Nelson Mandela was honored with the Arthur Ashe Courage Award at the 2009 ESPY’s. Morgan Freeman pays tribute to Mandela’s actions at the 1995 Rugby World Cup.

Watch it all.

Oh my and oh no.

No. 10 South Carolina beat No. 6 Clemson, 31-17, before a crowd of 84,174 at Williams-Brice Stadium. The Gamecocks forced six turnovers, including three from Boyd in the fourth quarter. After Boyd’s fumble, he threw two interceptions.

USC (10-2) won its fifth straight game over Clemson for the first time in the rivalry’s 111-game history. It’s the furthest one team has extended a streak since 1940, when Clemson (10-2) won its seventh straight.

Read it all.

I am still sitting here trying to recover.

Wow.

Just as the lines between games and war are fluid, the opposite is also sometimes the case. In his 1938 book Homo Ludens, Johan Huizinga draws attention to 2 Samuel 2:14, when Abner challenges Joab to combat by announcing, “Let the young men now arise and play before us.” The ensuing battle confirms for Huizinga that “Play is battle and battle is play.”

Huizinga insists, however, that both the player and the warrior live by a code of honor, one shaped by “courage,” “tenacity” and access to “spiritual powers.” In other words, these are not lawless misanthropes. Advocates of the “muscular Christian” movement of the mid-19th century made similar distinctions as they acclaimed the high virtues of athletics. British author Thomas Hughes depicted the mindless “muscle man” as someone who exploits his body and succumbs to his “fierce and brutal passions.” The “muscular Christian,” on the other hand,

has hold of the old chivalrous and Christian belief, that a man’s body is given him to be trained and brought into subjection, and then used for the protection of the weak, the advancement of all righteous causes, and the subduing of the earth.

With this in mind, we might conclude that the Incognito affair unveils not the problems of a “warrior culture” but rather an absence of it.

Read it all.

Between classes, they schemed and conspired. For weeks, the football players at Olivet Middle School in Olivet, Mich., secretly planned their remarkable play.

“Everyone was in on it,” says Nick Jungel.

“But the coaches didn’t know anything about it,” Parker Smith says. “We were, like, going behind their back.”

We’ve never heard of a team coming up with a plan to not score.

Read it all but also make sure to watch the Video.

Four years later, of course, Jeremy Lin is a brand name and a phenomenon, having burst into fame with the Knicks last year and gone on to a lucrative free-agent contract with the Houston Rockets. Just the other night, he put up 21 points at Madison Square Garden in a victory over his former team.

As for the documentary, “Linsanity” has been shown on the festival circuit and in art houses, and is now moving into the download and DVD part of its cinematic life. At one level, the film is a quintessential saga of sporting triumph, with Lin as the perpetual underdog who defies every doubter and conquers every challenge to achieve his dream.

In a deeper way, though, “Linsanity” brings to a mass audience not just an Asian-American sports star, but an Asian-American Christian. The film shows Lin not only tossing in three-pointers and piercing down the lane, but also repeatedly speaking of divine direction, divine intercession, divine will.

Read it all.

Are you kidding me? Wow.

Flashbacks and post-traumatic stress from combat were trapping one Ohio female veteran in her home.
Judy Sallerson, whose Army unit was hit by a series of mortar attacks in Iraq, had been sent to Walter Reed Medical Center outside Washington in 2010 where she recovered for two years. For nearly a year of that time she didn’t do much at all and stayed inside, she said.
But with the help of a therapist, Sallerson finally started to venture out and even signed up to be a mentor in a local court.
“I felt like I couldn’t go anywhere because I was afraid someone would see and judge me,” said Sallerson.

Read it all and watch the video report.

Is there anything worse in sports than a game being decided near or at the very end on a bad call by the referee?

Makes the heart sad.

Some 500 years after England’s King Henry VIII broke with the Roman Catholic Church, the Vatican is vowing to defeat the Church of England ”” not in the pews, but on the cricket pitch.

The Vatican has launched its own cricket club ”” a move aimed at forging ties with teams of other faiths.

Rome’s Capannelle Cricket Club is hosting training matches that will lead to the creation of the Vatican team, the St. Peter’s Cricket Club.

Read or listen to it all.

When Red Sox starter John Lackey left the dugout alone at 7:38 p.m. to warm up for Game 6 of the World Series on Wednesday night, the fans along the first base line at Fenway Park stood and applauded. Every fan in the old ballpark was cheering as Lackey arrived in right field and he smiled, just a little. Exactly three hours later, when Lackey left the mound in the seventh inning with glory well in hand, the applause was thunderous. The Red Sox finished their improbable last-to-first journey with a 6-1 victory against the Cardinals before a crowd of 38,447. Most Valuable Player David Ortiz was walked four times, three intentionally. Shane Victorino drove in four runs and Stephen Drew homered….

Read it all.

Jadeveon Clowney hobbled down the hill leading from the visitors’ locker room here, headphones around his neck, a pizza box in his left hand, a smile on his face. At the bottom of the hill was his family. And beyond them, a few dozen South Carolina fans were waiting behind metal fences, calling his name.

The Gamecocks had just beaten then-No. 5 Missouri in double overtime Saturday, and Clowney had not necessarily dominated the game as a defensive end, but his star was still as bright as could be.

“I don’t have nothing to prove,” Clowney said as he approached his family and fans. “They keep doubting ”” we’re going to keep winning. Let them keep doubting us. That’s all I can say. It’s a team sport.

“For all what people think about me ”” I just want to win with my team.”

Read it all.

Early Thursday morning at a Jewish high school here, Elan Kainen donned the prayer shawl that had been a gift from his maternal grandfather and recited the prayers of the Shacharit service. Nine hours later, he went through another ritual, one involving pads, cleats and a helmet, as he suited up for what might be the final game of his high school football career.

The Hurricanes of Scheck Hillel Community School were going up against a conference rival, the Berean Christian School Bulldogs, with a spot in the postseason playoffs hanging in the balance. For Elan and his teammates, who attend one of the only Jewish religious schools in the nation to play varsity football, Friday evening is for Shabbat dinner. Their gridiron action takes place under Thursday night lights.

For Scheck Hillel’s team, the fall football schedule bends in deference to the string of holidays that run from Rosh Hashana to Simchat Torah. Before getting the usual locker-room exhortation from their coach, players hear a d’var Torah, a sermon about the week’s Torah portion, from a rabbi. At home games, the Israeli national anthem, “Hatikvah,” is played over the stadium loudspeaker.

Read it all.

…what happened late last week was not minor. Kill did not feel well as Minnesota prepared to leave for Michigan, and he stayed behind, and he hoped, right up until he had another seizure, that he would be able to fly to Ann Arbor on Saturday morning and lead his team to a statement win.

Only he did have another seizure. He stayed home. This was the first time he had not attended a game at all because of a seizure. And it was his fifth seizure on a game day and his second one this season.

Kill and the Minnesota football program did the right thing in light of all that Thursday. They did the right thing for the team, but more important ”” way, way more important ”” they did the right thing for Kill. When he can coach, he should. Until then, his health is more important. More coaches should consider that.

Read it all.

The formula never changed: demand discipline, emphasize recruiting and increase resources. It was simple, but it also worked.

At Southern Illinois, Kill & Company saved a program on the verge of being dropped. They beat Indiana on the road. Kill drove into the rural communities near Southern Illinois and persuaded fans to return, one handshake at a time. When Mike Reis, the Salukis’ veteran play-by-play announcer, spent weeks in the hospital for colon surgery, Kill visited daily. When the university offered him a raise, he spread the money among his assistants.

At Northern Illinois, Kill and his crew replaced Joe Novak and began another turnaround. In his interview, Kill told Novak and Jim Phillips, now the athletic director at Northwestern, about the seizures and said he had a handle on them. Phillips said Kill’s health did not factor “an iota” into his decision.

Even then, a Big Ten job seemed far away. What school would take that kind of chance?

Read it all (Hat tip: Elizabeth Harmon).

One swing from No. 22’s bat could tie or win the game, a tantalizing proposition that grew more likely with each pitch from Mr. Rosenthal. The count moved to 3-0, and Mr. [Andrew] McCutchen showed great restraint by taking a strike.

“Because I knew he still had to come to me,” Mr. McCutchen said.

At 3-1, he liked his chances of being able to rifle a ball to right-center field. The pitch came to the outside, and he swung, uncorking those wrists through the hitting zone. But the wood simply did not touch enough of the ball.

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/local/neighborhoods-city/bucs-mvp-moment-was-not-to-be-706636/#ixzz2h7dXgwp8

Read it all.

If you can hear church bells ringing in Manly on Sunday night, the NRL premiership trophy is likely on its way back to the northern beaches.

Reverend Bruce Clarke from St Matthew’s Anglican Church in Manly has cancelled his regular Sunday night service and will transform the house of God into an Eagles nest as a live viewing site for this year’s grand final.

More than 300 people are expected to flood into the church to watch the Sea Eagles do battle against the Sydney Roosters. It will be the second time in three years the church has cancelled its Sunday night service for a Manly grand final.

Read it all.

Many times, the start of Steelers training camp would signal the end of the Pirates season. Today, we have the start of a Pirates post-season pretty much marking the end of the Steelers for 2013.

For the first time in 45 years, back to when miniskirts were all the rage and pro football in Pittsburgh was not, the Steelers lost for the fourth straight time to open a season.

The previously winless Minnesota Vikings turned the trick this time, on another continent but in an all-too familiar way. The Vikings parlayed big plays against a shaky Steelers defense to pull off their first win, 34-27, turning back a furious Steelers comeback that ended when Ben Roethlisberger was sacked from the Minnesota six on their final play and lost a fumble.

Read it all.

David Moyes has admitted that he is concerned by Manchester United’s start to the season after they went down to their third loss of the campaign against West Brom.

The former Everton manager, who took over from Sir Alex Ferguson after the veteran’s retirement at the end of last term, has come under increasing pressure, and he revealed the home defeat to the Baggies has left him worried about his team.

“I’m concerned after today but only because we didn’t play well,” he told reporters. “There’s a lot of games to go and we’ll try put it right in the games coming up.

Read it all.

Rafael Nadal defeated Novak Djokovic 6-2, 3-6, 6-4, 6-1 on Monday to win his second U.S. Open title. Here are three thoughts after the 27-year-old Spaniard collected his 13th Grand Slam title while improving to 22-0 on hard courts and 60-3 overall this year:

All hail Rafael Nadal, the king of clay hard courts. A day after the top two women played a match of can-you-top-this, the men followed suit. For more than three hours, as afternoon transitioned to evening, Nadal and Djokovic played a dazzling match.

They split the first two sets (of course they did), and then Nadal went into beast mode. He hit forehands that veered on brutal. He turned defense into offense. He zinged winners off his back feet. He unsheathed a few new weapons. He sliced to brilliant effect, changing pace and frustrating Djokovic. He altered his court positioning, making a conscious effort not to be pinned deep, especially on the backhand side. He returned well, breaking Djokovic seven times. When Nadal declared himself “very hoppy,” I think he means that literally — spry, springy and absent of knee trouble.

Read it all.

The best of them don’t always do it on their best days. They are champions because they win when their games aren’t always there, when the wind is annoying and their skirts are flying and, worse, when it plays havoc with their stroke and their serve and their nerves.

The finest among them prevail when they look across the net and see someone as tough as they are, someone capable of wearing them down and making them look bad but ultimately bring out their best.

Serena Williams is the greatest because of days like Sunday, when her body language was flagging, opportunities were squandered and she had to snap herself out of it.

Read it all.

If you were watching, the third game of the fifth set was something to behold.

Before I ever met you personally, I saw these witnessing videos that went viral. Are you the evangelism linebacker? How did that happen?

That’s me. When they were developing the idea, someone had heard me speak at the University of Montana State and said I would be perfect for the role. In 2004, they flew me to Bozeman, Montana and told me the idea for the character. We started to film and I just made up every line as we went.

It started as a bundle with other videos for Campus Crusade, but the Evangelism Linebacker ended up on YouTube. It had a million views way before a lot of other videos did, since this was still the infancy of YouTube. If that had happened today, it would be crazy viral. It ended up with this cult following. In one way it was a positive, but in another way people assume that all I can do is give a motivational talk. So when I started to talk ecclesiology and soteriology, people didn’t know what to do.

Read it all and consider following the many links also.

After one set, Andy Murray slammed his racket into the court and mangled it once he reached his chair on the sideline. After the second, he gestured over to coach Ivan Lendl and let out a frustrated scream.

Stanislas Wawrinka had the US Open defending champion in knots all day, and when the surprisingly short, less-than-competitive match was finished Thursday, Murray was a 6-4, 6-3, 6-2 upset loser in the quarterfinals at Flushing Meadows.

Read it all.

Marino Casem, who coached at Alcorn State in Mississippi, once summed it up: “In the East, college football is a cultural attraction. On the West Coast, it’s a tourist attraction. In the Midwest, it is cannibalism. But in the South, it’s religion.”

–From the front page of Sunday’s local paper

[James] Harris felt jolted, as if King were speaking directly to him, to his deepest, most impossible desire. In the coming month, Harris would begin his junior year at Carroll High School, returning as the starting quarterback for a team that had gone 12-0 and won a state championship the previous fall. His dream was to play professional football.

The prevailing opinion, however, was that a black man was not intelligent enough to play the position. The most promising black prospects, as Harris well knew, were routinely switched to receiver or defensive back….

Now King’s words told him change was coming, not in the hereafter, not in some distant, redeemed era, but imminently.

“I had no chance, I knew that,” Harris said. “But then I started listening to that speech.”

Read it all.

Ask Pittsburgh Steelers chairman Dan Rooney why his football team has been training at St. Vincent College since 1966, and he says that the campus has the right facilities, it’s close to Pittsburgh and “for many reasons, it works well.”

Then he adds with a laugh, “And it helps that it’s the Benedictines.”

For the past 48 preseasons, the college and archabbey have welcomed the six-time Super Bowl winners with the spirit of hospitality written in the Rule of St. Benedict.

Read it all.

Congratulations to him.

Watch it all–wowowow.