Poor Sportsmanship

On Sunday afternoon, I watched the World Cup finals. I'm not a soccer fan or anything, but once I saw France was playing, I just had to root against them. It wasn't particularly an exciting game. I left the room for 45 minutes and the scored hadn't changed. Anyway, it was glad to see France lose.

I saw the headbutting incident that the soccer star Zinedine Zidane was responsible for. He's considered the best soccer player in the world, but has poor sportsmanship? What a terrible example to follow. Evidently, the Italian player involved called him a "dirty terrorist" and that provoked Zidane. I'm glad he was thrown out of the game. What a lousy way to retire too.

I played a lot of sports when I was little, mostly soccer. I mostly played fullback and even scored from that position believe it or not. I also had a nickname one season - the tractor. I also remember having good coaches who valued good sportsmanship. I wonder how many coaches today have the same standards? We need to teach children today that even though it hurts to lose, we should learn from our mistakes and not be bitter.

Pslams 19:14 says "Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, O LORD, my strength and my Redeemer." (NKJV). What a good verse to follow for sportsmanship.