It's Football Time in .... Portugal

One of my favorite things to hear each Fall is "It's football time in Tennessee". You have to imagine that in a loud and Tennessean accent. This is what the announcer screams over the microphone as the Tennessee Vols come out to the field. Well, this post is not about UT football. We have to think about other things during these rebuilding years. smile.

Have you ever heard of this? It's football time in Portugal? It has a cool ring to it. A few years back John Grisham wrote a book called "Playing for Pizza". It is a novel about an ex-NFL quarterback who plays football in a small town in Italy. American football in Europe is not the most popular sport but you are now seeing teams pop up in a lot of cities.

Over the next two posts I am going to tell you about a guy who plays football in Lisbon Portgual.
Take a quick glance at a team video.

Here is the beginning of Brady's story.

My role in Portugal is to take care of all the financial and logistical
items for a team of workers. This includes visas, housing, cars, insurance, taxes,
etc.. in Portugal. When God called us to go to Portugal I viewed myself as a support person and really wanted to do everything I could do to free the people who are great evangelists to do their work, without having to worry about budgets.

About a year on the field, my family and I were watching the Houston Texans beating the Cowgirls, and we decided to go grab dinner. While we were waiting for the restaurant to make our sandwiches, we went for a walk. We rounded the corner and found a football
team - full pads, playing AMERICAN football. I walked right up to them and
asked if o could play.

They offered me a tryout the following week. A week later I was on the team and a month later I was the starting QB. Two months after that, I was the offensive coordinator and month after, that I was the head coach. During this whole time I viewed football as a great tool to
learn the language - God had not shared with me that he wanted me to use
this as His tool to witness to these men.

More soon!