BREMERTON, Wash. — The man who was fired after holding prayers with players after football games and successfully pleaded his case to the U.S. Supreme Court returned to a Bremerton High School football field for the first time Wednesday evening.
"It’s really crazy because this is a brand new team," Joe Kennedy said to KING 5. "These kids were in grade school when this story popped up. It’s all new coaches so everything changes. Offense, defense, special teams everything is changing. I'm just like the freshman coming in, I've got to learn all the plays just like them."
Kennedy was an assistant football coach at Bremerton who was fired in 2015 for praying with players on the field after the district told him to stop.
Kennedy sued the school district over the firing. The case reached the U.S. Supreme Court which ruled in his favor last year that his prayers were protected under the First Amendment.
“The Constitution and the best of our traditions counsel mutual respect and tolerance, not censorship and suppression, for religious and nonreligious views alike,” wrote Justice Neil Gorsuch for the majority.
"I wish I could say it was easy, looking back it’s been a hard road with many heartbreaking years, but it’s great that it’s finally worked out," Kennedy said. "It’s been tough. Everyone that’s been supporting me and praying for me across the United States, that was millions of people. That’s what kept me going and kept me in this fight."
The case forced the justices to wrestle with how to balance the religious and free speech rights of teachers and coaches with the rights of students not to feel pressured into participating in religious practices.
"The Bremerton School District will fully comply with the court’s order to treat Mr. Kennedy’s personal religious conduct the same way the district treats all other personal conduct by coaches at football games," the district said in a release last week. "The District remains steadfast in its commitment to respecting the rights and religious freedom of students, families, and school staff, and to keeping football games, and all school events, safe for the students we serve."
First Liberty Institute, which helped represent Kennedy in his legal case, released a video on social media earlier this week that appears to show Kennedy encouraging people to pray with him on the night of Bremerton's first football game as part of the "First Freedom Challenge."
Bremerton's first football game of the 2023 season is scheduled for Sep. 1 at home against Mount Douglas Secondary School of Victoria, British Columbia.
"I’m just taking it one day at a time and this coming game is my goal and the only thing I’ve been looking forward to is getting back on the field," Kennedy said.