Is God a Football Fan?

*shrug* What can ya’ say?

For a short time period, Dion Sanders did a “Holy Ghost dance” whenever he intercepted a pass. He never did that dance when he got schooled and gave up a touchdown. Go figure.

I think God appreciates football – just like I think he appreciates SOME opera – and good literature – and great art – and a really good meal – and a nice hair style. I just don’t think he’s a “fan” in the classic sense of just about anything.

I think I agree with your sentiments. The idea of God taking sides in a sporting event seems silly. However, once I take that step, I honestly have to say that I have a difficult time making a distinction between attributing to God the outcome of a sporting event and attributing to God the outcome of a loved one’s possibly terminal illness (for instance). I think most of us would agree that it would be bad form to criticize someone for claiming that their loved one was saved by virtue of their prayers. Obviously I don’t know the answer to this one. It’s something I struggle with.

I think some gods are football fans. Isn’t there a wickedly devious field goal god that kickers have to appease? That god was not in Nevada last weekend.

But I think GOD himself really isn’t concerned about the score. I have a hope that GOD is concerned about the outcome, but not wins and loses. I hope he’s concerned with how players handle the wins and loses, and how they can use those experiences to make them better people. I don’t have a problem with a player pointing to the sky after he/she scores, or thanking God for their talents/abilities. We sometimes see those same people still praising and thanking God even when they lose, but it would probably be bad form and annoy fans if they did their Holy Ghost dance after losing their jock and getting schooled. I saw that a player just this last week caught hell from fans and press after being seen laughing with a teammate on the sidelines while losing a game. “You’re supposed to look sad, dummy!” Maybe they were saying, “Check it out, we’re getting our butts whipped by a better team today but we’re still happy because of the talents God gave us that allows us to play at this very high level and make LOTS of money! Thanks, God! We praise you. Now, can I please throw a touchdown pass?”

That guy in particular might have been saying, “Thank you God for letting me start ahead of the Mormon.”

Maybe the reason BYU doesn’t win every game is because there are enough Mormons praying that they’ll lose. Ha.

God is a football fan, and I hear he will be in Corvallis this Saturday for College Gameday, tailgating at the Civil War.

DA = bringing up the Collie comments made me go into giggles – all over again. Thanks for that. I had almost forgotten that embarrassing episode. I once wrote a letter to SLC with a GREAT tithing proposal. I proposed that we base the tithing % on the number of wins BYU gets during their football season. I can’t believe they didn’t take me up on it. At the time they were getting 11-12 wins a season! Of course, on a year like this, I might actually be able to be a full-tithe payer and get TR!

Sam – I think soccer is a fine sport to play — if you have ovaries.

Okay girlss, let’s get serious here. One of my brothers (oh god, you know this isn’t going to end well) wrestled for Ricks college. He CLAIMS that Bedard, who was the school president at the time, would often give talks to the sports teams and tell them that “Ricks was God’s school, so they were God’s team, and that if they were living right and following the commandments, that they could expect divine help in their sporting event.”

I believe him (my brother, idiots – not Bedard! ) It certainly makes sense, especially after Collie’s remarks, which were very similar to what I heard my brother say on multiple occasions 15 years ago or so.

Of course, this is just one more episode/story that helps folks understand why I have such a difficult time with orthodoxy/cultural mormonism.

Don’t good Christian wrestlers turn the other cheek?

http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=game+they+play+in+heaven

DA = bringing up the Collie comments made me go into giggles – all over again. Thanks for that. I had almost forgotten that embarrassing episode.

It’s harder to forget about here because people keep bringing it up (along with Max Hall’s tirade about hating the University of Utah and its fans) because of all the animosity between Utah and BYU fans.

… That’s why I usually draft many players that I don’t really like for my fantasy teams because winning doesn’t really depend on being nice and maybe there is even an inverse correlation in many cases.

I was an avid fantasy football participant from 1995-2010. I had a job writing a weekly satire column called “Wals Calls” for the website, junkyardjake.com and fftoolbox.com. Curious, did you ever come across it?

I read a few articles on fftoolbox but I can’t remember exactly which ones. I haven’t spent a lot of time researching different projections or strategies as much as I’d like to most years because it seems like once the draft date comes up I usually end up having only about an hour or two to prepare for it.

BYU vs UTEP (also 6 and 6).

BYU better step up its prayers…they seem to only be working half the time right now, unlike UTEP that is left to chance and the strength in the arm of flesh.

Well…all joking aside…my point was that I think we should use our noggins to know what to pray for in our lives, and accept there are some things God is not likely to get involved in (like football). It goes back to some of our earlier discussions about our expectations, and how we can be let down if our expectations are not set correctly.