Category: College Football (Page 5 of 12)

Life Together: Why?

January 8, 2013 / Allan / 0 Comments

We’re going to keep at it for a couple of days here on Christian commmunity. You know, we say the word “fellowship” today and we immediately think about a big bucket of fried chicken and a green bean casserole. And hopefully somebody brought banana pudding. But in the Bible “fellowship” is much more than just a meal. “Fellowship” is everything! Koininea means sharing. It’s not something you do every fifth Sunday with a crockpot. It’s something you do every single day. Sharing each other’s blessings and each other’s burdens as we grow together and glorify the Lord. This fellowship of the saints is not some ideal that we’re trying to realize; it’s a reality created by God in Christ in which we’re called to participate.

Why? Why love each other? Why serve one another? What’s our motivation? Why would we be so concerned about this?

Well, it’s nothing we have to guess at. It’s spelled out very clearly in all the Christian letters. Our life together reflects God’s work through Christ. It imitates God in Christ. It lives into and embodies what our God is all about.

Paul begins his community directives portion of Romans 12 with “in view of God’s mercy.” Or, in other words, because God has been so merciful to us, we should love and honor and serve one another. In Ephesians 4, Paul tells us to be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other just as in Christ God forgave us. In Ephesians 5, he directs us to submit to one another out of reverance for Christ. Colossians 3 tells us to bear with each other and forgive one another just as the Lord forgave us. On and on it goes. 1 Thessalonians 5. Hebrews 10. 1 Peter 1. What God in Christ has done for us and with us, we in turn do for and with others in Christian community.

God’s perfect love and sacrifice is fulfilled, it’s made complete, Scripture says, when we love each other with that same love. I forgive you because God forgives me. I serve you because God serves me. I give you what I have because God gives everything he has to me. I’m patient with you, I’m generous to you, I’m kind and gentle and compassionate with you because my heavenly Father is all those things to me. I submit to you because Jesus submitted to the whole world on a cross. I love and forgive my enemies because while I was God’s enemy, he put his only Son on a tree to save me.

That’s why we die to each other. We put to death our own selfish ambitions and vain conceits, we bury our own interests because of all the ways our God in Christ does that for us.

We know what it’s like to be stuck in sin. We know the misery. As C. S. Lewis describes in Screwtape, we know what it’s like to be trapped by the devil, to be drowning in sin, to have “an ever increasing desire for an ever diminishing pleasure.” We know what it’s like. I know what it’s like. And God through Christ saved me. He loves me and rescues me. I know what it’s like.

Why love and serve one another in Christian community?

Because I once was lost, but now I’m found; I was blind, but now I see.

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Vickie dominated our second annual Central Staff Bowl Challenge, leading it almost from start to finish with an uncanny knack for picking all the right games and avoiding all the upsets. Down the stretch Vickie correctly picked eleven of the last fourteen college bowl games, maintaining the impressive lead she built before Christmas by picking the first six games in a row. On the far extreme other end of things, Connie finished dead last. And it wasn’t even close. For those of you who are really interested (sickos!), Hannah finished in second place (blame it on Baylor), Mary and Matthew and I competed for the top spot right into the final week, but our point values were a bit misplaced. Greg and Elaine and George all suffered very disappointing finishes in the middle of the pack. Gail was frustrated to be really bad, but not bad enough to compete for the last place prize. Adam made all his picks while driving his family from Houston to Amarillo at 3:00 in the morning; and it showed. Mark thought picking all the games A-B, A-B, A-B right down the column would be interesting; it wasn’t. Tanner and Kevin were the closest to Connie at the bottom of the pile but, in reality, she was never seriously challenged. Vickie has bragging rights for the next year and she and Connie both get a free lunch when our church staff celebrates the end of the football season and the beginning of the NHL season (what?) at the end of the month.

No sooner had the BCS Championship Game been decided last night (that was like about four minutes into the first quarter; what happened, I was watching the championship and an OU game broke out?!?) when the church staff moved on to the next big contest. With our own sister Mary about to drop anchor with the fourth little McNeil, we’ve all placed our bets on the day Mary dominos, the exact time she gives birth, and the gender of the little tot. This is such a competitive group; I love it! Guesses range from this Saturday (does Hannah have some inside, sister-in-law scoop?) all the way to January 23. I’m pulling for a girl at 10:15 Sunday morning January 20.

Peace,

Allan

Dance With Who Brung Ya

November 7, 2012 / Allan / 2 Comments

Darrell Royal, co-inventor of the Wishbone offense and two-time national championship coach of the Texas Longhorns, has died at age 88. During his 20 years as UT’s head football coach, Royal racked up a record of 167-47-5, including eleven Southwest Conference titles, ten Cotton Bowl wins, and undefeated national championship seasons in 1963 and 1969. I was ten years old when Royal stepped away from the sidelines to leave college football to the Barry Switzers of the world. So most of what I know about him I’ve only heard second and third hand or read in books or seen on TV. I did enjoy the great privilege of meeting Royal at a hospital fundraiser in Burnet back in 1993. I had my picture made with the winningest coach in Longhorns history and he autographed my invitation. A good friend, Larry Pate, framed the 3″x4″ card for me and it hangs on my office wall today.

Royal is remembered for his hard-nosed running attack and his disciplined defense. But he also gained a lot of attention with his folksy quotes and quips. Some of my favorites:

“Three things can happen when you throw the football, and two of ’em are bad.” ~on his unwillingness to install a sophisticated passing game at UT

“You dance with who brung ya.” ~on his refusal to give up on the Wishbone after a couple of tough losses in 1965

“Only angry people win football games.” ~on recruiting

“No, he’s not very fast, but maybe Elizabeth Taylor can’t sing.” ~while defending a backup running back against a reporter’s criticism

Click here for a link to a whole bunch of other Darrell Royal quotes. Click here for the Sports Illustrated article on Royal’s life before, during, and after UT. In honor of the coach, order something off the menu today that sounds like “triple option.”

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You might also be interested to know that the Houston Astros are going with a new logo and uniform design to mark their move to the American League. The new designs borrow quite liberally from the old historic ones — maybe only a die-hard fan could pick out the differences. But I like it. The orange star and the capitol “H” has always been cool. Someday, maybe during Spring Training in March, I’ll rant and rave about Houston moving to the AL West. It’s a travesty. It’s very nearly the abomination that leads to desolation. In the meantime, click here to watch a pretty cool video that highlights the Astros’ uni look from the old Colt .45 days of Larry Dierker, through the rainbow era of Ryan and Cruz, and the blue pinstripes of Bagwell and Biggio, to this brand new look worn by a bunch of players you and I have never heard of.

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Carrie-Anne and the girls and I made the short drive to Tulia Friday to eat Mexican food with our favorite Ukranian missionaries, David and Olivia and Caleb Nelson. David and Liv are on furlough from their seven year commitment in Kharkov, spending several weeks with the Martins in Lubbock where Liv is about to give birth to their second child. The little boy (Luke? Lucas? Lucious?) is due in a week and Olivia needed some chili rellenos. We had such a great visit with this wonderful family. It was such a joy to get caught up on all the Christians and all the seekers C-A and I met during our two week trip to Kharkov in 2010. Re-living Victoria’s baptism into Christ, remembering Alexander, getting caught up with Valery and Andrei; it was such a blessing. We laughed together and we prayed. We marveled at their victories and sympathized with their struggles. We giggled at the mention of fish-flavored potato chips and gagged at the memory of a tall frosty glass of Kafir. I taught Caleb how to flip Froot Loops from the handle of a teaspoon. And we vowed to play a few marathon Phase 10 games together here in Amarillo before they head to Fort Worth after the baby is born.

God is using the Nelsons in a very difficult place. He’s working through them to spread the great news of salvation in Christ Jesus. He’s empowering their whole team by his Holy Spirit to advance the eternal Kingdom. We feel so very blessed to be their friends.

God bless his Kingdom outposts in Ukraine. God bless David and Olivia Nelson and their precious children. May our Father’s will be done in their lives and in Kharkov just as it is in heaven.

Peace,

Allan

Super Bowl, Ben, and the Bone

February 11, 2011 / Allan / 0 Comments

I must draw your attention to an excellent Washington Post column written by Fort Worth native Sally Jenkins. It’s about the Super Bowl in Arlington. She mentions the plans to set the attendance record and the fiasco with the seats and the obscene prices of parking spots and nachos. But it’s not just about that. Her article is so much bigger and better than that. She claims that this Super Bowl at Jerry’s Place was, for her, the tipping point. This was the last straw. This was absurdity beyond belief. Beginning with the stadium itself:

It’s the cleanest, safest, nicest stadium anyone has ever visited. It is also the most extravagant and economically stratified. It cost double what Jerry Jones said it would, and taxpayers financed about a quarter of it, yet its innermost marble interiors are totally inaccessible to the average fan.

Jenkins cites the four Navy F-18s that flew over the stadium at the end of the National Anthem — over the domed stadium. At a taxpayer cost of $450,000. She observes that the state of Texas spent $31-million to host the football game while, at the same time, desperately making historic cuts in public education. Five thousand fans paid $200 each to stand in the rain in the parking lot! It’s just too much:

In the end, this Super Bowl taught me a lesson: Luxury can be debasing.

I’m telling you, it’s an excellent article. You can read the whole thing by clicking here.

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I’m leaving Sunday afternoon for Searcy, Arkansas to spend a couple of nights with my brother and his family. The ocassion? A full day on Monday with New Testament scholar and theologican Ben Witherington III. (Carley claims that’s a made up name.)

Witherington has written more than 40 books, including an excellent commentary on Revelation that we used as a textbook at Austin Grad. I had the great pleasure two years ago of attending three of his lectures on Revelation at the Austin Grad Sermon Seminar. He paints beautiful pictures with his words. He speaks big. Very big. Grand. He’s an orator of the highest class. A brilliant and complex man who might even break out into song in the middle of a speech to illustrate a point. And now Harding’s College of Bible and Religion is bringing him in to lecture on the topic of Christian ethics. Witherington’s just written an 1,800 page, two volume book, The Indelible Image, about the relationship between theology and ethics in the New Testament. Three seminars, a Q&A, and a roundtable discussion await us on Monday. I’m hoping Dr. Keith Stanglin is able to get me a seat at the private dinner with Ben before the final session.

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Texas Longhorns offensive coordinator Emory Bellard drew it up on a napkin while he and Darrell Royal were having breakfast in an Austin diner in the summer of 1968. A brand new formation that included three running backs, a running quarterback, and offered them up to four or five options on every play. He called it the Wishbone. And it revolutionized football.

Royal used the wishbone to win the national championship in 1969. Bellard used it as a head coach at Texas A&M and Mississippi State. He beat Bear Bryant’s Crimson Tide with it and won a few conference titles, too. Won three state championships coaching high school ball, too.

After football, Bellard retired with his wife to a life of golf and fishing in Marble Falls. I met him in 1992. He was our backup color analyst for the Mustangs high school football games on KHLB Radio. I worked two games with him in the booth. He was also the backup PA guy. When Dick Barkley, the legendary feed store owner, couldn’t make it, they called Emory. I had Emory on my talk show in Marble Falls several times to talk Longhorns and Aggies. He knew everything. All the history. Shoot, he WAS the history! He knew everybody — not because he called people and kept up with them, but because everybody called him and kept up with him. Extremely gracious.

Many times I called him to get some insight into a news story. When Chan Gailey was hired as the Cowboys coach in ’98, it was Emory who gave me the scoop first and then hooked me up with one of Gailey’s old high school girlfriends from Americus, Georgia. She, in turn, faxed me several pictures of Gailey from their high school year book and articles he had written at that time for the high school paper.

Helpful. Humble. Very “aw, shucks” about his place in football legend and lore. Generous and giving. What a great guy.

He died yesterday at 83. A great man. I was always proud to say I knew him. God bless his sweet wife, Susan.

Peace,

Allan

Of Elders Meetings, Atheists, and Huskers

December 3, 2010 / Allan / 2 Comments

Scattershooting while wondering whatever happened to Steve Pelluer…

At the beginning of last night’s elders / ministers meeting, one of our saintly-est members walked in out of the blue to pray for us. He told us he appreciated us, that he prays for us every day, and that he believes we’re all doing the right things. He prayed for us. He thanked God for us. He asked God to bless us and our families. He asked God to protect us. And this wonderful man thanked us again for allowing him the privilege of working for the Lord at this congregation. Then he begged us to use him even more. As he walked out, he patted a few of us on the back. We had been blessed.

A similar thing happened at the beginning of last month’s meeting. A couple who have only been Legacy members for about eight weeks popped in to meet everybody. They shook our hands, and expressed a desire to pray for us. They told us they loved this church, they supported the leadership, and they had every intention of getting busy in God’s work here. And we prayed. And we were blessed.

What a breath of fresh air. What a shot in the arm. What a glorious gift of affirmation and encouragement from our Father through these dear brothers and sisters. And what a carry-over effect it seems to have throughout our meeting! Both of our past two meetings have gone really, really well. I think we’re happier, more confident, more willing to step up and do the right things, less willing to get bogged down in unimportant matters.

We always open up our time together in those Thursday meetings with a passage from Scripture and prayer. I’ve always thought that’s the best way to begin any elders’ meeting — the only way. Now, I’m re-thinking it. The past two meetings have started off really nicely.

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By now you’ve seen the stories and heard the news about the four city of Fort Worth buses that will be sporting atheist advertising on their sides beginning next week. The DFW Coalition of Reason purchased the ads for a little over $2,480 to run for 30 days. They say the slogan on the boards, “Millions of Americans are good without God,” is intended to encourage people who don’t believe in God during the Christmas season when they can feel so left out and isolated. The Christians who are being interviewed for the stories, however, see the billboards as offensive and insulting.

Yeah, the ads are insulting to Christian disciples. To suggest that one must abandon all reason to accept God as Almighty Creator or Christ as Lord is terribly offensive to me.

Now there are groups of church leaders and pastors and ministers who are pushing for a boycott of the Fort Worth Public Transit system as long as the ads are displayed on the sides of these four buses. One local preacher I saw on TV last night declared something along the lines of “If the signs go up, we will walk!” He added that their Christian boycott will “force” the city to remove these ads that “don’t agree with what we believe!” The premise of a boycott is that the offenders will be pressured by money, the potential loss of money, and bow to the boycotters’ demands. It’s an economic battle. A fight fought with weapons of money and commerce.

I know that Christ Jesus never forced his way onto anybody. He never imposed his will on anybody. He never used a position of strength to get his way. He never gathered up large groups of disciples to subdue by power those who opposed him. He never tried to influence with money. He never threatened. He never intimidated or bullied. What in the world makes Christians today think that’s the best way to handle these kinds of situations?

I imagine actually riding the buses would be a much better idea for Christians who really do want to be more like their King. I imagine the billboards would provide the perfect starter for spiritual conversations. I imagine perfect strangers on these buses — especially on one of the four buses — will be talking about the ads. “Hey, we’re actually riding one of the buses that’s causing all the uproar!”

“I don’t think it’s that big a deal. What do you think?”

And there it is. Your opportunity to share your faith. Your opening to profess your belief in a Sovereign God and his crucified and resurrected Son. Your platform to declare your hope and your peace and the heavenly source of your eternal life.

Every day we’re met with moments in which we can act like Christ or act in a way that denies Christ. I don’t believe there’s such a thing as a “christian boycott.”

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Nebraska plays OU for the Big XII title tomorrow night. And I’m torn.

On the one hand, everything in my very, very Texas bones cries out against Zero-U. My four years at Oklahoma Christian and exposure to Sooners fans there only solidified my inherited bias against the Crimson and Cream. I can’t root for OU.

But, Nebraska? I can’t cheer for them either. I’ve never personally held anything agaisnt Nebraska. I always thought Tom Osbourn versus Barry Switzer was an easy call. But Bo Pelini is a different story. Hard to root for a guy who seemingly treats players and officials and his own coaches as less than human. But the bigger issue at hand is Nebraska’s pending Big XII defection. They’re leaving the conference, abandoning the league because they feel they’re mistreated by a Texas bias. We can’t have the Huskers leave the Big XII with the championship trophy!

It should be a fantastic game. The bitter hatred between these two teams goes back more than a hundred years. This is one of the greatest rivalries in college football. And there hasn’t been this much riding on a Nebraska-Oklahoma game in decades. It’ll be nuts inside Jerry’s Stadium. And I’m going to be blessed to enjoy the game wtih one of my greatest friends, good ol’ Dan Miller, and his family. Dan is a Husker to the core. Life long. He grew up just outside Lincoln. Went to school at Nebraska. He’s been foaming at the mouth for a month.

You won’t catch me wearing red. And I’ll never sing that most banal and tiresome of fight songs, Boomer Sooner. But I’m cheering for Zero-U tomorrow.

Don’t tell anybody.

Peace,

Allan

Hook 'Em!

January 7, 2010 / Allan / 1 Comment

Nine hours and counting until Brent Musburger‘s familiar voice breaks into my living room with, “You are looking live at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California!”

Nine hours until Mack Brown begins and ends every televised sentence out of his mouth with the word, “Lisa.”

Nine hours until Carley asks me what in the world an elephant has to do with the Crimson Tide (I just know it).

Nine hours until Bo Pelini throws up. Again.

What are you doing to get ready for the rigged-up and overly-sponsored Citi BCS National Championship Game? I’m counting down the minutes. I’m really, really looking forward to this thing because I really, really have no idea who’s going to win. Texas and Alabama haven’t played each other in nearly 30 years. Colt McCoy seems to be in the exact same situation Vince Young was in back in ’05: undefeated season, tons of individual honors, a Heisman finalist, huge underdog in the title game, in the Rose Bowl, Heisman trophy winner on the other sideline, and basically the ‘Horns’ only chance to win. I’m not sure Colt is Vince Young, though. He can’t singlehandedly do what Vince Young did against USC four years ago. Not by himself. Colt’s skills are different from Young’s. And that’s good. Colt is multi-dimensional. But he can’t do it alone.

If the whole Texas team plays a perfect game and gets a couple of breaks…

Here’s a link to a pretty good ESPN.com piece by Ivan Maisel and Mark Schlabach counting down the top ten reasons Texas will win tonight and the top ten reasons Alabama will win. Click here. It’s full of lots of little interesting tidbits like the fact that the Longhorns led the nation this year with eleven non-offensive touchdowns and ‘Bama’s kickoff coverage is dead last in college football. Interesting…

There’s also the fact that Texas has hooked up with Alabama a total of eight times — four times in bowl games — and has never lost. Never. Again, they haven’t played in almost 30 years. But there’s that. In all four of those previous bowl games, the Horns were huge underdogs.

I suppose we have to root for Colt McCoy and Jordan Shipley, right? Two great kids, no doubt. Two great families. Jordan set every Texas high school receiving record while playing for his dad at Burnet and helped lead the Bulldogs to two straight 3-A state championship games. I have a great love for the people and the schools in Burnet. Carrie-Anne worked there in the early ’90s and I handled the radio play-by-play during their magical ’91 season when they made it all the way to the Astrodome and the state championship game on the strength of back-to-back-to-back ties against Vernon, Marble Falls, and Southlake Carroll, advancing on penetrations and first downs. Ed Abernathy was the head coach. Rodney McGee, former Aggies and current Dallas Cowboys QB Stephen McGee’s father, was an offensive assistant. Mitchell Maxwell ran the option. Chris Denton caught the dramatic fourth down game-tying touchdowns in the final minutes. Todd Keele anchored the line. It was fantastic. I’ve always followed Burnet football because of that one crazy season. So, I’m partial to Shipley.

And what’s not to love about Colt? Here’s a link to his “I Am Second” video. Check it out here. Colt claims that God doesn’t care about the Longhorns’ wins and losses. He cares much more about “me getting to heaven and who I’m bringing with me.” Cool. Colt and Shipley both worshiped with us at Marble Falls a few times during McCoy’s redshirt freshman season in 2005. They both spoke to our youth group there one Sunday morning. During his freshman season in ’06 as UT’s starting quarterback, I had a chance one afternoon to visit with the college minister at the University Avenue Church of Christ there in Austin. He said Colt never missed a Wednesday night. Never. Sometimes he’d be a little late because of practice. But he was always there. What’s not to love about Colt?

(Did you skip his video? Dude, I’m serious. Click up there and watch it.)

If they can just keep it close tonight. I’m not sure of the exact numbers. You can look it up. But the Longhorns under Colt McCoy are something really insane in tight games. In games decided by three points or fewer, Texas is something like 11-1 under McCoy. During that same time period, Alabama is something like 7-18 in games decided by seven points or less. The ‘Horns do have the most accurate kicker in school history in Hunter Law. If Texas can just keep it close.

One final note you won’t find anywhere else: If Texas wins tonight, Jim wins our Legacy office college football bowl challenge. If the Tide rolls, Jackie takes the crown.

Hook ’em, Lisa!

Allan

Every Family in God's Service

January 4, 2010 / Allan / 4 Comments

“…to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the Body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.” ~Ephesians 4:12-13

At the beginning of December, Legacy’s shepherds and ministers got together for a weekend leadership retreat in Glen Rose. We spent a couple of hours praying, by name, for every single individual and every family in our congregation. And as we discussed God’s purposes for his church and talked about Legacy’s future, our members’ pictures continually scrolled across the screen in front of us.

If you’re a Legacy member, you were at that meeting. You were.

We know that we are called by our God to work for and enjoy the unity we have in Christ. We know that we are to increase in our knowledge of Christ. And we know that we are to grow up spiritually to become more like our Savior every day. Fortunately for us, God’s Word makes it plain as to how a church achieves these holy objectives. By his grace, yes. By the saving blood of Jesus and the power of the Holy Spirit, yes. And by works of service.

Serving others. Sacrificing for others. Living our lives — giving our lives — for others in the manner of our Lord directly results in Christian unity and spiritual maturity. It’s all connected.

So Ephesians 4:12-13 is the perfect passage of Scripture to guide us as Legacy lives up to and in to the will of our Father.

Special thanks to Ronnie Bates who designed our new church logo that reflects this vision statement. Ronnie and Lance Parrish did a ton of work on this thing in a very short amount of time. Thank you, also, to Lisa Clifton, Suzanne West, and Sandy Hamilton for the beautiful lettering leading into and going out of our worship center. Seeing the three of them together on that lift Saturday night was as entertaining as it was inspiring.

2010 is going to be a year of transition for us here at Legacy. Growth. Maturity. Discipline. Accountability to one another and to our Lord. Some of the change won’t be easy. We’re going to be challenged to be more like Christ. We’re going to intentionally let go of some things and zero in with greater focus on other things. We’re going to be much more active in our community. We’re going to concentrate on completely giving ourselves to God in every imaginable context.

“Every Family in God’s Service” means every family, every member, every body. It means “attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.”

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Thanks to everyone who made our Legacy New Year’s Eve party a smashing success. Congratulations to the Simmons/Jones Small Group for winning Family Feud. In defense of the Byrnes/Stanglin Small Group, the integrity of the whole game is in doubt when the question is “Name a movie that had at least two sequels” and the survey does not say “Indiana Jones”

I’m not quite sure how Dillon and Shanna wound up winning our eight rounds of Pit, especially since Brian Gray went corner twice when he didn’t have the necessary cards — once when he was holding the Bear. Everybody was taking advantage of the sweetness of LuRee Proctor. It was brutal. And loud. David has the video. If he were ruthless and mean, he could probably blackmail Carrie-Anne.

Sparklers at midnight for all the kids is always a great idea. Until a couple of boys start lighting them and throwing them up in the air. Nobody died. Happy New Year.

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Thanks to the supreme generosity of Glenn and Karen Branscum, my family and I were able to enjoy Saturday’s Cotton Bowl in his suite at Jerry Wayne’s new stadium. The suite was filled with tons of Oklahoma State Aggies, including the likes of our new children’s minister, Jennifer Gambill, and her family; Larry and Deanna Tolleson and their boys; Ron Frost and his whole family from Stillwater; and our great friends Billy and Shannon Whiteley and their girls. It was quite possibly the worst football game I’ve ever watched. Ever. High school, college, pro. Ever. Twelve turnovers. Dropped passes. Missed tackles. It was ugly. It was so bad I was afraid the officials were going to step out onto the field during the third quarter and just cancel the rest of the game. Up in the suite, though, we had a marvelous time. Great hospitality, wonderful friends, and memories galore.

And, did you notice the new Cotton Bowl trophy is actually a silver and gold plated replica of Jerry Wayne’s stadium? No one’s better at destroying decades of history in a single self-centered moment than the Cowboys owner.

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By the way, I must admit, the Cowboys look great. Wow. Back-to-back shutouts for the first time in the 50-year history of the franchise. NFC East champs. Three-game winning streak heading into Saturday’s playoff opener at home against a team they just demoralized. They look very, very good. Romo’s making perfect decisions. Nobody’s missing tackles. Barber and Felix are both healthy and running strong at the same time, maybe, for the first time this year. Smiles Austin is catching everything. And I think Wade Phillips has gone 15-straight quarters now without spilling ketchup or relish on his shirt.

Wade has never, ever won a playoff game in his NFL head coaching career. Andy Reid has never, ever lost a playoff opener in his NFL head coaching career. The Cowboys have lost every single time they’ve faced a team in the playoffs they had already defeated twice during the regular season.

But the Cowboys look young and athletic and confident while the Eagles look old and slow and uncertain. Saturday’s game should be extremely entertaining. I can’t wait.

Go Frogs!

Allan

Category: College Football (Page 5 of 12)

Life Together: Why?

Dance With Who Brung Ya

Super Bowl, Ben, and the Bone

Of Elders Meetings, Atheists, and Huskers

Hook 'Em!

Every Family in God's Service

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