Archive for February, 2008
Tuesday, February 12th, 2008
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The PFB Sports Survey is a brand new feature here at Prayers For Blowouts where we throw 12 sports related questions at some of the most notable voices among Christian authors, pastors, musicians, and bowling pin jugglers to see if they like sports as much as we do.
Today’s spotlight is on Larry Shallenberger, who as you’ll soon learn, is capable of kicking the living crap out of you if you don’t like how he answered these questions.
Larry is an author of multiple books and the pastor of children and student ministries at Grace Church in Erie, PA. You can learn more about his writing and ministry at www.larryshallenberger.com.
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1. What number best describes the role sports play in your life on a scale of 1 to 10, where 1 is “i have absolutely no interest at all” and 10 is “My friends refer to sports as ‘Baal’ because I have an unhealthy obsession bordering on idolatry”.
LS: 8. I’m a die-hard Philadelphia Eagles’ fan. I used to just obsess about the Birds in the Fall. But the NFL has brilliantly extended the season to all year. The NFL Draft is an event. Free Agency. Mini-camps. Camps. There’s a reason to be checking on your team all year round.
2. Rank your 3 overall favorite sports.
LS: 1) The NFL: It’s the perfect made for TV, made for Internet event.
2) Martial Arts: I’ve got a black belt in Tae Kwon Do. After a four year long break, I’m working out and throwing kicks again. This time with a guy who’s got a MMA background. He’s teaching me grappling and submissions. It’s a blast.
3) The NBA: But I don’t start paying attention until the finals. When I was in college my room mate was the school’s center. Jon had me watching the Bulls and this young upstart Michael Jordan. I still tune in, but not until the finals. The season is just too long.
3. What is the one team that you root for more passionately than any other, and is there a team that you hate, maybe a little too much?
LS: That’s easy. I bleed midnight green. I’m a die-hard Philadelphia Eagles fan. The teams I hate a little too much? I think everyone outside of Boston hates the Patriots. They cheat, they have great players, a WR core normally only found in fantasy football, they’ve got “The Hoodie.” Their fans, until the Super Bowl, had a level of smugness that would make Rush Limbaugh blush. What’s there not to hate?
4. Do you play fantasy sports? If no, why not? If yes, what is the most # of teams you’ve ever had for one season and have you ever won a Championship?
LS: I play fantasy football. The most teams I’ve ever carried at once is two. I’ve been in a keeper league for about five years, and last year I played in the Burnside Writers Collective League. I’ve never won a championship, no. Last year I used Carson Palmer to anchor both my teams. And he was simply ordinary last year.
5. What is the most memorable sporting event you have ever attended in person?
LS: I was at Lincoln Financial Field two years ago for Monday Night Football and watched backup quarterback, Jeff Garcia, spark the Eagles past the Panthers. That was the beginning of the Eagles’ amazing run that lifted them above .500 and got them deep into the playoffs. It was so cold at that game. The beer guy couldn’t pay anyone to drink his brew.
6. What is the best highlight and/or worst lowlight of your sports playing career as a child or as an adult?
LS: I am giant slow-twitch muscle. I ran cross-country for a few years in high school in an attempt to fit in socially. I had one embarrassingly slow time that I turned in at every race. So there was no highlight or lowlight tapes for me. Well, other than getting away with playing tag with the school’s fire extinguishers.
7. If you could change one thing about sports, what would it be?
LS: I’m writing Senator Specter concerning the BWC fantasy football league in which I participated. I suspect that Commissioner Jordan Green abused his website privileges to spy on my team. It’s obvious to me that he cheated. How else could a peace-n-love, grape nuts, bohemian writer like Mr. Green outplay me? Fantasy Football has grown to such a multi-million dollar sport that the slighted whisper of corruption could take the whole industry down. So how couldn’t the good Senator from Pennsylvania not listen to my plea for justice?
8. Do you have an opinion on Christian athletes who, without being prompted, talk about their faith in post-game interviews?
LS: I’m okay with this, I think. If a conversation is to have any basis in reality then it must, with enough time given, turn to God, at least for a moment. So that doesn’t bug me. I get turned off when an athlete talks about God as if he were their team’s “twelfth-man.” I’m sure that sport and how people relate to sport matters to God on some level. But so often athletes refers to God as if he were just another competitive edge, like HGH or Belicheck’s cam-corder. That bothers me, but then I remember that that same attitude about God is not uncommon in our pulpits. We pastors like to offer God to parishioners like he’s a family and marriage enhancing steroid.
I was fascinated that Plaxico Burress thanked God in his post Super Bowl interview. He’s an athlete who had been cited for public drunkenness while in Pittsburgh and who had gotten on the wrong side of the IRS. Until this year, his commitment to team and hard-work was questioned. Like Charles Barkley, Plax is “not a role model and not paid to be a role model.”
But here he was, giving thanks to God, and most likely not out of an obligation to an endorsement contract. I was reminded that God’s path intersects with the lives of all sorts of people.
9. High school gym class…your favorite 45 minutes of the day or the source of countless nightmares and embarrassments?
LS: Somewhere in between. Although I did have a front tooth killed when I got hit by a hockey stick in mouth.
10. Sports are often the whipping boy of pastors and clergy because so much passion, money, time, and energy is poured into them. Do you think this criticism is valid, or are sports okay as a diversion from the stresses of life.
LS: The difference between diversion and idolatry is a matter of degree, I think. Sport can be a healthy diversion that helps us get our mind off work. Or sport can emerge into a metaphor for the things that truly matter. I deepened my understanding of discipleship and mentoring when I trained at the tae kwon do school. On the flip side, I’ve been guilty of obsessing about the Eagles to an unhealthy level. Sport, like anything else is a gift. It’s a matter of how we use that gift.
11. If you had to compete against other writers, in which of these 5 competitions would you have the best chance of winning? 5-mile run, 18 holes of golf, free throw shooting contest, arm wrestling match, or a game of bowling.
LS: It would have to be the foot race. Doesn’t John Maxwell have an Irrefutable Law about the inverse relationship between an individual’s bowling score and their success at life?
12. What is your favorite sports movie of all time?
LS: Although Brian’s Song made me shed a few large, very masculine tears, I need to go with “We Are Marshall” for the leadership lessons.
If you’ve got any follow-up questions for Larry, or you want to challenge him to a fight, use the comments below.
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If you’d like to be considered for the PFB Sports Survey, or know someone who should be, send along a name and email address to prayersforblowouts(at)gmail(dot)com.
Posted in The PFB Sports Survey | No Comments »
Monday, February 11th, 2008
I was listening to the “MLB on XM” over lunch earlier today and i caught one of the quick little promos they’ve been running where they get major leaguers to answer questions like “favorite road restaurant?”, “best minor league story?”, and “which beer can do you like to use to dispose of your steroid needles?”
They asked Carlos Beltran a question about the music he listens to and his reponse was “I like Marc Anthony. And I listen to a lot of Christian music.”
I’ll be honest, despite the fact that Carlos is a Christian, I wasn’t expecting that answer.
So what does Carlos listen to? Connersvine? The Katinas? Newsboys? Caedmon’s Call? Bob Carlisle?
If you’ve got a guess as to what Beltran is spinning on his iPod, do tell.
Posted in Christianity, MLB | 5 Comments »
Monday, February 11th, 2008
Perhaps you’ve seen the videos of ESPN’s Chris Berman that have been all over the internet for the past week? They all seem to be about 5-7 years old, and feature Berman off camera (or so he thought) using language that your pastor would not use from the pulpit.
I don’t want you to get in trouble searching for them all over the scary internets, so here they are if you’re interested. Just so you know, clips 1,3, and 4 contain cussing and clip 4 contains Chris taking God’s name in vain a few times (7, actually). If you’d rather not hear any of that, skip over the links.
First Dana Jacobson and now this. Apparently, the Christian Defense Coalition has had enough.
“The Christian Defense Coalition will be calling on ESPN to take three positive steps toward building a culture of religious tolerance in their workplace:
*Discipline or terminate any employee that uses religiously intolerant and hateful language such as “Goddamn” or the negative use of “Jesus Christ” in the workplace.
*Sponsor a workplace seminar and dialogue on religious tolerance and discrimination in the workplace. ESPN has held similar seminars on race and gender but never on religion.
*Host a discussion on one of their programs featuring the topic of the offensive use of “Goddamn” and “Jesus Christ” within the sports world.
It is the goal of the Christian Defense Coalition to help ESPN realize the negative use of “Jesus Christ” and “Goddamn” in the workplace is as offense and hateful as using the term “nigger” in the workplace.
The Coalition will be demonstrating today at high noon in front of ESPN (across the street from the McDonald’s) in hopes that “…ESPN will take a positive first step toward ending workplace religious intolerance by implementing our three recommendations. ”
These videos were obviously recorded and saved without anyone knowing about it. Suddenly they are being put on the internet 7 years later, probably because whoever published them has since moved on from ESPN.
What do you think? Does Berman, at the very least, owe folks an apology for the language he used? Should ESPN take action against him? Would you be ok with comments you made 7 years ago in private showing up on YouTube? Is picketing ESPN a good idea?
It’s true that Berman wasn’t on the air when he said all this, but he was at work, and as such, ESPN should have the right to take action against him if they wanted to. Does anyone know what the statute of limitations are on cussing?
Posted in Sports Media | 9 Comments »
Friday, February 8th, 2008
The following post was written for PFB by Jason Boyett, author of the Pocket Guides to the Bible, the Apocalypse, and Adulthood (among others). Jason is our resident expert on the frequent collisions of crass sports blogs and hilarious sitcoms.
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The sporting world has always been enamored of multitaskers. Bo Jackson (Baseball, Football), Joe Gibbs (Football, NASCAR), Bill Belichick (Football, Videography, Fashion). We learned this week that the world of sports blogging also has a few notable multitaskers. And no, it’s not Curt Schilling (Pitching, Blogging).
The anonymous guys at Fire Joe Morgan — an always caustic, frequently vulgar, and consistently hilarious blog dedicated to the art of exposing the inanities of sportswriters and announcers — have finally pulled back the curtain and revealed who they really are. Turns out Ken Tremendous isn’t some hack pushing papers at Fremulon Insurance in Kansas. He’s none other than Michael Schur, a former SNL scribe and now a writer and producer for “The Office.” (He also plays the beloved Mose from Schrute Farms.) Junior is Alan Yang (a writer for “Last Call with Carson Daly“) and dak is Dave King (also a writer for Daly).
Writing for TV and writing stats-obsessed baseball blogs are two pretty different things, but these guys excel at both (at least Schur does…I can’t say I’ve watched a whole lot of Carson Daly). It brings up some big questions, though. Will FJM stay just as good now that its devoted fans know they’re dealing with people in the entertainment biz? Will Schur and company continue to pile on lazy journalists and bad announcers now that they’ve dropped their masks of anonymity? Will the producers of “The Office” have to drop their dream of that Joe Morgan cameo? Will Mose and Dwight ever get into a wrestling match about the relative usefulness of VORP in determining a player’s value? Stay tuned…
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Jason, a multi-tasker himself, contributes to PFB when he’s not up to his waist in immersion journalism. Regardless of what type of church you attend, you really should be subscribed to our feed.
Posted in Sports Media | 2 Comments »
Thursday, February 7th, 2008
editor’s note: if you came to this page wondering if playing poker is a sin, might I suggest you read my post on that exact topic?
Is poker a sport? Honestly, I don’t know. They do put it on ESPN. But then again, they put “Who’s Now” on ESPN too, and that had as much to do with sports as the Tampa Bay Devil Rays have to do with winning. Sport or not, it does involve competing, and if you know anything about the game of Poker, you know that it can make for some riveting television.
If you spent any time over the past 5 years watching televised poker, then you probably know who Daniel Negreanu is. He’s the quirky Canadian player who loves to talk at the table and has a knack for reading other players better than most. One thing you might not have known is that he is a Christian.
Aaron Todd, on his blog “Gaming Guru”, interviewed Negreanu in 2006, and said of Negreanu’s conversion:
A few months after they started dating, Negreanu’s wife Lori mentioned that she was a Christian and she felt it was important for Negreanu to explore his faith. He read A Case For Christ by Lee Strobel, and when he finished, he felt like there was “no option other than believing.”
Like he does at the table, when it came to the idea of a Christian making a living by playing poker, Negreanu had a lot to say:
“There is no reference anywhere in the Bible, not one scripture that says gambling is a sin or gambling is wrong,” Negreanu says. “There are sinful things that can come out of a love for money. If you have an addiction to money and a love of money, yeah, that’s sinful, but that doesn’t have anything to do with gambling per se. You can do that if you’re a businessman or a corporate man who is just hording his money and not sharing.
“The way I look at it, it’s not how you make your money — as long as you’re not doing anything to cheat people or hurt others — it’s what you do with it. Certainly I’m going to be at a poker table with people that shouldn’t be there — where gambling has become a problem. I think gambling only becomes sinful when it becomes a problem in your life and it impedes your walk with God or with your family. From my perspective, if I’m playing with these people that are going to lose their money anyway, I can turn (bad) money into (good) money.
“It’s no different than being a stock broker. How does one believe gambling is a sin and that playing the stock market isn’t? What is the difference? You’re making an investment on something you don’t really know what is going to happen with. You do your research, like you research a poker hand. You say ‘Well, I think this has expected value, I think I will make money with this hand.’ But you don’t always, sometimes you have some bad luck or you get the wrong read. When you research a business, you say ‘Well, I think this stock is going to go up,’ and make an investment in it. Sometimes it goes up and sometimes it goes down. Where is the difference?”
When BLUFF Magazine asked Negreanu if there were Christians who had a problem with his profession in November of 2006, he had this to say:
I think only the ignorant ones. My wife’s family are devoted conservatives to the point where she wasn’t even allowed to watch TV as a child, but they’re fine with me. They’re totally fine with what I do for a living. They understand that, you know, there is nothing in the Bible anywhere that says gambling is a sin. Nothing. I think a lot of people misunderstand gambling — OK, it’s essentially taking money from other people. Well, there isn’t a business in the world in which that doesn’t happen. When you win on the stock market, others lose. Any business deal you make, you’re going to take someone’s money. It’s what you do with that money that separates whether you’re healthy or unhealthy. If you hoard all that money for yourself, just to own a bigger home, well, I guess that might be wrong. But there’s nothing wrong with poker according to the Bible. But having said that, a lot of people misinterpret what it says and think that what I do is wrong. To those people, I just try to talk to them and explain to them. But some of them just won’t get it. But that’s OK. I’m not really a fan of conservatism anyway.
Of course, when you make your faith public, you open yourself up to criticism. When Negreanu blogged in April about the priorities in his life (1. God, 2. Family, 3. Health, 4. Poker, and 5. Stuff), some folks jumped on him, throwing scripture back in his face.
What do you think? Do you think Negreanu is wrong to make a living playing poker? If all of a sudden you realized you were an exceptional poker player, would your conscience be okay with you making a living doing it?
Show your cards in the comments…
Posted in Christianity, morality, sports | 12 Comments »
Wednesday, February 6th, 2008
Over the weekend Beliefnet.com posted their “Top 12 Evangelicals in Sports”. Who made the list? Read on to find out…
Joe Gibbs, who is no longer a two-sport athlete participant with his retirement from the Redskins. (The world feels more right with him back in NASCAR full time, doesn’t it?)
Mariano Rivera, who does a fine job juggling the seemingly oxymoronic roles of Christian and Yankee (sorry, couldn’t resist) and who has one of the strangest baseball cards ever, courtesy of 92 Bowman.
Derek Fisher, who’s known for being a sacrificial father more than anything else (as he should be.)
Shaun Alexander, who we learn in the story, was a virgin when he married his virgin wife. (Not sure that i ever want a detail so personal in any bio of mine.)
Allyson Felix, who we all know as…wait, who is Allyson Felix? (Answer: She runs really fast, she silvered in the 04 Olympics, and she should win some more hardware in Beijing this summer.)
Hunter Smith, who we’ve mentioned here before (Hey, he even left a comment to that post…how cool are we?)
Jake Peavy, who we’d love to have on our fantasy baseball team this year. (We’re involved in a complete redraft in a keeper league, so much preparation must be done between now and the draft.)
Tony Dungy, who needs to spend some time with Brett Favre teaching him the art of making timely off-season decisions.
Curt Schilling, who needs to spend some time with us, teaching us how to write thousands of words per blog post while holding down a day job.
Tim Tebow, who we mentioned on Friday, is apparently the champion of homeschoolers everywhere. (he’s got a bill named after him!)
Michael Waltrip, who isn’t the boogity! boogity! boogity! guy in case you were wondering. (that’s his older brother) .
Zach Johnson, the Joaquin Phoenix lookalike who beat Tiger Woods by 2 strokes at the 07 Masters. (1 of 3 career PGA Tour wins)
Did they leave anyone out? Offer up your additions and subtractions in the comments…
Posted in Christianity, sports | 2 Comments »
Tuesday, February 5th, 2008
Did you know CJ Mahaney started a blog recently? Well, he did, and this weekend he had some thoughts to share about the Super Bowl before and after the big game.
His thoughts before the game:
First, let me make clear the Super Bowl is the most overrated sporting event in the history of all sports dating back to the very first Olympics. The NFL thinks so highly of itself, the Super Bowl is assigned Roman numerals.
Yet despite the hype, year after year this game rarely delivers. With few exceptions, most of these games are neither exciting nor memorable (unless your team is participating). And so tomorrow we must collectively endure yet another Super Bowl.
For me, the only good thing about the Super Bowl is that it means MARCH MADNESS is fast approaching! Don’t get me started on March Madness and college basketball, because year after year college basketball always delivers.
His thoughts on Coach Belicheck’s behavior after the game:
I stayed up after the game for one reason. I knew they would interview Belichick, and I wanted to hear what he would say. I hoped he would at least congratulate the Giants on their victory. He did not. He missed yet another opportunity to provide a compelling and humble example of how to conduct oneself when one has lost the game.
Though many will write about what took place on the field during the game, I thought his actions at the end of the game and after the game were the most disappointing aspects of the game. And this is the stuff I review and emphasize with my son as we talk about the game. This is what I want him to remember and learn from this game.
But I must pay careful attention to my heart as I critique coach Belichick, because I am vulnerable to my own more serious expression of arrogance as I observe Bill Belichick. In critiquing coach Belichick and teaching my son biblical discernment and the importance of godly character, I must avoid a self-righteous attitude.
There are few pastors /leaders that we know of who are more respected than Mahaney, so it’s been a treat to read his blog, and even more so to see that he enjoys sports.
Also, if you’re interested, that first link includes CJ’s 4 tips for watching the Super Bowl to the glory of God.
Posted in Christianity, NFL | 1 Comment »
Monday, February 4th, 2008
The following post was written for PFB by Jason Boyett, author of the Pocket Guides to the Bible, the Apocalypse, and Adulthood (among other books). Jason, a lifelong Chicago Cubs fan, is currently NOT working on a book titled “The Pocket Guide to Dumb Baseball Curses”. His thoughts on David Tyree’s miraculous catch and subsequent comments are after the jump.
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When Tyree made the catch — that crazy, backbreaking, hand-to-helmet miracle reception with less than a minute to go in the game — I thought it might happen.
When the Giants ended up scoring and securing the win, I absolutely KNEW it would happen.
I just knew that Tyree, a religious guy who’s had his share of personal hardship (his mom died suddenly in December), would refuse to take credit for the catch but would, instead, give all the credit to God. “That wasn’t me, man,” I imagined him saying in the post-game press conference. “That was all God. Gotta give big ups to the Almighty for that one.” Because athletes have a well-documented history of attributing great plays, great games, and great seasons to God, who apparently takes great interest in the outcomes of American sporting events.
But Tyree, to his credit, kept it subtle. He sort of leaned in the direction of “it was God,” but didn’t fully camp there. Here’s his exact quote: “My opportunities are too far and few to let that one go. It was supernatural, you know? Some things just don’t make sense, and that catch is a good example.”
Thank you, Tyree. Thank you for not resorting to a cliche. Thank you for actually taking personal credit for having made an incredible 32-yard catch to rival Dwight Clark’s “The Catch” (TM) back in 1981. Because it saved the drive. And you made the catch. You. David Tyree. No person alive — not Randy Moss, not Lynn Swann, not Spiderman — should be able to jump three feet in the air, catch a ball with one hand against the back of his helmet, then hold onto that ball while being folded in half backwards by Rodney Harrison after appearing to float parallel to the ground. It just shouldn’t happen. It doesn’t make sense. It seems a little…supernatural.
But it probably didn’t have much to do with God, so I’m glad you didn’t just come right out and say that. Because when it come to pro athletes, it’s always “God” when they make a great catch, or return a punt for a touchdown, or throw a pinpoint game-winning pass. But it’s never “God” when they get tackled on the previous play, or when they fumble in the first quarter. And what if they guy on the opposite team who caused the fumble also gives credit to God? What you end up having is God causing Himself to fumble, and at that point the theology gets so circular and weird that N.T. Wright can’t even make sense of it.
I’m all for more spirituality in the sporting world when it comes to being good examples for the children and saying no to performance-enhancing drugs and doing something with your millions of dollars other than buying blingy toys and overly big homes. But when it comes to the winning and losing of games, it’s probably better to leave God off the scoreboard.
Thanks, David Tyree, for taking a good step in that direction. May “supernatural” become the new “it was God.”
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Jason could be contributing more to PFB in the future, so if you haven’t added this site to your feedreader yet, now might be the time to do it.
Posted in Christianity, NFL | 1 Comment »
Sunday, February 3rd, 2008
I just want to make one prediction right now.
73% of all Super Bowl articles submitted to newspapers and posted on blogs on Monday will talk about how karma came and bit the Patriots on the rear end. The Patriots got busted for cheated during the first game of the season, and when the season came down to it, after Asante Samuel drops an interception that would have ended the game, Eli Manning miraculously escaped the grasp of 200 Patriots pass rushers and heaved a prayer over David Tyree’s head that he pinned against his own helmet and kept from hitting the ground as his body nearly split in two at the waist. If you were rooting for the Patriots, as I was, when that play happened you said to yourself, “uh oh”.
I’m not sure that anything I believe can be classified as karma, but I have a feeling I’ll be hearing and reading that word a lot over the next few days. So be it, I suppose.
Congratulations to the Giants and their fans!
UPDATE: One of the biggest reasons I wanted to see the Patriots win was because I could not stand Mercury Morris from the 72 Dolphins and all the face time he received as the Patriots marched towards an unbeaten season. Well, hours after the Patriots loss, guess what video is the first to load on ESPN.com? Yeah, Mercury Morris of the 72 Dolphins talking about the game. Good grief!
Posted in NFL | 4 Comments »
Sunday, February 3rd, 2008
NPR has a 4-minute clip up of some nuns from Arizona who are “renting out rooms, offering an oasis of quiet amidst the bright lights and fast living that swirls around the big game.”
That being said, the Super Bowl kicks off in about an hour. Though the dreaded February SportsLull awaits following its conclusion, I’m excited to see how this 2007/08 NFL Season ends. I feel like we’re at the end of a great book, and our hero has confronted his nemesis for one last epic battle. To the winner: everything. To the loser: nothing. Which side is good and evil? I guess it depends on how you feel about Bill Belicheck and Eli Manning.
One thing’s for sure though, we’ll have a Super Bowl Champion in about 5 hours.
(h/t: Geof Morris)
Posted in Christianity, NFL | 1 Comment »
