Praying football coach gets job back, $1.7 million settlement

Joseph Kennedy, the Washington state high school football coach who lost his job after leading students in midfield prayers after games, will reportedly collect a $1.7 million settlement and get his job back next season.

The Bremerton school board voted unanimously last week to accept the massive settlement, which follows the U.S. Supreme Court’s split decision last June that Kennedy’s prayer groups were protected by the First Amendment, according to the Seattle Times.

Jeremy Dys, Kennedy’s attorney, told ABC News the coach will return to Bremerton — a small city of about 44,000 just across Puget Sound from Seattle — to resume his football duties.

“Mr. Kennedy will be an assistant football coach for Bremerton High School for the 2023 season,” the district said on its website, adding that it will pay his attorneys in interest-free installments over three fiscal years.

Kennedy has coached at Bremerton High School since 2008, according to the Seattle Times. He began praying alone at the 50-yard-line after games, and eventually students and players joined him.

He also began giving talks with religious references, the Seattle Times said. The public school district asked him to stop, and eventually suspended him in 2015.

His contract was not renewed, and he reportedly never reapplied for the job.

Kennedy sued the district afterward. His attorneys at the First Liberty Institute — a nonprofit conservative Christian legal organization — took the case all the way to the Supreme Court.

Kennedy said the prayers were private acts of faith, ABC News said. The school district said student involvement broke the Constitution’s prohibition on government officials promoting a religion.

The court’s six conservative justices sided with Kennedy last year, overturning several lower court decisions that sided with the district.

The school board approved the settlement March 16.