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PREPREPRE---E-EE-E-EE ORDER POWER TO WIN 2013ORDER POWER TO WIN 2013ORDER POWER TO WIN 2013powertowin.org

Featuring Super Bowl Champions from the New York Giants:

Chase Blackburn,

Chris Canty

and Justin Tuck

81

Sports Devotionals and Sports Stories Based on the Book of Proverbs

Verses from all 31 chapters of Proverbs are paired with spiritually encouraging stories of well-known athletes and thought-provoking devotionals. You will be inspired as you read each page of this book.

Available now in the Sports Spectrum store

&

!"#$%!!"&'%$()*'#)

arly on the Saturday morning of Dec. 1, 2012, Kansas City Chiefs starting linebacker Jovan Belcher killed his girlfriend after shooting her nine times.

He then drove approximately fi ve miles to Arrowhead Stadium where he thanked his coach, Romeo Cren-nel, and his general manager, Scott Pioli, for everything they had done for him.

Then he shot himself to end his own life.

After contemplating this for days after the incident, it hit me that part of the trag-edy was the brief life Belcher, his girlfriend, Kasan-dra Perkins, and their daughter had lived here on earth and the brief life they had lived together.

Belcher was only 25 years old, and his girlfriend only 22. Their daughter, Zoe, was only three months old when her parents left this earth.

Belcher’s unthinkable actions had created a void in multiple peo-ple’s lives and orphaned a child who will never know her father and mother.

Another part of the tragedy hit me as well—that insensitive, irre-sponsible, and negative people in the media would, only hours after the killings, begin debating gun control.

At best, it’s grandstanding, shameful and a heartless exploitation of a tragedy.

NBC sportscaster Bob Costas was one of the culprits who brought the debate to us the next day, shoving the issue into people’s living rooms during halftime of Sunday night’s telecast between the Dallas Cowboys and Philadelphia Eagles.

During halftime, he quoted noted FoxSports.com columnist Jason Whitlock, the other culprit, who, in his piece, made an unfortunate and unsubstantiated claim by saying: “If he did not have a gun they would both still be alive.”

Even though I’m amazed each time people in the media politicize something, especially something as tragic as a death, I shouldn’t be because facts don’t seem to matter to them—only their opinions, usually based on emotions.

To be honest, it makes me want to put them in a time machine and warp them back to the Revolutionary War when our ancestors were fi ghting for their lives—with guns. Or, stick them in a car headed to Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, ranked as one of the world’s worst places to live because of the drug-infested environment where drug cartels shoot, stab and cut off people’s heads. Why? Because, as ABC TV affi liate KVUE in Austin, Texas, noted in a November story, regular citizens have diffi culty purchasing guns to defend themselves be-cause Mexico has one of the toughest gun control laws in the world. The criminals have guns because they obtain their guns illegally, because, well, criminals do illegal things like that.

If Costas and Whitlock visited America’s past and Mexico’s present, I’m sure they would have different opinions.

Gun control is not the answer. Cain didn’t kill Abel with a gun, and O.J. Simpson’s ex-wife, Ni-cole Brown Simpson, along with Ronald Goldman, weren’t shot to death; they were stabbed to death.

The countless hours spent debating gun control after the incident, though, was nearly as unthink-able as the crime itself. People kill people, and people use guns, knives, baseball bats, and any-thing they can get their hands on because they’ve lost control of their emotions. Crazed, deranged, thoughtless and heartless are adjectives that come to mind to describe people like that—and it all stems from some sort of emotion, whether it’s an-ger, bitterness or misguided passion.

What killing really boils down to, though, is a heart issue, not a gun issue.

If it was a gun issue, then we should outlaw any instrument used to kill someone (knives, baseball bats, lampstands, and even alcohol, which indirect-ly causes people to kill others). But we aren’t doing that because people, again, ignore the facts and

have politicized a serious issue (the majority of one political party believes we should have the right to bear arms, and the majority of another party believes we should limit that right or do away with that right all together).

The argument for limiting or doing away with guns is based on the premise that someone who is thinking about killing someone, and didn’t have a gun or have access to a gun, will think longer if they have to use any weapon other than a gun. Their reasoning is that it’s too easy to quickly pull a trigger, and it’s too hard and time-consuming to kill someone by any other means.

But when a person shoots someone nine times, emotions are al-ready too high. They’re out of control and would use anything to kill the other person.

Thinking otherwise is naïve at best. I point you, again, back to Exhibit A (Cain and Abel), and Exhibit B (O.J. Simpson’s ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and Ronald Goldman, who weren’t shot to death with a knife).

You’re probably wondering why I’m even talking about this, but I’m doing so because I’m fed up with people in our country allowing the media to think for them. People have accepted and parroted the ideas that shoot across the airwaves without giving it an ounce of thought or introspection.

We’ve done in it in politics (both sides), we’ve done it in society, and we’ve done it in our faith.

Here’s hoping that we see the heart of the matter and that we work on changing lives, not by trying to take guns out of people’s hands, but by introducing them to Christ, discipling them and help-ing them grow in their faith.

That is what Jesus, not the media, teaches us to do in order to truly save lives.

Heart controlBY BRETT HONEYCUTT

Brett Honeycutt is the managing editor of Sports Spectrum magazine.

AIRING IT OUT

EO P I N I O N

ed i to r@spor tsspec t rum.com | Fo l low @bre t t _honeycu t t

W E B S I T E : w w w. S p o r t s S p e c t r u m . c o m S P O R TS S P E C T R U M 5

Jamie Squire / Getty Images

Justin TuckNew York Giants defensive end and two-time All-Pro who helped his team to wins in Super Bowls XLII and XLVI

“Being in New York City, having the platform we have as athletes, we have a huge platform to change, a huge platform to glorify God. With so many kids, so many people in general that watch every move we make, before the game when I’m down on a knee, we’re praying, or when I give an interview just thanking God for giving me an opportunity to play this game or make the plays I’ve made, or learn from the mistakes that I’ve made, people watch that.”

For more in-depth Christian athlete profiles, visit www.sportsspectrum.com/resources testimonials.php

Jim McIsaac/GettyImages

6 S P O R TS S P E C T R U M

NFL PROFILE CLOSEUPJeff Zelevansky/Getty Images

7

BRYCE JOHNSON: You’ve been involved in the NBA for a long time. Do you still love it, and what’s your overall view of the league right now?PAT WILLIAMS: Bryce, I’m still fascinated by it. This is my 44th year in the National Basketball Association. My fi rst season was 1968, so I’ve seen an awful lot of change, and I’ve seen an enormous amount of growth. The internationalization of the game has been spectacular…and, yes…the games are still intriguing to me, the ath-letes are still intriguing…I follow what’s going on with each team very closely. I still root extra hard for our Magic here in Orlando. I’m just riveted by the sport...The game has never been played under a more glaring spotlight.BRYCE JOHNSON: What has God been teach-ing you recently?PAT WILLIAMS: Well, the most recent teaching comes through my cancer diagno-sis. I was diagnosed 22 months ago with multiple myeloma, which is cancer of the bone marrow, the blood in the bone marrow, so that has been a major issue here. I think the Lord has been teaching me that we are going to have storms in our life. I think all of us have either come out of a storm, or we’re in the middle of a storm, or we’re heading into one. And, in the middle of the storm, how are you gonna react? What are you gonna do? How are you gonna deal with it? I’ve been a Christian for many decades, but never really faced major adversity, but the cancer diagnosis got my attention. And I think, at that point, Bryce, you have one of two choices: You can turn your back on God and shake your fi st at Him and play the “Why me?” game, or you can just do a fl y-ing leap into His lap and hold on around his neck as tightly as you can and ride through the storm holding onto the Lord. And that’s what I’ve been doing. BRYCE JOHNSON: You and your wife have ad-opted 14 international kids. What have you learned through adoption?PAT WILLIAMS: I’ve learned that parenting is not easy, but children need your time. They need your attention; you’ve got to fi gure out the right balance between love

and discipline. I think that’s the key. They need unconditional love, but that has to be balanced with the right amount of dis-cipline. And the other thing I’ve learned is, at 18, they are leaving home. That needs to be planted in their minds from the time they’re very young, that at 18 they’re going to college or they’re going into the mili-tary or they’re going into the workforce, but they’re not hanging at home playing video games. BRYCE JOHNSON: Since you are involved with the Magic organization, what was your thought process during the whole Dwight Howard saga in Orlando?PAT WILLIAMS: Dwight, what are you thinking? What’s going on in your mind? Why can we not get through to you? This is your city; this is where you started as an 18-year-old. There’s something special, Dwight, about being in one city your whole career, a la John Havlicek or Tim Duncan or David Robinson or Cal Ripken…Dwight, to have a monument outside the building of you, this is your town.BRYCE JOHNSON: How do you feel about players staying on one team their whole ca-reer or playing for multiple teams?PAT WILLIAMS: At a certain point in their career a player has the right to make deci-sions and move in other directions…They have earned the right for that freedom. I, however, argue that if you can have one career in one city and start there and fi nish there, boy, I think that’s pretty special…and quite rare. Kobe Bryant will do it, it ap-pears. He’ll be a one-city guy. You’re always linked to that franchise. Shaquille O’Neal, for example, started here, four years here, then off to LA, then to Miami, t h e n to Phoenix, then to Cleve-land, then to Boston. He does not have one city that is his...where he will always be linked to that one city...And, I think, at the end of your career, I think that’s kind of sad.

This new book by Je! Balistrere is perfect for basketball fans and players. Balistrere incorporates the Bible and motivational quotes from coaches to inspire people to enjoy a one-on-one relationship with God and also encourages readers to understand that God wants a personal relationship with us. Balistrere does a great job of incorporating humor, basketball and faith.

After a few years away from music, The O.C Supertones have a brand new album with the same great sound. They are one of the most popular ska rock bands in Christian music and have put out many upbeat and encouraging albums. This album delivers more great songs with a balance of their unique ska sound, while also including some slower songs with a beach music feel. They have worshipful and uplifting lyrics throughout to complement the fun sound.

W E B S I T E : w w w. S p o r t s S p e c t r u m . c o m S P O R TS S P E C T R U M

O P I N I O N


Bryce’s Best:Best Album: The O.C. Supertones-For the Glory

www.unpack in i t . com | Fo l low @bryce rad io

Pat Williams, co-founder and senior vice president of the Orlando Magic joined Bryce Johnson on the UNPACKIN’ it radio show to discuss sports, faith and family. Pat is also a motivational speaker and has spent more than 50 years in professional baseball and

basketball as a player and executive.Williams is the author of more than 75 books. He and his wife, Ruth, are the parents of 19 children, including 14 adopted children from four nations. You can listen to the full interview at www.unpackinit.com

21

www.unpack in i t . com | Fo l low @bryce rad io

Best Book: God Doesn’t Play Zone Defenseby Je! Balistrere

What I’m convinced of…

schools like Duke, Indiana, Kentucky, Kansas, and UNC are all good and most of them have a chance to make the Final Four.

time between college football’s regular season ending and the BCS bowl games beginning.

playing well together, are the only team with a chance to knock o! the Miami Heat in the NBA Finals.

situation could really help him.

wonderful thing. I love enjoying football in the fall, basketball in the winter, golf in the spring, and baseball in the summer. I’m also thankful for seasons of trials and seasons of victories. They are di! erent and important because God uses both to transform us.

to Phoenix, then to Cleve-land, then to Boston. He does not have one city that is his...where he will always be linked to that one city...And, I think, at the end of your career, I

Pat Williams, co-founder and senior vice president of the Orlando Magic

TONY EVANS Bobby BowdenWILLIE ROBERTSON

Nashville, Tennessee | The curb event center arena July 26-27, 2013

lifeway.com/maineventEvents subject to change without notice. Sales tax applied to event cost, if applicable.

Derrick Boles Tommy Bowden John Bryson Bryan Carter John Croyle David Hamptontierce green Alex Kendrick

Jonnie Wjeff strueckerStephen Kendrick Kenny Luck Eric Mason Mark Merrill Lorenzo Neal

S P O R TS S P E C T R U M40

S E R I E S : S T E A D Y A N D G E N U I N E F A I T HCONSISTENCY

Num 5-6 Lev 1-4

Num 7 Lev 5-7

Num 8-10 Lev 8-10

WEDNESDAY “Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him.” Genesis 5:24 ESV

Believable to OthersOne of my favorite things about working for Sports Spectrum is that I get to interview athletes

who have believable faiths, which, in turn, encourages me to make my faith believable to others. I remember interviewing Aaron Baddeley, who I mentioned in the devotional above, and leaving the interview thinking, “I want that.”

Badds talked about God like he had breakfast with Him that morning, like he had just walked an entire round of golf with Him. The way Badds talked about God was probably a small glimpse of the way Enoch talked about God, who was so close to God that the Lord took him. Talking to Badds, I didn’t feel guilty for not knowing God enough—that’s not the point—I just wanted to know Him more.

As mentioned previously, that’s the crux to consistency. Consistency helps others believe. If we revisit “Shaq, The Inconsistent Free-Throw Shooter,” it’s his inconsistency that makes others doubt he is a good free-throw shooter. Is it your inconsistency that makes others doubt the existence of a Savior? Or do they want what you have? Do they (without feeling guilty) want to know God more? Or do they believe in God less? — STEPHEN COPELAND, SPORTS SPECTRUM

MONDAY ”So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth.” Revelation 3:16 ESV

Consistency and BelievabilityRotnei Clarke, a senior at Butler University in Indianapolis, Ind., who was mentioned in last week’s

devotional series and featured in Sports Spectrum’s All-Basketball DigiMag, lives a life best described, I think, as consistent. It’s why he is able to have the impact he does. He doesn’t allow outside cir-cumstances to altar the core of his being, his faith.

It’s consistency that makes what he believes, believable. And I think that’s the core of it—why consistency is so important. When I’m inconsistent in my faith, the believability of my faith suffers. Take free throws, for example. When an inconsistent free-throw shooter steps up to the line, it’s tough to believe he will make the free throws. His inconsistency affects believability.

My best friend called me the other day. We talked about consistency the whole time. I told him I was frustrated with the inconsistencies of life. Nothing felt steady. Nothing felt reliable. “Well, maybe you should try making your faith consistent,” he told me. “Make the most important thing in your life, your faith, consistent.”

It all made sense to me. In a fallen world, it’s inevitable there will be inconsistencies. And I could either exhaust myself over the inconsistencies of life, or I could make the most important think in life consistent. It may not fi x everything. But it will help.

— STEPHEN COPELAND, SPORTS SPECTRUM

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TUESDAY “And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.” Colossians 1:17 ESV

Believable to YourselfIn the devotion above, I mentioned the problems of an inconsistent free-throw shooter. We’ll call

this character “Shaq, The Inconsistent Free-Throw Shooter.” Shaq’s inconsistency at the free-throw line results in a two-fold problem: 1) His inconsistency affects his belief in himself, and 2) His incon-sistency affects others’ belief in him. In this devotional, we’ll address No. 1, how consistency in your faith is crucial to your belief in God.

So what does that mean? What does it mean, exactly, to be consistent in your faith? I think being consistent in your faith means being consistent in your pursuit of God, just as a consistent husband or wife is constantly pursuing the heart of their spouse. PGA Tour golfer Aaron Baddeley, for example, gets up early every day, no matter what, to read his Bible. “Badds” is constantly pursuing God.

John 15:4 says, “Abide in me, and I in you.” God becomes very real and believable to us because we are taking the time to get to know Him. When we don’t take the time to consistently know God, our own belief in God will consequently suffer. As Colossians 1:17 tells us, “He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.” That’s why our belief can fall apart in inconsistency.

—STEPHEN COPELAND, SPORTS SPECTRUM

TO S U B S C R I B E TO S P O R TS S P E C T R U M : C A L L 1 - 866 - 821 - 2971

41

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WEEK 7

S E R I E S : S T E A D Y A N D G E N U I N E F A I T H

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Num 11-13 Lev 11-13

THURSDAY “And you shall remember the whole way that the Lord your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness...” Deuteronomy 8:2 ESV

Consistency in JoyThere are few things that bring me more joy than writing a good sports story. I don’t care what it

is—whether it’s a column, feature, or a chapter in a book—it’s fulfi lling to me. It’s rewarding, like I’m doing exactly what I’m supposed to do.

Even if no one reads it, at least it’s a story. It brings me joy.I have fi ve words written on my white board in my offi ce. It reads: “God writes crazy, beautiful

stories.” It’s a constant reminder to me that—even though writing stories brings me joy—God is the author of every story I write. It helps me look upward instead of inward. Because when I do some-thing fulfi lling, it’s easy to think I’m the one who fulfi lls me. It’s easy to think it’s my story that I wrote with my abilities. It’s easy to forget God in joy, in fulfi llment.

It’s in your successes, in your fulfi llment, and in your joy, that you inwardly realize how you feel about yourself in comparison to God. It’s in your successes, fulfi llment, and joy that others can po-tentially see the depths of your arrogance and selfi shness.

I’ve begun to look at those fi ve words in my offi ce every day. In my joy, I want to be a mirror, merely refl ecting the One who has given me joy.

— STEPHEN COPELAND, SPORTS SPECTRUM

Num 14-15 Lev 14-15

Num 16-17 Lev 16-18

Num 18-20 Lev 19-21

FRIDAY “But godliness with contentment is great gain...” I Timothy 6:6 ESV

Consistency in PainThose who know me best would say I’m a little emotional—not in a cry-during-A Walk to Remember

type of way, but in an act-on-my-emotions type of way. The fi rst one is bad. The second one is worse. On the contrary, Golden State Warriors star Stephen Curry, who was featured in the Sports Spectrum

All-Basketball DigiMag, is the opposite. His emotions do not rule him. They do not dictate the way he treats others or the outcome of his day. I learned a lot from his story.

The heart of Curry’s contentment is this: He is never too low because he understands how blessed he is. He’s constant. He’s content, as Paul talks about in Philippians. Even after a season where he missed more than half of Golden State’s games, he doesn’t let it drag him down.

Many times, all it takes is one thing, or a build-up of things, to set me off. The point is that I fi nd myself frequently blinded from my blessings because I’ve trapped my mind in the valley. But it’s in the valley that others can see the authenticity of your faith. It’s in the valley that you fi nd out if your personal belief is real.

Paul was content in every circumstance because all he saw was eternity. All he ever felt was blessed because his Savior died for him. In worldly pain, he remained constant because of eternal blessings.

—STEPHEN COPELAND, SPORTS SPECTRUM

WEEKENDER “Rejoice always.” I Thessalonians 5:16

Going LongRead I Thessalonians 5:16 and meditate on what

it says about rejoicing. Let this be a chal-lenge to set aside negativity and re-joice in the blessings of this life and the blessings of eternity.

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MONDAY “If any man builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, his work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each man’s work.” I Corinthians 3:11-13

The Total LifeThe UCLA men’s basketball teams of the 1960s and 1970s will be remembered for their dominance

of college basketball during that era and for stars like Lew Alcinder (now Kareem Abdul-Jabbar), Bill Walton, Gail Goodrich, Walt Hazzard and others.

Most memorable, though, will be coach John Wooden, the man who led UCLA to 10 NCAA men’s basketball titles, including seven straight (1967-1973), in a 12-year span (1964-1975). He was nicknamed the “Wizard of Westwood” for his mastery as a coach, as he compiled a 664-162 record for a stunning .804 winning percentage. He had four 30-0 seasons, and, at one point, UCLA won 88 consecutive games, a record that still stands. But Wooden, who passed away on June 4, 2010, at age 99 (about four months from his 100th birthday), was more than just the wins and losses.

“I have always tried to make it clear that basketball is not the ultimate. It is of small importance in comparison to the total life we live. There is only one kind of life that truly wins, and that is the one that places faith in the hands of the Savior.” John Wooden wrote in They Call Me Coach.

Wooden understood that things like trophies, championship banners, recognition for winning bas-ketball games, etc., had little meaning by themselves. He understood that the most important thing we could do in this life was to commit our lives to Christ and to live for Him.

— BRETT HONEYCUTT, SPORTS SPECTRUM

WEDNESDAY “David said to Saul, ‘Let no one lose heart on account of this Philistine; your servant will go and fight him.’ Saul replied, ‘You are not able to go out against this Philistine and fight him; you are only a boy, and he has been a fighting man from his youth.’” I Samuel 17:32-33

Reality, Not PerceptionOscar Robertson, or “The Big O” as he was nicknamed, won three NCAA Player of the Year awards,

averaged 33.8 points during his college career, and led Cincinnati to two Final Fours and a 79-9 record from 1957-1960. But most people don’t realize that he never won an NCAA Championship. The back-to-back NCAA titles that Cincinnati won came after Robertson left school.

Even more astonishing than Cincinnati doing it without Robertson, was that both titles came against an Ohio State squad that had won the championship in the previous season and featured future Hall of Famers John Havlicek and Jerry Lucas. When it appears like things are stacked against you, do you run and hide (believing that all is lost) or do you rely on God by asking Him for the strength to face the giants in your life with strength only God can provide?


TUESDAY “But the Lord said to Samuel, ‘Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The Lord does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.’” I Samuel 16:7

Only God’s OpinionEvery basketball fan knows the name Bill Russell, the Hall of Famer who helped the Boston Celtics

win 11 NBA titles in 13 years. And some basketball afi cionados will remember that Russell helped the University of San Francisco to back-to-back NCAA Championships in 1955 and 1956.

However, most likely don’t realize that people thought Russell couldn’t shoot well. They thought he was just a 6-foot-9 blocking and rebounding machine (who, by the way, was so good at rebound-ing that the foul lanes were widened to 12 feet from six feet during his playing days).

Ultimately, what people thought of Russell didn’t matter. What mattered was what Russell did. He wasn’t limited by people, only by himself. If he chose to live up to the standards people placed on him, he would have only blocked shots and rebounded. But his passion was to help his team and do his best, not live up to (or down to in this case) the opinions of others.

Those opinions were similar to the ones people had of David, who wasn’t considered worthy to be King (so much so that he was still out in the fi eld tending sheep when Samuel asked to see Jesse’s children so that he could anoint God’s choice as king). Are you living the life God designed you to live, or are you living up to (or down to) what others think or see you as being?


Grant Halverson / Getty Images

S P O R TS S P E C T R U M 53

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WEEKENDER “reject every kind of evil.” I Thessalonians 5:22

Going LongRead I Thessalonians 5:22 and meditate on the

temptations you need to reject. Think about areas of sin you need to repent of and rid yourself of.

THURSDAY “So about three thousand men went up; but they were routed by the men of Ai, who killed about thirty-six of them. They chased the Israelites from the city gate as far as the stone quarries and struck them down on the slopes. At this the hearts of the people melted and became like water.” Joshua 7:4-5

Sin and DefeatThe year was 1991 and the Duke men’s basketball team was in the Final Four, facing an undefeated

and defending NCAA champion UNLV team that had beaten Duke 103-73 for the national champion-ship the previous year in the most lopsided title game in NCAA history.

For anyone but Duke’s players, coaches and the players’ parents to think they had a chance in 1991 was laughable. But Duke pulled it off, upsetting UNLV in the semifi nal and going on to win their fi rst NCAA Championship and then repeating as champion the following season.

Duke was a failure (and in a huge way), then they were champions. Like Duke, Israel was defeated in an embarrassing way as we see in Joshua 7:4-5. The defeat at the hands of Ai was so devastating that “the hearts of the people melted and became like water.” Israel’s defeat, though, was caused by the sin of one man, Achan. After that sin was dealt with, Joshua 8 tells us that Israel defeated Ai.

It’s a great reminder that our sin affects others, not just us. Live in such a way that you please God and Him only; then you will experience true victory in life.


FRIDAY “‘I tell you the truth,’ Jesus answered, ‘this very night, before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times.’ But Peter declared, ‘Even if I have to die with you, I will never disown you.’ And all the other disciples said the same.” Matthew 26:34-35

Remembering What MattersGeorgetown’s Patrick Ewing was one of the most dominant centers in col-

lege basketball from 1982-1985, but regrettably more people remember the failures of Georgetown instead of its three NCAA Championship game ap-pearances (1982, 1984, 1985) and the 1984 title.

In the fi rst title shot, in 1982, after little-known freshman Michael Jor-dan put North Carolina ahead with a jumper, Georgetown’s Fred Brown threw an errant pass to North Carolina’s James Worthy and the Hoya’s title hopes ended.

After beating a Houston team led by Hakeem Olajuwon for the 1984 title, Georgetown (ranked No. 1 in the nation) was shocked in the 1985

championship game when unranked Villanova shot a record 78.6 percent from the fi eld to deny the Hoyas back-to-back titles.

Like Georgetown’s failures, most people remember Peter’s failures more often than they remember his dy-ing devotion to Christ. After Christ predicted that Peter would deny Him three times, Peter did just that.

But Peter was also forgiven by Christ (as we see in John 21) and would later be crucifi ed, but he asked

to be crucifi ed upside down because he didn’t feel worthy to be killed in the same way as Christ had been crucifi ed.

Our last acts are what people will remember, too. So if you have made mistakes in your Christian walk, even late in life you can still live a life pleasing to God.


BY STEPHEN COPELAND

hat summer, John Morris would sit in church every Sunday and feel his eyes well up. His wife would look at him, concerned. “It’s okay,” he’d say. Then she would hold

his hand. But he wasn’t okay. How could he be? How can you be okay when a player kills—kills—

another player? When the town you’ve lived in for 25 years—Waco, Texas—is a media circus, the center of one of the most catastrophic scandals in college basket-ball history? When the school you love—your employer

for the last eight years—is like an exploding building, collapsing in slow motion for the entire nation to see?

55S P O R TS S P E C T R U M

Wichita Eagle / Getty Images

The summer of 2003 probably feels like an eternal scar to Baylor University—an unforgiveable, unforgettable sin. It can’t be looked over. It defines them. Few stories about Baylor—even now, almost 10 years later—can be written without mentioning one of the most tragic scandals in college basketball, a scandal that resulted in a murder, numerous NCAA violations, and one of the severest penal-ties in NCAA basketball history.

This is another one of those stories; and yet, it’s different. Bay-lor’s downfall is deeper than decisions. It’s deeper than conse-quences. It’s deeper than money and numbers and ethics, as the media has already widely reported.

Everything unraveled the way it did because of a void, a void that made a laughingstock of an institution and a mockery of its religion.

If there was a “Mr. Baylor,” it’d undoubtedly be broadcaster John Morris, the “Voice of the Baylor Bears.”

Waco is Morris’ home, and Baylor, the largest Baptist University in the world, is his passion. Morris graduated from Baylor in 1980, and has lived in Waco, Texas, for the last 35 years. He worked at a Waco television station for 15 years after graduation and has been at Baylor for the last 15.

Like a marriage, his relationship with the university has survived because of his inseparable love for the institution. His passion for Baylor isn’t circumstantial, swayed by highs and lows, winning and losing. If that were the case, he would have left a long time ago.

Morris, who started working for Baylor in 1995, remembers when Dave Bliss accepted the basketball head-coaching job in 1999.

“When I heard he was interested in the Baylor job, I was like, ‘Wow, we can get Coach Bliss at Baylor?’” Morris recalls. “It was a big deal. He had a really good track record.”

Bliss’ coaching career before Baylor could be explained in his name: blissful.

He got his start as an assistant at Army and Indiana under Bob Knight where he helped recruit the 1976 Indiana Hoosier team that went undefeated, then accepted his first head-coaching job at the University of Oklahoma before coaching Southern Methodist Uni-versity for eight years, where he led them to three NCAA tourna-ment appearances and the program’s first Southwest Conference regular-season title in 21 years. After SMU, he led New Mexico to 20 or more wins in 10 of his 11 seasons, including seven NCAA tournament berths.

“He was one of the big-name coaches in college basketball,” Mor-ris continues. “When we hired him, I thought it was a really big, good, hire. I thought it made a statement that Baylor was serious about basketball.”

Bliss was hired in 1999 to resurrect Baylor’s basketball program, a program that hadn’t been to the NCAA tournament since 1988. To alumni, fans, and the school, Bliss was the best hire they could have made. If anyone was the man for the job, he was.

The rebuilding process, however, was slower than Bliss expected, and a series of bad decisions all culminated in the summer of 2003, when everything shattered into a million pieces, like a bullet in a mirror.

It was a bullet that triggered everything—the murder of one of Bliss’ players, Patrick Dennehy, by another player, Carlton Dotson, thus making Waco, Texas, the center of the sporting world.

“More and more of the story was brought to life,” Morris says. “Pieces of the puzzle started falling into place, and it was wide-eyed shock that actually went on at Baylor and in Waco…Patrick was a part of the family, and our hearts just broke when that hap-pened.”

After the murder on June 8 and the sentencing of Dotson on June 15, it was discovered in August that Bliss paid the tuitions of Den-

nehy and another player, Corey Herring, a blatant NCAA violation. An investigation ensued, and Bliss took extreme measures to hide and lie about his improprieties.

“It was just a summer of a dark cloud hanging over Baylor,” Mor-ris says. “(Going to work), it was almost like, ‘Well, what’s going to happen today? What’s the story that will come out today?’ That’s a bad way to go to work. That’s not a good feeling at all.”

It was also revealed in August there were recruiting violations and widespread drug abuse on the team, ignored by Bliss and his staff. Bliss would soon resign, damning his legacy and the reputa-tion of the school.

“It’s just sad, really sad for our school,” Morris continues. “We have so many good people there and so many good coaches. Baylor stands for some-thing. Baylor is a faith-based university, and we are proud of that fact, and to have some-thing like this happen, you know what’s com-ing. You are going to get a lot of arrows slung at you—why something like this happened at Baylor in comparison to another school that doesn’t profess to be a Christian university. It was just really sad for Baylor.”

If the story stopped there, Dave Bliss is a heartless fool, Baylor basketball is a scandalous joke, and the principles Baylor advertises are a mere façade and devious hoax, like a pastor who has an af-fair, a priest who molests a child, or an usher who steals from the collection plate. If the story stopped there, Bliss is a fraud, and so is Baylor. Forget the fact Baylor is a Christian institution; what transpired in Waco was bad for any institution.

But you can say what you want about Bliss, and you can say what you want about Baylor, and you can say what you want about religion. You can judgmentally scowl at Bliss and Baylor’s perceived hypocrisy, probably blinded by your own, or you can see the beauty of redemption, the beauty of someone like Peter (a follower of Je-sus, by the way) denying Jesus three times, then willingly getting crucified upside down for the cause of Christianity. There’s beauty in transformation.

“I think I felt just as Peter did when he denied Christ,” says Bliss, who, in a rare interview, transparently spoke to Sports Spectrum for more than an hour. “My actions were sour and they were arrogant and they denied Christ, and I felt badly about that.”

Bliss, somewhat ironically, accepted the position at Baylor in 1999 because of what the institution stood for, because of its Christian values.

“I chose to go to Baylor because I wanted to end my career coaching at a Christian school, and God created the largest Baptist institution in the world for me,” Bliss says. “When I went to Baylor, for whatever reason, I got off-centered.”

While the Baylor scandal itself unraveled rather suddenly—all in the treacherous summer of 2003—the void that formed in Bliss’ heart was gradual, like termites in a cabin, eventually causing its collapse.

“Charles Stanley talks about four aspects that cause you to sin: hunger, anger, loneliness and tiredness,” Bliss says retrospectively. “The thing I really had a problem with was that I wanted it to be a good program so I was working harder than I ever worked. That got me away from my quiet time; it got me away from church. You


“It was just a summer of a dark cloud hanging

over Baylor...It’s just sad, really sad for our

school.”

TO S U B S C R I B E TO S P O R TS S P E C T R U M : C A L L 1 - 866 - 821 - 2971

would think that being at Baylor I would be closer. But that’s not how the devil works. All of a sud-den, I started making a couple of decisions.”

Bliss was tired—tired of put-ting in the hours, the effort, and getting no results. He wanted to win. He wanted to trans-form Baylor like he transformed Southern Methodist. He wanted to fix it. He wanted results. He was exhausted.

“I don’t know if you know how I ended up paying the scholar-ships—I don’t know if that’s ever been told,” Bliss says. “The summer of 2002, I had three people who were going to sum-mer school, and I was afraid they weren’t going to make it so I recruited some other guys as backups…Long story short, they made it, and now I had too many players. I kept the two I recruited in their place: Herring and Den-nehy…Baylor cost so much as a private school, at the end of the year, they had an amount due, and I was backed into a corner,

and that’s when the integrity is-sue hit. I went and paid it myself because I knew it was wrong to ask someone else to help me. When you throw the murder in there, and it’s uncovered, and it’s played out, it just kept get-ting worse and worse. It’s really a shock when you are on ESPN and it’s not good…

“You have to mature. And I wasn’t mature. I made decisions that were poor ones based on my immaturity and my humanness because I was arrogantly trying to elevate myself. I was trying to help my program and I just didn’t trust God. If I had trusted God and been patient, every-thing would have worked out…I

57

“The aspect of impugning my

faith, that was my lowest moment. Separation from God is real when

you sin.”

ABOVE: Former Baylor head coach Dave Bliss bows his head in prayer and silence during a memorial service for Patrick James Dennehy on Aug. 7, 2003. LEFT: Carlton Dotson walks with his attorney as he arrives at the Kent County district court house in Chestertown, Md. The former roommate of missing Baylor University basketball player Patrick Dennehy, was charged July 21, 2003, with murder. RIGHT: Bliss, who coached the New Mexico

the Washington Huskies.

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Mark W

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S P O R TS S P E C T R U M58 TO S U B S C R I B E TO S P O R TS S P E C T R U M : C A L L 1 - 866 - 821 - 2971

just made some terrible decisions, and I attribute that to the fact that I was tired and so immersed in try-ing to have a good program.”

The weird thing about sin is that it’s usually the result of selfishness, yet in the process of satisfying your-self, you wound others in ways you never imagined. There’s really no denying it: Bliss wounded a lot of people at Baylor. And the fallout was catastrophic, the worst the col-lege basketball world had ever seen.

“I hurt a school I cared a great deal about,” Bliss says. “I violated my wife’s trust. I love my wife, and she has been a great partner through all this. But the aspect of impugning my faith, that was my lowest moment. Separation from God is real when you sin.”

Bliss resigned from Baylor and entered the darkest five-year period of his life, entangled in his sin and guilt, dying inside.

“I didn’t go in to ax-murder the Baylor program,” Bliss says. “I went in and just got off track.”

Scott Drew was more like disaster relief when he accepted the Baylor head-coaching position the summer of 2003, hired to clean up the re-mains of a shattered program from a scandal that hit like a hurricane—and then somehow rebuild it.

After successfully leading Val-paraiso to a regular season confer-ence championship in his first year as head coach the year before, tak-ing his father Homer Drew’s place, you could say Scott was borderline insane for moving his family to Waco, Texas, into the eye of a disas-ter—and to do it with such enthusi-asm, an incomprehensible zeal that, according to Morris, very well may have been the rallying cry that made Baylor Nation believe again.

“Any major decision, or any deci-sion, you bring it to prayer and seek godly council,” Drew says of his de-cision to move to Waco. “I just felt really led to come here, and felt like it was where God wanted me, and haven’t felt Him moving me any-where else,” he laughs cheerfully.

But it was going to be a long, long road, especially coming from a stable Valparaiso program that reached the NCAA tournament six out of the previous seven years.

Drew and his staff spent the first several weeks recruiting on cam-Baylor head basketball coach Scott Drew has led a revival of the men’s program.

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59W E B S I T E : w w w. S p o r t s S p e c t r u m . c o m S P O R TS S P E C T R U M

pus—on campus—and holding open tryouts to find, not only play-ers, but starters—starters. This is a Big 12 program, remember, not a small-town high school, where coaches may try to fill their roster spots with non-athletes just so they can field a team.

“We were recruiting on campus the first couple of weeks!” Drew laughs.

He remembers their first open tryout, when an ungodly amount of students showed up, many of which he didn’t recognize on his “recruiting visits,” if that’s what you call them, to the Baylor Stu-dent Life Center. He was confused. Who were all these kids?

“We asked them, ‘What year are you in school? What is your ma-jor?’” Drew tells the story. “Turns out, we found that a lot of these people just showed up from junior colleges (in the area) and didn’t think they had to be enrolled at Baylor,” he laughs again. “The early days, when you are in the Big 12, it’s hard to have walk-ons going up against McDonald’s All-Americans.”

He can laugh at it now. And heck, he may have laughed then, too.

Baylor basketball, after all, was nothing more than a joke.

You probably already know the redemption story of Baylor bas-ketball—how, after recruiting at the Baylor Student Life Center the opening months, missing non-conference play their 2005-06 season (the first time the NCAA has imposed a half-season pen-alty), and racking up four straight losing seasons, they made the NCAA tournament in 2008 for the first time in 20 years. Or how they have advanced to the Elite Eight two out of the last three years. Or how they recently upset No. 8 Kentucky. What Drew has done with Baylor from a winning perspective is unbelievable—ri-diculous, really—but it’s deeper than that.

“I’m very pleased Baylor is doing well,” Bliss says. “I consider Scott (Drew) a very professional coach and good coach.”

Just as Baylor and Bliss fell together, they also rose together. With Baylor, with Bliss, it was a heart issue.

“Absolutely, (there was a spiritual void),” Bliss says. “I came there with my ducks in line.”

And that’s the story you haven’t heard. Both Baylor and Bliss were missing something—something deep.

“I’m not casting aspersion on anyone else, but it really was (a different culture then),” Morris says, referring to Baylor before Drew. “Coach Drew is so bold in his faith and the way he works it in everything he does with his team. It was a major change. It really was…I’ve never been around a coach and a coaching staff like Coach Drew and his staff who have God first in everything they do and every decision they make. The chapel he has with the team before every game—and it’s not just a chapel—it’s the atmosphere around that program. It’s really special. You appreci-ate that when you see how he is investing in those guys’ lives. It’s what we should do at Baylor. “

Both Baylor and Bliss took five years to recover, five years for Drew to get the program back on the winning trail and bury the past, and five years for Bliss to bury his.

“When judged on a worldly view of things you look at it when you aren’t winning games, and it’s hard to find much satisfaction and appreciation for what you are doing,” Drew says. “But the first couple years we had a lot of people come to know Christ—manag-ers and players—and relationships strengthened. Those successes were all more important than wins and losses…We always focused on the positives and the future, and we didn’t have a lot of days where we sat around and questioned things.”

“I think about this every day—what I did,” says Bliss, who is now the athletic director at Allen Academy, a small, private high school in Bryan, Texas. “For five years I really tried to go around and tell everybody what a good guy I was. That’s what you do

when you can’t forgive yourself. You try to change everybody’s mind about you. For five years, I was definitely in the wilderness. It’s the most arrogant thought you can possibly have is that you can’t forgive yourself. The two biggest things I needed were God’s forgiveness and His grace in my life.”

Both Baylor and Bliss got back to the heart, the core of their existence. Drew’s slogan for the basketball program is “For His Glory.”

“That’s something we pride ourselves on is the relationships we have with our players,” Drew says. “No cussing policy in practice. Begin practice with a prayer. End practice with a prayer. Chapel service the day of the game. Pray with oppo-nents at half-court at the end of the game if they want to. Every-thing is Christ-based.”

“I got back to the basics of reading my Bible,” Bliss says. “I would get up early and read my Bible and keep journals. I’ve kept seven journals. I would see aspects of Nebuchadnezzar and aspects of King David. If you don’t think there is a book about the fallenness of man, the Bible is full of it…I had done what I had done, and I accepted the consequences, but that’s not where my relationship with God was going to end.”

There’s an obscure book in the Bible called Lamentations. The book is a reminder that titles don’t matter. Just because the Isra-elites are “God’s chosen people,” Jerusalem is God’s “Holy City,” and Baylor is a “faith-based institution,” doesn’t mean they can’t fall. It’s all about the heart. If it were about the title, then the godless Babylonians wouldn’t have set Jerusalem aflame, and Baylor wouldn’t have made a laughingstock of its values. Why? Because if it were about the title, then anything associated with God should never make God look stupid. But it’s deeper than that, deeper than a measly title, cheap façade or marketing ploy.

Perhaps it’s a tragic tale. Perhaps. But the story doesn’t end the summer of 2003. And it doesn’t end the winter of 2012. The heart is as ongoing as its beating, a continuous tale of its pursuit. And just as it beats with life or stops at death, it either pursues or does not.

“Second chances don’t come without repentance,” Bliss says. “I know I am the poster child for second chances. I don’t ask people to forgive me…But we need to slow down as people and get into our priorities, and the greatest priority is to understand your rela-tionship with God.”

The story of Baylor and Bliss and vices and voids is a complicat-ed, messy account that poses a profound, simple question about the heart of every man.

Is it beating?

Stephen Copeland is a staff writer and columnist at Sports Spectrum magazine.

“I think about this every day—what I did. For

��to go around and tell

everybody what a good guy I was. That’s what you do when you can’t

forgive yourself. You try to change everybody’s

mind about you.”

“It’s about recognizing the potential harm a jersey can cause—the self-centeredness, greed, immaturity,

larger-than-life mentality, and obsession with this world—but also the potential power one’s jersey has for the good of society and, most importantly, the good of

Christ’s Kingdom.”- Hunter Smith, author, musician, and former NFL punter

Available now in the Sports Spectrum store

!"#$"%"&&"'()*#+“It’s about recognizing the potential

can cause—the self-centeredness, greed, immaturity,

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NOW$12

ach Johnson dropped the f-bomb on air the other day, and I liked what came from it.

Now, let me explain, before you act like I voted democrat or haven’t read “The Chronicles of Narnia” or didn’t like “Radi-cal” by David Platt (which, I didn’t really, so, sorry, Chris-tian culture).

On Nov. 29 at the World Challenge, unabashed Christian

and PGA Tour player Zach Johnson, quite possibly the Tim Tebow of golf, cursed on air, then apologized later on Twitter. His slip-up showed his humanity, and his apol-ogy showed his aim. I liked it.

In a culture where Tim Tebow is mar-keted and portrayed as perfect (don’t get me wrong, I love Tebow and everything he stands for, but think about it, if he was ever seen sipping a Guinness, ESPN may turn it into a 30-for-30 documentary), Johnson’s slip-up showed that he messes up—which, in my opinion, is more attractive than making others feel inadequate. Plus, as a golfer myself, anything less drastic than killing members of the gal-lery with a chainsaw is an understandable expression of frustration.

“Hey guys, I cussed on the course today and it was on the air,” his tweet said. “I am very sorry. I am fl awed and a sinner, and I admit my mistake…”

I like this scenario in light of my broader point. We put Christian athletes on a pedestal. We cling to them. We see

them as the superheroes in The Avengers, on the front lines, fi ghting for the cause we believe in. It’s not wrong to look up to them; their stories are encouraging. But we elevate them more than we elevate the cause, and that’s wrong, and we elevate their sin more than for-giveness, and that’s wrong.

See, the fi rst draft of this column was a letter to Pope Benedict XVI, asking him to canonize Tim Tebow as a saint—the point being that we already elevate Tebow to the point of sainthood anyway, so we may as well just make it offi cial.

That column, however, ended up in a folder on my desktop called “Nixed By The Editor,” and the 12 other columns already there gave it a jovial welcome to the family. I think they all had a cookout or something. Apparently, calling the Pope, “Benny,” “Sweet Sixteen,” and “Benihana” throughout the letter is borderline offensive, and I can’t say whatever I want just because I grew up Catholic for 18 years, which is probably true. So I said 10 Hail Marys and a Glory Be and repented of my sarcasm. Oops.

The heart of the problem, I think—why we’re so judgmental of prominent Christians (whether it’s an athlete, pastor or politician) who may utter an f-bomb, or any curse words, and why we’re so star-obsessed with people who believe what we believe whether that’s Tim Tebow or the Pope—is that Jesus isn’t enough.

Aaron Rodgers wins a Super Bowl, for ex-ample, and I proudly say, “Aaron Rodgers is a Christian,” comfortably telling myself, “Aaron Rodgers believes what I believe.” I go to church and see U.S. Open Champion Webb Simpson sitting in front of me (which happened), and I say to myself, “I’m really happy I go to this church.” Gabby Douglas wins a gold medal, and we broadcast her quote around the Internet as if to say, “See, someone who believes in our God won a gold medal! You should believe in our God, too!”

A couple months ago, right after the Olympics, I interviewed Masters Seminary professor Paul Felix, the father of three-time 2012 London Olympic gold medalist Allyson Felix. He had an interesting quote about the nature of Christians in our mod-ern culture.

“She’s had an amazing career,” he said of his daughter. “God has blessed her. My thing was, win a gold medal in your rela-

tionship with the Lord. That’s more important than winning a gold at the Olympics. Christians kind of come out of the woodwork when another Christian wins a gold medal.”

That’s true. Our celebrity-obsessed culture has very much invaded the church. We buy Papa Johns because Peyton Manning owns 21 of them (not pizzas, franchises), and our actions and attitudes indicate that we believe in Jesus because Tim Tebow believes in Jesus. What if Christian athletes like Allyson Felix and Tim Tebow didn’t make Jesus look “cool” and “hip?”

Is Jesus enough? Is the Bible enough? The thing is, Jesus didn’t drop the f-bomb on the golf course—Je-

sus didn’t even sin, not once—so what’s the big deal? What’s the big deal when Sports Spectrum puts Michael Vick on the cover or runs a story that talks about disgraced basketball coach Dave Bliss?

I’m a sinner who has been changed by God’s grace just like Michael Vick and Dave Bliss.

I wish Jesus was enough. I wish the Bible was enough. I wish it didn’t appear as if we were too shallow and insecure in our faith as we latch onto prominent Christians like a leach, only to be let down when someone drops an f-bomb on national television or has an affair. Didn’t Peter curse when he was denying Christ, of all things? Didn’t David have an affair and then kill someone?

This past summer, I interviewed PGA golfer Ben Crane, and I think he said it best. “There are also a bunch of players who would say the guys at Bible study are just a bunch of hypocrites,” Crane said. “We say, ‘Well there’s always room for one more.’ Yeah, we are (hypocrites). That’s why we need Jesus—because we don’t do it right all the time.”

Somewhere, along the line, perhaps we’ve forgotten what we need.

Stephen Copeland!is a staff writer and columnist at Sports Spectrum magazine.

BY STEPHEN COPELANDANOTHER ANGLE O P I N I O Ns tephen .cope land@spor tsspec t rum.com | Fo l low @steve_cope land

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