Does God pick sides in sports matches?

Wolfe Reports has an interesting item that presupposes an answer to a question not asked: what is it that makes US sports teams in need of Christian guidance?

USA Today's Tom Krattenmaker considered the question in a column back during the football season, when  Tim Tebow was painting his face with Bible verses, and on the radio program, Only A Game:

Having researched and thought about Christianity in sports for the better part of a decade, I am impressed by the good that's done by sports-world Christians. Jesus-professing athletes are among the best citizens in their sector, and they commit good deeds daily in communities across this country.

These sports stars, like all Americans, have a right to express their faith.

Evangelical players and ministry representatives in sports aren't out to harm anyone, of course. On the contrary, they see themselves as fulfilling the Bible's Great Commission ("Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit," Matthew 28:19). In this sense, their mission is pure altruism: They seek to share the gift of eternal life.

But there's a shadow side to this. If their take on God and truth and life is the only right one — which their creed boldly states — everyone else is wrong.

Not a mere abstraction, this exclusiveness sometimes morphs into a form of chauvinism and mistreatment of non-Christians. Witness the incident with the Washington Nationals baseball team in 2005, when the Christian chaplain was exposed as teaching that Jews go to hell. Then there was the New Mexico state football team, which was the target of a religious discrimination lawsuit in 2006 after two Muslim players reported being labeled "troublemakers" and were kicked off the team by their devoutly Christian coach. The case was settled out of court and the students transferred.

William J. Baker's also written a book on the alignment of commercial and conservative Christian interests.

As a review of Krattenmaker's book asked,  why assume that athletes can't be expected to behave well without religious instruction? And why does the evangelical movement focus on only the major market sports- football and basketball? Does the Yale crew have a  chaplain?