The Pigskin and the Paschal Mystery

Keeping proper perspective on what’s most important during Super Bowl Week

U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis, Minnesota, site of Super Bowl LII
U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis, Minnesota, site of Super Bowl LII (photo: Register Files)

There are no saints without the Savior, and there are no sports heroes without those who have energized them to achieve athletic greatness. And the truly greatest athletes, I would argue, are those for whom the Suffering Servant, and also saintly loved ones, have served as tremendously inspiring role models.

I help out with the RCIA team at St. Fabian Catholic Church in Farmington Hills, Michigan. As a result, I sit with the RCIA candidates and catechumens in the front pews at the 10 a.m. Mass. On the Fourth Sunday of Ordinary Time (Jan. 28), we were blessed to welcome a new member to the parish. A baby girl was baptized, the stain of original sin removed and her soul infused with God’s grace because of the merits of Christ’s Passion, Death, Resurrection and Ascension (the Paschal Mystery [CCC 1085]). Another sacramental triumph borne from the Savior’s sacrificial sorrow.

The child and her extended family also sat at the front of the Church, opposite from us, because those pews—per normal parish protocol—had been reserved. After the baptism, and while Mass continued, I noticed a sign specifying the reserved seating. It included the child’s last name: “Cappelletti.”

If your conversant in matters football and Catholic, that name likely means something special to you, and please bear me with me momentarily if it doesn’t, as I think you’ll be edified. John Cappelletti was an acclaimed college running back who also played nine seasons in the National Football League (NFL). He is perhaps best known for winning the 1973 Heisman Trophy at Penn State, given annually to the most outstanding player in college football player, although offensive playmakers are favored in the balloting. In addition, what’s striking is not just that Cappelletti won the prestigious award, but how he achieved his greatness that year, which included three consecutive 200-yard rushing games and 17 rushing touchdowns.

A young man motivated him to make such remarkable on-field accomplishments. In receiving the Heisman at the Downtown Athletic Club in New York City, the Catholic Cappelletti thanked his coaches, fellow players and family, saving his poignant closing words for his little brother Joey, who was battling leukemia (1:29:49ff.):

The youngest member of our family, my brother Joseph, is ill. . . . He has leukemia. If I could dedicate this trophy to him, if it could buy him one day of happiness, it would all be worthwhile. People say that I’m brave. But my bravery is only in the fall, and it’s only the football field. Joey lives with pain all the time. His courage is round the clock. I want him to have this trophy. It’s more his than it is mine. Because he’s always been such an inspiration to me.

Joey Cappelletti was lesser known than his big brother John, but his valiant battle with leukemia—he would die in April 1976—pushed John to an incredible senior season, which included an undefeated record for Penn State. John was Joey’s hero, the celebrated football star. On that December evening of 1973, though, John let the world know that Joey was his paragon of what’s most important.

I asked the father of the newly baptized if he’s related to the Heisman Trophy winner Cappelletti, and, as you might suspect by now, he is. He referred me to his Uncle Bob Cappelletti, who had traveled from Connecticut to attend the baptism and is a second cousin of John’s. Their grandfathers were brothers, and John’s grandfather was separated from his family and quarantined in a sanatorium, because of tuberculosis. At that time, even under the best of conditions, almost 50 percent of people would die from TB not long after treatment began.

Yet, the Cappelletti patriarch persevered and beat the odds, establishing a family tradition of facing adversity that ultimately gave us the story of John and Joey, which was immortalized in the 1977 made-for-TV movie “Something for Joey,” and, more recently, in a Big Ten Network vignette. (The movie is regrettably no longer being distributed, although some older VHS copies are still available, and the producers have thankfully allowed the movie’s posting on YouTube.)

At the close of Heisman Trophy ceremony in December 1973, Venerable Fulton J. Sheen, well-known because of his radio and TV apostolate, provided the final words (1:32:18ff.):

Tonight, for perhaps the first time in your lives, you have heard a speech from the heart, rather than from the lips. You have heard too that triumph is made from sorrow. That John was made in part by Joseph. I was supposed to pronounce the blessing at this point. But you do not need a blessing tonight. God has blessed you, in the person of John Cappelletti.

A very timely reminder this Super Bowl week, and this year, of the great fruit that can be borne when “Faith, Family and Football” are kept in their proper order.