By Tim Ellsworth Baptist Press CLEMSON, S.C. — Despite being a big-time college football player headed to the NFL, Miguel Chavis was on a path to destruction. Self-centered and vile. Hedonistic and drunk. A tough brute who partied hard and pursued every fleeting pleasure he could think of. You name it, and Chavis, during his early years as a defensive tackle at Clemson, was probably guilty of it.

By Tim Ellsworth Baptist Press TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Alabama running back Josh Jacobs and three other Crimson Tide football players provided a pleasant surprise for a 13-year-old boy while delivering a mattress and bed to a Tuscaloosa home in partnership with Calvary Baptist Church’s S.D. Allen Ministry. Jacobs walked into the house, and the boy who lived there looked him up and down. “Are you Josh Jacobs?” the boy asked.

By David Roach Baptist Press FORT WORTH, Texas — Bill Tolar, a preacher-scholar who provided transitional leadership at key junctures for Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and multiple Southern Baptist megachurches, died Dec. 29 following a battle with cancer. He was 90.