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Tuesday, September 10, 2019

Has Sports Illustrated Gone Too Far?

 
Sports Illustrated failed in its attempt to censure Christianity and Clemson with its recent “Has Dabo Gone too Far?”. SI repeated quotes the Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF), but also quotes Clemson officials and athletic directior – who investigated internally and found no violations. There have been no complaints. Parents, non-Christian players, and a Jehovah’s Witness player were interviewed, and admitted to meeting with Dabo, who never forced his beliefs on them. All Christian activities are voluntary.
 
Like the FFRF, Sports Illustrated tries hard to find wrongdoing, but comes up empty-handed. This isn’t even new news. The author regurgitates a 2014 ESPN article that never found its legs. Just a liberal magazine trying to stir the pot. The end result is clear: according to the First Amendment the government is supposed to be neutral on religion. Courts have ruled the kids K-12 are impressionable and shouldn’t be coerced (yet libraries host cross-dressing events for children). College students are considered adults – so there’s no danger of coercion, according to a Notre Dame law professor and First Amendment expert.
 
The article reports that QB Trevor Lawrence had been baptized at a church near the campus early his freshman year, but fails to mention that Lawrence had attended church as a high schooler in Cartersville Georgia (at Anna Gilbert’s June 2018 wedding fellow Cartersville parishioners raved about the kid).  
 
Author Tim Rohan could’ve mentioned how NewSpring Church founding pastor Perry Noble had been dismissed, but didn’t. Perhaps rumors of NewSpring funneling charitable donations to “needy” players weren’t mentioned because they could not be substantiated. In an effort to generate traffic Rohan proudly tweeted out links to his article several times. Reaction to the tweets were mixed, though it was apparent a majority of the negative reactions were made by people who hadn’t read the article.   
 
I’ve been a Sports Illustrated subscriber since 1983 (and a reader for years before that). Most of the articles are great reads, but more and more they are slanted way too liberal for me. Going out of their way to oppose Christianity is taking it too far. I’m not cancelling my subscription (yet), but I’m not going to renew.


Dude on Twitter is posting every college helmet ever worn, or at least 99% of them. Here's Clemson (above) and Tech (below).
Finished my Rick Reilly Who’s Your Caddy book. He caddied for Casey Martin, the handicapped player, a blind player, comedian Bob Newhart, and LPGA player Jill McGill. Highly recommended book. The blind player, who lost his sight in Viet Nam, taught Reilly how to read the greens with his feet, how to enjoy the sounds and smells of the course, and how to fully rely on his caddy for a good score.   
 
Freddie playfully knocking the ball away:
 
As usual I can’t remember much from Friday night. Watched the Braves take game two against the Nats.
 
Saturday morning I cleaned upstairs. Went downstairs with laundry, fixed quesadillas, and watched the last 30 minutes of College Gameday. Posted 16 pairs of shoes on eBay while watching Ohio State/Cincinnati, GT/USF, Clemson Texas A&M, UGA/Murray State, and LSU/Texas. Also a little Braves, who made it 17-2 for their last 19 games.
 
Drove down to Macon on Sunday morning. Grabbed a Taco Bell breakfast crunch wrap, which wasn’t really as good as their breakfast burritos. Now that it’s September the traffic on I-75 wasn’t bad. Anna and Matthew both worked on Sunday afternoon. On Saturday Anna helped MC paint a bedroom.
 
Cookout BBQ for lunch, but didn’t like the spicy BBQ sauce (or was it Texas Pete?). Which the meat were cooked a little more. Got a Cookout Reece’s milkshake on the way home but the cup wasn’t full. Service at Cookout just isn’t good. Often a wait to order and then to get food. Nice they have Bible verses on the cups and bags and great that business is good, but cut jeans isn’t a good look for food service employees.
 
DON HOAK [SABR Bio] abandoned his teenage fling with boxing after suffering seven straight knockouts. As a baserunner, Hoak once famously fielded a ground ball and tossed it to the opposing shortstop, thereby avoiding a double play. In the G on 21-Apr-1957 Hoak intercepted a grounder hit by teammate Wally Post and flipped it to opposing SS Johnny Logan.  The umps ruled Hoak out—that was easy. Post, however, was allowed to remain safe at first base The MLB rules committee acted quickly and now in such a circumstance, both runners would be out, citing baserunner’s deliberate interference.
 
Hoak’s name bursts into a movie plot around a breakfast campsite in a 1991 comedy. In “City Slickers” the city slickers are true-believer baseball fans who are challenged with an off-the-cuff, seemingly insignificant question. The scene:
- Phil Berquist: Do you HATE baseball?
- Barbara Robbins: No. I like baseball. I just never understood how you guys can spend so much time discussing it. I mean I think the game is great, but I don't MEMORIZE who played third base for Pittsburgh in 1960.
- Berquist: (Without hesitation and nearly in unison with colleagues Mitch Robbins and Ed Furillo: “Don Hoak!
- Robbins: See, that's exactly what I mean.” Watch clip here)

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