Chiefs safety Husain Abdullah proud to wear his faith on his sleeve

In profound ways, Chiefs safety Husain Abdullah had long since demonstrated the fidelity of his Muslim faith.

At age 27, around the summit of his NFL potential and opportunity for a future financial windfall, Abdullah felt compelled to abandon the sport for a year.

Along with his brother, Hamza, then a safety for the Arizona Cardinals, Abdullah’s time away revolved around taking their parents on a pilgrimage to Mecca.

This was risky … if the NFL was his priority.

The courage of his convictions made that a secondary consideration.

Then, this summer, he went to grueling lengths to show that these worlds can mesh.

As superbly told by The Star’s Sam Mellinger in August, Abdullah navigated Chiefs training camp while observing the tenets of Ramadan, including not eating or drinking from sunrise to sunset.

But Abdullah never had a more high-profile moment to display his beliefs, and how they fit in the NFL, than he did on Monday night against the New England Patriots.

That’s when he punctuated his 39-yard interception return for a touchdown by sliding on his knees into the back of the end zone as he began to “prostrate before God,” as he put it.

What happened next ignited emotions that invited dialogue — and diatribes in many directions.

Abdullah was penalized 15 yards for unsportsmanlike conduct essentially for honoring his religion.

Religion and sports have long operated at a complicated intersection. Each unto itself can incite great emotion, of course, and fused together they make for a caldron.

See: Tim Tebow and his kneeling, praying touchdown celebrations to honor his Christian faith.

So the flag for Abdullah’s moment had the stamp of bigotry and double-standard.

That made for a tizzy, with potentially plenty more to come.

By game’s end, his agent, C.J. Laboy, already had tweeted, “If the NFL tries to fine @Habdullah39 for his TD celebration there’s going to be some problems.”

The NFL, of course, already has plenty of problems, and this was another reminder of its obsession with the petty while fiddling on major issues such as domestic violence.

A day later, the NFL doused some of the heat of the controversy when spokesman Michael Signora said in a statement that “the officiating mechanic in this situation is not to flag a player who goes to the ground as part of religious expression, and as a result, there should have been no penalty on the play.”

But no one did more to disarm the brewing mess than Abdullah and, albeit to a lesser degree, Chiefs coach Andy Reid.

After the game, Abdullah was a model of grace.

He had ample cause to gripe and, thus, further stoke conflict, so much so that you couldn’t have said he’d have been wrong to squawk.

Instead, Abdullah generously absorbed some blame and offered good-humored perspective.

It was the slide, he said, that must have drawn the penalty — not dropping to pray.

“I don’t think it was because of the actual prostration before God,” said Abdullah, who smiled and said in the future he will, “Come to a full stop. Get down. Make the prostration. Get up. Get out.”

The response was one of strength and leadership that transcends anything he might do on the field.

Reid, who converted to Mormonism when he was a student at Brigham Young, helped by speaking up some, too.

Reid is a thoughtful man who, alas, in his role as an NFL head coach has chosen the tack of seldom sharing much.

But his brief words on Abdullah made for a meaningful acknowledgment of the issue on Monday.

"When you go to Mecca, you should be able to slide wherever you want," Reid said after the game. "We've got two priests in here. They'd probably vouch for me."

And vouch for this now:

Amid a mistake or misunderstanding that may or may not have reflected bias, Abdullah extended the benefit of the doubt and set an example of tolerance anyone could follow no matter what your religion.

“I appreciate the overwhelming love and support flowing from all over the world. #Peace,” he wrote Tuesday on Twitter.

This story was originally published October 2, 2014 at 4:39 PM with the headline "Chiefs safety Husain Abdullah proud to wear his faith on his sleeve."