I’m all for athlete empowerment, for
players gaining power in their relationship with management and broadening personal
goals beyond sports to business. From media and fashion to vineyards and fast
food, athletes can branch into numerous areas and do well, even before they
retire.
Some players have gone on to
become great
entrepreneurs and executives, but tremendous athleticism only opens a door.
Staying in the room requires a willingness to study and learn, to surround yourself
with good people of sound mind and judgment.
Otherwise, you wind up at a marketing agency owned by Kanye West with former NFL star Antonio Brown as its president.
In July, he drove his #23 McDonald’s Toyota Camry around Chicago to promote NASCAR’s inaugural street race there next summer. In August, he signed a multiyear contract extension with 23XI Racing, which is co-owned by NBA legend Michael Jordan and fellow driver Denny Hamlin. In September, Wallace earned his second career victory in the Cup Series, making him the first Black driver to win multiple Cup races.
He has five top 5 finishes this year, compared with six in his Cup career entering the season. His top 10 finishes have tripled from last year to this year (nine). He even won his first career pole position, clocking a lap of 190.703 mph at Michigan International Speedway in August. “About time,” he told NBC Sports. “Took me five years to get my first pole.”
But how many years before Wallace is just another driver? Perhaps never. Sunday’s conduct won’t help, making him just the fourth driver in 11 years who NASCAR suspended for an on-track incident.
“23XI is aligned with NASCAR on the one-race suspension issued to Bubba, and we understand the need for the series to take a clear stand on the incidents that took place at Las Vegas Motor Speedway,” the team said in a statement Tuesday. “Bubba’s actions are not in keeping with the values of our team and partners. We have spoken to Bubba and expressed our disapproval of how he handled the situation.”
Wallace already stands out, for obvious reasons, as the Cup’s only full-time Black driver. His celebrity and sponsor far outstrip other drivers whose career average finish is closer to the back than up front. The national platform grew massively in summer 2020, supersizing all the bad and ugly headed his way.
Anything good is lost at this moment, obscured by viral videos of him trying to fight NASCAR Cup driver Kyle Larson.
Tommy Tuberville spent 21 seasons
as a college football head coach – primarily in the deep South – before Alabamans
elected him to the U.S. Senate in 2020.
He likely visited hundreds of
Black families over his career, sitting on their couches and eating their pie,
hoping to sign their sons for his team. He led hundreds of Black players on the
field and shared his personal insights in meetings. His job included pouring
into players, like a father figure, helping them grow and develop into solid, responsible
young men.
I bet he didn’t share his racist thought that Black players and their families are criminals, in cahoots with the left to steal America.
“(Democrats) want crime because
they want to take over what you got,” Tuberville
told an overwhelming white crowd Saturday at a Donald Trump rally. “They
want to control what you have. They want reparations because they think the
people that do the crime are owed that. Bullshit! They are not owed that.”
Such thinking is traditional Southeastern
Conference, the nation’s biggest and baddest for college football, where
Tuberville spent 14 years as a head coach. True to its Dixie roots – member schools
are located in nine of the 11 confederate states – the SEC wasn’t fully
integrated until 1972; the league continues to make painful racial history a
thing of the present, again and
again.
Twenty-six years ago, Nike
unveiled a brilliant ad with dozens of multi-hued, multicultural boys and girls.
They were pictured playing golf or carrying clubs, filmed on golf courses and
city streets, looking into the camera or into the distance. Several made an
adorably bold proclamation:
That’s my thought on the dust-up
between Alabama State football coach Eddie Robinson Jr. and Jackson State
counterpart Deion Sanders. After a brief postgame altercation
following Alabama State’s 26-12 homecoming loss on Saturday, Robinson explained
his grievance.
“I’m living on the shoulders of
the SWAC,” Robinson told reporters. “He
ain’t SWAC. I’m SWAC.”
I am Tiger Woods!
Make what you will of Robinson’s straight-arm
after objecting to a bro-hug. He accused Sanders of speaking disrespectfully ahead
of the contest, walking through ASU’s pre-game warm-ups, and trying to run up
the score instead of taking a knee. Those could be reasonable gripes depending
on your perspective, but the most interesting assertions are theoretical:
1) Robinson is representative of
the Southwestern Athletic Conference.
Intriguing
drama and juicy storylines never cease in the NBA, where happenings outside the
lines – trade demands, rumored deals, and players’ beefs command equal billing.
It’s like their on-court exploits are merely subplots in a soap opera.
Is Russell
Westbrook destined to be a short-timer with the Lakers? Can the Nets fully depend
on Kyrie Irving and Ben Simmons showing up? How will the Celtics respond without
Ime Udoka as their head coach?
Wednesday
night, news broke of “an altercation” between Green and Jordan Poole. By
Friday, TMZ Sports obtained and released video of the incident, and it’s not a
good look for anyone involved, especially Green. The volatile forward, standing
6-6 and weighing 235 pounds, attacked the wiry guard (6-4, 194 pounds) with a
vicious right cross.
Considering our
appetite for messiness, the punch provided a full-course meal for those who
care to consume. “That boy would’ve had to see me until I retired out the NBA,”
Baltimore Ravens QB Lamar Jackson
tweeted. Atlanta Hawks guard Trae
Young tweeted: Draymond is tryna get to LA. Damn!”
Just like that, Green inserted a twist in Golden State’s quest to defend the championship. “It’s the NBA,” Warriors GM Bob Myers told reporters Thursday. “It’s professional sports. These things happen. Nobody likes it. We don’t condone it, but it happened. Draymond apologized to the team this morning. Jordan was there in the room.”
Despite concerns in some quarters about
hiring practices, social justice, domestic violence, and sexual assaults, the
NFL continues to dominate televised entertainment. Last year, NFL games were 48
of the country’s top 50 shows and 91 of the top 100. CBS reports that games are
averaging 18.55 million viewers this season, the network’s best start since
2010.
Congrats to everyone who stopped
watching due to any aforementioned reasons. You’re clearly stronger than us who
haven’t turned away since Colin Kaepernick was blackballed, Deshaun Watson was
rewarded, and Brian Flores and them were
mistreated.
Tua Tagovailoa getting concussed is unlikely to make a difference.
The Miami Dolphins QB suffered a scary
concussion on Sept. 29 against Cincinnati, but we won’t change our viewing
habits. Just in case though, the
league is adjusting to ease any pangs of guilt. Tagovailoa set a meeting
with representatives from the NFL and the players union to reviews his injury evaluation
on Sept. 25 against Buffalo, when he staggered and fell while walking to the
huddle after a play.
The Dolphins say our eyes lied and a back injury
caused Tagovailoa’s rubbery legs. Yeah, right. He passed a neurological
evaluation at halftime (a
doctor was subsequently fired) and played without event through game’s end.
The NFL tightened up the following week, when at least a dozen players were removed
from games under concussion protocols.
Only three players fell in that category during Week 3, although Tagovailoa should’ve made it a quartet.
Jackson State football coach Deion Sanders was born and
raised in a place that I called home as this century began. We’re both intimately
familiar with an area that suffered catastrophic devastation from Hurricane Ian.
“Praying for all of Ft. Myers Fla.,” he
tweeted Wednesday. “God please watch over all of them.”
His 4-0 team didn’t have a game last weekend, giving him extra
time to check on loved ones. The break also provided a moment to pause and
reflect on swirling rumors about his future. At least three predominantly white
institutions (PWIs) reportedly could
be interested in luring him away. The most intriguing is Auburn, which would
put Sanders in the acclaimed Southeastern Conference. His fiercest rival would
be perennial championship contender Alabama and coach Nick Saban, co-star
in insurance commercials.
Sanders has lived up to his
nicknames – “Prime Time” and “Neon Deion” – in less than two full seasons at
Jackson State. The football program has vaulted into national conversations and
enjoyed glowing reviews. Visit Jackson, the city’s marketing bureau, calculated
a $30
million impact from JSU football last season, nearly double the 2019 estimate.
On the field, Sanders is 19-5, including a Southwestern Athletic Conference
title and Coach of the Year award. His recruiting prowess sent
shockwaves through the industry, garnering more attention for JSU and other
historically Black colleges and universities.
I think it’s been great for the SWAC, definitely for Jackson State,” Texas Southern coach Clarence McKinney told reporters at media day. “But it’s been great for the SWAC because we have more cameras on us now. We have more eyes watching us. People are paying attention to the SWAC a lot more since coach Prime has been in the league.”
If I were a cop, I’d understand if
some folks struggled to see past my blue line of work. The police have a history
of anti-Black behavior that makes it difficult to separate individuals from the
force.
As I’ve learned from working, studying
and living, “the news media” produces similar skepticism among proponents of
Black lives. Yes, there are exceptions within the ranks of journalists. But as
a whole, the industry has reinforced the status quo more than discouraged it
during four centuries of hell on these shores.
The media is guilty of crafting
images and spreading stereotypes that have worked against our interests and
continue to this day. No argument there. And while I see no link between
coverage of NBA coach Ime Udoka and NFL legend Brett Favre, I understand why
some of y’all might.
Intergenerational racial trauma is real and omnipresent, breathed like oxygen with no thought.
Native Americans can testify on the
impact of traumatic journeys. The American Psychological Association says signs
of our racial trauma include: distrusting others due to multiple past
losses or letdowns; feeling triggered by reminders of previous racist
experience, which can lead to strong responses; and extreme paranoia or
hypervigilance.
I saw as much from some commentators
after the Boston Celtics suspended
Udoka for policy violations – reportedly, an intimate relationship with a
female staff member.
Boston Celtics coach Ime Udoka is
well past the age of consent, which varies from 16-18 across the U.S. So is the
unnamed Celtics staff member linked to Udoka’s
season-long suspension. The grown coach had a consensual, intimate
relationship (according to initial reports), with a grown woman who also works
for the team.
For those who don’t understand why
Udoka was punished – with no guarantee
of resuming his duties – forget about the adults’ ages. When it comes to consensual
relationships in the workplace, subordinates might as well be minors.
Their consent doesn’t count.
“I want to apologize to our
players, fans, the entire Celtics organization, and my family for letting them
down,” Udoka said
in a statement. “I am sorry for putting the team in this difficult
situation, and I accept the team’s decision. Out of respect for everyone
involved, I will have no further comment.”
His silence is useless to everyone involved, namely the team’s female employees. They’re already victims of tabloid reporters and social-media sleuths. One minute the women were minding their business, virtually anonymous; the next minute they going viral, as folks throw out wild guesses on Udoka’s partner.
Football is back and the reaction
is complicated. Here come the conflicted feelings and mixed emotions that the
sport generates, collegiately and professionally. Loving the game and the athletes
is easy (minus health concerns); loathing the NFL and NCAA is automatic.
Through all of the messiness, pro
football is a business first, an excuse that shouldn’t fly in college football.
The purpose of higher education is
supposed to take precedence over polls, bowls, and playoffs. But that’s never
been the NCAA’s thought process, especially not with this labor-intensive sport
where 125 active players can inhabit the roster. If you combine all the NCAA men’s
and women’s basketball players, football has well more than twice as many participants.
It costs the most, makes the most
and spends the most, all on the backs of unpaid labor. Now, after a steady stream
of schools changing
conferences, handing out humongous
contracts, and upgrading lavish
facilities, the last shred of pretense has been dropped.
“This is an exciting day for the future of college football,” SEC commissioner Greg Sankey said last week after leaders voted to expand the playoffs from four to 12 teams. I’d be excited, too, if I were a commissioner, school president, athletic director, coach, or anyone else getting bags from football’s industrial complex. As for players, it sounds like extra work at the standard pay rate:
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