What do you think?
Rate this book
Sold Out: Becoming Man Enough to Make a Difference
From Promise Keepers founder Bill McCartney, Sold Out is a roadmap describing how to live a disciplined life with eternal values in mind. By tapping into God's transforming power, men can become man enough to make a difference in this world. Includes insights on marriage and relationships from his wife, Lyndi McCartney.
- GenresChristian
Hardcover
First published November 4, 1997
45 people are currently reading
77 people want to read
About the author
Bill McCartney
25 books2 followersWilliam Paul McCartney was an American college football coach who was the head coach of the Colorado Buffaloes for 13 seasons (1982–1994). He compiled a 93–55–5 (.624) record, and won three consecutive Big Eight Conference titles (1989–1991). McCartney's 1990 team was crowned as national champions by the Associated Press, splitting the title with Georgia Tech, who was first in the final Coaches' Poll.
McCartney was the founder of the Promise Keepers men's ministry. He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame as a coach in 2013.
McCartney was the founder of the Promise Keepers men's ministry. He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame as a coach in 2013.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
June 12, 2025
A HEARTFELT BOOK FROM THE FORMER COACH, AND FOUNDER OF ‘PROMISE KEEPERS’
Bill McCartney (1940-2025) was a college football coach, as well as the founder of the Promise Keepers’ men’s group for Christians.
He wrote in the Introduction to this 1997 book, “Sadly, I spent the better part of our adult lives forsaking my [wedding] vow… The truth is, until the day I resigned as head football coach at the University of Colorado in November 1994, I usually forsook Lyndi [his wife] in favor of ALL OTHERS. I can tell you their names: success, competition, career, FOOTBALL. We titled this book ‘Sold Out’ because, for most of my life, I HAVE undeniably sold out---feverishly committed to … whatever goals and challenges I chose to pursue… What are we sold out to?... From the time I took my first communion as a child… I’ve been almost belligerently sold out to God, to church, to sports… But increasingly, this zealous bent led me into headier realms where it's also an advantage to be superficial and self-serving.” (Pg. xxii)
He continues, “In the end, [this book] is about the … costs incurred and the blessings realized by TAKING that stand, and then becoming highly intentional about making the right choices… it’s about learning to carve our bedrock convictions from the ways in which we spend our time and lavish our affections.” (Pg. xxiv)
He recounts a story of being in college, and “being kicked off scholarship over a drunk-and-disorderly incident… University of Missouri student athletes would NOT drink and drive, smash into parked police cars, and resist arrest… For a long time I found it simply impossible to swallow; I was hurt and disillusioned. The pain and abandonment of that decision haunted me a long time.” (Pg. 5)
He explains, “It had become the great contradiction of my life---the polar extremes of my nature that didn’t add up. On the one hand, I was a devout Catholic… the guy who never missed Sunday Mass… I had an insatiable zeal to KNOW God…. I literally went ten years without missing daily communion. My reverence toward God was the constant theme of my life since early childhood. Pleasing God was what mattered most.” (Pg. 55)
After becoming a college football coach, he was ‘intrigued’ by a young fullback who “made no attempt to hide the fact that he was a Christian.” McCaryney was invited to go with the young man to a Campus Crusade for Christ conference. He realized, “I did not really KNOW Jesus Christ. I knew all ABOUT Him, but I did not know HIM… I had to make the choice; no person or church would make it for me. It was personal, between God and me.” (Pg. 64-65)
He continues, “Of course it didn’t happen overnight… I didn’t wake up miraculously healed of alcoholism. The urge to drink wasn’t gone, never to return. It would take time… It would be a number of years before I took my last drink. But I had received instantaneous deliverance from the heavy, out-of-control drinking that threatened to destroy me and my family. The days of losing control were over… God freed me from the chronic pattern of abuse.” (Pg. 70)
After an important football game, he mused, “We beat Purdue 26-0… I was named the Big 10 ‘Player of the Week’… It was the first time … a COACH had been so honored… Only the Lord could have orchestrated such an outcome… Some scoff at the notion of God orchestrating the outcome of a football game. But this story really… [is] merely a simple testimony of God keeping the promises He makes in His Word…. Eleventh-hour rescues as I waited on Him to clear a path were becoming a predictable pattern… I had learned I could depend on God without fail.” (Pg. 86)
He admits, “Yes, I thought I was doing my best to nurture my family, But the simple truth is, Colorado football---like every other coaching job I’d had---was firmly installed in my heart as an idol. It was a consuming force… [Yet] I’d never learned the secret of forging a dynamic team in my own home. I’d never learned what it meant to be a full-fledged team member to my wife and kids.” (Pg. 113) Of course, this led in 1990 to the formation of Promise Keepers.
He notes, “In seven short years, Promise Keepers has been blessed beyond compare, but has also weathered its share of storms… Since Promise Keepers’ inaugural conference in July 1991, it would be impossible to count all of the testimonies… with literally thousands of letters detailing every imaginable type of healing--- from marriages brought back from the brink, to father and son reunions, to testimonies of men freed from lifelong addictions to alcohol and drugs, or from bondages to pornography… God alone knows how many spiritual and cultural walls of mistrust and division have crumbled inside a football stadium as a result of God’s easing… These are the testimonies. They are the backbone of the ministry, the evidence of God’s stern, tender heart for the men and families of this nation.” (Pg. 127-128)
He recounts, “Shortly after Promise Keepers’ first stadium conference… in 1992---[to] a mostly white audience---a much heavier burden for this racial issue fell upon me… And it horrified me to see this dynamic thriving in the church as well… I began scheduling speaking engagements at churches across the country, delivering a controversial message on racial reconciliation. (I’d show up to churches filled with men eager to hear about the marvelous work of God called Promise Keepers---and I’d begin to share… from my experience as a football coach… I tried to explain how a subtle spirit of white superiority has unwittingly alienated and wounded our brothers and sisters in the church… But always when I finished there was no response---nothing. No applause. No smiles. Everyone instead looked crestfallen. In … church after church, it was the same story---wild enthusiasm while I was being introduced, followed by a morgue-like chill as I stepped away from the microphone… To this day, the racial message remains a highly-charged element of Promise Keepers’ ministry. Of the 1996 conference participants who had a complaint, nearly 40% reacted negatively to the reconciliation theme.” (Pg. 134-136)
But there were problems in his marriage: “Lyndi had lost her way. All her years waiting at home, praying for a few hours of undistracted attention, hoping for a day when I’d be secure enough in my job that I could put HER first, had left my wife crestfallen, ashen-faced. The depression I saw months earlier was back. How had I missed it? How could I have looked the other way?” (Pg. 175-176)
An article in Sports Illustrated said, “What man walks out on a $350,000-per-year contract with 10 years remaining? So that he can spend time with his wife and his God. There is a word for this: UN-AMERICAN.” (Pg. 197)
To his credit, McCartney resigned as PK president in 2003 to take care of his ailing wife, who had a serious respiratory illness.
This book will be ‘must reading’ for anyone interested in the Promise Keepers’ organization (which has recently been trying to resurrect itself—so far mostly in online forums).
Bill McCartney (1940-2025) was a college football coach, as well as the founder of the Promise Keepers’ men’s group for Christians.
He wrote in the Introduction to this 1997 book, “Sadly, I spent the better part of our adult lives forsaking my [wedding] vow… The truth is, until the day I resigned as head football coach at the University of Colorado in November 1994, I usually forsook Lyndi [his wife] in favor of ALL OTHERS. I can tell you their names: success, competition, career, FOOTBALL. We titled this book ‘Sold Out’ because, for most of my life, I HAVE undeniably sold out---feverishly committed to … whatever goals and challenges I chose to pursue… What are we sold out to?... From the time I took my first communion as a child… I’ve been almost belligerently sold out to God, to church, to sports… But increasingly, this zealous bent led me into headier realms where it's also an advantage to be superficial and self-serving.” (Pg. xxii)
He continues, “In the end, [this book] is about the … costs incurred and the blessings realized by TAKING that stand, and then becoming highly intentional about making the right choices… it’s about learning to carve our bedrock convictions from the ways in which we spend our time and lavish our affections.” (Pg. xxiv)
He recounts a story of being in college, and “being kicked off scholarship over a drunk-and-disorderly incident… University of Missouri student athletes would NOT drink and drive, smash into parked police cars, and resist arrest… For a long time I found it simply impossible to swallow; I was hurt and disillusioned. The pain and abandonment of that decision haunted me a long time.” (Pg. 5)
He explains, “It had become the great contradiction of my life---the polar extremes of my nature that didn’t add up. On the one hand, I was a devout Catholic… the guy who never missed Sunday Mass… I had an insatiable zeal to KNOW God…. I literally went ten years without missing daily communion. My reverence toward God was the constant theme of my life since early childhood. Pleasing God was what mattered most.” (Pg. 55)
After becoming a college football coach, he was ‘intrigued’ by a young fullback who “made no attempt to hide the fact that he was a Christian.” McCaryney was invited to go with the young man to a Campus Crusade for Christ conference. He realized, “I did not really KNOW Jesus Christ. I knew all ABOUT Him, but I did not know HIM… I had to make the choice; no person or church would make it for me. It was personal, between God and me.” (Pg. 64-65)
He continues, “Of course it didn’t happen overnight… I didn’t wake up miraculously healed of alcoholism. The urge to drink wasn’t gone, never to return. It would take time… It would be a number of years before I took my last drink. But I had received instantaneous deliverance from the heavy, out-of-control drinking that threatened to destroy me and my family. The days of losing control were over… God freed me from the chronic pattern of abuse.” (Pg. 70)
After an important football game, he mused, “We beat Purdue 26-0… I was named the Big 10 ‘Player of the Week’… It was the first time … a COACH had been so honored… Only the Lord could have orchestrated such an outcome… Some scoff at the notion of God orchestrating the outcome of a football game. But this story really… [is] merely a simple testimony of God keeping the promises He makes in His Word…. Eleventh-hour rescues as I waited on Him to clear a path were becoming a predictable pattern… I had learned I could depend on God without fail.” (Pg. 86)
He admits, “Yes, I thought I was doing my best to nurture my family, But the simple truth is, Colorado football---like every other coaching job I’d had---was firmly installed in my heart as an idol. It was a consuming force… [Yet] I’d never learned the secret of forging a dynamic team in my own home. I’d never learned what it meant to be a full-fledged team member to my wife and kids.” (Pg. 113) Of course, this led in 1990 to the formation of Promise Keepers.
He notes, “In seven short years, Promise Keepers has been blessed beyond compare, but has also weathered its share of storms… Since Promise Keepers’ inaugural conference in July 1991, it would be impossible to count all of the testimonies… with literally thousands of letters detailing every imaginable type of healing--- from marriages brought back from the brink, to father and son reunions, to testimonies of men freed from lifelong addictions to alcohol and drugs, or from bondages to pornography… God alone knows how many spiritual and cultural walls of mistrust and division have crumbled inside a football stadium as a result of God’s easing… These are the testimonies. They are the backbone of the ministry, the evidence of God’s stern, tender heart for the men and families of this nation.” (Pg. 127-128)
He recounts, “Shortly after Promise Keepers’ first stadium conference… in 1992---[to] a mostly white audience---a much heavier burden for this racial issue fell upon me… And it horrified me to see this dynamic thriving in the church as well… I began scheduling speaking engagements at churches across the country, delivering a controversial message on racial reconciliation. (I’d show up to churches filled with men eager to hear about the marvelous work of God called Promise Keepers---and I’d begin to share… from my experience as a football coach… I tried to explain how a subtle spirit of white superiority has unwittingly alienated and wounded our brothers and sisters in the church… But always when I finished there was no response---nothing. No applause. No smiles. Everyone instead looked crestfallen. In … church after church, it was the same story---wild enthusiasm while I was being introduced, followed by a morgue-like chill as I stepped away from the microphone… To this day, the racial message remains a highly-charged element of Promise Keepers’ ministry. Of the 1996 conference participants who had a complaint, nearly 40% reacted negatively to the reconciliation theme.” (Pg. 134-136)
But there were problems in his marriage: “Lyndi had lost her way. All her years waiting at home, praying for a few hours of undistracted attention, hoping for a day when I’d be secure enough in my job that I could put HER first, had left my wife crestfallen, ashen-faced. The depression I saw months earlier was back. How had I missed it? How could I have looked the other way?” (Pg. 175-176)
An article in Sports Illustrated said, “What man walks out on a $350,000-per-year contract with 10 years remaining? So that he can spend time with his wife and his God. There is a word for this: UN-AMERICAN.” (Pg. 197)
To his credit, McCartney resigned as PK president in 2003 to take care of his ailing wife, who had a serious respiratory illness.
This book will be ‘must reading’ for anyone interested in the Promise Keepers’ organization (which has recently been trying to resurrect itself—so far mostly in online forums).
December 12, 2019
I was pleased with how much the advice/self help was based off of biographical stories. Bill also surprised me with great writing.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews