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.

The LA Rams vs the New Orleans Saints football game where the Rams defensive back committed pass interference on the Saints receiver with 1:45 left in the game and the infraction was not flagged? It was very obvious; the referees looked to be favoring the Rams. For several years now I have thought the NFL was favoring certain teams they wanted to win. Seems more like show time, instead of just football. So I am officially disillusioned with NFL football.

A young man that grew up in our community went off to college and then became a pastor. He lived out of state and the church he started grew by leaps and bounds. Then one weekend he came back to his hometown to hold a revival for his hometown church. Lots of people from the community went to see him preach, because we had heard so much about what was happening in his newly started church.

On the very first night that he spoke, the very first thing out of his mouth was the following: “I am only a man. Eventually, I will do something or say something that will disappoint you. So don’t worship me. I am here tonight to tell you about the only perfect man to ever live on this earth and he was Jesus. He will never disappoint you. May all honor and glory and praise be his and his Father in heaven.”

Remember the golden calf that Moses’ brother Aaron made for the Israelites who had just escaped from Egypt and 600 years of slavery? That golden calf represents many things that can be worshiped in our world today. Money, power, fame, pastors and of course the game of football may all be worshiped just like that golden calf. It wouldn’t surprise me at all, to find out that the golden calf, has a brand on his backside that says NFL.

Exodus 32

P.S. The NFL has shut down the sound and won’t allow the video to play from our website. They know they have a problem.

https://youtu.be/w-0OtWeSM_E

What does the Catholic Church teach about sportsmanship and our responsibilities as fans, coaches and players?

Some of you might already be thinking, “This is supposed to be a faith column, not a sports column, Father, why don’t you stick to your field.” Well, the truth is, that as a Catholic priest, whatever Catholics participate in becomes my field, because whatever we do, should be enlightened by our faith. Let me explain.

To my knowledge, none of the Popes or Vatican congregations has ever written a formal document on the place of sports and sportsmanship in the lives of Catholics. That being said, there have been plenty of Church leaders who have written about the importance of glorifying God in all that we do. For Americans, because sports are something “that we do” often, our faith in God should enlighten this aspect of our lives as well.

Here is what the Catechism says in its single paragraph about sports. “If morality requires respect for the life of the body, it does not make it an absolute value. It rejects a neo-pagan notion that tends to promote the cult of the body, to sacrifice everything for its sake, to idolize physical perfection and success at sports. By its selective preference of the strong over the weak, such a conception can lead to the perversion of human relationships.” (CCC 2289)

Do you think we “idolize physical perfection and success at sports? Do you think we regularly neglect the weak and glorify the strong? Brothers and sisters, I don’t think we do, I know we do. Teenage boys are sacrificing everything to become the successful athlete they think will make themselves and their parents happy, teenage girls are developing eating disorders everyday trying to attain the physical perfection pictured in our airbrushed magazine advertisements. And we now have the medical technology to “snuff out” any human life that might be genetically weak or disabled.

Is all of this a result of sports? No, all of this is a result of human beings not allowing every aspect of our lives to be enlightened by or checked by our faith. In many places, sports have become one of these unchecked areas of Catholic family life.

How many of us have ever thought about or set out our main priorities in life? Sadly, for many of us, we have a different set of priorities depending upon what building we are in; office, home, gymnasium. My own personal definition of sportsmanship is to be able to walk into a gymnasium or a football field with the same list of priorities that I would have when walking into church, or the office, or a hospital. What are these priorities? Well, as Mother Theresa put it, when a Catholic places in order the priorities of Jesus, Others, then Yourself, it will produce JOY in your life.

First, to place God as first priority is to believe God is your biggest fan or biggest critic when you are on the court or in the field. This was the reason for the popularity of the What Would Jesus Do bracelets a couple decades ago. It was a practical way to remind oneself of first priority, how does God influence my actions in sports?

Secondly, we must place others above winning. This means that no human being should be hurt physically, emotionally, mentally, as a result of our physical play or our tongue. This includes every possible scenario; fans talking to officials, coaches talking to players, grandparents talking about players or coaches, players competing or trash talking with one another. This also includes school administrations hiring coaches who have these priorities in order and desire to instill them into their players. In every scenario, placing other’s well being above “winning” is good sportsmanship.

Lastly we should be concerned about ourselves. However, notice that we ourselves still have priority over “winning.” (Winning doesn’t even make the top three priorities in life.) Anytime we sacrifice our health or our emotional well being for the sake of winning, we mess up the order of priority.

Is all of this difficult? Of course it is, it’s a pain to be the one to accept a bad call, or to keep our mouth shut when it is blatantly obvious what the coach is doing is wrong. Does sportsmanship mean we shouldn’t try to win? Of course not. I love winning. I’m the most competitive priest I know and thus I know exactly how difficult it is to balance competition with faith, and I definitely do not always succeed. However, because sportsmanship is so difficult, it is also an amazingly powerful form of evangelization. People in our communities know we are Catholic, and if they see us holding our tongue and helping others up and congratulating our opponents, putting these three priorities in order, they are going to be suspicious of what makes us so different. They will witness our joy and desire it for themselves. They will be inspired by our sportsmanship and slowly begin to rearrange the priorities in their own lives placing God at the top.

In Christ’s Loving Service
Your Pastor,
Fr. Jarett Konrade
https://stn-church.com/

Denzel Washington Motivational & Inspiring Commencement Speech

Do you know the plays? Whether on offense or defense do you know the plays? You see the quarterback in a football game right before the snap, pointing to a player and talking to that player. The quarterback, most of the time, is telling the player where to line up. For that particular play, the player is most likely lining up in the wrong place. So the quarterback tells him where to line up.

A busted play is when the quarterback is snapped the ball from the center and then something goes wrong. The quarterback turns to the right, to hand off the ball to the running back, and the running back is behind him on the left. The left guard pulls to his right and the right guard pulls to his left and they collide into each other behind the center. You must memorize the plays and not depend on someone else to tell you where to go.

Do you know your faith? You call yourself a Christian, but do you know your faith? You go to church as often as you can on Sundays, just because you always have, but do you know your faith? If I asked you to repeat the 10 commandments, in order, could you do it? If I asked you to tell me the name of the four gospels, could you do it? Who was the first martyr of the Christian faith? Can you repeat the creeds from memory? Have you read the Bible, cover to cover?

Are you one of those football players the quarterback has to tell where to line up, before the snap of the ball? I challenge you to memorize the plays and your faith.

James 1:22-25 Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror and after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do.

The long snapper, in a football game, is very important. He must snap the ball to the punter or place kick holder and be perfect every time. Most of the time it is no longer just the starting center doing the long snapper duties, it is a specialist who the coach trains to perform this particular duty.

As the long snapper you can have the greatest game and make every snap perfect and no one will ever notice. But if you make one bad snap in the game, suddenly everyone will know who you are and they will question your ability to do what you do.

In our Christian walk of life most of us are also called to be a niche role player like the long snapper. Most of us will never be the quarterback or the all-state running back. But the job God has given you will be just as important even though the ball is rarely in our hands.

As a Christian, people will be watching you as you live your life. They will see you go to church. They will see the cross or the rosary beads hanging from your rear view mirror in your vehicle. And when you snap the ball over the punters head (so to speak) and screw up, everyone will know your name and talk about you. “Yeah, he is supposed to be a Christian, but look at him now!”

In the football game the coach may be angry, but he will put the long snapper back in the game to snap on the next opportunity. God will do the same and forgive you of your screw up also.

John 8:3-11 The Scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman caught in adultery, and having set her in the center of the court, they said to Him, “Teacher, this woman has been caught in adultery, in the very act. Now in the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women; what then do you say?” They were saying this, testing Him, so that they might have grounds for accusing Him. But Jesus stooped down and with His finger wrote on the ground. But when they persisted in asking Him, He straightened up, and said to them, “He who is without sin among you, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.” Again He stooped down and wrote on the ground. When they heard it, they began to go out one by one, beginning with the older ones, and He was left alone, and the woman, where she was, in the center of the court. Straightening up, Jesus said to her, “Woman, where are they? Did no one condemn you?” She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said, “I do not condemn you, either. Go. From now on sin no more.”

Four or five of us neighbor boys were at Paul’s house. Paul was a couple of years older than us and had just received a brand new BB gun for his birthday. He was letting each of us take a turn at shooting the new gun.

When Paul finally got the gun back in his hands he turned around, took aim at my face and from about two feet away pulled the trigger. His shot hit me just under my left eye on my cheek bone and the BB bounced off my face. I immediately started running away from the area.

My house was a block away and when I got there, I ran into the bathroom. I put toilet paper on the wound and tried to stop the bleeding, which was considerable. My father followed me into the bathroom and said, “What happened?” I said, “Paul just shot me in the face with his BB gun from about two feet away.” My Dad grabbed me by the back of the neck and said, “Let’s go.” I said, “Where are we going?” He said, “To Paul’s house.”

When we arrived at Paul’s house my Dad hit the front door loudly three times with the bottom of his fisted hand. Paul’s Dad opened the door and said, “Joe, what is wrong?” My Dad said, “Your Paul just shot my kid in the face with the BB gun from about two feet away.” Paul’s Dad turned around facing into the house and yelled, “Paul get up here right now.”

Paul got to the door almost immediately. His Dad said to him, “Did you shoot Tim with the gun?” Paul said, “Yes sir.” Paul’s Dad looked back at my Dad and said, “Joe, I will take care of this problem on my end and thank you for coming over.”

I learned later that Paul had his new BB gun taken away from him forever and he received the butt whipping of his life.

A few days ago, I read a story in the news that said; about 50% of the babies in the United States are born out of wedlock with many a father not present. My first thought was, who raises these kids and tells them that shooting another kid in the face with a BB gun is unacceptable behavior?

The coach in pregame says this to his team in the locker room: “Now guys, let’s be nice out there tonight. I want you to quit being so rough on the other team. Quit hitting them so hard. Stop hanging on to the football so tightly; carry it loose so it is easier for the other team to get it away from us. Lets just be nice guys tonight.

My guess is, no coach in America at any level of football from junior high to the N.F.L. has ever said that speech and meant it.

Galations 1:10 Am I now trying to win the approval of human beings, or of God? Or am I trying to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a servant of Christ.

Men (and women) need to be challenged. That is why, I think, we love the game of football, our guys against your guys. Who has worked harder in preparation for the game, both mentally and physically? The game itself is a challenge to play. It is not for the soft in spirit and body.

Our spiritual lives are also challenging. It is difficult to love everyone. It is difficult to read the Bible and pray everyday. It is at times difficult to get to church.

But once we start to do the things recommended by Coach Jesus, it gets easier to do. We start to take on the characteristics of our Coach.

So are you pleasing people instead of God? Have you gone soft?

Last Friday night at the football game, I was overwhelmed with the actual beauty of everything surrounding the game. The football field itself was green and beautiful with the painted white stripes and numbers. The colors of the two opposing team’s uniforms and helmets were like a picture painted on that field of green.

The stadium seating on both sides of the field were full of fans in all their school colors. The seating areas were full and many fans were standing on both sides of the field up and down the sidelines. You could hear the band playing their music. You could smell the popcorn and the hamburgers being cooked. There was a slight breeze and the flags around the stadium were flipping lightly in the wind.

Clouds covered about ninety percent of the sky as the sun was setting which added an orange hue to the clouds adding to the colorful and beautiful evening.

Even if you didn’t know a thing about high school football you could have just enjoyed the atmosphere, the beauty and the excitement of the situation.

In our religious life, I think we sometimes focus too much on the rules and laws of that religious life. What we need to focus more on is the beauty of our religious life. Many of us go to churches that are some of the biggest and most beautiful buildings in our town that have beautiful stained glass windows that tell the story of our Christian faith. We have music that is hopefully inspiring in both word and sound.

When the pastor or priest bless the bread and wine or juice have you ever just watched that part of the service and thought back to when Jesus actually started that tradition over 2,000 years ago? It is beautiful to watch it today.

At some point to really understand what is going on in a football game we need to know the rules of the game. Our religious lives are the same, but to start with focus on the beauty of our worship services and on the beauty of the life lived by Jesus in the four gospels.

I was the starting wide receiver for our varsity football team my senior year with a new head football coach. Through the first five games of the season, I was the leading pass receiver in both yards and catches in our combined 10 team league. But I had not played one down of defense.

In that fifth game our starting safety sustained a concussion and was taken to the hospital by ambulance. I knew the doctor would not allow that safety to play in the next game.

The following Monday, before practice, I went to our head football coach and told him I was willing to give up my starting wide receiver position just to get some playing time on defense. His comment back was, “We will see” and then he walked off. My first thought was, ‘That didn’t go very well.’

That Friday night a sophomore started at safety and that made me angry. When the fourth quarter started, the coach called for me and he inserted me into the game at safety. I had a chip on my shoulder and was still angry. As I recall, I only made two tackles in that fourth quarter. Both tackles came against our opponents All-State running back in the open field. That second tackle was right in front of my head coach, near the sideline. When I got up, I looked at our coach, he did not say anything, but had a big smile on his face.

The following Monday before practice got started, the coach said he had an announcement to make. He said, “We are changing our defense this week. We are going to drop our 5-man front and go with a 4-man front and start two safeties. Tim will be starting at strong safety and Dwight will be back also, after his concussion, at free safety.

For the final three games of the year I never left the field. I was starting both ways and was put on every special team. In those three and a quarter games, I finished the season with 19 unassisted tackles and 35 assisted tackles and one fumble returned for a touchdown.

Ten years after that season (yes it took ten years) I wrote a letter to my old head football coach, who lived in another community. I thanked him for listening to me that night before practice and giving me a chance to play some defense and thanked him for being our coach that season. I received a wonderful letter back from him which I still cherish since he has passed away.

My thought for you today is send a real snail mail letter or card to your old football coach and thank him for being your coach. You may not have agreed with everything he did, but he was still your coach.