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“I like Michael Jordan and wish him all the best but . . .”

Philip Yancey writes:

Sportswriters calculate that the year after Michael Jordan retired (the second time), he earned from his endorsements more than twice as much as all U.S. presidents earned for all their terms combined. He earned more endorsing Nike shoes than all the workers in Malaysia who made the shoes. He may pay $200 for a round of golf, but earns $33,390 while playing that round. I like Michael Jordan and wish him all the best, but a society that pays him more in one year – - for not playing basketball – - than it pays all their presidents combined seems to me a society out of balance. Rumors of Another World, 34.

Stillman Valley Football: Look at Snapshots To Treasure the Moment

Pictures freeze a moment in time. Study the moments and you might find a lot for which to be thankful.

Scoring a touchdown is great. But there is also a lot to be said for the moment when the ball is in the air, when it is yet to be determined if you will make the catch or not.

The chance to look for a sack – - – or twist for the endzone – - or meet athletes from other schools. The moment of leading your team onto the field —or to break a tackle — there are so many pictures in life that we need to stop and savor.

ESPN on Urban Meyer’s Contract With His Family

Fathers and football fans should read this articles detailing how a successful workaholic lost everything.

Before you join Urban Meyer, who is walking toward the exit of the Ohio State football office, there’s a scar you need to see. A few years ago in Gainesville, his middle child, Gigi, planned a celebration to formally accept a college volleyball scholarship to Florida Gulf Coast University. It was football season, so she checked her dad’s calendar, scheduling her big day around his job. As the hour approached, she waited at her high school, wanting much, expecting little. Some now-forgotten problem consumed Meyer, and he told his secretary he didn’t have time. He wasn’t going. His beautiful, athletic, earnest daughter would have to sign her letter of intent without him. Meyer’s secretary, a mother of four, insisted: “You’re going.”

Eighty or so people filed into the school cafeteria. Urban and his wife, Shelley, joined their daughter at the front table, watching as Gigi stood and spoke. She’d been nervous all day, and with a room of eyes on her, she thanked her mother for being there season after season, year after year.

Then she turned to her father.

He’d missed almost everything. You weren’t there, she told him.

Shelley Meyer winced. Her heart broke for Urban, who sat with a thin smile, crushed. Moments later, Gigi high-fived her dad without making eye contact, then hugged her coach. Urban dragged himself back to the car. Then — and this arrives at the guts of his conflict . . .

Read the rest here.

Olga Korbut Changed How We Saw the Soviets

Do you remember Olga Korbut?

My children asked me if watching the Olympics was big when I was growing up. I told them it’s hard to explain just how big they were. On our farm in Iowa we only got three television stations. We only had good reception on the one out of Ottumwa. Suddenly to be able to watch sports every night was tremendous.

In rural Iowa, even the St. Louis Cardinals seemed a long ways away. To be able to see athletes from around the world was mind boggling.

Then there was communism. In 1972 it was the height of the Cold War. We despised the Soviets and East Germans. Winning was about much more than the sports. We grew up believing that a nuclear war with the Russians was a very real possibility. The Soviet Union was seen as a huge, impersonal, communist monster.

Losing to the Soviets was heart breaking. I still haven’t gotten over the basketball game. (We were robbed). To this day, it remains one of the most bitter sports memories of my life.

But then there was Olga Korbut and she stole our hearts. She walked into the gymnastics arena unknown by anyone in the West. She smiled and played the crowd. She charmed us and won medals. It’s hard to describe. The world was so much bigger place then. But we suddenly realized that some things transcend politics, like a lovely young gymnast in the 1972 Olympics.

I watched the video below. It’s not very impressive by today’s gymnastic standards. But some of you will remember watching this. Her performance on the uneven bars at about the 4:30 mark is what I remember. Forty years later, I can still remember the announcer saying, “That has never been done by a human before!”

Winning Moments at the Olympics from the Big Picture

Gabby Douglas Interview at Valley Church in Des Moines

The Body and the GSOI is proud. Sweet words from Gabby and the pastor at Valley Church in Des Moines.

Bobby Bowden Says Joe Paterno’s Statue Should Be Removed

Bobby Bowden says that Penn State should remove Paterno's statue.Larry Brown interviewed Florida State coach Bobby Bowden. Denny Burke summarizes:

In a recent radio interview (listen here), Bobby Bowden said that Joe Paterno’s statue should be removed from the campus of Penn State. In his own words:

If I was Joe Paterno’s family, I would want it taken down. Every time they play a game in that stadium, the cameras are going to flash down on that statue of Joe, and it’s going to bring up again this thing with Sandusky. To me, Penn State needs to get that behind them somehow. They gotta pay for the sins — that’s going to cost them a whole lot of money — but every time they see that statue, they’re going to bring that up. I’d hate for his family to have to go through that the rest of their lives.

Bowden was also asked about Paterno’s legacy. . .

Read the rest here.

Al Mohler: The Tragic Lessons of Penn State and a Call to Action

Dr. Mohler explains a change that is being made today in the policy manual for the institution he leads:

No one thought it would end this way. Joe Paterno, the legendary head football coach at Penn State University heard of his firing by the school’s board of trustees by phone last night. Just two weeks after achieving the most wins of any NCAA Division One football coach in history, Paterno was fired. His firing — a necessary action by the Penn State board of trustees — holds lessons for us all.

Almost a decade ago, a graduate assistant told Coach Paterno that an assistant coach, Jerry Sandusky, had been observed forcing a young boy into a sexual act in the school’s football locker room showers. Sandusky was himself a big name in Penn State football, and he was considered a likely successor to Paterno if the head coach had retired. Sandusky also ran an non-profit organization for boys, and he brought the boys onto the Penn State campus. He continued to do so even after his own retirement from Penn State’s coaching staff.

Read the rest here.

SV Football Pictures of the Week: “Pressing on Towards the Goal”

What is it about people that makes us so goal oriented? Maybe there’s a clue in our willingness to strive about who we are as people who seek to accomplish . . .

St. Paul wrote (Philippians 3:12-14):

“Not that I have already obtained all of this,

Paul continues, “nor that I have already been made perfect…”

“But I press on toward the prize. . .

“. . . to win the prize for which God has . . .”

“. . . called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.”

Of course, we dare not use God’s Word only as inspirational quotes. Paul’s point in Philippians is that it’s only in a Cross-centered view of Christ and His good news that we can make sense of the goal-motivated longings of our heart.”

For those weary of pressing on and pursuing see this post . . .

More on the Gospel or Good News here.

9/11/11 National Anthem – Atlanta Falcons at Chicago Bears

HT: Z

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