I remember when the first Super Bowl was played in the 1960s. The Packers were the neighborhood bully, and the Chiefs never had a chance. Two years later, however, the balance of power began to shift as Joe Namath and his Jets shocked the football world by knocking off the feared Baltimore Colts. By the…
Read More »Last week, the annual Major League Baseball owners’ meetings took place, and everyone expected lots of wheeling and dealing. But the expected flood of player movement was not happening—it was more like a trickle. Analysts maintained that the logjam was created by the two top free-agent players, pitcher Zack Greinke and outfielder Josh Hamilton. Once they…
Read More »We’ve all seen it—an NBA forward takes a hard foul, and gets up swinging his fists. A pitcher throws at a hitter’s head, and both benches clear. Hockey players drop their gloves and start going at each other. The intensity of emotions that are stirred in the midst of competition are part of what makes…
Read More »Yesterday, the final games of the 2011–2012 Barclay’s Premier League season were played. At one end of the table, teams were fighting to stay out of relegation (where the bottom three teams get demoted to the next division down), while at the other end, teams were fighting for the privilege of playing in the UEFA…
Read More »Throughout the month of October, the Sports Spectrum team has been looking at the “Five Tools of Effective Christianity.” In this conversation we’ll wrap it up with a focus on “patience.” To help out with this challenging discipline, we’ll talk with former NFL lineman, Drew Preston; Southern Illinois University safety, Mike McElroy; and chaplain with…
Read More »As a Cleveland Browns fan, I have rooted for the Browns for almost 50 years (hard to believe, but true). Still, the last two decades have just about been the death of me. First, the loss of the franchise to Baltimore. Then, the return of the team as an expansion franchise. Then, a series of…
Read More »The US women’s soccer team will play France in the semifinals of the Women’s World Cup in Germany today for one reason—an Abby Wambach goal Sunday against Brazil “at the death.” That British expression, used so craftily by ESPN soccer announcer Ian Darke, truly expressed the reality of the moment. It was a game rife…
Read More »For only the third time since the current seeding process was instituted, there will be no #1 seeds in the Final Four of the NCAA men’s basketball tournament this weekend. Pitt was the first to fall, then Duke, then Ohio State, and finally, Kansas—all four giants felled in the madness of March. That, by itself,…
Read More »After missing the postseason for the first time in years, fans of the Los Angeles Angels watched and waited (not altogether patiently) to see what owner Arte Moreno, GM Tony Reagins and skipper Mike Scioscia were going to do to improve the club for a return to the top of the American League West and…
Read More »How did your team do yesterday? With the start of the NFL season, most teams were in action on Sunday which means that, today, half of the fans are ecstatic and the other half are in despair. For instance, the Texans, won—meaning obviously that the Colts they played against lost. For Houston fans, that is…
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