a few things to check out while you scrub the ashes off your forehead…

+ BIG NEWS ALERT! Our very own Chad Gibbs has signed a book deal with Zondervan for a book due out next summer! I’ve had the privilege of reading bits and pieces of the manuscript, and I couldn’t be more excited about it. Please join me in congratulating Chad by telling him just how wonderful the University of Alabama’s football program is.

+ Former Eagles All-Pro Defensive Back Roynell Young tells the story of how he found that his life had a bigger purpose, and how he’s now helping young people in Houston do the same thing. (Guideposts.com)

+ Public school coaches are prohibited by law to initiate prayer with their teams. According to Mike Organ of the Tennessean, a case is headed to the U.S. Supreme Court that could prevent coaches of public schools from praying with their teams, even if the players are the ones who initiate the prayer. The ramifications of the decision will be huge, no matter which way it falls. (h/t: Deadspin)

What do you think? Should coaches be allowed to bow in prayer when it is led by students? Should they be allowed to LEAD optional prayers? Before you answer be sure to consider the possibility that the coach might have a completely different faith than your own.

What: Northern Trust Open

Where: Riviera Country Club

Can I Play There: What part of Country Club do you not understand.

What To Watch For: Ryo Ishikawa, the 17-year-old Japanese phenom who in 2008 became the youngest player to crack the top 100 world rankings.

Who Will Win: Probably not defending champion Phil Mickelson, who isn’t very good at golf right now. How about a surprise pick, the gritty little Bruin, Corey Pavin.

Tiger Watch: According to Mark O’Mera, Woods is close to 100% and better than ever. It is possible Tiger will play in next week’s Match Play event, if so, we’ll know by this Friday.

Chad Watch: According to Golf Digest, I played the 22nd toughest golf course in the United States this past weekend, Silver Lakes, in my hometown of Glencoe, Alabama. I played OK, but somehow turned an 81 into an 86. My swing has been a little iffy so far in 2009, so I’ve decided to experiment with the Stack and Tilt this week. I’ll let you know how it goes next week.

Please make it go away!!! – Terrell Owens. Why do I have to hear his name every day? Usually I don’t mind athletes drawing attention to themselves, but I can’t take this guy. At least with Ocho Cinco and Deion Sanders there was a bit of humor involved, but T.O. just seems like a spoiled brat. If he were on my favorite team, I’d throw up on my wife. And to make sure I am not part of the problem, I will not say or type his name for a year, starting………….now.

This week in sports you know nothing about - The Handball Bundesliga (HBL) is the top German professional handball league. The HBL website is in German, but after running the latest article through Babel Fish, I learned, “On today’s Tuesday and on tomorrow’s Wednesday the eight meetings of the Achtelfinals stand in the competition of this year around the DHB cup on the program. It comes equivalent twice to the duel of two Erstligisten. May the match between the SG Flensburg Handewitt and the Rhine Neckar lion, which are already today delivered as preferred play hand ball federal league are valid for this round as Topspiel”

This week at Auburn - Auburn hired Gene Chizik this week. Most fans are not very excited. Auburn interviewed Turner Gill, but did not give him the job, which apparently makes Auburn racist, unlike Tennessee, who did not interview a minority when they hired Lane Kiffen. Many Auburn fans remember Chizik fondly from his days as the Tiger’s defensive coordinator, and many admired Gill for his work at Buffalo and for being an outspoken Christian, but most thought Auburn would hire someone better than either of them.

Sports highlight that never gets old – Because I have caught the golf bug early we’ll go with Jack in ‘86

I have nothing. Nothing to do. Nothing to care about. Nothing.

Auburn was bad this year, very bad, and I have no bowl game to look forward to. Sure there is a coaching search and recruiting, but those just seem to depress me more after a bad season. The Tigers are playing basketball, but they aren’t very good either, and when it comes to hoops, I am as fair weather as they get.

I want to play golf. I brought my clubs in last night and cleaned them. They look great, but I have no time to use them. The sun has set by the time I get off work, and weekends this time of year are reserved for shopping and decorating and parties and other things besides golf.

Sure there’s pro sports, but if I’m being honest with you, and I have no reason not to be, then I’d tell you missing every NBA, MLB, NHL and NFL game from now till Kingdom Come would not upset me. I do enjoy watching golf, but they aren’t playing now, and even if they were, Tiger is still rehabbing his knee.

I tried to pick a soccer team to follow. After reading Nick Hornby’s Fever Pitch I became fascinated by the madness of it all. I keep up with Celtic FC, but living an ocean away makes it hard to really get in to it. I have watched a few games at work on a pirated feed from some Arab network. Did you know the Arabic word for goal is قصد

But January will be here soon, and my weekends will be spent playing cold golf. Then the grass will start to grow, and flowers will bloom, and Tiger will return to the Masters. And before long I’ll be back in Jordan-Hare Stadium, cheering on my Tigers with their new coach. But for now, I’m kind of bored.

I teased this last week, and now the time has come to start unveiling the writers who will be joining me as contributors on the site.

When I decided to expand the blog, I targeted writers who I respected for their writing skillz, the books they had authored, the average number of greens they hit in regulation, the connections they had, the number of bible verses they had memorized, and whether or not they could beat the crap out of me.

The Oceanic Six Authors that made the cut are money, and I look forward to collaborating with them to make Prayers For Blowouts a better experience for you, the reader. Some of them will post more than others, and that’s okay by me. I’ve not given them a mandate for how often I’d like them to contribute, I’ve only asked that when they have something to vent or ramble on about sports, that they do it here.

I decided to introduce the writers to y’all alphabetically, so here’s the second pair. I shared the first two on Wednesday and I’ll share the final two on Friday. Please join me in welcoming them to the team.

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Chad Gibbs is the comedy editor for the Burnside Writers Collective and author of The Humblest of Beginnings, which cannot be purchased in stores, because it has yet to be published. When not writing unpublishable books, Chad spends most of his time playing golf and working on his second book, which probably won’t be published either.

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Jordan Green used to live in Portland, Oregon, but now resides in Phoenix, Arizona with his wife Mindy. He is the editor of Burnside Writers Collective and of The Ankeny Briefcase, a compilation of short stories from unpublished writers which was co-edited by Donald Miller. Besides editing, Jordan Green has also worked as a courier, a barista at a large coffee purveyor, and as a US Army Counterintelligence Agent, among other things. He is an unabashed fan of the University of Oregon, the Portland Trailblazers, and WhatIfSports.com.