Steve Almond is the author of Against Football: One Fan’s Reluctant Manifesto, in which he describes how he decided to give up watching NFL games because of growing concern about brain injury among players. He lives in Boston.

Spirituality and Sports is a program of the Office of Religious Life at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. It focuses on the spiritual aspects of competition and athletics through speakers and special events. Shawn Sorenson is its director.

Lee M. DelleMonache is director of the Neumann University Institute for Sport, Spirituality and Character Development at Neumann University in Aston, Pa.

The Neumann University Institute for Sport, Spirituality and Character Development focuses on the role religion can play in the development of the athlete. It hosts sporting events, conferences and other special events on the subject. Neumann is a Catholic university in Aston, Pa. Lee M. DelleMonache is the institute’s director.

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.

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.

Phillip Larsen is a Christian and a writer based in Yukon, Okla. In October 2013, he wrote an essay for Ethics Daily that questioned holding up as heroes football players who misbehave off the field.

Rachel Allison is an assistant profession in the department of sociology at Mississippi State University. She is the coordinator of a session called  “Soccer and the Politics of Inequality,” which will look at the social and racial issues raised by professional soccer and the FIFA World Cup, at the 2014 conference of the North American […]