The Super Bowl has its share of crowning moments, or absolute defeats, all depending on your point of view. This particular two-and-a-half hour special provides us the excellent moments and highlights that showed off the plays which clinched championship seasons or crushed dreams for millions of fans. With slick edits, NFL Films wrap up forty-five years worth of wonderful moments that will delight fans who saw the games... and those of us who just read about them.

 

I've got to admit that many of the games the disc highlights occurred long before I was born. And given that I didn't watch the NFL until 1996, that's thirty years of history for me to consider. My eyes were instantly drawn to the years when the New England Patriots won the championship ('02, '04, '05), but I enjoy rewatching the success of the New Orleans Saints and Green Bay Packers. On the other hand, watching a friend (Tim Hightower) come up short against the Pittsburgh Steelers in Super Bowl XLIII doesn't feel as good.

 

If you enjoy a slice of history with your sports, or if you're trying to update a youngster on the history of the game, this comprehensive Super Bowl storyline will make your day. Of course, if you're one of those teams who has won it over and over (Packers?) then this is an absolute must for bragging rights at your Super Bowl party. Either way, the jaws of defeat and the victories snatched from them will give you plenty to relive and experience thanks to NFL Films and the ultimate football championship.

Other great NFL Films releases this winter...

• NFL: Green Bay Packers The Road To XLV
• NFL: Two Minutes To Glory
• NFL: America's Game 2010 - Green Bay Packers

 01/06/12 |  Click to Comment
Can Tebow produce a Mile High miracle against the Steelers? Will the Texans get their first taste of playoff victory?

Which Giants team will show up for the playoffs? And will the Saints find themselves marching home after another playoff upset?

 

There have been college football players who were caught taking money from boosters, violently assaulted someone, or proved to be unworthy of our attention on the field. But no player has ever been so polarizing as Tim Tebow, who won two national championships at the University of Florida and one Heisman as well. Now, you can relive the interim of his experience as he made the transition from college superstar to whatever he might become as an NFL player. But could he be a quarterback?

 

There are parts of this movie that you've already seen if you tuned in to Sportscenter during the time leading up to the 2010 NFL Draft. There are even parts of this movie that you've read and heard about, like the autocorrect built into Tebow's preparations that tried to "straighten out" his delivery, or the disappointing performance during the Senior Bowl. But you've never seen Tebow in between, with the expectations of his childhood, his family, his friends, and seemingly thousands of fans driving him to be what he could be for himself and for the God he serves.

 

Surprisingly, this isn't an in-your-face spiritual experience, but Tebow's faith comes shining through in simple ways...

 

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To introduce the topic of mixed martial arts and its continuing surge in popularity, I'm not going to resort to that old "unless you've been living under a rock" cliché.  Honestly, who lives under a rock?  Who could fit?  It doesn't even make sense.  So instead, the more apropos: unless you've been rear-naked-choked-out for the past few years, you've probably noticed that mixed martial arts, or MMA-UFC, "ultimate fighting"-has become a big deal. 

 

After CBS aired some of the first-ever live-on-network-TV MMA events, Fox Sports recently followed suit with a historic seven-year television deal with the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) which promises even more mainstream exposure for the sport (see here); pay-per-view for the UFC continues to grow, regularly outselling professional wrestling and boxing PPV; Spike, HDNet, Vs., Showtime, NBC and other TV channels now feature MMA; 2011's Warrior continued the trend of MMA on the big screen; heck, the sport is even on its way to becoming an official Olympic event-though it would be called "pankration" in keeping with the centuries-old combat sport, similar to modern MMA, that was part of the games for over a millennia.

 

But of course, popularity does not equal coolness.  Even if everyone decided that they wanted to be the next Quinton "Rampage" Jackson-who played B.A. Baracus in 2010's The A-Team-and wore "magic submission pants" a la Shinya Aoki to work, we would still have to examine whether MMA is a positive thing in general.  Is it safe?  Are there negative consequences, especially for the young?  From a spiritual perspective, given that Jesus taught to "turn the other cheek" and so on, we have to ask: is there a moral or ethical issue with people getting into what is essentially fighting? 

 

In the end though, I wonder whether mixed martial arts-like so many other things that rise to the surface of culture, inviting thoughtful attention-might not only be acceptable, but understood and approached rightly, even beneficial in some ways for people of faith...

 

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