All-Name Teams #31

• August 2023

Featuring names from across the world of sports

• In the name of love — what more in the name of love?
—Pride: In The Name Of Love — song by U2

• Deny thy father and refuse thy name … ’Tis but thy name that is my enemy … O, be some other name … What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other word would smell as sweet … doff thy name and, for thy name, which is no part of thee, take all myself •
—Juliet — from Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet

• And it’s all in the name of love
—In the Name of Love — song by Bebe Rexha and Martin Garrix
—see more lyrics below

All-Love Team #1
Vagner Love — soccer
Peter Lovenkrands — soccer
Lovie Smith — football
Amare Stoudemire — basketball
Bobby Valentine — baseball

All-Love Team #2
Eden Hazard — soccer
Lisa Love — athletic director
Yeardley Love — lacrosse
Jamie Lovemark — golf
Lovemore N’dou — boxing

All-Nuclear Family True Love Team
• listed in reverse birth order
Kayla Anneliese — basketball, lacrosse, soccer, softball
Luke George — baseball, basketball, soccer, softball
Mina Elizabeth — basketball, soccer, softball
Bruce William — baseball, basketball, soccer, softball

Procedural Note •
• If you’re wondering why there are five people per team, with the exception of the All-Nuclear Family True Love Team, the rationale is simple — basketball was my favorite sport as I grew up, and since the rules of basketball allow five players per team on the court, I’m going with five-person All-Name Teams

• Meanwhile, if you’re wondering why the All-Nuclear Family Team — aka the All-Connecticut Deckert Team — has four people instead of five, apparently you don’t know my family especially well

• This Deckert family was established in August 1988, so this All-Name team is posted in honor of the 35th anniversary of that momentous and amazing occasion — more recently, Mina has legally changed her last name, yet I consider this circumstance to be a footnote in the history of our family that is hardly worth mentioning •

If you’d like to understand my family and my family’s history better, just let me know and we can swap family stories — my family comprises some amazing stories, and I imagine your family’s stories are amazing too •

— Bruce William Deckert

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Song Note •
• This song came on my radar only in the past week or so — these lyrics strike me and resonate with me and impress me as being reflective of the true love rooted in the Creator of the universe, so I share them with you vis-a-vis these All-Love Name Teams •

In the Name of Love
—song by Bebe Rexha and Martin Garrix

If I told you this was only gonna hurt
If I warned you that the fire’s gonna burn
Would you walk in?
Would you let me do it first?
Do it all in the name of love

Would you let me lead you even when you’re blind?
In the darkness, in the middle of the night
In the silence, when there’s no one by your side
Would you call in the name of love?

If I told you we could bathe in all the lights
Would you rise up, come and meet me in the sky?
Would you trust me when you’re jumping from the heights?
Would you fall in the name of love?

When there’s madness, when there’s poison in your head
When the sadness leaves you broken in your bed
I will hold you in the depths of your despair
And it’s all in the name of love

I wanna testify
Scream in the holy light
You bring me back to life
And it’s all in the name of love

In the name of love — name of love
In the name of love — name of love