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In an Australian first, Melbourne’s MCG helped open the international American gridiron season with an audience of 100,000.

This was the first in a series of multi-year games that were announced by the National Football League (NFL) last February.

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said at the time that expanding into Australia “underlines our ambitions to become a global sport and accelerate international growth.”

Expanding the market, the NFL stated that this is part of its commitment to developing the game “year-round across the continent and across the Asia-Pacific region.”

Public Display of Christianity Draws Online Attention

The NFL formally established an Australian base in 2022 and, according to officials, has upwards of six million fans in the country.

This year’s Melbourne match saw the Los Angeles Rams lose to the San Francisco 49ers, 27 to 7.

Held on 9/11, even the Darwin-based U.S. Marines showed up on the field and in the air, flying alongside the Royal Australian Air Force in an epic traditional pre-game flyover.

Australian and U.S. military aircraft soared over the Melbourne Cricket Ground during commemorations marking 25 years since the 9/11 attacks, ahead of Australia’s first regular-season NFL game. The flyover featured Royal Australian Air Force Roulettes and U.S. Marine Corps… pic.twitter.com/r3NVg4b7Sx

— Eyewitness News (@ABC7NY) September 11, 2026

Yet, it wasn’t the flyover, heavy celebrity presence, or the NFL’s new foothold that drew attention online.

It was the unashamed public display of Christian faith carried out before a nation that now often disdains it.

Even ESPN noted the prayer. They posted it on their official TikTok page with the caption: “The 49ers and Rams took a moment to pray after their game in Australia.”

@espn (📺 Netflix)#nfl #espnsocial #49ers #Rams #prayer ♬ Boundless Worship – Josué Novais Piano Worship

Comments were mostly positive, ranging from “I’m not religious at all, but I think it’s nice,” to “Praising Him when they lose and praising Him when they win. This is amazing.”

This, another remarked, “is a moment more than football.”

Not everyone was as encouraged by Christians from the two teams kneeling to pray.

Some wrote, “it’s so performative,” and someone asked, “Why, though?”

Throwing in a bit of humour, mixed with a dose of Aussie sarcasm, at least one person quipped, “They’ll get fined for it.”

Far from performative, it’s a decades-long tradition.

Also, NFL players praying on the MCG wasn’t confined to a post-game show of solidarity with Matthew 5’s command to wish your enemies well and pray for those who persecute you.

The Catholic Archdiocese of Melbourne said Archbishop Peter A Comensoli led a group of San Francisco 49ers through a pre-game Mass.

“The Mass,” the archdiocese reported, “was organised through the team’s coaching staff and allowed players like star running back Christian McCaffrey, a Catholic, to partake in a different kind of preparation before the big game.”

Players from the Los Angeles Rams also celebrated Mass after the “team contacted the parish of St Mary’s West Melbourne in the lead-up to the match.”

According to Fr Peter Fitzsimons, “They rang and were looking for Mass to be celebrated the night before the game.”

Fitzsimons added, “It was encouraging to see the team, and the league, make prayer and pastoral support an important part of the game.”

NFL Players’ Faith Increasingly Made Public

Post-Christian Australia’s first look at Christian players putting their faith on the field isn’t an anomaly.

Former Arkansas State (Red Wolves) college footballer turned YouTuber, Brock Appiah, said it’s been happening a lot lately.

“I first witnessed this during the World Cup,” he explained.

Appiah called it “beautiful,” adding, “some of these players have really been open about their faith, praying with one another, and spreading Jesus to the entire world.”

“The same thing is [now] happening in college football.”

“It shows me that even though we live in a dark world, and there’s a lot going on right now, with Lindsay Clancy, and all these different cases, Jesus reigns supreme.”

“He always has. He always will.”

‘Big Component of What We Do’

Sport and Faith’s Jake Heasman covered the same topic, saying these “weren’t isolated moments.”

The “NFL opening week was filled with public displays of Christian faith.”

Examples included “families praying together, and before one game, Amazing Grace rang around an NFL stadium.”

Heasman also pointed out how the New York Giants’ new head coach, John Harbaugh, made his Christian faith publicly clear. He told journalists, “Faith is a big component of what we do.”

“However guys define that. For me, it’s our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, and our faith in our creator.”

Widening his coverage, Heasman added that a prayer during the Auburn-Baylor game was put up on the stadium’s monitor.

He then highlighted how almost all of the Alabama players and the Tennessee team knelt in prayer together.

Additionally, Heasman said, the Nebraska and Ohio State teams “just minutes after battling on the field came together to pray.”

The public displays of Christian faith were not without some slight controversy.

Blake Anderson, head coach for the University of Southern Mississippi, had some criticism thrown his way for wearing a Christ is King T-shirt.

He later stated he didn’t know it went viral until someone told him.

“I’m pleased that it was noticed,” Anderson said in a video shared on X. “The whole point of wearing it was for Christ to be glorified.”

Anderson expressed gratitude to his bosses for allowing him to use the platform to share his faith.

Additional support came from Franklin Graham, who dropped Revelation 19:16 on X in a caption encouraging Anderson for sharing his faith without fear of backlash.

“And He has on His robe and on His thigh a name written: KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS.” (Revelation 19:16)@CHbanderson @SouthernMissFB @christhlete https://t.co/FnNou42KYq

— Franklin Graham (@Franklin_Graham) September 7, 2026

As one person wrote when responding to ESPN platforming the prayer on their TikTok page, “We need this type of influence in Australia!!!!”

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Images via TikTok/ESPN and X/NFL AU.