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Greetings. This is Pastor David Bass at New Geneva Orthodox Presbyterian Church with a

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moment of truth, where we challenge you to think through an important issue of life and faith

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today. Goodbye, good friend football. That is my theme today. And it's with a tear in my eye that

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I say goodbye, good friend football. How we loved you and how I loved you too. The American sport,

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football, yes. As pastor of New Geneva Orthodox Presbyterian Church, I find this subject to be

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an important one for Americans. The National Football League, college football, high school

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football, sandlot football, football served a spiritual inspiration as a spiritual inspiration

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for America for generations, my generation and for me included. When I played football and believe me,

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I wasn't very good at it, but I loved the game. I played a little bit of it in high school and I

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learned a lot from playing football. I learned discipline. I learned teamwork. I learned how to

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sacrifice myself and my wants for the good of the team. I learned valuable skills. I learned that I

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could acquire skills too. My coach was a Christian. My coach prayed before games and after games as well.

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In fact, I had a friend who became a Christian because of the inspiration and example of his

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coach. So for me, football is a spiritual subject, a spiritual inspiration, not only for myself,

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but also for my friends and for entire generations. But those days are over for an increasing number of

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Americans, including myself. Americans who have rejected pro football in particular for its increasing

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arrogance, contempt for basic American values, and the culture of thuggery amongst the players.

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As an example of the waning interest in pro football, note these statistics, dear listener.

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For example, Thursday night football, Monday night football, and the Sunday games have experienced

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cumulatively as much as a 19% decline in viewers on television. And of course, the fewer pairs of

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ice a broadcast brings to the screen, the fewer dollars advertisers are prepared to fork over to

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feature their product. Analysts also warn that the TV networks could lose as much as $200 million in

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revenue and earnings this year. I've also seen, and you have seen as well, if you watch television,

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attendance at home games is also plummeting, especially in California. Even a casual fan

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notices the empty stadiums on television broadcasts, or at least partially occupied venues

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for even top market teams like Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York. The National Football League is in

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decline, and for good reason. Americans sense in their gut that the NFL of today is not the game,

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the football game it was, when they watched it as kids with their dads, their uncles, their friends,

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and their neighbors. I have noticed that. I remember, for example, my Thanksgivings being

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filled with faith, family, food, and football. Yes, I loved Thanksgivings because I would go over to my

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uncle's house, and I would sit there with my uncles and my cousins. We'd watch the Detroit Lions play,

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whomever it was. Oftentimes, it was the Green Bay Packers on Thanksgiving Day, and my day memorably

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filled with food, faith, family, and football. Those days are gone. However, this is not the game I

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watched as a kid with my dad, uncle, friends, and neighbors. What has changed? Let me point out a few

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things. First of all, the NFL can no longer disguise their contempt for American values. The mask is

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finally off, dear listener. The NFL can no longer disguise its contempt for American values. This is

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most striking in the players' refusal to stand for the national anthem before games. This has been rife,

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especially this year. All of these supposed arguments for doing it, that is, taking a knee,

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as it's called. First Amendment rights to express themselves, protests against racism and

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discrimination, respectful consciousness-raising for causes. They all fall on deaf ears for most

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Americans. Most Americans understand the galling irony that only in the United States of America

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does one find the wide-ranging liberty to express oneself without fear of reprisal from government,

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which the flag and the anthem symbolize. Disrespecting the flag and the national anthem,

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ipso facto, disrespects the country and the constitution for which those symbols stand.

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You are a free, spoiled child of a now petulant father to express your wrong-headed opinion by

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kneeling at the national anthem, but we too, the used-to-be fans of the game, we also are free.

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Free to turn away in disgust and refuse to watch anymore. The image of ignorance, spoiled,

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arrested development, athletes who are millionaires, multi-millionaires,

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kneeling and disrespecting the very nation that enables them is just too much for most of us. I'm

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sorry. The fathers of Steelers fans used to work eight to ten hours a day, six days a week in the

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Steel Founders of Pittsburgh to provide for their families. Part of that paycheck sometimes went to

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buy a ticket or two to Steelers games on Sunday or more often buy a TV to watch it in grainy black and

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white. I grew up in western Michigan where the same scenario obtained for Detroit, Flint and Grand

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Rapids, which formed the hub of the automaking industry. My father and uncles worked five to six

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days a week making cars for a paycheck and gathered at my grandma and grandpa's house on Sunday

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afternoon after church to watch the Detroit Lions play football. For us kids, it was always debatable,

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which was more sacred, the church service in the morning or the football game in the afternoon.

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Once or twice in a lifetime, a few of us had the money and the privilege to make the pilgrimage

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to Mecca, football Mecca, that is Detroit, to watch a game in person. So the National Football League

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in its younger days used this love and reverence of the game by the fan and its traditions. The NFL

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used these things to build an empire of their own. They used to respect the love and reverence of the

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fan, but that has long since died. Now they take that love, reverence and dollar of the basic blue collar

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fan for granted as if the NFL is owed fan loyalty. As if the fan is beholden to the game rather than the

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game being beholden to us, the fans. Whether the average fan can express it this way or not,

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he certainly feels it and is voting with his feet, his channel remote, and is increasingly meager

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dollar. We have noticed attendance at stadium venues is down. Fans are watching something other

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than NFL games and NFL merchandise sales. That is the jerseys, caps, sweats, and paraphernalia.

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They have plummeted by 20%. The American public is increasingly turning their backs

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on a sport that no longer represents them. And this trend has been aggravated by several other factors

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as well. For instance, Colin Kaepernick, the sometimes quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers,

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is the trigger for the practice of other NFL players taking a knee during the playing of the

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national anthem at the commencement of games. Kaepernick began doing it in 2016 as a protest

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for what he saw as racial injustice in the United States. And many fans, including myself, could not

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help but note the irony of a pampered black man enjoying tremendous advantage, making a fortune in a

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free market economy based upon his athletic skill and not his race. Nevertheless, pretentiously accusing

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the very country that showered all of these things on him of racial injustice. Would he slap his own

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mother for nursing him on her right teat versus her left teat? Why does he slap his own nation that

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birthed his career for a supposed injustice that is no injustice? Like the spoiled brat that he is,

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Kaepernick has since been recycled out of the NFL owing to a decline in his football skills rather

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than discrimination, as he alleges. Kaepernick has filed a grievance against the NFL and its owners,

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accusing them of colluding not to hire him because of his stance in kneeling during the national anthem.

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But alas, the very principle that exalted him to his status as a Super Bowl quarterback, that is,

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talent and performance on the field. In the United States, this principle is known as a meritocracy.

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That is, you merit your place and your income by your skills and by what you do, not because of

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who you are, the color of your skin or any other thing. This very principle humbled him to a place

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on the bench too. The fact is he lost it. He was no longer able to perform to the level expected

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of an NFL quarterback. And so he was sidelined. It was not because of his politics. It was because

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of his performance, not politics, but performance or lack of it that he was benched. Yet it is a

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measure of how corrupt our culture has become in that progressives across the country insist that

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Kaepernick be given a starting job as a quarterback for an NFL team just because of his politics.

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He has become the darling of the progressives. GQ magazine asserted this in their cover story,

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naming Kaepernick citizen of the year. Media outlets like ESPN and Time magazine cheered him on in his

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protests as if he were another Martin Luther King Jr. The Washington Post has run endless stories

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sympathetic to Kaepernick, treating him as if he were St. Colin and the world is out to crucify him.

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But is this socialist impulse of politics over performance right? Is it correct? Should we give

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the captain's chair to a pilot who can no longer see or hear just because he's a progressive liberal

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in his politics? Should we give the surgeon's scalpel back to a doctor who has developed a nervous tremor

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just because he voted for Hillary? Why should any NFL team give a starting quarterback position to

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Kaepernick if he hasn't earned it just because of his politics? So Colin Kaepernick and those in his

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week have been an aggravating factor to the decline of the National Football League. Also, another

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contributing factor, like blind sheep, other NFL players kneel and NFL teams tolerate the practice.

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Like lemmings pouring over the cliff into the sea, hundreds of other NFL players are now kneeling

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during the national anthem, many of them with no clear reason for doing so. One Cincinnati Bengo player,

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when asked why he was kneeling during the anthem, responded by saying, I'm not sure what cause it

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is specifically, you know, but I just want to be in solidarity with Colin, unquote. For many of the

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players and some fans, disrespecting the flag and anthem that symbolizes us is now trendy and not much

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more than being trendy. And as well, the numbers vary, but a significant population amongst the teams

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choose to kneel during the national anthem before each game, the networks sometimes turn away the

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cameras, coaches try various tweaks and gimmicks to keep the team together. Mike Tomlinson recently kept

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his team in the locker room tunnel rather than allow them on the field during the anthem. But the net

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effect is inescapable. NFL players are in significant numbers opting to make progressive political

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statements in the teeth of patriotic conservative fans who only want them to shut up and play.

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And of course the thought is hold any view you want, lobby for it, just don't denigrate and

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disrespect the very country that gives you the liberty to do so and makes you a rich superhero to

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boot. Oh, there are also liberal politics of the NFL that also aggravates this situation of a decline

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in the popularity of the NFL with the average fan. The NFL has, the NFL, I'm sorry, as it has burgeoned into a

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multi-billion dollar industry has sought to burnish its image and enhance its reputation too by donating to social

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causes, largely liberal social causes. For example, in response to the protests by the players, the league tried to

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essentially buy off the players so that they would begin to stand again and relieve the league of

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embarrassment. They did this by giving almost a hundred million dollars to the players coalition as

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it's called. The players coalition represents players protesting social injustices and racism.

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The players coalition in turn disperses the money to causes of their choice. Part of it now goes to the

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United Negro College Fund and to Dream Corps, which are both liberal social justice warrior groups.

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The liberal mainstream media praised this move as promoting racial equality, helping African-American

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communities, and aiding social causes. But as Amanda Head of Fox News, Amanda Head did a piece on this

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recently, and she says, don't be fooled. The NFL's donation isn't about social causes or racial equality.

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It's about America's favorite football league caving to left-wing activists, unquote. Well, another

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aggravating factor in the decline of the National Football League in the eyes of the average American

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is the arrogance and isolation of pampered players. This has created a thug culture. The arrogance and

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isolation of pampered players has created a thug culture. Yes, football used to be known as a sport

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that produced young men of talent and character. I saw this in the players that I saw on television. Roger Staubach,

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for example, was a model for me. My father pointed to him and said, grow up, be like him. In football, one learned

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discipline and hard work and how to win as a team member, not as a spoiled brat. But all of that seems to have changed

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over the past decades. Players have been convicted of serious crimes and misdemeanors, just plain

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thuggish behavior, including shootings, gambling on games, drugs, physical and sexual abuse, to catalog a few

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of the two numerous crimes by players who see themselves as above the common standard for other

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mere humans. 104 NFL players have been arrested since 2015 Super Bowl. Drugs, DUIs, animal abuse, domestic abuse, child

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endangerment, hit and run traffic accident, burglary are just a few of the crimes for which National Football League players

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have been arrested since the Super Bowl of 2015. And perhaps iconic for pro football is the case of Aaron Hernandez.

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You may remember him, a Super Bowl player for the New England Patriots, who was convicted for the murder

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of Odin Lloyd in June of 2013. Behold, the convicted murderer, the ultimate thug, Aaron Hernandez,

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who was an arrogant bully of a man, who delighted in associating with gangsters and drug dealers and real

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life thugs. Yet he was protected, coddled by the league. They knew these things and they treated him as a hero.

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Who can point today to an NFL player and say, I'd like to be like him? What father can put his arm around

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his son as my dad did and pointed to Roger Staubach, but who can you point to today and say, there's a man

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you should strive to be like? Finally, then let me make a few observations on the shifting cultural reasons

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for sports like pro football and show you why we no longer need it too.

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Football not only used to be a character builder, did it not? But football was also culturally a vicarious

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warfare substituting for real warfare in our culture. Football was vicarious warfare for the American male

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substituting for real warfare. Cultural historians have long observed that societies create games and

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sports that serve as substitutes for heroic exploits, feats of physical excellence. It's true, especially

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of martial cultures. That is, those cultures predicated on warfare as an essential component

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of their existence. This was true of ancient Greece. And of course, they developed the Olympics too.

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Many of the Olympics, um, were not, um, the kinds of sports they are today, but they were much more

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life-threatening and using war skills in the Olympics. Rome, of course, with the gladiatorial games

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had literal life and death war games, did they not? And the United States of America too, I would submit

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to you, uses football as vicarious warfare. Make no mistake about it. We are a martial people.

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The United States of America. As General George Patton said in his speech to the Third Army, I quote,

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and men, all this stuff you've heard about America not wanting to fight, wanting to stay out of the war

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is a lot of horse dunk. Americans traditionally love to fight. All real Americans love the sting of battle,

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unquote. Patton had it right. The United States of America is one of those martial cultures.

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And as such, its games must reflect the love of a good fight and the sting of battle,

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as Patton would put it. Behold football. Behold football, dear listener. Do you know? Do you

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remember? The violence and risk that football embodies is indeed a warfare. Is it not? A warfare,

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vicarious warfare, the violence and risk of football. The original Olympics, the gladiatorial

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games, all incorporated copious helpings of violence and risk to a competitor's life and

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well-being, didn't it? Football, from high school to the pro level, is America's most popular

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violent sport. It's not the only one. We can have a debate as to whether hockey is more violent or

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football is more violent, but football is one of the most popular violent sports. As one wag used to

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put it, football has become 22 men on the field desperately in need of rest, being watched by

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80,000 plus spectators desperately in need of exercise. Football indeed does incorporate violence

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and risk, does it not, as a substitute for warfare? Well, it also involves skill and teamwork,

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football does, even as genuine warfare does. Football is a sport that has evolved from a simple

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variation on rugby. Primarily, it was in its beginning a running and kicking game until the

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advent of the forward pass that changed everything. It is now a complex game of strategy and tactics

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that requires a myriad of coaches' assistants to play a book that looks like it was composed at West

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Point by rocket scientists. Most players have very specific designated roles to play in a coach's

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overall scheme. And if each player plays that role to perfection, then the team becomes a dynasty in

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the history of the game, winning Super Bowl after Super Bowl. A well-oiled team executing a cleverly

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crafted game plan can be a wonder of complex strategy to behold. This was true of great generals of the

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past, isn't it? And in fact, head coaches of great football teams were often likened to military

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generals. In this way, and others, football is very much like vicarious warfare for the average American

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fan. Well, we must also note the tribalism of football. Pro-football perfectly personifies the

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ancient human tendency towards tribalism. This is the practice of dividing people into homogenous groups

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whose homogeneity is characterized by familial clans, culture, and region. Tribes are then pitted

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one against the other based upon their heterogeneous differences they have of clan and culture and

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region between the tribes, right? Consequently, tribalism. We have Sioux versus Comanche, Tutsi

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versus Hutu, Hatfield versus McCoy, North versus South, English versus French, Black versus white,

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and on and on with the seemingly endless reasons to divide and fight amongst ourselves. Tribalism.

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But tribalism was indeed a so-called healthy outlet when it comes to football because tribalism is

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difficult to escape. One is born into a tribe. One's identity is bound up with a tribe. Loyalty

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is expected and given to the tribe, and one fights for and defends the interests of the tribe.

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Behold, pro-football. Pro-football has always been vicarious tribalism as well as warfare.

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One tribe being at war with the other tribes. For example, I was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan into

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the tribe of the Detroit Lions. Their colors were Hawaiian blue and silver. That was pro-football.

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And close behind it was the University of Michigan, the maize and blue, my tribe in college football.

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And of course, our chief rival tribe was the Ohio State Buckeyes. Oh, yes, the red and the silver,

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right? Against the maize and the blue. Traditionally, every year, the biggest game in Michigan was that

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game between Ohio State and Michigan. My loyalties, if you will, are to these tribes, or excuse me,

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these teams that I grew up with. I invested so much of my youthful sports passions in these teams.

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I have great memories. It also helped to build and shape my character and my attitudes,

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but no more. Goodbye, good friend football. Now, what we also see then consequently as a consequence

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of tribalism is we also see great fanaticism in sports. Do we not? The word fan is just a

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shortening of the word fanatic. And do we not see fanatics associated with sports teams? Just look at

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some of the end zones of some of these teams. You get very creative and scary and terrifying

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fanatics, don't you, in the end zones. All dressed to the T's with their faces colored. They look like

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ancient Celtic warriors who used to paint themselves and then get themselves all hyped up on everything

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from alcohol to drugs and go fiercely and violently and noisily into combat. That's exactly what we have

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with some of the fans, some of the fanatics in the end zones of some of these pro sports stadiums.

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We see it every Sunday, don't we? When I lived in the greater Chicago area, I had a good friend

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who used to shave his head and then paint his head and face midnight blue and orange, which were the

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colors of the Chicago Bears. Go Bears! And the coach was coaching. That is, Mike Ditka was coaching

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the Chicago Bears at that time when I remember the Super Bowl year of the Chicago Bears. And my friend

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used to shave his head, paint his head and face in midnight blue and orange. And he had this huge

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cardboard slash paper mache contrivance that he had put on his shoulders that looked something like

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the shoulders and head of a huge fearsome bear, right? And he used to wear this to the game and used

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to get drunk and jump and shout and scream like a madman, like a demon from hell. Go Bears! Go Bears!

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When the cameras would be on him, he would look fearsome and terrifying. And then on Monday morning,

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when he'd come to work, he'd call me a religious fanatic for going to church on Sunday. Well, I tell

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you what, fanaticism is bred by the tribalism of the NFL, isn't it? And this indeed is one of the

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characteristics of football that for me is dying. I'm saying I do not need this anymore. We are

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fighting a real war now, no more vicarious warfare as we are in indeed a warfare, a cultural warfare

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for the United States of America now. And now that we have these child games behind us, we need to fight

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for the basic values and core of what America stands for. So there's a real warfare now. There's

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no more need for vicarious warfare, brothers and sisters, because the real warfare has now obtained

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in the United States of America. And I suggest to you that if you are still an NFL fan, an NFL fanatic,

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that you need to open your eyes and see the game for what it is, a distraction so often for Americans

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now, rather than anything of substance, it no longer teaches you basic American values, but it

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teaches you progressive, decrepit, declining values. Instead, wake up, eschew football, put it behind you

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and take up the real warfare that is now obtaining in our culture. We don't need to fight vicariously

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anymore. Take up your cultural weapons. Fight not only for the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, but also

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for the values that used to obtain in America. This has been Pastor David Bass at New Geneva

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Orthodox Presbyterian Church with a moment of truth. And we invite you to join us at New Geneva

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for our worship services. We worship at 10 a.m. on Sunday morning at 101 4th Street on the corner

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of 4th and Boulevard. We, if you've been thinking about joining us, cross our threshold, use this

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opportunity to join us on Sunday mornings at 10 a.m. Check us out, find out who we are, meet us.

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You'll find our friendly welcome and response as we worship at 10 a.m. at 101 4th Street on the

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corner of 4th and Boulevard. And you can call us for more information at 208-523-0196. That's area code

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208-523-0196.