Over in America, in the huge multi-million dollar sport of American Football Tim Tebow is a young Quarterback for the Denver Broncos who at the end of 2009 finished his college degree while playing for the University of Florida.
Whenever he played he would put black face paint under his eyes to help with the glare of the sun or lights, but he would also write various bible verses in white on top of the face paint. At the 2009 BCS National Championship Game, Tim wrote 'John 3:16' on his eye black, and over 92 Million searched "John 3:16" into Google during or after the game.
Tim said in a later interview "It goes to show how big of an influence you have as a sport star over people". Tim also had 'Proverbs 3:5-6' and it generated nearly 3.5 Million searches in other games.
There are many stories of Christians who play or played professional sports but there are also a lot of stories that don't get much publicity.
In Australia in the National Rugby League many teams do various community work, the Penrith Panthers have a 'Panthers on the Prowl' program where they go into local schools or hospitals and help children who have had a tough time in life whether it be through family or through illness they help the children prepare for the future with strategy programs based around education, life skills and being proactive.
I think that it is important to get the good news stories out into public knowledge and not just stories on bad behaviour and out of control. Sports stars get paid a lot of money to play the sport they love the most, yet the minority few who ruin the reputation of the majority of good players seem to be getting the most publicity.
Let's hope that the next time a 'breaking news' story is released on a sports star that it is on them doing something good for the community and not partying out till early in the morning, it is about time we here good news these days.
Christopher Archibald lives in Sydney and is an under-graduate student.