Musings about the world of sports…

* On Sunday, we saw where some zany fan breached “security” at the U.S. Open as they presented Webb Simpson the trophy (read a great feature on Webb Simpson by Sports Spectrum writer Stephen Copeland).

Some may ask how something like this could happen, especially in a sport like golf where fans are supposedly more well-mannered than fans in other sports. Well, look no further than our society. Saying something like that is unexpected is either naive or ignorant, but both lack common sense when you consider today’s world where almost anything goes.

* An unfortunate tweet by New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees compared the NFL’s case against the Saints’ bounty program to former President George W. Bush not finding any weapons of mass destruction in his case for the war in Iraq.

Unfortunate because reporters were shown evidence that there was a bounty program and they say the evidence isn’t debatable. Here’s a snipet of that evidence from a slide show off the Saints own computers: “Now’s the time to do our jobs, collect bounty $. No apologies. Let’s go hunting.” This was before the Saints’ 2010 playoff loss to the Seattle Seahawks. (See more, including a video of evidence, at this link: https://bit.ly/Pko6z2)

We like Drew Brees and we love his testimony (because he stands for Christ), but sometimes people can get caught up in things that put them in positions of taking sides when they could remain neutral. We’ll wait on this one, but the evidence isn’t looking great.

* New York Mets knuckleballer R.A. Dickey is having the best season of his career, and is coming off back-to-back one-hitters after one-hitting the Baltimore Orioles on Monday night (Dickey is the first to do so since the 1980’s). Overall this season, he is 11-1 (in 14 starts), and has a 2.00 ERA with 103 strikeouts in 99 innings.

I respect Dickey so much, not because he’s a Christian (I love that, though), but because he’s so honest and has been through so much. For more on Dickey’s transparency, read Sports Spectrum writer Aaron May’s excellent review of Dickey’s new autobiography, Wherever I Wind Up: My Quest for Truth, Authenticity and the Perfect Knuckleball.

* On Monday, former Major League Baseball star Roger Clemens was acquitted on all six counts in the U.S government’s case against him. The case centered on lying and steroid use. I am torn on believing in the system where people are innocent until proven guilty and evidence that seems to persuade people (or the media’s take on the evidence) to believe that he did use steroids knowingly.

If we believe in the system, we have to agree with the jury’s findings. If we don’t believe in the system, well, it’s a road that takes too many curves and winds down paths I don’t want to go down.

For more on the Clemens case, go here: https://yhoo.it/Lc5Vh6 and here:https://yhoo.it/Mb6fID (these links also have video of Clemens talking after the trial).

* Former Penn State football coach Jerry Sandusky’s sexual abuse case is difficult to stomach on a multitude of levels. It’s difficult to read because of the details released in stories, and it’s difficult to believe that things like that happened or could happen to someone who worked with adults and children for so long.

I take that back. It’s not difficult for one simple reason: because we live in such a depraved world. I guess I just want to think no one would do things like that. Maybe I live in that naive and ignorant world I spoke about earlier; that idealistic world that won’t happen until we, as Christians, get to heaven.

That’s all I’m going to say about the Sandusky case for now, but feel free to google it and read about it.

* To show that there are great things happening in the world of sports, go to this link to read a story about a family who gave up everything to reach inner-city children with Christ and the simple avenue of sports: https://bit.ly/M7fMm8