Michael W. Austin is a philosophy professor at Eastern Kentucky University whose areas of interest include the philosophy of religion and philosophy of sports. His books include (as editor) Football and Philosophy: Going Deep.

Jeffrey Scholes is assistant professor of religious studies in the philosophy department at the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs. He has written a number of articles about sports and religion and is co-author of Religion and Sports in American Culture.

Robert Ellis is principal of Regent’s Park College, Oxford, and a member of the faculty of theology and religion at the University of Oxford. He is the author of The Games People Play: Theology, Religion and Sport.

The Rev. Lincoln Harvey is a lecturer in systematic theology at St. Mellitus College in London and the author of A Brief Theology of Sport, which posits that “sport has everything to do with our deepest identity.”  

Olivier Bauer is an associate professor of theology and religious studies at the Universite de Montreal and the author of Hockey as Religion: The Montreal Canadiens.

Rick McDaniel is a Christian speaker, author and leader of Richmond Community Church in Richmond, Va. In September 2013, he wrote a column for Fox News challenging the idea that one cannot be a good Christian and still love football.

Harold Wells is a football coach at J.O. Johnson High School in Decatur, Ala., where he is also the pastor at Newcomb Street Church of Christ.

Atletas de Cristo, or Athletes for Christ, is a Brazil-based international organization of Christian — usually Pentecostal and evangelical — athletes. Its purpose is to “bring the Gospel to the world through the athlete.” Brazilian soccer players have been known to flout FIFA’s rules against proselytizing via clothing at games.

Sohaib N. Sultan is Muslim life coordinator and chaplain at Princeton University. In July 2014, as part of a series of Ramadan reflections for Time, he wrote about why Muslims should avoid food waste.