“Take me out of this ballgame”

http://pres-outlook.org/2007/01/take-me-out-of-this-ballgame

Why is America so sports crazy? Why am I so sports crazy?

My eligibility to play on college athletic teams expired thirty years ago. I now have children older than the young men and women who are vying for national championships. Yet my interest in the outcome of those games — and, at times, my irrational responses to what I am seeing on the court and on the field — seem to be accelerating.

Why do millions of people experience happier days when their teams win, but feel sick to their stomachs after losses? Domestic abuse typically rises in metro areas whenever the local franchise chalks up an “L.” Sports stars aren’t only performers. They are “heroes.” The average annual salary for Major League Baseball players is greater than the lifetime earnings of tens of millions of American workers. Has our national sports fixation become a form of mental illness? ESPN advertises its NFL broadcasts with this slogan: “When you love it this much, nothing else matters.”  For the diehard sports fan no alternative view is imaginable.

Unquestionably the socializing that is frequently associated with spectator sports can be a welcome antidote to relational isolation. Fascination with athletic competition keeps a lot of people talking around the water cooler. Whole communities come together to experience The Big Game. Apart from sports some family members would struggle to find common ground. Think of that poignant scene from City Slickers in which Daniel Stern’s middle-aged character reflects that when he and his dad couldn’t find anything to talk about, they could always talk about baseball. Three cheers for the myriad ways that sports bring people together.

Other associations with seasonal games aren’t nearly so redemptive. It’s hard to overlook the symbiosis of major sports with gambling, alcohol, sexual images, and violence.

Theories abound concerning the rise of Sports Nation. Perhaps sports are a form of representative combat. Hating the Yankees is a safe and socially acceptable way of thumbing our noses at the Big Apple for its bigger-than-life arrogance. Others suggest that sports-crazed people (men, in particular) become ravenous fans because their own lives seem so dull and lifeless. Their personal dreams are stillborn. Vicarious success is just a televised touchdown pass or grand slam away.

As a pastor I am convinced that our church’s “competition” is not the Lutherans, the Methodists or that independent mega-church that’s mushrooming down the street. Would-be disciples of Jesus are torn between attending worship or supporting their kids’ 11:00 a.m. Sunday soccer league. The population thins in our sanctuary every time the local NFL franchise, the Indianapolis Colts, take the field at midday Sunday. (To be fair, our pastoral counseling opportunities soar every January when the Colts flame out in the playoffs.)

But the real effect of sports-as-life-itself cannot be documented as easily as attendance figures. We live in a culture of distraction. Our fascination with Hollywood, escapist vacations, political scandals, and the trivial details of the lives of celebrities — do Brad and Angelina truly love each other? — is symptomatic of the fact that many of those in our pews are not even acquainted with life’s great questions.

Addiction to sports can be a serious challenge to spiritual formation — that lifelong endeavor that requires relentless seeking of God’s kingdom through such disciplines as silence, solitude, and study. Manic attention to spectator events steals irreplaceable time from marriages, friendships and parenting. Today’s average couple works one thousand more hours per year than in 1975. Do we really want to turn on the TV as constant background noise when we finally find time to be with each other? Is it normal for dads to know more about the struggles of their fantasy players than the stresses faced by their own kids?

OK, I’m convicted. My name is Glenn. I am an addict. I watch too many hours of SportsCenter. I shouldn’t know (or care) about Chad Pennington’s double rotator cuff surgery. The beauty of autumn days should not be compromised because my favorite team may blow the World Series. With God’s help I will spend fewer hours in front of the TV and more time attending to the precious people in my home. As a pastor I will not dodge the issue of sports addiction as a major spiritual compromise for many of my members. God deserves my attention above all.

After all, when God loves us this much, nothing else matters.

Glenn McDonald is pastor of Zionsville Church, Zionsville, Ind.

Where Does Your Hope Come From?

On April 28-30, the NFL held its annual draft of college football players, and each team chose about 7 players each - fresh, young players.  Almost immediately afterwards, each team sign about 20 more undrafted players.  So every NFL team has restocked its roster with dozens of new, young players.  Thus every team believes they’re going to be better than last year.  Yes, this is the season when hope is renewed for every NFL team. 

Hope is an abstract thing that affects almost every aspect of one’s life.  It affects how one thinks or feels, how one sees oneself.  It affects how one relates to others.  You can just sense, when listening to another person, whether that person is hopeful or not.  One’s level of hope affects how much one accomplishes. 

In Isaiah’s time, the chosen people of Israel were feeling like they were no longer chosen, as if God had lost track of them; a few even dared to say that God no longer cared about them.  As Isaiah 40:27 says, “Why do you complain, Jacob? Why do you say, Israel,
My way is hidden from the Lord; my cause is disregarded by my God”?

God Himself says it best in the 4 verses that follow, Do you not know?  Have you not heard?
The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom.
   He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak.
   Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall;
   but those who hope in the Lord, will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;

 they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.

Did you catch that line in bold?  Did you notice where Isaiah’s hope came from?  Isaiah’s hope didn’t come from believing in himself, or following a self-help book, or from his wonderful friends.  No, his hope, the hope that renewed his strength, came from the LORD – the everlasting Creator of the world, the God who doesn’t get tired or weary, and his wisdom cannot be understood by any mere mortal.  Are you actively trusting in that God?

A few verses later, Isaiah wrote, So do not fear, for I am with you;
    do not be dismayed, for I am your God.
I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. (41:10)

If you aren’t listening to the God of Isaiah, why not start seeking Him today?  If you’re troubled or afraid, turn to the eternal Creator of the world.  If you’re weak or weary or discouraged, why not put your hope in the Lord who promises to renew your strength?  He will uphold you with his holy, right hand, and help you.

Tom Brady's Secret Weapon in the Super Bowl

By Thomas George on Feb 3, 2015

 

 

PHOENIX - "I didn't even think about it," Tom Brady said as he walked toward an elevator after his Super Bowl news conference on Monday morning. He held in both hands a shiny trunk that stored his silver, football-shaped MVP trophy. He was surrounded by security, yet comfortable, at peace. He looked tired. He looked relieved. He looked patient.

And that was the question: just how much patience it took in this Super Bowl 49 victory over the Seattle Seahawks for him to be content with a night of dinks and dunks and darts. The New England Patriots correctly discerned they could not block the Seahawks for long; that quick, timing passes were the formula. Brady kept picking, plucking. None of his Super Bowl record-setting 37 completions was for more than 23 yards.

This requires extreme patience for any quarterback. Their instincts are often to chuck it long. It demanded an extra dose of patience for Brady, whose long completions in each of his last six seasons were for yardage gains of 69, 81, 83, 99, 79 and 81. Each of those was for touchdowns, too.

So, I'm not buying that Brady "didn't even think about it" when considering a Patriots Super Bowl offensive design that took a dump-truck approach rather than a race-car one. Somewhere in the game plan creation, installation, practices and through four quarters of championship play, Brady had to keep pinching himself, reminding himself of the art of patience. To staying the course and sticking with the plan.

Consider that Brady averaged 6.6 yards gained per pass attempt in the Super Bowl. And that Seattle quarterback Russell Wilson averaged 11.8.

Brady's patience won. Seattle's lack of it, especially in the end, lost.

Now Brady is a four-time Super Bowl winner and three-time Super Bowl MVP and resides in rarified football air. But there is a DeflateGate investigation ongoing.  Was Brady involved in the AFC Championship deflated football controversy?

Brady must patiently wait for that answer to be revealed in the investigation's results. Some people think he already knows. That his fingerprints are all over it.

Brady found a way to navigate through this ruckus, patiently, while preparing for and then rising in the Super Bowl. This is an odd NFL moment. A player just received two of the richest honors the game offers -- a Super Bowl championship and the game's MVP. Yet, the threat looms that soon he could be punished and his team fined for cheating.

This is like hopping on a roller-coaster ride at the end and riding backward.

This trashes that popular notion of "it's not the destination, it's the journey." Heck no, Tom Brady just won it all. This, for now, is all about the destination. Mission accomplished. He will live fully in this moment. For now, it is the safest place.

With patience, he will deal with any potential later fallout, with another trophy by his side and with another ring on his finger.

Ahead by 10 points in the fourth quarter, the Seattle offense kept giving the ball back to Brady, unable to convert third downs and maintain possession and keep him off the field. It is always a dangerous track for a team when Brady has the ball in the fourth quarter with something to prove.

Brady reminded everyone of that once again. So did Patriots head coach Bill Belichick. He said he has never coached a fiercer competitor than Brady.

"It's a game of emotion," said Brady, referring to cornerback Malcolm Butler's game-clinching interception. "It happened so quickly. It was, obviously, as emotional a game can be at that point."

It's a game of patience.

There is no hurry-up-and-wait now in Tom Brady. He will just patiently wait. He will savor the arrival at this latest destination. Then dink, dunk and dart his way through.

Coped from http://www.sbnation.com/nfl/2015/2/3/7969325/new-england-patriots-super-bowl-champs-tom-brady-mvp-deflategate 

Patience is a fruit of the Holy Spirit.  Those who actively trust in God and his Spirit will have patience.   God, in his wisdom, has shown so much patience with his people, in waiting for his people to turn from our sins, to Christ and his Spirit.  If you want patience, turn to Christ and trust in His Spirit to flow to you and through you to others!

What sports should — and should not — be about - Q &As w/ Marcia Shoop

A conversation the Outlook’s Leslie Scanlon had with theologian Marcia Mount Shoop, a Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) minister & author of “Touchdowns for Jesus & Other Signs of Apocalypse: Lifting the Veil on Big-Time Sports.” Shoop’s husband, John Shoop, is offensive coordinator & QBs coach for the Purdue Univ football team.  

Shoop earned a doctorate in religious studies from Emory Univ.

Q: Why did you choose sports and football as a topic?
A:   “It’s because of the peculiar position I find myself in in my life – I’m a trained theologian and actually a theologian with a pretty good amount of feminist training also, and I’m married to a professional football coach, one of the most male-dominated and some would say misogynistic things there is in our culture. Also I was a former competitive athlete myself … . But really, tipping point for me and my husband was what we went through at the University of North Carolina, when the NCAA investigated the football program (and John Shoop was an assistant coach). What we saw there and what we experienced there created a moral imperative for me.”

Q: For those who are not familiar with what happened at UNC, can you give us a nutshell version of what happened?
A “In many ways it’s pretty typical of how the NCAA operates. There was potential infraction. They found out that one of the football players had attended a party that was hosted by an agent.” That triggered an NCAA investigation which ultimately involved more than a dozen players, all of whom were black, and focused on academic fraud and improper benefits paid by agents to players. Both players who were found to have violated NCAA rules and some who did not got caught up in the scandal.

 

 

Q: Your family got to be close to some of these players. What is it like for these young men to go to college and to play football?
A: “I think it’s a lot different from what people assume. People assume in general that when a young man goes to a Division 1 school to play football or basketball, that it’s really glamorous, and they get a lot of special treatment, and they get whatever they want, that they’re treated like kings. That’s really not accurate. They do get a lot. They get an education, they get their gear for football, they have meals provided. But underneath the surface there’s some pretty pronounced problems. A lot of them have to do with the way institutions and the NCAA regulate things like benefits. In an effort to limit what kind of special treatment students can get from alumni who are big boosters or from agents and things like that, the NCAA and their member institutions have created situations where, for instance, students are given a per diem for food when the cafeteria is not open, or there’s not a training table for them to eat at. In some case that per diem is not enough to cover three meals a day … . We’ve known players who have literally gone a few days without eating. We had one player from North Carolina pass out one day in the training room because he hadn’t eaten in a few days. He had sent his per diem home to help his family … . We’ve had parents ask John during the recruiting process if there’s a way we could help their son get a coat. He doesn’t have a coat. Those are all things where our hands are tied. We are not allowed to buy groceries for the students, we are not allowed to buy them a coat. All of those things are very tightly regulated, which creates situations where these regulations conspire against close supportive relationships – the relationships you want to have with people you care about, and who have a need. … When John recruits players, he makes a lot of promises to those families that we will look out for their son, that he’s going to be part of a big family here. And when the NCAA investigation happened at UNC and all the coaches got fired, we really felt like those promises that we had both made to several families, that we weren’t going to be able to keep those promises. One player in particular told us just a few years ago UNC ‘was the best thing that ever happened to me. Now it’s the worst thing that ever happened to me.’ That’s heartbreaking.”
People assume that a Division 1 football player will go on to play in the NFL, “that he doesn’t care about school, or if he does, it’s secondary to getting into the NFL … . Only 2 percent of Division 1 athletes play in the NFL.” But the eligibility requirements “create conditions that are ripe for a lot of these young men to not get the education they deserve — because the goal is to keep them eligible, not necessarily to keep them in classes that they really care about, or studying things that they’re really passionate about or that will lead to a job someday. The top priority is to keep them eligible.”

Q: What would you say about the intensity that so many Americans have for sports?
A: “That really is the core question of my book. Why do we care so much about this? Because if we didn’t, it wouldn’t be so much of a money machine, and all of these things wouldn’t be happening … . My argument in the book is that sports touches such a core space in us because it creates these spaces where we get to play with some of the deepest questions of what it means to be human. We get to play with our belief, our hope, that redemption is real … . In American culture, when we’re passionate about something, that’s where the money goes. And where the money goes, so goes power and so goes corruption. And so go a lot of other pretty tenacious distortions that we take with us into these places where the stakes are so high.”

Q: What impact does it have that the dominant sports are male sports, and that some are played in a culture of aggression and violence?
A: “I explore these questions in my chapter called `Man Up,’ where I look at what kind of concepts of masculinity and femininity and gender in general do big time sports depend on. Does the sport of football really require these kind of caricatures of masculinity and femininity for it to thrive? … We’re seeing some pushback against football now. Some things are coming to the surface about its violence and about some of the really harmful ways that masculinity is performed in football that is not just diminishing for women but is diminishing for men too. So these are some the questions that are really challenging football to really figure out who it is. And if it doesn’t do it, if it just kind of digs in its heels, I wouldn’t be surprised if it kind of really peters out in its popularity. Because more and more people don’t want their kids to play football. More and more, people are asking questions about things like concussions and all these other things … . There are real examples all over the place of players starting to ask questions, and that is all to the good.”
Q: Many college communities are having conversations about sexual violence against women. What role do you see athletics playing in that?
A: “Because athletics is a money machine, they care about public perception. With the Title IX and Department of Education investigations of over 50 institutions of higher learning around sexual violence, and even the NFL case where the punishment for a clear situation of domestic (violence) was tepid at best, for good or for ill, public perception is what’s going to turn that ship around. Now again, the problem becomes in very male-dominated enclaves like football, how you ask the questions and how you address the issues is very important. Because it can’t just be about appeasing the media. If you really do want to deal with a rape culture, if you really do want to interrupt the patterns of violence against women … , there has to be real concerted attention all around to what it looks like to share power and to be in different power relationships with women. And if women are nowhere to be found in the institutions that are doing this work or don’t have positions of power, then I’m worried about how we’re really going to do that work.”

Q: What role do you see the church and people of faith playing in all of this?
A: “I went into this whole thing thinking, ‘oh there are sort of caricatured versions of faith and Christianity that pop up all over the world of big-time sports. I’m not so sure that’s a good thing. How do religion and sports go together?’ But I think I really have come out after writing the book in a very different place, where I feel Christianity hasn’t taken up enough space in the world of big-time sports. By that I mean we have not brought our Christian values to bear on the world of big time sports. We haven’t been troubled enough by things like racialized injustice or sexism or abuses of power or even just pure unadulterated physical abuse and verbal abuse to minors in some cases at the hands of people in authority … . I don’t know why that doesn’t kindle any fire in more Christians.”
“The thing that really is so clear to us after all of these years with John coaching at the highest levels of football is that even with your deepest commitment to being that kind of coach who cares about young men, who cares about making them better young men, the people they were created to be, that’s not what gets rewarded. That’s not what will get you a job. In fact, I think coaches do some of their best work during losing seasons. That is when they teach these young men how to deal with adversity, how to keep working hard, how to not turn on your teammates, how to stay in this and not give up. Those are the most important skills of grit and determination and community and coming together. And what’s the thanks they get at the end of the season? Well, normally they all just get fired.”

Q: Are there any takeaways in this for you, particularly for people who will never play Division 1 sports but for whom fitness and being active are important? For average people, what role should sports play in our lives?
A: “Sport is about life. It’s about thriving and having a zestful existence. I’m coaching the middle school cross-country team here in West Lafayette, at Battle Ground Middle School. It’s just such a delight. We’ve got kids out at all ability levels. We’ve got really great runners all the way to kids with special needs. And everybody can find vitality and connection and a new level of achievement by being on this team. And that’s one of the things I work with the kids on. You can have so many different kinds of goals, but they’re yours. We have team goals, but you also have your own. And whether I’m not going to walk any today when I run my two miles or I’m going to run a little bit faster during this part or I’m going to tell myself I can keep going when it gets hard or whatever your goal is, there is a way for every single person on the team to cultivate a new level of vitality in their own bodies, a new sense of connection to their teammates, to the ground that they’re running on, to the air that they’re breathing, to their bodies that they live in, and a new way to discover that they can do something that they never thought they could do … . That’s what sports is about. When we lose that, when we lose our connection to things like vitality and relationships and groundbreaking, then we really have gotten into a very distorted space.”
 http://pres-outlook.org/2014/10/sports/   Oct. 23, 2014