Super Bowl Weekend

My Pats are out, but two well deserving teams are in this Sunday's Super Bowl. Hard to believe that this is the 41st game to be played. I can remember watching the first one in black and white on an old Philco TV set as Joe Namath and the NY Jets won an upset victory. I have missed few games since then. I am a subscriber to an email newsletter, "The Pastor's Weekly Briefing: by Focus on the Famly. This weeks email carried an article about the two coaches. I have cut and pasted the article in for your reading. In fact you may want to subscribe to the weekly email news yourself. Sign up today at www.parsonage.org/forms/subscriptions.cfm. It's free!

"The Chicago Bears and the Indianapolis Colts are headed to Super Bowl XLI this Sunday. Much has been made of the fact that Lovie Smith of the Bears and Tony Dungy of the Colts will become the first African-American head coaches in the 41-year history of the NFL's marquee game. "It means a lot," said Dungy. "I'm very proud to represent African-American coaches." However, both coaches are also representing Christ. "The Lord set this up in a way that no one would believe it," said Dungy. "The Lord tested us a lot this year, but He set this up to get all the glory."

Dungy and Smith are close friends. Smith was one of Dungy's assistants when the two were with Tampa Bay from 1996-2000.

On Feb. 3, one day before the big game, Dungy will join Campus Crusade for Christ's Athletes in Action for the annual Super Bowl Breakfast, which emphasizes men of faith in football and honors those who have shown exceptional character. He was the keynote speaker at last year's breakfast, where he shared a message about God's love weeks after his 18-year-old son died from a suicide.

The Super Bowl Breakfast will announce the winner of the Bart Starr Award, honoring exemplary character and leadership. The award is one of few individual honors selected by the NFL players themselves. Finalists for this year's award are Warrick Dunn, running back for the Atlanta Falcons; John Lynch, safety for the Denver Broncos; and Peyton Manning, quarterback for the Indianapolis Colts.

Speakers at this year's breakfast will include Tony Dungy, legendary Green Bay Packers' Hall of Fame quarterback Bart Starr, and ex-San Francisco 49ers' All-Star tight end Brent Jones. The program will showcase life stories and personal faith testimonies of Dungy, Starr and football players from this year's Super Bowl teams. Jones will emcee the event."

Enjoy the game! I'm hosting a Super bowl party for our church's youth group. It will be an evening of fun, fellowship, and relationship building. A couple of years ago, I did this and we had nearly fifty teenagers filling the house. Go Bears!!!!!!