by Marcia Mount Shoop
Cascade Books, Eugene Ore. 132 pages
Reviewed by Leslie A. Klingensmith
This fall I joined a fantasy football league. I am not an athlete, and until the last five years I cared almost nothing about sports. But, I come from a long line of devoted Sooner football fans and both of my children (boys) appear to have picked up the gene for sports watching. Over time, I started to care about the games too, especially football, basketball and baseball. We live less than an hour from Baltimore, so I chose the Ravens as “my” team, educated myself about their players and stats and started following their victories and defeats. Before I knew it, I was a true fan — wearing the jersey, knowing the players’ numbers and talking smack with Steelers fans. Sunday afternoon football has been good for our family. We are a clergy couple, so Sunday mornings are chaotic. On the afternoons when we do not have commitments at church, we look forward to chilling out, making popcorn and watching a game. Our two sons join in and it is a time of reconnection and relaxation. Our fantasy draft was a family project. We enjoy reading about our players and tinkering with the starting lineup.
But, for all the reasons that Marcia Mount Shoop so gracefully outlines in “Touchdowns for Jesus,” I struggle with my love of football. There are so many things that concern me, ethically and spiritually, about football and other high revenue sports. Shoop (a football coach’s wife and PC(USA) pastor) pulls back the curtain and helps us see the root causes of some of the most egregious problems in sports: violence, racism, fanaticism, marginalization of women, abuse of power and the fraught relationship between athletics and academics at our universities. Most of us are concerned about the ongoing problem of head injuries in football and raising questions about safety. Even football-loving parents like me do not want our kids to play because of the fear of concussions. But Shoop also reminds us of the things that are fulfilling and life-giving about sports. She articulates possibilities for transformation that could restore athletics to an appropriate place in our society. There is hope that players, teams, coaches and fans could be changed into communities of accountability and redemption – if we can all agree that there are more important things than winning.
“Touchdowns for Jesus” is a worthwhile read, but it has some problems. The book has the feel of having been put together too quickly. Football coaches tell their quarterbacks to “go deep” when they are supposed to make a long pass that could be a game changer. I wish for Marcia Mount Shoop to go deep. She has important truths to tell as well as ideas that could be “game changers.” Those truths and ideas need to be delved into if we are to have an adequate playbook going forward. Finally, she needed a good proofreader. There are at least a dozen distracting typographical errors in the book that potentially change the meaning of sentences if the reader is not paying attention. I hate for something so fixable to deflect attention from the important story she is telling.
Leslie A. Klingensmith is the pastor of St. Matthew’s Presbyterian Church in Silver Spring, Maryland.
Click here to read Leslie Scanlon’s discussion with author Marcia Mount Shoop.
