Tag Archive for sports

Athlete, Hero, Woman!

June 15, 2015 Intellectual Formation, Moral Action 4 comments

America loves sports heroes, especially improbable ones.  That’s why the newest superstar on the scene of women’s sports is garnering such unprecedented accolades (except from the usual Catholic dinosaurs).  With 5 victories in her first 10 LPGA events, this previously unknown woman has rocketed to celebrity status in a matter of a few months.  But what’s more amazing, she’s done it all since declaring her womanhood only a year ago! Unlike most gender transformations, Hank Purtzel’s was a sudden one.  “It was strange,” she says.  “I went home after missing another cut on the PGA Tour, knowing that I had

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Drifting to Distraction

February 1, 2015 Intellectual Formation, Moral Action No comments

Kickoff for Super Bowl XLIX is only 90 minutes away. Our family, like many others, will watch the game. Do we have any dog in this fight? Not so much. It’s worth asking, “Why even watch?” It’s a great question, and personally, I have no good answer beyond “family tradition.”  Every year we sit down together; pick a side to pull for; enjoy glutenous, fatty, sugary foods; drink soda and beer; and laugh — or more often cringe — at the the commercials and half-time show. We just do. Artemus suggested that sport may be our last American idol. He may

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Our final American idol?

January 29, 2015 Security One comment

  As we approach the date of the “Big Game” on Sunday, I thought it informative for us as Catholics in America to reflect upon the following: Super Bowl TV broadcasts start at 11am and end at 10pm Live streaming of all the action is now available on mobile devices A Google search on “Deflategate” yields over 17 million results and has its own Wikipedia article Newer cars have integrated Internet access capabilities The average TV size sold in 2015 is expected to be 60″ or larger 150+ channels available on cable TV; 24/7 news, weather, sports and entertainment Our fallen

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Integrity In Sport

June 11, 2013 Intellectual Formation One comment

I’m no cricket fan, but I heard this story on the radio this evening: apparently a player in international competition pretended to have made a catch and moved quickly into celebrating with his teammates. When officials discovered he didn’t have control, he was suspended for two matches (roughly 1/4 of the competition) and fined 100 percent of his earnings. He was expected to admit his failure and act “in the spirit of the game” — and not doing so cost him and his team. By contrast, Stephen Carter opens his book Integrity with this anecdote about the rise of cheating

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A National Monologue

May 18, 2013 Moral Action One comment

This past week, Leon Suprenant of the Archdiocese of Kansas City shared a blog post earlier this week addressing the story of NBA player Jason Collins coming out publicly as homosexual. Most striking to me in Suprenant’s “top 10” list of reactions to the announcement and subsequent media coverage was this one: (3) National Conversation? Many news outlets talk a good game about the “national conversation” that Jason Collins’ announcement has produced, as if now we can finally have a free exchange of ideas and viewpoints on this subject. So, in the midst of such a discussion on ESPN, pro basketball commentator

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