"We will not be able to recover the vision and understanding of God's grandeur until we recover an understanding of ourselves as creatures who have been made to know such grandeur. This must begin with the recovery of the idea that as beings made in God's image, we are fundamentally moral beings, not consumers, that the satisfaction of our psychological needs pales in significance when compared with the enduring value of doing what is right. Religious consumers want to have a spirituality for the same reason that they want to drive a stylish and expensive auto. Costly obedience is as foreign to them in matters spiritual as self-denial is in matters material. In a culture filled with such people, restoring weight to God is going to involve much more than simply getting some doctrine straight; it's going to entail a complete reconstruction of the modern self-absorbed pastiche personality."
- David Wells
Tuesday, January 22, 2013
This is the first post I have EVER written about football. I once (oh so foolishly, oh so long ago) wrote in the pre-blog emailing days of thinklings that sports was the male version of soap operas. What an idiot I was.
About 4 years ago, my eldest son (then age 7) got interested in football. REALLY interested. Being in Texas, and given that his grandfather was a big Dallas Cowboys fan, that's what he became, and I decided to go with him.
It's been fun & agonizing being a Cowboys fan...but the best part has been the FOOTBALL! I have actually been learning the game. He, of course, now knows way more than me, but I can at least keep up now. I watch football with an appreciation that I have never had before. I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE watching football now. And I feel like I've been given an appreciation for athleticism that I've never had before.
I love watching a player dodge 2 defenders & leap through the air like Superman and come down with a ball that no ordinary mortal could have caught. I love watching a player make a great block to give his quarterback the second more that he needs to make a great pass. I love watching a running back break tackles like Batman running through Arkham. I love everything about football. (Except the injuries. That I could live without. I cringe and pray every time someone is left lying on the field.)
Since the Cowboys didn't make the playoffs, I've been rooting for the underdogs. So yes, I wanted it to be the Redskins vs. the Ravens in the Superbowl, but once the Redskins were knocked out on the NFC side, I was going for the 49'ers.
Here's why, and you finally get to read the purpose of this post:
I have found, when watching a team that isn't "my team", that I root for the team with an individual I like. I just pick a player I can get behind, and root for his team. (I have also found that football is way more fun to watch when you are rooting for someone.) I have watched many a game, not caring which side wins, and enjoyed just appreciating the good plays, but there is an emotional involvement when you want someone to win, that adds to the intensity of the watching experience.
So this past season, according to my son, will either be called: the year of the comeback (because of Peyton Manning, Adrian Peterson, Ray Lewis and others) or the year of the rookie quarterback.
Have you noticed all the running quarterbacks we've had lately? I used to think that such guys were ball hogs. (Again. I was an idiot back before I appreciated football.) Now I see what amazing athletes they are. I love watching those guys: Tebow, RGIII and yeah, Colin Kaepernick.
I also have to admit that I really like the "story" angle when I decide who to root for if my team isn't in the game. (thus lending credence to my "male soap opera theory") So when deciding who to root for in the playoffs, I was going for the underdog because I love an upset. I love it when a team is able to do what no one thought they could.
I also look for the player with a story. So now as we approach Superbowl XLVII, I am torn.
Do I root for Ray Lewis, back at the Superbowl over a decade later? He was Superbowl MVP 12 years ago! He has been playing for the Ravens for 16 years. His only team and the last inaugural player for them. I loved that they let him line up as fullback in their last regular season game at home so that he could do his pregame dance for the fans. I love that he ripped off his shirt to reveal that it said "Psalms 91". He's so passionate and emotional and clearly the leader of the team, that I forgave the fact that he had an "s" at the end of "Psalms". I so loved his emotional display after beating Tom Brady and the Patriots, that I didn't mind that the cameras showed his rear end while he prayed and praised God for the victory. I so loved his sincerity, that I forgave the fact that he said, "No weapon formed against the Ravens shall prosper", totally misusing Scripture. I so loved his tenderness, that I forgave him hugging on his team owner in the locker room while the owner stroked Lewis' forearm. It's been so much fun rooting for him to win so that he wouldn't end his career on a loss. I would love for him to end on a victory, which means me rooting for the Ravens to win this SuperBowl just so I can vicariously celebrate with Ray Lewis!
Or do I root for Colin Kaepernick, replacing the starter mid-season, and running like a maniac? Once the Cowboys lost to the Redskins, I rooted for them to go to the Superbowl (really I was rooting for RG3...once they were out I was rooting for Colin Kaepernick.) Dude has never even started for a whole season. Comes out of nowhere and WHAM! He is so much fun to watch. What an athlete. I saw recently that someone criticized Kaepernick's tatoos because "the quaterback shouldn't look like an inmate". Man, did his mom have a comeback for that one, saying that he was a good boy and his arm tatoos are all Bible verses. It made me want Kaepernick to win so that that I could imagine his mom saying, "That's my boy."
I know the media is going to play up the "brother vs. brother" thing because of the coaches Harbaugh, but to me it's Kaepernick vs. Lewis. Bible verses on the arms vs. Bible verses on the lips. Young vs. Old. I don't know will make me happier. To see a young guy come out of nowhere to take the top prize thus making columnists argue if Kaepernick's style will revolutionize the role of QB or to see Ray Lewis emote like a crazy old man and dance one more time.
What about you? Who are you rooting for and how do you choose?
Oh and how much does whether or not you "like" an individual player have to do with which team you root for, if your main team isn't in the game?
All other SuperBowl and NFL comments can go here. Let the football talk commence!
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Comments on "NFL SuperBowl: Rootin' for the Player":
2. Karl
- 01/22/2013 1:26 pm CST
I love this post. As is true with probably any sport, the more you understand about (a) the basic rules, and then (b) the strategy of the game, the more you enjoy it. People who pooh-pooh the sport as just a bunch of dumb big guys smashing into each other don't realize that especially once you get above the high school level, football is much more like a high level chess match involving not only great physical skills but also strategies within strategies.
I hope Ray Lewis is a trophy of grace. I'm starting to believe that he really is, although I was highly skeptical for quite a while. Would love to hear his testimony. I can understand why the families of those murder victims have a hard time turning on the tv and seeing him lauded so much as a great, inspirational leader of men. Even though he is. So was David for that matter I guess - both a leader and a man after God's own heart, and an adulterer and murder. Thank God for grace.
How I decide who I root for? I grew up a Cowboys fan, in the days of Staubach and Landry. They were America's team, led by two strong Christian men. As great as the Aikman/Emmitt Smith teams were, my rooting interest for them cooled significantly during those years because of the classless way Landry's dismissal was handled, and because I believed (and still do) that Jerry Jones and Jimmy Johnson were first-class jerks. So ever since my Cowboys stopped being my Cowboys, I have been a fan without a team - a fan of the game generally.
I find that in a given game I usually root for underdogs. Sometimes I root for a team that has a player or coach with a compelling story as you describe in your post, or who I otherwise really like, whose playing style I am attracted to or who I saw play in college (I live 45 minutes from Blacksburg, VA and go to quite a few Virginia Tech games).
Sometimes I root for a team because I really like and admire their style of play on either offense or defense. Sometimes I tune in just hoping to see a good game or anticipating what looks like a great matchup or interesting clash of styles, and only find out who I am "rooting for" as the game goes on and I find myself pulling for one team over the other.
3. nhe
- 01/22/2013 8:54 pm CST
As a Falcon fan, it's just gonna be flat hard to watch the game. After watching the agonizing loss together Sunday, my son and I are pretty deflated.
I think Ray Lewis is a tremendous leader of men. His speech in the locker room after their playoff loss last year is the best locker room speech I've ever heard, by far. He is larger than life and inspirational.
But my guy in this Super Bowl is Anquan Bolden. He's the most physical WR in the NFL and just wills every catch like its his last - I love that.
4. Bill
- 01/22/2013 11:16 pm CST
Karl,
To be fair to Ray Lewis, he was cleared of the murder charge. I know that not everyone believes that, but I tend to think he is sincere in his declaration of innocence. I too hope he is a trophy of grace.
5. Karl
- 01/23/2013 9:02 am CST
Bill, I don't think it can be proved that Ray Lewis stabbed anyone and I kind of doubt that he did. But I think at the very least he was part of an ugly altercation in which he wasn't playing the role of peacemaker, was an accessory to the actual murder even if he didn't wield the knife, and covered for those who did it. I think he was "involved in" a murder and career-saving hush-up, whether he is technically guilty of murder or not. If the white suit that he was wearing that night, which mysteriously disappeared and has never been found to this day, ever comes to light and has no blood traces on it, then maybe I'll feel better about his innocence. OJ was cleared too.
http://www.grantland.com/blog/the-triangle/post/_/id/47958/remembering-the-ray-lewis-controversy
http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nfl/2013/01/10/ray-lewis-baltimore-ravens-atlanta-murder-2000/1566198/
"Having fled the crime scene, Lewis told the limo's passengers to 'keep their mouths shut.' The white suit Lewis was wearing that night — on Super Bowl Sunday — never was found.
"I'm not trying to end my career like this," Lewis said in his hotel that night, according to the testimony of a female passenger in the limo."
None of that means he is beyond redemption or transformation by the grace and power of Jesus Christ into a new man. I hope that is what has happened, that he had a Damascus Road experience and transformation. No question he's a different guy in many ways now than he was then, and no question he has become one of the greatest team leaders ever in team sports.
6. nhe
- 01/23/2013 9:14 am CST
I'm very conflicted regarding Ray Lewis.
On the field, and in the locker room, he's the best leader of men of any player in the NFL we've seen (I think) in our lifetime.
Away from the stadium......I really just don't get it.
I don't think he killed anyone, but did you see how he was dressed that fateful night 15 years ago here in Atlanta? Long white mink coat with a white mink hat complete with a feather. He looked like Kramer in the famous "Techno-color Dream Coat" Seinfeld episode. Really ridiculous.
That's a lasting image for me regarding Ray Lewis - and it has nothing to do with what may or may not have happened that night.
Despite 6 kids w/ 4 women, I do think he's a different person since then, to his credit.
But spiritually, I see a very charismatic representative of the prosperity gospel, which is just hard for me to get past. He "claims victories" and misuses scripture so passionately that people (even irreligious sports commentators) are in awe. It's pretty scary.
So, I think young athletes would do well to fully emulate the Ray Lewis that resides w/in the confines of the stadium.......and correspondingly would do well to not choose to follow after the Ray Lewis I've observed outside of that venue.
7. Karl
- 01/23/2013 9:19 pm CST
I really enjoy watching Bolden play, too. He has such great hands and is so strong. I wish the Cardinals had been able to keep him and Larry Fitzgerald together with Kurt Warner for a couple more years as that was a dynamic offense to watch (like the Falcons' current QB and WR combo but better IMO).
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Phil, your Man Card is in the mail.
Hey, I used to despise Ray Lewis, but now I like him. Somehow I sense he's a trophy of grace. I have never heard his testimony, but I'll bet he's got a good one. I'm going to root for Baltimore and the AFC since I'm a Texans fan.