Josh Benner

Tag: NFL

  • No, NFL does not need to model its OT after college football

    No, NFL does not need to model its OT after college football

    College football overtime is not real football. You don’t have kickoffs or punts. It takes significant aspects to the game out of play. You’re also starting in field goal range. This season, college football added the truly horrible rule of resorting to a series of 2 point conversion attempts in the third overtime. I hear people talk about this model and say its what the NFL could do because it’s “fair.”

    That’s the sports commentary today after the epic playoff game last night between the Buffalo Bills and the Kansas City Chiefs. The last 2 minutes of regulation saw three touchdowns and a field goal. It was the most exciting back and forth to end a football game I’ve ever seen. As the fourth quarter clock ticked to zero, the Chiefs hit a game tying field goal to send it to overtime.

    Once they got to overtime, the Chiefs won the coin toss. After the dramatic end to the fourth quarter it seemed underwhelming. Neither defense was getting stops at that point. And the Chiefs relatively easily drove down the field and scored a touchdown.

    Game over.

    Without the Bills ever having the ball in overtime.

    They say the only certainties in life are death and taxes. I’d add a third. People not liking football overtime. Football overtime is hard. Baseball is easy. You just keep playing one more inning until someone wins. Basketball is easy. A five minute overtime will ensure both teams get multiple possessions.

    But football? How do you decide a winner? In both college and the NFL, a clear goal of overtime is to have it be short. Football is a brutally violent and physically demanding sport. You want to limit how many extra plays and hits these guys are taking after having just played a full football game.

    So then how do you decide a winner? College overtime isn’t it. I think that suggestion overlooks just how good NFL players are. If the Bills-Chiefs game were decided by college overtime, they’d still be playing this morning!

    I hear the argument that Buffalo didn’t get a chance. They have three chances. They had the lead with less than 2 minutes to go. Lost it. They got the lead again with :13 seconds left. Allowed a tie. In overtime, they also had another opportunity to get a stop. They failed all three times. So I don’t agree that “they didn’t have a chance.” They had three chances.

    “Well they couldn’t stop Kansas City!” Ok. But to win the game, at some point, they were going to have to. If Kansas City scores (as they did) and Buffalo gets the ball and scores, then what happens? Does the next score win? Then that goes back to KC getting the advantage. Do you play 15 minutes? The NFL teams themselves have no interest in changing the rule to play a full 15 minute quarter by default in OT.

    This brings me back to the beginning. I get that the conclusion to last night’s game was an underwhelming way to finish an amazing game. But I also understand that football does not lend itself to a perfect overtime format.

    No matter the current format or a format where both teams get the same number of possessions, ultimately SOMEONE’S defense needs to make some plays. Personally, I have no problem with this format being the deciding factor after teams have already played 60 minutes of football.

    Life isn’t fair. Make something happen.

  • Our sense of justice and the outrage over the botched Saints call

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    An egregious no-call in the Saints-Rams, NFC Championship game yesterday.

    Missed calls happen. But I don’t know if I can think of ever seeing a more consequential no-call that had a bigger impact on a game than the missed pass interference with 1:46 left to go in the game. (more…)

  • A career of adversity: Drew Brees breaks NFL all time passing record

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    Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

    It’s incredible to think about what Drew Brees has accomplished on the football field. Last night, against the Washington Redskins, Brees became the NFL’s all time leader in career passing yards.

    Sports radio show host Colin Cowherd brought up some of the adversity he’s overcome in his opening monologue on today’s program.

    Injuries 

    In high school, he blew out his knee his junior year.

    As a senior, he only had two scholarship offers: Purdue and Kentucky, two schools known more for basketball than football.

    At Purdue, Brees put up incredible passing numbers. He’s still the all time passing leader in the Big Ten (and second all time in touchdown passes).

    Too small 

    Before coming into the NFL, Brees was considered undersized. He stood just 6 feet tall and came into the league at a time where a lot of prototypical quarterbacks were 6’3″ or bigger. But Brees was a trailblazer for future quarterbacks like Russell Wilson and Baker Mayfield.

    Better options 

    Brees was taken as the first pick of the second round of the 2001 NFL draft. He had a successful stint in San Diego before the Chargers drafted Phillip Rivers. Seeing the writing on the wall, Brees left San Diego after the 2004 season.

    Brees had his coach suspended for an entire season after the Bounty-gate scandal.

    Through all of that adversity, Brees kept plugging along.

    There are only nine 5,000 yard passing seasons in NFL history. Brees has five of them.

    You can accomplish anything in life if you’re willing to work for it.

    -Drew Brees

    Last night, when Brees broke the record, his wife and four children were on the field to celebrate with him. He told them “You can accomplish anything in life if you’re willing to work for it. Alright?”

    He knows it because he’s done it.

    There are a lot of excuses we can make: didn’t have the right parents, didn’t have the right connections, didn’t catch the right breaks.

    We have to respond to adversity by working hard, growing as people, learning from mistakes, and being opportunistic. It’s easier to make excuses than to take responsibility. It’s easier to settle than to strive to do great things.

    I think that’s why we should appreciate what Brees has accomplished. Because it’s a reminder to us all that you can accomplish anything in life if you’re willing to work for it.

    Thanks for reading! I’d love to hear what you think, and don’t forget to subscribe! 
    Josh Benner is the associate pastor at Cornerstone Evangelical Free Church in Fergus Falls, Minnesota and has a Master of Divinity from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. He enjoys writing about faith and culture. He lives with his wife Kari in Minnesota.

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  • America’s idol: the unhealthy obsession with sports

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    Minnesota Vikings rookie kicker Daniel Carlson did not have a good game Sunday against the Packers. Carlson missed three field goals in a game which ended in a 29-29 tie. What made matters worse, two of those missed field goals came in overtime, including a lot second field goal that was basically a chip shot. On Monday, Carlson was released from the Vikings.

    It was a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day.

    It’s also life. It happens. We have bad days, it’s just that most of us don’t have bad days in front of millions of people.

    It’s interesting in the aftermath reading the comment online. I’m a sports fan so I understand frustration but what I don’t understand are the obscene tirades, the threats, taking shots at him as a person.

    Carlson’s most recent instagram photo was from September 11 and it was a collection of photos with him and local firefighters in commemoration of that day. A very nice thing. But it’s on that photo where “fans” are directing their venom and vitriol. I couldn’t help but read those comments and consider just how displaced someone’s priorities would have to be to think that that is an appropriate venue to criticize. The kicker later made his instagram private to avoid further online harassment.

    It’s not just Vikings fan. People harassing athletes and being over the top in the face of failure is common in sports. It’s also not unique to American sports.

    There is an unhealthy obsession with sports. It’s idolatry. The result of a game is not a person’s ultimate key to happiness and wholeness. People who curse out strangers in the safety of their parent’s basements because of a game are not happy people.

    If a person has so much anger in their heart that a loss makes them that mad, a win was never going to make them happy. Your team’s loss or an individual athlete’s failure isn’t the cause of unhappiness, it’s a symptom of underlying misery. We were made for infinite joy, and that joy is found in God. It is not something that is meant to fluctuate with the performance of our teams, our jobs, or even our health.

    Thanks for reading! I’d love to hear what you think, and don’t forget to subscribe! 

    Josh Benner is the associate pastor at Cornerstone Evangelical Free Church in Fergus Falls, Minnesota and has a Master of Divinity from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. He enjoys writing about faith and culture. He lives with his wife Kari in Minnesota.

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  • Nike ad says Colin Kaepernick is “sacrificing everything.” We should all agree that that’s absurd

    DmMVEk3WsAACHq1.jpg-large.jpeg“Believe in something. Even if it means sacrificing everything. Just do it.”

    Sacrificing everything?

    This is the slogan on a new Nike ad featuring former Colin Kaerpnick, former NFL quarterback who was the first in the NFL to kneel during the National Anthem as a protest. The ad is on a new marketing campaign from Nike as they celebrate the 30th anniversary of their famed “Just do it” slogan.

    There are varying opinions on football players kneeling. In general, most Americans do not support this and see it as offensive and disrespectful. 63 percent of people responded unfavorably in a poll conducted by Quinnipiac University.

    But I feel like we should all agree that he most certainly did not “sacrifice everything.” People go off to wars and die. But Colin Kaepernick is in an ad for a shoe company that says he “sacrificed everything?” People in other parts of the world stand up to barbaric dictators and pay with their lives (and sometimes the lives of their own families). But Colin Kaepernick not playing football anymore is him sacrificing everything.

    That’s absurd.

    Kaepernick has far more fame and notoriety for his protest than he ever would have had for being an ok NFL quarterback. He made millions playing football.

    He’s going to make millions with Nike. According to the New York Times: “Nike will produce new Kaepernick apparel, including a shoe and a T-shirt, and if the merchandise sells well, the value of the deal will rival those of other top N.F.L. players, according to people close to the negotiations who spoke on condition of anonymity because Nike had not formally announced it. Nike will also donate money to Kaepernick’s “Know Your Rights” campaign.”

    I think it hurts the cause. Sports writer Jason Whitlock, who’s been critical of Kapernick’s protests commented: “Told y’all from Day One this has always been about the money. All of it. Revolutionaries aren’t sponsored by major corporations. It’s been a hustle from the giddy-up.”

    I agree with Whitlock. Gandhi wasn’t saying, “Be the change you wish to see in the world. Obey your thirst.”

    I think Kaepernick cashing in on his protest (first of all, that totally undermines the idea of sacrifice) hurts his message. He’s trying to address real issues and he’s going to attach his name to an apparel line? Obviously that’s his right too. But it also makes him look like a corporate shill.

    It doesn’t seem to be a very successful means of rallying support to a cause or advancing a public discussion on the issues. A lot of Americans find the display disrespectful and offensive. And that’s fine. You can do something that offends people. But then what’s the end game for actually being an agent of change? If you turn off people whom you’re trying to reach and they don’t want to listen to the message, how do you achieve anything?

    These are complicated matters and there are a number of thoughtful opinions. The issue for me has never been kneeling for the national anthem. My biggest issue is that he’s getting treated like he’s some sort of martyr. Kaepernick has certainly received lots of criticism for his protest but many also celebrate him as a hero, he’s been given a huge platform, and he’s going to profit greatly off of this. This isn’t what it looks like to sacrifice everything.

    Thanks for reading! I’d love to hear what you think, and don’t forget to subscribe! 

    Josh Benner is the associate pastor at Cornerstone Evangelical Free Church in Fergus Falls, Minnesota and has a Master of Divinity from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. He enjoys writing about faith and culture. He lives with his wife Kari in Minnesota.

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