In order to thank you, dear readers, for your support of Prayers For Blowouts, we reward those of you who reach the 50-comment plateau with a chance to take the PFB Sports Survey.

Today’s spotlight is on reader Christian Arvold, who once faked it because of a girl.

Christian’s two favorite topics to waste time talking about, reading about, etc are Christian theology and sports. He is married with 3 kids and one on the way- just one short of my own starting five. His pipe dream is to one day coach his sons in the same backcourt and win the 2022 WIAA (Wisconsin) State Championship. (If that doesn’t happen, I’d be just as happy for my daughter to make it to the WNBA.)

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1. What number best describes the role sports play in your life on a scale of 1 to 10?

CA: A strong 8, but during basketball season (I coach middle school boys) it can get as high as 9.

2. Rank your 3 overall favorite sports, college or pro.

CA: Basketball (Pro Play-offs, College – Whole season), Football, (Love watching- only played one year, 7th grade, concussion, career over) Soccer (I wish America would embrace the Beautiful game)

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?

CA: All things Wisconsin (Badgers, Packers, Brewers) except for the Bucks- I back the Pistons (My mom is from Detroit and I idolized Isiah Thomas as a kid). Outside of the Wisconsin rivals (Gophers, Bears, Cubs), I loathe the Yankees (especially with their recent offer to CC) but understand that they are a necessary evil to make the drama of sports what it is. And there are always “Yankees” in every aspect of life outside of sports so they mirror society in that sense.

4. Do you play fantasy sports?

CA: I gave up fantasy football this year- it was just too consuming every Sunday. Plus, in the 5 years and 8 teams I played with I only once made it to the “Super Bowl”, so I gave it up. I played fantasy baseball two summers (because of some friends of mine) but there are too many statistics and such and I just don’t love baseball enough. I really get into fantasy basketball though (the coach in me gets into it) and I only play one team a season. Otherwise, you end up rooting for and against the same guys, etc.

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

CA: Wisconsin basketball vs. Minnesota in 1997, I was a sophomore at UW. Minnesota already had a #1 seed locked up and we were a bubble team. We had only been to the tournament once in the past few decades (Finley, Rashard and Stan Van Gundy’s squad). It was the last February game ever played in the Field House before UW moved into the Kohl Center the next January. The Field House (affectionately known as the Barn) held 12,000 people but the seating was so stinking close to one another that the sound was deafening. We beat the Gophers and everyone stormed the court including those of us from the upper deck. Paul Grant (the whitest man alive and a transfer from BC who got drafted in the first round by the T’Wolves only to disappear after one season) grabbed the mic and shouted (in a very Mark Madsen-like way), “We’re going dancing!” It was nuts and it was the only time I ever stormed a court and/or field.

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

CA: Highlight was being the MVP my high school senior season in cross country- on the worst team my coach had ever coached. I came in first for us in every race so I got my name mentioned every Sunday morning in the sports page and got my picture in the paper at the end of the season- even though I barely made all-conference honorable mention and rarely ever finished in the top 20 of a race. Lowlight was in a U12 soccer game when I had one defender to beat to get to the goalie and it was a girl. She totally stopped me, so I immediately went down and faked an injury. I just laid there until my coach came out to see me. I made up something about how something hurt and fake limped off the field. I was good to go by the second half.

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

CA: The BCS and the NBA Play-offs. The BCS is a joke- a really bad joke, the NBA play-offs are too long. The first round should go back to best of 5.

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

CA: I’m 50/50 on it. I would love to see Christian athletes, without being prompted, talk about their faith in post-game interviews when they lost the big game- that would be quite a witness. I would also love to see Christian athletes, without being prompted, give away crazy amounts of money and live on reasonable salaries. Imagine the witness that would be!

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

CA: I really liked Math so it was probably my second favorite 45 minutes of the day. But when the unit was floor hockey then it became my favorite by far.

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.

CA: I think, when done right, the criticism is totally valid. I openly admit that sports are practically an idol for me and I get troubled at times by my zeal for my teams versus my lack of zeal for my hurting and lost neighbors or getting together with church family members, etc. So, there are times when I definitely need my pastor to remind me about the greatness of Christ and how trivial my choices of entertainment really are. (For my money, no one does this better than John Piper!)

11. If you had to compete against other coaches, 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.

CA: In high school I would have said the 5-mile run, but now I would have to go with a FT contest. (I won the last coaches FT contest I was in and I beat all of my 14-15 year old players in our FT-a-thon out of 100)

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

CA: Growing up it was Hoosiers, but that’s second now to Remember the Titans. However, I steal lines equally from both in my coaching.

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Anyone who (legitimately) racks up 50 comments can participate in the Sports Survey, and revel in the fame and glory that comes with it. You could be next!

In order to thank you, dear readers, for your support of Prayers For Blowouts, we reward those of you who reach the 50-comment plateau with a chance to take the PFB Sports Survey.

Today’s spotlight is on reader Geof Morris, who probably loves his local college hockey team more than you love your favorite college football team.

Geof Morris is a great friend of the site here at PFB because he’s a great friend of mine (bryan). He and I have partnered on numerous interweb adventures through the years including caedmonscall.net, derekwebb.net, squarepegalliance.net, and indieriver.net (see that, and you thought I was only into sports). Geof is a regular blogger, so be sure to add him to your feedreader of choice.

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1. What number best describes the role sports play in your life on a scale of 1 to 10?

GM: I used to be on the order of an 8.5, but then I went to engineering school and got too busy to keep up. Let’s put it this way: I edited a weekly sports ezine, TOTK[.com, for Top of the Key] from 1996-2002, and sporadically wrote a daily column in there called TOTK Today. I was sports blogging before blogging was cool.

But now, I’m probably a solid 6. I’d be a 7 if bryan hadn’t gotten back in front of me in the roto league the last couple days, though.

2. Rank your 3 overall favorite sports, college or pro.

GM: College hockey is my greatest love; my alma-mater, Alabama-Huntsville , has Division I’s southernmost men’s ice hockey program. I used to be a columnist for USCHO.com, I’ve traveled with the team [at my expense!] to be the color commentator for radio, and I’ve filled in as public address announcer. It’s … a passion. But since most people don’t know Hobey Baker from Oscar Meyer, I recognize it’s a niche. Major League Baseball is my #2, even if the 1990 Cincinnati Reds fade farther into my rear view mirror every year. [That said, I still have my unopened Wheaties box with the team on it.] The NFL is my #3, even though I’m breaking up with the Cincinnati Bengals after two decades—and no, not over Ocho Cinco. That’s a whole other column, though, about whether it’s okay to become a Pats fan.

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?

GM: Well, if we’re talking college hockey, it’s my UAH boys and our chief rival, the Bemidji State Beavers. [Yes, the jokes write themselves.] But in terms of sports that anyone might have ever really heard of, I’m a Reds fan first and foremost and hate every other team in MLB save the A’s and Red Sox, purely because of how they run their organizations. I had deep-seated hatred in my heart for the Yankees back in the Gene Michael days, back when he fleeced Mama Marge, and they’re still there. Jesus keeps asking me to repent, and I’m … not so sure.

4. Do you play fantasy sports?

GM: I do, casually. I’m only in our roto league [that I roped bryan into a couple years ago] at this point, though. I think my peak was a roto league and fantasy football with the same group of folks. Simply put, I don’t choose to put my time into it like I know I could. It’s the same reason that I don’t gamble on sports—I could easily see it becoming an obsession, because I’m a narcissist and really do think I can whip you, so … yeah.

I’ve never won anything. I got to first in our roto league 2 weeks ago and resisted the urge to call bryan at 0615 to let him know. The Roto Karma Gods got me the next morning. Back to third.

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

GM: Easy: UAH’s lone D-I ice hockey tournament appearance. We took Notre Dame to the second overtime. That game went longer than I slept the night before. I was delirious from driving from Huntsville to Grand Rapids in the previous 18 hours, and giddy that we might take down the #1 team in the country after being 10-19-3 in the regular season. That was the worst team I’d seen in my decade of being a UAH fan, until March … BOOM! Unbelievable. Night and day. Those guys were like Freddy Krueger—just couldn’t be killed.

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

GM: I scored one, repeat, one goal in rec league soccer as a kid. I was slow but smart, so I played fullback and goalie—well, until the goals grew and I didn’t. I’m 5-11 now, but I was 5-7 in high school and like 4-6 back then. So that one goal was a lot of fun for me, even though it was a complete garbage goal thanks to the opposing goalie muffing an easy save. I felt bad for him as the ball was in the air, but not as it went in the back of the net.

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

GM: The NHL’s instigator rule is absolutely terrible and has crippled the league. I think the NHL would have better ratings *and* better games if fighting came back.

Okay, so you want to talk sports that people care about … it’s probably the post-1994 changes to baseball’s structure: three divisions, the wild card, and interleague play. All are an abomination. Now that baseball is back on good footing, let’s expand twice more, go to four four-team divisions in each league, and kill Inter-League Play.

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

GM: Most of the time, it feels fake, expected. But we don’t know any of these people or their hearts.

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

GM: I was pretty bad-ass at kickball, man. I played soccer, and I had a good leg. I also figured out that, if I hit a homer, I didn’t have to run hard.

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.

GM: Both? It’s a great diversion, but man, any husband that ignores his wife because he wants to watch “the game” all weekend has his priorities out of whack. That said, TiVo may well save marriages, because hey … timeshift that badboy.

11. If you had to compete against other NASA guys, 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.

GM: Mark it eight, Dude. [If you get that reference, you're all right. If not, well ... SHOMER SHABBOS!]

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

GM: As a UAH fan, I might be expected to say “Miracle”, because Kurt Russell’s son is one of our goalies. But honestly, it’s probably “Slap Shot”. [I would say "Field of Dreams", but that movie is no more about baseball than "Shawshank Redemption" is about prison---both are movies about life that use their motifs as setting for explorations of the greater social problems of the eras in which they're placed.]

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Anyone who (legitimately) racks up 50 comments can participate in the Sports Survey, and revel in the fame and glory that comes with it. You could be next!