Rooting For Your Team

Pictured to your left: the much revered Peyton Manning, the best QB of all-time and Tennessee Volunteer faithful.

If you are familiar with Christian parlance at all, you know that evangelical Christians often note that they have accepted Jesus into their heart as Lord and Savior.

If you are familiar with the South, and East Tennessee in particular, folks will also say that they have accepted Peyton Manning into their heart. Maybe not as Lord and Savior, but definitely as favored son. You'll find more Indianapolis Colts fans in East Tennessee than you will Titans fans. I am one of those Colts fans.

That little illustration is one example of how strong our allegiances can be to sports teams. In an entertainment culture shaped by the television, major sports drive much of our time and interests and money. My biggest hobby outside of reading in general is reading about Tennessee football and basketball.

On the day (today) of Tennessee's historic biggest rivalry in a game we probably won't win (Alabama) in a year that isn't so good, I would like to submit that this love is a double-edged sword.

First, the bad. Sports teams absolutely are an idol in our culture. We worship those players and teams we follow so avidly. Stiff and traditional people in church on Sunday morning are often the same people who scream and cheer at a television screen when their favorite NFL team is playing. Even worse, tons of Christians in the Denver area skip church to watch the Broncos play. Since we believe God Himself indwells Christians, why on earth would we skip church to care as much about a game with little-to-zero life consequence? But we do, and sports thus become an idol. But there's a redeeming value to sports as well.

That's because most rooting interests are arbitrary. Notice this: I never made the choice to become a Tennessee fan. I have always been a Tennessee fan. Ever since I can remember, my favorite color has been orange. My rooting interests were and are essentially arbitrary: I was born into a family that went to the school and lived in the town where the school was. Now you say, "how can an arbitrary interest be a good thing? Doesn't it make us all sectarian and unnecessarily divisive?" Well, yes and no. If an arbitrary interest means others will actually hate people of the other team or region, then that's another manifestation of the idolatry in sports. But many people don't actually hate individuals or fans of the other team.

Here's the issue: the beauty of the arbitrary love is that it's constant. For no reason, I love Tennessee. I cannot not love Tennessee. I will love Tennessee no matter what. We are 2-4 in football this year and will probably get mauled by Alabama tonight, but I do not care. I will watch Tennessee this week and next. My love cannot and will not be taken away, no matter what Tennessee does. They have not earned my love.

And in that way, rooting for your team is a small mirror of the way God loves his people. Why does God love us? The Bible often gives a very simple answer: simply because he chooses to and out of no good thing in ourselves. God explains his love to Israel in Deuteronomy 7:6-8 (which Christians also believe apply to them as well now):

For you are a people holy to the LORD your God. The LORD your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be his people, his treasured possession. The LORD did not set his affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples. But it was because the LORD loved you and kept the oath he swore to your forefathers that he brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the land of slavery, from the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt.

The Westminster Confession of Faith, the faith beliefs of my church, says it this way in chapter 3.5:

Those of mankind that are predestinated unto life, God, before the foundation of the world was laid, according to His eternal and immutable purpose, and the secret counsel and good pleasure of His will, hath chosen, in Christ, unto everlasting glory, out of His mere free grace and love, without any foresight of faith, or good works, or perseverance in either of them, or any other thing in the creature, as conditions, or causes moving Him thereunto: and all to the praise of His glorious grace. (emphasis mine)

It's not an easy truth to realize- this idea that there is nothing inherently lovable in us and yet God loves us anyways. And despite what I insinuate above, I'm not saying that God's love for us is arbitrary or capricious. What I'm saying is that God's love for us isn't based on anything in us. Believe me, there's nothing to love about my team this year, and yet I love them. I will always be a fan. And maybe God put that love in me so that he could teach me a little something about His love.

I Love My Neighbors and Other Interesting Suburbanization Facts

If you live in a major US metropolitan area, you are aware of a certain phenomenon in the center of those cities. They are becoming nice again. In the 90s, retail was gone, cool apartments didn't exist, and sports teams went to the suburbs. Well, no more. The 2000s brought gentrification and revitilazation back into the cities. They were cool places to live and shop again. Baseball stadiums, like in Denver and DC, were placed in poor urban areas to bring commerce and life back to the city again. And it's largely worked.

But a huge social phenomenon has gone largely unnoticed. Since revitilization was brought back to the city, property values rose. This was good for owners. This was very bad for renters. What's happened, then, is the virtual elimination of the "inner-city" in many cities. Folks in poverty, because they can no longer afford the city, must move outward. While richer folks move into the city and further outside the city for its space, the inner rings of the city have become the center for poverty in many American cities.

If you are curious about this phenomenon and wish to learn more, read the report from the Brookings Institution or check out these resources from a non-profit in Denver.

I live in one of these areas. Just behind my neighborhood lies one of Denver's nicest private schools. Behind that lies an exclusive country club. In the front of my neighborhood, there are two apartment complexes that house fairly low-income individuals. And my wife and I just moved into the middle of this neighborhood having just bought a home. And I love this neighborhood.

As I was putting up my trashcan the other evening, a girl passed by me as she was walking her dog and I introduced myself. "Where do you live around here?" I asked. "I live in the apartments around the corner. I like to walk my dog through the neighborhood and look at the houses for sale, though I could never afford them." It was a quick conversation, but a pleasant one. For inquiring minds, I live in one of the most affordable first time homebuyer neighborhoods in the entire city.

On Tuesday night, I was passing by my neighbor and soon-to-be-good friend on the sidewalk. He was with his daughters and I asked where he'd come from. "House down the street. We had dinner over there. They were asking about you. Do you want to meet them?" "Sure," I returned. He took me over there, stayed for two seconds, and my new neighbors invited me in. Left out information: both of these neighbors are first-generation middle-class and both are Hispanic. I enjoyed the best Mexican food and sopapillas I have ever experienced.

Several weeks ago, I saw a man at the end of the street with a "Tennessee" shirt on. If you know anything at all about me, you know I love the University of Tennessee and its sporting teams. I went all the way down there and introduced myself. He's from Chattanooga, and he invited me to his house for all subsequent Tennessee games on television. Left out information: this gentleman is an African-American.

Why mention the ethnic information? Because some of these neighbors come from tough backgrounds and have shared their stories with me. Some of these neighbors think that our neighborhood is a haven for the kids and heaven for themselves. Believe me when I tell you that most of my friends would never dream of living in my neighborhood because the houses aren't nice enough or new enough or trendy enough (as older homes in park districts tend to be, just like loft apts.).

Yet I love my neighborhood. It is filled with amazing and loving people. It is filled with diversity and interesting stories. It is an amalgamation of strange sociological phenemena and great Mexican food.

And praise God for Mexican food.

On College Football Expansion

Update: Nebraska joining the Big 10 (now 12 schools) as soon as Friday.

If you are a serious sports fan, then you know that conference expansion in college football has been a legitimate news item for weeks now. Let me give you a brief summary of the news.

There's 6 "major" conferences in college football (Southeastern, Big 10, Big 12, Big East, Atlantic Coast, and Pacific 10) and several other "mid-major" conferences. Each major conference contains 10-12 teams (except the Big East has 16).  Currently at stake, several of the big conferences- namely the Pac-10 and the Big 10- are trying to lure several big schools from some of the other major conferences in order to create a super-conference. Why would they do such a thing?

First, it would expand conference influence into other others of the country. For instance the Pac-10, so named because most of its schools sit in proximity to the Pacific Ocean, is trying to lure Texas to its conference along with several other schools in the Texas area. The Big 10, located exclusively in the American midwest, is also trying to lure Texas. Though the moves make little sense in the geographic distinctions of the conference, they do make sense for the second reason.

Second, all sports fans know that these moves are about money. The bigger the conference gets, the more likely it gets high-dollar television contracts, bowl appearances, and more national exposure. In short, these things equal more revenue. Lots more revenue. And football makes a lot of money because it's awesome. Okay, I realize that last sentence isn't an argument. As a matter of fact, it's total bias on my part. I grew up salivating on the University of Tennesee and its football program. But despite my love of the sport, I must state my opposition to conference expansion. That opposition for conference expansion is rooted in my love of college athletics.

As a matter of fact, I love college football and basketball more than the NFL and the NBA. Professional sports undoubtedly demonstrate a higher degree of skill than do college sports, but I nonetheless love college athletics more. There are several reasons for this view.

First, college athletes aren't paid in the traditional sense. Sure, they recieve scholarships and, sure, there's some dubious recruiting tactics, but by and large the sport is more free of the influence of money on the athlete than is professional sports. There are players who play merely because they love the sport. And it shows in the competitive arena. Players in college give all the energies they can for the good of the team. Their motivations, similar to that of those in the military, is to honor and serve in the best way possible, and to love those they serve with as best as possible. College sports are, to a degree, lesser influenced by selfish ambition. And unselfish attitudes can flourish much more in professional sports.

Second, college athletics unite more types of people than do professional sports. Being from Tennesee, I always have a difficult time explaining my love for southern college football to people here in Colorado. While folks in Denver love the Broncos and the Rockies, their passion for their teams is like a three-year-old's infatuation with a toy. Quite frankly, it doesn't last long and it's rather feeble. Not so with college teams. People in Memphis, removed from the University of Tennessee by 7 hours, are still as rabid as the fans in Knoxville. Louisianians rally around LSU more than the Saints, even though the Saints just won the Super Bowl. Believe me- this is true.

College football gives us some of the best glimpses of community our culture can offer; it gives us unselfish teams and a united and more passionate and larger fan base. Both of those virtues are disrupted by conference expansion, which cares nothing of regional or state allegiances and cares solely about the selfish ambition of money.

I know conference expansion is likely. But I also know that Tennessee will still play Alabama on the third Saturday in October every year. Hope remains.