Play or Pray, Here we go again!

My column published in a recent issue of The Madison County Journal

“Play not pray.” Here we go again. It’s amazing how a small organization can have such an impact with threatening demands and in no time, it goes nationally. A couple of weeks ago, a northern group anti-Christian based organization sent a letter to Clemson University with their intentions of filing complaints against the University’s athletic program for their involvement of mixing religion with football. The organization stated that they have constitutional concerns about how the public university’s football program is entangled with religion. The group further stated that they will take actions towards Clemson if university chooses not to comply with their demands to halt mixing religion with football consisting of Bible studies and prayer. The organization has accused head coach Dabo Swinney and his staff of requiring his football players to participate in religious activities, something the organization finds unacceptable.   

I’m a die-hard Clemson fan, but this nonsense goes well beyond football and my loyalty to the university that I grew up cheering for. It’s unnerving anytime an organization as such wants to raise issues when someone wants to mention God or the Bible. This organization, based miles and miles away, demands Clemson to cease the athletics department’s emphasis on prayer, Bible studies and other voluntary religious activities among athletes. My question is, what about violating the student/athlete’s constitutional rights and their freedom of religion? In this country we have a freedom of choice and that includes a freedom of religious beliefs. No one forces to anyone to believe in God and/or prayer. I would think that if Clemson University, or any other university, was “forcing” their players to take part in Bible studies and prayer, or else be dismissed from the program, there would be some kind of investigation and punishment from the NCAA. I admire the fact that Clemson coach Dabo Swinney doesn't hide his faith and that his staff gives players every opportunity of attending religious activities without forcing the issue. Players are given a choice to attend religious activities made available through the athletic program. It’s a choice not a demand. I’ve never seen it written in any university manual that you must pray as a team, in a huddle and carry a Bible or you’re not guaranteed playing time. Again, it’s a choice. Swinney said it best, “It’s not who the best Christian is, it’s who the best player is.”

So what if Clemson hired a former player as their Chaplin? What if he speaks to the team before games and makes himself available to the players and what if he even has an office in the same building as the coaches? Good for him and the university! I admire that! What makes all that wrong but yet these anti-Christian organizations don’t bother to fight against those options that can get players arrested and kicked out of school such as underage alcohol consumption and DUI’s, use of drugs, theft etc. We hear and read about school violations and athletes getting suspended all the time but yet there’s no organization threatening to sue local bars or those involved.

What’s wrong with giving players the option to attend Bible studies, to pray, or go to church while playing for a public university? This goes not just for university athletes but ones on the high school levels as well. This world gives plenty of options for people to do wrong so why not have an option for public school athletes to be involved with region on the fields and in the locker rooms without some anti-Christian organization issuing threats? Prayer in public schools was eliminated and we wonder why there is so much violence on and off the athletic fields and in hallways of schools.

Allow players to mention God while being interviewed on television if they want to without cutting them off with a commercial or quickly changing the subject. It’s a free country isn't it? What happened to the freedom of speech and freedom of religion? Mention God, have prayer in locker rooms or have a Bible study for athletes, voluntarily, and you offend people. I don’t get it; if this kind of organization doesn't believe in praying or that there’s a God, then why do they burn so much energy trying to fight against something they think doesn't exist?

Happy Mother's Day Mom...RIP

May 19, 1936-November 22, 2012

Hall of Fame Day

Column published in a January issue of The Madison County Journal

A photo I took of Maddux and Leo in the Braves
 dugout in 1997

By Dallas Bordon

Despite my temper tantrums and negative talk during times of frustrations from season to season, I love Braves Baseball! I admit I haven’t been on the bandwagon for a long time and matter of fact; it’s been so long that I can’t even remember where it’s parked.  I admit that I have been a fair-weather fan for the past few years and really haven’t been excited about the Braves due to the fact that I’m spoiled. I’m a spoiled fan who is use to them winning year after year and I enter every season with high expectations of the Braves. I won’t settle for just making it to the playoffs but instead I expect at least an appearance in the World Series. I am a spoiled tom-a-hawking fan. With all that said, I can now get excited about the induction of Tom Glavine and Greg Maddux into the Hall Of Fame; two of my favorite Braves.

I remember the worst to first 1991 team that kicked off a long streak of division titles and a World Series win in 1995. I remember the excitement that everyone fan experienced from the bank tellers wearing Braves shirts in business hours during the 1991 post season. I remember watching cars travel down the Atlanta Highway in Athens with people’s arms hanging out doing the Braves’ chop. I remember frenzy everyone was in and how people were reliving each post season game the next day at work and analyzing each at bat and pitch. Most of all, I remember the young guns of the Braves pitching staff. John Smoltz, Steve Avery, Tom Glavine and the addition of Greg Maddux during that outstanding run of the early 90’s. Those new kids on the block provided a breath of fresh air to us fans who watched night after night during those years when the Braves were happy if they avoided a last place finish.  I cherished those years when the chop was better known as the flop. Years that I would sit with my mom and granddad watching players like Bob Horner, Bruce Benedict, and of course my all-time favorite Dale Murphy. Success for the Braves during the down years came in 1982 when Atlanta opened the season winning 13 straight and facing the Cardinals in the play-offs at season’s end. The Braves lost in the first round that year but still celebrated with parade in Atlanta. We were ecstatic simply because the Braves were finally winners regardless if they lost to St. Louis in the opening round of the playoffs; it didn’t matter that much back then. The simple things that Murphy, Horner, Glenn Hubbard, and Benedict did excited us to no end. I can only imagine my granddad, who would take heart pills like candy while watching the old Braves, and his excitement if he lived to see the team of the 90’s! You see prior to the 90’s, a Claudell Washington triple, a Murphy homerun, or a complete game pitched by Phil Niekro would send our family into hysterics.   

I can now look back on the years of the “flop” and see how spoiled I became due to the success of the Braves of the 90’s. Losing in the playoffs from year to year and not making it the World Series had me looking at the Chop as being a revised new flop. And now as I look back at the Braves and those seasons of cellar dwellers, I realize those losing years were just as special as the Braves of the 90’s because I considered Horner, Murphy, Hubbard, and others as heroes.  It was all extra special back in those days because my expectations were never high; I just enjoyed watching them play day in and day out. Most of all, I enjoyed watching with my granddad and mom and how we treated most games like a playoff.

The Glavine and Maddux era and those teams of the 90’s made their mark on Braves history. I can appreciate how they made us all feel going from worst to first and carrying us through a decade of post seasons. There’s a new set of heroes now standing in the shadows of Murphy, Horner, and Hubbard. On July 27^th, Tom Glavine and Greg Maddux will join Bobby Cox in the Hall Of Fame in Cooperstown. It only seems like yesterday when they appeared on the scene as the Braves’ new young guns. Now, 23 years later, stand two former baseball players at the threshold of the Hall; an honor well deserved. Glavine enters the Hall as a 10 time All-Star, two-time Cy Young winner, and an overall record of 305-203 in 22 seasons. Standing alongside is Maddux with four straight Cy Young Awards from 1992-95, 18 Gold Glove Awards with the Braves, Chicago, Los Angeles, and San Diego, an eight time All-Star, and a pitcher who won at least 13 games in 20 straight seasons.  The Braves of the 90’s, players like Glavine, Smoltz, Maddux, Avery and many more will always be special, but to me they will never erase my memories of those players that have gone before and the excitement my granddad and I shared as fans who were not spoiled. They're Hall Of Famers in my book.