A Swiftie Super Bowl Dynasty

[00:00:00] First and go at the three, lining up in the clock at 10 seconds and checking. In the shotgun my home's four-man front receiver-motion loathap. He runs and he throws caught top-stop. Let's caught Hartman caught the ball, the chief of the board, the chief of the board.

[00:00:19] The following is a presentation of Hobson Media. Will Who? Anybody care what this guy thinks? No! This is the Church Pew Sports podcast, featuring a group of pastors delivering bombastic takes on sports, life and faith.

[00:00:40] I knew it was possibility to see it in real time, Holy can Holy, this is crazy. Take a knee. Lendon ear. These are some of the best questions I've ever had to tell you that straight-up. What was that special? As the Church Pew Sports podcast begins.

[00:00:59] It's more like a baseball bat than these camps. That man next thing you somebody that gets to heaven! Two days! All the glory we got tomorrow! We got now! We got now and we're glad to have you with us now for another edition of Church Pew Sports.

[00:01:14] It's great to have you along. Thank you for subscribing. It hopefully sharing the link with other sports fans and people of faith in your world. Bill Hobson here and as always joined by Pastor Paul Miller,

[00:01:26] and Paul, we are not silly enough to think that this episode of Church Pew Sports will serve as the information piece to let you all know who won the Super Bowl. But by now we should have that cover, right?

[00:01:39] Everybody except my mom should know the outcome of that game. But especially if you believe the numbers that are being... Yeah, no, they're looking into that. Massive Massive ratings being cited by CBS and I think most people are probably

[00:01:54] currently mounting a Tony Romo dartboard in their mancaves just to kind of hone their skills a little bit. And if we were all grown up in big boys like we hope to be someday on Church Pew Sports, we would have been in Vegas for the game.

[00:02:10] But since we're not, we know a guy who was there throughout the week and he's kind enough to come on with us. He's been with us a couple times before from Sport Spectrum,

[00:02:20] where they have been connecting sports and faith for a lot of years as Jason Romano and Jason, thank you for getting, uh, getting carving out some time to come on with us. How are you?

[00:02:30] I'm good Bill, how are you? Good to see you, Paul? Yes. We are doing great. What was your week like in Vegas or, you know, can I even say sin city on our own podcast?

[00:02:43] We could say it's interesting. It was very ironic kind of landing. I'd never been to Vegas before and then landing and seeing like sin city and hearing sin city. And I'm like if they only knew what we were

[00:02:54] here for. But it was cool. It was a week. I mean, it was our luck. For from a numbers and a work perspective, it was our largest week ever in terms of reach for any week in the seven years

[00:03:07] I've been doing sports spectrum. I think it was something like 13 million, you know, engagement sin, like nine plus may be 10 now, million views and just crazy numbers that, you know, we don't

[00:03:20] set out to like reach a goal on numbers. We just set out to do good content and ask as many questions as possible to as many people and let the Lord kind of lead that way. But it was nice to kind

[00:03:31] of see, you know, the work that you put in and it's a lot of work, long days, a lot of editing, a lot of videos, a lot of prep and I think we've produced over 50 some videos our team. And yeah,

[00:03:43] God was great and got to see a lot of great people, a lot of fun, fun opportunities. I mean, Super Bowl opening night, which is the first night you're really there Monday night,

[00:03:55] is just mass chaos. I mean, the whole week is chaos, but Monday night is just absurd. And it's in its chaotic form, but people who aren't normally in media or people who are just

[00:04:06] from the, I don't know, outside looking in kind of situations coming in and dressed to the nine and dressed in some really weird costumes. It's chaos. But thankfully, it wasn't my first time.

[00:04:20] It was, I think, my 16th Super Bowl week that I've covered. And so I knew what to expect. But yeah, we had a good time there. It was a lot of cool opportunities for us.

[00:04:30] Hey Jason, all right. So for those of us who, those who are listening to this conversation, but don't know of sports spectrum, do us a little what you guys did and I'm guessing there's probably

[00:04:40] a couple different athletes that you got to talk to where you were kind of blown away by the things they had to say and why do we find that stuff? Why do we find those videos?

[00:04:49] Yeah. So first of all, sports spectrum, if you, the best place to find them all is our YouTube channel. So if you go to YouTube and you search sports spectrum, you'll see, you know, our page

[00:04:59] and then you can find the little Super Bowl 58 playlist and they're all there. What we get to do is very unique. We know going down that we're going to ask the questions that many are not going

[00:05:11] to ask and that is about their faith. We're going to ask as many people as we know and can connect with what Jesus means to them, who Jesus is in their life, have the Lord has been working in their

[00:05:25] life and this season. And so honestly it starts with the chaplains. You know we're very fortunate to have great relationships with the teen chaplains of every NFL team. And once we saw it was

[00:05:35] the Niners and the Chiefs because it was a repeat from four years ago, we were able to reconnect with the Niners chaplain Earl Smith and with the Chiefs chaplain Marcelus Casey and talk to both

[00:05:46] of those guys again and in talking to them, that helps us kind of jump start Super Bowl coverage and then what it does is it leads to hopefully running into some of the people that have been

[00:05:58] discipled by those guys throughout the year. And usually a few names are slipped into my lap that I'll be able to kind of go up to. I mean, rock pretty we knew that we were going to talk to

[00:06:07] Brock or at least try to and ask him a few questions and some of the other guys that have been believers that were on the team with the Chiefs a few years back. But then there's some of the new

[00:06:17] names in different faces that you come across coaches as well and so we had a great time and like I said it's all in our YouTube channel but what I would say the most impressive part of the week

[00:06:28] for me was it will start with the Chiefs side being that they won the game was Drew Trankel who is a linebacker with the Chiefs new to the Chiefs. This was his first season, he signed a deal after

[00:06:39] being with the Chargers I believe and when he came over you know you never know what to expect when you sign with a new team and he signed a deal. He's in the Chiefs organization in their culture

[00:06:51] and we got to talk to him about the Chiefs culture which is very focused on faith. I mean, their owner is an outspoken man of faith loves Jesus as wife as kids all are outspoken about their

[00:07:03] faith so it starts from the top down with the Chiefs but then you asked Drew Trankel about his walk and he said listen I grew up in a home where parents took me to church what he said this and

[00:07:16] this is what really stuck out when I was in college I encountered I had an encounter with grace and when he said that I said that's what happens when you truly get it like it's one thing to just

[00:07:29] say I believe or God is real or thank you Lord or the big man upstairs or whatever the cliche words might be but when you bring that word grace in I think you start to understand

[00:07:42] who Jesus is what salvation means, what the cross truly means and how messed up we all are and why we need him as our Lord and as our Savior. So talking to Drew Trankel I was thoroughly impressed

[00:07:54] with him and that was that media availability I want to say that was Tuesday right after that that same day we I mean we we boogey I'll say over to the 49ers media availability and we got there

[00:08:08] early intentionally because just to give you guys a little snapshot here these players when there's media availability I'm not talking about Monday night and Super Bowl media night where everybody's available and they're kind of like I said it's chaos but on Tuesday Wednesday and Thursday there

[00:08:24] is media availability with each team and designated players from that team for anybody with a media pass to go but you have to go and the media availability was in Henderson Nevada which is like

[00:08:38] 35 minutes from downtown where we all were at the convention center and so we knew once we went to the chiefs that the 49ers media availability was fairly close and so we left the chiefs media

[00:08:51] availability like I said early after we talked to Drew Trankel with the soul intention to set up and camp out at Brock Perty's riser which is what they call those areas where he sits.

[00:09:04] Hoping that we could get there early enough where we could get a question in before everybody else because the quarterbacks particularly in the homes and and Perty they're on these risers. When this media convergence happens you can't get anywhere near them it's because they're the

[00:09:20] most popular players right the quarterbacks maybe outside of Travis Kelsey so they're just flogged with with media and we got there early enough where we were the second person there

[00:09:33] in line with with Perty and I'm sorry I'm telling you this long story but I feel like it just gives you a little bit of an idea of the work that went in and then what happened after. So we stand

[00:09:42] out and we kind of camp there like we're waiting for you know tickets to go on sale for a concert or waiting in line for a Disney ride. Like all right this is our spot we're here.

[00:09:52] Now we have to wait about an hour and 15 minutes as I think what we waited for Brock to finally come and we knew 30 minutes in that this was a smart move because the media showed up and did

[00:10:03] they ever show up and it pounds of cameras and people and there was probably 60 members of the media waiting at the time Brock's about to show up to ask questions and so Brock sits down and I'm

[00:10:17] kind of stationed right to his right as he's sitting down and looking out and I was the first person there and I told the guys that were on my team that were there Taylor and and John I said I'm going

[00:10:28] to jump in right away. Be rolling if I if I get lucky and I asked the first question great if I don't and somebody else jumps in I'll shut up for a second but be ready like be recording

[00:10:39] and don't you know he sat down and you can almost see it on the video right as he's sitting down he looks over and that's me jumping in and I said hey Brock I want to ask you a question about your

[00:10:48] faith I just set it right away and then I stopped and I said oh yeah how you doing because I'm good how are you and it was almost like I had his attention for a second and we had talked to Brock

[00:10:58] a couple times earlier on sports spectrum in the past but I still don't think he fully recognize me just because he's talking to a million people you know all week long and he asked he answered the

[00:11:08] two questions that I had I did a follow up about prayer and he was wonderful so we immediately left the Niners we went back we uploaded it we put it out and today I stand here telling you as I look

[00:11:20] on Instagram I think we're at 5.5 million views of that one and a half minute clip that's amazing and I'm not saying that to brag I'm saying that because that's God and who he is but it's also

[00:11:33] a testament to hard work like it's just setting it up and I didn't know that we were even be able to get to Brock but I said let's put ourselves in position to at least try and that

[00:11:44] little video I think on all the platforms has reached like 8 million maybe 7 million views something just ridiculous and that was without a doubt the coolest thing I saw happen all week for us

[00:11:57] was to just I mean you never know if those things are going to go viral or what's going to hit or what's not even if it did 10,000 views I would have been ecstatic that would have been amazing but

[00:12:06] for this thing to go super viral was pretty cool and I was really proud of the team that that I had with me the couple guys that were there to just be in place and make sure we got that

[00:12:16] well and sorry it was a long story but I just thought it really told snap shot of what it was like last week yeah it's really good and it's been a few years since I've done some super balls

[00:12:25] I did string of eight of them and since then media availability has ballooned into what you were describing where they're 20 deep around the star players unless yes unless you're a little kid who's got a credential from you know Jimmy Fallon or your Jason Romano and your

[00:12:45] dressed in a huge Thompson chain reference Bible costume and then he was not the case then you could push the case or you're Guillermo from the Jimmy Kimmel show right so there's all these little but to ask a serious question as opposed to you know do you like

[00:13:01] sugar on your cereal kind of things to get up there to ask a real question especially when it starts with I want to talk with you about your faith if I'm if I'm Brock I have a little bit of

[00:13:13] an alarm ready to go off where this guy could be ready to ask me do you really think God cares about how you play the game that's not what you were asking you were asking a legitimate

[00:13:22] question about his walk with Christ and I just think that's that's really cool that it can work out that way and and Paul if you if you overlay all of what Jason was describing with the reality of the bright lights and the debauchery on display throughout Vegas it's

[00:13:42] an interesting time to have issues of faith magnified like the size of the sphere in Vegas right because because it was a a popular topic of conversation for Jason and his team and you you wouldn't

[00:13:57] necessarily think you could even squeeze that in when you're in Vegas no it was it was one of those things where we had a plan thankfully this wasn't our first time we had names of guys that we

[00:14:09] wanted to talk to not all of them were the big a name you know Brock was the only I think real super big name that we knew we wanted to talk to because we had had him on previously we had his

[00:14:18] dad on earlier in the week so we had known the pretty family a little bit where we thought that might be a little bit of an end but even though we knew the pretty family we still had to camp out we

[00:14:28] still had to kind of stake our spot or we would have never gotten even remotely close to be able to ask that question to him but then there's the other guys you know in some of them like you

[00:14:37] say you've been to the super bowls bill you know that there's you know certain guys that are just sitting there for a while nobody talks to them and we had our opportunities and we could have

[00:14:49] gotten even more content if I'm being honest like we could have gone back to other media availabilitys and sat down but we just made a decision like listen this was what the big

[00:14:59] the big get if you will was for us with Brock we got Drew Tranko we talked to about six or seven members of the chiefs in the Niners the night before let's get back to radio row which began the second

[00:15:10] half of our week and where we talked to even more people that were in the end and around the NFL about faith but really those two days those first two days were huge and you're right like

[00:15:22] I think Brock did have his guard up just to hair when I first started asking him the question if you watch his reaction but I think the immediate question of asking him about what scripture

[00:15:33] and Bible verses have he has even you know meditating on this year what is guard down in the second question when I talked to him about his dad I said listen I talked to your dad and he told me

[00:15:44] he praises guts out when he watches you play do you pray during the game and I just asked him about prayer in the midst of an actual game and he smiled and he kind of lit up a little bit

[00:15:53] and you knew the ice have been broken where he gave a really great answer and you know just allowed us to kind of I think pursue the rest of the week in with open hands honestly I mean yes you

[00:16:04] always want to be planned and I've been in this business 20 plus years now to know you will have to have a plan when you're going in but sometimes you just gotta go open hand and say okay God where

[00:16:14] do you want us what do you want us to do what questions do you want us to ask and see what happens I mean I was asking your question this week this last week that I hadn't really asked before

[00:16:25] to some of the players and it was a simple one who is Jesus to you and so I would ask these guys who is Jesus to you and Marquez Valdez's gambling gave me the shortest answer but it was the

[00:16:37] most powerful he said Jesus is King like he's King to me and I said that's amazing and so just trying to ask questions that maybe are a little bold and maybe you know are going to elicit hopefully

[00:16:51] the right answer or some kind of powerful answer but you know I remember standing next to a guy when I was asking Valdez's gambling that question a few others and this was a guy I had known for

[00:17:03] years at ESPN we had him on as a guest many times I didn't think he was a Christian but I said hey I'm just going to jump in get three questions and I'm going to ask him about his faith of

[00:17:12] it and you can you can talk to him and it's a lot of negotiating that those kind of situations where I saw like I need two minutes you need two minutes let's go and he was pretty impressed you

[00:17:22] could tell he was like whoa that's the question you're asking and I said yeah that's what we want to know who is Jesus to you so cool opportunity is just an amazing amazing experience even though

[00:17:34] this was 16 for me I just shake my head sometimes and say really god like you're letting me go do this it's pretty awesome yeah so so I'm in a conversation here with guys who have been to like

[00:17:48] more superwels than you can count and I have never been to one so I'm bringing the curve down in our church to sports conversation here's what's cool here's what's cool for me or anybody who's

[00:18:00] just like hey Joe Jesus follower who is in the sports right what you're doing is you're making it feel normal to have conversation about Jesus be just part of the flow

[00:18:16] of life right but you take that conversation with Brock Perti and you put it in a church service on a Sunday morning and it's not that doesn't feel that outrageous but the fact that it's

[00:18:26] in that context it kind of reminds me of when I was watching the game and the he gets us commercial comes out and you know like on one side is like deodorant and on the other side is like Duncan

[00:18:37] Donuts or whatever you know and then in the middle is this this commercial about Jesus washing feet and everything else and I'm like boy I don't you know there's all there's all the drama

[00:18:49] and the controversy about those not that campaign and everything else but what is cool is that Jesus is in the middle of that conversation and that itself is a great thing it's a great thing

[00:19:02] um you know that he gets us thing I won't go too deep down this road with you guys but unless you want to but I'm not gonna pick a side on whether that was blasphemous or whether that was

[00:19:14] the greatest thing ever I'm just gonna tell you that Jesus was mentioned at the Super Bowl and to me that's a good thing like let's let's see if a commercial like that and yes could they have

[00:19:25] told more about the real Jesus that the one who saves us and not just gets us of course but what if somebody watch that picks up their Bible ends up at church and gets saved like the

[00:19:38] commercial did its job then and there's people screaming on social media on both sides well this is how the real commercial should have been and these guys are blasphemous because they're this or that

[00:19:48] or they're left weighing or they're woke or whatever and I'm like guys it's a commercial about Jesus what are you gonna say in 30 seconds seven million dollars worth oh yeah listen there's

[00:20:00] another argument that could be made that you could say all that seven million should be used for further purposes of course it's not our money they can use it for whatever they want and they used it for this commercial with 120 million people watching okay well what if people

[00:20:14] actually read their Bible and went into the book of John and learned about the grace and mercy that's found in in salvation that's found in Christ because they watched that commercial that's a

[00:20:25] good thing I want to applaud that and yet sometimes I think we like to scream in yell when people sin a little differently than us as Christians and so yeah I love to see Jesus' name

[00:20:35] in the Super Bowl game I love to see it at the end of the game when Clark Kent said thanks to God and Patrick Mahomes gave all glory to God and I love to see it Super Bowl week when we were able

[00:20:46] to ask questions like that so glory to God for all of that in my opinion yeah that's that's a really good perspective on it I'm also reminded that if you're there all week and you're you're working

[00:20:58] and you're trying to get from venue to venue it's sort of like the NFL plans this amazing race for its media members I mean you are a scavenger hunt it's it's a impossible traffic maneuvering

[00:21:12] challenge because everything is spread out forever no matter what city you're in it's all spread way out by the time you get to the game on Sunday if you're still in town for it it's kind of

[00:21:23] I mean yes it's important but it's kind of a side show to what has transpired all throughout the week there are parties all the time there's media availability's all the time there's all this stuff

[00:21:34] going on by the time you get to the game you're like okay I'm gasped I would rather be at home on my couch in front of my big screen than having to fight another the biggest crowd of the week

[00:21:46] in this setting and but there's so much ancillary to the game so we talked a little bit about that commercial my personal favorite from within the game would be the Duncan donuts commercial

[00:21:59] I thought the way that aflac and damon and braiding in jail I pulled that off that was really really good but I agree probably the top of the food chain for sideline story lines would be

[00:22:12] this whifty world okay so I don't enter into this so apprehensively I don't want him to hear me you know I just I don't want anybody to think that I really care that much or that I fully

[00:22:24] understand it because I am far from being in the loop on all things tailor but there was this unique storyline where in the aftermath of the victory it would have been super easy for her to kind

[00:22:41] of big footprint the whole thing by getting up on the podium and whatever you know CBS would have loved to have her up on the podium it was interesting just to see kind of standing off to the side

[00:22:54] one of the most famous people in the world waiting for her boyfriend to stop screaming at the top of his lungs at his excitement I'm just curious Jason from from your perspective what the week was

[00:23:05] like when it comes under the umbrella of swiftiness yeah I didn't feel it if I'm being honest with you I didn't feel like a heavy swiftiness underneath all of this now what's interesting is I did

[00:23:21] I got to change the name of this episode Paul to a heavy swiftiness that's heavy swiftiness yeah that's what it's got to be called I I didn't I did about three or four at least maybe five

[00:23:32] interviews when I was there people asking me to be on their show whether it's podcasts at radio row or whatever and they're quick kits right you just try to find time in the middle of different

[00:23:42] situations and they all asked me about it and I said I really don't care I mean good for them I don't have a hatred towards when they show Taylor Swift if I'm being 100% honest here's here's

[00:23:53] what I'll be honest about I'm still a fan at heart and I really wanted to see the nine years win for two reasons I was hoping that Brock and his family could get a super bowl victory which I just thought

[00:24:03] would be so cool having known them and then I'm just kind of I'm not a big dynasty guy in the midst like I man do I ever appreciate the patriots and what they were able to accomplish but by 2005

[00:24:17] I always done with them I'm like my gosh they're winning every year can we get a new team then they didn't win for ten years so I'm getting there with the chiefs

[00:24:26] in like my gosh I just want a different team to win it but at the same time like even today as we talk I can look back now and say okay that's pretty incredible what they've been able to do

[00:24:38] three out of the last five years back to back it's hard in this NFL to do that I mean you and I both know this bill you're a Lions fan just to get to the NFC championship for the first time in

[00:24:49] 32 years for my team that hasn't been to an NFC championship since I was 22 years old I'm now 50 like it's been a while so I understand how hard it is and I appreciate what the chiefs have done

[00:25:03] but those were really what I was focused on and as I watched the game I was certainly cheering for a good game but cheering on Brock and the Niners to win I didn't care if they kept showing

[00:25:15] Taylor Swift yeah like who cares okay I understand they're capitalizing on a potential gigantic audience here they have to show her like it would almost be if I was in that if I was running that show or a director working on the Super Bowl I'd say okay there's

[00:25:34] there's a time when a place to show this in certain moments because it's Taylor Swift and she's actually dating snuck just cheering she's dating one of the best tight ends of all time

[00:25:45] on the chiefs like you have to make a reference there of some sense I wasn't tired of it I just I if you want to ask me about it fine I just didn't care if I'm being honest like good for them

[00:25:56] I thought it was really cool like you said that she kind of took a back seat during the post game and all that like she's very aware you know of who she is but she's very aware of moments like there was a

[00:26:07] moment I saw a video where Travis was coming over and he saw his mom and he could have jumped right past his mom to go to to Taylor Swift and instead he went to his mom and gave her a hug and she

[00:26:18] backed out and she allowed that moment to happen first and I said okay this is cool like I know they're not believers at least I don't think they are and you know from a faith perspective there's nothing

[00:26:28] really there for me to cover but there was an awareness and it was a cool moment and I think she's she's so gigantic I've never talked in a musician in the Christian world very recently and they said

[00:26:40] she's about as big now as the Beatles were in the 60s and maybe even the Beatles are now today like that's how worldwide and famous and people how many people screaming kids and screaming

[00:26:52] they all love her so for her to have a awareness to just step back out of that moment and say okay this is about him not me I thought that was pretty cool and wasn't it like less than two minutes of the

[00:27:05] entire broadcast she was actually on yeah screen or something like that we're watching for four hours because it went over time and they showed her for 90 seconds okay come on like let's get over

[00:27:16] ourselves here why are we so mad I'm kind of I'm kind of taking the shake up to snow globe approach to talking about all things super bowl so instead of like some linear line of thought I'm just

[00:27:27] kind of skipping all over the place let me jump back all the way to the pre-game show for a minute Paul who won the patriotic pre-game musical showdown was it was it reba okay so classic country twang or was it the guy who well it wasn't post-malone

[00:27:58] I'm so excited Paul Miller in the role of Simon Cowell who is your winner yeah well if you jumped on my Spotify you would see post-malone and you certainly would not see reba McIntyre

[00:28:26] so for me personally I was much more into post-malone I thought they both did a great job and I was really pleased with the lack of politics and serving itself into the patriotism

[00:28:45] if I can just say it that way at the front end so I feel like everybody won because the two two very diverse artists neither of which decided to use that platform in a way that makes me cringe

[00:28:58] and Jason Jason if post-malone's mother had named him Steven would we have ever heard of him it's a great question I don't know laughing here so I gotta compose myself for a minute um

[00:29:13] you know I'm kind of if you looked at my Spotify neither artists would be on there that same media but I don't have anything against either of them I think they're they're super

[00:29:23] opposite ends of the spectrum they're both extremely talented I think if he was Steven Malone instead of post-malone but he started singing the way he can sing I think he'd be still pretty pretty good and

[00:29:36] hopefully people will find him I think the name post-malone stands out a little more as does the face tattoos and all the other things he has but yeah I don't really have a preference I guess

[00:29:46] I'd say post-malone because it I don't know it was more of maybe just a little bit of a moving rendition if you will I did like Riba it was different you know it was fine I was with a bunch of

[00:30:01] people three or four musicians and some friends from my church watching and they loved both of them and they were happy with the way Riba did it you know she didn't in her way yeah there was that

[00:30:13] southern twang that sort of country world but I think you're just trying to get through it you know and not screw it up but I think they did they both do a great job and by the way throwing a third

[00:30:23] person and I thought usher was pretty good like I don't get the whole roller skates and stuff but I like to be brought all his friends and I thought he I thought he this guy's really talented

[00:30:33] I think that's what I tweeted too as I watched him like I don't I don't know if I know any of these songs maybe one or two yeah but he's pretty talented like to put that together and to do all that so yeah I thought

[00:30:45] I thought overall it was they didn't mess it up I'll just say that was nothing that extravagant there wasn't like prints or you know certainly wasn't Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake but it was

[00:30:57] it was fine it was good well everybody kept the majority of the clothes on so that helps it's alright he took a shirt off I sure did and you know I was like okay there's some kids in the room

[00:31:06] but it stayed right at that PG-13 market never went any further well that's the the skills on the roller skates I mean if the singing thing ever goes away he could work at Sonic or an A&W

[00:31:17] or a 50s diner without having to retrain or any of that by the way while we've been talking I texted a pastor friend of mine his thoughts just to get his thoughts about the he gets us ads and he said we've

[00:31:28] been talking about it and they're taking so much heat with people saying they could have fed a lot of people with that money said funny how they don't ask that from any other advertiser it's a reminder

[00:31:40] that you're always going to take some flack when you step out in faith like that here's a couple more thoughts on the he gets us spot I mean the reality is we live in a time when it's

[00:31:50] twenty twenty four boys and girls everything's controversial everyone is someone's hero someone's villain and when you run ads that are geared towards engaging skeptics using creative ways see us Lewis talked about how why he wrote fanciful stories he wanted to steal past the watchful dragons

[00:32:08] because in his day everyone sort of knew the gospel story so what he said is I'm trying to you would say sneak today I'm trying to sneak past these watchful dragons of your familiarity with the story

[00:32:19] of the Christian story with these fanciful tales that he would tell so in some ways these uh the campaign is trying to steal past the watchful dragons of people of sort of projected Christianity

[00:32:31] say look what Jesus did and he had some pretty shocking things about how we elevated women how he challenged the religious authorities I mean we can look at dozens think so that to a skeptic

[00:32:40] who may have rejected Christianity uh in that frame then say well I want to learn more and then they go to the camp you can get the website and they learn more about the empowering plants so I think

[00:32:50] Joe Carter wrote kind of a thing about the he get oops I love that run a little long but that pretty much a Paul pretty much echoing what Jason had to say and I know that you wanted to pull

[00:33:00] that sound by it I'll let you give credit to the speaker yeah yeah those Ed Stessor talking he did an interview before Super Bowl he's been a part of the he gets us campaign from the jump I think

[00:33:12] and if you have a question sir if you want to take a little deeper dive into that whole thing I would encourage you to find that go that long conversation that he had it's on YouTube if you just search

[00:33:25] he gets us at Stessor and he talks quite a bit about the idea of pre evangelism and then you're not going to take you're not going to in 30 seconds go redemption or creation

[00:33:37] followed redemption glory you know you're not going to lay out the entirety of the Jesus story in 30 seconds but if you can get somebody thinking about him just like you were saying before Jason

[00:33:49] that's a win that is a win and I'm a big fan of those and I'm glad we gave a little shout out to Ed Stessor and I'd encourage you to find that YouTube clip if you want to hear more.

[00:34:00] Yeah and Jason I know you have a kind of a tight window of time for us today so I don't want disrupt your schedule for the day I want to invite you in though if you'd like to be part of our

[00:34:10] regular segment called Holy Discontant if there's something that's irritating you will give you a moment to kind of think of it and while Paul and I share hours and then we'll let you go after you share

[00:34:20] you blow off a little steam. I'm going to blow off some steam get it off your chest rant about what's most bothering you I got a lot of problems with you people now you're going

[00:34:35] to hear about it it's time for Holy Discontant. Paul what's yours okay yeah so my Holy Discontant I hinted at it earlier is this whole like pastor math associated with the viewership

[00:34:53] the Super Bowl you know sometimes you'll ask a pastor well how big is your church and they'll give you an an answer that makes you scratch your head a little bit but you know CBS comes out and others with

[00:35:04] the Super Bowl being this year Super Bowl being the most watched television program of all time numbers were definitely up into the right but they don't talk about the fact that they changed

[00:35:15] away they do the head counting a couple of years ago and they continue to now include out of home viewers and all the streaming platforms and everything else so it was a great a great Super Bowl

[00:35:29] from a viewership standpoint but it was not the most watched television program of all time the World Cup final last member Lino Messi the World Class World Cup final was 1.5 billion

[00:35:43] of viewers and then when you want to say to me hey yeah but that's something that only happens once every four years like the Olympics and yeah those numbers are going to be inflated all right well let's

[00:35:51] talk about the Champions League final the last Champions League final was 450 million viewers man City over in a Milan and so let's let's just celebrate without trying to be like a little

[00:36:05] bombastic and hyperbolic in our conversation about how the Super how the NFL is you know like the most popular sports thing ever and the Super Bowl is the most important thing that ever happens on the planet

[00:36:21] because it's not speaking of hyperbolic and bombastic my Holy Discontent has to do with the color analyst at CBS who was the darling of all of color analyst in the entire league just a

[00:36:35] couple years ago to the point where CBS signed him to an $18 million per year contract that being Tony Romo and at the time he was really entertaining and was predicting plays based on what he saw

[00:36:49] in real time listen it's a tough job something has happened I don't know what I'm not going to pretend to be inside of Tony's study habits or his preparation or whatever but he's become painfully

[00:37:04] bad at this job and he stepped all over the winning touchdown call Jim Nance with the perfect call here at the end of the game and Romo jumps all over me just gotta be quiet Tony this is

[00:37:33] the moment where the game literally ended and the place is bedlam and Tony's all of a sudden wanting a teller straighter while Jim was just ready to lay out after saying jackpot Charlie

[00:37:47] voice former Notre Dame coach with his thoughts until he wrote it out guys because they they they really turned me off I have to tell a brother they do they turn me off I mean I listened

[00:37:59] at the end of the game I listened to Tony Romo ruined the moment just shut up and let us save for the moment when you just speak quiet they just it's a Nance had already said jackpot you know

[00:38:14] like he had already said that's that should have been the end of the conversion I don't need to hear your analysis of what just happened I just watched it I want to watch the moment I want

[00:38:25] to enjoy the moment as a sports fan okay we please please just let us enjoy the moment it's different than Mitch Hall you know Mitch on radio having to describe the moment because you're

[00:38:39] not seeing it we're watching it let us watch it if I have to listen to my brother go to the bathroom and throw up it's a little bit extreme so I would like to as is the end of my

[00:38:51] holy discontent I would like to nominate a replacement for Tony Romo in a accomplished sideline reporter for Nickelodeon by the name of Sandy Cheeks a crayons of the Christy crayons except the right three wereers of white hand and it isn't

[00:39:18] talk about money all the time there he go that's my replacement and that's my holy discontent Nickelodeon with the the winning broadcast of the two opportunities to listen in Jason what's on

[00:39:31] your mind besides are really quick because I got it I do have to run but I'll tell you that I tweeted out my discontent which very much aligns with what we talked about with the he gets us

[00:39:43] reaction yeah which is just Christians crushing other Christians for sinning or messing up differently than they do yes there needs to be accountability yes if we're presenting the gospel we need to present it clearly but my goodness did we just forget about grace it's grace and truth

[00:40:01] can we show some grace can we show some empathy can we be a little more Christ like in the way that we're living I think that includes sports I think that includes commercials I think that

[00:40:11] includes church I think that includes work everywhere we are we have to remember that we're ambassadors for Christ I don't get a little more little spiritual here a little too spiritual maybe but this is just

[00:40:21] how I've been feeling lately and the he gets us was kind of the tip of the iceberg where there was people more on one side than the other who were just saying that's last for misinterrible and I get it

[00:40:32] I do but let's let's be Christ like like we're crushing a commercial that's trying to show the idea that Jesus is loving and serving and caring I don't know I just think we're going over the

[00:40:45] overboard a little bit too much here good thought and a good note to go out on Jason thank you so much appreciate it and again folks you can dive deep into the world of sports spectrum go to their

[00:40:55] website and they'll take it from there from podcast to the YouTube channel and all the other outlets that Jason leads a great team there and they are they are doing it well so thank you again good to see you

[00:41:07] good to see you guys thanks Jason as Jason Romano from Sports Spectrum and we have a bonus holy disc content guest with us we jump we you talk about jumping into the dead season football is

[00:41:21] over and suddenly we go fast forward into baseball because Scott Hongren is with us and Paul you said him up I think just to kind of you teed him up a little bit to blow off some some steam

[00:41:32] yeah well you know normally at church piece sports we talk about the summer dead period being after the NBA and NHL finals are complete and how there's nothing really to watch and sports

[00:41:44] throughout most of the summer and that's when Scott review exists and it explains to us that baseball is really still America's past time so just thought appropriate for us to give him the floor

[00:41:54] for at least a minute or two and my question Scott would be what do you think of the new major league baseball uniform package the whole the whole deal with just came out and I just got

[00:42:05] to know I just got to know how you feel about it well I gotta tell you number one I would be a fool to insist that I think baseball is America's past time America's past time has nothing to do

[00:42:17] with it it's just the best sport period so we'll just settle that debate and we're in the midst we're in the midst of the greatest time the greatest anticipation there is for baseball as pitchers

[00:42:29] and catches are reporting and spring training is ramping up and there are still baths and gloves to be signed and it's crazy the balance and baseball is yet to be determined it's going

[00:42:40] to be a great season but I'll entertain your question to your point about the uniform package I think I saw two pieces and in correct me if you're wrong this is what you're referring to on one

[00:42:51] hand there's a host of new city connect unings coming out is that part of your your your prompt yes and the second though is new fabric for the night key baseball jerseys like a whole new

[00:43:07] textile design that's like the other half correct yes like some some funky drive-thin thing it's I think plant alike mixed reviews from the players if I'm correct I think so they're almost like

[00:43:20] like the still suits from doom that recycle your bodily fluids to keep it cool I don't think it's quite that technologically advanced but let me comment briefly on the city connect

[00:43:30] tonight may have said this before I despise the city connect thing to me it is an obvious money play money grab financial let's produce more revenue give people to buy more jerseys and whatnot

[00:43:42] from a brand stamp is a design brand guy that I did for many years in my career in the corporate world I think it's totally undercuts things that teams have done for not just 10 20 30 40 years in some

[00:43:56] cases almost 100 years right and I'm so glad I don't believe the Yankees haven't raised this nutty nest because there's nothing more classic than just fear Yankee pin stripes right in that logo and let's not get too fancy here but when you got teams with all sorts of

[00:44:12] bizarre color combinations that don't even represent their team or the branding of the team or you got you know logos or things or things to me you're undercutting the value of the brand

[00:44:22] and it's just simply a cash grab so I don't how not a big fan of the city connect with the new uniforms the new the new material textiles my my my my users

[00:44:33] be comfortable when you play so hey if that helps them sweat less move better it enhances their athleticism gives them the feeling that the year of their unstoppable then by all means go for it right

[00:44:45] I think athletes should always be you know developing they should be developing new technology whether anything you know bats and batting helmets are different gloves and you know I suppose there's a time to stop on the old shin guards so that like when a guy

[00:45:00] walks he's stripping up like 67 pieces of plastic in Velcro so he can walk down the first base we can we can change that but but I'm good with the new fabric and stuff and that gets us all ready for baseball got well now

[00:45:20] we got a whole other show I think we have to talk about what's going on in the league and the things will look forward to I will we could definitely have that conversation later

[00:45:30] I will be in your part of the world next week and maybe we can do that in person we'll talk off air about that thanks for chiming in with your holy discontent all right thank god so you like it

[00:45:41] speaking of uniform related issues it's time for help me understand I don't get it I don't get it some things in life and in sports make no sense you just blew my mind this is help me understand right here on church peace sports

[00:45:56] I don't get it I don't get it okay but I need you to help me understand you know like tiger woods wearing red on Sunday nighty all the things I can picture his the logo on his hat and everything else but his endorsement deal with Nike runs out

[00:46:20] and so instead she rolls out is is rolling out a whole new marketing campaign and a whole new brand called Sunday red that's three words not to sun day red I don't get it I am a little bit confused

[00:46:41] by the whole thing and it feels a little sacramidious to question tiger but that's what I'm doing I need you to help me understand and before I do that here's a little fuel on your

[00:46:54] question fire from pat macophie now we feel like the name was there tiger sitting there just right there but instead it's called sun day red wait not Sunday like Sunday no no no space setup

[00:47:09] sun day red so the prevailing belief is and there's some visual documentation of it on social media even today as we're recording that there's a non-descript guy somewhere on the east coast

[00:47:29] who happens to hold the trademark on the word Sunday red like at spelled in a traditional one one word Sunday red and rather than try to buy the guy out they decided to come up with this bizarre

[00:47:44] second version where it breaks it into to three words then I heard somebody else say well no this this ties back to tigers um his background as a warrior and if you look at the true

[00:47:58] etymology of sun day it ties into some none of that's true here's the reality a marketing company said to tiger I think here's what we can do why don't we bust it up and

[00:48:11] just we'll get more people talking about it instead of it's just being a generic name and I think that's really it was it was clever by too many cuts and so it's sun day red interestingly enough

[00:48:25] if you look back over the years of tiger off the golf course he's largely considering I believe me this is not coming from somebody who claims to be a fashion icon my goodness but he's largely considered to be the ultimate nerd and unable to dress himself for forever

[00:48:43] he's mom jeans with a tucked in t-shirt kind of a guy and it kind of looks like somebody gave him some advice that just didn't make sense in the naming of the new company by the way

[00:48:56] why did he need an apparel company he's right he's why mess with that sector of the economy you've just come off of this decades long run that made you a billionaire with Nike I know

[00:49:10] that contract is ended why would you so I guess we'll never know as we climb in the head of the guy who approved sun day red but if you see the logo they created the tiger logo they created

[00:49:26] you'll wonder even more what everybody in that room was thinking because it looks like a pair of vertebrae just stacked on top of each other there's literally no former substance to it and

[00:49:37] I would I would be shocked if that became a very popular fashion line let's put it that way so so I just need to cut to the chase is mission you can golf live getting now somehow

[00:49:51] start to merge with or support or stand alongside some day red we are not bearing a ball caps we are not we have a wonderful apparel relationship with Donald Ross sportswear and a

[00:50:05] Donald is all one word they didn't have to break it up in the least let's let's save our that guy for the next time we get together and close things out with our three minute message

[00:50:18] Homer I'd like you to remember Matthew 7 26 though foolish man who built his house on sound and you remember Matthew 21 17 and he left them and went out of the city into Bethany and he

[00:50:35] lodged there yeah think about it. Think about it all right so we're gonna we're gonna finish up this conversation today by talking a little bit more about kind of what Jason was hinting at earlier

[00:50:52] when he was talking about the he gets us campaign and and I went back and I listened to that at Stetsor interview and I actually got into a conversation with a bunch of guys from the EFCA which students council because we were talking about whether or not

[00:51:11] he gets us videos would be effective to start conversations with teenagers about matters of faith and and Jesus and all of that and it was really interesting to hear those guys talk about it

[00:51:25] here's the thing he just got to remember we touched on it earlier but he gets us campaign is about pre evangelism it's about starting conversations with people who are not normally

[00:51:39] going to be talking about Jesus so for all of us who feel the need to take shots at them kind of you know Jason's holy discontent I just want to read a couple of verses from first Corinthians 9

[00:51:54] where Paul says this even though I am free of the demands and expectations of everyone I have voluntarily become a servant to any end-all in order to reach a wide range of people religious non-religious meticulous moralists, loose living immoralists, the defeated, the

[00:52:15] demoralized whoever I didn't take on their way of life I kept my bearings in Christ but I entered their world and tried to experience things from their point of view I've become just about every sort of servant there is in my attempts to leave those I meet

[00:52:35] into a God-saved life I did it all this because of the message I didn't just want to talk about it I wanted to be in on it so best you throw before you throw your arrows at the he gets us campaign

[00:52:52] stand on your solid doctrine and all of that I would ask all of us to consider who are the people in our life that need to have a conversation started with them about Jesus and I would just

[00:53:06] challenge you to ask yourself how are you starting that conversation? How are you entering someone else's world and trying to experience or view things from their point of view so that you can start a conversation and maybe introduce someone to your Lord, your say they're

[00:53:29] the guy who changed your life that's something that we all need to be conscious of that all times one of the things that we're called to do is Jesus followers and so I'd love for us on to take

[00:53:40] that challenge with us into our week. That's really good and yes he does get us but he also can change us and save us and yeah for all of the conversation about the spot

[00:53:55] it's a conversation starter and now it's up to people of faith to continue the conversation to make it an inviting opportunity for people who are searching and that's what so many are.

[00:54:07] Thank you all for listening. Thank you to Jason Romano and Scott Holmgren for checking in with us as well and being part of this fun Super Bowl recap of conversation make sure you check us out on

[00:54:17] churchpuseports.com subscribe to the podcast and we will look forward to connecting with you all again next week thanks for listening