Author and priest Randall Balmer: ‘Sport has eclipsed religion as the US pastime’

In his new book, the scholar examines how religion shaped the history of major sports in North America

Does the penalty box have religious connotations? Randall Balmer leans in that direction. A scholar of religion at Dartmouth College, he's intrigued by the origins of the so-called sin bin.

Ice hockey emerged in late 19th-century Canada, influenced by the indigenous sport of lacrosse. As the game became popular among Catholics in Canada in the 1930s, it started to incorporate the penalty box, where players received a sort of absolution through separation. Balmer explores this connection in his new book, Passion Plays: How Religion Shaped Sports in North America, which was published late last year.