Why bother practice?

As an atheist, I find all religion to be peculiar. But especially weird to me are those players who pray to win a game. This is bizarre on several levels. For one, do they really think that god, who supposedly is responsible for everything in the world, gives a damn about their football game? Do they think he's sitting back with a beer keeping score of some rinky-dink high school competition? or even the Super Bowl. (Is that why we have disasters because he's not paying attention?) Then if you win, how can you take any pride in the victory if you think god made is possible and your athletic skills did not come into play?  And if you lose, don't you wonder why god thought so little of you that he let the other team win, or did they just pray harder? And do fans really pray for their team to win? Well according to a new survey half of American sports fans believe that god is at play in the games they watch, and 19% believe god is involved in determining who wins on the court or in the field.  I wonder of those same religious fans believe that god determines who wins at checkers.