Each time an athlete, like Charlie Ward, starts espousing his moral beliefs, fans reach for the mute button. I can't always blame them. When someone like Ward, wrapped in the cloak of Christian faith, proceeds to condemn all who don't share his beliefs, I get upset too.

But there's more to this holy athlete thing. Seems like the average sports fan looks at someone like Grant Hill or Jamal Anderson and says: "He's better looking than me, more articulate than I am, makes more money than I'll ever see in my lifetime, and has beautiful women that I'd have no chance with. But since he puts his body on the line to entertain me, I won't hate him too much." Underneath all that, I think the sports fan finds secret comfort in one belief:

"I'll bet I'm a better person than those guys are."

But when an athlete not only talks about God, but has a clean reputation, free of pending paternity suits and arrest warrants, that comfortable fan morphs into a jealous hater.

Athletes in lower-profile sports, often competing for national pride as well as loot, get a little more leeway on the topic of religion. Someone like Gail Devers, a three-time Olympic gold medalist, can talk about her faith without repercussion. She knows that any athlete, while standing on the top podium, wrapped in an American flag after kicking lots of non-American butt, can damn near take communion if she wants to.

Devers thinks fans have a different perspective on sports like football or boxing. "When people hear about those guys getting into trouble, they think it's the norm, " she says. "It's like they expect football players to be brutes." She's right.

I think a violent personality like Lawrence Phillips fits a certain image people actually like to see in athletes. What do you want to hear? That Phillips has turned his life around and found God (boring), or that he's been arrested again (that guy is such a savage)?

Fans ought to keep in mind that, whether they like it or not, spirituality can be an essential element of an athlete's personality. But as Charlie Ward ought to know by now, when wielded carelessly it becomes a weapon.

Alan Grant, a former NFL defensive back, writes football for ESPN The Magazine. E-mail him at alan.grant@espnmag.com.