Drew Brees rolls his eyes and smiles. By now, he expects it, even if he doesn’t believe he deserves it. But the parallels are just too easy to pass up. “You’ve been dubbed the Patron Saint of New Orleans by just about every media outlet in the country…” they always start. It’s only natural.

At a typical San Diego Chargers practice or game, offensive coordinator Cam Cameron does a lot of pointing.

“That’s what we do as coaches,” Cameron joked. “We point.” And as cliché as it may sound, it remains true that the 20-year coaching veteran does more than just point out the plays he wants the reigning AFC-West Champion Chargers to run on the field. He also points his athletes to Jesus Christ through his life, which has been transformed since the day Cameron accepted Christ at an FCA Camp when he was 13.

What to do for an encore?

After being chosen by the Minnesota Lynx as the first overall pick in the 2011 WNBA Draft, Maya Moore’s impressive first professional season will be a hard one to top. Not only did she and the Lynx win the league championship, but Moore herself also earned an All-Star selection and the Rookie of the Year Award. It was a summer for the record books—and one Moore will never forget.

Ben Zobrist has one of those stories. The ones that make kids play harder, dream bigger and aim higher. The ones that inspire even the most improbable of visions. The ones that seem to spotlight the magnitude and sovereignty of God. Undrafted and unscholarshipped out of high school, Zobrist thought his baseball days were over when he finished his senior season at Eureka High School in Eureka, Ill. Like a typical senior, he weighed his career options and college choices, and even looked into a Bible college in Kansas City. But midway through the summer, he still didn’t know where to go or what to do.

Established in 1954, FCA celebrates its 60th year of ministering to coaches and athletes.

It all began with a blind date.

As a graduate assistant on the coaching staff at Florida State University, young Mark Richt, who had been striking out in relationships, expressed his desire to meet a “nice girl.” Overhearing his statement, the girlfriend of Richt’s roommate suggested that she might know the perfect woman for him: her own roommate, Katharyn Francis. Immediately she set up a time for the four of them to get together.

Bobby Bowden has the attention of hundreds of high school boys. They’re listening because he has more wins than any coach in major-college football history — the head coach of the only program ever to appear in 14 consecutive bowl games without a loss, the only coach to lead his team, the Florida State Seminoles, to 14 straight seasons that ended with a top-five Associated Press ranking.

But they’re going to find themselves listening for a different reason. Bobby Bowden “The Legend” is about to become Bobby Bowden “The Evangelist.”

Traditions run deep in the Swider-Peltz family—especially when it comes to speedskating and spreading the message of Jesus Christ.

I wonder if NFL defensive linemen would recognize this Shaun Alexander. The Alexander they’re used to is a game-changing, offensive genius who makes his living carving up defenses for extra yardage. But this guy is so … disarming. He’s laughing with kids, putting his arms around them, and even praying with them. In this environment he certainly doesn’t look like the typical NFL megastar.

Believe it or not, this is Shaun Alexander — a man who loves God, loves people and loves life.

Brad McCoy has a favorite story to tell about his son Colt. It’s one that makes him more proud of his oldest boy than any touchdown pass ever could. Three years ago, Brad received a phone call on a Sunday afternoon from a man who had taken his 7-year-old son to church in Austin, Texas, earlier that morning. The man and his boy had taken seats directly behind Colt on the morning after the University of Texas quarterback had been injured in a road loss to Kansas State. Despite a trip to the hospital that revealed a pinched nerve in Colt’s neck and a late return to Austin, Colt was still in church at 8 a.m. for worship.

Growing up in Oklahoma City, or “the 405,” as I’ve always called it, I was in church 17 days a week, 100 hours a day. My mom was the choir director, my dad played the drums, and both taught Sunday school. That was my childhood.

It was a testament to the reputation of Tony Dungy. When STV approached athletes, coaches and members of the media — both Christian and not — about lessons they’d learned from the Indianapolis Colts’ head coach, the average rate of return on the quote request was less than a day. That never happens.

But when it comes to Tony Dungy, it seems that people are more than willing, even eager, to express their awe and admiration for him — a man who has been through so much in so little time.