Posts filed under ‘NCAA FB’
Top 12 Evangelicals in Sports
You can stay home on Sunday to watch football, skip Tuesday night prayer meeting for the baseball game of the week, and miss Saturday’s church retreat in favor of a pro golf tournament–chances are, you’ll still hear about Jesus. Evangelical athletes populate the major sports, and many of them enjoy the chance to be outspoken about their faith–thanking God for that winning field goal, late-inning homerun, or 18-foot putt.
We’ve scanned the sporting world to come up with a gallery of some of the most dominant athletes and coaches working today. Each of these men and women work hard, as their Bibles tell them, “to win the prize,” both in their sports and in their faith. (more…)
Debate continues: What place does religion have in sports?
The images are everywhere: players pointing skyward after scoring touchdowns, teams gathering for prayer, coaches praising God following victories.
Religion has always been a part of the sports world, but its presence today is hard to ignore. Some say more athletes and coaches have been emboldened to speak out because of the rise of conservative Christianity in politics, where it has become mainstream to discuss religious beliefs.
President George W. Bush helped usher in that era, and was elected largely because of the religious right. We are seeing Christianity play a role in the Republican primaries with Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee. But there is a major divide in politics that parallels a similar split in the sports world: There are those who believe God belongs everywhere, and there are those who believe God belongs only in church.
In sports, both sides of the “to preach or not to preach” question are jockeying for attention. The more we see the vulnerability of athletes and corruption in sports, the more each side feels it is necessary to speak out either for or against religion in sports. That presents a series of questions: (more…)
Bowden: “Nothing else in the world that is everlasting, except Jesus Christ”
Louisiana College athletics director Tim Whitman said the LC football program will make “between $50-75,000” from LC’s inaugural Football Celebration Friday evening that featured longtime Florida State football coach Bobby Bowden and LSU running back Jacob Hester.
Whitman said he made the wide-ranging guess at the revenue generated from the program without having seen all the figures, especially from the silent auction.
Neither of the featured guests required a speaking fee, Whitman said, and he noted different people donated the money necessary to pay for their flights in and out of Alexandria.
“Coach Bowden normally charges $25,000 to speak, but he did it for us at no cost because of his relationship with our people,” Whitman said. “It was wonderful to have two great figures who spoke on our campus about putting God first in their lives. It was great for our town, our football team and our college.” (more…)
Top College Prospect Plays For Jesus
Autographed photographs of Matt Leinart and Colt Brennan hang on the wall in Bruce Rollinson’s office at Mater Dei High School.
In their inscriptions, Leinart and Brennan thank Rollinson for his guidance during their high school careers. They are among nine quarterbacks he has coached who went on to play in college during his 19 seasons as the coach at Mater Dei.
Yet of all the quarterbacks to play at the Catholic school, the best could be the 17-year-old junior Matt Barkley. The 6-foot-3, 225-pound Barkley is rated as one of the top recruits for the class of 2009. Last month, he quietly committed to Southern California, where his father, Les, played water polo in college.
He chose U.S.C. over U.C.L.A., California, Oregon, Florida and Notre Dame. (more…)
Top 12 Evangelicals in Sports
Source: Christian Post
A popular religious Web site named its top 12 evangelical Christians in sports this weekend in time for Sunday’s Super Bowl XLII between the undefeated New England Patriots and the New York Giants.
In pro-football, running back Shaun Alexander of the Seattle Seahawks, punter Hunter Smith of the Indianapolis Colts, and Colts coach Tony Dungy made beliefnet.com’s “Who’s Who” list.
Alexander, the 2005 NFL MVP, is always seen pointing to the sky after a touchdown to credit God for his success.
“Everyone has been given gifts that can be used to bring glory to God,” Alexander wrote in his 2006 memoir Touchdown Alexander. “And when we bring glory to God through the gifts He has given us, we are blessed. For me, the gift was athletic ability.” (more…)
Colt McCoy tries to be ‘strong, Christian influence on others’
Source:
This article is from September 8, 2006:
The roster of the defending national champion University of Texas Longhorns reads a lot like the college ministry roll at the nearby University Avenue church in Austin. No. 96 Lokey, Derek No. 12 McCoy, Colt No. 8 Shipley, Jordan For those who need a program to keep up, those would be, in order, the 2006 squad’s starting defensive tackle, quarterback and wide receiver. When the No. 2 Longhorns take on the No. 1 Ohio State Buckeyes on Saturday, plenty of attention will be focused on McCoy, a redshirt freshman making just his second collegiate start. Ohio State fan Nolan Rutter, minister at the Clinton, Mo., church, said he’ll pray that McCoy and his teammates are spared injury, but not a regular season loss. Ohio State 35, Texas 30 is his final score prediction. Brad McCoy, naturally, is predicting a Longhorn win. He said his son is approaching the game with a strong faith in God, reliance on prayer and on his teammates, especially those who are also his brothers in Christ. “The decisions he had made through his life, all the sacrifices to become a great football player, most of those are Christian sacrifices, too,” said Brad McCoy, a member of the Eastside church in Graham, Texas. “Socially, he was always making sure he was a strong, Christian influence on others.” (more…)
Vandy’s Earl Bennett asked God to guide him in right way
Below is part of the transcription of Earl Bennett’s Jan. 10 press conference announcing his decision to forego his senior year at Vanderbilt and declare himself eligible for the 2008 NFL Draft.
Earl Bennett
First of all, I’d like to thank all of you for coming out and sharing this moment with me. After thinking weeks and weeks about the situation, talking it over with my family, talking it over with my coaches, my friends, close relatives, and mainly just talking to God and asking him to guide me the right way and keeping me under his guidance throughout this process; throughout the weeks, I went through deep consideration, deep evaluation, talking the whole process out with Coach Johnson, analyzing different strategies and things, so with that said, I’ve decided to skip my senior year and make myself eligible for the 2008 NFL Draft. It just came out that I had a great three years at Vanderbilt; there’s nowhere else I’d rather have been in these three years, and I just thank Coach Johnson and his staff for continuing to recruit me even when I was committed to Kentucky, thanking them for the chance to let me come into this program and continue to build on it.
What were the pluses and minuses that you went through?
I mean, I was just weighing out different options. If I come back, I always risk getting injured. There were a lot of pluses and a lot of minuses, and I felt like just talking to God and asking him to guide me in the right way, I can’t go wrong with the decision whether I came back or whether I left. Vanderbilt is a fine university, you have great teammates, great players, and Vanderbilt’s gonna do great things next year, and I just sat and talked to God and asked him to guide me in the right way. That was the ultimate factor. (more…)
Ray Rice says good-bye to Rutgers
“First I would like to thank God, my family, and Coach Schiano for everything he’s done for me in leading me this far,” Rutgers’ all-time leading rusher said. “After the last few days, me and Coach Schiano sat down and what I did was just evaluate what was best for me and my family. And I’m always going to be grateful for what I’ve done here at Rutgers and for what Rutgers has done for me. After sitting down with Coach, Rutgers has really made me into a man and I’m proudly glad to be able to say that.
“I’m humbled here today just to say that I’m always going to be a part of the Scarlet Knight family.”
Rice spoke of the chance to play in the NFL as something he could not pass up.
“I’ve always dreamed of playing in the NFL – that’s something I’ve dreamed of as a child,” said Rice, who intends to return to Rutgers at some point to get his degree. “The opportunity came knocking , so I’m going to take it forth from there.”
Big Faith in Little Man
Source: BPSports.net
A story on Navysports.com profiles Navy’s Reggie Campbell and examines his friendship with teammate Irv Spencer.
“That’s my brother in Christ, right there, my brother from another mother, as I always say,” Spencer said about Campbell.
Campbell, at 5 feet 6 inches tall and 168 pounds, is small for a slot back. But despite his size, he’s earned respect from his opponents for his ability.
“It doesn’t really bother me,” Campbell said of the questions he gets about his size. “When I look at someone else, say another sport with an undersized guy, I kind of see why people are so amazed at a smaller person doing things (they consider) out of the ordinary.
“It just goes to show, you can do anything through Christ. That’s how I feel about it.”
Football has given Tadman platform to witness
Playing football at Boise State University, Marty Tadman has made such a name for himself that someone else has it.
“I have a kid named after me, Tadman. It was (by) some random fan. It was kind of weird, surreal,” Tadman said.
A 5-11, 185-pound senior safety from Mission Viejo, Calif., Tadman was named first team All-Western Athletic Conference this season, Boise State’s defensive player of the year and helped lead the Broncos to a 10-3 record.
With 83 regular-season tackles, 10 pass break-ups, two interceptions and two career-high games of 12 tackles (Southern Mississippi and Louisiana Tech), Tadman was described on national television as the best defensive player on the team. (more…)
Jesus Christ's Superstars - Celebrities, Athletes, Actors who use their spotlight to honor God. 