Athens, Georgia football coach teaches their players life lessons during “Manly Mondays”

Back when I was a young single guy, I spent a lot of time at the bar. We all knew each other by name. We played pool, snooker, darts and all other types of games. We talked about everything from sports, politics, religion and women. I felt accepted. If I didn’t show up the other guys would call on the phone and want to know why wasn’t I there?

Today, I spend a lot of time at church. I know everybody that walks in the door. My family feels accepted at the two different churches we go to. But within those churches some people have said and done things to make other people feel unaccepted at the one place on earth that everyone should be accepted equally no matter what.

For instance, when someone tells me about children making noise at church, I respond with this comment, “Children are the rebirth of this church. Those kids being in church is way more important than us being able to hear the pastor while preaching.”

No matter who walks through the door into the church, our job is to make those strangers feel accepted. Jesus is the only answer to all of our needs here on this earth and when folks are looking for Him they need to see Him in us.

Jordan Peterson on why nice guys finish last.

I approached my old football coach one day at church and asked him, “What was with all that anger at football practice back in our day?” My coach said, “We as coaches knew that angry football teams played the games better than non-angry teams, so we tried to create anger at practice.”

Some of the coach’s favorite drills to create anger were seemingly endless up downs and lots of time in various Oklahoma tackling drills. Sometimes during those tackling drills the coach would tell the ball carrier to go at 50% speed and tell the tackler to go at 100% speed, too supposedly work on his form and wrap up while tackling. That drill alone created lots of anger.

Coach told me that during his nine years as the head coach, he then would try to transfer that anger towards the coaches and teammates to the opposing team we would play on Friday nights. He said it worked every year except one. That one year the team had so much anger that they never transferred it to their opponents on Friday nights. He said we used to scrimmage on Tuesday and/or Wednesday night back in the day and the best football that team ever played was during those scrimmages at practice. The coach got a gleam in his eyes and smile on his face as he said, “There was some serious hitting going on during those scrimmages and the only ones who got to enjoy it was us coaches!”

Have you ever read Psalm 109? Psalms are prayers to God and the writer starts out actually praying for his enemies, but then changes his tone. He then lets human hatred take over and asks God to do terrible things to his enemies. The following are just some of his thoughts about his enemies:

May his days be few.
May his children be fatherless and his wife a widow.
May his children wander about and beg.
May the creditor seize all he has and etc.

If you notice, as you read, the writer asks for help from God to defend him. He does not take this hatred and go do evil to his enemy himself. He leaves the judgment up to God.

There is a time and place for everything in this life and prayer is a good place for our hatred.

Psalm 109

Football is a game that is played in all types of weather. Rain, wind or snow the game can still be played. The only weather that will stop a football game in Kansas is the thunderstorm with lightning, and even then we only delay for a little bit, until we can start again.

Even in really cold weather we just put on a few more clothes under our pads and uniforms and play the game. The crowd might not be as large as a perfect fall weather evening, but even in the most brutal weather, there are plenty of fans at the games.

How about your church going? Are you one of the hardy breed of church goers that go no matter what the weather is doing, just like that hardy bunch of football fans? Or are you one of those fair weather fans who only show up at the football game and church on nice days.

I wonder what God thinks about us when we go to the football game in all types of weather, but won’t go to church on bad weather days?

Psalm 122:1 I was glad when they said to me, “Let us go into the house of the Lord.”

Are you glad to go to church?

Coach Bill Linhart was the coach who came to me my junior year, when I was not going to go out for basketball and said he wanted me to go out just so he could teach me to be a defensive back for the football team. He had talked to our head football coach and they decided to switch me from a linebacker to defensive back.

He would take me to the varsity end of practice to play defense all the time. One night my senior year before practice, he told me he was going to make me play defense that night against Tommy our post player on the inside, even though I was a guard. He said, “Tim, I want you to be rough with Tommy. We are playing Colby this Friday night and they have all those big guys, so I want you to shove him with your hips on rebounds, stand on one of his feet, if he is getting ready to jump, foul him hard across the arms if he is shooting and etc.” He also said, “Now you know Tommy, he will get pissed off and probably try to throw an elbow or a fist at you so be ready for that also.”

After practice Tommy said to me, “McGonagle, I almost punched you once out there tonight, what was the deal with you.” I told him, “Coach Linhart told me to be terrible to you tonight.” Tommy said, “Why?” I told him what the coach had said, “Because we are playing Colby Friday night and they are all bigger than you and he said it would be a rough game so he wanted practice tonight to be rougher on you than the game could ever potentially be.”

Colby was the number one ranked team in state in class 3A and undefeated at 17-0 and we beat them that night because of Tommy and Coach Linhart’s coaching, well before the game ever started.

Coach Linhart past away this past week in Emporia, we will miss him.

Great article about Going to Church in America is key to long and happy lives.

Sioux County is probably the most Christian county in all of Iowa.
“In a town of 7,000 people — 19 churches,” Jordan Helming, a local resident, tells me.

The county has the highest portion of evangelicals in the state and an even higher rate of mainline Protestants, according to the Association of Religious Data Archives.

Sioux County also scores high on other important measures: It has the second-lowest portion of residents on disability in Iowa and the lowest drug-overdose rate in the state.

A few counties south, Pottawattamie County — home to Council Bluffs — is Iowa’s least religious large county, according to ARDA’s numbers. Pottawattamie has one religious organization per 1,400 residents, one-third the rate of Sioux County.

Counties at the bottom of ARDA’s religiosity rankings in Iowa — Pottawattamie, Adams, and Appanoose — also have (per capita) the most overdoses, the most violent crimes, and the most disability claims.

Read more here…..

The cornerback on our team was injured on a play and went out for the rest of the game. The coaches moved me from safety to that cornerback position. On the very first play from scrimmage, I could see it was going to be a sweep by the offense in my direction. So I went straight down the line of scrimmage and here was the All State running back coming directly at me. As he got close to me he planted his foot and cut straight up field. At the very moment that he cut up field was when I hit him with my helmet right in his jersey numbers and wrapped him up.

This running back out weighed me by 50 pounds and was the starting fullback at Fort Hays State one year later. I knew instantly I was never going to get this running back to the ground, but at the same moment I had that thought, one of my teammates hit the ball carrier in the back of his knees. With my hit to his front side and the wrap up and my friend hitting him down low, I drove him over the top of my teammate and drilled him into the ground.

When I got up from the turf, all five of my coaches were doing the happy dance on the side lines. Jumping up and down and screaming my name telling me great tackle etc. I was kind of embarrassed by their reaction, because I knew in my mind that the running back was going to carry me 25 yards down field into the end zone, if someone didn’t help me out.

Ecclesiastes 4:9 Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their labor.