Sports Then and Now

Was Ray Lewis talking about players or fans when he said that the crime rate would rise if there is no NFL this fall?

“Watch how much evil — which we call it crime — watch how much crime picks up if you take away our game.” – Ray Lewis

When you first heard these words what image came to mind?  Ray Lewis, 16 year NFL Veteran, 12 time Pro-Bowler, 2 time Defensive player of the year, Super Bowl XXXV MVP,  future Hall of Famer and unarguably spiritual and emotional leader of the Baltimore Ravens.  Or Ray Lewis, accused murderer in an orange jumpsuit standing in an Atlanta, Georgia courtroom.  If your view of Mr. Lewis is that of the latter, that’s okay.  It’s your opinion and the above statement is nothing more than that.  An opinion.

What if it were more than that?

After all this is an opinion of a guy who has been in the league for 16 years, (providing the NFL plays another season in our existence).  A guy who has experienced training camps, OTA’s, playoffs, a Super Bowl, contract negotiations, player mentoring, community projects & philanthropy, new business development and a double homicide trial.  This is nothing more than an opinion from a guy who has played in 210 regular season games, 15 playoffs games and doesn’t get his NFL news from ESPN SportsCenter highlights or NFL RedZone.  How could he have an opinion that is so far fetched from what fans or NFL “experts” would have?  Let’s find out how out of touch Ray is, are you ready?

NFL Players arrested since beginning of Lockout- 17
NFL Players arrested during same time in 2010- 13

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The Baltimore Ravens try to keep their playoff run intact. It’s going to be tough task, as the Ravens are going to be facing their

The Baltimore Ravens versus the Pittsburgh Steelers is going to be a hard hitting game

arch rival Pittsburgh Steelers.

In the two games they played in the regular season were only decided by three points. So look for this game to be close to the very end.

It’s going to be a brutal fight, as both teams are hard nosed smash mouth football teams and they just don’t like each other.

These type of games are built for the teams that play dominating defense and that can sustain a running game.

In this game it’s going to take a lot of will power and strength to come away with the win.

There is not going to be much scoring in this game, but their will be a lot of jaw wrenching hits. Read the rest of this entry →

Aaron Rodgers and the Green Bay faithful should have lots to celebrate in 2010.

A year ago I made the bold prediction that the Baltimore Ravens and Green Bay Packers would meet in the Super Bowl. As it turns out, I think I may have had the right picks, just the wrong season. Both the Ravens and Packers enter the 2010 season as good bets to be playing in the House That Jerry Built come February.

It won’t be easy for either team as both conferences include a number of teams with enough weapons capable of making a run toward the post season. Plus, being that this is the NFL, you can always bet on at least one team that struggled a year ago to be in the playoff mix.

Here are my picks for 2010:

NFC

NFC East: Some are predicting that the Dallas Cowboys could become the first team ever to play the Super Bowl in their home stadium. With a solid quarterback in Tony Romo, a strong running game and one of the best defensive players in the league in DeMarcus Ware, the Cowboys definitely have the weapons to make a run. However, under Wade Phillips the Cowboys have generally come up a bit short in big games and I don’t know that they have the full stable of talented players needed to be a Super Bowl team. They should win the division as the New York Giants have, at-best, Wild Card talent and the Eagles and Redskins both look to be a year away from contending. However, with a veteran coach and veteran quarterback, the Redskins could be a candidate for making a big turnaround in 2010. Read the rest of this entry →

There will always be a place for underdogs, like the New York Jets in Super Bowl III, in sports.

There’s more to life than sports, for sure, but there’s more to sports than sports…

There’s a lot of life in sports. As a theologian, psychologist, author and more recently also a financial strategist, I have identified the psycho-spiritual-political dimensions of rooting for the underdog, being the underdog, and the ways in which spirituality, psychology, and even irrational belief can trump size, talent, and win/loss records, and how these dynamics and principles can be useful in the quest for success and victory at various levels and in various arenas, not the least of which, economic.

Any sports fan knows there’s a reason the “worst” team vs. the “best” team  still have to play the game. There is a reason why upsets occur, more often than we might think, and why sports pundits and odds makers who ignore the intangible factors in a match-up, do so at their peril.

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