Last Tuesday evening, my wife and I settled in for our annual fall ritual: the premiere of “ Hard Knocks .” Some couples watch sitcoms. We bond over football. When Liev Schreiber’s voice kicks in, summer is slipping away, and the beer fridge is filling up.

We’ve watched for years, but this season felt different. The cameras didn’t linger on helmets crashing or coaches barking. Instead, they caught quieter moments: a player brushing off sweat, another flipping open a devotional. The message wasn’t painted in the end zone. It was lived out on the field.

End-zone paint doesn’t move people. Faith lived out in the open does.

That stands in sharp contrast to the NFL’s other big announcement : the return of slogans painted in end zones — “End Racism,” “It Takes All of Us,” and other soci

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