Posts tagged "Tim Tebow"
The Flying Dutchman, Schadenfreude, and Tim Tebow
Religion / Science / Social Science / Sports / Suffering

The Flying Dutchman, Schadenfreude, and Tim Tebow

by Michael Sansbury on Apr 30, 2013 • No Comments

The scientist who yields anything to theology, however slight, is yielding to ignorance and false pretenses, and as certainly as if he granted that a horse-hair put into a bottle of water will turn into a snake.

–H. L. Mencken

Saturday was my birthday, and I was showered with a heap of my favorite kind of gift: Stories about triumphant people whose lives have been ruined. I’d like to say that it is theological conviction that makes me read these stories end to end, but it is probably some sort of dopamine-stimulating Schadenfreude. Either way, it is an embarrassment of riches.

First, the…

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The Squelched Swan Song of Tim Tebow
Celebrity / Law / Sports / Theology

The Squelched Swan Song of Tim Tebow

by Nick Lannon on Feb 27, 2013 • 2 Comments

There appears to be a consensus forming that Tim Tebow’s career as a football player is over. This, in itself, is a strange phenomenon, since he has a winning record as a starting quarterback in the NFL, a relatively rare achievement for a young player who came into the league with questionable talent and playing for a mediocre (at best) team. Heck, it’s rare for any young quarterback to come out of the gate with a winning record. In any  event, people have begun to speculate about what Tim Tebow might do next, now that he has no future in…

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Happy New Year: 20 Predictions from the World of Sports
Humor / Sports

Happy New Year: 20 Predictions from the World of Sports

by Nick Lannon on Jan 2, 2013 • 2 Comments

1) Carmelo Anthony will finish third in NBA MVP voting, causing him to reconsider the pencil thin, John Waters mustache look.

2) Tim Tebow will hit the public speaker circuit full-time…and be awesome at it, of course.

3) The NHL will pull the Keyser Soze trick and convince the world that it never existed.

4) The Los Angeles Dodgers will finish second in the National League West and lose in the wild card round of the playoffs, despite having spent the gross national product of Chile on player salaries this off-season.

5) Metta World Peace will elbow someone in the head.

6) Jeremy Lin and…

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Another Year Ends: Evangelical Decline, more Les Mis, Tebow Absurdity, Anxious Parents, The Hobbit, Apatow in Crisis, Millenial Affirmations and A Muppet Family Christmas
Children / Christmas / Church / Film / Humor / Psychology / Relationships / Religion / Sports / Week In Review

Another Year Ends: Evangelical Decline, more Les Mis, Tebow Absurdity, Anxious Parents, The Hobbit, Apatow in Crisis, Millenial Affirmations and A Muppet Family Christmas

by David Zahl on Dec 21, 2012 • 2 Comments

1. An uncommonly insightful piece by John Dickerson appeared in The NY Times about “The Decline of Evangelical America.” Writing as an evangelical himself, Dickerson recites some jarring statistics before launching into a sympathetic and genuinely hopeful conclusion, ht SZ:

In 2007, the Institute for Jewish and Community Research, in a survey of 1,300 college professors, found that 3 percent held “unfavorable feelings” toward Jews, 22 percent toward Muslims and 53 percent toward evangelical Christians…

The core evangelical belief is that love and forgiveness are freely available to all who trust in Jesus Christ. This is the “good news” from which the…

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Preach Tim Tebow Always…Use Words When Necessary
Religion / Sports / Theology/Religion

Preach Tim Tebow Always…Use Words When Necessary

by Nick Lannon on Feb 24, 2012 • 10 Comments

This story is actually from November of last year, but just came to my attention now, brought on by the recent Brady Quinn/Tim Tebow flap.  For those not in the know, GQ Magazine recently ran an oral history of last year’s Denver Broncos season called The Year of Magical Stinking.  In it, many of Tebow’s teammates and fellow NFLers offered opinions on the man, his season, and, of course, his expressions of faith.  Brady Quinn, another quarterback on the Broncos (and a Christian), is quoted on the subject of Tebow’s public displays of faith, saying:

If you look at it as…

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Linsanity: Something To Believe In?
News / Sports / Suffering / Theology/Religion

Linsanity: Something To Believe In?

by Blair on Feb 13, 2012 • 5 Comments

If you’re a sports fan, you’ve likely written off the NBA season because of its late start due to a collective bargaining dispute. Or maybe, like me, you’ve never been that interested in the NBA in the first place. Still, that hasn’t stopped me from hearing about the Knicks’ new point guard, Jeremy Lin. If you’re a fan of The Waterboy (guilty as charged), you’ll like this story. If you’re a fan of Tim Tebow, buckle up.

A Harvard grad who received league honors from his sophomore season on, but toiled in relative obscurity in the Ivy League, Lin was initially…

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Tim Tebow, We’re Not Done With You Yet
Sports / TV

Tim Tebow, We’re Not Done With You Yet

by Nick Lannon on Jan 5, 2012 • 5 Comments

Everyone is seemingly tired of talking about Tim Tebow. And yet, they talk. And talk and talk. I witnessed Kordell Stewart get visibly angry this morning on ESPN’s First Take when talking about the chances that Tebow is getting compared to chances that African American quarterbacks with the same skill set have gotten in years past. At one point, he simply sighed and said, “I’m just so tired of talking about Tim Tebow.” But even after Tebow’s Broncos are eliminated from the playoffs (hopefully this week by my beloved Steelers), we’ll talk about whether or not Tebow is the “quarterback…

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Top 10 Mockingbird News Stories of 2011
America / Books / Celebrity / Everyday / Film / Humor / Law / Music / News / Politics / Religion / Sports / Year In Review

Top 10 Mockingbird News Stories of 2011

by Bryan J. on Dec 28, 2011 • 1 Comment

Once again, this year’s news cycle provided a whole new set of jaw-dropping gospel fodder for our beloved little blog here. Here are my top 10 stories that were either too short to post or slipped through the cracks in 2011.

"Theologies of Glory only pay short term dividends."

10) “Pay for Spray” Law:  While it isn’t the first time it’s happened, it’s heartbreaking every time it happens. In a rural Tennessee, a family neglected to pay a fee to the local fire department. When their mobile home caught on fire, the firefighters responded, only to watch their house burn down.…

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Another Week Ends: Hitch, Facebook Blues, Baby Morality, Auden’s Conversion, M:I4, The Replacements, Gorey Animation, and Knowing Yule
Children / Death / Film / Humor / Identity / Law / Music / Poetry / Religion / Social Science / Sports / Technology / Week In Review

Another Week Ends: Hitch, Facebook Blues, Baby Morality, Auden’s Conversion, M:I4, The Replacements, Gorey Animation, and Knowing Yule

by David Zahl on Dec 16, 2011 • 1 Comment

1. By now you’ve no doubt heard that legendary journalist/polemicist/personality/Atheist Christopher Hitchens died yesterday. Hitchens was always my favorite of the New Atheists, and not just because he was the funniest. Alone of his colleagues (and I’m sure he hated being lumped in with anyone!), he seemed to object to the Gospel itself, rather than the normal hangups about the Bible or the Church. He found the idea of Grace to be repulsive and morally reprehensible. “Vicarious redemption” is what he called it, insisting that the notion that a person could be forgiven by someone other than the one they…

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Was Norman Vincent Peale Right? The Continuing Saga of Tim Tebow
Psychology / Sports

Was Norman Vincent Peale Right? The Continuing Saga of Tim Tebow

by Nick Lannon on Dec 12, 2011 • 9 Comments

The Power of Positive Thinking was first published in 1952, and spent 186 consecutive weeks on the New York Times bestseller list. It has sold, according to some estimates, over 5 million copies, and has spawned a horde of copies, including books like The Secret and Your Best Life Now. More than that, though, it has created a place for itself (and its thesis) in the common consciousness, long after its author’s name (Norman Vincent Peale) has begun to fade from memory. This morning, though, I heard Peale’s name referenced in a most unusual place: On The Blitz, a segment of ESPN’s flagship program, SportsCenter.…

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Another Week Ends: Generous Marriages, Creative Cheaters, Converted Grinches, Tebow Haters, Twilight Zone Xmases, Gracious Police and Walter
America / Books / Christmas / Forgiveness / Humor / Literature / Psychology / Relationships / Social Science / Sports / TV / Week In Review

Another Week Ends: Generous Marriages, Creative Cheaters, Converted Grinches, Tebow Haters, Twilight Zone Xmases, Gracious Police and Walter

by David Zahl on Dec 9, 2011 • 1 Comment

1. Some new research on the importance of generosity in marriage and relationships has been making the rounds this week, and the soundbites are amusing in their captain-obvious-ness. Generosity here being very close to what we would call grace, and the relational dynamic it characterizes being one that by and large does away with scorekeeping, exposing egalitarian notions of the 50-50 split as the recipe for resentment that they often are (100-100 being the happier and, ironically, less legalistic ideal). The research also implicitly condemns models of relating based on self-fulfillment rather than self-sacrifice. Go figure! Of course, knowing what’s…

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Another Week Ends: Anti-Tebowmania, Hipster Mormonism, Sixty-Six Books, Coldplay, Hypocrisy, and Tullian Tchividjian’s Story of Redemption
Bible / Grace in Practice / Interviews / News / Psychology / Social Science / Sports / Suffering / Theology/Religion / Week In Review

Another Week Ends: Anti-Tebowmania, Hipster Mormonism, Sixty-Six Books, Coldplay, Hypocrisy, and Tullian Tchividjian’s Story of Redemption

by Todd Brewer on Oct 28, 2011 • No Comments

Filling in for DZ this week as the Birmingham Conference kicks off…

1. Can you be a hipster and Mormon at the same time? An interesting NY Times article appearing on Wednesday outlined a Mormon’s guide to looking cool without totally losing your faith (a.k.a “How to be like Brandon Flowers”). It’s a classic case study in the casuistry that arises when navigating between conflicting judgments – slightly appeasing one demand without violating the other, or transgressing just enough but not too much. As Mormonism seeks more and more acceptance from mainstream America, I suspect this will be just one of…

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Tim Tebow IS Holier Than Thou
Sports / Theology

Tim Tebow IS Holier Than Thou

by Nick Lannon on Oct 24, 2011 • 11 Comments

I’ve been watching Tim Tebow’s (attempted) transition to “NFL Quarterback” from “Arguably One of the Greatest College Football Players of All Time” with great interest. The thing that interests me most is the number of people, pundits, fans, and otherwise, who seem to be actively rooting for Tebow to fail. In this morning’s “The Blitz” segment on ESPN’s SportsCenter, Chris Berman and Tom Jackson wondered aloud about Tebow’s army of detractors.  Now, it’s not uncommon for a successful college player to inspire skepticism about his ability to succeed at the next level, and Tebow certainly has. His delivery is too…

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CrossFit for the End Times: Or, Why Is There No Pauline Hip-Hop?
Music / Sports

CrossFit for the End Times: Or, Why Is There No Pauline Hip-Hop?

by Mockingbird on Sep 22, 2011 • 1 Comment

This one comes to us from new Mbird contributor Jack Sharman:

Pastors and motivational speakers often link sports-vocabulary with works-righteousness, both intentionally and accidentally. And you can hardly blame them. Public displays of religious affection — or affectation — are grist for the mill of cultural, legal and sports commentators. Witness the tight end who makes the sign of the cross after a touchdown in a good ESPN time-slot, his hands safely in Nike receiver-gloves. Or, worse, reflect on a hapless Tim Tebow with King James eye-black.

Tebow now wanders in the desert of the NFL, but one need not be…

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Identity, Expectation and the Run-First Quarterback
Celebrity / Grace in Practice / Identity / Law / Sports

Identity, Expectation and the Run-First Quarterback

by Matthew Stokes on Aug 30, 2011 • 3 Comments

A couple of fascinating articles about the pressure on NFL quarterbacks have appeared in the last week.  First off is this piece from CBS Sports columnists Gregg Doyel.  Unusually even-tempered for the typically aggressive Doyel, the column is loaded with talk of expectations vs. talent, a specific football analogy for the broader study of identity in light of the law and grace dialectic.  At issue is the persistent tendency of  NFL teams to draft uber-talented run-first quarterbacks only to then require them to be traditional, drop-back pocket passers.  The column focuses in particular on overall number one draft pick Cam Newton…

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