Super Bowl LIV; A Different Kind Of Media Coverage
Easily the biggest annual spectacle in sports, this year’s NFL championship game, Super Bowl LIV, will have wall-to-wall media coverage delivered by some 5,000 credentialed press people during the week and on game-day Sunday.
Not all coverage is created equal.
It’s appropriate to note that while statistical analysis of the season for the two teams in the Super Bowl and individual players of the Kansas City Chiefs and the San Francisco 49ers can be poured over and over again, and even antidoctal stories can provide good banter, there is a side to the overall story that’s rarely looked at — the faith card. More specifically, Christian players who consider the NFL their mission field.
Enter Sports Spectrum.
Members of the online magazine team have been at the Super Bowl site in Miami since the beginning of the week and the coverage has been phenomenal. We’ve heard testimonies of players from both teams on how Jesus has provided inspiration, hope, endurance, and transformation in their lives.
After his interview with Sports Spectrum, one offensive lineman for the Chiefs decided to write a testimony and devotion piece for the publication. The piece, Chiefs lineman Stefen Wisniewski on trying season: ‘God allowed it to test me, to bring Him glory’ was published Thursday.
Here’s Wisniewski’s lead:
Every man playing in the Super Bowl has a story. Here’s mine.
After seven mostly successful years playing in the NFL, which included 90-plus starts and a Super Bowl ring with the Philadelphia Eagles, my career took a sharp turn downhill. In 2018, I was benched during the season, fired at the end of the year, re-hired, then fired at the end of training camp this year. I spent the first five weeks of the 2019 season unemployed, on my couch watching NFL games. It was a frustrating time. But I believe God allowed all this to happen to me to test me, to bring Him glory, and to teach me how to better follow Him.
In Wisniewski’s piece he includes three lessons he’s “learned during this valley of trial and uncertainty,” with the subheads: Reject the lies and cling to the Truth, Surrender/trust in God’s sovereignty, and Final lesson (“Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up” – Galatians 6:9).
My favorite interview from opening night: https://t.co/GKiMxp0NbE
— Stefen Wisniewski (@stefenwiz61) January 28, 2020
READ WISNIEWSKI’S FULL ARTICLE AT SPORTS SPECTRUM HERE
Listen to the story from 3-time Super Bowl champion 49ers tight end Brent Jones of the first ever 50-yard line prayer circle after an NFL game and how it almost didn’t continue to take place.
pic.twitter.com/YCw4MwfoYa— Sports Spectrum (@Sports_Spectrum) January 30, 2020
Other incredible stories coming out of this year’s Super Bowl matchup as reported by Sports Spectrum include this one by writer Jon Ackerman, Chiefs RB Darwin Thompson aims to be ‘identified as follower of Christ before football player’
“My goal is to be identified as Darwin Thompson the follower of Christ before Darwin Thompson the football player, or just Darwin myself,” he says. “It’s just been God’s plan all my life. I really found God my freshman year of junior college when He sent me down and made me realize I can’t do nothing without Him. And He’s guided my steps this far, why doubt Him now?”
The Super Bowl is a big deal, but there is something bigger, worthy of greater excitement, and of eternal significance, that is a relationship with Jesus Christ. May you find Him now!
Follow Sports Spectrum on Twitter.
