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.

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/