JONESBORO -- Arkansas State's helmets will have a different look when the Red Wolves play Saturday at Miami.
ASU players have worn a decal on the back of their helmets during the team's first two games this season as a tribute to two former members of the program who died in the past year. The decal was in the shape of a Christian cross with the initials of their former teammates on the inside of the cross.
On the left side were the initials "MO" for defensive lineman Markel Owens, who was shot and killed during a January home invasion in his native Jackson, Tenn. On the right side were the initials "BW" for Barry Weyer, a former team manager who was killed in a car accident in June.
ASU said Wednesday that it will alter the decals for Saturday's game against Miami at Sun Life Stadium in Miami Gardens, Fla., after receiving a complaint over the weekend that the decal was in violation of federal separation of church and state laws.
The decals worn during practice Wednesday were a bit smaller after the top and bottom parts of the vertical portion of the cross were cut off. All that remains now is a horizontal white bar that contains the initials of their former teammates.
ASU Athletic Director Terry Mohajir released a statement Wednesday afternoon that said he supports the team's desires to honor their teammates, but that the decision to change the decals was done after consultation with university counsel.
"I am 100 percent in support of our coaches' and players' expression of faith, as well as their choice to honor the two individuals associated with our team who passed away by voluntarily wearing a cross decal on the back of their helmets," Mohajir said. "Unfortunately, we have received a complaint that use of the cross violates the constitutional prohibition against separation of church and state."
Later in the afternoon, Mohajir showed some displeasure about having to alter the decal when he told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette: "I don't even kind of sort of care how other organizations suggest to us how to memorialize our loved ones."
ASU players were instructed by school personnel not to comment on the decals, but Coach Blake Anderson said the issue had not been a distraction for his team, which is coming off a 34-19 loss last Saturday at Tennessee.
"Just really went about business and tried to get practice done," Anderson said. "We're going to continue to honor those guys. We think about them every day anyway. All that other stuff really doesn't affect us much at all. Doesn't have anything to do with us."
ASU first received a complaint by email during Saturday's loss to Tennessee, which was televised by the SEC Network. An email address identified as belonging to Louis Nisenbaum sent a complaint to ASU System counsel Lucinda McDaniel, saying the decal is "a clear violation of the Establishment Clause as a state endorsement of the Christian religion," according to an email released by the school Wednesday.
After reviewing the matter, McDaniel wrote to Mohajir on Monday that "persons viewing the helmets will, and have, seen the symbol as a cross and interpreted that symbol as an endorsement of the Christian religion. This violates the legal prohibition of endorsing religion."
ASU also received a letter Wednesday from the Freedom From Religion Foundation praising it for altering the decals. USA Today reported Wednesday that the foundation, a nonprofit that works to protect the constitutional principle of separation of church and state, had been looking into ASU's decals but had yet to file a formal complaint.
The letter, written by co-presidents Dan Barker and Annie Laurie Gaylor, said teams should be "welcome to honor and memorialize the loss of their teammate and manager and are able to do that as long as religious imagery is not used as part of states' publicly funded programs."
Sports on 09/11/2014