Word of his momentous decision got back to his father, athletic director at a parochial school that McCann attended. "One day, my father pulled me aside in the hall and said, very sternly, "'Patrick, are you telling your friends you're an atheist? I was a little scared at first speak, but then I just blurted it out. 'Yes,' I said. 'I am.'" "Well, do me a favor?" he remembers his father asking. "Keep it to yourself."