Tuesday, November 13th, 2007
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This past Sunday two of your favorite Christian quarterbacks, Kurt Warner and Jon Kitna, faced off in the middle of the desert to determine once and for all whose side God was on.
Let’s review what went down:
Touchdowns: Kitna threw for 2 touchdowns, but Warner threw for 3. Advantage: Warner.
Interceptions: Kitna threw 2 picks, Warner threw only 1. Advantage: Warner.
Fumbles: Kurt Warner fumbled the ball once (it was the 22nd time in his career). Kitna fumbed 3 times in the game, losing 2 of them. Advantage: Warner.
Halloween Costumes: Jon Kitna dressed up as a naked assistant coach to poke fun at the Joe Cullen, the Lions coach who was arrested for driving naked through a Wendy’s Drive-Thru last year. Though he later apologized for it, we here at Prayers for Blowouts thought it was pretty funny. Coach Cullen thought so as well. (and incidentally, one of Kitna’s teammates dressed up as a Bible-thumping John Kitna.) Kurt Warner dressed up like Kurt Warner, which was also pretty funny. Advantage: Kitna.
Body Armor: Kurt Warner wore a heavy arm brace to protect a torn ligament in his left shoulder. The injury kept him off the field in goal-line situations, where Tim Rattay was called upon because Warner’s brace made it hard to hand the ball off. John Kitna wasn’t wearing any armor, but he does have a shaved head, which counts for something. Advantage: Warner.
Final Score: The Cardinals won the game, 31-21. Advantage: Warner.
Concussions: Kitna miraculously came back from his third career concussion to rally the Lions over the Vikings in overtime earlier this year. Warner owes most of his success to concussion-prone Trent Green’s knee injury for the Rams back in 1999 that allowed Warner to lead St. Louis to a Super Bowl. Advantage: Kitna.
Pre-Game Prayers: We tried to hire some spies to go inside the teams’ locker rooms, but apparently they are all on staff with the New England Patriots at this time. We’ll call this one a push.
Conclusion: Warner had the better game, but Kitna and the Lions are having the better season. So, who’s side was God on this past Sunday?
The answer is clearly Carson Palmer, who led his team to a big division win over prayin’ Ray Lewis and the Baltimore Ravens, with the achilles tendon of a 44-yr old mother who was killed by a drunk driver. (Hooray for organ donors.)
Tags: Carson Palemr, Jon Kitna, Kurt Warner
Posted in Christianity, NFL | 1 Comment »
Tuesday, October 23rd, 2007
This story became a story before our little blog here was born, but we knew we eventually wanted to comment on it, and so now we will.
David Fleming wrote a great piece for ESPN The Magazine last month on Detroit Lions QB Jon Kitna. In the piece Fleming mentions that since Kitna signed with the Lions in March of 2006, “about 20 Lions have given their lives to Christ.”
20 is a pretty big number. That’s more than a third of the Lions 53-man roster (unless, of course, that number includes members of the Lions’ practice squad.)
Even Bill Simmons’, ESPN’s Sports Guy, couldn’t resist commenting on it in his October 5th NFL Power Poll piece:
Clearly, SOMETHING is going on with the Lions here, right? Twenty teammates???? Don’t we need more information about this? Did any beat writers convert? What about ball boys and trainers? It’s the single most fascinating story of the 2007 season other than Moss’ comeback and Turner and Cottrell slowly turning Tomlinson into a serial killer.
The article paints a seemingly fair picture of Kitna, saying of him, “His responses to questions about his faith and leadership are mostly tinged with humility, perspective and openness.” in one paragraph and then calling him “…a fanatic for Christ, [who] often prays on his way to the line of scrimmage…” in the next.
You really get the sense from the piece that Kitna’s consistency as a man has earned him the respect of his teammates, which is exciting to hear. From the way he mediated a locker room dispute over music last year to his availability as a listening ear for other teammates, he has established himself as a true leader on the team he promised would win 10 games this year. (they are 4-2 so far this year). It’s a fascinating read, I encourage you to check it out if you didn’t read it last month.
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One specific quote in the Kitna article that really piqued my interest was this:
“People feel football is too trivial for God to care about, especially with so many bad things happening in the world,” says Tim Pitcher, a spokesman for Athletes in Action, which uses sports to push Christianity. “For a lot of people, the worlds shouldn’t mix.”
It’s a topic I’ll be tackling in the book I’m working on, the idea that sports aren’t important enough for God to ever affect them. Here’s a sampling of my thoughts on this issue, (keep in mind that this is coming from a rough draft, so be gentle)
Additionally, who’s to say that God cannot save the life of a starving child in Africa at the same moment that he is filling a financial need for a widow in London and clearing the head of a football quarterback in Michigan? When we start prioritizing the needs throughout the world based on importance, what we are saying is that God is not capable of handling them all at once. So is He, or is He not capable of changing every situation in the world at the same time if He wanted to? I believe He is, which suddenly makes the issue a matter of “where does God choose to meet a need?” and not “Where is the need the greatest?”
If you have any comments on the Kitna article or on my thoughts, I’d love to hear them.
Tags: Football, Jon Kitna
Posted in Christianity, NFL | 1 Comment »
