Denver Catholic

12 APR-MAY 2024 | DENVER CATHOLIC Another key component of an offense, especially one dedicated to running the football, is the fullback position. Fullbacks are versatile weapons who do a lot of the dirty work in an offense. Many times, they are undervalued and underpaid in the real world, but when your offense is without one, you feel the loss. Religious Orders fill this position. Depending on the need, full backs lead blocks for the running backs, act as another pass blocker for quarter- backs, and on occasion tote the rock themselves and even catch a few passes out of the backfield. Religious Orders, being varied in charism, provide many functions for the Church's offense. Sometimes they bring clarity which increases the fruitfulness of the sacraments. Other times, they battle the culture and provide our pastors with more time to deliver the football to a receiver. They have also been known in short yardage situations to take matters into their own hands and rebuild western civilization. Now we get into the flashy positions. Widely consid- ered prima donnas, wide receivers help make football fun and exciting by regularly bringing big play potential. Similarly, apostolates, while having a flair for the dramatic which is reflected in their marketing collateral, certainly help the Church attack the defense and make plays downfield. Wide receivers are evaluated on a number of levels: route running, athleticism, catching and awareness. When we compare that to the apostolates, they need very sim- ilar skills. In route running, apostolates need to know their role and reliably be where their quarterback expects them to be. Athleticism would be akin to the dynamism of the apostolate. Naturally, some will be simpler and more consistent while others may have more star power, reach and potential for impact. Catching is simple; it's the main responsibility of the receiver in the pass game. For apostolates, the question is simple: Can they do what they claim to do when the ball is thrown their way, or is it all for show? Finally, awareness is the skill that really separates the greats at wide receiver. Can they find the open hole in the defense? Do they know when to switch to the hot route on a blitz? For the apostolates, this skill is built through relationship with the Church's pastors. If the apostolate is tuned into the game plan, understands the defense, and has the trust of the pastors, a lot of passes are going to In a lot of ways, the tight end position plays a huge role in determining the type of offense a team can run. Traditionally, tight ends are primarily blockers but in recent decades they have become more and more utilized in the passing game. The type of tight end a team utilizes typically gives you a huge clue to their offensive identity. For this reason, the tight end position is equivalent to the educational institutions in the Church. Educational insti- tutions differ from the academy. To distinguish from the aforementioned academy, educational institutions refer to the formation programs which turn out professionals for ministries. Depending on the needs of the Church, the educa- tional institutions may focus on producing strong teach- ers and pastor-types which stabilize the offense and serve the sacramental life of the Church. If the offense needs some more juice, they may need to form risk-tak- ing evangelists, prophets and apostles, who push the bounds of the peripheries. The point is the type of people coming out of our educational institutions will greatly influence the style of offense we are trying to run. Many times, our pastors may recognize that they need to change their offensive philosophy, but they don't have Travis Kelce or Gronkowski — they have a traditional blocking tight end. Unfortunately, no matter how hard they work, they aren't likely to transform these players into Shannon Sharpe. WIDE RECIEVERS APOSTOLATES TIGHT ENDS Educational Institutions Fullbacks Religious Orders come their way and they will have a huge impact on the mission of the Church. The last thing to mention about wide receivers is that none of them last long if they do not help in the running game. If they are too consumed with their pass-catching abilities to block, they generally get cut. For apostolates, they serve the Church greatly when they support her sacramental life. 12

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