This high school coach is getting his players ready for football season… and Easter weekend.
We are coming up on the day that Christians recognize as Easter Sunday, which celebrates the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Good Friday marks the day that Jesus was crucified, and that story is told in many books of the New Testament – specifically the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. It was actually in John 19:16-17 that Jesus was described as carrying his own cross after going through a punishment known as flogging:
“Then (Pontius Pilate) delivered Him to them to be crucified. Then they took Jesus and led Him away. And He, bearing His cross, went out to a place called the Place of a Skull, which is called in Hebrew, Golgotha.”
Most biblical scholars believe that the cross Jesus carried would have weighed around 75 to 125 pounds, and that He would have bore that weight for a little over one third of a mile.
And one football coach in Mississippi decided that would be a fitting workout plan during the week leading up to Easter. Herbert Davis, the head coach of the football team at the Christian prep school called Madison-Ridgeland Academy, had his guys go through the same, physical exertion that Jesus went through on the way to his own crucifixion. You know, minus the beating and the flogging.
As you’ll see in the video below, Coach Davis had his guys pick up 100 pounds out of the weight room, then walked them around the school’s track for the distance that Jesus would have carried His own cross:
“Our guys this morning carrying 100 pounds for a half a mile trying to get them to feel a ‘SMALL’ part of what Jesus did on his way to dying for us on the cross.”
As you might imagine, that viral video has been met with two different reactions.
On one side, you’ve got people upset that a football coach would have his players doing that, not knowing that it’s a Christian prep-school’s football team. On the other, you’ve got people praising the coach’s decision to have his guys get a tiny, tiny, tiny taste of what Jesus went through just before his death. Here are some of the replies that were more positive:
Love it Coach! Keep up the good work! Molding those boys into young men. We need more role models like you in sports!
— JBT (@buckeyebudde53) April 2, 2026
Coach Davis got me so fired up today
— Leroy Keychums🦈 (@LeroyKeychums) April 2, 2026
These are the lessons that build strong men.
Good work coach.
— Cavitator.eth (@Cavitator_FL) April 2, 2026
OUTSTANDING. Putting Jesus first while also getting a pump in.
— Matt (@TheRealMattDail) April 2, 2026
Props to the police officer for also doing it. This is cool!
— Noah Smith (@noahsmitty2003) April 2, 2026
Like I mentioned earlier, this footage is quickly spreading around online. Which makes sense… considering it’s seemingly divided the internet into those who think this is a bad idea, and those who believe it’s the perfect way to get these young men thinking about Jesus.
And at the end of the day… this is Easter week at a Christian academy. Clearly the football coach is just trying to hammer home a point that these players won’t ever forget.
