after a football game?
27:05 It's simple to say, and it should be simple in practice as well, but so let's talk about
27:10 a little bit of the court proceedings without turning this into a courtroom drama, but you
27:14 lost an appeal, I believe it was at the ninth circuit of appeals, and then at that point
27:20 when you lose that appeal, there's only one other place to appeal to, and that is to the
27:24 Supreme Court of the United States.
27:26 And so obviously for those that aren't aware, not every case that is taken to the Supreme
27:30 Court is accepted by the Supreme Court.
27:32 The justices do get to decide which cases they are going to accept and deliver a ruling
27:37 on which ones are going to send back to the lower courts, all that kind of stuff.
27:40 And so take us through the process of you figuring out, okay, we're not just going to
27:44 let these appeals lie, we're going to take this all the way at the top.
27:47 Yeah.
27:48 But when they said the way that the lower courts ruled was, that was terrifying to me.
27:53 And with my biggest concern is that the lower court, the court of appeals, they said that
28:00 any display of religion in the public square can be grounds for termination, that freaked
28:08 me out.
28:09 Could you imagine that if that would have stuck anything?
28:11 If you were to wear a Yamaka or a cross or, you know, you know, a cross on your ears,
28:18 you know, the lunch ladies or anything, you think about any display of religion in the
28:23 public square that can get you terminated.
28:27 So that's where we absolutely had to keep fighting and to stand up for what we were doing
28:32 and take it all the way to the end because that kind of stand.
28:36 Okay.
28:37 So you said you're going to do it, but it's another thing.
28:40 Let's just, let's just take this slowly.
28:42 You appeal to the Supreme Court and they accept your case.
28:45 I forget what that's, that's exactly called.
28:47 It's, it's, you know, escaping me right now.
28:49 But what was that like where you're like, holy crap, we're, we're taking this to the
28:53 Supreme Court.
28:54 Yeah.
28:55 And that was weird.
28:56 That was really weird that, um, because, uh, I think about six or 7,000 cases get submitted
29:02 to the Supreme Court every year and they take maybe 60 of them.
29:06 So I mean, the chances are not good whatsoever.
29:10 And, and so when they did take it, I was like, man, this is our, this is our only chance
29:16 is that this is the last line of defense.
29:19 There's nothing else after this.
29:21 So I was going to have to live with whatever they were going to rule.
29:25 But I had that, I had the faith and confidence that I was on the right side of things.
29:29 The First Amendment seems so simple and so clear to me that I, I can't believe nobody
29:33 ever eat and didn't even look at the facts of the case.
29:37 Right.
29:38 If you just look at that alone, you would sit there and say, yeah, I mean, why is, why,
29:43 why are we even fighting this fight?
29:44 Why is this even in the courts?
29:46 So I, I was confident that the, the Supreme Court was going to look at it and rule on
29:51 what the constitution says and the facts of the case.
29:55 So constitution facts of the case, that's how it should roll.
29:58 But we have some people on the United States Supreme Court that aren't justices.
30:03 They are actually, you know, advocates.
30:04 They're basically a community organizers that got jobs or like theater kids that ended up
30:08 getting jobs on the Supreme Court because we live in the dumbest time in human history.
30:12 But take us through it because most people listening to this have never had a case.
30:16 Obviously go all the way to Supreme Court.
30:17 We really know nothing about it.
30:19 We hear about it in June, the most controversial of decisions.
30:22 We hear about those and then we can fight as to whether or not we agree or disagree with
30:25 what came down and whether or not we love or hate Justice Roberts at the, at the moment.
30:29 But from your perspective, how much involvement did you have in this case, how often were,
30:35 were you there?
30:36 Uh, you know, what was it like working with the lawyers, like just take us through the
30:39 process of your case now being at the Supreme Court.
30:44 And the, the only thing I really had to, that I was part of was the depositions and being
30:50 able to tell my side of the story and listen to, um, when they deposed all the people in
30:56 the school district.
30:57 Well, I sat in the same room as they were taking their depositions, which is pretty stressful.
31:03 It kind of sucks to sit there and hear your friends tell their side of everything good
31:08 and bad.
31:09 I mean, everything is out there for the world to see and you have to have some tough conversations
31:15 during that.
31:16 Um, the rest of the time, it's so frustrating because you, you're not part of anything.
31:21 Yeah.
31:22 Uh, lawyers prep for the, for the courts and every time they're in court, they tell us
31:27 what the game plan is.
31:28 We go through everything and you tell them all the things that we want to, like what
31:33 I want to say, but I'm not allowed to talk at all.
31:36 You're not allowed to say a single thing in court.
31:39 It's not like a law and order where you see them, you know, doing all this legal stuff.
31:44 It's one guy talking and the other T or the other side telling all their stories that aren't
31:49 even true.
31:50 And nobody questions them on it.
31:52 Yes, it is the most frustrating thing in the world just to have to sit there and listen
31:56 to people talk and tell your story and you got to put your trust into the lawyers and
32:01 that's what I did.
32:02 I had great lawyers.
32:03 God knew what he was doing when, when he got our legal team and we had the guy at, especially
32:08 at the Supreme Court, Paul Command, he's done more cases at the Supreme Court than anybody
32:15 else in history.
32:16 So we had the top guy, number one lawyer in the entire world, pleading our case.
32:24 And so I was confident, but it's frustrating and it's stressful just to put all your faith
32:30 and confidence in somebody else where you have no say in whatsoever.
32:33 That's not fun at all.
32:34 I'm a very controlling individual.
32:36 So even just the description of that, I got like secondhand anxiety just hearing you talk
32:40 about that.
32:41 But let's go ahead and get to June the 27th of 2022.
32:46 This is where you get the decision.
32:48 So give us the run up to decision day.
32:52 How are you feeling?
32:53 How is the team feeling?
32:54 Are you confident?
32:55 Are you pessimistic?
32:56 You're like, what's the feeling like in the locker room and then take us to the decision
33:02 itself?
33:03 Yeah, we were very optimistic.
33:05 My lawyers, they were probably more realistic than optimistic.
33:10 I was optimistic for the simple fact of this was just, this is stupid.
33:14 I can't believe this is even being, you know, this is even here.
33:19 But realistically, they were looking at it and saying that, hey, this could, we do have
33:23 nine justices and it could go whichever way and whatever, there's no recourse after this.
33:30 And so they were confident, but they were realistic that in life that you can lose these
33:37 things.
33:38 I, on the other hand, had all the faith and trust in my lawyers and in God that he wanted
33:43 of taking me through eight years of this crap to, to just lose.
33:47 And so I was, I was very optimistic all the way through to the end and it was, it was
33:54 stressful up to that point and my biggest thing was my biggest fear was that this, if
34:00 I did lose, I was going to screw this up for everybody in America, that anybody shown any
34:05 sign of religion in the public square could be terminated.
34:08 And that would have been on my watch.
34:09 It would have been because of my case and I screwed it for everybody in the entire country.
34:14 That was my only fear and I wasn't really concerned about necessarily winning.
34:19 It was, I didn't want to lose and have this be the precedent for all times and, and have
34:26 my name on that.
34:27 So up to the, to the moment when it did come out and, and you know that, uh, uh, Dobbs came
34:35 out the week before, which was the row versus way to overturn.
34:39 So, um, ours kind of came out, under the radar, even though we have more impact at this case,
34:45 had more impact on religious freedoms than any other case in history, which is so cool.
34:51 But that was a cool thing about God in a sense of humor is that he, he knew what he was doing
34:56 and he slid it right underneath Dobbs and he kind of went under the radar.
34:59 So we have more religious freedom now in America than we've ever had in the past 50 years,
35:05 which is to me, that's freaking awesome.
35:08 And, and it was not blown up and nobody, uh, really got to fight against it or, you know,
35:15 have riots or anything like they did over Dobbs and, and, and the whole abortion thing.
35:20 Ours was just, uh, kind of underneath the radar and I, I had that sense of, man, it
35:27 was just the weight of the world is off my shoulders now because I knew I was right.
35:32 Everything I stood for was, was true and the First Amendment does mean what it, what it
35:37 says it means.
35:38 Yeah.
35:39 So by a six, three decision, uh, the lower core rulings were overturned.
35:44 You had won.
35:45 This was finally, well, it was kind of over because part of this whole thing is that you
35:49 wanted your job back.
35:50 And so this was like this big, long thing, you know, almost a decade long of your life,
35:56 like where you're going through this entire process, not just for you, before all of the
36:00 other folks, uh, that could be caught up in the same position as you've already elucidated.
36:04 But then you take your job back.
36:06 And so part of me is wondering, cause as I understand it, you take your job, your job
36:10 back, you go back and you go back for one game and then you resign.
36:14 And so was that just like, did you go?
36:18 Did you go back?
36:19 You did the one game and you realize like, man, I really don't want to do this.
36:22 I'm out of here.
36:23 Was that the plan from the beginning?
36:24 Cause part of me is like, you know, I would have told them to, Hey, take two of these
36:27 and call me in the morning and like just been like, Hey, I did this all.
36:31 I drove y'all through the mud and now we're not even going to get the payoff in the end.
36:34 Take me through the decision making process of taking your job back, doing the one game,
36:39 then resigning and leaving.
36:40 Yeah.
36:41 So I showed up in the spring, uh, when they had to reinstate me, I showed up that day
36:45 for spring ball, uh, they gave me my reinstatement letter right there at the school district office.
36:51 I showed up, um, that day and said, Hey, I'm here to, uh, be reinstated and they kind of
36:57 weren't in panic mode, not, not really believing that I was going to show back up.
37:02 And I gave me my letter.
37:03 I went down to the high school and met the head coach and I said coach, here I am.
37:08 And he says, well, this sucks is, uh, neither one of us have, uh, any say in this.
37:12 So, um, you're going to be my coach and we'll make the best that we can.
37:16 Well, the school district had other plans and they started acting like a bunch of little
37:20 kids and said, Oh, well, you don't have this qualification in.
37:23 Take this, this class.
37:25 So for the first two weeks of spring ball, I didn't even get a step on the field.
37:29 I sat there and watched from the bleachers while they did all their practices and I was
37:33 taking all my little courses on CPR and, and all the other things that I needed to get
37:39 caught up over the past eight years.
37:42 So when, when I didn't get a joint at spring ball, I said, fine, you know, we'll play these
37:47 little games.
37:48 I, I'll meet all the things and we'll try again here in the fall.
37:51 And so I showed up for the first day of fall camp, um, uh, just like this, ready to go,
37:58 uh, and had all my qualifications.
38:01 So I worked out with the team that the two days had fall camp.
38:04 I worked out with the, with the team every single day, uh, but the, the school, they,
38:10 man, I, I, I just couldn't believe the way that they, they, they acted.
38:15 They, they wouldn't let me go in to the, uh, the coach's office.
38:19 I wasn't allowed to go into the, into the locker room.
38:22 I wasn't allowed to go to the meals with the kids.
38:25 I wasn't, uh, able to meet with the parents.
38:27 I wasn't too directly talk to the team.
38:30 I could do the raw, raw thing running up and down the field, but I couldn't address the
38:34 team or individuals, um, on the team.
38:37 So they made it really just, and they took all the fun out of coaching.
38:40 And I played the little game up to that, um, up to the, the first game that we had.
38:46 And then it was like, what do I do, uh, at this point, you know, they were like, stay
38:52 the heck out of our way, don't, don't, you're not, you have no responsibilities.
38:56 Just stay out of the way of us coaches.
38:59 And it left a bad taste in my mouth.
39:01 And after that first game, I said, you know, that I have better things to do with my life
39:05 than, than be treated like this.
39:07 And that now I'm a distraction for the team and everything else.
39:11 I'm like, man, I, I'm out.
39:14 And so my wife and I, that was our first decision.
39:17 We got to make in eight years, we made that decision together.
39:21 And so we said, you know, hey, let's let the school heal, let us go heal and, and go
39:27 move on with our lives because we don't need any of this, this crap that's going on.
39:32 And so it wasn't like I just showed up for one game and left.
39:35 There was a whole bunch of stuff behind it.
39:38 And, uh, and I just thought it was best to, to be able to walk away on my own terms instead
39:43 of, uh, you know, given into the pressure of those guys.
39:47 Yeah, pettiness, uh, it's a horrible thing.
39:50 It's a horrible quantity or quality in people rather.
39:53 And so, uh, unfortunately you had to deal with a, a few heaping, you know, servings
39:57 of that.
39:58 And so at some point, you know, you and your wife, your healing, you know, you've, you've
40:03 moved on to a degree, but now your story is going to be made into a major motion picture.
40:09 And so average Joe is, is a movie that was made about your situation guys.
40:13 You can go and stream that now, uh, there will be a link in the bio where you can go
40:16 and check that out or a link in the, the show notes of this rather.
40:19 And so let's talk about that.
40:21 Like, how were you approached?
40:22 How was your, your story turned in, uh, to, you know, a script, which was going to be
40:26 turned into a movie?
40:28 What was your involvement with the film?
40:29 Let's talk about average Joe.
40:31 Yeah.
40:32 It was really weird.
40:33 I had a guy come up to me after I, um, right at the very beginning of the court case, I
40:38 was going around telling the story and getting the public aware of, of what was happening
40:43 here in America.
40:44 And somebody heard my testimony and the guy said, man, that sounds like a movie and came
40:49 up to me and said, Hey, let's make a movie of this.
40:52 And I thought the guy was on crack.
40:53 You know, I'm sending on seriously, uh, this is not, this is just my life.
40:58 This isn't, uh, movie stuff.
41:01 And but he was adamant about it and we started development of it from that moment on.
41:06 And I always took it with a half grain of salt, they sent a writer up and we, um, if,
41:11 if you've seen the movie, we sat down on the couch and it was very much like that.
41:16 Um, the writer sat there on our couch.
41:18 My wife and I, we told our story, our life stories and, um, yeah, they kind of developed
41:24 from there.
41:25 And you know, we had COVID that happened all during that time.
41:28 We had the, the writer's guild, uh, they were on strike.
41:32 So there was a whole bunch of nonsense going on in, in Hollywood, but, uh, it just came
41:38 out right at the perfect time and, um, I was, I was part of the, the writing of it.
41:44 Uh, we got to go onto the set.
41:47 We actually did a cameo in the movie.
41:50 The, I got to meet all the actors that played me and, um, my wife got to meet with them.
41:55 It was, it was, it was a trip.
41:57 It was a really cool, cool experience to, to sit down and see your life kind of unfold
42:03 in front of you out there on the screen and see how movies are made.
42:06 Okay.
42:07 So you got to see how the sausage was made there on the front end.
42:10 So let's talk about the back end.
42:11 How do you think, uh, the film turned out?
42:13 How do you like it?
42:15 I, I really liked it.
42:16 Uh, I'd like the directors cut a whole lot better because it shows all the, you know,
42:20 the deleted scenes, all the bloopers, all the real stuff.
42:24 And you know, they got to cut everything down to, to fit into a normal size movie.
42:28 Um, I, I would have had some of the more controversial things in there, but we, the, the guys that
42:34 were the ones making it, they, they, they wanted to keep it, uh, PG-13 and, uh, my life
42:41 definitely was not PG-13, but I, overall it has a 98% approval rating on rotten tomatoes.
42:48 And that was my biggest thing is that I wanted it to be good.
42:51 I didn't want it to be some cheesy, you know, religious film.
42:55 I wanted this to be real life and I wanted people to be on an emotional roller coaster
42:59 where one minute they're laughing the next minute they want a punch of wall.
43:03 Um, I, I want them to feel what it, it's like to be a real American and to, and to have
43:08 a real story where it's not, you know, rainbows and butterflies and all that kind of stuff
43:13 that it shows down and dirty of life and, and, uh, tells our story that was true.
43:19 We didn't want to be Hollywood, we wanted a true story.
43:23 And I think they did a phenomenal job of that, uh, director Harold Cronk, uh, and Eric
43:28 Close had played me.
43:29 I think they just did a fantastic job.
43:31 These dudes were just, man, we're, we're still friends.
43:34 We talk to each other about every week now still.
43:37 Okay.
43:38 Very good.
43:39 Well guys, again, you can check that out on the show notes.
43:40 I did want to, you know, shift gears away from the movie and your particular story.
43:44 Something that I've talked about a lot on this podcast is about education and education
43:47 of our children, because I have a four year old and two year old.
43:50 And so, you know, when my wife was pregnant with our first born and we had a feeling it
43:53 was going to come to term.
43:54 It's like, Oh crap, we got to figure out how to like educate this thing.
43:57 And so you start looking at all the options.
43:59 You know, my wife and I are both products of public school, but obviously when we were
44:02 in the public school system in the nineties and early 2000s, it's not like what it is
44:06 today.
44:07 Uh, you don't have some of the DEI programs.
44:09 You don't have some of the woke school curriculum.
44:11 You don't have some of this.
44:12 Hey, we're going to put the white students on one side of the class and then all the
44:15 students of color on the other side and we're going to have these kids apologize to these
44:18 kids and we'll call it social emotional learning and you know, all these types of things, right?
44:21 So we didn't have to deal with that.
44:22 We didn't have to deal with, you know, people discussing trans identity and what's your,
44:26 what is your gender feel like today and we're asking that to five year olds and kindergarten.
44:30 And so the decision that I've come to is that there really are only two viable options for
44:36 educating your children and that's vetted private Christian school and homeschool because
44:41 the public school system, even if you live in a red state and I'll tell you the story.
44:44 I've told on the, on the, on the show as well, the state of Oklahoma is as red as it gets,
44:49 right?
44:50 Every single county votes red.
44:51 I think in the general election, it was us in West Virginia where every single county
44:53 voted red and I live in one of the, the reddest parts of this red state, but not even 10 minutes
44:58 away from my house.
44:59 There's a middle school where one of my buddies had a kid that was in one of the classes in
45:03 middle schools like English or something like that.
45:05 A substitute teacher comes in and writes they slashed them on the blackboard and then turns
45:11 around to the class, introduces themselves and says, hi, I'm such and such so and so,
45:14 I'm non binary.
45:16 What questions do you have?
45:17 When their job is what page did you get into on, you know, Lord of the flies yesterday?
45:23 That's their actual job, but they go up and do that.
45:25 Now the toothpaste is out of the tube.
45:27 Their, their young kid comes home and says, Hey, dad, what's non binary?
45:30 Like our, our teacher said that.
45:32 And so obviously there are people that think, Hey, you can't vilify the entire public school
45:36 system.
45:37 There are great people that work there.
45:37 There are Christian principles or our Christian school board members or our Christian
45:41 parents that are involved.
45:42 All that may be true, but you can't, as Vodie Bakam would say, send your kids off to the
45:47 Roman schools and expect not to get back Romans.
45:50 So where have you kind of landed even because you were not just behind the scenes, you were
45:55 on the front lines of this battle for a very, very long time.
45:58 Yeah, I, I'm 100% against public school.
46:01 Now, I, I'm a product of public school.
46:04 My wife worked for 20, you know, almost 20 years at four public schools.
46:09 And we were pro public school until we did, like you said, um, when you see how the sausage
46:13 is made, it's, it's horrible teacher unions alone is enough to just turn your stomach.
46:20 But we don't teach our kids what they're supposed to learn.
46:23 They're, they're, they're trying to raise our kids instead of teaching our kids.
46:27 And I, so I've been 100% against public school ever since then.
46:32 And I'm, I'm with you, man, take your kids, put them in a private school or you're going
46:37 to teach them at home because they're not, they're only learning crap in, in schools
46:42 of what, and I have to admit, they knew what they were doing and they plan this for a long
46:47 time and, um, it was brilliant on their part.
46:51 If you want to, you want to raise Romans, send them to the school, you exactly said
46:55 it.
46:56 So I am 100% with you that public school is not in the trash now.
47:01 And unfortunately, most people don't have the funds or the resources to do the other
47:06 alternatives to that.
47:07 So a lot of kids are, are being led astray, obviously we can see where our society is
47:13 right now and where kids are, where they don't even know if they're a boy or a girl, give
47:17 me a freaking break.
47:18 If you need to, and well, parents in all of this too.
47:22 So I mean, there's enough blame to be thrown around, but parents need to pay attention
47:26 to what the heck's going on.
47:28 And men especially need to start paying attention to their kids and be involved in their lives
47:33 and know what the heck they're being taught and start teaching them how to be good men,
47:37 uh, good men and women in society instead of the school, relying on the school to do
47:43 it.
47:44 And guys, I agree with that certainly, and there are a lot of resources for people that
47:48 want to try to go the vetted private Christian route or the homeschool route because for
47:52 some people are like, I can't afford private school and for some people that is legitimate.
47:55 But like in the state of Oklahoma, I think Arizona, some other states, they have a universal
47:59 school choice.
48:00 They have these tax incentives for people that want to have their kids in private school,
48:03 where they can pay for part of it.
48:05 If they apply for it and there's things like that.
48:08 And guys, there are so many homeschool resources out there that I'm personally aware of like
48:12 for my wife and I were both entrepreneurs and so the homeschool thing wasn't really going
48:15 to work out for us and kind of like our daily life and our daily activities.
48:19 But for a lot of people, it's like, you're like, well, how can we possibly pull that off?
48:22 There are answers to that.
48:23 There are answers all over the internet.
48:25 There are there are people that you can find Christian curriculum and a lot of things that
48:28 you can do and again, it depends on what you want as a family and what you value because
48:33 a lot of people will talk about with homeschool.
48:34 It's like, look, my kids are done with their schoolwork by 10 or 11 a.m.
48:38 And then the rest of the day is, hey, they're helping out on the farm or hey, they're going
48:42 out and doing this activity or going out and doing that activity.
48:44 But some people don't necessarily value that as much because like with for my wife and I,
48:49 we learned a lot inside the classroom, but we also learned a lot outside the classroom.
48:52 We learned from being on teens and we learned from stuff we experienced in the hallways
48:57 in the bathrooms in the locker rooms, we learned from a lot of different things.
49:00 And so it's not just the education piece, it's what else are they doing with that time.
49:04 And so as parents, yes, you need to be involved.
49:06 You need to make the best decision for your kid and not just, you know, turn your brain
49:09 off and just send them off to the Roman schools.
49:12 But Joe, I really appreciate all the time that you've been with me.
49:14 I want to make this the last question of the day.
49:16 What are you doing now?
49:17 And what does the future hold for you and the rest of the Kennedy clan?
49:20 Yeah.
49:21 Well, we moved down to Pensacola, Florida to take care of my wife's dad who's not doing
49:25 well with health-wise.
49:27 And so we'll be with him for the rest of his days.
49:31 But in between then, this is going to be the big year, 2025 is our year that we're going
49:36 to make some major decisions on what we're going to do with our lives and go with whatever
49:40 God direction God's pulling us to.
49:43 We're looking at a bunch of different ministries and this is going to be the year.
49:48 It's going to be huge for us.
49:49 And we're really excited and very optimistic about what's going to happen in 2025, especially
49:55 with the new regime coming in for the presidency in the House and the Senate.
50:02 I'm optimistic for America and I want to be very much part of it and being proactive
50:07 in making this country a hell of a lot better than what it has been in the past.
50:12 Okay.
50:13 Well, Joe, I really appreciate it again.
50:14 We did it out of this.
50:15 I really appreciate you taking us along on this journey and telling us your story.
50:19 But that's all for me.
50:20 Is there anything else you want to get off your chest?
50:22 No, I appreciate it, buddy. I look forward to coming back over to see my friends in Oklahoma
50:27 and meeting with you live and doing this.
50:30 Okay.
50:31 Sounds good to me.
50:32 Let me know.
50:33 Thanks, Joe.
50:34 There you go.
50:35 Guys.
50:36 Hope you enjoyed my time with average Joe Kennedy.
50:37 But before we let you go, we are going to do a quick resilience boost and undaunted life.
50:40 Our mission is equipping men to push back darkness with content that forges spiritual
50:43 mental and physical resilience.
50:44 And here's the thing.
50:45 You guys can get your movies wherever you get your movies.
50:47 I mean, people tell me, oh, I watched this on this platform or that platform.
50:50 I don't know where all you're getting your stuff.
50:51 So I left you a link to where you can watch it on Amazon.
50:54 So if you're an Amazon person, if you support Amazon, if you like Amazon, you can watch
50:57 your average Joe there, but make sure you watch it wherever you get your movies.
51:01 Thank you for listening to this podcast.
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51:34 I'm your host, Kyle Thompson.
51:36 Remember, keep pushing back darkness, keep forging spiritual, mental, and physical resilience.
51:43 Keep seeking the lion of Judah.
51:51 [music]
Key quotes
1
Joe Kennedy
I was willing to give up everything for this so other people didn't ever have to be put in this position.
Show notes & links

In this episode, we welcome Joe Kennedy to the show. He used to be an assistant football coach at a public high school in Bremerton, Washington. After games, he would pray at the 50-yard line by himself. When some coaches and players noticed him doing that, some of them decided to join him at the 50 in prayer after the games. The members of his school board said that they were worried that it would violate the Establishment Clause of the US Constitution, and they tried to force Coach Kennedy to stop praying. He refused. The school responded by not renewing his coaching contract (essentially firing him). He, rightfully, sued the school board, and that fight made its way all the way to the Supreme Court in 2022, where the court ruled in favor of Kennedy, voting 6-3, that the government cannot suppress an individual’s expression of religious observance, and if they do so then they are violating the rights to Free Exercise and Free Speech. The 2024 major motion picture “Average Joe” was made about Coach Kennedy and his struggle for religious liberty. In this interview, we discuss all of that in detail and much more. Let’s get into it…

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