David Brooks writes in his column today about a book called The Mental ABC’s of Pitching by H.A. Dorfman, a sports psychologist. Dorfman, Brooks says, attempts to teach pitchers to focus, "to liberate people from what you might call the tyranny of the scattered mind."

While some advocate free expression and limitless "creativity", Dorfman believes:

Self-discipline is a form of freedom. Freedom from laziness and lethargy, freedom from expectations and demands of others, freedom from weakness and fear — and doubt.

Discipline, however doesn't just come from trying. It comes from building structures that build behaviors. Practice forms routines, which form habits. And habit shapes the mind. "If a player disciplines his behavior, then he will also discipline his mind." For a pitcher, this means practice, obviously, but it also means paying attention only to the job of throwing a baseball. "A pitcher shouldn’t judge himself by how the batters hit his pitches, but instead by whether he threw the pitch he wanted to throw."

Brooks writes, "By putting the task at the center, Dorfman illuminates the way the body and the mind communicate with each other. Once there were intellectuals who thought the mind existed above the body, but that’s been blown away by evidence. In fact, it’s easiest to change the mind by changing behavior."

And here, finally, we find our spiritual analogue. Faith, belief, and trust in a God who is invisible to our senses is tough work, kind of like striking out an all-star hitter. With the noise of the fans, the signs from the catcher, the lessons from the coach playing through the mind, it's too much. For me, with the daily commute, the constant deadlines, the needs of a family, I'm shackled by the tyranny of the scattered mind. God is there, oh yes, but there are so many more pressing things. Life is hyperlinked, and I never complete one thing before moving to the next.

But then there is church. Those two hours once a week. Mine is by no means liturgical, but the routine is there, the faces are there, the words are there. And those actions shape my mind, my spirit.

Posted by Rob Moll at April 1, 2008 | Comments (0)

Churches will be able to host big-screen Super Bowl parties in 2009 thanks to the NFL's reversed decision this week.

The NFL had received criticism for its decision, and the Washington Post reported that churches were canceling their Super Bowl parties out of fear of lawsuits. In a later Post story titled "Bill Would End Separation of Church and Super Bowl," three congressmen spoke with the Post about potential legislation.

The Post reports that the NFL will allow church showings as long as the showings are free and are on premises that the church uses on a "routine and customary" basis.

The NFL restricts TV screens to 55" at public viewings, except at bars and restaurants that regularly broadcast sporting events. Last year, the NFL sent letters to two churches advising them of the policy. The new policy will be set in place for 2009.

CT also wrote about NFL/church dispute in "Fumbling Religion" last fall.

Posted by Sarah Pulliam at February 22, 2008 | Comments (0)

Religion, he feels, is the main source of his strength, and because he realizes not everybody shares that feeling today, he sometimes refers to "the challenge of being in the minority in the world." ... "I don't try to be overbearing in what I believe, but, given a chance, I will express my beliefs."

If I told you that line was in reference to a star athlete, I wouldn't imagine you could guess whom. A number of sports stars, and journeymen, come to mind when I think of faith and basketball or baseball or football. And afflicted-minority syndrome is increasingly popular with Christians in America today.

But, surprisingly, I came across those lines last night in John McPhee's "A Sense of Where You Are," the profile he wrote more than 40 years ago of basketball great Bill Bradley, a white man of not-so-humble means who was educated at Princeton, the citadel of the American Presbytery. Hardly a typical minority.

This article was cross-posted at The God Blog.

Posted by Brad Greenberg at February 13, 2008 | Comments (0)

Despite his inability to find the old coaching magic that led the Washington Redskins to three Super Bowl crowns from 1982-91, Joe Gibbs will always be remembered as one of the classiest guys to ever grace an NFL sideline.

Gibbs, a devout Christian, announced his retirement Tuesday as the Redskins head coach and president, just three days after Washington lost its first-round playoff game at Seattle. His decision, with one year left on a five-year contract, stunned the team.

In a press conference at Redskins complex, Gibbs said that family commitments—including a 3-year-old grandson being treated for leukemia—led to his decision.

“My family situation has dramatically changed [in recent years],” Gibbs said. “The only way to do this job [as an NFL coach] is to go after it night and day; it takes every minute. Having weighed that . . . I felt like with my family, the most important thing I’ll leave on this earth are my kids, grandkids, and the influence I have on others. I felt like my family needed me.”

(Watch Gibbs’ Tuesday afternoon announcement at Redskins.com.)

It was a difficult season for Gibbs and the team, who struggled on and off the field—especially with the November murder of defensive star Sean Taylor—before rallying for four straight wins to make the playoffs. Alas, the playoff loss to Seattle ended what many had hoped would be a “Hollywood ending” for the team from the nation’s capital.

Gibbs, 67, has a dual reputation as a committed family and as a hard worker who spent long hours at the team complex—away from his family—during the season. But his retirement clearly shows he has decided to put family first.

“It was the toughest (season) for me,” Gibbs said Monday, a day before announcing his retirement. “When you go through a season like that, for a while it’s hard to regrasp reality.”

The reality was that in the last four years—his second stint as the Skins’ skipper—Gibbs was unable to lead the team to the dominance it had enjoyed in his first stint from 1981-92, when Washington went 124-60 and won Super Bowls in 1982, ’87, and ’91. Gibbs retired in 1992 to turn his attention to auto racing, where he co-owns a team featuring NASCAR stars Tony Stewart and Kyle Busch. Gibbs vowed to never return to the NFL, and in 1996, he was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

The Redskins floundered for years as owner Dan Snyder went through six coaches and hundreds of players in search of a winning formula. Snyder ultimately turned back to Gibbs in 2004, offering $27.5 million and for a five-year deal to coax him out of retirement. Gibbs signed on, and while the team improved in the last four years, they never regained their dominance of the 1980s, going 31-36 and 1-2 in the playoffs.

But as a longtime Redskins fan, I know that the “reality” for Gibbs involved more than just numbers. He will be remembered not just as a great coach, but as a terrific leader and mentor to his many players over the years. Yes, they’ll remember how he made them better football players. But they’ll also remember how he made them better men.

Mark Moring grew up in Virginia, where it’s almost mandatory to be a Washington Redskins fan. He is editor of ChristianityTodayMovies.com.

Posted by Susan Wunderink at January 8, 2008 | Comments (0)

You can find all sorts of summaries of the baseball steroid scandal, but one commentary on it is worth commenting on. It is by Rick Morrissey of the Chicago Tribune entitled "Some of us still are here to talk about past."

Morrissey got it basically right. George Mitchell, the head of the investigation, said, "A principal goal of this investigation is to bring to a close this troubling chapter in baseball's history and to use the lessons learned from the past to prevent the future use of some substances. While that requires us to look back, as this report necessarily does, all efforts should now be directed to the future."

Morrissey replies, "Some of us would like to linger awhile at the scene of the crime."

His instincts are good. We cannot fathom who we are today or what we are to become without an understanding of our past. We live in an age that wants to move forward, get on with solutions. But there is no forward without looking back.

But I wonder if Morrissey goes far enough. He finally agrees with Mitchell: "It does no good to punish players now for past sins."

I'm not sure, first, if there are any other types of sins but past sins. And if there are no consequences, well, what's to prevent another scandal in the future?

Second, I not sure we can ever "put this all behind us" without various people actually stepping forward, acknowledging their wrongdoing or negligence, and apologizing. The shorthand term is "repentence," but it's a notion that goes unmentioned in any of the accounts I've read so far.

And while Morrissey is quick to point the finger elsewhere--quoting Mitchell, who said that "commissioners, club officials, the players association, the players" all shared responsibility--nowhere in the column is there a clear indication of the role the sports media played in the cover-up.

Only a full accounting, including a few personal apologies and some substantive consequences, is really going to bring healing and hope to baseball. Mitchell is a bit confused about what an investigation can do. It can bring problems to light. But it is not something that by itself can "bring closure." A partial accounting, without repentance or consequences, will simply leave an open, sore wound for decades to come.

That being said, it is nonetheless a healthy sign that major league baseball has done as much as it has. Better late and partial than never.

Posted by Mark Galli at December 14, 2007 | Comments (0)

Hunter Smith, punter for the Indianapolis Colts, will sing on Gospel Music Channel tonight before Sunday's highly anticipated Colts/New England Patriots showdown. He might want to sing some prayers because it looks as though the Colts will be the underdogs this week.

In the interest of full disclosure, I was born and raised a Colts' fan in Indianapolis so I have my biases. But CT Movies Editor Mark Moring describes the Colts/Patriots showdown as "Christians vs. the bad guys." Maybe it's because he admires Tony Dungy. Let's be honest: who can't help but love the guy? This, compared to the Patriot's coach, who was fined $500,000 after a Patriots video assistant was caught by NFL security filming the New York Jets' defensive signals. Wide receiver Randy Moss is no favorite either.
So I'm not the only one who thinks it could be good vs. evil.

In the meantime, if you don't know what to do with your time until the big game, consider re-reading CT's past football coverage.
Why We Love Football | Grace and idolatry run crossing patterns in the new American pastime.
Fumbling Religion? | When it deals with Christians and churches, the NFL doesn't always have a good game plan.

Posted by Sarah Pulliam at November 2, 2007 | Comments (2)

From Vick's statement after pleading guilty: "Dog fighting is a terrible thing, and I did reject it. I'm upset with myself, and, you know, through this situation I found Jesus and asked him for forgiveness and turned my life over to God. And I think that's the right thing to do as of right now."

Posted by Ted Olsen at August 27, 2007 | Comments (42)

A Sam Smith sports column in today's Chicago Tribune has sparked a thought that might help Christians slow down big injustices. It seems that a few teams have figured out how to defense mammoth, domineering big menf like Shaq. You do it with quickness--the defender must antipate the big man's move, step immediately in his path, establish his position, fall backwards when contacted by the big man, and so draw a charge. Foul on the big man. Enough fouls, and the big man sits on the bench--at least until the next game.

Christians activists are up against some pretty mammoth, domineering social injustices, and they are constantly getting beaten by them. I'm wondering if quick footedness leading to a charge--which usually requires the defender to flop backwards, feigning inappropriate contact--would constitute a social foul. Enough of those, and maybe the public would ask the social justice to sit on the bench. At least for awhile.

I'll let others speculate how exactly this applies to social injustices. But my intuition tells me there is something for us to learn in this style of basketball defense. It's helped the Chicago Bulls nuetralize Shaq. Not that Shaq is a great social injustice--though a Bulls fan might think so.

Posted by Mark Galli at April 24, 2007 | Comments (2)