Two teams remain. Today, the AFC champion faces the NFC champion for the LIX – 59th Lombardi Trophy at Caesars Superdome in New Orleans.
Super Bowl Sunday is America’s premier event! It’s the most-watched sporting event and second only to Thanksgiving for food consumption.
Second Chances
In the 1929 Rose Bowl, Roy Riegels of California made a legendary mistake—running 65 yards in the wrong direction. His team lost points, and at halftime, he was devastated.
Coach Nibbs Price, instead of benching him, said, “Roy, get up and go back; the game is only half over.” Riegels returned and played the second half like never before.
Truthful Message: The Game Is Only Half Over.
Whatever the situation or circumstance, whatever the mistake, or wrong decision…get up and go back…the game is only half over.
With any setback, there are feelings of hopelessness, shame, embarrassment,…….. and regret. Can you relate?
God is not restricted, horrified, or embarrassed by your mistakes…when you run the wrong way!
Jeremiah 31:3 says, “I have loved you with an everlasting love. I have drawn you with unfailing kindness!”
If you’ve ever felt that you have disappointed God to such an extent that He would never love you again or accept you into heaven, remember this promise:
“But God demonstrates His own love by this, while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Romans 5:8
Let’s be honest, it would be sweet if we could just forget certain parts of our disappointing choices, events or decisions in our lives, but hold on…those memories aren’t there to torment you, God always has redemptive value in mind for us!
We are to learn from them and share them with others at the point of their difficulty. God is not restricted, horrified or embarrassed by mistakes, and God allows re-do’s.
God gives second chances! No matter what we have done in our past, God will accept us and give us another chance and another one and another one and another one.
God is not interested in what we once were; instead, He is interested in what we can become. the game is only half over.
We must be willing to forget our past failures and focus on our future successes.
Paul put it this way in (Phil. 3:13-14) “But one thing I do: forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.”
What was the outcome of that horrific mistake during that 1929 football game?
After the game, coach Nibs Price defended Riegels, saying “It was an accident that might have happened to anyone.” Price credits Riegels as the smartest player he ever coached.
Riegels explained that he was hit during a pivot and wound up doing a U-turn, which faced him in the opposite direction. Later, the NCAA Football Rules Committee would pass a rule barring a player from advancing a recovered fumble once it hits the ground. Riegels would take his spot as captain during his senior year, earning All-American honors.
In 1991, Riegels was inducted into the Rose Bowl Hall of Fame. Riegels died in 1993, at the age of 84.
In 2003, a panel from the College Football Hall of Fame and CBS Sports chose Riegels’ “Wrong way-run in the Rose Bowl” One of six “Most Memorable Moments of the Century.”
- God gives second chances! No matter what we have done in our past, God will accept us and give us another chance.
- God is not interested in what we once were; instead, He is interested in what we can become.
