Country singer Bobby Bare scored a hit in 1976 with the song “Dropkick Me, Jesus.”
Dropkick me, Jesus, through the goalposts of life
End over end, neither left nor the right
Straight through the heart of them righteous uprights
Dropkick me, Jesus, through the goalposts of life
College football player and Episcopalian Emory Duggar also combines faith and football, and doesn’t mind a joke or two about the mix.
Duggar set up plenty of dropkicks as a long snapper for the University of Kansas (KU) Jayhawks from 2020 to 2024, and has since moved to Louisiana State University in his hometown of Baton Rouge.
“I wasn’t always a long snapper,” Duggar said. “I started out as a kicker, but one day in high school, our old long snapper made a bad snap, and I made a good one, and I guess the rest is history.”
What began by chance has turned into a sort of providence. “Over the years, I have really fallen in love with being a long snapper — it fits my personality really well.” Duggar noted that the long snapper, whose job is to pass the ball backward from the line of scrimmage over long distances — most often to a kicker — isn’t usually king of the campus. But his job is just as important as anyone else’s.
“A team’s long snapper is pretty incognito, under the radar,” he said. “I sort of consider it a service position. During practice, if a kicker or a punter wants a snap, it’s my job to give them what they need. Really, my job is to make other players’ jobs easier.”
Duggar says the intensity of the game can get to him. “Six inches here is the difference between a shank or field flicker,” he said. “When everything goes right, and you do really well, there is almost nothing like standing in the middle of the field, 50,000 people staring down, as proud as they could be. But if you have enough bad games, you could really come to hate yourself.” Duggar says that is when his faith comes into play.
“Salvation comes through grace, not touchdowns, we all know this,” Duggar said. “That is why my first identity is not a football player, but a Christian. It is not lost on me that I am in an incredibly privileged position; here I am still playing football when most people have to quit at 18.”
Duggar maintains that his faith enhances his playing and his life in Christ. “With my identity in Christ, it is easier to remember that football is just a game, and that I should try, more than anything, to just enjoy the play,” he said. “Also, placing my identity in Christ helps me stay humble, something important when you regularly perform in front of tens of thousands of screaming fans. … I often am reminded of Matthew 23: ‘But those who exalt themselves will be humbled.’”
Off the field, Duggar is just as invested in nurturing his faith as he is in letting it guide his mindset on the field. “Basically, having faith as a student athlete keeps you humble and hungry in an athletic sense and humble and healthy in a religious sense,” he said.
Duggar hosted a weekly team Bible study at his house during his KU years. “Sort of a KU football tradition at this point, the group gets handed down from year to year, which I think is great.” Duggar said that the main objective of the group is to allow guys to grow closer to God and disclose their interior lives. “The second goal is more important than you might think, especially in a culture where people think football players are these silent kind of guys, or who have nothing to share in the first place.”
Duggar is quick to say that faith of all sorts is an important part of life on the team. “On Friday nights we always have a devotional before the next day’s game. We also have a tradition of praying after practice — of course that can be a little awkward if you don’t know it’s your turn to pray.”
Darrell Stuckey, a former KU Jayhawk and a former safety for the San Diego Chargers, offers the team spiritual oversight. “Darrell is great member of the community — he often helps lead devotionals and is always checking in on how the Bible study is going,” Duggar said.
While playing for KU, Duggar regularly attended St. Margaret’s Episcopal Church in Lawrence, Kansas. “It all works out great because I can be at Communion at 10 and still have time to get to Sunday workouts by 11,” he said. “Prioritizing Sunday morning is also helpful because it changes what you do after games — let’s just say going to church pays spiritual and physical dividends.”
When Duggar first came to KU, he was not attending church regularly. Then he began attending a couple of nondenominational churches with teammates. “Eventually you start to miss the liturgy,” he said. “Liturgy has this way of imprinting itself on you. That’s when I started attending the Episcopal Church again.”
As Duggar grew up in Baton Rouge, he attended St. Luke’s Episcopal Church with his family. “My mom grew up Methodist and my dad Baptist,” he said. “If you didn’t already know, in the South, that means something. It wasn’t until my sister started attending an Episcopal school that we would go to the church to see her sing. Eventually we all fell in love with the church, I got confirmed, and even after moving across town, we all kept attending.”
Duggar has one message: keep the faith. “Recruiters will make playing football sound amazing, which most of the time it is, but be prepared for the lows and how you are going to confront them,” he said. “If you keep your values, you will play in a more authentic way. I wouldn’t be the player I am today without my faith. Remember, first and foremost, be yourself, be a Christian.”
