The Yale basketball team plays Stanford University tonight in Palo Alto. The game is broadcast on Fox Bay area - DirecTV channel 654. Friday night, Yale plays UCLA at Pauley Pavillion.
You can check up on Travis and his teammates at...
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
Character Moment #9 – November 7, 2007
I’ll never forget last year’s Super Bowl – Chicago versus Indianapolis. Two great teams with great players and great coaches.
The game was hyped in a number of different ways. Can Peyton Manning win the big game? Can an indoor stadium team (Indianapolis) beat a team that plays outdoors (Chicago)? Watch the first Super Bowl where both head coaches are African American. Can the student (Lovie Smith) beat his teacher (Tony Dungy)?
The most memorable part of the game, won by Indianapolis, happened before the game was actually played. In an ad placed in USA Today on the Friday before the game, Coach Dungy and Coach Smith declared their faith in Jesus Christ. A newspaper captured it like this.
“Dungy was up against his protégé and fellow believer Smith for the big win on Sunday. Both he and Smith had already made history going into the Super Bowl as the first African American head coaches.
Smith called the event a "perfect stage" for the coaches to confess their faith in Jesus Christ in a video shown at Saturday's breakfast. Both coaches appeared in a USA Today ad on Friday with a message (that) said, "We're pro football coaches, but we are also men of faith. A faith that defines who we are. It comforts us in tough times and produces hope in the midst of adversity. It is through our common faith in Jesus Christ that we have individually experienced God’s love and forgiveness."
When the game ended on Sunday, the two historic coaches hugged midfield. Dungy told his friend how proud he was of the whole moment, according to the Associated Press, and that he appreciates the type of person Smith is and what he has done in Chicago.”[1]
On the eve of the biggest stage of their career, they gave the glory to their Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. They acknowledged that they found joy in Christ’s love and forgiveness. They knew the true victory was done for them when Jesus rose from the dead. Even though others wanted to make the moment about them, they acknowledged the One who gave them the moment.
Tony Dungy said that their worth was not from something that man had created. He said that he and Coach Smith were “men of faith” produced by, “a faith that defines who we are.” That is the same for you and me. Our faith in Jesus Christ is what defines our true character – who we are when no one is looking.