Sports Fanatics | Christianity Today | A Magazine of Evangelical Conviction

Sports Fanatics | Christianity Today | A Magazine of Evangelical Conviction

Americans are consuming sports on an unprecedented scale. The ancient Romans, long considered the gold standard for how sports-crazed a culture could be, were dilettantes compared to the sports fans of this century. The Romans could squeeze 50,000 spectators into the Coliseum for gladiatorial contests—a quaint assemblage next to the 107,000 seats regularly sold for University of Michigan or Penn State home football games.

In 2006, Americans spent over $17 billion on tickets to sports contests and $90 billion on sporting goods, over double what they spent on books ($42 billion).

Sports magazines take up prime space on bookstore shelves; the granddaddy of them all, Sports Illustrated, sells as many copies in a month (13.2 million) as To Kill a Mockingbird has sold since its publication in 1960. A tenth of The World Almanac is devoted to sports, more than is allocated for business, science, and politics combined.

Shaq pays for funeral of murdered North Carolina girl | Everyday Christian

Shaq pays for funeral of murdered North Carolina girl Everyday Christian

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sports blurb....2008 slam dunk contest

sports blurb...compassionate hitman

from the dailymail: "A compassionate hitman - the truth about Britain's down-to-earth multi-millionaire boxer He still lives in his home town, eats in the greasy spoon and has 'adopted' a brain-damaged boy. The inspiring story of Ricky Hatton, who tonight faces the fight of his life."

sports blurb...talk about a trick play

sports blurb...extreme pete

Is hard work, time, and effort always rewarding to see? Or could this person's time have been better spent.

extreme sports...human skateboarding

sports blurb...

Sports blurb...KU vs Missouri

Big game tomorrow with #2 Kansas trying to stay undefeated against #4 Missouri. They are playing a night game at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City with the potential for a lot of fan mischief. Here is a great article detailing the 116 year old rivalry and the bad blood between the two states. Suffice to say they were bitter enemies during the Civil War and all is not forgotten or forgiven.

sports blurb...Dribbling five at once

Just in time for the start of basketball season.

sports blurb...Randy Johnson hits bird with 95MPH fastball

Now this really must have been meant to be.

Sports blurb...Rugby with the Haka

Rugby, another world class sport. The New Zealanders do the classic Maori chant prior to the game.

Sports blurb...Gotta remember about the most popular game in the world

Here in the USA most of us still have an underappreciation for soccer. Here are a couple clips. The first an almost massive upset between a premier team, Chelsea and a big underdog lower ranked team.
The second a nasty collision

Sports blurb...Two Kilometer fall, he lives.

A guy falls 2 km yesterday in Britain when his parachute did not open. He lives to tell about it. Here is the question. Would you be willing to risk death for the experience of jumping out of an airplane? I for one would not. Here are the pertinent details:

"A SKYDIVER has plunged almost 2km to the ground - and lived. The man, 45, lost control of his parachute and plummeted to the ground at the Lower Light drop zone north of Adelaide, about 3.30pm on Saturday." Read the whole story here. How long are you achey and sore after falling out of an airplane?

one last world record blurb...trampolene part 2 and 3.

World record trampolene jump dunking basketball...


Trampoline stunts.

sports blurb....Yoshii

from YahooNews: "Japanese speed skater Sayuri Yoshii finished third for the second time in as many days in a World Cup women's 500-meter race Saturday. Yoshii placed behind Germany's Jenny Wolf and Wang Beixing of China with a time of 37.90 seconds as she became the first Japanese woman in three years to pull off back-to-back podium finishes in a World Cup season-opening series. Another world record fell at the Olympic Oval on Saturday when Finland's Pekka Koskela clocked 1:07.00 in winning the men's 1,000."

Sports blurb...200 million, but whose counting.

Patriots vs. Colts? That's nothing.
In China, last night's game between the Milwaukee Bucks and Houston Rockets drew TV ratings that would put even a Super Bowl to shame.
It's Yao Ming vs. Yi Jianlian, the nation's greatest player facing his highly touted rookie countryman for the first time.
"It's the two best basketball players in the country playing in the best basketball league in the world," said Wang Meng, a sports writer who covers the Rockets for Titan Sports, a Beijing-based newspaper. Wang said the game would draw more than 200 million viewers in China. By comparison, last week's New England-Indianapolis game in the NFL drew an average audience of about 34 million. Last year's Super Bowl drew an average of 93 million.

Yao's Rockets stomped the Yi's Bucks this time, but this will be a rivalry for years to come.

Sports blurb...How do you perform under pressure?

This is a fascinating topic to me maybe because I am so bad at it. I play basketball and when it is time to make a clutch shot I feel myself tightening up and invariably miss. There is another guy I play with who loves to take take the last big shot and is more consistent making that basket then all his other shots. I don't get it. It must be something about the way we are wired. Anyway SI.com has a gallery of great NFL players under pressure.

Sports blurb...lawnmowing made fun

For all of us destined to spend our summers mowing lawns this would at least make it a bit funner. Click on the link for a gallery of pictures.

sport blurb...new sport

New sport from Britich Columbia...Hangboard gliding.

from HangBoarding.ca: "HangBoarding is easy to learn. Control comes from body weight shifting (like hang gliding) and foot operated rudders. When both rudders are applied at the same time, they function as powerful snow brakes. This dual function system makes HangBoarding easy to learn. New riders progress rapidly with the assurance of this unique rudder/brake system."