Naples homeowner, ex-NFL standout Matt Birk among athletes at Naples FCA banquet
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Matt Birk still has a house in Naples, but he’s no longer technically a resident.
However, the former star center for the Minnesota Vikings and Baltimore Ravens will be back in Naples next Monday as part of the Southwest Florida Fellowship of Christian Athletes’ 15th annual celebration and dinner gala at Naples Grande Beach Resort.
“We’ve had two one-year stints full-time,” Birk said last week. “We’ve had a house there since 2010. We try to get down there as much as possible.”
Birk’s return is for a cause near and dear to his heart — his faith.
“I think football helped bring me back to my faith,” he said. “FCA figured out that a long time ago — sports can be used for a lot of things, but also to evangelize.
“I’m just a really big believer in sports, when done the right way, all of the benefits that it can afford. … Helping kids in their walk with Jesus, that’s at the top of the list.”
Last year:Vikings quarterback Kirk Cousins to speak at FCA banquet in Naples
In 2017:Naples YMCA celebrates 50 years, emphasizes early education ahead
In 2016:Naples’ Matt Birk named to USA Football board of directors
The 12-year NFL veteran and six-time Pro Bowl selection will be in a VIP room on Monday along with several other former athletes: Gary Cuozzo, a 10-year NFL quarterback who played in the Super Bowl; Johnny Lujack, the 1947 Heisman Trophy winner who is the oldest living one; Aubree Munro, an Olympic softball captain and silver medalist who won two NCAA titles with the Florida Gators; Corey Lynch, the former ECS star who played in the NFL seven years and blocked that field goal for Appalachian State when it upset Michigan; and former LSU and Kansas coach Les Miles.
The keynote speaker is Tim Tebow
But the big name is the keynote speaker — former Florida Gators star and Heisman Trophy winner Tim Tebow.
“When you probably think about outspoken Christians in sports, Tim’s got to be at the top of the list,” said Birk, who graduated from Harvard and has one of the top scores on the Wonderlic test given to NFL draft hopefuls. “He’s a huge name, a huge draw, just an awesome example.”
Birk is bringing his 13-year-old son in part because Tebow is speaking. His son read one of Tebow’s books, and five years ago, Birk and his son were at the March for Life in Washington, D.C., where Tebow’s mother was a speaker at a dinner.
“She came around and we met her, and told her that Grant was reading Tim’s book,” said Birk, 45. “She said ‘Oh, you’re reading Timmy’s book’ just very Mom-like.
“He’s had a positive impact on my kid’s life. He’s always in the public eye and under a lot of scrutiny and always stayed strong and stayed true to who he is. We need all of the positive role models we can in sports and everywhere else.”
As for the NFL, as Birk said, “There’s always 100 storylines.”
The recent debacle involving now-former Buccaneers wide receiver Antonio Brown
A big one has been the recent debacle involving now-former Buccaneers wide receiver Antonio Brown, who tore off his jersey and walked off the field during a game just over a week ago. Birk was interviewed last week after the incident, but just after Brown’s statement was being released where he said the Bucs had wanted him to play through an injury.
“The plot thickens,” Birk said.
Birk still keeps his hands in the game he played doing a weekly appearance on the Vikings radio network. This week that will surely involve discussing the firings of general manager Rick Spielman and head coach Mike Zimmer on Monday.
Otherwise, though, he’s following, but not that closely.
“I’m not an analyst,” he said. “I just want to be a fan.”
And given those storylines he mentioned, there’s plenty to watch.
“It’s actually real reality TV,” he said. “All of the other reality TV is fake reality.”
As for Brown, who has gone back and forth with Bucs head coach Bruce Arians in the media about what actually happened, Birk isn’t exactly sure what to make of it. Former NFL safety and current NBC football analyst Rodney Harrison has said he believes Brown’s behavior is indicative of CTE, a brain degeneration caused by repeated head trauma that has become a major talking point in football.
Birk said there’s another issue that hasn’t been talked about in the NFL as much but should be, while not addressing Brown’s situation.
“Generally speaking, the mental illness is underdiagnosed in the NFL,” Birk said. “A lot of these guys, they’ve been enabled. It relates to, let’s just say a propensity for maybe violence. On the football field, that’s the one place where that’s really good. We encourage that. We don’t try to stymie that at all on the football field.”
Birk’s point is that sometimes leads to issues with violence or behavior away from the field.
But Birk’s main focus right now is away from the field, and actually anything in the sports arena.
“I co-founded a school,” he said. “I got it off the ground. I’m on the board now.”
Unity High School, which is located on the Eagan-Burnsville border in Minnesota, is in its third year. He still teaches a class.
Connecting his background of sports to the school would seem like it makes sense, but it offers no sports. Kids can play athletics at another school that they have co-oped with.
Once again, Birk pointed to his faith as helping make the idea of a school become reality.
“It’s kind of the ultimate entrepreneurial endeavor,” he said. “… It was just me and another guy. This is what we want to do. We’ve got very limited avenues to find the resources.
“It’s really also an amazing journey of faith. I just tell people that God must have wanted it to happen. Things kept falling in place.”
Greg Hardwig is a sports reporter for the Naples Daily News and The News-Press. Follow him on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter: @NDN_Ghardwig, email him at ghardwig@naplesnews.com. Support local journalism with this special subscription offer at https://cm.naplesnews.com/specialoffer/
If you go …
What: Southwest Florida FCA Celebration and Dinner Gala
Where: Naples Grande Beach Resort
When: Monday, Jan. 17, check-in/VIP, 5:30 p.m., dinner, 6:30 p.m.
Tickets: $300 for single admission
Info: Register at SWFloridaFCA.org, or for more information, contact Naomi Leamon at 289-4796 or nleamon@fca.org.
What’s the NFL record for passing touchdowns in a playoff game?
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You know you had quite the game when you finish with more passing touchdowns than incompletions.
That’s exactly what Bills star quarterback Josh Allen did on Saturday in Buffalo’s 47-17 wild card round victory over the AFC East rival New England Patriots.
Led by Allen, the Bills became the first team in the Super Bowl era to score a touchdown on each of their first seven possessions of a playoff game, according to Elias Sports Bureau. The streak came to an end when Buffalo was running out the clock on the game’s final possession.
Not only did Buffalo’s offense as a whole make history, but Allen himself did as well thanks to a ridiculous stat line.
The fourth-year signal caller went 21 of 25 through the air for 308 yards and five touchdowns, in addition to rushing six times for 66 yards. He’s the first quarterback in NFL postseason history to have a performance of at least 300 passing yards, five passing touchdowns and 60 rushing yards, per Pro Football Reference.
And Allen came just one passing touchdown shy of making even more history.
Who’s thrown the most passing touchdowns in an NFL playoff game?
There’s a three-way tie for the record of most touchdown passes in a postseason game. Daryle Lamonica originally set the record back in 1969, when he threw for six touchdowns in the then-Oakland Raiders’ AFL divisional round rout of the Houston Oilers. Lamonica actually tied Sid Luckman’s record mark of five passing TDs in the previous year’s AFL divisional round against the Kanas City Chiefs.
Lamonica’s record was untouched for more than two decades before Steve Young passed for six TDs in the San Francisco 49ers’ Super Bowl 29 win over the then-San Diego Chargers. Young broke Joe Montana’s Super Bowl record of five passing touchdowns with his performance, and no one has matched either quarterback’s mark in a Super Bowl since.
The only other QB to throw six passing touchdowns in the postseason? Tom Brady, of course.
Brady accomplished the feat as a member of the Pats in 2012, powering a divisional round blowout victory over Tim Tebow and the Denver Broncos.
Josh Allen joins eight other signal callers who have thrown for exactly five scores in a postseason game. Prior to Allen, Patrick Mahomes was the most recent one to do so, with his five-TD game in 2020 leading a furious Chiefs comeback victory over the Houston Texans in the divisional round.
Lamonica and Kurt Warner are the only quarterbacks to throw for at least five touchdowns in multiple playoff games. Like Lamonica, Warner did it twice, with five touchdowns in the then-St. Louis Rams’ divisional round win over the Minnesota Vikings in 2000 and another five TDs 10 years later with the Arizona Cardinals in a wild card round victory against the Green Bay Packers.
Here’s a look at the 13 times a quarterback has thrown for at least five passing touchdowns in a postseason game, according to Pro Football Reference:
Tom Brady, AFC divisional round (2012): 6
Steve Young, Super Bowl 29 (1995): 6
Daryle Lamonica, AFL divisional round (1969): 6
Josh Allen, AFC wild card round (2022): 5
Patrick Mahomes, AFC divisional round (2020): 5
Ben Roethlisberger, AFC divisional round (2018): 5
Kurt Warner, NFC wild card round (2010): 5
Peyton Manning, AFC wild card round (2004): 5
Kerry Collins, NFC Championship Game (2001): 5
Kurt Warner, NFC divisional round (2000): 5
Joe Montana, Super Bowl 24 (1990): 5
Daryle Lamonica, AFL divisional round (1968): 5
Sid Luckman, 1943 NFL Championship Game: 5
Josh Allen’s struggles in freezing temperatures another obstacle for Buffalo Bills against Patriots
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Tim Hasselbeck believes that the Bills will have a bigger advantage than the Patriots in the cold weather for the AFC wild-card game Saturday night. (1:54)
BUFFALO, N.Y. – It’s the toes for Josh Allen.
When the Buffalo Bills quarterback plays in the elements, keeping his feet comfortable is a priority.
“I don’t know why I get bad circulation within my feet,” Allen said. “My toes get really cold and they go numb a little bit, so keeping those suckers as warm and as dry as possible as well as the hands.”
Frigid weather will be a factor when the Bills host the New England Patriots in the wild-card round Saturday (8:15 p.m. ET, CBS), with a forecasted low of 2 degrees and wind gusts of 13 mph, per AccuWeather. It could feel like minus-6 degrees. It will be the third meeting between the Bills and Patriots (after splitting the regular-season series) in 41 days – the shortest span to play a single opponent in Bills history, per Elias Sports Bureau research.
There will be plenty of fans there to experience the weather. For the first time since the 1996 season, the Bills will have a home playoff game with full attendance allowed. Buffalo hosted two playoff games last season – their first in 25 years – but had limited capacity due to COVID-19.
Bills quarterback Josh Allen has a 50.3% completion percentage in games played in freezing temperatures. Kevin Hoffman/Getty Images
While the home crowd is good news for the Bills – they have a 12-3 record in home playoff games, tied with the Seattle Seahawks for second-best among teams to play at least 10 playoff games at home – the weather isn’t ideal for Allen.
The quarterback’s accuracy has been down lately, with him completing 49.3% of passes in his past two games – both at home. On a wider scale, in five career starts with freezing game-time temperatures, Allen has thrown six touchdowns to seven interceptions and has a 50.3% completion percentage. That’s second-lowest among 41 quarterbacks who have made at least five such starts (Tim Tebow, 42%) over the past 15 years. Allen was sacked three or more times in three of those games.
“It’s not fun getting hit in the cold; it’s not fun catching hard passes in the cold,” Allen said. “Getting off the ground, it’s a little more exhausting throughout the course of the game. … Just trying to get used to that, and it’s more of a mental barrier than it is a physical barrier, if anything.”
In Allen’s five games in freezing temperatures, the Bills have gone 3-2, including winning two this season against the Carolina Panthers and Atlanta Falcons.
Allen has not been sacked once in the Bills’ past three games, a first in his career. They have been able to run the ball with running back Devin Singletary and Allen as of late, which will be needed against a Patriots defense that has allowed the second-lowest completion percentage behind the Bills.
Buffalo has used colder footballs during the course of the week, has turned off the heat and opened the doors when practicing inside, and was out in the stadium Thursday. But there’s no way to replicate single-digit temperatures with everything at stake.
“Just enjoy it. It’s going to be cold on Saturday,” defensive end Jerry Hughes said. “But, you know, with [Bills Mafia] in that stadium, getting loud, it’s going to feel warm.”
Waco church hosting annual ‘Night to Shine’ prom to celebrate those with disabilities
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WACO, Texas (KWTX) Registration is underway and volunteers are still needed as Crestview Church of Christ in Waco prepares to host Tim Tebow’s annual Night to Shine event, a prom for those with disabilities 14 and older.
The event is traditionally an in-person prom in which guests are treated to limo rides, hair and makeup, shoe shining and a red carpet followed by karaoke and dancing in the church’s gym in which all participants are crowned king and queen of the prom, but this year because of the ongoing threat of COVID-19 the event will be a drive thru and virtual celebration
Crestview Pastor Jordan Hubbard says the event being called Shine Thru will still be packed with fun.
“Shine Thru will be an exciting, fun event,” Hubbard said. “We will have music, karaoke, Disney princesses, Stormtroopers, a Woodway fire engine, superheroes, a place to get pictures, a red carpet cheering section and more.”
The church first hosted the in-person prom in 2018 and had huge success with an overflow of volunteers and dozens of participants. The church was again selected as the only local host site in 2019 where the ages of kings and queens ranged from 14 to 82 years old. In 2020 the event was again hosted in person just weeks before COVID-19 shut most everything down. Last year the prom was planned as a drive-thru but canceled when the historic ice storm hit Central Texas.
Everyone is excited the memorable night is back.
“Night to Shine is always a team effort,” Hubbard said. “It takes a community to reach this special community and each year we see so many people volunteer, donate and work together to celebrate the kings and queens among us.”
Kari McKown with Waco’s Elite Therapy Center helps organize the prom every year. She says they’re still in need of all kinds of volunteers, but particularly those to cheer on the participants as they arrive at the church.
“We need groups to make it special. Dance groups, cheerleading groups, student council groups, people to dress up and hold signs and cheer and make it fun,” McKown said.
Crestview Church of Christ is one of more than 700 churches worldwide hosting the event on Friday, Feb 11.
If you want to register to attend or volunteer head to Crestview Church of Christ – Church in Waco (crestview-church.org)
Copyright 2022 KWTX. All rights reserved.
Christiansburg mother hosts a dress drive to honor her daughter who died in a crash
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A Christiansburg mother hosted a dress drive Saturday in honor of her teenage daughter who was killed in a car crash.
CHRISITIANSBURG, Va. – A Christiansburg mother hosted a dress drive Saturday in honor of her teenage daughter who was killed in a car crash.
Teenagers lined up at Belmont Christian Church to shop around for their dream dress.
With more than 500 dress choices and accessories spread out on tables, Melissa Poole asked teens for a $20 donation.
Melissa’s daughter, Ashlyn, died at 16 years old in a car accident back in 2018. To honor her memory, Melissa started the Acts4Ash movement to spread kindness.
“She would most likely be in the middle of it and try to get everyone to try on a dress and want to try one on herself,” Melissa said. “I think she is smiling down at everybody who helped to put this on.”
All the funds will go to the Tim Tebow’s Night to Shine Foundation that hosts a prom for students with special needs.
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The event will be held at the Belmont Christian Church on Feb. 11.