Grateful

Kicking off the season vs. App. State with Walker & Tanner

I'm so grateful.  I'm so grateful we got to experience this ride.  I mean it.  I guess I'm sad today.  I certainly am, but I'm mostly grateful.  I don't feel a lot of pain and heartache, because I don't think this was a one-off.  You never know, though.  There are no guarantees we'll ever make it back, but it didn't feel like our only shot.  It felt like the beginning.  And we'll likely play those guys in 11 months back in the same building with the SEC on the line.

I'm grateful to be a Dawg.  I mean this sincerely.  I'm biased, but, man, we've got a great fan base.  And, this is just the honest truth, we appreciated this year more than most.  I'm not sure FSU fans in the '90s, USC fans in the early 2000's or Bama Fans in the 2010's really appreciate the winning.  But we're just grateful.  What a ride and what a run.  There are a lot of teams - a lot - who have no idea what a run like this feels like. The run was immensely fun, and it gave me was a lifetime of memories. 

With Morgan at Notre Dame

This season gave me an excuse to take a trip to Chicago with my 13 year old.  We saw the city, I got to hear one of my heroes preach (Bill Hybels) and we beat Notre Dame, kick-starting a season for the ages.

All of us in Jacksonville!

We took the whole family to Jacksonville for us to all see us (finally) beat Florida.  We played on the beach and ate seafood in late October. 

With Brooks watching Nick and Sony's last game in Sanford Stadium

We traveled all across the Southeast.  I took each of my four sons to at least one road game.  We had long drives in the car together, meals by ourselves and new adventures as father and son.  We hugged after Touchdowns and Interceptions.  They dressed up as their favorite players and ate cotton candy. 

Tanner and I took the only long drive home from the Plains, knowing we'd get our shot at redemption against someone in Atlanta.  We did, against those same guys.

With Walk-man at Tech

After Thanksgiving, it was magical enough.  11-1 and we beat most of our rivals...badly.  We had eaten a lot of good food and shared a lot of good laughs.  It was just beginning.

Me & my friend, Chase, at the SEC Championship Game in his hat that has never lost to Auburn

We vanquished our only loss of the season and earned a trip to the playoff.  12-1 and SEC champs.  I had been to every game but Tennessee.  Would there be one or two more? 

My boys at Christmas with their Clemson cousins, Parker & Mason

Christmas at my parent's house was like never before.  My brother's family is all Clemson Tigers.  We were both in the playoffs.  Would we meet in the natty?  There was a lot of ribbing and trash talking. But we were all happy to be along for the ride. 

Emily & I with our good friends, Jana & Buck, after the Rose Bowl

L.A.  Tinsel Town.  Hollywood.  Beverly Hills.  Venice Beach.  Malibu.  Santa Monica.  And a little Vegas.  Emily and I did it all.  It was the first time she and I had been away together for that long in a decade.  We'll never forget it.  When Sony scored we hugged and yelled and cried.  I'm certain it was one of the top 10 happiest moments of my life.

Morgan & I with some of our crew, Heather, Ben & Mark...with the trophy we were oh so close to getting.

My son, Morgan, saved all his Christmas money from family to help buy his ticket to the National Championship Game.  We spent all day together.  We hugged and cheered screamed our guts out.  We lost on the last play of the college football season to the best program (maybe ever) in the last 15 years.  How can I be sad?

Saturdays (and a couple of Mondays) afforded me time with family that nothing else comes close to.  We have little control over the outcome, despite our best efforts at loud screaming and wearing lucky hats.  I wore a tie yesterday because it was an important occasion, but mostly because it was my Daddy's Bulldog tie.  It's probably older than me.  Because my daddy was there with me.

Some people will wallow in misery over this.  They will say this was the most Atlanta thing ever or the most Georgia thing ever.  Some will say they'll never get over it.  I don't get that.  What's to wallow in?  It's so, so, so very difficult to get here.  Enjoy it.  And if you care for a little football perspective -- we've got a fantastic young coach and more talent coming in than we've ever had.  This won't be the last time.  Trust me, depressing is driving home from the Liberty Bowl after losing to UCF to finish 6-7.  This wasn't depressing.

Others will wonder what's the big deal.  The big deal is that we did this together.  I saw friends from college in Chicago and Los Angeles.  I took a trip with my wife.  I spent Saturdays with my boys.  I was part of something bigger than myself.  It connected me with something deep in my soul.

Sistee, my brother, Courtney, Jim, me, Mama & Daddy

Georgia Football, has been a family thing for me for a long time.  Jim & Sistee Williams got us hooked.  I cheered for Tim Worley & Rodney Hampton the way my boys have for Todd Gurley, Nick Chubb & Sony Michel.  We are linked by generations of silver britches.

Don't be sad, Bulldog Nation.  Be grateful. 

And Dawgs...Keep Chopping.  That tree is coming down one day soon.

Sports

Kris Jenkins wins it for Villanova at the buzzer.

Sunday marked one month since the Super Bowl, and Monday I finally emerged from under my sports rock.  Since late in the night on February 5, I gave myself a one month ban on sports talk radio and barely watched ESPN except to catch a UGA or UNC basketball game.  I needed to create some separation for myself.  I didn't want to hear about, read about or talk about the improbable comeback.  I'm happy to hear the conversation is now much more about pitchers and catchers.  It's March.  Hope springs eternal for my Braves.

I've had a rough year in sports.  It all started in Houston, but not in the Super Bowl.  It started in at the Final Four at NRG Stadium. My wife is a UNC fan, and we're pretty big Tar Heel Basketball fans.  The stars were aligning last march for the Heels' third National Championship under Roy Williams.  Preseason #1.  Regular season ACC Champs.  ACC Tournament Champs.  And they'd made it to the National Championship, and even hit an improbable 3-pointer to tie it up.  Then Kris Jenkins happened, and Villanova won the greatest NCAA tournament championship ever.

Surely it would get better in the Fall.  My Dawgs had a new coach, started the season with a resounding win in the Chick-fil-a Kickoff vs. UNC (can you say house divided?), featuring our star player's (Nick Chubb) improbable comeback from injury, and thrilling last minute win at Mizzou at the hand of our rising star, freshman QB Jacob Eason.  Against undefeated Tennessee at home, we'd played our best game of the season, trailed late and made a miracle play with 10 seconds left to seemingly secure the biggest home win in several years.  It would be a huge moment for our rookie coach and rookie QB, who had made the (almost) winning pass.  Then the unthinkable happened.

Jauan Jennings makes the game winning catch.

But the Falcons were rolling through the season.  Midway through the year I thought we looked like a Super Bowl contender.  Indeed, we were.  Matt Ryan was the best player in the league, except maybe for his teammate, Julio Jones.  The offense was unstoppable and the defense was maturing.  The playoffs became the ride of the lifetime, and at halftime of the Super Bowl, I couldn't hardly believe my eyes.  We were going to win the Super Bowl.  The loss to 'Nova stung.  The Hail Mary that derailed our season still hurt.  This would give me some momentary sports joy.  Would I get the red, black or gray Super Bowl Champion shirt?  Maybe one of each, or one short sleeve and one long sleeve.  And a hat.  And a pennant for the basement.  And you know what happened.

James White scores the game winning TD in Overtime

In the stadium where the season of my sports discontent started, it ended.  I'd seen my favorites lose the greatest NCAA championship game ever, one of the greatest SEC games ever (Two 40+ yd TD passes in 10 seconds), and the greatest Super Bowl ever (the only one to ever go to overtime.)  I needed a break.

But I can't just give up on sports.  Hope springs eternal, and there are too many lessons.  During my hiatus from sports talk, my boys' basketball seasons marched on.  My youngest was in an instructional league for Kindergarten and 1st graders.  They didn't keep score.  At that age, the kids there were super aggressive kind of took over.  Nothing wrong with that.  The kids were trying to make plays and really got after it on defense.  It was hard for some kids to even get a shot off all season.  In the last couple of games, the referee cleared a path for a few kids who hadn't been able to score all year to get some clear shots.  They were ecstatic when they'd finally made one.  They beamed the whole way back down the court.  That is what sports have really been about in my life.

Sports build confidence and character like few things I know of.  They teach us to keep fighting and working hard.  They teach discipline and effort.  They teach us to respect leaders.  They teach unselfishness.  They teach teamwork.  Few things have shaped my work life and adult life the way sports did.

They also teach dealing with disappointment.  In the movie Fever Pitch, Jimmy Fallon's character, Ben, describes his affection for his beloved Red Sox and their success this way:  "I like being part of something that's bigger than me...It's good for your soul to invest in something you can't control."  And guess what?  Much of our lives we can't control, and we have to learn to get back up and move on when we're disappointed.  Even being a real fan can be positive.  Can we learn to stick with a team or organization through highs and lows or will we be a front-runner fan?  That teaches us something about commitment and relationships.  People will disappoint us.  Will we stick with them?  And isn't success sweeter when we stuck with them for the long haul?

I love art -- music, movies, artwork.  But someone decides what they look like and how they end up.  The artists controls what they create with the skills they spent a lifetime honing.  But sports are unpredictable.  We have no idea what will happen when the game begins, and how hard you worked doesn't always mean you get the results you want, and sometimes you get lucky, and sometimes the ball bounces the wrong way, and sometimes one decision changes the course of the game, and sometimes your preparation meets the perfect opportunity, and sometimes you have to play again after being incredibly disappointed, and sometimes you celebrate a win only to realize there's another game.  Ain't that life?

And the greatest thing about it?  There's always next year, and in your life, there's always tomorrow.  After all, the Heels are looking like they could make another run, the Dawgs are about to start spring practice, and the Braves look like a young, hungry team.  Don't talk to me about NFL free agency.  I'm not ready for the NFL yet.  

I'm still not over it.

At least I'm not a Warriors or Indians fan.  

Too Famous Jameis

I didn't have a dawg (see what I did there?) in the fight on Monday night as I watched the final BCS National Championship Game.  It was a thrilling game.  Florida State's brilliant redshirt freshman QB, Jameis Winston, came through in the clutch after struggling for much of the game.  The kid is just fun to watch play when he gets rolling.  But it was after the game that bothered me.

Now, granted, Jameis just turned 20.  I remember being 20.  I was pretty stupid.  Yet, Jameis has been on a roll for about the last month with foot in mouth statements.  Winston was not accused in a sexual assault case that stemmed from 2012.  It all came to blows in late November and early December this past year.  Winston's attorney claimed for him that the sex was consensual.  The accuser had alcohol in her system and Winston's DNA on her underwear.  At the Heisman Trophy presentation, where Winston won the award, and on Saturday to the New York Daily News, he proclaimed, “I didn’t do anything wrong."  Then, postgame, Winston said that FSU winning the National Championship was 'all God.'

As a pastor and passionate sports fan, this really, really, really, really bothers me.  And what bothers me most is that THIS is what non-Christians see out of Christianity over and over again.  This is why the American Church is struggling in mainline denominations.  At the very least, we know Winston had premarital sex with a girl that was a little tipsy.  And he did nothing wrong.

Our student pastor is teaching that THAT's wrong to our teenagers.  I teach that's wrong to singles in our church.  Youth ministers across the world have been teaching that's wrong.  Now, the world outside sees the behavior and hears the proclamation that winning and getting through all the Seminoles went through with the allegations as "All God."  And, apparently, God was for FSU winning the game Monday night.

Winston is 20, but who taught him that what he did wasn't wrong?  Where is the pastor, coach, parent or spiritual mentor that is in his ear saying, "Jameis, you made a mistake and it almost got you into bigger trouble.  It'd be best to admit that and thank God for his forgiveness and the opportunity to keep playing ball."  I like Winston's charisma, but I can only imagine what every girl that has had a guy sleep with them when they were a little tipsy to never follow through on the heart promises their body made.

The Florida State Attorney didn't see evidence to press charges, but that doesn't mean Winston didn't do something wrong.  Non-Christians see Winston's actions and hear his words and think, "That's why I don't go to church.  They don't do what they say they believe in, then they claim God is on their side."  

Listen, none of us are perfect.  I constantly fight temptations of selfishness, stubbornness, pride and a host of other things.  Daily, I ask God to forgive me for those and a myriad of other things.  It'd be foolish for me to say, "I didn't do anything wrong."  I do stuff wrong all the time.  Winston just needs someone in his ear, and I wish a non-believing world could hear something closer to what seems more in line with a heart for God:  "You know, I made some mistakes and disappointed God and my family, but I knew I had not broken any laws.  I'm thankful for God's forgiveness, and for the opportunity to keep playing football.  We played a great team tonight with a lot of good guys on it, too.  I'm grateful for healthy bodies to play the game we love."   We've got to do better at this.  When we're wrong, we've got to admit it.  The world doesn't need our brashness or perfection or some kind of persona.  The most radical statement to the world is that we are broken and messy and make mistakes, and God's Grace overcomes it all.  When we sin and claim to be without sin, the power of God and His grace is muffled:

"If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.  If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.  If we claimed we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives."  1 John 1:8

From one sinner to another, my hope is that Jameis gets some people around him speaking more truth, and less adulation, in his ear.  But for the grace of God go I.

A little mid-May College Football Talk

A couple of college football notes from the spring. Here's something I don't get. Major college programs are scrutinized like crazy (and they should be) for the behavior of their student-athletes. LSU recently kicked QB Ryan Perriloux off the team after multiple run-ins with the law and breaking team rules. The most alarming of these include connections to counterfieting money. Kudos to LSU. But...Perriloux did what so many major program stars who mess up do -- he's transferring to a smaller school (Jacksonville St.). And they will face almost no scrutiny for letting him on the team, despite his legal troubles. Forgiveness is important, but I just can't figure out why it's okay for him to play at Jacksonville St. and not LSU, and nobody seems to care.

Playoffs? Playoffs?

Yes, the BCS powers-that-be shot down a 4-team playoff last week and I thought I'd weigh in on the issue a little bit for anyone that cares to listen. First of all, it's way more complicated than people on all sides of the issue make it out to be. Let me admit that I'm really not a playoff guy. I don't know if I'm happy they way things are, but I'm not sure a playoff is good for college football. And I LOVE COLLEGE FOOTBALL. I do believe that many (not all) of the proponents of a playoff in college football are more sports fans than college football fans, because I'm not sure they understand the ramifications of what a playoff would do to the game I love. However, I understand that there are many who love college football and desperately want a playoff, and there are some good reasons for that, because the post-season isn't always what we want it to be.

I have a hard time even rationally discussing anything more than a 4-team playoff. An 8-team playoff would change the landscape of college football so much that I really can't even consider it a possibility. That's where I'm not sure what most people understand. Any 8-team playoff would include 6 conference champions from the major conferences. That is a given, and probably 2 at-large teams. That would make so much of the regular season moot. This past year, on the last Saturday of the season, the nation was enthralled at watching LSU vs. Tennessee, Oklahoma vs. Missouri, and Pittsburgh vs. West Virginia. I sat stunned in my den as Pittsburgh did then unthinkable. West Virginia was out of the national championship race because of one game. In an 8-team playoff, that game means nothing because WVU had already wrapped up the Big East. In fact, they might have even rested their starters. Could you imagine a world in which UGA, Ga. Tech, FSU, or Florida rest their starters in an end of the year non-conference rivalry game because the conference championship is the next week and they really only care about that coveted playoff spot. If you think that wouldn't happen, take a good look at the end of the NFL season. It happens every year. The Patriots didn't do it and what did that get them? They were just the first loser to cross the finish line and a team with a combined 14-6 record was somehow crowned champion over a team with an 18-1 record. I wish someone could please explain to me why that system is superior to a system that routinely pairs teams with 0,1, or 2 losses against each other for the championship.

The other problem is that it's not all apples and apples. The talent level in the NFL is more even across the board, the NFL schedules are mandated by the league, so you can't schedule patsies. However, this year, Southern Cal will play 12 BCS conference teams, UGA will play 10. Many schools will play only 8 or 9. Therefore, the total schedule is the formula in the NFL. That's a lot trickier in college football because two 10-2 teams don't always equal each other because of conference strength and out-of-conference scheduling. The bottom line is that an 8-team or more playoff would eventually render the regular season "almost" meaningless. If you don't think that's the case, then tell me about TV ratings for college basketball before March. Nobody cares, because the games don't matter. Even the most bitter rivalries (i.e. UNC/Duke) don't mean much but bragging rights because they're both going to the dance.

So, what about a 4-team? Well, I think a 4-team playoff could work, and I think it will probably happen one day, but it's not the end-all, be-all. It still worries me. Let me say why I think that it might be needed first. Namely, just what I mentioned above - scheduling and strength of conference. The past couple years have taught us that records do not equate across conference lines. There are discrepencies in scheduling that have to be addressed that might not can be unless it's played out on the field. I also think that there are usually 2-4 teams that are worthy of national title consideration. Even in the years when there are only two undefeated teams, it's not always that simple. After the last two BCS games, the '02 top three of SEC champ 12-1 UGA, Big 10 champ 13-0 Ohio St., and Big East Champ 12-0 Miami doesn't look as clear cut as it did back then. Obviously, the last few years have been chaos when 3-4 teams have legimate claims to a shot at the title. I think college football has become so regional that a 4-team playoff could help alleviate that.

I do think they will make a grave mistake if they use neutral sites for semi-final games, giving almost no reward for going undefeated. Imagine telling the Patriots they had to play the Chargers in Kansas City for the AFC championship last fall. They'd laugh at you...and deservedly so. So, if they go forward with it, I hope they give home field advantage to the top 2 for the semis. Moreover, few college football fans would be able to afford traveling to Miami one weekend, only to have to go to New Orleans or Pasadena 2 weeks later, especially if they expect to be in the top 4 every year, which USC, Ohio St., and whoever is SEC champion looks to be in the foreseeable future. It might be fun one year, but fans would wait it out to see if they made the championship game. After a few years, semifinal games would be made for TV events played in front of a bunch of empty seats at neutral sites. Look in the stands in the NCAA basketball early rounds and regionals if you don't believe me.

But my greatest fear is still that sanctity of the college season. On Aug. 30, we're all going to watch Bama/Clemson. On Sept. 13, we're all going to watch USC/Ohio St. On Sept. 20, we're all going to watch Arizona St./UGA...because those games mean everything. In a 4-team playoff world, they don't mean much because you could lose a high profile out of conference game and still run the table in your own league and be fine. I'm not sure I want that. Without home-field advantage, those games would mean almost nothing at all, because being ranked #1 would be no different then being ranked #4. I want the best for college football. I'm just not sure that people who are clamoring for a playoff understand what could be lost in the process. And I love the craziest 13-weeks in sports, when anything can happen, and one-game can make all the difference.

Just my 2-cents on a sport I love. Maybe you disagree. I'd love to hear why.