Like most young boys envisaging a sports career, Luke Willson fantasized about lifting the championship trophy or making the dramatic clutch play. The down moments of the elite athlete rollercoaster were not included in those daydreams.

FAIRHOPE, Ala. -- After 17 seasons in the NFL, quarterback Philip Rivers will begin his next career as head football coach at St. Michael Catholic High School in Fairhope in the Mobile, Ala., archdiocese.

Resilience and acceptance defined Seattle Seahawks’ tight end Luke Willson’s 2020 NFL campaign.

VATICAN CITY – It may not have been his kind of "football," and he may not have much use for his new helmet, but Pope Francis welcomed a group of NFL veterans and told them their sport has "virtues."

VATICAN CITY – Former NFL quarterback Jim Harbaugh, now head coach for the University of Michigan football team, is also a Roman Catholic – and he said Wednesday that faith plays a major role in his life.

Jason Brown was making millions of dollars playing in the NFL when he suddenly quit last winter to answer a call to feed the poor. 

Ten years ago, a friend took his then eight-year-old son to Buffalo to see their favourite football team, the St. Louis Rams, play the Bills. Both father and son are diehard Rams fans and the son wore a Rams jersey to the game. 

Coaching siblings meet for NFL supremacy

INDIANAPOLIS - A historic Indianapolis church is in the centre of festivities surrounding the Feb. 5 Super Bowl XLVI at Lucas Oil Stadium.

St. John the Evangelist parish, founded 175 years ago when Indianapolis was a small town on the edge of the American frontier, is the middle of the Super Bowl Village hosting many events at the Indiana Convention Centre across the street from the church and on streets surrounding it.

Super Bowl Sunday marks the end of the football season and a look back at the year that was. On the field it was the year of the quarterback, with Drew Brees, Tom Brady, Matthew Stafford, Eli Manning and Aaron Rodgers all putting up eye-popping numbers. Off the field, the chatter was about one quarterback, Tim Tebow of the Denver Broncos.

His improbable story was captivating enough, coming off the bench in mid-season to lead his team to the playoffs with one last-minute victory after another. It was his Christian faith, though, that sparked an international discussion about whether faith had a place in sports, whether God was on Tebow’s side or whether Tebow thought God was on his side, or whether in fact God thought He ought to be on Tebow’s side.

ALTOONA, Pa. - Although Joe Paterno will be remembered as "a legend throughout our region and throughout our country," Bishop Mark  Bartchak said the iconic football coach will be best remembered in the diocese of Altoona-Johnstown as "a good Catholic, a family man and a friend to many."

Bartchak made his comments Jan. 22 at a news conference at the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament in Altoona, prior to a prayer service celebrating Respect for Life.

WASHINGTON - Picking up from efforts to stem sex trafficking at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, 11 women's religious orders from Indiana and Michigan are working to stop sex trafficking at this year's Super Bowl.

The orders are members of the Coalition for Corporate Responsibility for Indiana and Michigan, established in the early 1990s. The coalition is a member of the Interfaith Center for Corporate Responsibility, which spearheaded the anti-sex trafficking efforts two years ago in South Africa.

The nuns aren't always the biggest football fans, but they've picked up some of the terminology.