My brother in law and I have had an ongoing discussion about what it would mean to be a pro athlete and a Christian. Part of the discussion stems from our own crushed dreams, and part of it stems from a comment a professor made to me once, “I am not sure a person can be a Christian and a professional athlete.” Being raised in a sports addicted family, this sounded like anathema to me, and I have been trying to parse it out ever since. I will avoid the whole discussion of positives and negatives, though that may show up some day, and rather point out two unique stories from this year’s NFL draft. Consider the case of Tim Tebow and Myron Rolle. The coverage and questions of Rolle have been fascinating to me. If you don’t know, Rolle is a Rhodes Scholar who has hopes of becoming a doctor and wants to model scholarship and professionalism to young urban students. He gave up his last year of eligibility to study in England and has now returned to try his hand as an NFL safety. The major question is whether Rolle can take the NFL seriously enough to play for a long time and stay committed. Here’s a great blog post that spells this out (http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/sports_college_fsu/2010/04/former-florida-state-safety-myron-rolle-too-smart-for-the-nfl.html). Now Tebow. There are also a ton of questions about Tim Tebow, the mechanics of his throwing motion, his ability to take snaps, how quickly he can release the ball, how accurate can he be, etc… Not once though has anyone mentioned his Christianity as a possible drawback. No one has said, “Doesn’t your commitment to Christ make this game a bit irrelevant? How do we know that you are going to play like football is the most important thing in your life, especially when you claim to follow Christ?” In short, if scholarship and medical missions can get in the way of a productive NFL career, why can’t Jesus?
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2 comments:
My initial reaction is that there haven't been other Christians (or enough) that have come before Tebow and given any GM a reason to believe his faith would hinder his playing or B- In America we have modeled that our faith is a having-your-cake-to-eat-too faith.
III. My dreams were only crushed for a few years- I give them new life when I hit the friday morning faculty games (and when I play against my players).
When I followed NHL hockey there were coaches who said they actually liked to have Christian athletes on their teams, because these players were committed, disciplined, hard working, trustworthy, and tend to have a team orientated attitude. Who wouldn't want someone like that on their team? I believe that a Christian's place wherever they are is to exemplify the life that freedom in Christ affords us.
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