Listen to Allen, Tim, and Michael make their Championship Round predictions and evaluate the...
Sports
Ep. 046 | 2021 NFL Playoffs Week 2 — TAU Roundtable
Last week we made several bold predictions, but were we right? Will we be right again this week?...
Ep. 045 | 2021 NFL Playoffs Preview — TAU Roundtable
This is our NFL Playoffs preview episode! Last year we got more feedback on our playoffs...
Reflections on a World Without Sports
It's over. America's sportsless drought is over. We've gone months without professional team sports and it's finally over. Sports are back. As an avid sports fan, I am thrilled. When 2020 did its thing and canceled sports I was devastated. In the month of March alone,...
By All Means, Mourn Kobe Bryant’s Death, But…
My social media feeds have run the gamut in relation to the responses to the death of Kobe Bryant and the responses to the responses to Kobe Bryant’s death.
On one hand, I read of folks using bereavement leave at work due to mourning the loss of their dearly beloved basketball star? On the other hand, I’ve seen folks deride those who are so affected by Kobe’s death, pointing out such things as “you don’t mourn the death of 3000 babies yesterday but you mourn the death of a basketball star?” or generally criticizing people for being so affected by the death of someone they didn’t know personally.
I will show you a still more excellent way.
Super Bowl 54 — Andy Reid hasn’t failed ….yet
The NFL should get down on its proverbial knees and thank the 49ers and Chiefs. The league was bound and determined to ruin the biggest sporting event of the year. First, they put it on Fox in all the Joe Buck glory alongside the block of wood known as Troy Aikman. I...
As We Pray for Kobe’s Family, Pray the Gospel Spreads Like Wildfire in the NBA
My heart breaks for the Bryant family. Millions have taken to social media and flooded it with posts expressing shock, sadness, and confusion over the horrific death of Kobe Bryant and his daughter Gianna. Players and fans are grieving, contemplating the brevity of...
The Channel Flippers’ Guide to Motorsports in 2020
Here's my occasional post where I try to convince you that motorsports are cool. It's high time for a preview of 2020 in the major series that you might catch as you're flipping channels, wishing the NFL season were still going after the Superb Owl and the Prob Owl....
God’s Desire for All: STTA!
Below is Calvin's commentary on 2 Peter 3:9. Though I would disagree with his exegesis here, I do agree with the theology and find it supported by the rest of Scripture, namely that, though God will not save all men, He does have a genuine desire for the salvation of...
No Remorse: STTA!
"Convicted Payday Loan Mogul Scott Tucker Has Absolutely No Remorse," declares a headline on Jalopnik. What did this guy do? Why does he have no remorse? And what is this doing on Jalopnik, an automotive blog? I recently went back to a month — and only one month — of...
Rapid Response (movie review)
With the deaths of Jessi Combs and Anthoine Hubert coming not long before its theatrical release in September 2019, Rapid Response is a grim reminder of a certain sentiment of every race fan: it stinks to watch drivers die. The other side of that is this: we in 2019...
How Much Should Pro Athletes Get Paid?
The short, cold, unflinching answer to the question posed in the title of this post is: whatever the market allows, but my fellow laborers at Things Above Us demand I write more than a dozen or so words. Let's discuss this topic with sins like greed and envy at the...
How to Fix the NBA
If I had to rank my interest in sports it would go something like this: NFL MLB College Football College Basketball I would put the NBA at #5 but it wouldn't accurately convey just how far from #4 it actually is. The NFL is definitely my favorite now that my Cleveland...
Destroying Something Special
Let me do my best attempt to analogize a certain staple of motorsports with an analogy to "stick and ball" sports. The Baseball Split Suppose that from the beginning of the World Series in 1903 that it had been played in the same stadium and on the same field,...
Why I Love March Madness
I got my first job when I was 16. The first thing I saved up money for was a TV and an antenna. The primary purpose for this purchase was to watch March Madness in my bedroom while the rest of my family was asleep. I have always loved the NCAA tournament. Here is why:...
Black Monday
The day after the last day of the NFL regular season is ominously known as Black Monday. It's the day in which an indefinite number of head coaches will definitely lose their jobs. Every franchise pretty much expects to win the Super Bowl with the coach they hire (or...
Super Bowl LIII Preview: Get Back
Another glorious year of NFL football draws to a close and a desperate nation turns its lonely eyes to Los Angeles. Meanwhile, most of Los Angeles was recently surprised to learn it had a football team. They have shoulder pads and everything! Cool, huh? Although most...
What Will it Cost You: STTA!
Something To Think About! Being a TAU writer has offered me a view of a process with which I have no personal experience: the sale of a Christian book. Allen Nelson's From Death to Life is available on ThingsAbove.Us, and it was always my impression that when a man...
5 Ways to Improve Sports in 2019
As we head into 2019, it's worth saying that the sports fan has never been so blessed. We have so much to consume and the level of play in almost every league is better than it has ever been. Far from being artificially exciting as baseball was in the early 2000s, and...
How Does This Loss Make You Feel?
I am a poor sport and a sore loser and, needless to say, highly competitive. When I have lost a basketball game or lost at bowling or golf, or whatever the event may be, one of the last things I feel like doing is shaking the hand of whoever bested me that day. It's a...
F1 Team Orders Controversy Raises Ethical Questions
Setting the Stage Formula 1 traditionally has consisted of a group of two-car teams. Both cars of a team must run substantially the same color design. Since there are ten teams, there are ten pairs of cars, and each pair looks almost exactly alike except for small...
So You Signed Up to Coach…
I remember the time clearly. My baby boy (who is now 16) had finally grown to an age where playing an organized sport was possible and sensible. As seems to be the case perpetually, the league needed coaches, so I signed up to coach. I was happy to help, and my...
Unintended Consequences
In one of the early releases of iOS 11.0.1, Apple introduced a feature to iPhones called Do Not Disturb While Driving. The reason for this feature is obvious: allow people to drive without the distraction of phone notifications, but give the folks who text the driver...
The Flag is Not About Us Veterans
With Colin Kaepernick trending once again — along with my just having figured out that there's an 'e' in his name — many are attempting to counter the claim of Kaepernick's "sacrifice" by raising the sacrifice of military veterans. This response is nothing new. As...
Cowboys and Razorbacks 2018 Season Prediction
I’m a little late on predictions seeing as the Razorbacks have already played one game. However, it was an FCS opponent and I think you can all believe me when I say that I would have picked them anyway. As far as the Cowboys go, they haven’t played yet so my...
This Is The Chicago Bears’ NFL Now. Sorry.
The Monsters of the Midway are legitimate division-title contenders and will (gulp) win ten-plus games this year, and yes, you guessed it, Aaron Rodgers' collar-bone is weeping as we speak because... Khalil Mack is a Chicago Bear for at least eight years. Get used to...
The IndyCar Championship is Down to the Wire
With just two races left in the 2018 IndyCar Series, veteran Scott Dixon holds onto a narrow 29-point lead ahead of Alexander Rossi. Defending series champion Josef Newgarden stands in third, 66 points behind Dixon. Not to brag or anything, but my season predictions...
Book Review — God Speed by Chad Bonham
There were two primary things I didn't know about God Speed before it arrived by parcel. First, it doesn't center around driver Sage Karam's struggle following an accident that killed fellow driver Justin Wilson, though the story does occupy a couple of chapters. Much...
Ministry Update – College Football
On the 25th of June, 2018, the Lord Jesus Christ granted me an opportunity to preach the Word to a college football team. There's a school in Ohio that is not a Christian University, but, due to some Christian faculty in the athletic department, I was asked to bring a...
A Letter To My Favorite T-Ball Player
Carson, Baseball, my boy, is a beautiful sport, and I thank our gracious Lord that I had the opportunity to play it for quite a few years. Basketball is the GOAT, football is incredible, but baseball—baseball is beautiful. Some say soccer is beautiful, but don't...
Here and There: March For Our Lives, MLK 50, and Loyola Chicago
In “Here and There,” we’ll take a brief look at random and important news in the Evangelical, political, and sports world. --March For Our Lives: Washington Post: "Hundreds of thousands of demonstrators gathered in the nation’s capital and cities across the country...
March Madness
One of the first big purchases I made in high school after I started working as a lot boy at a local car dealership (coolest high school job ever, by the way) was a 19” TV and an off-air antenna. I bought them for the sole purpose of watching March Madness games in my...
Varieties of Gifts
One thing I've noticed over the past several decades of watching the NFL playoffs and Super Bowls is that the teams that go to the playoffs and deepest into the playoffs have the most Pro-Bowl selections. What is striking, though is the team with the NFL rushing...
An Invitation to Watch IndyCar This Season
This year's IndyCar opener happens this Sunday, March 11th (12:30pm EDT on ABC, YouTube upload sometime later; don't skip church), and this is a friendly invitation to non-fans to give it a shot. Update on March 12th, 2018: The 30-minute "Fast Forward" version of the...
What Do Changes in NASCAR Signal in Our Culture?
What matters to you most as a sports fan: that the sport is officiated fairly or that the competition is close until the very end? Another way to ask this might be whether you want it to be fair or to be entertaining. Suppose you could pick only one or the other. I...
The 1st Amendment
Free speech, free expression, and the freedom of religion are excellent rights which our constitution's 1st amendment promises cannot be taken away. These elements, though not the Gospel themselves, allow the Gospel to be proclaimed freely within our borders. Our...
Things Above Us?
Colossians 3:1-2 is, in essence, the theme of this blog. If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of...
It Hurts Right Here
The Problem A few months ago I developed a tightness in my right Achilles tendon when squatting. When I would hit the bottom of a squat, I would feel a burning sensation where the tendon attaches to my heel. Realizing it was not correct, I stopped achieving full range...
Brady Is Not The GOAT, But Super Bowl LII Was
I'm old enough to remember a time when the running joke was about people being more excited for the commercials than the game. The games were routinely lopsided and the commercials, in my nostalgic mind, were hysterical. I don't know how true that is. From 1985 (the...
Questions Re: Moody Bible Institute, Super Bowl Reflections, Pork Rinds, De-Conversion Stories, and More
In "Here and There," we'll take a brief look at random and important news in the Evangelical, political, and sports world. --The Superb Owl: I guess what I really want everyone to know is that it isn’t a great idea to stream the Super Bowl through NBC.com, on the...
The Staff Predicts the Superb Owl, & the Next NFL Season
Post-millennialism took another hit this year as the NFL playoffs produced the Eagles and the Patriots in the Super Bowl. At this point, why do we even watch? We all know the Eagles will give them a good game for a few quarters, then the Patriots will slowly coil...
Put Me Through The Concussion Protocol: I’m Optimistic About The Bears
Do I have a concussion? I don’t remember a line-backer from the Jacksonville Jaguars committing a pointless penalty against me in the AFC Championship Game by spearing me right in the head. That was Gronk, not me, right? If I don’t have some sort of brain injury, then...