January 19, 2023 • 59 mins
What team are we willing to be patient with and through what are we willing to persevere? What about in life? Join host Delkery and Special Guest (and Dolphins fan) Shea Cutshaw as they discussed the Dolphins during regular season, the AFC East, and persistence through tough times with their football teams, but also in different parts of life.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:07):
Welcome into another episode with another guest, Shea Cutshaw
Shea and I actually met I don't know how long ago that was, but we met through the interwebs.
Good dude.
And, well, all except for one thing, being a Miami dolphin fan.
I'm just kidding.
(00:27):
If anybody listens to the previous episode, I did mention in there about how I grew up in a Miami dolphins household.
So I do kind of have a soft spot for the dolphins.
How are you doing, Shea? I'm doing well, man.
First of all, you as a Miami dolphins fan, we got to be pretty excited right now, right? Yeah.
(00:49):
Leading the AFC East.
Take that, bills.
Leading the AFC east and feeling for the first time feeling confident about our team's direction.
Like I was just telling my wife the other day we were flexed into a Sunday night football game against the chargers in week 14.
(01:10):
I believe it is.
Yeah.
Because this week we play the niners, and then next week we'll play the chargers.
And I can't think of a time in watching football that I've seen Miami flexed into a prime time game.
I've seen this flexed out of prime time games.
We're not into one before.
What's happening in the AFC east this year is what I think we all expected in the AFC west.
(01:35):
Yeah.
I would agree with that.
I think that's pretty accurate.
We expected the AFC West.
AFC west west.
No, that SpongeBob episode.
Not east.
It's weeest.
Yeah.
We expected the AFC west to be these juggernauts because I can't think of a team in the AFC west that we expected to be really bad.
(02:01):
And by and large, it's the chiefs just running away with it.
I think the charges are a little overrated.
I think Justin Herbert is a little overrated.
He had a really good rookie season, but I think now I think we're starting to see him hit sophomore slump.
No, he was dropped to two seasons ago.
Yeah, he's junior now and junior slump.
I don't know, something like that.
But I think we're starting to see how, honestly, he's a very similar quarterback.
(02:26):
The tua.
If you have the right coaching and the right players around him, then he'll look like a good quarterback, but he's not a Patrick Mahomes, Tom Brady, Peyton Manning, who's going to elevate these guys to play really well from nothing, who was yeah.
I actually expected the raiders to fight for.
(02:46):
And I had made a bold prediction that they would win the AFC west.
Yeah.
And the chiefs, I had really thought, man, that the defense would be the downfall of them.
I didn't think that the tyreek loss I thought, would affect different aspects of things.
But Andy Reid has always been offensive mighty coach.
(03:07):
They would make changes.
They would still do well on offense.
Juju good for him.
He's doing better down there than I expected him to do.
When it comes to the defense, though, I thought that's where there's going to be issues, but their defense has been playing pretty darn good football.
And then obviously, you get to the Chargers.
The Chargers I had thought was going to be a wild card team this year.
They still may, but it's a muddy mess in the AFC because I think the level of competition is higher in the AFC than it is in the NFC right now.
(03:35):
And so it's going to be harder for certain teams that aren't actually setting themselves apart to make those wild card spots because you have divisions like the AFC East that have all four teams in potential of playoffs, and so it makes it really difficult to actually potentially make that spot.
And then for some reason, I'm blanking on who the fourth team is and the Broncos.
(03:57):
Yeah.
Now I will say this unforgettable right now exactly.
The projection I had for the Broncos coming in the season was that people were over.
They were over projecting the Broncos.
And I didn't think it would be to the like they would perform as low as the level that we've been seeing.
I pretty much was par for the course on that prediction.
(04:17):
But listen, one out of four teams listen, that's not good enough to brag about.
I think the Broncos issue I know we're talking Dolphins and stuff, but that's all right.
We're talking football.
Broncos and Chargers, I think their issues are honestly coaching.
I don't think Nathaniel Hack is a good coach.
I think we saw that week one when they should have won that game.
(04:38):
And I saw staff, if the Broncos had scored like 18 or 19 points or something in a game all season, then they would be like eight and one or something like that.
So to me, that's a coaching thing right there.
And then same thing.
I think Brandon Staley, I love aggressiveness, but I think he's trying to be aggressive for like a niche or something like that.
(05:04):
This is who I am.
And I think we see that hurting.
And I feel like Staley, if he wants to remain a coach, he's got to position the right people around him to help him.
And I don't think he's doing that.
And I think that's why we need her back to the Dolphins here.
I think that's why Mike McDaniel is doing so well, because he's always been positioned around these gurus of coaches and then even the staff that he's brought in to be with him are just people who I don't agree with keeping Josh border, but that's fine.
(05:35):
It is what it is.
I kind of wish they actually brought Lovey Smith in to be the defensive coordinator.
So I'm really happy he's in Houston.
I'm happy he got another shot.
Unfortunately inherited one of the worst rosters I've ever seen.
I mean, when you start Davis Mills a quarterback, what do you expect? But yeah, so I think that's what we're seeing in Denver and in Los Angeles with the Chargers.
(06:04):
I think that we're just seeing how some coaches are coordinators, some coaches are college guys, and Matt Rule, I think, just figured that out.
I just read that he's like, if I could do it all over again, I wouldn't have taken the Panthers job.
And he seems really happy that we're in Nebraska.
I'm not happy being a Michigan State fan, but it's fine.
(06:25):
I'll get over it.
But some guys are just college coaches and some guys are just coordinators.
And I think the more people start to figure that out, the better off those coaches will be.
But that's my personal opinion on the Chargers and Broncos issue there.
So anyway, back to the AFC East, back to the Dolphins.
(06:46):
I know you probably have been sick and tired for about 20 years now when it comes to some of the other who's that team in the North, I mean, nobody really knows about them.
Nobody knows what they have been able to do.
You know, some people argue about their quarterback being one of the worst of all time.
(07:06):
You know, it's so your division hasn't been too difficult, right? Yeah, for the longest time, I think every team in the AFC East has been overshadowed by Tom Brady just being there.
So obviously that's going to be hard.
But the really cool thing, this is a stat that unless you're watching a Dolphins Patriots game, you'll never really know is Tom Brady struggles the most against the Dolphins.
(07:37):
I don't know what it is.
And that's not just being home or wet.
Like, regardless, he just seems to struggle against the Dolphins.
And I don't know why that is, because we've had the coaching carousel.
We've had the player carousel thing.
So it's not like the same coach has been there forever and is trying to always trip him up.
(07:58):
So I don't know what it is.
So I do love that.
I remember seeing a stat let me interject here real quick.
I remember seeing a stat that actually I used to joke with my brother.
He's a Patriots fan.
I used to joke with him all the time.
When the Patriots would beat the Dolphins in both games in a season, they would never win a Super Bowl.
And so that was at some point.
(08:20):
I don't know if that stats still held, but I always joked with him when they would go two and a guns Dolphins, I was just like, you guys don't have a shot.
You guys don't have a shot.
Because that was always the case.
They had to lose.
They had to lose one game to the Dolphins in order to go on and win the Super Bowl.
The closest, obviously, they came was an seven with the almost perfect run, and the Giants did their thing.
(08:42):
Thank you, New York this year.
Thank you, Washington.
Washington ended Philly's undefeated run.
Saul still the only undefeated team out there.
You're not undefeated.
What are you talking about? 72 season.
Sorry.
That's what I'm referencing.
No one can take that title.
I got you.
(09:03):
We are undefeated when Two is starting at quarterback.
He has not lost a game this season.
The three losses all came when he died against was it the Bengals? And then the next two games, that was the worst.
Because then the next game, I think, was the jets, and Teddy Bridgewater gets hit in the end zone.
(09:26):
That's when they changed all the protocols and everything like that.
And nobody would have looked at the play and thought, oh, he has a concussion, or something like that.
But whoever the spotter was, because the rule said, no, he needs to go take one place.
All the tests, the spotter was like, no, he can't come back in.
And he couldn't.
So then we've got a third string 7th round rookie, Scotter Thompson, playing, okay, cool.
(09:51):
Love to see what he can do.
But of course, he hasn't been with even the first or even some second team reps.
Scott Thompson gets to play the next week against Minnesota, and he gets injured at the end of the first quarter.
Bridgewater comes in, who hasn't had the first team reps all week.
So those three losses, I think if Two will play I don't know if we're still undefeated.
(10:13):
I'm not willing to say that, but I do think we're maybe one or two losses in on the season.
I do think we would have beat Minnesota.
I don't know if we would have beat Cincinnati.
I think they're a team.
You got to figure out what's happening.
But I do think we would have beat the Jets, I think for sure if Tua was playing with the offense that we had.
(10:35):
So, yeah, there's that Tua fan.
I can feel it.
I wouldn't say I'm a Tua fan because I will fully admit I wanted Herbert in the draft.
I did not want Tua in the draft.
Now, how things are panning out, I'm glad to say I think I was wrong, especially with all the I don't know if you saw the recent stuff about Tua.
(10:59):
Like, apparently he was in a dark place where he was asking himself, like, do I suck? And stuff like that.
That was from last season.
But yeah, Brian Flores regime about how he like, apparently Flores is very open about, if I could have picked Mac Jones instead of you, I would have.
And that just shows how much power our owner has over all that stuff, which that also bothers me.
(11:23):
But that's fine.
Don't let a coach be a coach.
But I'm glad that McDaniel is a coach that all the players seem to love.
He's a fun uncle.
Yeah, he's a weird dude, but I love watching him and listening to him talking stuff.
(11:47):
They showed a clip of him at the game.
This is what happens when a team is up 30 to nothing.
Apparently you can just joke about things on the sideline.
Him and two are talking during the game and he goes, yeah, man, I woke up at 03:00 a.m.
And I remembered because I could go back to sleep.
You were YouTubing me.
So I decided to YouTube you.
And he was talking about to his high school technique and he goes, it was trash, man.
(12:10):
You were trash.
And they were laughing.
Like I think that's so cool to see that kind of stuff because I don't want to get too ahead of myself but I feel like every time I see that kind of like coach player and it's not just with two.
He's that way with all his players.
Whenever you see that kind of stuff, people just having fun, those are usually the teams that end up winning super Bowls and steam to stick around for a long time.
(12:37):
Andy Reid and Patrick Mahomes have that same kind of relationship where they just have a fun time with each other.
Big Ben and Tomlin seem to always have a good time with each other on those clips and stuff.
So I get really excited when I see that and I hope McDaniel is one of those generational coaches where he's here for a while.
I'd love to see it but yeah, he's a weird dude.
(12:59):
He has some interesting stuff he says sometimes.
Yeah, I love listening to some of his humor because I had seen that clip that you're talking about.
I'd also seen another clip where I think it was his running back who was running and he made a move and caused a missed tackle and he comes over to him on Saturday.
He's like, hey, man, I just want to let you know I like the way you made that move and he wasn't able to do what he wanted to do with you and you made another move and the guys like a broken tackle and he walked away.
(13:37):
It's hysterical.
I love that he is.
But but I think the really cool thing and honestly with me being in ministry, watching McDaniel coach has kind of been like helping me think about how I lead my leaders.
I know it's probably a little bit off topic but he sat down.
He put that together.
I think it was a 700 hours tape of Tua to prove to play did not suck that's McDaniel going above and beyond.
(14:06):
No one asked him to do that.
But McDaniel did it and I love that it shows that he's a guy who actually cares about his players and stuff because McDaniel could have came in and said let's go trade for Jimmy G.
Let's go get this guy.
Let's get Tua out of here.
But he was said he's like, nope, Tua, I'm going to get the most out of you.
(14:26):
I want you to become the best.
And I think we're just constantly seeing that kind of stuff now there was rumors that there were Dolphins.
The Dolphins were interested in Jimmy G, but I think that was more as a backup option rather than a starting option because we have Teddy Bridgewater and we draft that 7th round rookie.
But how nice would it be to know that your backup option can step right into your offense because he was already in the past and just play at a high level.
(14:54):
So I think that's a little bit what that was, I don't think to his job was ever in danger.
But I love to see how McDaniel is with all his players.
And honestly, it's making me rethink a lot of my own things and how I'm leading my leaders and kind of what can I do for them, especially when they maybe get in some of those dry spells where they need those pick me up.
(15:19):
That's a pretty cool thing to be able to identify and see how the team that you're a fan of, the coach who's leading the team, you're a fan of, how he's doing things and like, you know what? I can take something more away from this.
Not only I'm excited as a fan, but like, oh, man, I like how he's doing that? How can I apply that into my own life, into what I do? That's really cool.
(15:42):
I think that's a thing.
Sometimes we don't realize the power, that the things in which we give our time and our hobbies, the things we enjoy, can actually affect us in deeper ways and affect how we approach different things in life, for good or for worse.
And this is a great example about how you're able to see something like that.
(16:03):
It's like, oh, dude, I like how he does that.
How can I better interact with my coworkers, with the people who are my subordinates, with any of my customers, depending on what kind of job someone has? And even I even think about how I can interact with my own kid.
(16:24):
I love how they're talking in a way of respect, but also in fun.
And man, that's a cool way to emulate.
And it can affect then how in which you even talk with your kid sometimes it can go negatively too, and how teams down, you see different interactions, how they're very negative, and it starts to affect your mood and your mentality.
And that's a heart issue.
(16:44):
And having to address like, man, how much am I letting this team affect me? And stuff.
And that nature.
Which brings me to another thought in the way of I had said earlier about you have probably been hating the past 20 years because of that team in the north.
And and so in the midst of that, we had talked in in prior conversation about this idea of perseverance, of patience, of persistence, and really this picture of as a fan of a team in football, a lot of teams, most teams, if we're honest.
(17:27):
Right.
Most teams, in some way, at some point, you have to persevere and be patient through down seasons, through bad decisions, through terrible calls, through the dominance of another team.
So it may not even be that there's bad things on your team, but just the dominance of another team.
(17:55):
In your mind, how has that affected different things? When you look at this idea of patience, of persistence within football, as a Dolphins fan, how do you see a picture of that affecting other parts in your life when it comes to those Triple P's? Yeah, I think even just that perseverance and patience aspect, I see it affecting things.
(18:25):
Like when I think about those topics in general, and it's always kind of cool to connect your team and watching your team go through it, even though some people might laugh and go, well, that's trivial, like, you're overthinking it and stuff like that.
But honestly, when you're a Christian, I think you're supposed to overthink, and you can see the beauty of the gospel and all these things that we have.
(18:49):
But I think we see it in things like my marriage.
Maybe I want my wife to be a little bit further along in something that we're working through, or I want to be further along as a husband.
And whatever the issue may be at the time.
(19:09):
Right.
We want the overnight success.
Right.
We want the big free agent signing, the splash.
But the reality is, most of these teams who are at the top, it took them a while to get there.
And so especially, like, the Dolphins right now, I don't know if this is a one year thing or not, but it does seem like a different team from the years and years and years that I have been watching in the past.
(19:39):
And so I think, for me, the big reminder that I take out of it is that it's a process.
It's finding the right pieces.
And then when you do find the right pieces, finding a way to keep those pieces there, getting rid of the things that are not helping, those pieces.
So I think about, like, they want patience with developing tua, and they saw that Flores was not developing to he was not helping, so they got rid of him, even though everyone at the time thought that's a really dumb move, myself included.
(20:13):
Why would you fire Flores even though he has the defense going in the right direction? He revolutionized the COVID zero blitz scheme and stuff like that.
So it seems like that piece is right there, but in the grand vision of it all and what you're trying to accomplish, it doesn't fit.
So you get rid of it, you find a new piece, and then you keep moving with it.
(20:35):
And so I think that's been kind of the flow in my own life, is as I try to be a better husband, as I try to be a better father as I try to be a better pastor, as I try to be a better teacher.
It's all about.
Like some of those things might have worked for a short time, but when I'm looking at the long term game of it, what's kind of the things that I need to put into place in my own life to make sure that I am playing the long game so that I can go win some championships, so I can sit there and have those victory moments.
(21:07):
And there might be moments where I'm having the one in 15, the O and 16 seasons, but if I know I'm putting all the right pieces in place and I'm persevering and I'm constantly pushing and I know what I'm working towards, then it's all going to be worth it in the end right there.
So I think that's a little bit that's probably a general overview of how I connect all those pieces even in my own life.
(21:29):
And I was telling you on the last time when we talked about this, I actually got to talk about this because I was at the Vikings Dolphins game in Miami, and I got to talk to a fan in front of me about this.
I don't remember we were talking about like, man, when's the last time we got to see the Dolphins be this good? We can't think of a time, like, maybe the early 2000s with Jay Feedler, Ricky Williams, and Chris Chambers on the team, Randy McMichael, stuff like that.
(21:56):
And we won wild card of the playoffs.
That's probably the last time we really thought, like, wow, this team is pretty good.
And then from there, we just started talking about, yeah, you got to have patience and persistence with this team and stuff like that.
And then I was able to actually turn it into a gospel conversation because then he started asking, what do you do in your life? And I got somehow I was a pastor, and I said, honestly, I was able to say it's a little bit like being a Dolphins fan as a pastor and a Christian.
(22:27):
When you're leading people and just when you're leading your own self in your walk with the Lord, not everything is going to go the way that you want.
You got to find those right people, like those right mentors in your life to be those coordinators for you so you can be a QB one.
And with God as your head coach, if you want to keep the sports analogies going and stuff like that, right? So it's just all about finding those right pieces.
(22:55):
And at the end of it, the guy was like, man, I never knew I could have fun with God and religion and how you're talking about it right now.
That was his big takeaway was I didn't know.
I never thought about connecting those pieces.
I just thought it was this dry, boring, liturgical thing where I just show up on Sunday morning, but I can see how it's this process.
(23:17):
And he goes, It's just been really cool.
Have you been able to connect with it also? He actually asked me, he goes, can you find me a couple of churches in the area? I'd love to take my wife and kids to church this Sunday and start thinking about it.
And thankfully, because of all the random discord communities and stuff that I'm in and different streamers that I met and so forth via Twitch and all that stuff, I've been able to meet different youth pastors.
(23:44):
And so some youth pastors that I trust and one was in Miami, and I'm like, Well, I know this youth ministry, so let me offer up this church to you right now.
And so as far as I know, he did go to church that Sunday.
I haven't been able to keep up with them since then.
We didn't really exchange contact information, but that was just kind of like a cool takeaway moment of how I can use sports and then I can use it to glorify God and point people back to God.
(24:12):
How have you experienced patience and persistence in your life that has either been a success or failure story? Sometimes I think we only want to talk about the success, but sometimes I feel like we really learned from the failures.
Yeah, you say that and I think about college.
For me, honestly, so I am the first person in my family in like three generations to actually graduate college with a bachelor's degree.
(24:42):
Well, congrats.
I'm the first person in like three generations to actually be a Christian, as far as I know, in my family, honestly, the odds were stacked against me because I was doing everything that was so counter from my family.
So when I went off to a Christian college, I remember my parents at the time, both of them, and they were divorced.
(25:07):
So I came from this broken home, and I remember stepping into a Christian world and nobody seemed to understand me.
No one else came from a broken home.
They've been their family and their dad and their grandpa, whoever they've been four generation pastor.
It seems like that's everyone that I met and nobody understood me.
(25:29):
So I got that and they got my parents.
Tell me this whole Christianity thing, like, I'm glad that you found something to make you happy, but you don't really want to spend your whole life around it and stuff.
You don't want to spend four years of your life going to school to figure all this out, to go be a pastor.
So I had these odds stacked against me, and there are many times when I'm like, yeah, I could quit.
(25:55):
I could just go find some business job, work my way up the ranks and be just fine, or something like that.
But honestly, if I didn't stay persistent, I wouldn't have met my wife through college.
I met her at the end of my junior year, going into senior year.
So that's a little bit of time to get there.
So if I didn't meet her, I would have had my two wonderful kids that I have now.
(26:20):
I wouldn't have got my degree to be a pastor.
I've now been a pastor as a youth pastor of my last church and now my current church.
I'm the family pastor there.
Like, none of those things would have happened if I didn't stay persistent and stay moving.
And there were times when it sucked, it was dark, and I kind of just wanted to give up, throw in the towel.
(26:47):
But that Isaiah 40 31 verse kept coming to mind, like, are you weary? Are you in a dry season? We'll keep going because it's the Lord who's going to give you the feet to run, it's the wings to fly, and ultimately that whole idea.
And yes, it's connected to Old Testament in Israel, and I don't want to take it too much out of its context, but just like God's telling Israel all the time in that context, he's saying, keep going, because you find your energy, you find that way to keep going in me.
(27:21):
And I will continue to position all the right things around you, but you have to stay persistent.
You have to be patient, because it's on my timetable, not yours.
And so it's those kind of reminders that kept me going, that kept me going.
And so when I walked across that stage to grab my diploma, seriously, it was such a triumphant moment in my life.
(27:47):
I remember shaking our president's hand and grabbing the diploma as I'm walking across.
I literally yelled, like, let's go.
Kind of thing like that.
Everyone's quiet and yay.
This person, we're going to clap.
And I'm just saying, over here, like, give me the gatorade bath.
(28:09):
Come on.
Do not know what I just did.
Even my wife's, the same way people went to college, she's been a she didn't understand.
So for me, when I want to frame my diploma and put it on my that is a big moment of significance for me.
(28:29):
That is my Lombardi Trophy, because I think about how persistent and patient I had to be in my own life to get through that season.
And because I did, I didn't just get a diploma.
I'm in a career field that I absolutely love.
I have a wife that I absolutely love.
I have wonderful children.
Everything that I'm in now is because I was patient and persistent through that college time.
(28:54):
And if I had given up, how differently would my life I probably won't be sitting here having this interview with you right now.
So, honestly, a lot of my stuff during my college time goes back.
It's a massive mark on everything that I'm doing now.
Man, that's awesome.
There's a lot of connection to some.
(29:15):
I was thinking through a couple for me as well.
And you had said about college and wife and stuff, it's like, oh, that's a big story of persistence for me as well.
I know there's a listener out there who's in that place.
Stay persistent now, don't be weird about it, but stay persistent.
Stay persistent.
No, my wife and I actually started well, I had a thing for her years ago in high school, but she and I actually started dating finally, senior year of high school.
(29:45):
And we had already decided on the colleges that we were going to prior to us dating.
And it was the same college, so it was really cool to see some of those things match up.
And then when I went to college, there was a piece of persistence, there was a piece of that that I was really trying to run after, which was proving people wrong.
It was being told for many years that I wouldn't be able to make it in a college football program.
(30:09):
And so I went out of my way to try and walk on and I successfully walked onto football program and I found myself that one summer I was spending a lot of time with other really wise men and prayerful men and spending a lot of time focusing on and praying through and looking at what I was approaching.
(30:30):
And I realized that a lot of what I was doing this this persistence that I was stuck in the mud about going through with this and about proving myself and I was I was really focused on what I wanted to do and I hadn't really looked at what was it that the Lord had a plan for.
(30:52):
One of the things that really I talk about the persistence of the relationship, the persistence of focusing on my now wife, my then girlfriend was I was losing her.
Like I had been persistent in high school about pursuing her and succeeded.
Succeeded.
Yes, I did it.
(31:13):
And then I get to where I'm being persistent with football for my own reasons as well.
And what I found was that I was losing that first piece that I had been so persistent of.
And I was looking at those things, of what are the things that are most important to me? And I was seeing a lot of them.
My grades in school, the opportunity of a work study, the opportunity of an internship required for my major, the opportunity of this relationship.
(31:40):
A lot of different pieces were faltering because I had been so persistent in a negative way, I had been so persistent on my own accord.
And that was the thing that really for years after that, even to this day, has me process things differently about what is the reason behind my persistence.
It's one thing for us to be persistent and have patience and persevere through different situations.
(32:04):
But anyway, so I had this persistence and this focus of what I was going to do.
And I realized that it was focused on me.
It was all focused on me.
And it's one thing to be focusing on something that creates opportunity, that betters yourself and betters your future.
(32:25):
It's another thing to be so selfish and so focused on yourself that you miss out on what great things the Lord has planned for you.
Because that's really the ultimate is looking at what I have planned for myself and how good that might be versus what God can have planned for me, what God does have planned for me and how that's the best that it could be.
(32:49):
And there's a big differentiation there.
So that persistence that I had for that, I had to actually then make a sacrifice.
And that's the truth, is many times when you look at the idea of patience, when you look at the idea of perseverance, when you look at any of these three PS, then you have the reality that if you truly want to make it through and make it matter, sacrifice is necessary.
(33:15):
And so when it came to that, I had to sacrifice my place on the football team.
And now God.
Here's one of the cool things for anybody who I think of those who may listen.
And I mentioned at different times about being a follower of Christ and you've mentioned about being a Christian and stuff.
One of the great things that has happened for me is in that choice of sacrifice and giving of that up, because I analyzed, I processed and I thought through what was the most important and what did I need to be focusing on, because I sacrificed that.
(33:52):
God then was able to use that situation.
And this is the cool thing, because I had gone after those things.
I had gone after the football thing negatively.
It could have been very easy for me to then just for the Lord to be like, all right, okay, I didn't want you there.
You acknowledge that now.
Let's go where I want you.
(34:12):
And it just had been done.
But that's not what happened.
I got the opportunity to be able to work with the film and then work alongside the coaching staff.
And from there, that set me up with a resume.
I was able to literally a year out of college, I was able to get a job in high school football.
And so with that, I've been doing that for eight years now.
(34:33):
I just finished my 8th season in high school football.
The Lord used that even though one could say disobedient, even though I was so focused on myself trying to do whatever it took to persevere, whatever it took to make it through with my dream and my focus, he was able to use it.
So that's a really cool example.
(34:53):
But anyway, so we talk about these pieces about maybe with a wife or something like that, but another one that came to my mind that I think is important to be real about as a man in this life is persistence against certain things.
And one of the ones that popped in my mind was the topic of pornography, the topic of these kind of things that really take away from us the best for us, and the persistence of if you're a man, you know if you're a man, you know that there are temptations that arise in every way, shape and form, and you choose.
(35:38):
It's not anything for you to persevere for whatsoever.
And that's going to be something that you participate in.
But if you're somebody who looks to fight against a struggle with pornography, a struggle with any addiction of any kind, the level of perseverance and persistence that you have to have and you have to work through is I would argue greater than anything else, than any other kind of perseverance that somebody could speak on.
(36:08):
Because it's been something that has completely changed.
How your Abdullah ambagada, no, just kidding.
How your prefrontal cortex is shaped and the science and the chemistry of your mind like the different pieces, the habits that you've now formed and the strongholds of what sin has created in your life, man.
And that's where for me, things like that the only way.
(36:34):
We as humans, we have been created in strong ways, like we have strong capabilities, but we will fail.
We will fail.
We all have failed because we're not perfect and we all fall short of the glory of God.
And so with that man in places like that, when I think about something that's so deep to our court because it's something about football, even about a marriage, like there are deep parts to that, don't get me wrong about marriage and such.
(37:01):
When it comes to something that continues to permeate from within ourselves, something like a struggle with pornography is so huge.
And I know we didn't talk anything about this topic, like we didn't talk about, hey, we could bring this up with this.
It was just something that I felt like was something somebody may be struggling with.
(37:21):
And I want to encourage you.
I want to encourage anybody who is facing pornography.
A struggle with pornography, a struggle with any kind of sexual sin is perseverance.
And patience is necessary to keep fighting, to keep making moves in your life, to put you in best scenarios and best situations, to be able to continue to fight that and keep moving forward.
(37:41):
But the ultimate to be freed from those, the ultimate level of perseverance and patience and persistence comes through Holy Spirit comes through Jesus Christ.
And that's something I've experienced in my own personal life is there are many things in my life that I have failed, that I continue to fail, that I'm only able to move forward in.
(38:03):
I'm only able to persevere through because of the power of God, because of the promises of god because of the knowledge of who he is, of what he thinks of me, who I am, because of who he has made me, not because of what I think of myself or what others tell me.
(38:23):
And so those things are huge and so we continue to fight.
But my encouragement is that the true freedom from those things, the true capability to be freed from those things, but also to stay freed from those things, to stay persistent in those things comes through Christ.
(38:44):
I was just going to piggyback on that and just point to when you talked about the Holy Spirit and that aspect of patience.
I mean, patience is one of the fruits of the Holy Spirit.
And if you were to go on Google or something like that and just type in Galatians five, you would find these fruits of the Spirit.
(39:08):
And honestly I think that's probably the one that if we look at all the fruits of the Spirit we think, oh, I could do patience by myself.
And the Bible is clear.
Like no, patience doesn't come from you, it comes from the Holy Spirit that lives within side of you.
And so ultimately, like you're already saying like Jesus, that's the answer, that's where it all starts.
(39:33):
And you talk about sacrifice too.
What bigger sacrifice is there than God giving us his own Son? So that we don't have to like you were talking about pornography so don't have to be chained down to something like feeling trapped in pornography.
We don't have to feel that way anymore.
Because I think about and then this is the pastor side, I mean, just starting to get going now, but I think about, like, Ephesians One and Ephesians Chapter two, where it talks about how Christ at the end of Ephesians One is lifted up far above the things of this world after he raises from the dead.
(40:12):
And then Ephesians two, it says that when we're saved, when we walk into that relationship, we are also lifted up into that same position with Jesus.
So we don't have to be chained down to the things of this world because they are so far beneath our feet.
But ultimately that only happens through Christ and the Holy Spirit living inside of us.
So that's just what I was going to say to piggyback off what you were saying there.
(40:35):
I think that for some people I think would argue that well, no, I was able to through persistence and perseverance able to defeat, not do a certain thing.
Maybe it is the pornography topic or something like that and that's phenomenal.
Don't mishear me.
That's phenomenal.
I think that's an awesome thing to strive for.
But I think deeply right is what is the reasoning behind that.
(41:02):
There may be a good reason behind it of like listen, my wife does not deserve that from me.
I respect that.
That is phenomenal.
I think an even deeper thing is not only does your wife not respect that from you, but neither does God has created.
God has created a natural purpose for those things.
(41:26):
And so not only is it honoring to her, but it's honoring to God when we don't do that.
And I think that what we think about God influences everything in our life, and it should influence everything in our life.
We were created.
God created us to be with Him.
And our disobedience, our sin has separated us from Him.
(41:49):
And good deeds, good works, trying to live a good life, all those things that cannot remove sin, sin and disobedience that we've committed cannot right the wrong of a perfect standard.
Like there's a perfect standard that we're held to.
We broke it.
There's no way, oh, we can be good.
(42:09):
Majoratively right.
That doesn't reach perfection.
And so that's why Jesus was so necessary.
And he came.
He he lived his life.
He lived a life of perfection, both as God come in the form of man and in flesh as man.
He came and he gave up of Himself so that you and I could be returned to our created purpose, which is to be with God.
(42:36):
We could be with him.
And it's something that is available to everyone.
And it starts for us today, now, here.
It doesn't start for us.
Just oh, I die.
I go to heaven.
Yeah, that's awesome.
I get to be with the One who made me, the One who loves me, the One who has the best in store for me.
But I get to experience that now.
(42:56):
And so I read the Bible, and I begin to learn about what he has said and what he has in store for me.
And I begin to surround myself by others who have also or are also reading this, to be able to converse, to be able to encourage, to be able to lift each other up, to be able to hold each other accountable.
(43:18):
So we are persistent through the difficulties that are to come in life, the struggles that are coming to come in life.
And I begin to grow in this relationship with the One who created me, the One who came and died for me, the One who rose again and defeated death for me.
And through that, I begin to grow.
(43:39):
My heart becomes transformed from that of someone who does not accept that gift to someone who does accept the gift of death in life through Jesus Christ.
And that's what I mean, as in then.
And Shea had said about the fruit of the Spirit, that picture is understanding.
As I begin to walk down this road, this relationship, my heart becomes transformed by Holy Spirit.
(44:07):
And over time, I'm able to look at things that are struggles in life, like pornography or placing football is the most important thing of my life, over my family and over my work and over my finances, because I gamble it away or whatever it may be.
(44:27):
That is what I mean by it only comes through Holy Spirit because he transforms our hearts so that the power of God is with us to see these things as less important and even not necessary, completely unnecessary, and not good, not right.
(44:49):
And we begin a life that is completely a different trajectory away from those things.
That's the beauty of a relationship with with God and then the life that we live here.
Man, we start to walk down a road of blessing.
We start to walk down a road, it is difficult, which is where that persistence, even within faith is so huge.
(45:12):
So for somebody who has been a follower, staying persistent comes in huge ways.
By us looking at continuing to grow within our faith by surrounding ourselves with like minded individuals, surrounding ourselves with fellow believers and those who are also reading the scriptures and those who are also edifying and encouraging and building.
(45:35):
Up each other and fulfilling the great commands of to love God and love others through how we live, through how we think, through how we speak.
And we continue to persevere in our faith.
We continue to persevere and persist in life.
And it leads us down a road of reward.
(45:55):
Not a road necessarily a reward of like, hey, if you do this, then when you hit 65, here's a million dollars.
No, that's not what I mean by a road of reward.
Even as a football fan who's persevered for many years through whatever scenario you've looked through.
As a Pittsburgh Steelers fan, I've heard a lot of conversations from Cleveland Browns fans and the excitement of the idea of actually having a quarterback and things like that and how they've persevered for so long.
(46:24):
That carries you through, but it doesn't necessarily always create perceivable fruit.
And what I mean by that is just because you fight through to survive through the fact that your team never has a quarterback doesn't mean that you're going to live to see them actually have a sustainable quarterback.
(46:46):
It's the same in life.
There may be certain things that you struggle and persevere through that you may never actually see yourself out of.
But the way in which you go about persevering through that and persisting and having patience through that is something that can be held as commendable, especially when we look at something of faith.
(47:07):
If I persevere through whatever it is in life, whether it's poverty or something like that, and I'm patient and persistent through that, I look to do what I can in my part to maybe step out of that, but maybe it's not the Lord's will.
And there's a way for me to be able to speak into the lives of others and to be able to be an example to others in that specific topic, that world, whatever.
(47:31):
And all my life I'm in that and I even pass away in that.
Well, the beautiful thing is that there are spiritual rewards to the way in which we go through the physical here on Earth.
And so that's a whole nother conversation.
So you may not be guaranteed a Super Bowl, but there is something very commendable about being persistent and persevering through and with a team that you thoroughly enjoy, that you're loyal to, and that you have fun camaraderie around, et cetera, even if they may never actually take you to the Promised Land.
(48:11):
That's true.
Yeah, that's true.
I don't know if I'll ever get to see that Promised Land.
Maybe I'm more like Moses, and I'll just never see it, and I'm just kind of walking with this team until they get there.
But, yeah, I hope I do.
But Amen, everything you just said, man, I love it.
Anything else you want to share about this idea of patience and persistence, whether from football to life to kids to parenting to marriage to family? Spiritually, I think you hit it on the head, so I feel like I would just be reiterating everything you just said.
(48:46):
I think you stated that part perfectly.
I just think about if you're someone who maybe is newly married or you're trying to figure that whole thing out.
Marriage is a patience game.
Marriage, even if you are so madly in love with the other person, you'll find that there are days where your patience runs thin with them.
(49:12):
That's just the reality of it.
And anyone who tells you otherwise, I'll just say is lying.
There are days when that happens.
If you are willing to do that, then let me just say the reward for it is so worth it, and that reward is worth it whether you are a Christian or not.
(49:32):
I don't know if I'm allowed to say that as a pastor, but I'm going to because I think there's a lot of patience and persistent marriages out there of people who aren't Christians, and they see the benefit of it.
So it's worth it.
It's worth it.
It's worth it, especially in our day and age where marriage seems to be an afterthought in everyone's mind, and it's not this big thing.
(50:00):
So that's probably what I would say there.
And then in regards to sports teams and fans, man, if you're a team that apparently is always doing well, that must be nice.
I will say I've been accused already three times this year of being a bandwagon fan by people who don't know me when they hear me say, I'm a Dolphins fan.
(50:24):
And I got to admit I love it.
I love hearing that because that means other people recognize that they're good.
That's true.
I've been waiting a long time to hear people say something like that for me, because before by a thing was always when I tell people I'm a Dolphins fan and like, why do you like the Dolphins? And stuff like that.
And I go, the one thing I always would say was, well, you can't accuse me of being a bandwagon fan.
(50:48):
There's nothing to support there.
It's kind of cool to see the fruits of it.
Now, my prediction not that you asked for this, but my prediction for this, I actually was just about to say let's hear it.
The bills will end up winning the AFC East.
Unfortunately.
I'd love to see Miami won it.
(51:09):
I do think the Bills will find a way to do it.
I think Miami gets in in the wild card.
I think they end up as either the five or six seed.
I think they make it to the AFC Championship and they lose to the Chiefs.
I think the Chiefs play the Vikings in the Super Bowl because I think the Eagles are a little overrated this year.
(51:30):
I don't think they're all that chalked up that they look like they are.
I think the cracks are starting to show right now in their team.
And so I think it's a Vikings Chief Super Bowl.
And I think the Chiefs dominate in that game.
35 to 14 for Patrick.
Oh, Holmes, have another Super Bowl.
And it just kind of proves that he doesn't need a Tyreek Hill or something like that in his team.
(51:52):
It just shows how good of one a coach Andy Reid is and how good of a player Patrick Mahomes is.
That is my outtake, I guess, mid end of season outtake.
That's kind of how I think it's going to be.
And as a Dolphins fan, I'm okay with that.
It'd be fun to see a rematch of the 49 ers Chiefs.
Really? That's what you'd want to see? I was thinking if the 40 niners made it, it'd be cool to see the Dolphins make it because then you get that Shanahan McDaniel showdown.
(52:20):
I thought that would be kind of cool.
That may be.
I'm just thinking out of potential right now.
I think NFC right now, the team that I think could make yeah.
The top three right now would be the Eagles, the Niners and the Vikings.
And out of those, I think it would come down to the Niners and the Vikings personally.
Yeah.
So that's interesting, though, to hear.
You do think they'll win a game in the playoffs, right? You think that? Yeah.
(52:47):
Honestly, I could be wrong because it comes down to the Bills and Dolphins game in week.
Was that 14? What are we on right now? 1315, something like that.
It's in no clue.
It's in three weeks.
And the winner of that game will be the team that wins the AFCS, in my opinion.
Are you thinking when you say Vikings, Chiefs, and the Chiefs own the Vikings, are you saying like, the Denver Carolina Super Bowl level of dominance or when Cam Newton got absolutely wrecked? Yeah, I do.
(53:23):
I don't think the Vikings have a defense that can hold up against, honestly, just my opinion, a West Coast style attack offense.
And that's kind of what the Chiefs are.
That's what the Niners are.
That's why I think they would have lost to the Dolphins if Tua was at the helm.
They seem to struggle when you have those receivers who are going across the field and going in the open and the short routes and stuff like that.
(53:50):
I mean, that's how the Cowboys beat them like they did.
They didn't go deep against the Vikings.
The Vikings will beat you if you try to do the whole standard passing and running.
But that's kind of what they did with CD.
Lamb in that game when they won 40 to three.
They were sending Pollard out on the fly routes, out of the backfield, stuff like that, that I think Minnesota cannot stop.
(54:18):
They just don't know how to stop it because I think they're still stuck in a very traditional idea of defense.
So that's why I think Chiefs 49 ers Dolphins, I'm trying to think of other teams that kind of run it like that.
Maybe Rams, they have something of that sort of an offense.
I think any kind of offense that runs like that will beat Minnesota.
(54:39):
So that's why I think the Chiefs just absolutely dominate there, because then what will happen, especially against the Chiefs, is then the Vikings will start to commit against those shorter passes.
But now you got Patrick Mahomes, who will send like a McColl hardman downfield and just absolutely he'll burn you.
And Patrick Holmes just launched that ball down there, and it's game over from that point.
(55:02):
So in my opinion, I think that's what will happen.
And I live in Minnesota.
My whole entire family, wife and her family are Minnesota fans.
So I don't think I'll show them your podcast episode of this one.
You're putting it all on the line.
I don't think I need to hear that hate from them.
But in my opinion, I think that's what will happen.
Based upon watching Minnesota Viking games this year, we'll see if that even becomes the two, you know what I mean? But I think it might be kind of a far cry to get a team like Minnesota in the Super Bowl being the first year that they would even win the NFC North in a while.
(55:36):
I said that the Dolphins weren't even going to get more than nine wins.
So who am I? Who am I? It's okay.
I only had them at about eight to ten wins this season, too.
And then, like I said, I think they'll go past that ten mark.
I think they beat the Niners this week.
I think they beat the Chargers the week after.
Like I said, I think it really comes down to that Bills game, and I don't know what's going to happen.
(55:59):
And then I think we have Patriots Jets, I think we beat the jets.
I don't know what's going to happen with the Patriots.
So that's at least three wins right there, which should put us at eleven.
I think if we can just snag one more of those which the Bills game, I think that'll bring us down to AFC East title and whoever wins AFC to east will be the number two seed.
(56:24):
I think the Chiefs will still end up the number one seed, get the buy, but I think the AFC East will be the person who gets the number two seed.
Well, Shay, I appreciate you coming on today, chatting a little bit about a little bit about the Dolphins, giving us a little bit of your prediction here at the end.
Talking a little bit about patience and persistence within being a Dolphins fan, let alone what that has meant in life, in general, in faith, et cetera.
(56:49):
And I love it when those conversations kind of come just naturally through conversation.
Just two guys sitting, chatting.
Thank you so much for coming on.
Any final remarks? It's a pleasure.
Thanks so much for having me.
I loved it.
Love talking sports, so anytime.
Good luck to those Dolphins the rest of the way.
Yeah, thanks, man.
Have a good one.
(57:09):
If you love the kind of content that you've been hearing, you love the opportunity to be able to hear about different sports conversations from just average fans and what they think about their team, as well as different ways that reflects into life and different pieces that are going on, different topics and themes that we've faced.
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(57:31):
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(57:52):
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(58:14):
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Welcome into another episode with another guest, Shea Cutshaw
Shea and I actually met I don't know how long ago that was, but we met through the interwebs.
Good dude.
And, well, all except for one thing, being a Miami dolphin fan.
I'm just kidding.
(00:27):
If anybody listens to the previous episode, I did mention in there about how I grew up in a Miami dolphins household.
So I do kind of have a soft spot for the dolphins.
How are you doing, Shea? I'm doing well, man.
First of all, you as a Miami dolphins fan, we got to be pretty excited right now, right? Yeah.
(00:49):
Leading the AFC East.
Take that, bills.
Leading the AFC east and feeling for the first time feeling confident about our team's direction.
Like I was just telling my wife the other day we were flexed into a Sunday night football game against the chargers in week 14.
(01:10):
I believe it is.
Yeah.
Because this week we play the niners, and then next week we'll play the chargers.
And I can't think of a time in watching football that I've seen Miami flexed into a prime time game.
I've seen this flexed out of prime time games.
We're not into one before.
What's happening in the AFC east this year is what I think we all expected in the AFC west.
(01:35):
Yeah.
I would agree with that.
I think that's pretty accurate.
We expected the AFC West.
AFC west west.
No, that SpongeBob episode.
Not east.
It's weeest.
Yeah.
We expected the AFC west to be these juggernauts because I can't think of a team in the AFC west that we expected to be really bad.
(02:01):
And by and large, it's the chiefs just running away with it.
I think the charges are a little overrated.
I think Justin Herbert is a little overrated.
He had a really good rookie season, but I think now I think we're starting to see him hit sophomore slump.
No, he was dropped to two seasons ago.
Yeah, he's junior now and junior slump.
I don't know, something like that.
But I think we're starting to see how, honestly, he's a very similar quarterback.
(02:26):
The tua.
If you have the right coaching and the right players around him, then he'll look like a good quarterback, but he's not a Patrick Mahomes, Tom Brady, Peyton Manning, who's going to elevate these guys to play really well from nothing, who was yeah.
I actually expected the raiders to fight for.
(02:46):
And I had made a bold prediction that they would win the AFC west.
Yeah.
And the chiefs, I had really thought, man, that the defense would be the downfall of them.
I didn't think that the tyreek loss I thought, would affect different aspects of things.
But Andy Reid has always been offensive mighty coach.
(03:07):
They would make changes.
They would still do well on offense.
Juju good for him.
He's doing better down there than I expected him to do.
When it comes to the defense, though, I thought that's where there's going to be issues, but their defense has been playing pretty darn good football.
And then obviously, you get to the Chargers.
The Chargers I had thought was going to be a wild card team this year.
They still may, but it's a muddy mess in the AFC because I think the level of competition is higher in the AFC than it is in the NFC right now.
(03:35):
And so it's going to be harder for certain teams that aren't actually setting themselves apart to make those wild card spots because you have divisions like the AFC East that have all four teams in potential of playoffs, and so it makes it really difficult to actually potentially make that spot.
And then for some reason, I'm blanking on who the fourth team is and the Broncos.
(03:57):
Yeah.
Now I will say this unforgettable right now exactly.
The projection I had for the Broncos coming in the season was that people were over.
They were over projecting the Broncos.
And I didn't think it would be to the like they would perform as low as the level that we've been seeing.
I pretty much was par for the course on that prediction.
(04:17):
But listen, one out of four teams listen, that's not good enough to brag about.
I think the Broncos issue I know we're talking Dolphins and stuff, but that's all right.
We're talking football.
Broncos and Chargers, I think their issues are honestly coaching.
I don't think Nathaniel Hack is a good coach.
I think we saw that week one when they should have won that game.
(04:38):
And I saw staff, if the Broncos had scored like 18 or 19 points or something in a game all season, then they would be like eight and one or something like that.
So to me, that's a coaching thing right there.
And then same thing.
I think Brandon Staley, I love aggressiveness, but I think he's trying to be aggressive for like a niche or something like that.
(05:04):
This is who I am.
And I think we see that hurting.
And I feel like Staley, if he wants to remain a coach, he's got to position the right people around him to help him.
And I don't think he's doing that.
And I think that's why we need her back to the Dolphins here.
I think that's why Mike McDaniel is doing so well, because he's always been positioned around these gurus of coaches and then even the staff that he's brought in to be with him are just people who I don't agree with keeping Josh border, but that's fine.
(05:35):
It is what it is.
I kind of wish they actually brought Lovey Smith in to be the defensive coordinator.
So I'm really happy he's in Houston.
I'm happy he got another shot.
Unfortunately inherited one of the worst rosters I've ever seen.
I mean, when you start Davis Mills a quarterback, what do you expect? But yeah, so I think that's what we're seeing in Denver and in Los Angeles with the Chargers.
(06:04):
I think that we're just seeing how some coaches are coordinators, some coaches are college guys, and Matt Rule, I think, just figured that out.
I just read that he's like, if I could do it all over again, I wouldn't have taken the Panthers job.
And he seems really happy that we're in Nebraska.
I'm not happy being a Michigan State fan, but it's fine.
(06:25):
I'll get over it.
But some guys are just college coaches and some guys are just coordinators.
And I think the more people start to figure that out, the better off those coaches will be.
But that's my personal opinion on the Chargers and Broncos issue there.
So anyway, back to the AFC East, back to the Dolphins.
(06:46):
I know you probably have been sick and tired for about 20 years now when it comes to some of the other who's that team in the North, I mean, nobody really knows about them.
Nobody knows what they have been able to do.
You know, some people argue about their quarterback being one of the worst of all time.
(07:06):
You know, it's so your division hasn't been too difficult, right? Yeah, for the longest time, I think every team in the AFC East has been overshadowed by Tom Brady just being there.
So obviously that's going to be hard.
But the really cool thing, this is a stat that unless you're watching a Dolphins Patriots game, you'll never really know is Tom Brady struggles the most against the Dolphins.
(07:37):
I don't know what it is.
And that's not just being home or wet.
Like, regardless, he just seems to struggle against the Dolphins.
And I don't know why that is, because we've had the coaching carousel.
We've had the player carousel thing.
So it's not like the same coach has been there forever and is trying to always trip him up.
(07:58):
So I don't know what it is.
So I do love that.
I remember seeing a stat let me interject here real quick.
I remember seeing a stat that actually I used to joke with my brother.
He's a Patriots fan.
I used to joke with him all the time.
When the Patriots would beat the Dolphins in both games in a season, they would never win a Super Bowl.
And so that was at some point.
(08:20):
I don't know if that stats still held, but I always joked with him when they would go two and a guns Dolphins, I was just like, you guys don't have a shot.
You guys don't have a shot.
Because that was always the case.
They had to lose.
They had to lose one game to the Dolphins in order to go on and win the Super Bowl.
The closest, obviously, they came was an seven with the almost perfect run, and the Giants did their thing.
(08:42):
Thank you, New York this year.
Thank you, Washington.
Washington ended Philly's undefeated run.
Saul still the only undefeated team out there.
You're not undefeated.
What are you talking about? 72 season.
Sorry.
That's what I'm referencing.
No one can take that title.
I got you.
(09:03):
We are undefeated when Two is starting at quarterback.
He has not lost a game this season.
The three losses all came when he died against was it the Bengals? And then the next two games, that was the worst.
Because then the next game, I think, was the jets, and Teddy Bridgewater gets hit in the end zone.
(09:26):
That's when they changed all the protocols and everything like that.
And nobody would have looked at the play and thought, oh, he has a concussion, or something like that.
But whoever the spotter was, because the rule said, no, he needs to go take one place.
All the tests, the spotter was like, no, he can't come back in.
And he couldn't.
So then we've got a third string 7th round rookie, Scotter Thompson, playing, okay, cool.
(09:51):
Love to see what he can do.
But of course, he hasn't been with even the first or even some second team reps.
Scott Thompson gets to play the next week against Minnesota, and he gets injured at the end of the first quarter.
Bridgewater comes in, who hasn't had the first team reps all week.
So those three losses, I think if Two will play I don't know if we're still undefeated.
(10:13):
I'm not willing to say that, but I do think we're maybe one or two losses in on the season.
I do think we would have beat Minnesota.
I don't know if we would have beat Cincinnati.
I think they're a team.
You got to figure out what's happening.
But I do think we would have beat the Jets, I think for sure if Tua was playing with the offense that we had.
(10:35):
So, yeah, there's that Tua fan.
I can feel it.
I wouldn't say I'm a Tua fan because I will fully admit I wanted Herbert in the draft.
I did not want Tua in the draft.
Now, how things are panning out, I'm glad to say I think I was wrong, especially with all the I don't know if you saw the recent stuff about Tua.
(10:59):
Like, apparently he was in a dark place where he was asking himself, like, do I suck? And stuff like that.
That was from last season.
But yeah, Brian Flores regime about how he like, apparently Flores is very open about, if I could have picked Mac Jones instead of you, I would have.
And that just shows how much power our owner has over all that stuff, which that also bothers me.
(11:23):
But that's fine.
Don't let a coach be a coach.
But I'm glad that McDaniel is a coach that all the players seem to love.
He's a fun uncle.
Yeah, he's a weird dude, but I love watching him and listening to him talking stuff.
(11:47):
They showed a clip of him at the game.
This is what happens when a team is up 30 to nothing.
Apparently you can just joke about things on the sideline.
Him and two are talking during the game and he goes, yeah, man, I woke up at 03:00 a.m.
And I remembered because I could go back to sleep.
You were YouTubing me.
So I decided to YouTube you.
And he was talking about to his high school technique and he goes, it was trash, man.
(12:10):
You were trash.
And they were laughing.
Like I think that's so cool to see that kind of stuff because I don't want to get too ahead of myself but I feel like every time I see that kind of like coach player and it's not just with two.
He's that way with all his players.
Whenever you see that kind of stuff, people just having fun, those are usually the teams that end up winning super Bowls and steam to stick around for a long time.
(12:37):
Andy Reid and Patrick Mahomes have that same kind of relationship where they just have a fun time with each other.
Big Ben and Tomlin seem to always have a good time with each other on those clips and stuff.
So I get really excited when I see that and I hope McDaniel is one of those generational coaches where he's here for a while.
I'd love to see it but yeah, he's a weird dude.
(12:59):
He has some interesting stuff he says sometimes.
Yeah, I love listening to some of his humor because I had seen that clip that you're talking about.
I'd also seen another clip where I think it was his running back who was running and he made a move and caused a missed tackle and he comes over to him on Saturday.
He's like, hey, man, I just want to let you know I like the way you made that move and he wasn't able to do what he wanted to do with you and you made another move and the guys like a broken tackle and he walked away.
(13:37):
It's hysterical.
I love that he is.
But but I think the really cool thing and honestly with me being in ministry, watching McDaniel coach has kind of been like helping me think about how I lead my leaders.
I know it's probably a little bit off topic but he sat down.
He put that together.
I think it was a 700 hours tape of Tua to prove to play did not suck that's McDaniel going above and beyond.
(14:06):
No one asked him to do that.
But McDaniel did it and I love that it shows that he's a guy who actually cares about his players and stuff because McDaniel could have came in and said let's go trade for Jimmy G.
Let's go get this guy.
Let's get Tua out of here.
But he was said he's like, nope, Tua, I'm going to get the most out of you.
(14:26):
I want you to become the best.
And I think we're just constantly seeing that kind of stuff now there was rumors that there were Dolphins.
The Dolphins were interested in Jimmy G, but I think that was more as a backup option rather than a starting option because we have Teddy Bridgewater and we draft that 7th round rookie.
But how nice would it be to know that your backup option can step right into your offense because he was already in the past and just play at a high level.
(14:54):
So I think that's a little bit what that was, I don't think to his job was ever in danger.
But I love to see how McDaniel is with all his players.
And honestly, it's making me rethink a lot of my own things and how I'm leading my leaders and kind of what can I do for them, especially when they maybe get in some of those dry spells where they need those pick me up.
(15:19):
That's a pretty cool thing to be able to identify and see how the team that you're a fan of, the coach who's leading the team, you're a fan of, how he's doing things and like, you know what? I can take something more away from this.
Not only I'm excited as a fan, but like, oh, man, I like how he's doing that? How can I apply that into my own life, into what I do? That's really cool.
(15:42):
I think that's a thing.
Sometimes we don't realize the power, that the things in which we give our time and our hobbies, the things we enjoy, can actually affect us in deeper ways and affect how we approach different things in life, for good or for worse.
And this is a great example about how you're able to see something like that.
(16:03):
It's like, oh, dude, I like how he does that.
How can I better interact with my coworkers, with the people who are my subordinates, with any of my customers, depending on what kind of job someone has? And even I even think about how I can interact with my own kid.
(16:24):
I love how they're talking in a way of respect, but also in fun.
And man, that's a cool way to emulate.
And it can affect then how in which you even talk with your kid sometimes it can go negatively too, and how teams down, you see different interactions, how they're very negative, and it starts to affect your mood and your mentality.
And that's a heart issue.
(16:44):
And having to address like, man, how much am I letting this team affect me? And stuff.
And that nature.
Which brings me to another thought in the way of I had said earlier about you have probably been hating the past 20 years because of that team in the north.
And and so in the midst of that, we had talked in in prior conversation about this idea of perseverance, of patience, of persistence, and really this picture of as a fan of a team in football, a lot of teams, most teams, if we're honest.
(17:27):
Right.
Most teams, in some way, at some point, you have to persevere and be patient through down seasons, through bad decisions, through terrible calls, through the dominance of another team.
So it may not even be that there's bad things on your team, but just the dominance of another team.
(17:55):
In your mind, how has that affected different things? When you look at this idea of patience, of persistence within football, as a Dolphins fan, how do you see a picture of that affecting other parts in your life when it comes to those Triple P's? Yeah, I think even just that perseverance and patience aspect, I see it affecting things.
(18:25):
Like when I think about those topics in general, and it's always kind of cool to connect your team and watching your team go through it, even though some people might laugh and go, well, that's trivial, like, you're overthinking it and stuff like that.
But honestly, when you're a Christian, I think you're supposed to overthink, and you can see the beauty of the gospel and all these things that we have.
(18:49):
But I think we see it in things like my marriage.
Maybe I want my wife to be a little bit further along in something that we're working through, or I want to be further along as a husband.
And whatever the issue may be at the time.
(19:09):
Right.
We want the overnight success.
Right.
We want the big free agent signing, the splash.
But the reality is, most of these teams who are at the top, it took them a while to get there.
And so especially, like, the Dolphins right now, I don't know if this is a one year thing or not, but it does seem like a different team from the years and years and years that I have been watching in the past.
(19:39):
And so I think, for me, the big reminder that I take out of it is that it's a process.
It's finding the right pieces.
And then when you do find the right pieces, finding a way to keep those pieces there, getting rid of the things that are not helping, those pieces.
So I think about, like, they want patience with developing tua, and they saw that Flores was not developing to he was not helping, so they got rid of him, even though everyone at the time thought that's a really dumb move, myself included.
(20:13):
Why would you fire Flores even though he has the defense going in the right direction? He revolutionized the COVID zero blitz scheme and stuff like that.
So it seems like that piece is right there, but in the grand vision of it all and what you're trying to accomplish, it doesn't fit.
So you get rid of it, you find a new piece, and then you keep moving with it.
(20:35):
And so I think that's been kind of the flow in my own life, is as I try to be a better husband, as I try to be a better father as I try to be a better pastor, as I try to be a better teacher.
It's all about.
Like some of those things might have worked for a short time, but when I'm looking at the long term game of it, what's kind of the things that I need to put into place in my own life to make sure that I am playing the long game so that I can go win some championships, so I can sit there and have those victory moments.
(21:07):
And there might be moments where I'm having the one in 15, the O and 16 seasons, but if I know I'm putting all the right pieces in place and I'm persevering and I'm constantly pushing and I know what I'm working towards, then it's all going to be worth it in the end right there.
So I think that's a little bit that's probably a general overview of how I connect all those pieces even in my own life.
(21:29):
And I was telling you on the last time when we talked about this, I actually got to talk about this because I was at the Vikings Dolphins game in Miami, and I got to talk to a fan in front of me about this.
I don't remember we were talking about like, man, when's the last time we got to see the Dolphins be this good? We can't think of a time, like, maybe the early 2000s with Jay Feedler, Ricky Williams, and Chris Chambers on the team, Randy McMichael, stuff like that.
(21:56):
And we won wild card of the playoffs.
That's probably the last time we really thought, like, wow, this team is pretty good.
And then from there, we just started talking about, yeah, you got to have patience and persistence with this team and stuff like that.
And then I was able to actually turn it into a gospel conversation because then he started asking, what do you do in your life? And I got somehow I was a pastor, and I said, honestly, I was able to say it's a little bit like being a Dolphins fan as a pastor and a Christian.
(22:27):
When you're leading people and just when you're leading your own self in your walk with the Lord, not everything is going to go the way that you want.
You got to find those right people, like those right mentors in your life to be those coordinators for you so you can be a QB one.
And with God as your head coach, if you want to keep the sports analogies going and stuff like that, right? So it's just all about finding those right pieces.
(22:55):
And at the end of it, the guy was like, man, I never knew I could have fun with God and religion and how you're talking about it right now.
That was his big takeaway was I didn't know.
I never thought about connecting those pieces.
I just thought it was this dry, boring, liturgical thing where I just show up on Sunday morning, but I can see how it's this process.
(23:17):
And he goes, It's just been really cool.
Have you been able to connect with it also? He actually asked me, he goes, can you find me a couple of churches in the area? I'd love to take my wife and kids to church this Sunday and start thinking about it.
And thankfully, because of all the random discord communities and stuff that I'm in and different streamers that I met and so forth via Twitch and all that stuff, I've been able to meet different youth pastors.
(23:44):
And so some youth pastors that I trust and one was in Miami, and I'm like, Well, I know this youth ministry, so let me offer up this church to you right now.
And so as far as I know, he did go to church that Sunday.
I haven't been able to keep up with them since then.
We didn't really exchange contact information, but that was just kind of like a cool takeaway moment of how I can use sports and then I can use it to glorify God and point people back to God.
(24:12):
How have you experienced patience and persistence in your life that has either been a success or failure story? Sometimes I think we only want to talk about the success, but sometimes I feel like we really learned from the failures.
Yeah, you say that and I think about college.
For me, honestly, so I am the first person in my family in like three generations to actually graduate college with a bachelor's degree.
(24:42):
Well, congrats.
I'm the first person in like three generations to actually be a Christian, as far as I know, in my family, honestly, the odds were stacked against me because I was doing everything that was so counter from my family.
So when I went off to a Christian college, I remember my parents at the time, both of them, and they were divorced.
(25:07):
So I came from this broken home, and I remember stepping into a Christian world and nobody seemed to understand me.
No one else came from a broken home.
They've been their family and their dad and their grandpa, whoever they've been four generation pastor.
It seems like that's everyone that I met and nobody understood me.
(25:29):
So I got that and they got my parents.
Tell me this whole Christianity thing, like, I'm glad that you found something to make you happy, but you don't really want to spend your whole life around it and stuff.
You don't want to spend four years of your life going to school to figure all this out, to go be a pastor.
So I had these odds stacked against me, and there are many times when I'm like, yeah, I could quit.
(25:55):
I could just go find some business job, work my way up the ranks and be just fine, or something like that.
But honestly, if I didn't stay persistent, I wouldn't have met my wife through college.
I met her at the end of my junior year, going into senior year.
So that's a little bit of time to get there.
So if I didn't meet her, I would have had my two wonderful kids that I have now.
(26:20):
I wouldn't have got my degree to be a pastor.
I've now been a pastor as a youth pastor of my last church and now my current church.
I'm the family pastor there.
Like, none of those things would have happened if I didn't stay persistent and stay moving.
And there were times when it sucked, it was dark, and I kind of just wanted to give up, throw in the towel.
(26:47):
But that Isaiah 40 31 verse kept coming to mind, like, are you weary? Are you in a dry season? We'll keep going because it's the Lord who's going to give you the feet to run, it's the wings to fly, and ultimately that whole idea.
And yes, it's connected to Old Testament in Israel, and I don't want to take it too much out of its context, but just like God's telling Israel all the time in that context, he's saying, keep going, because you find your energy, you find that way to keep going in me.
(27:21):
And I will continue to position all the right things around you, but you have to stay persistent.
You have to be patient, because it's on my timetable, not yours.
And so it's those kind of reminders that kept me going, that kept me going.
And so when I walked across that stage to grab my diploma, seriously, it was such a triumphant moment in my life.
(27:47):
I remember shaking our president's hand and grabbing the diploma as I'm walking across.
I literally yelled, like, let's go.
Kind of thing like that.
Everyone's quiet and yay.
This person, we're going to clap.
And I'm just saying, over here, like, give me the gatorade bath.
(28:09):
Come on.
Do not know what I just did.
Even my wife's, the same way people went to college, she's been a she didn't understand.
So for me, when I want to frame my diploma and put it on my that is a big moment of significance for me.
(28:29):
That is my Lombardi Trophy, because I think about how persistent and patient I had to be in my own life to get through that season.
And because I did, I didn't just get a diploma.
I'm in a career field that I absolutely love.
I have a wife that I absolutely love.
I have wonderful children.
Everything that I'm in now is because I was patient and persistent through that college time.
(28:54):
And if I had given up, how differently would my life I probably won't be sitting here having this interview with you right now.
So, honestly, a lot of my stuff during my college time goes back.
It's a massive mark on everything that I'm doing now.
Man, that's awesome.
There's a lot of connection to some.
(29:15):
I was thinking through a couple for me as well.
And you had said about college and wife and stuff, it's like, oh, that's a big story of persistence for me as well.
I know there's a listener out there who's in that place.
Stay persistent now, don't be weird about it, but stay persistent.
Stay persistent.
No, my wife and I actually started well, I had a thing for her years ago in high school, but she and I actually started dating finally, senior year of high school.
(29:45):
And we had already decided on the colleges that we were going to prior to us dating.
And it was the same college, so it was really cool to see some of those things match up.
And then when I went to college, there was a piece of persistence, there was a piece of that that I was really trying to run after, which was proving people wrong.
It was being told for many years that I wouldn't be able to make it in a college football program.
(30:09):
And so I went out of my way to try and walk on and I successfully walked onto football program and I found myself that one summer I was spending a lot of time with other really wise men and prayerful men and spending a lot of time focusing on and praying through and looking at what I was approaching.
(30:30):
And I realized that a lot of what I was doing this this persistence that I was stuck in the mud about going through with this and about proving myself and I was I was really focused on what I wanted to do and I hadn't really looked at what was it that the Lord had a plan for.
(30:52):
One of the things that really I talk about the persistence of the relationship, the persistence of focusing on my now wife, my then girlfriend was I was losing her.
Like I had been persistent in high school about pursuing her and succeeded.
Succeeded.
Yes, I did it.
(31:13):
And then I get to where I'm being persistent with football for my own reasons as well.
And what I found was that I was losing that first piece that I had been so persistent of.
And I was looking at those things, of what are the things that are most important to me? And I was seeing a lot of them.
My grades in school, the opportunity of a work study, the opportunity of an internship required for my major, the opportunity of this relationship.
(31:40):
A lot of different pieces were faltering because I had been so persistent in a negative way, I had been so persistent on my own accord.
And that was the thing that really for years after that, even to this day, has me process things differently about what is the reason behind my persistence.
It's one thing for us to be persistent and have patience and persevere through different situations.
(32:04):
But anyway, so I had this persistence and this focus of what I was going to do.
And I realized that it was focused on me.
It was all focused on me.
And it's one thing to be focusing on something that creates opportunity, that betters yourself and betters your future.
(32:25):
It's another thing to be so selfish and so focused on yourself that you miss out on what great things the Lord has planned for you.
Because that's really the ultimate is looking at what I have planned for myself and how good that might be versus what God can have planned for me, what God does have planned for me and how that's the best that it could be.
(32:49):
And there's a big differentiation there.
So that persistence that I had for that, I had to actually then make a sacrifice.
And that's the truth, is many times when you look at the idea of patience, when you look at the idea of perseverance, when you look at any of these three PS, then you have the reality that if you truly want to make it through and make it matter, sacrifice is necessary.
(33:15):
And so when it came to that, I had to sacrifice my place on the football team.
And now God.
Here's one of the cool things for anybody who I think of those who may listen.
And I mentioned at different times about being a follower of Christ and you've mentioned about being a Christian and stuff.
One of the great things that has happened for me is in that choice of sacrifice and giving of that up, because I analyzed, I processed and I thought through what was the most important and what did I need to be focusing on, because I sacrificed that.
(33:52):
God then was able to use that situation.
And this is the cool thing, because I had gone after those things.
I had gone after the football thing negatively.
It could have been very easy for me to then just for the Lord to be like, all right, okay, I didn't want you there.
You acknowledge that now.
Let's go where I want you.
(34:12):
And it just had been done.
But that's not what happened.
I got the opportunity to be able to work with the film and then work alongside the coaching staff.
And from there, that set me up with a resume.
I was able to literally a year out of college, I was able to get a job in high school football.
And so with that, I've been doing that for eight years now.
(34:33):
I just finished my 8th season in high school football.
The Lord used that even though one could say disobedient, even though I was so focused on myself trying to do whatever it took to persevere, whatever it took to make it through with my dream and my focus, he was able to use it.
So that's a really cool example.
(34:53):
But anyway, so we talk about these pieces about maybe with a wife or something like that, but another one that came to my mind that I think is important to be real about as a man in this life is persistence against certain things.
And one of the ones that popped in my mind was the topic of pornography, the topic of these kind of things that really take away from us the best for us, and the persistence of if you're a man, you know if you're a man, you know that there are temptations that arise in every way, shape and form, and you choose.
(35:38):
It's not anything for you to persevere for whatsoever.
And that's going to be something that you participate in.
But if you're somebody who looks to fight against a struggle with pornography, a struggle with any addiction of any kind, the level of perseverance and persistence that you have to have and you have to work through is I would argue greater than anything else, than any other kind of perseverance that somebody could speak on.
(36:08):
Because it's been something that has completely changed.
How your Abdullah ambagada, no, just kidding.
How your prefrontal cortex is shaped and the science and the chemistry of your mind like the different pieces, the habits that you've now formed and the strongholds of what sin has created in your life, man.
And that's where for me, things like that the only way.
(36:34):
We as humans, we have been created in strong ways, like we have strong capabilities, but we will fail.
We will fail.
We all have failed because we're not perfect and we all fall short of the glory of God.
And so with that man in places like that, when I think about something that's so deep to our court because it's something about football, even about a marriage, like there are deep parts to that, don't get me wrong about marriage and such.
(37:01):
When it comes to something that continues to permeate from within ourselves, something like a struggle with pornography is so huge.
And I know we didn't talk anything about this topic, like we didn't talk about, hey, we could bring this up with this.
It was just something that I felt like was something somebody may be struggling with.
(37:21):
And I want to encourage you.
I want to encourage anybody who is facing pornography.
A struggle with pornography, a struggle with any kind of sexual sin is perseverance.
And patience is necessary to keep fighting, to keep making moves in your life, to put you in best scenarios and best situations, to be able to continue to fight that and keep moving forward.
(37:41):
But the ultimate to be freed from those, the ultimate level of perseverance and patience and persistence comes through Holy Spirit comes through Jesus Christ.
And that's something I've experienced in my own personal life is there are many things in my life that I have failed, that I continue to fail, that I'm only able to move forward in.
(38:03):
I'm only able to persevere through because of the power of God, because of the promises of god because of the knowledge of who he is, of what he thinks of me, who I am, because of who he has made me, not because of what I think of myself or what others tell me.
(38:23):
And so those things are huge and so we continue to fight.
But my encouragement is that the true freedom from those things, the true capability to be freed from those things, but also to stay freed from those things, to stay persistent in those things comes through Christ.
(38:44):
I was just going to piggyback on that and just point to when you talked about the Holy Spirit and that aspect of patience.
I mean, patience is one of the fruits of the Holy Spirit.
And if you were to go on Google or something like that and just type in Galatians five, you would find these fruits of the Spirit.
(39:08):
And honestly I think that's probably the one that if we look at all the fruits of the Spirit we think, oh, I could do patience by myself.
And the Bible is clear.
Like no, patience doesn't come from you, it comes from the Holy Spirit that lives within side of you.
And so ultimately, like you're already saying like Jesus, that's the answer, that's where it all starts.
(39:33):
And you talk about sacrifice too.
What bigger sacrifice is there than God giving us his own Son? So that we don't have to like you were talking about pornography so don't have to be chained down to something like feeling trapped in pornography.
We don't have to feel that way anymore.
Because I think about and then this is the pastor side, I mean, just starting to get going now, but I think about, like, Ephesians One and Ephesians Chapter two, where it talks about how Christ at the end of Ephesians One is lifted up far above the things of this world after he raises from the dead.
(40:12):
And then Ephesians two, it says that when we're saved, when we walk into that relationship, we are also lifted up into that same position with Jesus.
So we don't have to be chained down to the things of this world because they are so far beneath our feet.
But ultimately that only happens through Christ and the Holy Spirit living inside of us.
So that's just what I was going to say to piggyback off what you were saying there.
(40:35):
I think that for some people I think would argue that well, no, I was able to through persistence and perseverance able to defeat, not do a certain thing.
Maybe it is the pornography topic or something like that and that's phenomenal.
Don't mishear me.
That's phenomenal.
I think that's an awesome thing to strive for.
But I think deeply right is what is the reasoning behind that.
(41:02):
There may be a good reason behind it of like listen, my wife does not deserve that from me.
I respect that.
That is phenomenal.
I think an even deeper thing is not only does your wife not respect that from you, but neither does God has created.
God has created a natural purpose for those things.
(41:26):
And so not only is it honoring to her, but it's honoring to God when we don't do that.
And I think that what we think about God influences everything in our life, and it should influence everything in our life.
We were created.
God created us to be with Him.
And our disobedience, our sin has separated us from Him.
(41:49):
And good deeds, good works, trying to live a good life, all those things that cannot remove sin, sin and disobedience that we've committed cannot right the wrong of a perfect standard.
Like there's a perfect standard that we're held to.
We broke it.
There's no way, oh, we can be good.
(42:09):
Majoratively right.
That doesn't reach perfection.
And so that's why Jesus was so necessary.
And he came.
He he lived his life.
He lived a life of perfection, both as God come in the form of man and in flesh as man.
He came and he gave up of Himself so that you and I could be returned to our created purpose, which is to be with God.
(42:36):
We could be with him.
And it's something that is available to everyone.
And it starts for us today, now, here.
It doesn't start for us.
Just oh, I die.
I go to heaven.
Yeah, that's awesome.
I get to be with the One who made me, the One who loves me, the One who has the best in store for me.
But I get to experience that now.
(42:56):
And so I read the Bible, and I begin to learn about what he has said and what he has in store for me.
And I begin to surround myself by others who have also or are also reading this, to be able to converse, to be able to encourage, to be able to lift each other up, to be able to hold each other accountable.
(43:18):
So we are persistent through the difficulties that are to come in life, the struggles that are coming to come in life.
And I begin to grow in this relationship with the One who created me, the One who came and died for me, the One who rose again and defeated death for me.
And through that, I begin to grow.
(43:39):
My heart becomes transformed from that of someone who does not accept that gift to someone who does accept the gift of death in life through Jesus Christ.
And that's what I mean, as in then.
And Shea had said about the fruit of the Spirit, that picture is understanding.
As I begin to walk down this road, this relationship, my heart becomes transformed by Holy Spirit.
(44:07):
And over time, I'm able to look at things that are struggles in life, like pornography or placing football is the most important thing of my life, over my family and over my work and over my finances, because I gamble it away or whatever it may be.
(44:27):
That is what I mean by it only comes through Holy Spirit because he transforms our hearts so that the power of God is with us to see these things as less important and even not necessary, completely unnecessary, and not good, not right.
(44:49):
And we begin a life that is completely a different trajectory away from those things.
That's the beauty of a relationship with with God and then the life that we live here.
Man, we start to walk down a road of blessing.
We start to walk down a road, it is difficult, which is where that persistence, even within faith is so huge.
(45:12):
So for somebody who has been a follower, staying persistent comes in huge ways.
By us looking at continuing to grow within our faith by surrounding ourselves with like minded individuals, surrounding ourselves with fellow believers and those who are also reading the scriptures and those who are also edifying and encouraging and building.
(45:35):
Up each other and fulfilling the great commands of to love God and love others through how we live, through how we think, through how we speak.
And we continue to persevere in our faith.
We continue to persevere and persist in life.
And it leads us down a road of reward.
(45:55):
Not a road necessarily a reward of like, hey, if you do this, then when you hit 65, here's a million dollars.
No, that's not what I mean by a road of reward.
Even as a football fan who's persevered for many years through whatever scenario you've looked through.
As a Pittsburgh Steelers fan, I've heard a lot of conversations from Cleveland Browns fans and the excitement of the idea of actually having a quarterback and things like that and how they've persevered for so long.
(46:24):
That carries you through, but it doesn't necessarily always create perceivable fruit.
And what I mean by that is just because you fight through to survive through the fact that your team never has a quarterback doesn't mean that you're going to live to see them actually have a sustainable quarterback.
(46:46):
It's the same in life.
There may be certain things that you struggle and persevere through that you may never actually see yourself out of.
But the way in which you go about persevering through that and persisting and having patience through that is something that can be held as commendable, especially when we look at something of faith.
(47:07):
If I persevere through whatever it is in life, whether it's poverty or something like that, and I'm patient and persistent through that, I look to do what I can in my part to maybe step out of that, but maybe it's not the Lord's will.
And there's a way for me to be able to speak into the lives of others and to be able to be an example to others in that specific topic, that world, whatever.
(47:31):
And all my life I'm in that and I even pass away in that.
Well, the beautiful thing is that there are spiritual rewards to the way in which we go through the physical here on Earth.
And so that's a whole nother conversation.
So you may not be guaranteed a Super Bowl, but there is something very commendable about being persistent and persevering through and with a team that you thoroughly enjoy, that you're loyal to, and that you have fun camaraderie around, et cetera, even if they may never actually take you to the Promised Land.
(48:11):
That's true.
Yeah, that's true.
I don't know if I'll ever get to see that Promised Land.
Maybe I'm more like Moses, and I'll just never see it, and I'm just kind of walking with this team until they get there.
But, yeah, I hope I do.
But Amen, everything you just said, man, I love it.
Anything else you want to share about this idea of patience and persistence, whether from football to life to kids to parenting to marriage to family? Spiritually, I think you hit it on the head, so I feel like I would just be reiterating everything you just said.
(48:46):
I think you stated that part perfectly.
I just think about if you're someone who maybe is newly married or you're trying to figure that whole thing out.
Marriage is a patience game.
Marriage, even if you are so madly in love with the other person, you'll find that there are days where your patience runs thin with them.
(49:12):
That's just the reality of it.
And anyone who tells you otherwise, I'll just say is lying.
There are days when that happens.
If you are willing to do that, then let me just say the reward for it is so worth it, and that reward is worth it whether you are a Christian or not.
(49:32):
I don't know if I'm allowed to say that as a pastor, but I'm going to because I think there's a lot of patience and persistent marriages out there of people who aren't Christians, and they see the benefit of it.
So it's worth it.
It's worth it.
It's worth it, especially in our day and age where marriage seems to be an afterthought in everyone's mind, and it's not this big thing.
(50:00):
So that's probably what I would say there.
And then in regards to sports teams and fans, man, if you're a team that apparently is always doing well, that must be nice.
I will say I've been accused already three times this year of being a bandwagon fan by people who don't know me when they hear me say, I'm a Dolphins fan.
(50:24):
And I got to admit I love it.
I love hearing that because that means other people recognize that they're good.
That's true.
I've been waiting a long time to hear people say something like that for me, because before by a thing was always when I tell people I'm a Dolphins fan and like, why do you like the Dolphins? And stuff like that.
And I go, the one thing I always would say was, well, you can't accuse me of being a bandwagon fan.
(50:48):
There's nothing to support there.
It's kind of cool to see the fruits of it.
Now, my prediction not that you asked for this, but my prediction for this, I actually was just about to say let's hear it.
The bills will end up winning the AFC East.
Unfortunately.
I'd love to see Miami won it.
(51:09):
I do think the Bills will find a way to do it.
I think Miami gets in in the wild card.
I think they end up as either the five or six seed.
I think they make it to the AFC Championship and they lose to the Chiefs.
I think the Chiefs play the Vikings in the Super Bowl because I think the Eagles are a little overrated this year.
(51:30):
I don't think they're all that chalked up that they look like they are.
I think the cracks are starting to show right now in their team.
And so I think it's a Vikings Chief Super Bowl.
And I think the Chiefs dominate in that game.
35 to 14 for Patrick.
Oh, Holmes, have another Super Bowl.
And it just kind of proves that he doesn't need a Tyreek Hill or something like that in his team.
(51:52):
It just shows how good of one a coach Andy Reid is and how good of a player Patrick Mahomes is.
That is my outtake, I guess, mid end of season outtake.
That's kind of how I think it's going to be.
And as a Dolphins fan, I'm okay with that.
It'd be fun to see a rematch of the 49 ers Chiefs.
Really? That's what you'd want to see? I was thinking if the 40 niners made it, it'd be cool to see the Dolphins make it because then you get that Shanahan McDaniel showdown.
(52:20):
I thought that would be kind of cool.
That may be.
I'm just thinking out of potential right now.
I think NFC right now, the team that I think could make yeah.
The top three right now would be the Eagles, the Niners and the Vikings.
And out of those, I think it would come down to the Niners and the Vikings personally.
Yeah.
So that's interesting, though, to hear.
You do think they'll win a game in the playoffs, right? You think that? Yeah.
(52:47):
Honestly, I could be wrong because it comes down to the Bills and Dolphins game in week.
Was that 14? What are we on right now? 1315, something like that.
It's in no clue.
It's in three weeks.
And the winner of that game will be the team that wins the AFCS, in my opinion.
Are you thinking when you say Vikings, Chiefs, and the Chiefs own the Vikings, are you saying like, the Denver Carolina Super Bowl level of dominance or when Cam Newton got absolutely wrecked? Yeah, I do.
(53:23):
I don't think the Vikings have a defense that can hold up against, honestly, just my opinion, a West Coast style attack offense.
And that's kind of what the Chiefs are.
That's what the Niners are.
That's why I think they would have lost to the Dolphins if Tua was at the helm.
They seem to struggle when you have those receivers who are going across the field and going in the open and the short routes and stuff like that.
(53:50):
I mean, that's how the Cowboys beat them like they did.
They didn't go deep against the Vikings.
The Vikings will beat you if you try to do the whole standard passing and running.
But that's kind of what they did with CD.
Lamb in that game when they won 40 to three.
They were sending Pollard out on the fly routes, out of the backfield, stuff like that, that I think Minnesota cannot stop.
(54:18):
They just don't know how to stop it because I think they're still stuck in a very traditional idea of defense.
So that's why I think Chiefs 49 ers Dolphins, I'm trying to think of other teams that kind of run it like that.
Maybe Rams, they have something of that sort of an offense.
I think any kind of offense that runs like that will beat Minnesota.
(54:39):
So that's why I think the Chiefs just absolutely dominate there, because then what will happen, especially against the Chiefs, is then the Vikings will start to commit against those shorter passes.
But now you got Patrick Mahomes, who will send like a McColl hardman downfield and just absolutely he'll burn you.
And Patrick Holmes just launched that ball down there, and it's game over from that point.
(55:02):
So in my opinion, I think that's what will happen.
And I live in Minnesota.
My whole entire family, wife and her family are Minnesota fans.
So I don't think I'll show them your podcast episode of this one.
You're putting it all on the line.
I don't think I need to hear that hate from them.
But in my opinion, I think that's what will happen.
Based upon watching Minnesota Viking games this year, we'll see if that even becomes the two, you know what I mean? But I think it might be kind of a far cry to get a team like Minnesota in the Super Bowl being the first year that they would even win the NFC North in a while.
(55:36):
I said that the Dolphins weren't even going to get more than nine wins.
So who am I? Who am I? It's okay.
I only had them at about eight to ten wins this season, too.
And then, like I said, I think they'll go past that ten mark.
I think they beat the Niners this week.
I think they beat the Chargers the week after.
Like I said, I think it really comes down to that Bills game, and I don't know what's going to happen.
(55:59):
And then I think we have Patriots Jets, I think we beat the jets.
I don't know what's going to happen with the Patriots.
So that's at least three wins right there, which should put us at eleven.
I think if we can just snag one more of those which the Bills game, I think that'll bring us down to AFC East title and whoever wins AFC to east will be the number two seed.
(56:24):
I think the Chiefs will still end up the number one seed, get the buy, but I think the AFC East will be the person who gets the number two seed.
Well, Shay, I appreciate you coming on today, chatting a little bit about a little bit about the Dolphins, giving us a little bit of your prediction here at the end.
Talking a little bit about patience and persistence within being a Dolphins fan, let alone what that has meant in life, in general, in faith, et cetera.
(56:49):
And I love it when those conversations kind of come just naturally through conversation.
Just two guys sitting, chatting.
Thank you so much for coming on.
Any final remarks? It's a pleasure.
Thanks so much for having me.
I loved it.
Love talking sports, so anytime.
Good luck to those Dolphins the rest of the way.
Yeah, thanks, man.
Have a good one.
(57:09):
If you love the kind of content that you've been hearing, you love the opportunity to be able to hear about different sports conversations from just average fans and what they think about their team, as well as different ways that reflects into life and different pieces that are going on, different topics and themes that we've faced.
And maybe you've been dealing with that this speaks to, let us know, let me know.
(57:31):
Maybe drop a comment on YouTube, on whatever podcast platform you're on, listening to this.
Drop a five star, drop a review, let us know how we're doing.
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The link is in the description where you can go to the link tree as well and you can look at different ways to be more a part of what's happening.
(57:52):
There's different perks and different fun ways for you.
To hear more, to get more content, to see what's going on in the background as these episodes are being created or if you just want to support to support.
Thank you, truly appreciate you and appreciate your support in getting this podcast out and letting people connect in ways deeper than just football.
(58:14):
There's a lot of different podcasts out there right now just talking football and our goal here is to not only talk football, but let that go into other important conversations and how they affect us in life.
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