SACROSANCT: secure from violation, profanation, assault, or trespass GOSPEL: the good news of Jesus Christ, who rescues us from the wrath of God and secures for us the eternal favor of God
Ok. Here it is. The final edition of the 100 Greatest NFL Jersey’s Numbers. This is my picks for numbers 76-100. There are bound to be a few controversial selections, so let’s get to it. By the way…out of this group, I am selecting number 80, Jerry Rice, as the best. I’m open to arguments against, but you’re going to find that number hard to argue against. I look forward to your comments. By the way, I have updated the 50-76 post. After we’ve hammered this out, I plan to post an overall 00-99 list.
76 Lou Groza – K – 60’s Cleveland
77 Red Grange – RB – 30’s Bears
78 Bruce Smith – DE – 90’s Bills
79 Roosevelt Brown – OT – 50’s Giants
80 Jerry Rice – WR – 80’s 49ers
81 Dick “Night Train” Lane – CB – 60’s Lions
82 Raymond Berry – WR – 60’s Colts
83 Ted Hendricks – OLB – 70’s Raiders
84 Shannon Sharpe – TE – 90’s Broncos
85 Nick Buoniconti – MLB – 70’s Steelers
86 Hines Ward – WR – 00’s Steelers
87 Willie Davis – DE – 60’s Packers 88 Alan Page – DT – 70’s Vikings (Thanks to Jimbo Booth) Replaces John Mackey
89 Mike Ditka – TE – 60’s Bears
90 Neil Smith – DE – 90’s Chiefs
91 Kevin Greene – DE – 90’s Steelers
92 Reggie White – DE – 90’s Packers
93 Dwight Freenly – DE – 00’s Colts
94 Charles Haley – DE – 90’s Cowboys
95 Richard Dent – DE – 80’s Bears
96 Cortez Kennedy – DT – 90’s Seahawks
97 Simeon Rice – DE – 00’s Buccaneers
98 Tony Siragusa – DT – 90’s Ravens
99 Warren Sapp – DT – 00’s Raiders
In keeping with my series on my favorite C.S. Lewis quotes, I would like to share with you the “C.S. Lewis Song”, in which Brook Fraser sings a beautiful strain that is based upon some of Lewis’ words and thoughts.
So, on Thursday night at 12 midnight, my family and I, along with about 20 other friends, went to go see “The Dark Knight”. It was so awesome that my head exploded, right there in the theater. I would give a review here but a video is worth a thousand words.
“Really great moral teachers never do introduce new moralities: it is quacks and cranks who do that… The real job of every moral teacher is to keep on bringing us back, time after time, to the old simple principles which we are all so anxious not to see.”
When you think about it, teaching truth really is a thankless job. The picture is much like the mother who stands over her child with a spoonful of cough syrup, urging her to open her mouth. This is because truth usually goes down hard. Yet, if the mother is good and true and loving, she will not back down from her call to care for her little one.
Truth is not sexy or fun or new or original. Truth is old. And even when we have not heard it before, when truth first comes to us as a new thought, or when it seems novel because it is novel to us, even then, we often find that truth has the ring of something old, something that has been taught a thousand times before, something that has risen from antiquity and dusted itself off before us. When we hear truth, we get the sense that we should know this already, or that we have known it and simply allowed ourselves to forget.
To celebrate the much anticipated opening of “The Dark Knight”, the sequel to Batman Begins, I am revisiting my very first post on Sacrosanct Gospel – “Batman Unmasked”. This article was first posted on March 12, 2008. I’m keeping the comments from the origninal post because I felt there were some pretty good responses. I would love to have you add a few more. Please understand in the article that I really am not ’slamming’ Batman. I am very sympathetic to my boyhood hero. I know him well. He is just like me. Well, not completely. He has considerably more money, he is better looking, and he is younger. Why is it that I age and he doesn’t?
I also want to make it widely known that my family and I already have our tickets to tonight’s midnight opening. We will be sitting with many other friends from our church, popcorn in hand, ready to be creeped out by the late Heath Ledger’s version of the Joker. Did I say Batman was my ‘boyhood’ hero? Oops I guess the Bat’s out of the Bag! Ha Ha hahahh haa (Insert Joker’s laugh here).
So without any further mildew, for your intellectual provocation, “Batman Unmasked”.
I would like to recommend an excellent book that I am presently reading called “Heaven is not my Home” by Paul Marshall. In his thought-provoking book, Marshall asserts that God is not seeking to destroy the earth, but to restore it to its original splendor. He shows us how the redemption of all things should shape the way we look at every aspect of our lives. He especially fleshes out some of the things I’ve talked about in regard to developing a healthy theology of play. (See “Christian Impact and Football” and “C.S. Lewis and a Theology of Christian Hope“). However, Marshall’s work goes much, much further. His fuller emphasis is focused on broader aspects of the Kingdom of God ‘yet to come’ and connecting those to the Kingdom of God that exists ‘right now’.
FYI – At one point during the sermon, I took a long 7ft. dowel rod and held it up to my eye. That’s what’s going on when you hear me interacting with people in the congregation.
We’ve had some great interaction on our Great NFL Jersey Numbers series. I’ve made corrections to the 1-50 posts. However, there is still much controversy surrounding the pick for Jersey #12. Should it be Tom Brady or Roger Staubach. Brady has the numbers, but Staubach missed four years because of obligations to the Navy. In fact, some are so passionate about Staubach being the pic that they have made the arguement that he should be the pick because he was a deeply religious man and that God would pick him on his team to play quarterback. Now, in my estimation that seems to be going a little far…everyone knows that God would pick Martin Luther to play quarterback.
So, continuing the series on the greatest NFL Players according to number, I am posting numbers 51-75. I think after we’ve finished this we should contact the Hall of Fame and let them know that we’ve worked this out for them. Remember that I’m posting a picture of the jersey that I feel is the best player out of the group – in this case, Lawrence Taylor. We should argue that as well – especially in this group of players.
(Corrections from comments in Red)
50 Mike Singletary – LB – 80’s Bears
51 Dick Butkus – LB – 60’s Bears
52 Ray Lewis – LB – 00’s Ravens
53 Harry Carson – LB – 80’s Giants
54 Randy White – DT – 70’s Cowboys
55 Derrick Brooks – OLB – 00’s Buccaneers
56 Lawrence Taylor – OLB – 80’s Giants
57 Dwight Stephenson – C – 80’s Dolphins (Thanks to Jimbo Booth) Replaces Tom Jackson
58 Jack Lambert – LB – 70’s Steelers
59 Jack Ham – OLB – 70’s Steelers
60 Chuck Bednarik – LB – 50’s Eagles
61 Curly Culp – DT – 70’s Chiefs
62 Jim Langer – C – 70’s Dolphins
63 Gene Upshaw – OG – 70’s Raiders
64 Jerry Kramer – OG – 60’s Packers
65 Elvin Bethea – DE – 70’s Oilers
66 Ray Nitchke – LB – 60’s Packers
67 Bob Kuechenberg – OT – 70’s Dolphins
68 Russ Grimm – OG – 80’s Redskins
69 Mark Schlereth – OG – 90’s Broncos
70 Sam Huff – LB – 60’s Giants
71 Alex Karras – DE – 70’s Lions
72 Dan Dierdorf – OG – 70’s Cardinals
73 John Hannah – OG – 70’s Patriots
74 Bob Lilly – DT – 60’s Cowboys
75 Mean Joe Greene – DT – 70’s Steelers (Thanks to Ron Milz and Jimbo Booth) Replaces Howie Long
“How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.”
Lord Jesus. How can I preach this message without addressing the plank that is my own eye? I find in myself a dual desire that operates at almost the same time. On one hand, I try to ignore the plank. To say that I am not that bad. To pretend that I am not hungry, I am not thirsty, I am not poor, I am not angry, I am not evil. I compare myself to others – I am not as bad as him, I am not as hungry as her.
I love the Crispin’s Day Speech from Shakespeare’s Henry V. It gives me so much hope. Several years ago, after once again watching Kenneth Branagh’s version of the play, I memorized Crispin’s Day. Ever since, whenever I get depressed and start losing hope, I imagine Christ giving me this speech, reminding me of the day that is coming, when His Kingdom will reign visibly and gloriously upon the earth. How could I turn back? Just like Peter, I agree that Christ alone has the words of life. Where else could we go?
The setting of the Crispin’s Day Speech finds King Harry and his men in dire straits. In the long journey to meet the French on the fields of Agincourt, just before Harry delivers his address, he overhears his cousin, Westmoreland, wishing that the English army could be fortified with more troops from home. Not only were the English tired, hungry, and depleted from previous battles, but they were now facing a French opponent that outnumbered them 5 to 1. Henry responded to Westmoreland by spurning the idea that they needed more troops. In his address to the men, Henry appealed to his men’s sense of honor and loyalty, declaring that if any man wanted to leave, he would pay them to do so. He would not die in that man’s company that feared the fellowship of dying together with him.
In the same way, Christ also calls us to follow Him, to engage in a battle where the only thing we are promised is the glory and joy of fighting beside our Sovereign King; a King who will never leave us and never forsake us. Just like Henry’s men, may we respond to Jesus’ clarion call – ‘He who wishes to gain his life will lose it, but he who loses his life for the sake of Christ, will most assuredly find it.’
It’s 11:30pm on Thursday and we just arrived home about an hour ago. Man, am I tired. If you were at the conference and are checking into Sacrosanct Gospel for the first time – Welcome! I had a great time speaking at Elevate this year. You guys are so awesome! Justin and I would like to say thanks to Trey, Todd, Tommy, Nikki, Adam, Ande, Monty, Daniel, Tim, Wayne Kerr, the band, the staff and leaders and a big thank you to all the students who allowed us to joyfully proclaim the Gospel of Jesus to you all! I thought that last night was particularly impacting as the Spirit of Christ seemed to speak to all of us powerfully through Scala, U2, Coldplay, Lord of the Rings, and especially through the Word of God as we considered what it means to “shine like stars in the universe” (Phil 2:15). “Look how they shine…Look how they shine for You…”
I cannot change the World
but it is in my Blood to Sweat and Toil and Try
To Work and Groan and Strain until the day I Die
Yet in these fires of futile striving, amid the anguish of my cries,
I find the World is much greater than my feeble fight to make it free.
So in defeat, with head bowed low, in broken pride and humble dust,
I recognize that God has made me not
to Change the World and make it just,
but instead
He’s made the World…
to change me.
Continuing the series on the greatest NFL Players according to number, I am rolling numbers 26-50. Thank you for all your comments on 1-25. It helped a great deal. I made corrections on that post and, if you can make a good argument, I’ll make corrections to this one as well.
(Corrections from comments in Red)
26 Herb Adderley – CB – 60’s Packers
27 Ken Houston – FS – 70’s Redskins
28 Darrel Green – CB – 80’S Redskins
29 Eric Dickerson – HB – 80’s Rams
30 Terrell Davis – HB – 90’s Broncos
31 Jim Taylor – FB – 60’s Packers
32 Jim Brown – FB – 60’s Browns
33 Sammy Baugh – QB – 40’s Redskins (Thanks Ron Milz)
34 Walter Payton – HB – 80’s Bears
35 Calvin Hill – HB – 70’s Cowboys
36 Jerome Bettis – FB – 00’s Steelers
37 Doak Walker – HB – 50’s Lions
38 Arnie Herber – QB – 30’s Packers
39 Larry Csonka – FB – 70’s Dolphins
40 Gale Sayers – HB – 60’s Bears
41 Tom Matte – FB – 60’s Colts
42 Ronnie Lott – FS – 80’s 49ers
43 Don Perkins – FB – 60’s Cowboys
44 John Riggins – FB – 80’s Redskins
45 Emlen Tunnell – FS – 50’s Giants
46 Chuck Muncie – FB – 80’s Chargers
47 Mel Blount – SS – 70’s Steelers
48 Moose Johnston – FB – 90’s Cowboys
49 Bobby Mitchell – HB – RB 60’s Redskins
50 Mike Singletary – MLB – 80’s Bears
“In a circle of true Friends each man is simply what he is: stands for nothing but himself. No one cares twopence about any one else’s family, profession, class, income, race, or previous history…That is the kingliness of Friendship. We meet like sovereign princes of independent states, abroad, on neutral ground, freed from our contexts.” – C.S. Lewis, The Four Loves
How many friends do you have? How do you know when you have a friend? Sometimes it’s hard to discern. Adam and Eve, just after they’d sinned, did a particularly odd thing. They hid. They sewed together fig leaves and hid themselves. Odd. But, not really surprising. We do the same thing don’t we? In an independent, self-actualizing, wealthy (yes, we are still wealthy!), society like ours, most people live strangely private and pretentious lives.
Ok. Here it is. The final edition of the 100 Greatest NFL Jersey’s Numbers. This is my picks for numbers 76-100. There are bound to be a few controversial selections, so let’s get to it. By the way…out of this group, I am selecting number 80, Jerry Rice, as the best. I’m open to arguments against, but you’re going to find that number hard to argue against. I look forward to your comments. By the way, I have updated the 50-76 post. After we’ve hammered this out, I plan to post an overall 00-99 list.
