Houston, your sports teams have a problem.
First, Houston Texans owner Bob McNair made a huge mistake nearly a month ago. His mistake, which came to light only last week, was referring to NFL players as “inmates,” as in, “we can’t have the inmates running the prison.” McNair realized his mistake and said he was sorry: “I apologize to anyone who was offended.”
I feel bad writing this, but I kind of want Lonzo Ball to succeed in the NBA. Yeah, I know his father is a deranged megalomaniac who can’t seem to go a day without pissing someone else off. Lonzo is too fun to watch though. He doesn’t play like his dad talks. He is a…
The past week of baseball gave us a great example of how we all succumb to societal pressure. In Game 2 of the ALDS, Joe Girardi, manager of the New York Yankees, made a couple critical blunders that likely cost his team the game against Cleveland
Where is this all going? That’s the question I find myself asking in response to the rapid spread of Kaepernick-inspired protests across the NFL. Over the past two weeks, every single team has shown its unity in one form or another. The recent instigator for this surge in demonstrations was, of course, President Donald Trump…
So tweeted Jemele Hill, co-host of ESPN’s SportsCenter 6 AKA The Six, on September 11th. Personally, The Six isn’t my favorite. I haven’t vibed with Hill and co-host Michael Smith going back to their ESPN2 show, His & Hers. That said, I admire their individualism and courage in the face of far too many racist criticisms. Those hateful complaints, of course, come from the fact that ESPN stooped so low as to put two black hosts together for the same SportsCenter show. The horror.
It makes me uneasy that Derek Jeter is going to be the new CEO of the Miami Marlins. Jeter, as you might have heard, is one of the greatest Yankees and New York athletes of all time. From the moment he broke into the big leagues, he shone as a brilliant beacon of hope and pride for all New Yorkers. And he gave all baseball fans, even Yankee haters, someone they could respect. (Unlike, say, a certain Apple watch-using team in New England.) Throughout his career he never failed to display the highest levels of competitiveness, sportsmanship, leadership and, to his beloved franchise, loyalty. But now he’s set to run the Marlins. Confused? Me too.
Once we’ve bought in, once we see these athletes as our role models and representatives, their impact cannot be quantified by numbers or dollar signs.
I wouldn’t usually write about race the day of Game 1 of the NBA Finals. Then again, the name Emmett Till doesn’t usually make it into a basketball news conference. A paper on the civil rights movement, a discussion of race in a history classroom – these are places one could expect to hear Till’s…
