Sports. Humor. Faith.


The PFB Sports Survey: Susan Isaacs 1

Posted on March 11, 2008 by bryan

The PFB Sports Survey is a weekly 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 dragon slayers to see if they like sports as much as we do.

Today’s spotlight is on Susan Isaacs, who lived across the hall from Elaine Benes in Season 7, Episode 5.

Susan is an actress, comedienne, and writer with an IMDB page that would impress even Ron Burgundy. She holds an MFA in screenwriting from USC and occasionally writes for the Burnside Writers Collective. Her comedy memoir, “Angry Conversations with God”, will be published in March 2009 by FaithWords.

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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”.

SI: Three. I like watching baseball with my husband. The rest doesn’t matter that much to me.

2. Rank your 3 overall favorite sports.

SI: Pro Baseball – College football – College basketball – Amateur snookers

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?

SI: I LOVE(D) the Yankees, I lived in NYC for five years. My husband is a Dodgers fan, and I ask myself why? They’re a mediocre team. They haven’t done anything admirable for years. They don’t deserve his love and loyalty. But if I ask that too much he might start wondering what admirable things I’ve done to deserve his love and loyalty. So while I don’t “hate” the Yankees, I don’t root for them. And now that we’ve got Joe Torre, I can cast my un-earned loyalty to the Dodgers.

4. Do you play fantasy sports?

SI: Why would a woman play fantasy sports, when she’s got Lifetime TV? I don’t like any ‘fantasy,’ it’s a waste of time. But if a woman is desperate enough to waste the valuable moments of her yet-unwrinkled life to a fantasy, at least waste it on something where you can see a hot guy with his shirt off, paying attention to a lady instead of a ball.

5. What is the most memorable sporting event you have ever attended in person?

SI: Meadowlands race track with my then-boyfriend. We won $100 in a trifecta. It’s memorable because everything that went after that was a loss. And what was I doing dating a guy who bet on horses?

6. What is the best highlight and/or worst lowlight of your sports playing career as a child or as an adult?

SI: In fifth grade the school bully, Kristen Shanahan, asked me to let her win the 50 yard dash because she was feeling bad about herself and needed a boost. Kristen had bullied me consistently for two years. Now she was confiding in me that she had a low self esteem, and asking me to let her win. If I did, she might be nice to me for a whole week. When we got to the race track I couldn’t do it. I ran my best and beat her.

She kept bullying me but it was worth it.

7. If you could change one thing about sports, what would it be?

SI: Ban HGH in MLB retroactively and get Barry Bonds’s record erased.

8. Do you have an opinion on Christian athletes who, without being prompted, talk about their faith in post-game interviews?

SI: Yeah, go for it. Why not? It’s their moment.

9. High school gym class…your favorite 45 minutes of the day or the source of countless nightmares and embarrassments?

SI: High school track was a blast because of the cute guys in short shorts.

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.

SI: Everyone needs a hobby. We all need to relax, and men love competition. They could also go after women and their quilting circles. That can be as addictive as sports. Except with quilting circles you get blankets at the end.

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.

SI: Five-mile run. I trained for a marathon once!

12. What is your favorite sports movie of all time?

SI: “Pride Of The Yankees,” the story of Lou Gehrig. When I was a kid, which was a long time ago, local TV stations would get the rights to a film and air it every night for a week. And then it was gone. I must have seen “POTY” five nights in a row, every year, for the first ten years of my life.

I also loved Chariots of Fire. Yes, track is a sport!

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You can click here for an exhaustive (but not exhausting) list of everyone who’s been featured as a PFB Sports Survey participant.

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.

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