The Reason for Sports

But Ted is not just a great friend. He is a great writer too. His latest book, The Reason for Sports: A Christian Fanifesto, is funny, entertaining, and full of good biblical sense.

There are plenty of books about Christian athletes, and plenty of books by Christian superstars. But there is precious little writing on sports from a Christian perspective. It’s amazing really. Americans are obsessed with sports, especially men, and yet Christians haven’t done much to reflect on the good and bad of sports. That’s why I love Ted’s writing. He knows sports. He’s played sports. He’s done real sports reporting. And he’s a strong Christian who knows how to write.

For example, here’s the opening paragraph to Chapter One on the Jock Apology.

My son watches a lot of sports because I watch a lot of sports. He’s five, and he’s giggle at beer commercials (he likes the Coors Silver Bullet train) and not (thankfully) asked me to define “erectile dysfunction” when forced to sit through commercials that portray old men either singing about Viagara in a deserted roadside bar or, inexplicably, two people sitting outside in different bathtubs, watching a sunset. He’s also watched an unhealthy amount of jock press conferences. He knows the phrase “it is what it is.” And as such, he’s sat through an inordinate amount of jock apologies (19).

Classic Moody don’t you think? But Ted is not just funny. He can also notice the profound lessons in sports.

Part of the appeal of the Rocky movies…is that Rocky seemed to care about only two things in life–beating whoever was in front of him at the time, and his wife, Adrian. This is appealing on both an athletic and a romantic level. His life seemed stripped of many of the complications that we experience. When he was training–doing one-armed push-ups, drinking egg yolks, running, and hitting the punching bag (and, in Rocky III, even racing and then frolicking in the surf with Apollo in one of the worst scenes in American cinema)–he seemed to want for nothing expect victory. This singleness of purpose is something that Christian guys long for but rarely achieve in our spiritual lives (111-12).

If you like sports you will like Ted Kluck writing about sports. In this book Ted talks about steroids, Tony Mandarich, Tony Dungy, bad sports movies, the scouting combine, humility, race relations, and letting your yes be yes–all of which is relentlessly interesting and full of wisdom. There aren’t too many writers who can quote Mike Tyson and J.C. Ryle and know what they are talking about in both instances.

Bottom line: The Reason for Sports is a terrific book. I highly recommend it.

And I’m not just saying so because Ted will beat me up if I don’t.