There was a time when men who followed professional football were as tough, as least mentally, as those playing the game for good money but not millions. I grew up with those type of men all around me. Just about all of them WWII veterans who were union men, working for Westinghouse, who loved their country, and who built thriving communities with their little Cape Cod houses. Professional football was synonymous with toughness. It has become a mixed bag today because the NFL has been 'hacked' by the Left in America. They, the Left, know where they can strike at he core of the American Creed and they are doing a good job of it.
I Gave Up The NFL
I know that it is possible because I'm living proof of it. To this day I can name more than half of the starting offense and defense of the 1965 Buffalo Bills. I was a typical Steelers fan in the 70s and celebrated in the streets of Pittsburgh after a Super Bowl win, but I don't think that I have watched more than a few series of downs in 30 years. So I know that it is possible to give up the NFL. On another topic...I haven't had more than one beer in a single day since 1979....that's 37 years! Both of those streaks are part of what saved my life. Let me begin with the latter.
I began abusing alcohol at a high school graduation party. To this day when I drive west on Pittsburgh's I-376, I glance up at the cliff that I rolled over while in a drunken stupor. If I told you all the stories it would take all evening. I had a gun put to my head, drank a half bottle of vodka on an inclined top of a 100 ft. water tower, and finished off a six pack of beer on the median... lines... of a busy four lane highway after dropping the six pack while riding on the back of a motorcycle. It actually gets worse but I'll spare you. All of this was before I was married....thank-you Lord!
In 1979 my father was dying of Cirrhosis of the Liver and and I quit alcohol cold turkey. I became a Christian in 1982. Somewhere in the mid-1990s my Christian beliefs underwent a radical change. I no longer believed that a Christian could not drink a beer...rather that Christians cannot drink to excess. I had a beer...and enjoyed it.... but wary of my past I resolved never to have more than one beer in a single day. I usually love that one beer, in fact I might have one before I finish this post, and I have never even wanted a second. Thank-you Lord!
I have shared this anecdote before. The year? Probably 1974 or 1975. The place? The Pitt campus. I wound up wrestling with another guy in the middle of Forbes avenue, stopping all the traffic. Flash forward about 14 years. Christians are holding a protest march against the blasphemous film The Last Temptation Of Christ. I'm one of thousands who silently carried a candle down that same Forbes Avenue, pausing only at the King's Court theater where the film was showing. I was with a friend and the significance hit me when we walked over the spot that ten years previous I had stopped traffic as a drunken bum. Thank-you again Lord
As for the other 'streak'...had I continued to be a professional football fan as I had been there would be no Special Dog posts today. I wouldn't know that we had a communist president, I would probably have a Facebook page, I wouldn't read the Word of God every day, at least not in rapt amazement at every verse, I might vaguely believe that the Second Coming must be near but I certainly would not see so clearly God's impending judgement upon our nation, nor would I say with any kind of sincerity...come Lord Jesus, and I would not, many times throughout the day anyway, wonder in amazement how God could have had mercy on one such as me, or continue to welcome me into His marvelous graces each and every day.
Continued alcohol abuse might have ended my marriage and may even have ended my life. NFL football, to the degree required of a true fan in today's America, would have stunted my discernment.... for the average person, of which I consider myself to be, can only process so much information, and can only give so much time to the areas that he/she desires to become knowledgeable in. Even more significant than the time and passions involved in being a professional football fan is that it has taken over Sundays in the fall and much of the winter. Christians have to play word games to justify a worship service followed by a day of professional football.
Athletics are wonderful. Dedication and perseverance in training to win any race or any game is honorable, but only in moderation in relation to what the chief end of man is....that being "to glorify God, and to enjoy Him forever."
I Gave Up The NFL
I know that it is possible because I'm living proof of it. To this day I can name more than half of the starting offense and defense of the 1965 Buffalo Bills. I was a typical Steelers fan in the 70s and celebrated in the streets of Pittsburgh after a Super Bowl win, but I don't think that I have watched more than a few series of downs in 30 years. So I know that it is possible to give up the NFL. On another topic...I haven't had more than one beer in a single day since 1979....that's 37 years! Both of those streaks are part of what saved my life. Let me begin with the latter.
I began abusing alcohol at a high school graduation party. To this day when I drive west on Pittsburgh's I-376, I glance up at the cliff that I rolled over while in a drunken stupor. If I told you all the stories it would take all evening. I had a gun put to my head, drank a half bottle of vodka on an inclined top of a 100 ft. water tower, and finished off a six pack of beer on the median... lines... of a busy four lane highway after dropping the six pack while riding on the back of a motorcycle. It actually gets worse but I'll spare you. All of this was before I was married....thank-you Lord!
In 1979 my father was dying of Cirrhosis of the Liver and and I quit alcohol cold turkey. I became a Christian in 1982. Somewhere in the mid-1990s my Christian beliefs underwent a radical change. I no longer believed that a Christian could not drink a beer...rather that Christians cannot drink to excess. I had a beer...and enjoyed it.... but wary of my past I resolved never to have more than one beer in a single day. I usually love that one beer, in fact I might have one before I finish this post, and I have never even wanted a second. Thank-you Lord!
I have shared this anecdote before. The year? Probably 1974 or 1975. The place? The Pitt campus. I wound up wrestling with another guy in the middle of Forbes avenue, stopping all the traffic. Flash forward about 14 years. Christians are holding a protest march against the blasphemous film The Last Temptation Of Christ. I'm one of thousands who silently carried a candle down that same Forbes Avenue, pausing only at the King's Court theater where the film was showing. I was with a friend and the significance hit me when we walked over the spot that ten years previous I had stopped traffic as a drunken bum. Thank-you again Lord
As for the other 'streak'...had I continued to be a professional football fan as I had been there would be no Special Dog posts today. I wouldn't know that we had a communist president, I would probably have a Facebook page, I wouldn't read the Word of God every day, at least not in rapt amazement at every verse, I might vaguely believe that the Second Coming must be near but I certainly would not see so clearly God's impending judgement upon our nation, nor would I say with any kind of sincerity...come Lord Jesus, and I would not, many times throughout the day anyway, wonder in amazement how God could have had mercy on one such as me, or continue to welcome me into His marvelous graces each and every day.
Continued alcohol abuse might have ended my marriage and may even have ended my life. NFL football, to the degree required of a true fan in today's America, would have stunted my discernment.... for the average person, of which I consider myself to be, can only process so much information, and can only give so much time to the areas that he/she desires to become knowledgeable in. Even more significant than the time and passions involved in being a professional football fan is that it has taken over Sundays in the fall and much of the winter. Christians have to play word games to justify a worship service followed by a day of professional football.
Athletics are wonderful. Dedication and perseverance in training to win any race or any game is honorable, but only in moderation in relation to what the chief end of man is....that being "to glorify God, and to enjoy Him forever."
