John 3:16 Super Bowl Commercial – LookUp 316 (Video length: 0:45)

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16)

Related post: A John 3:16 Valentine Message

Federer Between the Legs Shot – US Open 2010 (Video length: 2:33)

Watch to the end to see comparison shots between this year and last year. This year’s shot was further behind the baseline, making it an even tougher shot to hit.

Related post:  Federer, Sampras, Nadal, Agassi Doubles Video
 

Saturday, December 31, 2005
San Diego Chargers vs. Denver Broncos
Eight seconds was all it took to change my life forever. Eight seconds at the end of the second quarter, in the middle of a meaningless game. (Drew Brees, Coming Back Stronger)

Drew Brees is the starting quarterback for the New Orleans Saints and a Christian with a strong testimony. Drew’s new book, Coming Back Stronger, was just released today. Drew shares his life story — from his parents’ divorce when he was a child, to his coming to Christ in high school, to his devastating shoulder injury with the San Diego Chargers in 2005, to his amazing comeback and the Saints’ Super Bowl win over the Indianopolis Colts in 2010.

Set against the backdrop of New Orleans, the book tells two stories: the story of Drew’s comeback from his injury and the continuing comeback of New Orleans from the devastation of Hurricane Katrina. Drew has an amazing story to share, and through it all he points to the Lord who uses adversity in our lives to help us not only come back, but come back stronger.

From The New York Times:

“I just cost that kid a perfect game,” Joyce told reporters in Detroit. “I thought he beat the throw. I was convinced he beat the throw, until I saw the replay. It was the biggest call of my career.”

Galarraga told reporters that Joyce apologized to him after the game, adding that he had no instinct to argue the call. “He probably felt more bad than me,” Galarraga said. Smiling, he added, “Nobody’s perfect.”

Related articles:
    • Galarraga Loses Perfect Game With 2 Outs in Ninth
    • Two Amazing Baseball Plays in 2010

The Celtics-Lakers 2010 Finals begin tonight. The Celtics and the Lakers are the two most successful basketball teams in NBA history. There have been a total of 63 NBA Finals. The Celtics and Lakers have won over half of them with the Celtics winning 17 and the Lakers 15. (The Chicago Bulls are the next closest team with “only” 6 championships.)

The Celtics and Lakers have met each other 11 times in the finals, the last time just two years ago. The Celtics won the first 8 contests, the Lakers won the next 2, and then the Celtics won again in 2008. The Lakers beat Orlando in the finals last year and are looking to repeat. If they win this year, they will only be one championship way from tying Boston’s record. If Boston wins, they will increase the gap to three. As a long-time Boston Celtics fan, I am really looking forward to this one. This should be a great series.

Any predictions? Share them in the comments!

Update: The Lakers win it, 4 games to 3.

Here is a table showing all the Celtics-Lakers finals match-ups:

Related links:

• Top 20 Celtic-Lakers Moments in Finals History
• NBA Finals: Year-by-year results

Click here for more Sports related posts.

MLB Mark Buehrle (Video length: 1:04)

 

Next, moving from the Major Leagues to College Ball, check out Fordham’s Brian Kownacki and his diving flip to home plate over Iona’s catcher.

Fordham’s Flip (Video length: 0:21)

 

Makes you wonder what the rest of the season might hold!

Although the match was more for entertainment than competition, it is still amazing to see these four tennis greats on the court all at the same time. Between the four of them they have a combined 222 titles (44 Grand Slams), 13 year-end No. 1 rankings, and 706 weeks at No. 1 in the ATP Rankings system. For the last 19 years straight (since 1992), one of the four has earned at least one Grand Slam title each year. Their combined prize earnings total a staggering $157,292,855.

Here is a ten-minute video clip with highlights from the match. For the record, Federer and Sampras came out on top 8-6.

Indian Wells – Federer/Sampras vs. Nadal/Agassi (Video length: 10:56)

Note: Click on the “4-arrow icon” in the bottom right corner of the video to view in full screen.

Would you believe all the commotion and publicity the 30-second Super Bowl® ad sponsored by Focus on the Family has received?

By our estimates — and they are pretty accurate — the pre-Super Bowl hype of the “Celebrate Family, Celebrate Life” ad has registered to date 2,265,490,170 impressions. That is “billion” with a “B.” Amazing!

The interesting thing about all of this is that no one in the media has seen the ad. And, unless there is a big leak before Sunday, no one will see it until it is shown during the Super Bowl pre-game show and the first quarter of the game itself.

Another interesting phenomenon is that, even those in the liberal media who have opposed us before — and disagree even now with most of what we stand for at Focus on the Family — are defending our right to run the Super Bowl ad.

On February 2, 2010, The Washington Post columnist Sally Jenkins wrote, “I’m pro-choice and Tebow clearly is not. But based on what I’ve heard in the past week, I’ll take his side against the group-think, elitism and condescension of the ‘National Organization of Fewer and Fewer Women all the time’ (referring to the group NOW). They aren’t actually ‘pro-choice’ so much as they are pro-abortion.”

She continues, “If the pro-choice stance is so precarious that a story about someone who chose to carry a risky pregnancy to term undermines it, then CBS is not the problem.”

Interestingly enough — a little inside stuff here — our Super Bowl ad never mentions abortion. Also, as we have reported in other columns, not one dollar was spent from our regular operating expenses at Focus on the Family to underwrite the cost of the “Celebrate Family, Celebrate Life” ad.

You can read the Sally Jenkins article mentioned here: Tebow’s Super Bowl ad isn’t intolerant; its critics are. And don’t forget to watch for the commercial during the Super Bowl on Sunday. It will air twice: once during the pre-game show and then again during the first quarter.

Yep, that’s me just beating the throw into home at church softball last week. Why didn’t I slide? Because I’m a wimp.

To my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ for granting me the ability to step between the lines for 23 years and compete against the best players in the world.

To my wife Shonda and my 4 children, Gehrig, Gabriella, Grant and Garrison for sacrificing their lives and allowing baseball to be mine while I played. Without their unquestioned support I would not have been able to do what I did, or enjoy the life, and I am hopefully going to live long enough to repay them as much as a Father and Husband can.

Thank you and God Bless
Curt Schilling

Congratulations, Curt, on a great career, and may God bless you in your next steps. (Note: You can read more about Curt’s Christian faith here. )