“I know sports lives are the craziest lives there are. We're working all the time, but it's important with your faith to find that. It settles you down a little bit in the middle of the crazy season, in an hour in church."
Welcome to "Fields Full of Grace: The Faith at Play," casting a spotlight on the devotional practices of college and professional athletes and coaches on and off the field.
by Jay Sorgi
Many National Hockey League team employees might carry pucks, skates, or digital game plans with them on their road journeys.
Not many pack Rosaries for the trip, but Bob Kohl (above) of the Nashville Predators is one of them.
“I carry a Rosary every day, everywhere I go,” says Kohl, senior director of broadcasting for the Predators.
The Marquette University alumnus has also consecrated himself to Mary, a journey that is just a part of the Catholic faith he has truly made his own since attending Holy Apostles Catholic Church in the Milwaukee suburb of New Berlin as a kid.
Yet Kohl is just one of numerous staff members within the Bible Belt-based franchise who have formed a Catholic-friendly culture within the team, one that encourages both faithful worship and a sense of social responsibility.
Hearts of Gold
It starts at the top with Chief Executive Officer Sean Henry, who helped establish the Predators’ internal service program called Hearts of Gold.
“Every employee has to do 40 hours of community service per year, and we have to log it. It's part of our review process,” explains Kohl.
“The important thing with every sports team — and it's one of our mantras —is that it’s great that you're here to play hockey, and it's great that you're here to provide entertainment, but part of a sports team's job is to give back to the community. Sean takes it very seriously.”
Thomas Cigarran, a Villanova graduate, an owner of the Predators, and its former chairman, is also Catholic. A trip he took to Haiti also helped form the Catholic-fueled culture of service.
“He saw the poverty going on in Haiti and wanted to do something,” Kohl says. “He connected with Fr. Edwige Carré, who is now retired here in the Nashville Diocese, and we started doing this Haitian night three or four years ago, a fundraiser with a live auction. Through that amount of money that we have put together with some other sponsors, we have provided retirement living for priests in Haiti, clean water for people in Haiti.”
Faith on the road
The life of service to others becomes a prominent connection between faith and the professional sports workplace.
Practicing the faith in worship on the road, particularly when your team plays back-to-back nights in different cities on Saturdays and Sundays, isn’t always easy. But Kohl has made it a point to keep Sunday Mass a priority, even when such schedules come his way.
“I will find a Catholic church and go to church on Sunday,” he says. “I've got to know where the church is in Edmonton, the church is in Vancouver, the church is in Chicago. I just think it's important.
“You plan a Saturday night,” he continues. “You fly overnight to the next city, you land at 2 a.m. and you get to bed. I'm already kind of scrolling through the phone. ‘What are my Mass options that are within a reasonable distance of the hotel and aren't at 8 a.m. because we're landing at 2 a.m.? That can be the tricky part. But if you look hard enough, you're going to find something.”
That something has often been discovering what Kohl says are some of the most beautiful churches and Masses around, like in downtown Montreal and Toronto. Then there’s the Catholic church that had arguably the most famous wedding Canada has ever seen.
“In Edmonton, I actually went to the same church that Wayne Gretzky was married in, St. Joseph's Basilica,” he says. “It was 1988, and the biggest to-do in the history of Canada, especially marrying Janet Jones. I looked up and I was like, ‘Hey, that looks like the church I just went to!’”
On your shoulder — and wrist
Kohl says that the presence of God and Our Lady is his balance in the often unbalanced world of sports with more than 40 road games on the schedule. The Predators conclude their 2025-26 season this week with a Thursday home game against the Anaheim Ducks.
“I know sports lives are the craziest lives there are. We're working all the time, but it's important with your faith to find that. It settles you down a little bit in the middle of the crazy season, in an hour in church,” he says.
“You’re under a lot of pressure. It’s a 13-hour day, a lot of different personalities you manage. The stress gets to everybody a little bit. It centers you. It gives you energy because God's there with you on your shoulder.”
As is His Mother. “Marian consecration means giving your entire life to Mary to be your opening to Jesus,” Kohl notes. “It really makes you remember you’ve got this intermediary, and Mary loves you so much.”
Kohnl wears a bracelet chain to symbolize his consecration and Our Lady’s presence.
“My priest was like, ‘Bob, do people ask you about your chain wearing? Think about what you're doing there. You're helping spread it just by having something that brings the topic up.’ He’s right — You tell people at work and get a lot of comments.”
A reminder of a Catholic faith that never grows cold for Kohl, even working around a game played on ice.
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