“We talked about him growing up and having that side – that Christian background – but really getting to the NFL and feeling like he was his own guy. Somewhere in the course of all this, he realized that he had left that spiritual side,” Dungy recalled Friday of their meeting in May.

“When he kind of described that to me and the fact that he needed to get back closer to the Lord, that’s when I said, ‘I’m going to stay involved in this. I’m going to help you,’” the outspoken man of faith added.

After making that commitment, Dungy did what he has been doing for many of the hours he’s spent each day since retiring from the NFL in January – he helped an inmate reshape his life.

Furthermore, Dungy vouched for Vick after the former Atlanta Falcons quarterback was reinstated into the NFL last month, talking to as many as a dozen teams that were interested in Vick.

Some even say that Vick’s reinstatement could not have happened without Dungy vouching for him, given the gross nature of the crimes he committed.

According to a study conducted last month by HCD Research, the majority of Americans (67 percent) feel Vick did not receive a severe enough punishment after being identified as “the key figure” of an extensive unlawful interstate dogfighting ring in 2007.

And only 33 percent say Vick should be allowed to play in the NFL after he was released from prison on May 21.

When it was announced that the Philadelphia Eagles were going to pick up Vick, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) declared that the organization “and millions of decent football fans around the world are disappointed that the Philadelphia Eagles have chosen to sign a man who hanged dogs from trees, electrocuted them with jumper cables, held them underwater until they drowned in his swimming pool and even threw his own family dogs into the fighting pit to be torn to shreds while he laughed.”

“At this point, all Eagles fans can do is cross their fingers and hope that they won’t ever have to explain to their sons and daughters what a ‘rape rack’ is and why their favorite player was using one, as Falcons fans once had to,” added the group, which insists that the authenticity of Vick’s change of heart cannot be verified until he agrees to submit to a brain scan and psychological evaluation.

Dungy, however, who his active in a prison ministry, has vouched for Vick’s character and told the Eagles that he believes Vick will be a “good teammate, a good person in the locker room, in the community.”

“He is going to have a lot of people that do not think he should be playing. He’s got to prove them wrong by his actions – off the field first, and then on the field,” Dungy told CNN.

Despite public opinion being against him, Vick has received backing from a number of key individual, including Wayne Pacelle, president and CEO of The Humane Society of the United States, who said Vick delivered “a powerful message against animal cruelty” at events in Atlanta and Chicago.

“Michael Vick admits that what he did to dogs was cruel and barbaric, but now that he has served his time, he wants to be part of the solution rather than part of the problem,” Pacelle said.

According Pacelle, Vick has agreed to make two visits a month to cities to speak against dogfighting as an ambassador in the society’s fight against street dogfighting. Vick has also pledged to make a long-term commitment to participate in the society’s community-based outreach programs to steer inner-city youth away from dogfighting.

“Michael Vick resonates with young people,” said Dungy.

“If he says be careful of who you get involved with, that will mean more than anything I could say,” he added, despite having been the first black NFL coach to win a Super Bowl and being noted as one of the most respected figures in the league.

During Friday’s news conference, Eagles owner and animal lover Jeffrey Lurie said his own measurement of Vick will not be on the yardage he picks up as a back up to starting quarterback Donovan McNabb, but will “100 percent” be on whether he is able to “create social change in this horrendous area of animal cruelty.”

“Whether he is successful with us on the field – sure, I hope he is,” Lurie stated. “But his legend and whether we are giving him a second chance will be successful if he can diminish the level of animal cruelty. That’s it. If he is not proactive, he won’t be on the team because that’s part of the agreement.”

Dungy similarly noted how the impact Vick makes off the field will hold greater weight in society than what he will do on the field.

“It’s important to him (Vick) that other young men don’t make the mistakes he made. If this turns out the way I think it will and hope it will, I’ll feel better about that than just winning ballgames,” the former coach stated.

But Dungy also made clear that the Eagles didn’t sign Vick “as a charity measure.”

“Mike’s gonna help their team and be a weapon for them. But they also stepped out to give a man a second chance,” Dungy said.

During the news conference, Vick credited Dungy for his turnaround, saying that his mentoring “helped redefine me as an individual.”

Vick also expressed gratitude to Dungy for “giving me the proper advice and having an open dialogue with me at all times.”

“Our country is a country of second chances,” he added.

source: Christian Post

At Ezell’s One-Stop, the only place open downtown, he made a right onto the two-lane county road. One more mile along, past the pecan trees and the crape myrtles, Mr. Howell pulled up to the tidy sanctuary of New Light Baptist Church, his destination not only for this day but, he increasingly realized, his entire life.

For nearly all of his 60 years, he had been a man of Sunday rituals, if not the ritual of worship then the ritual of pro football. He had performed before multitudes in the Superdome and Shea Stadium, putting in six seasons as a defensive back with the New Orleans Saints and New York Jets. At least every week or two, he still has the same dream about his college coach, Eddie Robinson at Grambling, telling him that training camp is starting and it’s time to measure up.

These days, Mr. Howell measures himself in a different arena. At New Light, he serves a congregation of 150 and oversees an annual budget of less than $15,000. His own salary is $450 a month. Amid all the grim examples of life after pro-sports careers — bankruptcies, brain damage, arrests and, for the former Tennessee Titans quarterback Steve McNair, murder apparently at the hands of a lover — Mr. Howell in his country church embodies humility and purpose.

On this particular morning, members of his congregation sat before him with their Bibles in zip-up cases and their dueling sets of cardboard fans, one provided by a candidate for judge, the other from a local mortuary. The women wore hats with swooping brims, the men had cufflinks and collar bars, attire that elevated them from the week’s toil dressing catfish or harvesting sweet potatoes, two jobs that were still around.

Mr. Howell stood in the pulpit and the ushers with their enamel badges lined up in the aisles. Jermaine Tolliver, the church pianist, struck the first chords, and without prompting the congregation sang, “Soon and very soon, we are going to see the King.” The pastor, too, knew the words and melody from long memory.

“It’s a fitting culmination to a life of walking with the Lord,” Mr. Howell said of his ministry a few days later. “I was baptized at 8 years old. And through my high school years, my college years, my professional career, the business world, I never left the church. This is the most exciting time of my membership in the family of God. I look back and see how the Lord has prepared me.”

He started regular Bible study in the mid-1970s while with the Jets. One of his instructors was the Brooklyn pastor Herbert Daughtry. When Mr. Howell’s playing days ended, he returned to his hometown, Monroe. He and his wife, Sheila, a teacher, raised six children, and he started a second career in municipal government, ultimately becoming the head of the parks department.

Rev. Delles & Sheila Howell

Meanwhile, he reconnected with his boyhood church, singing in the choir, training to become a deacon and wrestling with an insistent call.

“It’s something that’s pushing you, urging you to go a higher level,” Mr. Howell recalled. “It’s that still voice within you, the Holy Spirit talking. It gets so strong you feel you’re having some kind of anxiety problem.”

For seven years, while overseeing the parks department, he attended seminary part-time at night. After being ordained in 2006, he retired from the department, knowing that the pension would help subsidize a minister’s salary. And in May 2008, at an age when many other men are thinking of Social Security, he accepted the call to New Light.

As the worship service proceeded last Sunday, so much looked so satisfyingly familiar. Nettie Brown read the announcements about birthdays, sick members and a coming revival. The sisterhood handed out donations to the needy. Vernon Creecy, recovered from surgery, was in his pew for the first time in two months. Johnny Ray Lewis, a deacon who had moved to Dallas for a job a year ago, told the congregation how good it felt to be back.

Mr. Howell, though, could see beneath the veneer to the challenges. The sick list was so long in part because the congregation was so old, with maybe two-thirds of its members above 65. Mr. Lewis has gone to Dallas because so many jobs around Wisner were drying up. (The town’s poverty rate was nearly 40 percent in the 2000 census, and that was, comparatively speaking, a boom time.)

The pastor worries incessantly that there are not enough children in the church. When he began serving a year ago, the Sunday-school class did not include a single one. He went door to door appealing to parents and grandparents, and he made the pitch week after week from the pulpit.

“The most surprising thing,” he said, “was the number of unchurched people in Wisner. In the Bible Belt, you think all the churches would be packed out to the point you put out chairs or had standing room. But the same kind of trends that have affected the city church affect the country church. You’d be surprised at the level of drug traffic and drug lifestyles in rural areas. These lifestyles all contribute to empty pews.”

On this morning, though, the pews were filled. Two dozen children had attended Sunday school. Though the worship service ran three hours, with 55 minutes of it Mr. Howell’s sermon on Matthew 24, nobody hurried to drive home once it was done.

“Even when your football career is over,” Mr. Howell said, “you keep putting on your uniform and playing the game. Because you’re playing in the most important game in life, more important than the Super Bowl. God never promised you wouldn’t have rough sides and valleys and stumbling blocks. All God promised is to never leave and forsake you. So, as a Christian, you keep suiting up.”

Source: New York Times

“[M]ost is just the opportunity to have an impact with my platform and have a chance to minister around the country to boys and girls who look up to football players,” Tebow told reporters recently during a Southeastern Conference (SEC) media day.

And it is mainly for this reason that Tebow decided last year to return to school for his senior year rather than declaring himself eligible for the NFL draft.

“We just talked and talked about the platform that I had at the University of Florida, the opportunity that I had to minister to a lot of kids around the south, and the U.S. for that matter, and just what was going on around the University of Florida, how much I loved it, how I loved being a Gator,” the outspoken Christian quarterback said Thursday when recalling last year’s decision.

“And I also wanted to be loyal,” he continued. “Most people probably would have said ‘I’ve accomplished some things so I’m going to leave.’ But I wanted to be different. I wanted to be loyal.”

Had Tebow decided to declare himself eligible for the NFL draft last year, he would have been a top prospect.

The 6-foot-3, 240-pound left-hander led the Gators to a 24-14 victory against Oklahoma in the Bowl Championship Series title game this past January, giving the University of Florida its second national football title in three years.

Tebow is also one of the most popular and respected players in NCAA football, having been the first college sophomore to win the Heisman Trophy and the first college football player to both rush and pass for 20 touchdowns in a season.

He appears on the front page of the July 27, 2009, edition of Sports Illustrated magazine with the title “Man of Many Missions.”

The title of the story inside: “You Gotta Love Tim Tebow.”

But as Tebow reiterated Thursday, “I wanted to be loyal to my teammates and let them know that I care more about them than going to try to go to the next level and do something else.”

“I wanted to be loyal to Coach Meyer and thank him for everything he’s done for me,” he added, referring to Florida coach Urban Meyer.

Having decided to stay, Tebow now gives the Gators an excellent chance at snagging their first undefeated season and fourth national title.

Tebow also has a chance to expand his growing platform, something that he was able to the see the impact of earlier this year after Florida’s championship win.

“In the national championship game, the verses I wore underneath my eyes, within the next two days, 94 million people had googled that,” Tebow recalled Thursday, referring to the scripture citations that he is often seen sporting in his black under-eye markings.

“When I heard that you’re like ‘wow.’ The impact that you have is incredible. And it’s truly a blessing. And I wanted to take advantage of that one more year,” he added.

Though Tebow’s father, Bob Tebow, today jokes how God gave him a quarterback for a son when he asked for a preacher, Tebow has been noted for excelling as both.

“Having covered Tim for three years, I would say he’s the most effective ambassador-warrior for his faith I’ve come across in 25 years at SI,” wrote Sports Illustrated’s Austin Murphy in this month’s cover story on Tebow.

“At a time when Americans are leaving organized religion in large numbers, according to a 2008 Pew Research poll, Tebow is leading his own personal counterinsurgency,” Murphy added.

Aside from his achievements on the field, Tebow has been highlighted for his evangelistic outreach and overseas charity works. The son of missionaries frequently visits the Philippines, where he was born, and helps orphans and even performs surgeries with the help of an assistant. He has also preached at several venues, including a prison, where he told inmates last April that he has found “true satisfaction, true happiness … by having a relationship with Jesus Christ.”

When asked how he ministers to young kids across America, Tebow said Thursday, “Well, I think the number one way that you minister to people is through your actions – by them seeing you and how you act and how you treat people and how you love people.”

“My goal to do that is for my teammates and people in general to see that I’m a genuine person, someone who cares about them. When someone needs something, I want to be the first one there. If there’s a new sick kid in the hospital, I want to be there first one to visit him,” he continued.

“I think they see that and they say ‘What is it about him that does that?’ Then I have the opportunity to say, ‘That’s my relationship with Jesus Christ.’ And you’ll get to minister your faith and what you believe in by your actions first and not always preaching or trying to share it first, but how you act and what you do first,” Tebow said.

Tebow began his football career after legislation was passed in Florida in 1996 that allowed homeschooled students to compete in local high school sporting events. He and his siblings were all homeschooled by their mother, who worked to instill the family’s deep Christian beliefs along the way.

Each year the Tebow children visit the Philippines, where they worked in their father’s ministry, the Bob Tebow Evangelistic Association, which boasts a staff of 45 Filipino pastors who have preached the Gospel to more than 15 million.

The ministry has also helped start 10,000 churches and opened an orphanage that houses more than 50 children, as Sports Illustrated noted in its cover story.

Source: Christian Post

Thanking those who have offered words of support, Mechelle McNair said in a statement released Friday afternoon, “Mere words are inadequate to express the gratitude that my family holds for all of the countless expressions of sympathy for the loss of my husband, Steve McNair. Your prayers, kind deeds and outpouring of support throughout this difficult time have been of tremendous comfort to us.”

On behalf of herself and her family, she added, “May you be richly blessed for all that you have done and continued to do. You are appreciated beyond measure.”

The former NFL star, 36, was killed on July 4 by girlfriend Sahel Kazemi, 20, who faced mounting debts that included payments on a Cadillac Escalade he’d helped her to buy, and who suspected him of seeing yet another woman who was not his wife, Nashville police said.

Source: People

“Steve was like a hero to me, and heroes are not supposed to die,” Young said before stopping to rub his eyes as he talked about the man he knew from football camps as a teenager and called “Pops” — Steve McNair, his predecessor with the Titans.

McNair was shot and killed on the Fourth of July by his girlfriend, 20-year-old Sahel Kazemi, who then shot herself in the head.

Nearly 5,000 turned out to say goodbye to the 36-year-old during one of the biggest funerals in the recent history of Mississippi, McNair’s home state.

Fans and old friends filed into the Reed Green Coliseum on the campus of the University of Southern Mississippi, and McNair’s family rented buses to haul in most of the people from his hometown of Mount Olive. Not far away sat men who competed against McNair or coached him on the field.

The high school football team McNair’s son plays on wore their jerseys in honor of the man they often saw smiling from the sidelines.

“Mississippi has lost a tremendous legend,” said Cardell Jones, McNair’s college coach at Alcorn State.

The hearse carrying McNair’s silvery-gray casket was escorted 30 miles down Highway 49 by nine police officers on motorcycles and several vehicles carrying family members. After the two-hour service, the procession headed back down that road to Mount Olive for a private burial.

Police escorted McNair’s wife, Mechelle, and his mother, Lucille, into the stadium beforehand. Near the end, a handful of people surrounded his mother and his sons, waving them with fans and programs and giving hugs.

Brett Favre, who had a home near McNair’s here in Hattiesburg, sat a few rows behind the McNair family but did not speak. Titans coach Jeff Fisher, Baltimore linebacker Ray Lewis and Chicago quarterback Jay Cutler attended. Doug Williams, the first black quarterback to win the Super Bowl, also was on hand.

Young was added to the service late, and the quarterback drafted by Tennessee in 2006 to replace McNair remembered him as a father and mentor. Young said he felt selfish at times taking McNair away from his four sons to help him through his own life.

He then pointed at the Oak Grove High football team sitting in the stands and told them not to give up if they have someone that inspires them.

“Pay attention to that guy because every day you know I had to hear that guy’s voice,” Young said.

Lewis played against McNair and was his teammate the final two years of his NFL career. Lewis said he learned studying film and proper technique wouldn’t help him beat a quarterback fueled by will, heart and sacrifice.

“I find myself in awe when I speak about a man like Steve McNair,” Lewis said.

Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones was among those who sent flowers. Titans owner Bud Adams attended a memorial service Thursday night in Nashville, where thousands more attended. Fisher was called up to speak from the audience, and he pulled Young over on the podium and led the audience in the Lord’s Prayer just as he did during 11 seasons with McNair before every kickoff.

Bobby Hamilton, who played at Southern Miss and in the NFL with New England and Oakland, used to sleep on the floor of McNair’s oldest brother, Fred, when he played at Alcorn State. He also cheered on McNair during his career and recalled how McNair rallied Alcorn State once by scoring two touchdowns with less than a minute left.

“It’s very painful. We know he was a warrior. … I can’t even say the word how this warrior went down,” an emotional Hamilton said.

The program included memories from McNair’s mother, his wife and sons, brothers, and nieces and nephews. Photos were also displayed of the quarterback who played 13 NFL seasons with Tennessee and Baltimore before retiring in 2008.

Coach Nevil Barr brought the jersey-clad Oak Grove team to the service. Steve McNair Jr. attends Oak Grove, and his father joined Favre at a summer workout two weeks ago to play catch with the kids.

“He was on our sideline every Friday night supporting his son,” Barr said. “He loved to come watch Steve Jr., and we loved having him there. He always had that smile.”

Deloris Cagins of nearby Columbia wore the purple and gold of McNair’s alma mater, Alcorn State, and had a pompom tied to her walker. She has relatives who eventually joined her beloved Braves, where McNair made a Heisman Trophy run and set a number of NCAA Division I-AA records before going third overall in the NFL draft in 1995 to the then-Houston Oilers.

“Alcornites to me are a different breed of people,” she said. “It’s like a family. If you do something, we’ll support you.”

Source: AP

The Crimson Tide and Seattle Seahawks running back was joined by two other athletes who had been mentored by Alexander and shared personal testimonials about their faith.

Derek Devine, a quarterback, described his winding road from high school standout to walk-on at Northern Arizona University to junior college and eventually to Marshall University. He said his life was transformed after visiting a player-led Bible study at Marshall.

“I saw Jesus as something that wasn’t fun, a bunch of rules that told me what I couldn’t do,” he said.

Devine said he became a better athlete and person once he began to trust in God’s power, and encouraged the crowd to accept God’s plan through prayer and Bible study.

“At the end of the day, sit back and let Him do the work for you,” Devine said.

Vincent Way described himself as an arrogant high school star who even gave himself a nickname: V-Dub 28.

But in college, Way said he helped steal a credit card, a decision that got him kicked off the team. He used his story as a cautionary tale about making the right decisions.

“How many of you know (that) one decision can mess up your whole career, your whole life?” he asked.

With God’s help, he said, he now plays running back at Division I Florida Atlantic.

The event was co-sponsored by the Bryant High chapter of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes.

Everyone in attendance received a copy of Alexander’s book, titled “Touchdown Alexander.”

The former Crimson Tide great will further discuss his religious beliefs Saturday at Cottage Hill Baptist Church in Mobile. The free event begins at 6 p.m.

The appearances in Mobile are part of a nine-city tour that began in January, when Alexander said God pushed him to take his testimonial on the road. The tour has already visited Atlanta, Seattle, Dallas, Baton Rouge, La., Los Angeles, Washington, D.C. and Tulsa, Okla. Alexander is scheduled to speak in Birmingham next week.

It’s an uneasy juxtaposition. The subjectivity of morality complicates healthy debate, especially in the sports arena. It is evident, however, by the many who have shown up this week to buy signed copies of “First Things First” (Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., 2009) by Kurt and Brenda Warner, that there is a captive audience interested in the way this couple runs its life.

“I only like football because of him,” Beverly Flanagan of Deer Valley said. “It’s his lifestyle.”

Flanagan, 79, waited three hours at the Barnes and Noble on 90th Street in Scottsdale on Wednesday so she could buy an autographed copy of the book about the couple’s relationship and the rules they follow to raise their children.

One woman approached the table and thanked the Cardinals quarterback and his wife for making family a priority. Another grabbed his hand and screamed: “I touched the hand that throws the ball! I did it!”

The Warners know they are a bit of an oddity in the professionalsports world. A high-profile NFL quarterback who frequently talks publicly about how much he loves his wife. A woman who has no interest in playing the role of demur spouse and is comfortable stating her opinions.

They speak openly about religion, adversity and sex, sometimes in the same breath.

It is the honesty in this book that will resonate with readers. It was inspired by a New York Times article that revealed some of the rules the family lives by, and that sometimes backfire.

wisenhunts-warner.cards.jpgWhen the Warners dine before a road game, for example, one of their children picks a family eating in the same restaurant, and Kurt and Brenda anonymously pay the tab.

When they did this in Tampa during Super Bowl week, the children locked in on people at a table of 20 who appeared to be enjoying each other’s company. Despite the Warners’ request, the group figured out the source of generosity, and one member approached them.

Thank you so much, the man said, and, by the way, “Even though I won’t be playing this weekend, I’m on the Pittsburgh Steelers roster.”

Sometimes the best intentions take an unpredictable turn.

The book is moving, too. Brenda shares the tale of her first marriage, and of receiving a phone call from her husband Neil that 4-month old son Zack was having trouble breathing.

At the hospital, Neil confessed: He had dropped Zack in the bathtub. The injuries left Zack legally blind and with special needs. After they married, Kurt Warner adopted Zack and Brenda’s daughter Jesse. They have added five more children.

Along the way, they’ve come up with rules that work for them. Some examples:

• The kids always have to be able to tell a restaurant server’s eye color. It’s the parents’ way of stressing that eye contact is important.

• If they go to a road game, they must spend at least an hour in an art museum.

• The kids can wear whatever they want.

“They won’t wear that when they’re 16, so why fight about it when they’re 7?” Brenda said.

The book has plenty of interesting anecdotes, from the conversation Kurt had with President Obama after the Super Bowl to his text-message exchange with coach Ken Whisenhunt after the game that ends with Whisenhunt telling him: “It’s hard to put into words what I feel about you, what you have done for me and this team. I have great respect for how you handled everything, and I thank God we are on this journey together.”

Warner said he still gets “choked up reading that text.”

They give us a glimpse of their children and the challenge of raising a variety of ages and personalities. Brenda tells of introducing Zack to the Black Eyed Peas, one of Zack’s favorite groups, and how when meeting lead singer Fergie, he yelled, “You stink! You stink!” It was his way of saying she smelled nice.

This book might not attract a football-starved audience, but as a week of book signings suggests, plenty will find the non-football material equally intriguing.

Source: Arizona Republic

Many people said this is a loss that goes far beyond what Steve McNair ever did on the football field. Now, everyone can pay their last respects at a public memorial Thursday. The memorial will be at Mt. Zion Baptist Church on White’s Creek. The public memorial will be at 3 p.m.

McNair’s funeral will be Saturday in Mississippi.

Many fans are expected to attend the memorial as news of McNair’s death sent shock waves through the city. Reactions ranged from stunned to devastated and heartbroken.

Gridiron 9, the eatery owned by the Titan great had only been open at it’s Jefferson Street location few weeks, but the impact on this community was immeasurable.

“Oh my heart sank because he was such a proud person. He was such a proud role model. This was a right of passage for him to the next point in his life,” said one fan.

Saturday afternoon and on into the evening, people where leaving notes of remembrance.

A make-shift memorial to pay homage to a man they said was much more than simply a football star.

“We’ll always love you man from the bottom of our hearts to your family to your friends who ever loved you. We all love you… R.I.P. Steve McNair,” said a fan.

Whether or not Gridiron 9 will re-open is not certain

Source: NewsChannel5