Do you love football? Have you ever wondered if God even cares about the game? Well, the Bible often parallels sports with life. In this book Josh Steed, a former player, and lover of the game, makes a comparison between the sport and the Christian faith. He also tackles some of the biggest objections to Christianity. You will be challenged and find answers to many questions that people often wonder but rarely ask. You will hear exclusive interviews with NFL defensive lineman, Corey Williams, former Razorback/Cowboy quarterback, Clint Stoerner, former NFL player, Matt Jones, former OSU All-American/ NFL player, Joe Brown, head football coaches, Steve Roberts of Arkansas State, Mark Richt of the Georgia Bulldogs, and more.You are invited to suit up and join us on a journey of faith and football as we take a look at life through a facemask.

Faith & Football

A Look At Life Through A FacemaskBy Josh Steed

AuthorHouse

Copyright © 2009 Josh Steed
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4490-0365-4

Contents

Foreword (By Jenny Simmons of Addison Road).....................................xiPre-game (From Coach Mark Richt to You).........................................xiiiIntroduction (The Kickoff)......................................................xvChapter 1. The Ultimate Playbook (Why Trust the Bible?).........................1Chapter 2. The One True Coach (Meeting the Real Jesus)..........................19Chapter 3. Making the Team (God's Requirements).................................37Chapter 4. Equipment Issued (The Armor of God)..................................63Chapter 5. Consistent Practice (The True Purpose of Church).....................77Chapter 6. The Athlete's Body (Your Body, His Temple)...........................93Chapter 7. Penalties (What if I Mess Up?).......................................105Chapter 8. Game Time (Everyday Life)............................................117Conclusion (Counting the Cost)..................................................131Coaches' Life Stories and Testimonies...........................................139Acknowledgments.................................................................149Suggested Resources.............................................................151About the Author................................................................157

Chapter One

The Ultimate Playbook (Why Trust The Bible?)

You have to know the playbook in order to play. NFL defensive lineman Corey Williams

If you are really dedicated to the game of football, if you really love the sport, then learning the playbook will be your top priority. NFL defensive lineman Corey Williams

You have to know the playbook inside and out in order for things to work out correctly in a game. ASU head football coach Steve Roberts

For the word of God is full of living power. It is sharper than the sharpest knife, cutting deep into our innermost thoughts and desires. It exposes us for what we really are. Nothing in all creation can hide from him. Everything is naked and exposed before his eyes. This is the God to whom we must explain all that we have done. Hebrews 4:12-13

All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It straightens us out and teaches us to do what is right. Second Timothy 3:16

I have hidden your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you. Psalms 119:11

He replied, But even more blessed are all who hear the word of God and put it into practice. Luke 11:28

But those who obey God's word really do love him. That is the way to know whether or not we live in him. First John 2:5

Five sheets of notebook paper stapled together with circles, squares, crooked lines, Xs and Os, were handed out to the entire team. I sat on the torn, leather-covered weight bench that connected the locker room and the weight room. These memories go back to when I was in the seventh grade at Harmony Grove Jr. High School in Camden, Arkansas. The year was 1992 and I had never played football before. We did not have the sophisticated gaming systems like Playstations and Xbox 360s with Madden '09 back then, so I had never seen football plays written out before. I swear those five sheets of plays made no sense to me, and I thought I was looking at Egyptian hieroglyphics. I wondered how in the world anyone could ever figure out what to do on the game field if all we have to go on is some Xs and Os and five pages of scribble!

I quickly learned what each symbol on the paper was, and that bunch of nonsense that the coaches were handing out was actually the entire playbook for week one of Harmony Grove Hornet football. I went home and started studying as if my life depended on it. My dad would give me a hard time, because instead of exercising outside I was spending much of the summer indoors with my playbook. I laugh now as I look back and remember arguing with him about how it did not matter if you were in good shape or not if you did not know the plays. Well, I do not know that I fully understood the premise of my statement, and it is very important for an athlete to be in top physical shape, but knowing the playbook is very critical for any athlete's football career.

As I grew up, I played mostly on the offensive line, knowing my blocking responsibilities were crucial to my success. I remember how frustrating it was when the defense changed and I was looking across the line of scrimmage at some big corn-fed defensive lineman who was not penciled in quite that large on our shabby playbook in practice. Offensive linemen have to make decisions that affect the entire offense on certain plays when the defense lines up differently. And by the way, we did not have audibles either. If we called a dive and the linebacker walked up in the hole where we were planning to run, we just ran the play as called and hoped for the best. Knowing our playbook exactly how we had been taught that week was simple for some of us but many times ineffective because it was very basic and did not allow for unexpected problems with the defense.

Our playbook in 1992 was nothing like an NFL team playbook or even a college one, but don't get me wrong. I am not saying that the coaches did not know much or that our playbook was somehow not good. In fact, as I recall, certain players could not even remember our short playbook fully and we lost games partly because of missed responsibilities of those who did not know the playbook well. My point is: if we had a tiny playbook in class AA football and it was crucial to know the book well to win, it must be much harder on college athletes and especially NFL players. The coaches only gave us as much as we could handle at such a small school, and we did the best we could; but what about the next level of play? As I reflect back on the importance of the playbook and the priceless value of every team's playbook, I also think about the Bible. The Bible is said to be the Christian's source of hope and Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth. Before I go into why the Bible is the ultimate playbook for humanity, let me introduce you to a friend of mine who has some inside information on football playbooks and their relationship to the NFL athlete.

As I started out on my journey of faith and football, I went over to the home of one of my former high school football teammates. I went there to conduct an interview about his job as a starting NFL defensive lineman, to share with you. My friend's name is Corey Williams. You may know him from his days playing football at Green Bay alongside Brett Farve for several years and becoming a franchise defensive lineman. He would probably want everyone to remember that they even had him run the ball a time or two on offense as well, although I do not think he set any new rushing records! Corey transferred teams a couple years ago and went to play for the Cleveland Browns. He is still a country boy at heart and has never forgotten us "little people" back home. Corey even bought a house about ten miles from where he and I grew up and spent our lives as kids. He was home for the off season, so I called him up to set up an interview. I rolled out to his house and I could not help but remember where he had come from as a child. His home now is much nicer than what he grew up in, and he has a very successful career going. Corey has a wonderful woman at home who loves him very much and two beautiful baby girls. He is just short of six feet four inches and tips the scales at 330 pounds. He has a big heart and a passion for football and helping others. He will make you laugh when he is in one of his crazy moods, and he has a wild sense of humor. I was invited in and we sat down and recalled some old times and had a couple of good laughs and wasted no time as we began our forty-five-minute discussion about his life as an NFL player.

I must confess I was a little surprised at how much my old friend has changed, for the better, I might add. He quickly went from the crazy person I had grown up with, acting all loud, to a much more calm and reserved professional. His whole demeanor changed as he leaned forward on his elbows and gripped his hands, looking straight ahead, and prepared his thoughts while I turned on the digital recorder to start our interview. The first thing I wanted to know from Corey was what I knew would be the content of the first chapter of this book.

I asked Corey about the importance of knowing the playbook and if the NFL playbooks are much more complex than college or high school. Then I just sat back and listened to what he had to say. Corey looked at me and said, "It is very important to know the playbook; in fact, you have to know it in order to play. Coaches will not put anybody out on the game field if they do not know what they are doing. If you are really dedicated to the game of football, if you love the game of football, that's number one, to learn the playbook. NFL playbooks are totally different from college playbooks, and there is no comparison between either one of them and a high school playbook. College playbooks used to look like a lot to remember until I went pro. A college playbook is much smaller and less complex than an NFL playbook. An NFL playbook is like a huge three-ring binder filled to capacity and then some. We have to study every day for hours to learn the opposing team's plays and work on ours too. It is a job now; we are not playing for college tuition or because we are trying to be popular in school. We are playing because we love the game and it is our job, just like any other job. The only difference between our job and many others is: there are other players out there with a lot of talent who are willing to do whatever they can to take your position away if you do not give it all you got. You have to take this very serious and study, just like a test in college. We study all week and take the test on Sunday when we play."

Corey paused as I asked him if he had ever had a play called that he could not remember what to do, and he said, "Absolutely; everyone who has ever played has had a brain freeze at times and had a play called that they could not remember what to do. Nevertheless, that is when you have to rely on your teammates in the huddle. You gotta trust your teammates and know as much as you can remember because they will need you sometime to help them out too." I just smiled and thought about what he was saying and how it would relate to some concepts from the Bible that we will look at in a later chapter.

I then looked at Corey across the table and asked him if he had ever seen a formation or play that he did not feel would work, and if he expressed this opinion to the coach. He said, "Yeah, there have been several times when the coach would want us to try something new and I did not like it because I just had a bad feeling that it would not work right. That's when I usually speak up and tell the coach that I do not think it's a good idea and sometimes we make an adjustment, or he may scrap the play altogether, or he may just tell us to run it anyway. I have been proven wrong several times like this too. I remember last year we had a play called on defense, and everyone on the line told Coach that it was too risky and would never work. We ran it anyway, because the coach ultimately makes that call. I could not believe it, but we stopped the offense for a good loss on the play. Sometimes you just have to trust the coach, even when you don't agree with his calls."

I stopped Corey at this point as I reflected back on his last statement. Then I thought about the second chapter of this book and how this concept could also apply to Christians. I was enjoying our conversation but before we go any further with Corey, please allow me to bring our next guest on board.

A week after my time with Corey I secured a meeting with Steve Roberts, the head football coach for the Arkansas State University Red Wolves. Coach Roberts came to me highly recommended by my former head coach/athletic director at Harmony Grove, Coach Beasley. Coach Beasley has been a great influence on my life. I went to him for guidance for this book, and he was quick to recommend Coach Roberts from ASU. Corey Williams played his entire college career at ASU and Coach Roberts was his head football coach until he went to the NFL. Corey was also quick to recommend his former head coach to me for an interview. I am glad that I listened to Corey and Coach Beasley, because they were both right about Steve Roberts.

When I called Steve Roberts at the university, I got the usual, "He will have to get back with you because he is really busy," that I have grown accustomed to during this book interviewing process. The only difference is, Coach Roberts took the time to personally call me back and set up an interview with him at the university. I was excited and could not wait to hear from this man I had heard so much about. I drove for about four hours to the northeastern part of the state of Arkansas and found a neat campus and a really cool athletic facility. I grabbed my gear and headed into the athletic offices just off the football stadium. When I arrived, I could not believe how kind all the employees were; everyone was very polite and professional. I had to wait about fifteen minutes for Coach Roberts to see me, so I took advantage of the down time to stretch my legs and mosey around the building. I saw some awesome photos of the university football players in action on every wall throughout the offices. I saw lots of trophies and team meeting rooms too. I walked into one really large conference room with a large dry-erase board on the wall and some plays scribbled on it. It took me back to those five sheets of plays I once held in my hand in the seventh grade. I could not help but laugh at how very different life is now as a grown man with a family of four kids. It seems like a totally different life compared to how it was when I used to play football. My daydreaming came to a screeching halt when I twisted the little rod on the blinds and beheld a site that really got my attention. No, it was not Elvis or the mascot hanging on to the windowsill, or a good-looking group of cheerleaders, it was an amazing view of the game field from high above, and it was awesome. The scoreboard, the jumbo screen, the turf with the lines precisely marked, and row after row of seats reaching high into the sky above were all around me as I took it all in. I wondered how it must feel down there, all suited up in the heat of battle with a crowd of more than 30,000 people, all on their feet cheering, either for or against my team. I was contemplating taking a short walk on the field when Coach Roberts's secretary notified me that the coach was ready for our interview. I closed the blinds and gathered my thoughts just before being escorted into his office.

He was just as professional and polite as all the other staff members I had encountered upon entering the facility. Coach Roberts was tall with broad shoulders and a cleanly-shaved face. Apart from his receding hairline, you would guess him to be in his mid-thirties rather than forties. He is not one of those coaches who has a huge gut and looks like he could not do any of the physical activities that he wants his players to do. No, Coach Roberts looked like the type of coach who would lead by example. Roberts graduated from Robinson High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, and went on to Ouachita Baptist University for his college education. He was an Academic All-American in college and went on to earn his master's degree from OBU in 1989. I should also note that Coach Roberts has a spectacular rsum to speak for his career in coaching. Among his accomplishments as a coach is the fact that he was the youngest head coach in college football when he started out. He used to coach at SAU Magnolia when he took his first head-coaching job and he led his team to conference rankings in scoring offense, scoring defense, total offense, and total defense. On top of this, his program ranked first in academic achievements in their conference for three seasons in a row! When he ended up at Arkansas State University, he brought his ability and gifts with him. He has led ASU to more victories in the last six years than any other coach in the school's history since 1986-91. He already holds the fifth most wins among ASU's twenty-six all-time head coach performances. He has coached against and beaten some good non-conference teams, such as Tulsa, Army, SMU, and Memphis. He took his team to the 2005 conference championship for the first time since 1986. That same year, the team was undefeated in all their home games. Coach Roberts has a good team of staff members to help him, and things are looking good for them in the upcoming season. He is a devoted follower of Christ and is married to his best friend, Sherri, and they have a teenage daughter, Abby.

Coach Roberts kindly invited me to have a seat across from him at his desk, and he and I talked a little bit about our mutual friends, Coach Beasley and Corey Williams. I filled him in on some more details about the book that I was working on, and he listened with what appeared to be sincere anticipation. I also informed him that I particularly wanted his input on this chapter dealing with playbooks. Corey had given me a player's opinion and his experiences in the various levels of competition on this subject, but I wanted to hear it from a head football coach's point of view. I opened my bag up, pulled out my trusty digital recorder, and placed it between us, and we got rolling.

(Continues...)

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