Praying High School Football Coach Who Fought For His Job All The Way To Supreme Court Set For Return To Sidelines

Football coach Joseph Kennedy — who lost his job in 2015 for praying on the field — returns to the sidelines on Friday night.

Kennedy, a coach at Washington's Bremerton High School, lost his job after the repeated on-field displays of faith.

However, he continued to fight the decision in court and did so to the United States Supreme Court.

Earlier this year, the Supreme Court ruled in his favor. He was awarded a $1.7 million settlement and got his job back to boot.

The court ruled that Kennedy's right to express his faith was protected by the Constitution. According to the Associated Press, following the decision, Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote that “the best of our traditions counsel mutual respect and tolerance, not censorship and suppression, for religious and nonreligious views alike.”

Coach Kennedy Expressed Thanks For The First Amendment

Kennedy expressed his happiness for the First Amendment's protections during an appearance on Fox News' The Ingraham Angle.

"It's going to feel really great just to be able to know that the First Amendment and free speech and freedom of religion is alive and well for all Americans," Kennedy said.

"Like you said earlier, politics is not going to be the one to save us. God's got to save us. We've got to save ourselves. We've got to get off our butts, and it's just going to show everybody that's prayed, we've won. We won this together." 

However, Friday's last may be Kennedy's last at Bremerton seeing as he and his wife now live in Florida.

Still, Kennedy is relishing the opportunity to be an inspiration.

"I challenge everybody to take on God," he said. "Just try Him out. Prove me wrong and you'll see what miracles He could do in your lives. If an Average Joe like me could do it, imagine what everybody else could do in America."

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Matt is a University of Central Florida graduate and a long-suffering Philadelphia Flyers fan living in Orlando, Florida. He can usually be heard playing guitar, shoe-horning obscure quotes from The Simpsons into conversations, or giving dissertations to captive audiences on why Iron Maiden is the greatest band of all time.