Facebook gives users 11 options
for noting their relationship status, choices that include married, single, and
engaged. We must select the eighth alternative to honestly describe our
relationship with the NFL.
It’s complicated.
For every element we might love, there’s an equally strong aspect to hate. Players’ speed and power versus teams’ racist and sexist hiring practices. Deep passes and long runs against denials of health risks and coverage. Social justice messages on helmets versus keeping Colin Kaepernick off rosters. The controlled and orchestrated violence during games, against the sexual and domestic violence in-between.
Facing a new opponent in the
Southern Heritage Classic for the first time since 1993, Tennessee State prevailed
to snap its three-game losing streak in the event. But the closing minutes Saturday
night were tenser than head coach Eddie George anticipated before TSU beat Arkansas-Pine
Bluff, 24-14, in Memphis.
The Tigers kept UAPB in check throughout the first half and enjoyed a 17-0 lead entering the fourth quarter. “ I thought we were going to pitch our first shutout,” George said after the game, which drew 32,518 fans to Simmons Bank Liberty Stadium. However, the Golden Lions found their stride and began driving the field, eventually lining up for a 31-yard field goal that would’ve tied the score with 54 seconds left. The kick was blocked and TSU linebacker James Green sprinted down the right sideline for a 92-yard scoop-and-score return.
For those who don’t know better, particularly lifelong northerners, the Southern Heritage Classic sounds like it might not be welcoming to Black people.
But, in fact, it’s among the longest-running and most impactful cultural celebrations on the HBCU calendar. More than 40,000 fans typically attend the annual game in Memphis, while non-ticket holders flock to “Bluff City” for the adjacent activities. The three-day event featured a Gladys Knight concert Thursday night and a college and career fair. Saturday’s festivities include a tailgate, parade, a battle of the bands and a brunch and fashion show.
The scene is old news for Tennessee State University, a participant every year since the event’s inception in 1990. But it’s all new for University of Arkansas Pine Bluff, making its debut and replacing Jackson State University, which is absent from the SHC for the first time since 1993. TSU has lost the last three Classics, but won six consecutive matchups beforehand.
In his New York Times bestseller, “The Cruelty is The Point,”
Adam Serwer makes the case that President Trump and his supporters find
community in the suffering of those they hate and fear.
Replacing a few words in that assertion explains the disruptions roiling major college sports. The shifts have been seismic and unmistakable, flipping players and conferences from coast to coast. As usual explanations from the industry’s double-dealing powerbrokers are filled with half-truths and whole lies. But Colorado football coach Deion Sanders knows the game inside and out, on and off the field. He’s calling them on their B.S. and putting it in their face.
Unlike a few foes in the Southwestern Athletic Conference, Mississippi Valley State can’t put checkmarks on two prestigious football lists, one for SWAC championships and the other for Hall-of-Fame alums.
The Delta Devils came close to snagging a ring in the ‘80s as their star wideout, future NFL great Jerry Rice, shattered NCAA records in a historically prolific offense. But Walter Payton’s alma mater (Jackson State) won six titles outright that decade, and Doug Williams’ school (Grambling State) won or split three. Steve McNair hadn’t arrived yet, but Alcorn State balled out to capture the remaining crown.
However, Mississippi Valley can always point to NFL legend Jerry Rice as evidence of past greatness. No one has to explain the possibilities to first-year coach Kendrick Wade. The two-time graduate was a star player who later served as an assistant coach before returning to accept the top job in December. He has a direct connection to the glory days, as his high school coach AND his coach at Valley was Willie Totten, the Black College Hall of Famer who passed the ball to Rice at what’s now named Rice-Totten Stadium.
Fans of HBCU football were treated to a three-hour buffet in the HBCU Go Sports Kickoff Show, hosted by legendary broadcaster Charlie Neal at the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio. He wasted no time telling everyone the stakes.
“This season, HBCU Go become the
first network in history to bring you a full season of live doubleheader (HBCU
football) games,” said Neal, standing inside the Black College Football Hall of
Fame rotunda within the larger museum. He was surrounded by photos and
artifacts from greats such as Walter Payton, Doug Williams, Steve McNair and
coach Eddie Robinson.
HBCU Go broadcast 11 games last season but will nearly double that amount this season. The action includes five classics, five homecomings and the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association championship game. There are 23 games total, also carried by theGrio and broadcast TV stations around the nation.
Some of them exemplify
admirable traits that are worthy of emulation, such as kindness and respectfulness,
commitment and perseverance. We point them out and hope children head in that
direction.
Others display regrettable
characteristics that are opposite our desires, like being mean and
inconsiderate, careless and shiftless. We show them to the children, too, as models
to NOT follow.
Sha’Carri Richardson could’ve gone the other way, succumbing to despair and disappointment after her rising star was shot down and stomped.
In case you missed it, the Women’s World Cup begins Thursday in Australia and New Zealand, and the U.S. hopes to win its third consecutive title. Our national team has been good for a minute, but it’s never looked better.
The
program has come a long way since the 2019 World Cup, when one headline pointed
out the obvious and asked a simple question: “Why is the U.S. Women’s World Cup roster so
white?” And that squad wasn’t nearly as pale as the 2011 version, which
featured just one Black player and one Latina player.
This
year’s team has a lot more swirl.
A record-high seven Black women are on the 23-player roster. There are two Mexican Americans, the second- and third-ever to make a U.S. women’s World Cup team. One multicultural teenager is a true American, with a background that embodies diversity while part of the country bans it.
You have to give it up for Ice Cube and what he’s accomplished since rapping and acting his way into the social fabric. His lengthy catalog includes colossal cultural hits in music and movies, from gangsta rap to family flicks. Much respect to the now 54-year-old who began his career as a teen from South Central L.A.
His current ventures include pro sports, namely the Big3 basketball league he co-founded with entertainment executive Jeff Kwatinetz in 2017. From all outward appearances, the 3-on-3 league is doing pretty well in its sixth season, broadcast to hundreds of thousands of viewers via CBS and streamed to more eyeballs via Paramount+.
But Ice Cube thinks “gatekeepers” like the NBA have the Big3 in a chokehold. While appearing on theGrio Black Podcast Network’s “Dear Culture,” he told theGrio’s Panama Jackson that “they’re trying to crush Ice Cube and my league.”
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