tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38780430656274332412024-03-13T11:51:10.965-04:00Patrick HrubyThe online home of writer, editor, and journalist Patrick Hruby.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger98125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3878043065627433241.post-79510628505665351002024-02-06T10:28:00.001-05:002024-02-25T10:48:45.131-05:00Blind Hockey<div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2hhXBULoSpS6Rfy9AYoUARUufu17VYAeqnqZ42k56Mo7YOvawISBOE7Uo639TcZQkNaoLxHBMXY3Bahbv5unoQz9cLJNPQzSHN6-c2ecl0n_iGkBd108-g94ZezNcMNMyDOoqtJix8BmXx65oVw1XzDp6Xb7umf-Xku32V6u1Z7iCgHvF7MljfBAQ2HFg/s2048/A7R5190-scaled-down-2048x1366.webp" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1366" data-original-width="2048" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2hhXBULoSpS6Rfy9AYoUARUufu17VYAeqnqZ42k56Mo7YOvawISBOE7Uo639TcZQkNaoLxHBMXY3Bahbv5unoQz9cLJNPQzSHN6-c2ecl0n_iGkBd108-g94ZezNcMNMyDOoqtJix8BmXx65oVw1XzDp6Xb7umf-Xku32V6u1Z7iCgHvF7MljfBAQ2HFg/s320/A7R5190-scaled-down-2048x1366.webp" width="320" /></a></div></div><a name='more'></a><div style="text-align: center;"><subhead>In this up-and-coming sport for the visually impaired, players shoot, pass, and skate like their sighted peers—and keep their ears on the puck.</subhead></div><div style="text-align: center;"><attribution>Words by Patrick Hruby, Photos by Noah Willman | Washingtonian | January 2024</attribution></div><span class="drop-cap">T</span>he first time Doug Goist heard about blind hockey, he laughed. It was 2016, and one of the founders of the Washington Blind Hockey Club had asked him to attend a “try it” event. “I thought it was crazy,” says Goist, who loved watching pro and Olympic hockey before losing his vision to a genetic disease at 30. “You’ve got people on skates at high speed with boards all around. Are you going to tell me there’s a blind Formula 1 ‘try it’ event, too?” <div><br /></div><div>Goist went anyway—and has been hooked ever since. The 55-year-old Alexandria resident plays goalie for the club, which has 15 active members and has welcomed more than 150 participants since its 2016 inception. “We’ve had players as young as five and as old as 70,” says Kevin Brown, who in addition to playing and coaching is president of the WBHC. “Some of them played the game and had vision before but lost it over time. Others were born totally blind.” </div><div><br /></div><div>Played in Canada since the 1970s, organized blind hockey came to the US with a New York team in 2014. Today there are more than a dozen clubs across the country, including the Maine Blind Bears and the Hartford Braillers. While some rules set the sport apart—such as prohibiting white jerseys, which are hard for the visually impaired to see against the ice—it’s largely similar to the sighted version, which makes it more meaningful for players. “You become more confident,” Brown says. “You realize you can handle yourself in unfamiliar situations. It’s freeing to know you are not reliant on having somebody guide you. And damn, it’s really fun.”
<hr />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvwt2BLAeHECGaeJTeNCq8yG-a_Ch_x_STflIjQrUj4_shEUo9uB1oJbuMtHUUkls794mCKzIyePoQ457MeIsCiFndSCjwtYiL2RrKtDsCTeUoug4SGCdWLMOKg2kEq5tsrbgyh_4-CJKazmp3vfjKZI4oHBb9dTfknY1hnnKAPrpCZ3ROoui5JT_GEVrL/s1600/A1_0580-scaled-down.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="2600" data-original-width="1733" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvwt2BLAeHECGaeJTeNCq8yG-a_Ch_x_STflIjQrUj4_shEUo9uB1oJbuMtHUUkls794mCKzIyePoQ457MeIsCiFndSCjwtYiL2RrKtDsCTeUoug4SGCdWLMOKg2kEq5tsrbgyh_4-CJKazmp3vfjKZI4oHBb9dTfknY1hnnKAPrpCZ3ROoui5JT_GEVrL/s1600/A1_0580-scaled-down.jpg" /></a></div>
Brothers Nate (in red) and Aiden McCown are 17-year-old seniors at Montgomery Blair High School in Silver Spring and members of the Washington Blind Hockey Club. Both have albanism, a medical condition that affects pigment levels in the skin, hair, and eyes and impairs their visual acuity and depth perception. “They are playing hockey with really no compromises,” says their father, Mike. “This takes vision off the table, and they can just play a sport.”
<hr />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQ8qL7BzlA3M1uqAlMo0oV9U2VcKi8a1rdHKF4oPD99UMLUaTn3Von1CbyvrhmzoO0ME23nAp64HVtp5w2HigxbPg3Cx75A4WEq-L3KTiJniyEN5rR14MTSWpI6bsBBae_P1lZbZTrZCNSU5oWL3BzDFpjPUlae6NiblEAnNXNce_R7GBO0zqsw0kPAGco/s1600/A1_0376-scaled-down-cropped.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="2600" data-original-width="1733" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQ8qL7BzlA3M1uqAlMo0oV9U2VcKi8a1rdHKF4oPD99UMLUaTn3Von1CbyvrhmzoO0ME23nAp64HVtp5w2HigxbPg3Cx75A4WEq-L3KTiJniyEN5rR14MTSWpI6bsBBae_P1lZbZTrZCNSU5oWL3BzDFpjPUlae6NiblEAnNXNce_R7GBO0zqsw0kPAGco/s1600/A1_0376-scaled-down-cropped.jpg" /></a></div>
Blind hockey uses a hollow metal puck that’s three times larger than a regular version and contains eight ball bearings that rattle when the puck moves. “I don’t see the puck, I’m listening to it,” says Kevin Brown, a Washington Blind Hockey Club player and coach. “As it gets dented up during a game, it’s easier to hear. But it also gets jagged and has more mass—so if you get hit, you will feel it.”
<hr />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIM4jXWNyjjscT3iizuKnR0EXRevlpk-NbqVbt1wOaUmfokbGrQ-USQwz1JDLTyIFr8ll0hUnSJWF-n8reRsPZRp-mu4FM-y2nEJuk2ghrzW1nDIPsZHZHLO2rgLx6f3WOiaEObrpAs_587mlRJAMQUJZb5cr1N-1ocyQFHYqmAnsX_deRTufDyhuMeK1D/s1600/A1_4955-scaled-down-2048x1365.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="1365" data-original-width="2048" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIM4jXWNyjjscT3iizuKnR0EXRevlpk-NbqVbt1wOaUmfokbGrQ-USQwz1JDLTyIFr8ll0hUnSJWF-n8reRsPZRp-mu4FM-y2nEJuk2ghrzW1nDIPsZHZHLO2rgLx6f3WOiaEObrpAs_587mlRJAMQUJZb5cr1N-1ocyQFHYqmAnsX_deRTufDyhuMeK1D/s1600/A1_4955-scaled-down-2048x1365.jpg" /></a></div>
Doug Goist arrives at MedStar Capitals Iceplex in Arlington, where the WBHC practices on weekend mornings. When traveling, he says, “I get noticed in the airport when I have my stick and giant equipment bag and my white cane. I have to tell them, ‘Yes, this is mine. I’m a hockey player.’ ”
<hr />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3nhxya-3eqYamXwinpdt32oaTtQb_0WwqOSkUsPTK-z9CEBDwJyn0b7PVtN3o4cVeF3x0tRwFuIwLqdr-ODByJYC7b8rch9LoLN2uEO_7hWYl0HM45mPViBhorYjkJoFj0dM2m1wCqXyMdG9iYXJYR5w50P0urMr77Z88Xx-pIyEWQSXUwP5BVfpfIi0J/s1600/A1_4967-scaled-down-cropped-2048x1365.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="1365" data-original-width="2048" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3nhxya-3eqYamXwinpdt32oaTtQb_0WwqOSkUsPTK-z9CEBDwJyn0b7PVtN3o4cVeF3x0tRwFuIwLqdr-ODByJYC7b8rch9LoLN2uEO_7hWYl0HM45mPViBhorYjkJoFj0dM2m1wCqXyMdG9iYXJYR5w50P0urMr77Z88Xx-pIyEWQSXUwP5BVfpfIi0J/s1600/A1_4967-scaled-down-cropped-2048x1365.jpg" /></a></div>
To give defensive players more time to track the puck, teams must complete one pass after crossing the blue line prior to being able to score. Referees use an electronic “pass whistle” to audibly signal that the pass has been made.
<hr />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMh31V_g7y5_A_iQrqZbu9r27JW1L-azUtNBklswP8DqRmoL6a8BwhDOlwc5aZ4vLK6CSu7ZJP9zIn6S8GgLtVWh5wZC-D_WnmtdS_XnGHEKKanaPCIhgv6fmEG7IRMlPC7xGz-G0Q4Zq3z8gGoORiZFrJL1ch807XspjNFdXudY9cRL32WhPQ0QrfSIFn/s1600/A1_9621-scaled-down-2048x1365.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="1365" data-original-width="2048" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMh31V_g7y5_A_iQrqZbu9r27JW1L-azUtNBklswP8DqRmoL6a8BwhDOlwc5aZ4vLK6CSu7ZJP9zIn6S8GgLtVWh5wZC-D_WnmtdS_XnGHEKKanaPCIhgv6fmEG7IRMlPC7xGz-G0Q4Zq3z8gGoORiZFrJL1ch807XspjNFdXudY9cRL32WhPQ0QrfSIFn/s1600/A1_9621-scaled-down-2048x1365.jpg" /></a></div>
Because the adapted puck is quiet when airborne, slap shots are banned and nets are a foot shorter than in sighted hockey—keeping the puck low so players can hear it. “Goalies are always slightly behind where the puck is, because the sound still has to travel to you,” Goist says. “If I’m playing in a rink with a big ventilation fan, I’m trying to block out that hum.”
<hr />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhp6m85hI_rbR9zFzr-DR8rnuEAzsH39cyXGYasFIZ9oTEptIT-FvwH17q51NNFynUrum3r6p68we42nI-PEb-X4fz2l1k8Bq4d5yz_MChUZ_vQ6-RUYNhzBavIvG7Vz2tWU8FBHvoeGuUolfG0qbYlQ5vrCDm3MBWEI43kd-95BeEKQt-LAu-ejqIZt2Mi/s1600/A1_9636-scaled-down-653x435.webp" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="435" data-original-width="653" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhp6m85hI_rbR9zFzr-DR8rnuEAzsH39cyXGYasFIZ9oTEptIT-FvwH17q51NNFynUrum3r6p68we42nI-PEb-X4fz2l1k8Bq4d5yz_MChUZ_vQ6-RUYNhzBavIvG7Vz2tWU8FBHvoeGuUolfG0qbYlQ5vrCDm3MBWEI43kd-95BeEKQt-LAu-ejqIZt2Mi/s1600/A1_9636-scaled-down-653x435.webp" /></a></div>
The white dots on the back of Goist’s helmet spell out his name in Braille. Above that is the WBHC logo, an all-seeing eye. “It’s from the back of the $1 bill,” says Brown, who works as a marketing manager for the Bureau of Engraving and Printing. “It’s meant to be ironic,” he adds with a laugh.
<hr />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggZKxpLCjEW9X2Q3NwdJS9f_wMDIFgXyuEujanjU-TUUm5o0pMyNGCrRdvB6reuzD-IljQ1hguN5CkEbsQ7XwZ0hvz90vfbU-TQu1owrFiWUgzALY9y_Mws7998eFdlycpOxDHmwniaxIrcFfApLsDRo8jtXhbzPbNrzsyL8nChVBEnoCYo6MPCvZAnCLU/s1600/A1_0423-scaled-down-653x435.webp" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="435" data-original-width="653" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggZKxpLCjEW9X2Q3NwdJS9f_wMDIFgXyuEujanjU-TUUm5o0pMyNGCrRdvB6reuzD-IljQ1hguN5CkEbsQ7XwZ0hvz90vfbU-TQu1owrFiWUgzALY9y_Mws7998eFdlycpOxDHmwniaxIrcFfApLsDRo8jtXhbzPbNrzsyL8nChVBEnoCYo6MPCvZAnCLU/s1600/A1_0423-scaled-down-653x435.webp" /></a></div>
While all players in the sport are legally blind, impairments vary. “One person might be able to see other players across the length of the ice but not see the puck,” Brown says. “Another might be able to read the name on a faraway jersey, but it’s like looking through a paper-towel tube.” Players with less loss generally play center or forward; those with greater or total loss, like Brown, play defense or goalie. “Playing is like going to the bathroom in the middle of the night,” he says. “You figure out how to do it without tripping over everything.”
<hr />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHxTqUTKQ2Nixa_7T3-qMUjkxWisW-3zztxYDbO2KExUYNtk2NwbWD4RCihSWIwoTWpXuGC5I3LjquTNQgrL-zn1jsRElDncYKqpS1DoOl5eNDv3gYDWYYOubkbQB3hrVRv9pi1CdmDAeN9nmV0Z80qsF3BGMqSV6UtiabsfIKnNx6LFRVJH4ITkYSeXmN/s1600/A7R5190-scaled-down-2048x1366.webp" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="1366" data-original-width="2048" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHxTqUTKQ2Nixa_7T3-qMUjkxWisW-3zztxYDbO2KExUYNtk2NwbWD4RCihSWIwoTWpXuGC5I3LjquTNQgrL-zn1jsRElDncYKqpS1DoOl5eNDv3gYDWYYOubkbQB3hrVRv9pi1CdmDAeN9nmV0Z80qsF3BGMqSV6UtiabsfIKnNx6LFRVJH4ITkYSeXmN/s1600/A7R5190-scaled-down-2048x1366.webp" /></a></div>
Last March, four players from the WBHC—including Brown and Goist—played for Team USA against Canada in a three-day tournament in Toronto. “Hockey is their religion up there,” Goist says. “For the first game, they brought in, like, 2,000 schoolkids to watch us. That actually helped me! As soon as they started cheering and the puck was far away, I was like, ‘Oh no, oh no,’ because I knew that meant Canada had the puck and was streaking toward me.” Brown and other players hope blind hockey will become a Paralympics sport. Six to eight national teams are required for inclusion, Brown says—but currently only the US and Canada have squads. “There’s growth in England, there’s a team in Finland, there are activities in Russia,” Brown says. “Half a dozen other countries are starting programs. But they’re not at the elite level yet. The earliest we might see something is 2030.”
<hr />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4ZAEfHTqhZxrJ8UO0qw6BlafStkIxi5hDiKWPKgkItAlVwTBHzlyAhMo3mhl6JPhjfE3WqAaz0KoAo9D1QPSPzbmXGzLIlP3AYTHvDu3L6uy4wepfH6sZg0QG4Dqmg9NyKtH2NsvuTa0JUrfteYxI4uxnVmZmLbtQb0u6wYYvBpf2WlnqcC_NKRF_VWE4/s1600/A1_8748-scaled-down-2048x1365.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="1365" data-original-width="2048" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4ZAEfHTqhZxrJ8UO0qw6BlafStkIxi5hDiKWPKgkItAlVwTBHzlyAhMo3mhl6JPhjfE3WqAaz0KoAo9D1QPSPzbmXGzLIlP3AYTHvDu3L6uy4wepfH6sZg0QG4Dqmg9NyKtH2NsvuTa0JUrfteYxI4uxnVmZmLbtQb0u6wYYvBpf2WlnqcC_NKRF_VWE4/s1600/A1_8748-scaled-down-2048x1365.jpg" /></a></div>
To ensure a level playing field, goalies are required to be completely blind with no light perception. That means donning a blindfold—or, in Goist’s case, eye patches with stickers. “I tried cloth and Velcro sleep shades,” he says. “But I sweated so much that they rolled up like a taquito and bothered my eyelids. The stickers were just to psych myself up.”
<hr />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqyKdfn8Nw0wBnampzs52kH1-_6fzSooMpzyfzBsRpPiHW6F7ktA_RBHpCLcMFMasTH2lTRLrAFjYI7z43x4Pe_MdXdxEj3rngVtOpy8Bi8dKNWws8NuhkCTJ0UDd_sklXvoxKpz42UU48lY2Qa0bMvsN3bzLDoJo8O6_re_fGwbDE-6Bi8gepdbDKXaHG/s1600/A7R5028-scaled-down-2048x1366.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="1366" data-original-width="2048" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqyKdfn8Nw0wBnampzs52kH1-_6fzSooMpzyfzBsRpPiHW6F7ktA_RBHpCLcMFMasTH2lTRLrAFjYI7z43x4Pe_MdXdxEj3rngVtOpy8Bi8dKNWws8NuhkCTJ0UDd_sklXvoxKpz42UU48lY2Qa0bMvsN3bzLDoJo8O6_re_fGwbDE-6Bi8gepdbDKXaHG/s1600/A7R5028-scaled-down-2048x1366.jpg" /></a></div>
Aiden McCown leads Goist off the ice. Though he didn’t compete for Team USA in Toronto, McCown participated in lower-level games during the event and wants to play for the national team in the future. “I’m optimistic that it will become a Paralympic sport,” he says. “I hope so. I’ll be disappointed if I never play at the international level.”
<hr />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-nPjeB8qzWbc6z-1t4sjpadZa7NqcXg9838GSU8RA286IKTrPYWnsLQSA2P0ZPRRiJLYWHiVJ9DNTDaV9xy9DeooRQZ5zy0z0Jl4Rlm5vGXDYR4Z3C0-2biaS5SRzWexcP3uLkzJ6XxNlxTZUnwkCxmUhwhfueaCXh5P5Zyz70E8aLpHYkN6J8cINCfBd/s1600/A1_7140-scaled-down-2048x1365.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="1365" data-original-width="2048" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-nPjeB8qzWbc6z-1t4sjpadZa7NqcXg9838GSU8RA286IKTrPYWnsLQSA2P0ZPRRiJLYWHiVJ9DNTDaV9xy9DeooRQZ5zy0z0Jl4Rlm5vGXDYR4Z3C0-2biaS5SRzWexcP3uLkzJ6XxNlxTZUnwkCxmUhwhfueaCXh5P5Zyz70E8aLpHYkN6J8cINCfBd/s1600/A1_7140-scaled-down-2048x1365.jpg" /></a></div>
Aiden McCown practices his stick-handling at home in Silver Spring while brother Nate looks on (left). At an NHL game in New Jersey (below), Nate uses the zoom function on his smartphone to watch the on-ice action. “When you feel like you can do something just as well as someone with regular vision, it boosts your confidence,” Aiden says. “It shows that despite any obstacles you might have, there’s always a way.”
<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2rRKqTxI01ZtWZuYO1yuXE-imzoOJb62PDDOfQFJ1TCdfJD_iV8cULZH0xGrA-lhwX-BRff1joS_B9tZ37pONPNVyZU1yFem6RWGuxR5pS5e2Px0xonTg7hrB6nJNlOntuqkPHOIr-IAkO3493bWasfe3fptz_uX0x4Xaot5lON5hkmN-S5k_18IMwARL/s1600/A1_1697-scaled-down-2048x1366.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="1366" data-original-width="2048" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2rRKqTxI01ZtWZuYO1yuXE-imzoOJb62PDDOfQFJ1TCdfJD_iV8cULZH0xGrA-lhwX-BRff1joS_B9tZ37pONPNVyZU1yFem6RWGuxR5pS5e2Px0xonTg7hrB6nJNlOntuqkPHOIr-IAkO3493bWasfe3fptz_uX0x4Xaot5lON5hkmN-S5k_18IMwARL/s1600/A1_1697-scaled-down-2048x1366.jpg" /></a></div>
<hr />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIE2e9dQhygwujN_1qngCBlVAkWmzXuvbITEs2TcOO8x2nww4FQ0M8tKnYNljdJcaIEXd0N-cWY4S2NHQxwzLUWGYhkfdTEsx4IzPzhMMaBXVGvxCwzP2OeZpDQVR-SQSj61OZ11nawLyePReuVMwl7mkpN4z1fvZidJaS50Md8hxxDfoZuihUREn8faKn/s1600/A1_1013-scaled-down-2048x1365.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="1365" data-original-width="2048" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIE2e9dQhygwujN_1qngCBlVAkWmzXuvbITEs2TcOO8x2nww4FQ0M8tKnYNljdJcaIEXd0N-cWY4S2NHQxwzLUWGYhkfdTEsx4IzPzhMMaBXVGvxCwzP2OeZpDQVR-SQSj61OZ11nawLyePReuVMwl7mkpN4z1fvZidJaS50Md8hxxDfoZuihUREn8faKn/s1600/A1_1013-scaled-down-2048x1365.jpg" /></a></div>
Nate McCown, who like his brother has partial sight and also plays for a sighted club hockey team, feels the burn after a WBHC practice. “It’s the same game, just as hard and intense,” he says. “But it’s really fun to make connections, see how people who are older are going through their lives with their vision challenges, and bond over a game that we love.”
<div style="text-align: center;">
<kicker><a href="https://www.washingtonian.com/2024/02/05/blind-hockey-players-in-the-dc-area-are-facing-off-in-the-rink/" target="_blank">Published at Washingtonian</a></kicker></div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3878043065627433241.post-992895101140509252023-08-28T09:49:00.001-04:002024-02-25T10:27:28.579-05:00Frances Tiafoe's Star Turn<div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVjs34o3ja1nnFmKRJ6DVxPALHJv90_kX_S6gDgKmn5Kyg9YqdziUDbv_omql21OpoKkX_ms5RDBumRM3Hz_8abQNHRnWVmE596D2Y8jpHOsK1lJzvKcFdLYiCy6FQhYcXlJO3KLItRhm74j-phag3vbdWOVcpYqgjjjO58JG8PO5zlVd7adQhlLsJwm9q/s1600/Tiafoe-lead-5.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="2500" data-original-width="1875" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVjs34o3ja1nnFmKRJ6DVxPALHJv90_kX_S6gDgKmn5Kyg9YqdziUDbv_omql21OpoKkX_ms5RDBumRM3Hz_8abQNHRnWVmE596D2Y8jpHOsK1lJzvKcFdLYiCy6FQhYcXlJO3KLItRhm74j-phag3vbdWOVcpYqgjjjO58JG8PO5zlVd7adQhlLsJwm9q/s1600/Tiafoe-lead-5.jpg" /></a></div></div><a name='more'></a><div style="text-align: center;"><subhead>After an electrifying run at the 2022 US Open, the Hyattsville native will return to New York chasing tennis’s ultimate prize: a Grand Slam title. The challenge is steep—but Tiafoe has a history of beating the odds.</subhead></div><div style="text-align: center;"><attribution>By Patrick Hruby | Washingtonian | August 2023</attribution></div><span class="drop-cap">F</span>rances Tiafoe stands at a podium surrounded by family, fans, and children holding tennis racquets. He looks past a cluster of
television news cameras, toward a storage room where he used to sleep.<div><br /><div>“Let’s
go, Big Foe!” someone yells from the crowd. </div><div><br /></div><div>Tiafoe flashes a gap-toothed grin.
He often likens his life to a movie. But Hollywood couldn’t script a more
improbable journey. It’s a sweltering July afternoon at the Junior Tennis
Champions Center in College Park. Before becoming one of the world’s top tennis
players, the 25-year-old Hyattsville native and son of West African immigrants
grew up here—smashing and volleying on courts his father helped build, smitten
with a sport that has long been the playground of the white and wealthy. </div><div><br /></div><div>Tiafoe
has returned to launch his charitable fund, which will help underprivileged kids
play. He has little time to savor the moment. With former First Lady Michelle
Obama cheering him on, Tiafoe went on an electrifying run at last year’s US
Open, upsetting tennis legend Rafa Nadal en route to the semifinals. Budding
fame has followed: a featured role in a Netflix documentary, a Gucci-clad
appearance at a Vogue runway event, two baskets scored in the NBA All-Star
Celebrity game. Earlier this week, Tiafoe received a new car from Cadillac.
Minutes prior to his fund launch, he filmed a promotion for racquetmaker Yonex. </div><div><br /></div><div>“Oooh, minty fresh,” says an emcee, handing Tiafoe a brand-new racquet. </div><div><br /></div><div>“That’s
a sexy racquet, for sure,” he replies, sheepishly smiling. </div><div><br /></div><div>Tiafoe moves to a
small tent. The cameras are waiting. Reporters, too. Tiafoe is ranked number ten
on the ATP Tour, a career high. In late August, he’ll return to New York, aiming
to become the first American man to win the US Open since Andy Roddick in
2003—and just the second Black American male champion since Arthur Ashe in 1968.
Winning the tournament, Tiafoe says, is “something that I really want to do now.
I mean, [if] I win a Grand Slam and have a terrible career after that, so be it.
I did the unthinkable.” </div><div><br /></div><div>Interview time is almost up. Tiafoe will soon be ushered
to a nearby court, where he’ll lead children through a series of drills. The
cameras will take it all in, and as he laughs and cracks jokes—happy and
successful and enjoying a star turn—it will be easy to forget just how far he’s
come. </div><div><br /></div><div>“Nobody I’m competing against had my come-up,” Tiafoe says. “I’m not even
having this conversation if I didn’t go through those moments. Life is a crazy
journey.”</div><div><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmWiqjauGwXNWuo5irxfOZmCGxZEUG1dv8e6rEeZH7l4POA2xH7Um4syWi3z3oli6Fb_AG-Um-NBGqN0-x3n4PbBfvCiXPVCuyWUTo3IBBudtaEMgWReBUX3U456uHxh5fBQd5TdjHzGfJ859jM3JDFZTJjUZbfmuo7949fUaEPLuI-LPwg9UZVSgVrAP2/s653/3O5A6190-cropped-2-653x498.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="498" data-original-width="653" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmWiqjauGwXNWuo5irxfOZmCGxZEUG1dv8e6rEeZH7l4POA2xH7Um4syWi3z3oli6Fb_AG-Um-NBGqN0-x3n4PbBfvCiXPVCuyWUTo3IBBudtaEMgWReBUX3U456uHxh5fBQd5TdjHzGfJ859jM3JDFZTJjUZbfmuo7949fUaEPLuI-LPwg9UZVSgVrAP2/s16000/3O5A6190-cropped-2-653x498.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Tiafoe returned to the JTCC in College Park this summer to launch his foundation, which will help underprivileged kids play tennis. Photograph by Evy Mages<span style="text-align: left;"> </span></td></tr></tbody></table><div><hr />
<span class="drop-cap">M</span>isha Kouznetsov wanted a pupil. It was his first
day coaching at the JTCC, and when he saw an eight-year-old Tiafoe, two things
stood out: The boy loved tennis. And his father was tall. </div><div><br /></div><div>“I figured Frances was
probably going to [grow] to be bigger and stronger than some of the other
kids,” Kouznetsov says. “And because his dad worked there, he was always around.
So I’d have as much time to work with him as I wanted.” </div><div><br /></div><div>Francis Tiafoe Sr. was
the JTCC’s maintenance manager, cleaning the campus by day and resurfacing its
clay courts at night. Previously a day laborer on the crews that built the
center in 1999, he had emigrated to the US from Sierra Leone. So had Frances’s
mother, Alphina Kamara, who escaped a bloody civil war by winning a visa lottery
in 1996. </div><div><br /></div><div>Frances and his twin brother, Franklin, were born in 1998. When working
double shifts at the JTCC, Francis Sr. lived out of an unused storage room; when
Alphina worked night shifts as a nurse, the boys joined their father—sleeping on
a spare massage table. </div><div><br /></div><div>Many mornings, a preteen Frances would wake up, walk to a
blue wall just outside the room painted with the outline of a tennis net and the
words trust your training, and hit balls. In the evenings, he’d practice serving
on empty courts. When he wasn’t in school, Tiafoe would pass time watching the
Tennis Channel in the JTCC lobby. He’d wander the courts, stopping to observe as
top juniors received high-level coaching. “I always remember him as a
five-year-old, sitting on the bench, watching,” says JTCC president Vesa Ponkka.
“His feet were just hanging in the air because he was so small.” </div><div><br /></div><div>The center was
founded by Ken Brody, a banker who served in the Clinton administration and died
this past March. It focuses on helping youngsters—including locals from
low-income backgrounds—become good enough to earn college tennis scholarships.
Across its 32 courts, the vibe is competitive, but also positive and inclusive.
“Tennis has many wonderful qualities, but it’s also very self-centered,” says
Ray Benton, JTCC’s CEO. “You can turn out to be a brat. We try to have a spirit
of giving back and helping.” </div><div><br /></div><div>Within junior tennis, Tiafoe sometimes encountered
a different spirit. He remembers being teased by wealthier kids for wearing
cargo shorts instead of pricier gear, and for playing with discarded racquets.
He couldn’t afford his own. “We’d go to tournaments and be laughed at,” he says.
“It all fueled me."</div><div><br /></div><div>Kouznetsov could relate. He’d left his family in Moscow to
live and train at a Florida tennis academy when he was 15, looking for a better
life. While playing at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, he realized
he was “too short” to become a successful pro. He instead decided to coach—and
burned to develop a future champion. “I was so hungry,” he says. “That’s why the
whole Frances-and-I thing worked out. Two hungry guys, and poor. I came [to the
US] with $60.” </div><div><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLEDVc9BR2wD0sNXNQ3RqYU0hh9hegYaIoOWZn5LK_TU1NxE3B75dIXugJotaMwbKNgvbQV74mBoTEC3eZM37hDj1sp4Mc7L_z9bzaelw2sYC07bPuod6Bfn6P8FuBk0BDV4gbE2rBhKBMr5G6he2dqcu4s4e7mmk3cy-wipWbQvih989urWGUNyPpKGj1/s300/Tiafoes-photo-1-230x300.webp" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="300" data-original-width="230" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLEDVc9BR2wD0sNXNQ3RqYU0hh9hegYaIoOWZn5LK_TU1NxE3B75dIXugJotaMwbKNgvbQV74mBoTEC3eZM37hDj1sp4Mc7L_z9bzaelw2sYC07bPuod6Bfn6P8FuBk0BDV4gbE2rBhKBMr5G6he2dqcu4s4e7mmk3cy-wipWbQvih989urWGUNyPpKGj1/s16000/Tiafoes-photo-1-230x300.webp" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Local coach Misha Kouznetsov saw Tiafoe’s potential early. Photograph courtesy of Misha Kouznetsov.</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div>Kouznetsov became Tiafoe’s surrogate tennis dad. He let the boy
stay with him and his girlfriend on nights before out-of-town competitions, paid
his tournament entry fees, helped tutor him one summer when he fell behind at
school. After victories, Kouznetsov would reward Tiafoe with ice cream; if he
didn’t try hard enough on the court, his coach made him run laps around a field
at Georgetown Prep. </div><div><br /></div><div>When practicing, Kouznetsov says, Tiafoe could be “lazy”:
“You’d see 30 kids in the junior championships doing their fitness, all running,
and Frances was the last one—walking.” Matches were a different story. JTCC
coach Oliver Akli recalls a junior tournament in Florida where Tiafoe forgot to
bring extra racquets and shoes. During a match, the young player called Akli
over. He told the coach he’d broken the string on his racquet—and had a hole on
the bottom of his shoe. “It was a big hole!” says Akli, who still works with
Tiafoe. “His foot was touching the ground. But guess what? He won that match
with my racquet and with that shoe. That was when I was like, ‘This kid, he can
do a lot.’ ” </div><div><br /></div><div>During car rides, Tiafoe and Kouznetsov would talk about playing
professionally. The odds were slim. Even for youngsters with the rare and
requisite talent, Kouznetsov says, it can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars
in coaching, travel, and other expenses to become a world-class junior—and most
of those players fizzle at the next level. “Normally with kids, you don’t even
give them a 1-percent chance to make it,” Kouznetsov says. “‘But [Frances] was
all in. He had no plan B.” </div><div><br /></div><div>In 2012, Tiafoe won the unofficial under-14 world
championship in France. At age 15, he became the youngest boy ever to win the
Orange Bowl in Florida—a prestigious tournament that counts Björn Borg and Roger
Federer among its champs. By then, Tiafoe was being sponsored by hedge-fund
billionaire Bill Ackman, whom he’d met through Brody. </div><div><br /></div><div>Ackman wasn’t the only
believer in Tiafoe’s potential. In the summer of 2014, Tiafoe, his parents, and
Kouznetsov attended a Beyoncé and Jay-Z concert in Baltimore. The group was
invited backstage by the rapper, who personally pitched Tiafoe on turning pro
and signing with his sports agency. </div><div><br /></div><div>When Tiafoe first told his parents he
planned to play tennis for a living, he was 12. Their response was lukewarm.
“The goal was like, ‘Okay, you can play a little bit of tennis and have a
scholarship to go to college,’ ” Francis Sr. says. Things change. In early 2015,
Tiafoe won his first pro tournament while competing as an amateur and forgoing
a cash prize. A month later, he turned pro—and made his parents a promise. </div><div><br /></div><div>“He
said, ‘Mom, if I go pro, I’m not going to disappoint you guys,’ ” says Alphina.</div><div><hr />
<span class="drop-cap">T</span>ennis superstars tend to emerge early. From
Serena Williams to Nadal, many won their first Grand Slams as teens—and never
looked back. </div><div><br /></div><div>Tiafoe’s ascent has been more halting. He ripped through
lower-level tournaments just months into his pro career but struggled for years
against highly ranked opponents. He beat his childhood idol, former US Open
champ Juan Martín del Potro, en route to his first ATP title in Florida, then
lost in the first round of the same tournament the next year. He reached the
2019 Australian Open quarterfinals to earn a career-high ranking of number 29.
A year later, he’d fallen all the way to 84. </div><div><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCJmq1P_EqEzZMy2GBdKlCiQAkMKkI8bCKle6puYqD4r1-Gd06ERUcyfn3d7Ca_PYGmmulzR_nxoaH2JqzvgjN5A4mFBK0Z2tm1lg5O-VEKs9one43IRCYteCU0FgM6pkhHQK-aGwbuKFJ6QaUZVRCHLRUMFQgpEDFeJ4RvNxJ6vQRPBgK2NzoKGpQPQrx/s1170/Tiafoes-photo-2.webp" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1170" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCJmq1P_EqEzZMy2GBdKlCiQAkMKkI8bCKle6puYqD4r1-Gd06ERUcyfn3d7Ca_PYGmmulzR_nxoaH2JqzvgjN5A4mFBK0Z2tm1lg5O-VEKs9one43IRCYteCU0FgM6pkhHQK-aGwbuKFJ6QaUZVRCHLRUMFQgpEDFeJ4RvNxJ6vQRPBgK2NzoKGpQPQrx/s16000/Tiafoes-photo-2.webp" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">After turning pro at 17, Tiafoe was consistently inconsistent, struggling against top players like Roger Federer (left). Photograph by Lynne Sladky/AP Photo.</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div>Tiafoe was well liked by fans and
other players, charismatic and cheerful, quick to crack jokes and prone to
celebrating big wins by ripping off his shirt and pounding his chest, a nod to
basketball star LeBron James. He had bought Alphina a home in Maryland (Francis
Sr. and Franklin live in Florida) and was making a good living on tour—no small
feat in a global sport in which the lion’s share of prize and endorsement income
goes to roughly 100 athletes while hundreds of others break even or lose money. </div><div><br /></div><div>But Tiafoe wasn’t considered a serious contender. He had the tools to
succeed—speed, soft hands at the net, an unorthodox yet crackling forehand, a
sharp mind for the game. However, he regularly lost focus during matches. He’d
occasionally spot someone he knew in the stands and start chatting. During one
scrambling rally against Daniil Medvedev at the 2019 DC Open, Tiafoe hit a
sensational lunging volley with his back to the net and began celebrating with
the crowd, not noticing that Medvedev had managed to return the ball. For years,
his most viral moment had nothing to do with his play: During a tournament in
Florida, the loud, unmistakable sounds of a couple having sex in a nearby
apartment building led Tiafoe to yell, “It can’t be that good!” </div><div><br /></div><div>As recently as
the first round of last year’s US Open, Tiafoe acknowledged his reputation. “I’m
kind of Court 17,” he said, referring to the side courts at Grand Slam
tournaments where the game’s lesser lights toil. “Get some cheeky wins.” Jessica
Pegula, a top WTA Tour player and friend of Tiafoe’s, was more blunt: “I’m
always kind of on him: ‘Can you win a match, like, normal and not be like this
whole theatrical event?’ ” </div><div><br /></div><div>Tiafoe says he was unprepared for money and fame, and
that his relative success made him complacent when it came to training. He
cycled through a series of part-time coaches and, crucially, lacked confidence
against the game’s biggest names, including a straight-set shellacking by Nadal
at the 2019 Australian Open. “[Frances] told me that he never, not for one
second, thought he could win that match,” says Ponkka, the JTCC president. </div><div><br /></div><div>In
early 2020, Tiafoe took stock. Players who had been his junior peers, such as
Andrey Rublev and Stefanos Tsitsipas, were ascending. He was stuck. Something
had to change. He began working with Wayne Ferreira, a no-nonsense coach from
South Africa who, as a player, had gone from being described by his junior coach
as “a little bit lazy” to an ATP ironman who competed in 56 straight Grand Slams
and was once ranked number six. </div><div><br /></div><div>When the pandemic shut down sports that March,
Tiafoe rebooted. For five months, he worked on his footwork. He made his ho-hum
serve a weapon, faster and more consistent. He cut back on eating sweets,
stopped skipping breakfast, got stronger and leaner. To help Tiafoe learn to
focus, Ferreira banned him from using his smartphone during “business hours”—no
texting, scrolling, or playing music while training. </div><div><br /></div><div>The changes paid off.
Coming back from a summer bout of Covid, Tiafoe won his first five-set match at
the US Open—outlasting John Millman, an Australian known for his grit. In 2021,
he beat Tsitsipas at Wimbledon and Rublev at the US Open to climb back into the
top 40. When a sore elbow threatened to sideline Tiafoe in early 2022 for as
long as six months, he chose physical therapy over surgery and resolved the pain
with six grinding weeks of shoulder and neck exercises. </div><div><br /></div><div>By the time he faced
Nadal in the fourth round of last year’s US Open, Tiafoe had faith he could
win—and an audacious plan to attack one of the most ferocious competitors and
counterpunchers in tennis history. Matching Nadal’s unwavering intensity and
blasting high-risk shots down the lines, he won in four sets. When it was over,
Tiafoe stood on the court with his hands on his hips, tearing up. Afterward, he
said he felt like a different player—and a different person. “He has the right
team around him and he’s getting more mature,” Alphina says. “He knows that
‘this is where I want to be.’ ”
<hr />
<span class="drop-cap">T</span>iafoe’s US Open performance changed his life.
LeBron James shouted out his victory over Nadal on Twitter. Actor Jamie Foxx
joined Michelle Obama—and frankly, what seemed like all of New York—in rooting
for Tiafoe during a five-set semifinal loss to eventual champion Carlos Alcaraz.
Since then, Tiafoe has modeled underwear for Calvin Klein and worn earbuds for
Beats. During Wimbledon this summer, a Barclays ad featuring his image was
plastered on a double-decker London bus. </div><div><br /></div><div>“I have friends who run tournaments
from the Australian Open to the Vienna Open, and for years they would tell me
that Frances was the most popular player there outside of people from their home
countries,” says Mark Ein, chairman of the Mubadala Citi DC Open and a Chevy
Chase native who has known Tiafoe for years. “He could always light up a crowd.
But now that’s at a completely different level.” </div><div><br /></div><div>In tennis, stardom can be a
competitive advantage. More fame means more endorsement money, which can be
invested in better coaching, training, and comfort when crisscrossing the globe
to keep up with the sport’s demanding, year-round schedule. Conversely, the
demands of fame can steal time and sap energy—there’s always another interview
to sit for, another sponsor to glad-hand. On the court, expectations rise.
Pressure builds. Tennis history is littered with players who struggled after
seeming to break through. The weight can be heavy. </div><div><br /></div><div>When Tiafoe was 11, he was
mentioned in a <i>Washington Post </i>article; a year later, he was featured in the <i>New
York Times</i>. He told his father, Francis Sr., that the attention made him
uncomfortable. Listen, his father replied,<i> there are two times that cameras
follow you in this country—when you’re doing good or when you’ve been caught</i>.
“And that’s it!” Francis Sr. says now with a laugh. “So be happy you’re not in
the second category.” </div><div><br /></div><div>Tiafoe is doing well these days. His longtime girlfriend,
Canadian tennis pro Ayan Broomfield, is a frequent presence at his matches. When
he isn’t on the road, Tiafoe splits his time between Florida, where his father
and brother live, and the DC area, where he visits his mother and hangs out at
the JTCC. “Everyone here gets so excited to see how far I’ve come and [has]
known me for so long—that kind of love, you can’t really beat,” Tiafoe says. “I
feel so at home here.” </div><div><br /></div><div>On the court, Tiafoe has maintained his momentum, winning
tournaments this year on clay and grass while becoming just the third-ever
African American man to reach the top ten. “Frances admitted to us that [the
fame] might have gotten to him a little bit,” says JTCC director of fitness TC
Costello, who trains and sometimes travels with Tiafoe. “But honestly, he’s
dealt with it pretty well. Early in his career, he went down after he went up,
and I think that experience has helped him. He’s like, ‘I’m not gonna let that
happen again.’ ” </div><div><br /></div><div>At the US Open, Ferreira challenged him to aim even higher.
“It’s a great story,” he said of Tiafoe’s journey. “Hopefully, there will be a
movie about it one day. But he has to win [a] Grand Slam first. You only get
movies if you do well.” </div><div><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgVzcge9tb3uX-xe5mxGlzKPUyOK3mLtSGhgt8rLPOYBEoesZjT-o54kq7DjRW8LIZp2qbZ4ho_69SQ-cuoaCEb5fH-GUHkeDlgWDMV6AnMG0_ExUdY4ajo3qRYS5oB05zo0X8NYaGuwqYTI0nyynzyLU08mUoxhUuFF-HVe33fPgkSzSx_t6iRAUd6hoq/s1180/2G30NGG-cropped-2.webp" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgVzcge9tb3uX-xe5mxGlzKPUyOK3mLtSGhgt8rLPOYBEoesZjT-o54kq7DjRW8LIZp2qbZ4ho_69SQ-cuoaCEb5fH-GUHkeDlgWDMV6AnMG0_ExUdY4ajo3qRYS5oB05zo0X8NYaGuwqYTI0nyynzyLU08mUoxhUuFF-HVe33fPgkSzSx_t6iRAUd6hoq/s16000/2G30NGG-cropped-2.webp" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Tiafoe has won ATP tournaments but is still looking for his first Grand Slam trophy. Photograph by Alamy.</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div>Tiafoe has embraced that goal: Moments after losing to
Alcaraz, a teary-eyed Tiafoe told fans at Arthur Ashe Stadium that he would
“come back, and I will win this thing one day.” Whether he can make good on that
promise remains an open question. Over the past 20 years, only 15 different men
have lifted a championship trophy at either Wimbledon or the Australian, French,
or US Open. “You have to win seven matches, best-of-five-set marathons, over two
weeks,” Ein says. “Invariably, there’s late nights, weather delays, the toughest
opponents. It’s one of the hardest things to do in sports.” </div><div><br /></div><div>Tiafoe has beaten
the odds before. At an early-round match at the DC Open in early August, his
parents and JTCC coaches are in his player box. Basketball star Kevin Durant,
another local boy made good, sits courtside. After Tiafoe wins, the two embrace
on the court. Tiafoe moves to a press tent, a towel draped over his shoulders.
Once upon a time, he says, he was a kid with big dreams, wearing hand-me-downs
and sneaking into the tournament. “Now I’m playing,” he says. “People are here
to see me. You want to keep these moments going. You want to make them be
[normal], not just a once-in-a-lifetime thing.” </div><div><br /></div><div>Tiafoe exits through a set of
double doors. The night is warm. He has friends outside, waiting, and more
matches to come. His life might read like a Hollywood screenplay, but not
entirely. Too much has yet to be written.
<div style="text-align: center;">
<kicker><a href="https://www.washingtonian.com/2023/08/28/frances-tiafoes-big-dream/" target="_blank">Published at Washingtonian</a></kicker>
</div></div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3878043065627433241.post-19040062925382138372023-08-19T10:58:00.003-04:002023-08-19T11:06:25.033-04:00Ron DeSantis’s Big Strikeout<div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirrm7x1slXFEJ7Mrt73Et7J25UjfeZdRAzejVp3VVihnwYK2CGMnhGj_UeiStRqrHpgeft6WcP6EkLe1Du-LRte2iNloV1SDs90LJFUk1pnsH-vKmM0xnPaGElXKRyEAQ1FRlncvKgqA7KFFP2rnlpgAnJImc80ZJqd8QRoWVyuWpmOlMoJFTodt3jFPMR/s1600/Baseball_Angels_Ohtani_19198067714224-copy.jpeg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="2000" data-original-width="1377" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirrm7x1slXFEJ7Mrt73Et7J25UjfeZdRAzejVp3VVihnwYK2CGMnhGj_UeiStRqrHpgeft6WcP6EkLe1Du-LRte2iNloV1SDs90LJFUk1pnsH-vKmM0xnPaGElXKRyEAQ1FRlncvKgqA7KFFP2rnlpgAnJImc80ZJqd8QRoWVyuWpmOlMoJFTodt3jFPMR/s1600/Baseball_Angels_Ohtani_19198067714224-copy.jpeg" /></a></div></div><a name='more'></a><div style="text-align: center;"><subhead>In 2013, he was supposed to save the Republicans (or at least their baseball team)</subhead></div><div style="text-align: center;"><attribution>By Patrick Hruby | Washingtonian | August 2023</attribution></div><span class="drop-cap">F</span>orgive us if this sounds familiar: The Democrats were confident, coming off a victory and looking for a repeat behind a powerful incumbent. But the Republicans had a potential equalizer, a newcomer from the state of Florida whose formidable résumé and big, early swings were turning heads. Nobody knew exactly how Ron DeSantis would perform under the bright lights, but his GOP peers believed he was ready to step up to the plate, hit hard, and deliver a much-needed win.<div><br /></div><div>Long before DeSantis entered the 2024 presidential race, he was hyped as a player to watch in another heated contest between the parties: the annual Congressional Baseball Game. Played most years since 1909, the event features members of Congress (predominantly) and senators (less often, due to most being, well, too old). They don caps and jerseys, grab gloves and bats, and try to beat one another on the diamond without getting seriously injured. (A <a href="https://www.mcall.com/1996/07/27/holden-is-hurt-in-game-democratic-congressman-breaks-jaw-nose-cheekbone-while-playing-charity-baseball/" target="_blank">1996 collision</a> between Democratic representatives Tim Holden and Bill Jefferson sent Holden to the hospital and left deep cuts in Jefferson’s forehead.)</div><div><br /></div><div>As he aims to knock off GOP front-runner Donald Trump and President Biden en route to the Oval Office, DeSantis has been leaning into his baseball background—first as a player in the 1991 Little League World Series and later as captain of Yale University’s team. His framed college jersey reportedly hangs in the governor’s office in Florida. Earlier this year, he <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GfnZYUE9Fxs" target="_blank">played catch with a Fox News personality</a> while conducting an interview on his hometown baseball field in a Tampa suburb. Meanwhile, a PAC supporting DeSantis is planning to mail baseball cards picturing DeSantis at bat and listing his political accomplishments to Republican voters in primary states.</div><div><br /></div><div>Baseball, in other words, is a big part of the DeSantis brand. So when the then–Florida representative signed up for the Republican team in the 2013 Congressional Baseball Game, his teammates were thrilled. “Ron was our stud superstar,” says another ex-Florida congressman, Dennis Ross. “We had high hopes with him. Very high hopes.”<hr><span class="drop-cap">T</span>he congressional game is first and foremost a charitable event: This year’s, held at Nationals Park in June, sold more than 20,000 tickets and raised $1.8 million for area charities. For members, it’s also a chance to build rapport and relationships away from the contentiousness of Capitol Hill. “It’s a way to engage each other without our suits and without TV cameras and mics, and get to know people in a different, less formal way,” says former Pennsylvania representative Mike Doyle. “In Congress, five minutes after the last vote, everyone is running to the airport. There’s not a lot of opportunity to get together like you can in the game.”</div><div><br /></div><div>That camaraderie doesn’t mean legislators aren’t serious about winning. Partisan bragging rights (and an actual trophy) are at stake—and sometimes more than that. “If you’re on the team that wins, it gives you status in your [party] conference,” says former Texas representative Joe Barton. “If you’re the star pitcher or catcher, it can help you get meetings and move your agenda.”</div><div><br /></div><div>In the months leading up to the game, Democrats and Republicans alike go to early-morning practices at area ballfields, shagging flies and grooving their swings before starting their workdays. “You’d be out there in the outfield at 6:30 AM with [Republican senator] Rand Paul, and he’d be talking about running for President,” Ross says. “But truly, nothing else mattered. It was very competitive. It was about playing baseball—even though it was just old, fat men playing baseball in slow motion.”</div><div><br /></div><div>During his 28 years in the House, Doyle was twice named the game’s Most Valuable Player. He also managed the Democratic team for more than a decade. “The pay sucks,” he says with a laugh. “You don’t get anything. And you can’t miss a practice, because you have all the equipment, which you have to schlep to the field every morning.”</div><div><br /></div><div>Doyle realized just how important the game was during his first day on Capitol Hill, when he was standing in line in the Speaker’s Lobby to receive his voting card. “I was a freshman [congressman] and I was in awe of the place,” he says. “This older guy comes up and says, ‘Can you throw?’ ” Doyle was perplexed. <i>Pardon me?</i> The older guy was former Minnesota representative Martin Sabo, then coach of the Democrats. “He says, ‘Can you throw a baseball? I want to know if you can play.’ I called my wife that night: ‘Hey Susie, guess what’s the first thing they want to know when you come to Congress?’"<hr /><span class="drop-cap">W</span>hen DeSantis arrived here in 2013 to represent Florida’s 6th Congressional District, the 34-year-old seemed like a standard anti-tax, pro-small-government conservative lawmaker. However, his baseball past stood out: DeSantis had been a four-year starter at Yale and, as a 12-year-old, a key player on a Little League team that featured four future Major League Baseball draftees.</div><div><br /></div><div>After he joined the Republican baseball squad, DeSantis confessed to Roll Call that he hadn’t “really picked up a ball or bat in 10 years,” but he also proclaimed his swing ready for the 2013 congressional matchup. “When you play the game from the time you were 3, that muscle memory is still there,” he said.</div><div><br /></div><div>DeSantis looked like a star in practice. He hit multiple home runs—one of them a 320-foot blast—and impressed teammates like South Carolina congressman Jeff Duncan, who suggested playing Darth Vader’s theme music when DeSantis came up to bat. “Ron wasn’t very talkative,” Ross says. “He would keep to himself, warming up with one of his staffers. But he was a heck of a third baseman.” On DeSantis’s first day with the GOP team, Ross watched him take batting practice. “Probably on the second pitch, he put one out of the park,” Ross says. “We really needed that.”</div><div><br /></div><div>Did they ever. In the aughts, the Republicans won eight consecutive games, powered by what Barton, the team’s longtime manager, calls “a bunch of young, flat-bellied” members. But everything changed in 2011, when Democrat Cedric Richmond began representing Louisiana in Congress. “After that, it was lights out for the Democrats,” Barton says. “For the next ten years.”</div><div><br /></div><div>Doyle remembers recruiting Richmond, then in his late thirties, in the Speaker’s Lobby—the same way Sabo had once recruited him. “He was trim,” Doyle says. “He looked athletic. I introduced myself.” Richmond told Doyle he had played baseball for Morehouse College in Atlanta. “I said, ‘What committee would you like to be on?’ ” Doyle jokes.</div><div><br /></div><div>Over the decades, a handful of pros-turned-pols have played in the congressional game, including Hall of Fame pitcher Jim Bunning and former National Football League wide receiver Steve Largent. None dominated like Richmond, who could throw a curveball, a knuckleball, and a fastball that sometimes exceeded 80 mph. “There have been former pros who played in the game, but they were nowhere near their physical prime,” Barton says. “Cedric was still in shape. He was consistently throwing 75 to 80 mph. That’s not quite Major League level—but it’s a lot faster than what you usually see [from a Congress member].”</div><div><br /></div><div>In Richmond’s 2011 debut, the player the <i>New York Times </i>once called <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/12/upshot/the-babe-ruth-of-congress.html" target="_blank">“the Babe Ruth of Congress”</a> lived up to the comparison, allowing a single hit while amassing 13 strikeouts in a Democratic victory. Republicans “had just come off the 2010 Tea Party [electoral] wave, we’re taking over everything, we show up for the baseball game—and man, we got humbled,” Ross says. “Cedric smoked us.” The next year, after the Republicans spent the off-season practicing against a pitching machine obtained by Barton that threw 85-mph fastballs, Richmond led the Democrats to an 18–5 rout. “I remember telling Joe [Barton], ‘Cedric is in a heavily Democratic seat in Louisiana, so there’s no way you can beat him [in an election],’ ” Doyle says. “ ‘Get used to this.’ ”<hr /><span class="drop-cap">F</span>or the GOP, DeSantis represented hope. Heading into the 2013 game, his looming showdown with Richmond was the talk of Capitol Hill. The Florida congressman’s baseball bona fides “put him four steps ahead of anyone else” on the GOP team, says Nathan Gonzales, who covered DeSantis for <i>Roll Call</i> and is now editor and publisher of<i> Inside Elections. </i>“There was legitimate excitement and hype around him.”</div><div><br /></div><div>Former Pennsylvania representative Bill Shuster dubbed DeSantis “the Cedric Slayer,” while DeSantis told <i>National Journal</i> he was “pretty sure whoever they put out there I’ll be able to hit.” The same article hinted at off-field animosity: At a recent Judiciary Committee hearing, DeSantis had blasted then–attorney general Eric Holder while Richmond called for more decorum, leaving Richmond to joke that he might tell DeSantis, “Hey, Ron, this one’s for the AG,” while on the mound.</div><div><br /></div><div>The game was played on a muggy June evening. A hush fell over Nationals Park as DeSantis came up to bat in the top of the first inning. Richmond threw a curveball for a strike; DeSantis popped up his next pitch high into foul territory, where Richmond caught it for an out. It was a sign of things to come: DeSantis went 0-for-3 for the game and failed to hit the ball out of the infield, while Richmond gave up only three hits and batted 4-for-4—just missing on a home run—in a 22–0 Democratic blowout. California representative Eric Swalwell and former Texas representative Beto O’Rourke were among the many Democrats who outhit DeSantis. “It was the worst defeat that I had ever been involved in personally, at any level,” Barton says. “They kicked our butts.”</div><div><br /></div><div>The Republicans’ losing streak would continue until 2016, when an uncharacteristically shaky Richmond gave up six runs in an 8–7 defeat. (The Democrats, Ross recalls, were coming off an almost 26-hour sit-in on the House floor to support two gun-control measures.) DeSantis, meanwhile, played in only one more congressional game after 2013, getting a pair of hits in 2017 before leaving Capitol Hill. Rumor has it that he missed the previous games because of a shoulder injury suffered during a Republican practice. (The DeSantis campaign did not respond to a <i>Washingtonian</i> interview request.) Richmond, who was elected to the <a href="https://www.congressionalbaseball.org/" target="_blank">Congressional Baseball Hall of Fame</a> in 2021—yes, such a thing exists—exited Congress that year to work for the Biden administration. “Ron never had the kind of ‘wow’ game that we thought he would,” says Barton (who did not seek reelection in 2018 following a sex scandal). “He wasn’t bad. It’s just that Cedric was that good.”</div><div><br /></div><div>Now, a decade after that 2013 game, DeSantis is facing another formidable opponent as he makes a pitch to be the Republican presidential nominee. To win, he’ll have to defeat Trump, who has himself claimed to have been a talented baseball player in high school. Does DeSantis have the stuff to overpower the GOP’s cleanup hitter at the polls?</div><div><br /></div><div>Ross, the former GOP congressman, sees hopeful similarities between DeSantis as an athlete and candidate. “Baseball is like a moving chess game—you’re always thinking ahead, doing certain things in order to advance,” he says. “Ron’s of that mindset. He’s very calculating politically, and when I look at what he’s done in Florida and how he has built up his presidential campaign, I wouldn’t count him out.” But Gonzales, the elections reporter, cautions that the sports/politics parallels can cut the other way, citing DeSantis’s congressional-game fizzle as evidence. “Whether it’s sports or politics, you ultimately have to translate the hype into performance,” he says. “Your reputation before the game—or the race—doesn’t matter as much as the final result.”</div><div style="text-align: center;">
<kicker><a href="https://www.washingtonian.com/2023/08/07/ron-desantis-congressional-baseball-game/" target="_blank">Published at Washingtonian</a></kicker></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3878043065627433241.post-84085945920066988982023-08-19T10:26:00.001-04:002023-08-19T10:34:13.614-04:00What Happens When An Athlete Takes ‘The Pill’?<div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNSNPkuXZ48OAeZ2jUedp1ZCX2pFpno2gAkFmJOhaVR7WpxzoDueVSiui65N_wgsBq48jNhROnwH7OiucDXlXaMNRvt603oRST0FyyvjmejbHc2Kl1N9yQwzj6wI4WfYGTiWgETfL-mKJQc9JchttqQJ6_fdpn4YAUe-z8VGbZK-ALdAfgZncBwUTJfPQX/s1600/crouch.jpeg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="788" data-original-width="1024" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNSNPkuXZ48OAeZ2jUedp1ZCX2pFpno2gAkFmJOhaVR7WpxzoDueVSiui65N_wgsBq48jNhROnwH7OiucDXlXaMNRvt603oRST0FyyvjmejbHc2Kl1N9yQwzj6wI4WfYGTiWgETfL-mKJQc9JchttqQJ6_fdpn4YAUe-z8VGbZK-ALdAfgZncBwUTJfPQX/s1600/crouch.jpeg" /></a></div></div><a name='more'></a><div style="text-align: center;"><subhead>Surprisingly little is known about how contraceptives can affect sports performance, leaving athletes to make tough decisions on their own.</subhead></div><div style="text-align: center;"><attribution>By Patrick Hruby | Global Sport Matters | February 2022</attribution></div><span class="drop-cap">S</span>arah Crouch assumed that someone would have an answer. A doctor, maybe. Or a coach. <i>Someone.</i> It was the early 2010s, and Crouch, a marathon runner, was about to get married. She didn’t yet want to have children, so she was considering birth control.<div><br /></div><div>As a professional athlete running as many as 140 miles a week, Crouch knew that even small changes to her diet or training could have a large impact on her performance. “With distance running, you have to be consistent,” she says. “Day in and day out.”</div><div><br /></div><div>Crouch wondered what she could expect if she started using an intrauterine device (IUD), an implant that keeps sperm cells from reaching an egg, or if she began taking oral contraceptives, commonly known as “the pill,” which work by manipulating hormone levels in the body to prevent pregnancy from occurring.</div><div><br /></div><div>One day, Crouch sat down in front of her computer. She searched: <i>effects of various types of birth control on runners.</i></div><div><br /></div><div>“I pulled up absolutely nothing,” says Crouch, 32. “I was shocked. It was like nobody had ever studied it.”</div><div><br /></div><div>Dumbfounded, Crouch sent a message on Facebook to 60 other elite female distance runners. What did they know about sports performance and birth control?</div><div><br /></div><div>Almost immediately, Crouch says, she was flooded with responses. Most expressed similar frustration. With nowhere else to turn, many of the other runners had relied on individual trial and error to discover how contraceptives – particularly the pill – influenced their bodies and times.</div><div><br /></div><div>“It made me a little angry,” Crouch says. “To know that women would reach 25, 30 years old as professional athletes, with every aspect of their lives controlled and tweaked down to an inch – but in this one area, there was no research and no answers. It’s a difficult and lonely landscape.”</div><div><br /></div><div>Among elite athletes, contraceptives are commonly used both to prevent pregnancies and to manage menstrual cycles. Yet surprisingly little is known about how contraceptives can affect sports performance. Few studies have explored the connection, and those that exist are limited in scope. Until recently, the topic largely was ignored, in part because the female body’s natural hormonal fluctuations can make research more difficult and in part because of long-standing bias in research toward cisgender males.</div><div><br /></div><div>The result? When deciding whether or not to use the pill and other forms of hormonal birth control, athletes such as Crouch are largely on their own – because medicine science currently has more questions than answers.</div><div><br /></div><div>“A lot of really well-intentioned sports medicine doctors don’t understand that this is a major issue for female athletes,” says Dr. Kate Ackerman, director of the Female Athlete Program at Boston Children’s Hospital and doctor for U.S. national rowing team. “And, for now, we don’t have that one formula that fits everyone. We need more research. There is so much for us to learn.”</div><div><br /></div><div><b>‘A Pretty Big Impact’</b></div><div><br /></div><div>While running for Arizona State University from 1998 to 2002, Lisa Aguilera used the pill. A former All-American, she never considered how doing so might impact her finishing times. “I think everyone just got on [the pill] in college,” she says. “I don’t remember ever having any discussions about it affecting performance.”</div><div><br /></div><div>That changed after Aguilera became a professional runner and began working with Canadian track coach Wynn Gmitroski. Gmitroski, Aguilera says, was “super into everything you put in your body,” encouraging runners to give up sugar, dairy, and gluten – as well as oral contraceptives. Gmitroski explained that taking oral contraceptives can lower levels of testosterone, a hormone that helps build lean muscle mass.</div><div><br /></div><div>“He told me every woman he ever coached got better when she stopped taking it, and that it would have a big impact,” Aguilera says.</div><div><br /></div><div>Aguilera was wary about making major changes. She first cut gluten out of her diet, then dairy. “I lost about five pounds,” she says. Eventually, Aguilera stopped taking the pill, which she had been using for roughly a decade. “I do feel like that had a pretty big impact,” she says. “I felt stronger, leaner. I ran my fastest time in the steeple with [Gmitroski] coaching me.</div><div><br /></div><div>“Once I had an awareness, I would ask a lot of other female runners on runs, ‘what do you take? How does it affect you?’ People were realizing how [the pill] was affecting our hormones.”</div><div><br /></div><div>Oral contraceptives consist of synthetic hormones that mimic the natural ones in female bodies. In simple terms, they function by overriding the menstrual cycle, a repeating pattern of natural hormonal shifts that allow pregnancy to happen and also result in periods.</div><div><br /></div><div>For an athlete with a female reproductive system, the menstrual cycle can have a noticeable impact on performance. In studies, fluctuating hormone levels have been linked with decreased muscular strength, increased sensations of exertion and pain, changes in how well the body uses stored energy, greater risk of knee ligament tears, and higher core body temperatures – the latter of which can potentially result in earlier onset of fatigue.</div><div><br /></div><div>Most people who menstruate experience some form of premenstrual syndrome (PMS), characterized by a range of physical and emotional symptoms that occur five to eleven days before menstruation and include anxiety, insomnia, bloating, and muscle aches. During periods, painful cramps and heavy bleeding also can affect athletic performance; following a relay race at the 2016 Rio Olympics, Chinese swimmer Fu Yuanhui was asked by a reporter why she was holding onto her stomach.</div><div><br /></div><div>“I feel I didn’t swim well today. I let my teammates down,” she said. “My period came last night, and I’m really tired now. But this isn’t an excuse. I still didn’t swim as well as I should have.”</div><div><br /></div><div>It’s not uncommon for people who menstruate to use the pill not only to prevent pregnancies but also to exercise more control over their menstrual cycles. By keeping hormone levels more stable, oral contraceptives can help athletes minimize PMS symptoms, make bleeding lighter and more predictable, and skip bleeds altogether during important competitions.</div><div><br /></div><div>A 2018 study of 430 elite female athletes from 24 sports including hockey, soccer, and rowing found that about half used some kind of hormonal contraceptive. Of that group, 12.7 percent said that they liked the regularity of the pill, while 12.2 percent said that they liked being able to reduce the number of bleeds they experienced.</div><div><br /></div><div>“For an athlete who has a high need for control, to all of the sudden have their period can cause them to panic and not perform well,” says Steve Magness, a longtime track and field coach who has worked with world-class distance runners. “The pill eliminates that anxiety of ‘Oh, my gosh, my Olympic trials race is going to fall during the time I get my period and have cramps, and how am I going to do that?’”</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>For some athletes, however, the pill is far less helpful. A 2011 survey of 123 skiers and biathletes by FasterSkier found that 71 percent had used hormonal birth control. Of those, almost half believed that it had negatively impacted their performances via weight gain, reduced strength and endurance, mood swings, loss of competitive drive, and other factors.</div><div><br /></div><div>Two standout high school skiers told FasterSkier that after starting hormonal birth control just before going to college, their performances either stagnated or declined – that is, until each decided to stop taking contraceptives. One of those athletes, Clare Egan of Wellesley College, went on to qualify for the 2010 National Collegiate Athletic Association championships in skiing and was named a Division III All-American in track and field.</div><div><br /></div><div>“If you look at my athletic performance, someone would say, ‘Wow, is this person on drugs?’” Egan told FasterSkier.</div><div><br /></div><div>Former Arizona State and professional runner Victoria Jackson can relate. She began taking the pill in high school – not for contraception, but to ease painful cramping and other symptoms. When she stopped more than a decade later, she says, her body felt stronger. And her overall mood, which she describes as “kind of deflated,” became much lighter.</div><div><br /></div><div>“I felt frickin’ amazing,” says Jackson, a sports historian and clinical assistant professor at Arizona State and contributor to Global Sport Matters. “My physical and mental health improved. And I was, like, super angry that I had been using [the pill] for so long.</div><div><br /></div><div>“None of this is scientific. This is just me interpreting how I felt. But I do know a lot of runners who don’t do any hormonal intervention at all, because they just don’t feel great when they do it.”</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Limited Research, Limited Evidence</b></div><div><br /></div><div>So what can science say about the connections between birth control and athletic performance? The research that exists is patchy, often conducted on non-athletes, and it is generally more suggestive than conclusive – sometimes producing contradictory results.</div><div><br /></div><div>For example, a 1997 study from researchers at San Diego State University showed that athletes who menstruate who used oral contraceptives experienced higher heart rates and core temperature increases after exercising in higher temperatures than women who did not. By contrast, a more recent study from the University of Hull in the United Kingdom found that athletes taking the pill were more likely to acclimatize better and quicker in hot conditions compared to those who didn’t.</div><div><br /></div><div>Similarly, some studies have found that the pill produces no significant effect on muscle growth, while others have found that people using hormonal birth control have less available testosterone and a harder time gaining muscle than those who aren’t.</div><div><br /></div><div>A 2020 review of 42 separate studies of the effects of oral contraceptives on exercise performance in athletes who menstruate concluded that while using the pill “might result in slightly inferior” performance, the effects were too “trivial and variable” to provide one-size-fits-all guidance to athletes.</div><div><br /></div><div>“Anytime you’re taking a medication, there’s a huge list of potential side effects,” Ackerman says. “With birth control pills, some people might (gain weight). Other people might not. Some people might say it makes them grouchier. Some might say it improves their mood.</div><div><br /></div><div>“In general, there is limited evidence to show that [the pill] benefits or hinders performance. But better studies need to be done.”</div><div><br /></div><div>Such studies are arguably overdue. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the first oral contraceptive in 1960. Title IX, the federal civil rights law that prohibits sex-based discrimination in schools or education programs receiving federal funding and has spurred major growth in women’s sports participation, was enacted in 1972.</div><div><br /></div><div>To understand why scientific progress has been so slow, consider a common sight in office buildings everywhere: men in short sleeves, women wrapped in blankets or using space heaters. This is no accident. In the 1960s, standard office temperatures were developed around the metabolic resting rate of the average man – even though the same rate for women is much lower, which results in offices being on average five degrees too cold for them.</div><div><br /></div><div>This bias toward studying men and designing the world around them – all while ignoring women or assuming that they are, effectively, smaller men – is widespread. And it extends to sports medicine. A review of 1,382 exercise medicine studies published from 2011 to 2013 found that women made up just 39 percent of total study participants; a follow-up evaluation of 188 exercise studies published in early 2015 found that women accounted for 42 percent of subjects – and in the 29 of those studies that focused specifically on training to recover and perform better, women made up just 3 percent of participants.</div><div><br /></div><div>Somewhat ironically, one of the main reasons males have been studied more than females is that the complexities of the menstrual cycle and its effects carry over into research. “It’s definitely easier to study men who don’t have a cycle,” Ackerman says. “It’s more expensive to study women. If you’re a researcher, you need to get a lot of money in order to be able to do this correctly.”</div><div><br /></div><div>Longstanding cultural taboos around female bodies and reproductive health also play a role. Two years ago, Sportico reported that at least four schools in the Power Five conferences prohibited advertising and sponsorships for sanitary napkins, tampons, panty liners, menstrual cups, and period underwear – placing those products in the same category as escort services, sexually explicit materials, erectile dysfunction medications, tobacco, gambling, and politics.</div><div><br /></div><div>In the 2011 FastSkier article, a doctor for the U.S. Biathlon Association said that he didn’t usually talk about birth control with national team athletes. “It just isn’t discussed openly,” says Crouch, who in addition to competing has also coached female runners. “If a woman has a male coach, how comfortable is she going to that coach and saying, ‘My doctor recommended birth control. What do you think?’</div><div><br /></div><div>“When you’re a 14- or 15-year-old girl, you don’t even want to talk to your own mother about your period. There’s something a little bit secretive, and that can carry over later into life. With female athletes I’ve coached, I’ve had some say, ‘Hey, I’ve been running really really well lately.’ I’ll ask them what has changed, and they’ll say, ‘Oh, I went off birth control a few months ago.’ Even I didn’t think to ask them!”</div><div><br /></div><div>Stigma can be dangerous. When Australian researcher Brooke Brisbine surveyed nearly 300 women’s rugby and football players and 250 coaching staff members about breast injuries, she found a remarkable discrepancy. More than half of the athletes reported experiencing injuries while playing, yet the coaches estimated an injury rate of less than 5 percent.</div><div><br /></div><div>Why the gap? According to Brisbine, she was the first person to ever ask most of the athletes if they had suffered a breast injury.</div><div><br /></div><div>Until recently, athletes whose periods stopped were often told by coaches and doctors that they were experiencing a normal side effect of vigorous training. Some of those athletes were also given hormonal contraceptives in order to resume regular bleeding.</div><div><br /></div><div>However, irregular or absent periods also can be a symptom of Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport (RED-S), a syndrome that occurs when athletes don’t consume enough calories and nutrients for their level of exercise, which in turn leaves their bodies without sufficient energy to support functions such as the menstrual cycle and healthy bone density.</div><div><br /></div><div>In cases of RED-S, Ackerman says, the pill can mask the underlying problem, leaving athletes more vulnerable to broken bones and hormonal disruption “There can be many reasons to not get a menstrual cycle,” she says. “If it is because of RED[-S], the key is to improve your energy balance. If you give someone the pill, they are not necessarily going to do that.”</div><div><br /></div><div>For Magness, who has a reputation as an innovative and research-based coach, the lack of understanding around performance and the pill is a source of ongoing frustration. “My background is in exercise science,” he says. “In undergrad and grad school, I learned plenty about testosterone and its effects on performance. But I didn’t learn anything specific about women and the pill.</div><div><br /></div><div>“It wasn’t until I started coaching female athletes and they would ask me about it that I realized this was a problem. And the research was so inconclusive that I would give wishy-washy answers to athletes whose careers depend on some of this stuff.”</div><div><br /></div><div><b>‘We Go Through Something Very Different’</b></div><div><br /></div><div>Things may be changing. During the 2019 World Cup, U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team coaches tracked players’ menstrual cycles and symptoms to optimize their sleep, nutrition, and training regimens. Chelsea F.C. Women, a professional soccer team in the English Premier League, has since followed suit in an effort to enhance its play and reduce injury risk.</div><div><br /></div><div>In an interview with Telegraph Sport, Chelsea manager Emma Hayes said that she first became interested in the connection between menstrual cycles and on-field results during a 2016 loss to rival Arsenal in which a number of Chelsea players were “in and around their period.”</div><div><br /></div><div>“I am a female coach in an industry where women have always been treated like small men,” Hayes said. “The application of anything from rehab to strength and conditioning to tactical all come from the basis of what men do.</div><div><br /></div><div>“The starting point is that we are women and, ultimately, we go through something very different to men on a monthly basis. And we have to have a better understanding of that because our education failed us at school; we didn’t get taught about our reproduction systems. It comes from a place of wanting to know more about ourselves and understanding how we can improve our performance.”</div><div><br /></div><div>Both Chelsea and the USWNT have worked with Dr. Georgie Brunivels, a research scientist at the sports bio-analytic company Orreco and co-creator of FitrWoman, an app that tracks physical activity and menstrual cycles. Brunivels is part of a rising generation of scientists – many of them women – who are working to fill in the knowledge gaps that have left coaches like Magness and athletes like Crouch at a loss.</div><div><br /></div><div>A former competitive rower, Ackerman founded the pioneering Female Athlete Program, which in addition to treating injuries provides comprehensive care that evaluates training, nutrition, hormone levels, and mental health. She also started the Female Athlete Conference, a biennial meeting that draws sports medicine and science experts from across the globe to share research and knowledge on topics including RED-S, concussions in women athletes, sports bra design and fit, and ways the pill impacts performance.</div><div><br /></div><div>“There are a lot of issues that are neglected in this space,” Ackerman says. “But I really feel like this is changing. We are collaborating a lot more, combining resources, and connecting the dots to collect this information and answer these questions.</div><div><br /></div><div>“People are more engaged in female sports. These athletes are important – and they represent 50 percent of the population. We need to address the more interesting and complicated issues of women to get the most out of them.”</div><div style="text-align: center;">
<kicker><a href="https://globalsportmatters.com/health/2022/02/28/what-happens-female-athletes-pill-oral-contraceptives/" target="_blank">Published at Global Sport Matters</a></kicker></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3878043065627433241.post-7432275122295499872023-08-19T10:13:00.004-04:002023-08-19T10:32:21.981-04:00Is the U.S. Staring Down the Barrel of a Gambling Addiction Crisis?<div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi31pyt4utz7YdoP1haccn2TZOBUdwoTWdlU9mX59wRNabxLW8NtdIVdvy3Hy3psWL5NjSbBt9o97oVuiKj5q3mnLBT59ZJ_tugscoMipV6sJPx5hLdUAB6Jk_G0hZSCLOSKyKDt2OpnfzXe01hHgy03NdGdXVPITwMLoks1kN4aBDsVUEXNDxV4efDqW-d/s1600/skybet.jpeg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="683" data-original-width="1024" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi31pyt4utz7YdoP1haccn2TZOBUdwoTWdlU9mX59wRNabxLW8NtdIVdvy3Hy3psWL5NjSbBt9o97oVuiKj5q3mnLBT59ZJ_tugscoMipV6sJPx5hLdUAB6Jk_G0hZSCLOSKyKDt2OpnfzXe01hHgy03NdGdXVPITwMLoks1kN4aBDsVUEXNDxV4efDqW-d/s1600/skybet.jpeg" /></a></div></div><a name='more'></a><div style="text-align: center;"><subhead>American sports are all-in on legalized betting. But at what cost?</subhead></div><div style="text-align: center;"><attribution>By Patrick Hruby | Global Sport Matters | January 2022</attribution></div><span class="drop-cap">R</span>yan Pitcher began gambling on sports when he was 17 years old, visiting betting shops in his hometown of Lincoln, England, to place small wagers on English soccer matches. <div><br /></div><div>“It wasn’t problematic by any stretch,” he says. “I felt in control.” </div><div><br /></div><div>One day, Pitcher tried his luck at a “fixed odds betting terminal,” an electronic machine that allows players to bet on simulated games of roulette and slots, as well as virtual horse and dog races. In 20 minutes, Pitcher says, he won more than 1,000 pounds, around US$1,300.
</div><div><br /></div><div>
“That was a monthly wage for me back then,” he says. “From that moment, I was hooked.”
</div><div><br /></div><div>
Over time, Pitcher says, he developed a gambling addiction that led him to lie and steal, ruin close relationships, and run up ruinous amounts of debt. Now 34 and in recovery since March 2020, he says that legal sports betting played a central role in his habit.
</div><div><br /></div><div>
In 2015, Pitcher says, he spent hours sitting on the edge of an overpass near his home, sobbing and contemplating suicide. “That’s how much I wanted to stop,” says Pitcher, who hosts the gambling addiction recovery podcast All Bets Are Off. “And I just couldn’t.”
</div><div><br /></div><div>
For decades, sports betting in the United States has been tightly controlled, outlawed outside of Nevada sports books, and treated as taboo by entities such as the National Football League. But no longer. In the wake of a 2018 Supreme Court ruling that overturned a federal ban, sports betting has become legal and operational in 30 states and the District of Columbia – which means roughly 178 million Americans are free to take the NFL’s Arizona Cardinals and the over.
</div><div><br /></div><div>
Business is booming. Across sports media, gambling advertising and related content are ubiquitous, while partnerships between teams and betting companies – like the Arizona Cardinals opening a sportsbook on stadium grounds with online gambling operator BetMGM – have become commonplace. According to the American Gaming Association, an industry trade group, Americans wagered at least $53.96 billion with legal sports books in 2021, generating $4.13 billion in revenue and $672 million in taxes; if all 50 states eventually allow sports gambling, revenues are expected to surpass $19 billion annually.
</div><div><br /></div><div>
As the country goes all in, however, people who study and treat problem gambling fear the industry’s rapid growth is sowing the seeds of a coming public health crisis: an explosion of compulsive wagering connected to sports, fueled not only by expanded access and shifting cultural mores but also by technology that makes betting itself arguably more addictive than ever before.
</div><div><br /></div><div>
“This is a major, major issue, and we all need to take it extremely seriously,” says Jim Maney, executive director of the New York Council on Problem Gambling, a nonprofit that advocates for increased public awareness of and support services and treatment for problem gambling. “We see the families, and we listen to the stories, and we hear the suffering that is going on. And we are not as a society or a state or an industry doing nearly enough of what needs to be done.”
</div><div><br /></div><div>
<b>‘There Was Just No Control’</b>
</div><div><br /></div><div>
Pitcher didn’t gamble exclusively on sports. But he did wager heavily on thoroughbred racing, greyhound racing, and soccer – day after day, morning until night, first at betting shops and later through his mobile phone. His bets got bigger and more frequent and increasingly elaborate, funded by credit cards and payday loans and whatever, he says, he could “steal and scam off people.”
</div><div><br /></div><div>
“I’d be buzzing around like a blue-bottle fly does, needing to get on to the next bet,” Pitcher says. “In the U.K., dog races go off every four or five minutes from about 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. And I couldn’t just be on a single bet. I had to have a forecast, I had to have a tricast, a treble, a Yankee. If I was on a horse at one o’clock, I needed to be on a horse at 3 o’clock.
</div><div><br /></div><div>
“And it was the same with [soccer] betting. There was just no control.”
</div><div><br /></div><div>
Classified as an addiction by the American Psychiatric Association, problem gambling is characterized by a preoccupation with wagering, a need to bet frequently or with increasing amounts, “chasing” losses, lying to hide one’s betting activity, and an inability to cut back or stop gambling – even when it causes significant and mounting problems in daily life.
</div><div><br /></div><div>
Imaging studies have shown that gambling activates the brain’s reward system the way drug and alcohol use does and that problem gamblers experience nearly the same elevated levels of the neurotransmitter dopamine – which is associated with reward-seeking behavior – when winning and losing money. Researchers also have found that problem gamblers suffer high rates of substance abuse, as well as mental health issues such as anxiety and depression.
</div><div><br /></div><div>
“Some of those problems are caused by the gambling, and with some of them the gambling may be a means of escape,” says Keith Whyte, executive director of the National Council on Problem Gambling, a U.S. nonprofit that advocates for programs and services to help people with gambling problems. “Things like depression, stress, anxiety – if you’ve lost more than twice your average annual income gambling, it wouldn’t be surprising if you’re stressed, anxious and depressed, right?
</div><div><br /></div><div>
“The other thing is the physical symptoms. People with gambling problems often have high rates of heart disease, high blood pressure, stroke, up to and including high rates of suicidal behavior. So this is not just losing money. It’s not even being stressed about losing money. You can gamble yourself into the grave.”
</div><div><br /></div><div>
Most people who gamble will not develop a disorder, but some will. Just how many is unclear. The federal government does not monitor or track gambling addiction. Nor do any states except Massachusetts, where a statewide survey found that men, African-Americans, and people without a college education are at greater risk.
</div><div><br /></div><div>
According to Whyte, the studies and surveys that have been conducted – mostly at the state and international levels, and often funded by the gaming industry – suggest that roughly 5 percent of Americans who gambled in the past year meet the criteria for problem gambling. But because problem gamblers tend to hide their addictions, he says, “it’s a guesstimate, no question. And we don’t have a good idea for the percentage of problem sports gamblers on the national level.”
</div><div><br /></div><div>
What experts do know about sports betting is concerning. A 2018 review of more than 140 gambling studies and reports concluded that the rate of problem gambling among sports bettors is at least twice as high as the rate among bettors in general – and that problem rates are even higher for sports gamblers who bet online.
</div><div><br /></div><div>
In Pennsylvania, help line calls to the state’s Council on Compulsive Gambling reportedly remained flat in 2020, likely because the coronavirus pandemic shut down in-person gambling for one-third of the year. However, calls from people describing sports betting as their primary problem increased 66 percent.
</div><div><br /></div><div>
Last March, an extensive national survey commissioned by Whyte’s organization found that sports bettors reported far more signs of problem gambling – including “lied to hide gambling” and “relied on others to pay debts or bills” – than non-sports bettors, and that younger bettors appear to be at higher risk of developing problems.
</div><div><br /></div><div>
All of the above troubles Maney, a former drug addiction rehabilitation program director who has worked on problem gambling in New York State for almost 25 years. Earlier in his career, he says, most of the people he saw in treatment were “middle-aged White men who gambled on the horses” at racetracks. But as casino and lottery betting expanded, he says, the gaming industry “found a niche for everyone.”
</div><div><br /></div><div>
Today, Maney says, legal sports betting is poised to expand the pool of potential problem gamblers – and fast. When New York began allowing online sports books to operate in the state in January, for example, 1.2 million customer accounts were created in 10 days.
</div><div><br /></div><div>
In turn, this could be particularly harmful for young adults, who in the National Council on Problem Gambling’s survey were at the highest risk of addiction of any age group. Research compiled by the International Center for Responsible Gaming, a nonprofit that funds scientific research on gambling addiction and is primarily funded by the gambling industry, has found that most adults with a gambling problem started at an early age; that teenagers and young adults are more impulsive and at higher risk for developing gambling disorders than adults; and that an estimated 6 percent of American college students have a serious gambling problem.
</div><div><br /></div><div>
“With sports gambling, we’re starting to see [problems] hit a younger population than we’ve dealt with before,” says Michelle Hadden, assistant executive director for the New York Council on Problem Gambling.
</div><div><br /></div><div>
<b>‘A Whole Different Intoxicating Cocktail’</b>
</div><div><br /></div><div>
Once upon a time in the U.K. – that is, the early 2000s – legal sports betting worked something like this: you walked or cycled or drove to a betting shop. You placed your wagers. You likely paid with cash. You went home to watch the events you had gambled on – soccer matches, perhaps, which would take place over the course of an entire weekend. Afterward, you went back to the betting shop to collect any winnings.
</div><div><br /></div><div>
“It was really drawn out spatially and temporally,” says Darragh McGee, a professor at the University of Bath who studies sports gambling, focusing on how online betting affects young men. “And the betting shops were these kind of marginalized, smoky back rooms behind frosted glass where you never knew what was inside. For the most part, these were stigmatized as places for old men. Young people weren’t really interested in those spaces.”
</div><div><br /></div><div>
That was then. Today, McGee says, sports gambling in the U.K., as well as his home country of Ireland, has become “a whole different intoxicating cocktail” in which addiction risk and other gambling harms are being fueled not only by increased access to wagering but also by shifts in how and why people bet on sports.
</div><div><br /></div><div>
Start with smartphones. Sports gamblers who use mobile devices have higher rates of problem gambling than those who don’t. That’s no coincidence. Smartphones and their software are purposefully designed to hold our attention and keep us coming back for more. Wagering with virtual money or online credits is akin to betting with chips in a physical casino: It has a disinhibiting effect, which can result in larger and more frequent bets.
</div><div><br /></div><div>
Most importantly, mobile technology means that sports gamblers can now wager all day, every day, on games and matches taking place across the planet. There are also more ways to bet than ever before, both before and during contests: on how many corner kicks will be taken in a soccer match, on whether three different teams will all cover the point spread, on whether the next serve in a live tennis match will be an ace or a fault.
</div><div><br /></div><div>
The result? The traditional delay between risk and reward in sports gambling has been erased, replaced by a kind of digital slot machine. Research has linked this kind of rapid and impulsive gambling with increased addiction risk, and a 2018 study of regular sports bettors in Australia found that 78 percent of those who made wagers during live play could be classified as problem gamblers – compared to roughly 29 percent of those who didn’t make live bets.
</div><div><br /></div><div>
“Most of my harm was through my phone,” says Pitcher, the podcast host in recovery. “It was just there all the time, and everything was so rapid – always on the move, hundreds of markets, always on your mind, going 100 miles per hour. You’re being sold cross-products and different promotions, too. And that is just lethal. Lethal.”
</div><div><br /></div><div>
In the U.K., McGee says, the sports and gambling industries have become deeply intertwined – particularly since the country lifted a ban on television and radio advertising for casinos, betting shops, and online gambling sites in 2007. Over the next six years, spending on gambling ads increased 600 percent. Today, there are betting company logos on soccer jerseys; gambling ads on the electronic billboards around pitches; podcasts and broadcasts sponsored by companies like SkyBet. A 2018 study found that gambling logos or branding were on screen for 71 percent to 89 percent of the time during BBC broadcasts of Premier League matches – even though, as journalist David Conn pointed out, the BBC does not carry actual advertising.
</div><div><br /></div><div>
All of this can be devastating for problem gamblers. Paul Merson, a former English soccer star who lost an estimated $9.6 million betting, told The Guardian that “people are virtually telling you on the [television] you can’t watch [soccer] without gambling. Imagine what it triggers in me? Even when I’m driving in the car at seven in the morning and an advert comes on for the prices of a football match in 13 hours’ time, that’s a major trigger. They’ll give the odds on Man United and something in my brain goes: ‘That ain’t bad.’”
</div><div><br /></div><div>
For Pitcher, watching and wagering became indistinguishable. His Saturday ritual went something like this: wake up, go with friends to the betting shop, buy some beer on the way back, spend the rest of the day watching soccer together at someone’s house. Some of the men could bet responsibly. Others couldn’t. But nobody thought to simply not gamble at all.
</div><div><br /></div><div>
“We’d all have our betting slips out on a Saturday, and that is what we lived for,” Pitcher says. “Betting, meeting up, and socializing. It’s very much a lad culture. Lads do it all the time.”
</div><div><br /></div><div>
McGee calls this “gamblification of sports” – a blurring of the lines between commercial and cultural environments in which betting is considered part and parcel of fandom itself. For a study published in the Journal of Public Health, McGee conducted a series of in-depth interviews about sports gambling with 32 men ages 18-35 in England and Northern Ireland. One confessed that he dealt drugs to recover money that he lost betting on sports. Others said they could no longer enjoy watching games they hadn’t placed bets on.
</div><div><br /></div><div>
All of the men in the study, McGee says, “considered the fact that gambling had become deeply normalized in sport problematic.”
</div><div><br /></div><div>
“That’s the great success of the sports gambling industry in the U.K.,” McGee says. “You have a generation of sports fans who were raised to see gambling as a normal part of sports, many of whom can’t just watch the game for what it is anymore.”
</div><div><br /></div><div>
<b>‘Hold My Beer’</b>
</div><div><br /></div><div>
Europe’s sports betting boom has inspired an ongoing backlash. In Spain, gambling companies are no longer permitted to advertise on the fronts of soccer jerseys or inside stadiums. In Germany, an umbrella organization for soccer team fan groups has called for a ban on gambling ads, a freeze on new gambling sponsorship deals with teams and organizations, and a commitment for half of the money from existing sponsorships to be spent on addiction prevention.
</div><div><br /></div><div>
The U.K. is considering an overhaul of its gambling laws, which a House of Lords committee says have gone “horribly wrong.” In an extensive report on the social and economic impact of betting, the committee estimated that 340,000 of the country’s adults are problem gamblers, faulted “lax regulation” for contributing to that number, and proposed a series of reforms, including:</div><div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Banning gambling sponsorships in sports. </li><li>Adopting a mandatory industry levy to fund addiction treatment. </li><li>Establishing an independent regulator to evaluate the addiction and harm potential of individual gambling products. </li><li>Implementing stricter controls on “free bets,” bonuses, and other inducements to gamble. </li><li>Requiring gambling companies to limit players’ monthly losses, work with banks to make sure that people are gambling within their means, and share data with each other to identify and intervene with customers who show signs of problem gambling.</li></ul></div><div>
Whether the U.K. adopts all or any of these measures remains to be seen. Inside and outside the country’s Parliament, there is a growing sense that problem gambling is a public health issue, one that costs society an estimated $2.3 billion a year.
</div><div><br /></div><div>
However, addressing that issue arguably means less money for gambling companies – and governments, too. Mobile, in-game betting has been linked to higher addiction risk. It’s also the most popular and lucrative form of sports wagering, accounting for an estimated 30 percent to 50 percent of bets in the U.S. and 70 percent in Europe. Similarly, research suggests that problem and at-risk gamblers account for a disproportionate share of industry profits – roughly 43 percent of online gambling in the U.K. and up to 60 percent in dog racing.
</div><div><br /></div><div>
Flutter, a major U.K. gambling company, reportedly saw its stakes decline after voluntarily instituting safer gambling measures. Entain, another international gambling firm, reported a revenue drop because of stricter betting regulations in Germany and the Netherlands.
</div><div><br /></div><div>
“If you’re a government and you’ve balanced your budget on gambling, it’s harder to regulate it,” Maney says.
</div><div><br /></div><div>
In the U.S., McGee says, sports gambling is still in a “honeymoon phase” marked by rapid growth and cultural enthusiasm. Betting companies see a large and largely untapped market. State lawmakers see a new source of tax revenue. Leagues and teams see a way to make more money and drive deeper fan engagement.
</div><div><br /></div><div>
Meanwhile, problem sports gambling is largely an afterthought, viewed less as a preventable industrial harm than as a regrettable individual failing. In a national survey, more than half of American adults attribute gambling problems “at least in part to moral weakness or lack of willpower,” while half said people with gambling problems “are to blame for their problems.”
</div><div><br /></div><div>
The federal government places an excise tax of 0.25 percent on all sports bets placed with commercial sportsbooks. None of that money, an estimated $50 million, is spent on problem gambling research or treatment. Many states devote a portion of their gambling tax revenues to addiction prevention and treatment. But those funds are relatively tiny when compared to the size of the betting market.
</div><div><br /></div><div>
In New York, Maney says, the state Office of Mental Health has an annual budget of more than $2 billion – and spends $5.7 million on problem gambling services. “With the legalization of sports betting, they’ll be putting another $6 million into that,” he says. “We believe that is not even close to what will be needed. When the market matures, [the state] projects a billion dollars in sports betting losses every year. Six million dollars is 0.06 percent of that.”
</div><div><br /></div><div>
Compared to the U.K., McGee says, the U.S. is in the middle of what he calls a “hold my beer” moment for sports gamblification. Legalization is happening at a breakneck pace. Gambling companies are furiously competing for customers, spending hundreds of millions of dollars on the same sort of advertising and betting inducements that the British Parliament may crack down on. A new Global Sport Institute national snapshot poll conducted in partnership with OH Predictive Insights found that engaged sports fans tend to be more enthusiastic about sports gambling, and that legalized betting may lead those fans and bettors to watch and attend more sports.
</div><div><br /></div><div>
In England, McGee says, professional teams can’t become licensed bookmakers themselves—it’s seen as a conflict of interest, and something that would cross moral and cultural lines. In the U.S., by contrast, the Washington Football Team has a betting permit issued by the state of Virginia, and has partnered with FanDuel on a mobile sportsbook.
</div><div><br /></div><div>
Two years ago, the University of Colorado broke with the National Collegiate Athletic Association’s longtime anti-gambling stance by entering a five-year, $1.6 sponsorship with betting company PointsBet, a deal in which the school’s athletic department will receive $30 for every new bettor who registers with the company using a promo code associated with Colorado athletics.
</div><div><br /></div><div>
“Even in a gambling saturated culture like the U.K., that would be unthinkable,” McGee says. “There would be a moral outcry against the idea that a university is incentivizing gambling on its campus, let alone taking a cut.
</div><div><br /></div><div>
“Everything’s happening so rapidly in the U.S. that I think, for several years to come, people won’t really grasp the scale of the transformation. And then there will come a moment where it's like, ’s__t, how did we get here? How did this happen?”
</div><div><br /></div><div>
Despite his addiction, Pitcher doesn’t believe that sports gambling should be made illegal. But he does believe it should be strongly regulated to reduce harm and taxed to provide adequate funding for problem gambling research, prevention, and treatment. Americans, he says, have a chance to learn from mistakes made in other countries and create a safer framework right now – safeguarding bettors from future addictions. “Basically, all the answers have already been given,” he says. “Use that, build on it, and implement it.”
</div><div><br /></div><div>
And if that doesn’t happen?
</div><div><br /></div><div>
Pitcher laughs. “Then it’s going to be a mess,” he says. “A f—king bloodbath.”</div><div><br /><div style="text-align: center;">
<kicker><a href="https://globalsportmatters.com/culture/2022/01/31/gamble-yourself-into-grave-gambling-addiction-crisis-us-england/" target="_blank">Published at Global Sport Matters</a></kicker></div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3878043065627433241.post-24008352670300078392021-07-27T09:31:00.004-04:002021-09-01T09:46:32.189-04:00Why Olympic Costs Are (Always) Too Damn High<div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-I40VSlHz71U/YS-D1uCs8OI/AAAAAAAAFhA/27JWHXMf2hYDhuvG6_MtD4ZUTW3emHBNwCLcBGAsYHQ/s1024/olympicstokyo.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="683" data-original-width="1024" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-I40VSlHz71U/YS-D1uCs8OI/AAAAAAAAFhA/27JWHXMf2hYDhuvG6_MtD4ZUTW3emHBNwCLcBGAsYHQ/s16000/olympicstokyo.jpeg" /></a></div></div><a name='more'></a><div style="text-align: center;"><subhead>Like every modern Olympics before them, the Tokyo Games are massively over budget. A scholar explains why sky-high cost overruns are the norm—and what can be done to lessen them.</subhead></div><div style="text-align: center;"><attribution>By Patrick Hruby | Global Sport Matters | July 2021 </attribution></div><span class="drop-cap">T</span>he Tokyo Olympics are over budget. Way, way over. With an official price tag of <a href="https://apnews.com/article/tokyo-coronavirus-pandemic-2020-tokyo-olympics-japan-olympic-games-3c46bce81928865d9aae0832b5ddd9e3" target="_blank">$15.4 billion</a>—and an estimated actual cost of at least <a href="https://apnews.com/article/eb6d9e318b4b95f7e53cd1b617dce123" target="_blank">$25 billion</a>—this summer’s Olympics have blown past an initial $7.5 billion estimate, and likely will end up as the most expensive Games ever.<div><br /></div><div>
Well, at least until the next Olympics.<div><br /></div><div>
Like colorful outfits during the Parade of Nations and <a href="https://slate.com/culture/2016/05/a-history-of-condoms-in-the-olympic-village-from-8500-in-seoul-to-450000-in-rio.html" target="_blank">generous condom distribution</a> in the athletes’ village, enormous cost overruns are an Olympic tradition. In fact, a <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0308518X20958724" target="_blank">recent analysis</a> by three Oxford University scholars found that every Games since 1960 has run over budget by an average of 172 percent—a larger average than seen in the construction of giant dams, and one that places the Olympics in the same cost risk prediction category as (no, really) natural disasters and terrorist attacks.<div><br /></div><div>
To better understand why the Games consistently bust their budgets and how that can change, Global Sport Matters recently spoke with Alexander Budzier, <a href="https://www.sbs.ox.ac.uk/about-us/people/alexander-budzier" target="_blank">a Fellow</a> at Oxford’s Saïd Business School, large project management <a href="https://www.oxfordglobalprojects.com/" target="_blank">expert</a>, and co-author of <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0308518X20958724" target="_blank">“Regression to the Tail: Why the Olympics Blow Up.”</a> The following interview responses have been lightly edited for clarity and context, with some sections being cut for brevity.<div><br /></div><div><b>
Global Sport Matters: The Olympics are fun. They’re often <a href="https://globalsportmatters.com/1968-mexico-city-olympics/" target="_blank">inspiring</a>. They make for great TV. And with an average cost since 1960 of $6 billion for the Summer Games and $3.1 billion for the Winter Games, they are anything but cheap. What should cities and countries bidding for the Olympics know about the costs of hosting the Games?</b><div><br /></div><div>
Alexander Budzier: Exactly what you said! It’s not cheap. With the cost itself, there’s an element that has to do with running the Olympics for two weeks, the greatest show on Earth. And then, as we now see in Tokyo, and as we saw in Rio, and that we always see, there’s what the whole thing costs—all of the surrounding investments in infrastructure. And that’s at least half of the total cost.<div><br /></div><div>
If we take Tokyo as an example, there’s about $6 billion that is the cost of actually staging and running the events for two weeks. And that is just about met by the various revenues cities are able to raise, even though we know there are some questions about whether those are in cash or, as is often the case, in in-kind donations. But on paper, at least, that is covered. Only then you have another $10 billion, sometimes more, that you invest in stuff like stadiums, athletes’ villages, broadcast centers, and transportation upgrades. And some of those costs aren’t even included in the costs we studied.<div><br /></div><div>
So one of the greatest questions for any city or country embarking on [hosting the Games] is affordability. Can you afford it? And if you're investing in it, are you investing your money wisely? Do you really have a plan for what to do with all that infrastructure afterwards? If you don’t, then there certainly is an element of proceed with caution, and really know what you are getting yourself into.<div><br /></div><div><b>
Just to clarify—your study of Olympic costs and cost overruns doesn’t cover all of the infrastructure costs that come with hosting?</b><div><br /></div><div>
No, we were looking at what we call “direct sports-related investments.” That includes the stadiums, the media and broadcasting centers, the athletes’ villages. But it doesn’t include things like upgrading your airport, or expanding a metro, or building a light railway station to serve the Olympic area.<div><br /></div><div><b>
That sounds like sports-stadium construction costs in the United States that don’t include building a new highway interchange next to the stadium, or upgrading the electrical or water infrastructure in that area, all of those other necessary infrastructure things. You <a href="http://www.fieldofschemes.com/2012/11/07/4083/new-book-by-harvard-prof-details-10b-in-hidden-stadium-and-arena-subsidies/" target="_blank">have to pay</a> for them, too, but they’re not on the official budget.</b><div><br /></div><div>
They’re not on that budget. And that means it's very difficult to compare those expenses between the different Olympics. These kinds of additional investments are typically not captured in the "bid books" that are put together when places bid for hosting the Games.<div><br /></div><div>
Those books are one of the main sources of data that we looked at. They very much focus on what is needed to host the Games, and not necessarily on what is needed to get people to them.<div><br /></div><div><b>
Who actually pays for the costs of putting on the Games? Is there a difference between who pays for the budgeted costs and who pays for any overruns?</b><div><br /></div><div>
With the cost of running the events, the IOC [International Olympic Committee, a non-governmental organization based in Switzerland that organizes the Games], always claims that sponsorship, television rights, and whatever the IOC gives to the host cities covers those costs. But that doesn’t pay for any of the facilities or other stuff we discussed. The host cities are on the hook for that, usually with [national] government-backed guarantees to pay for it—which ultimately means taxpayers.<div><br /></div><div><b>
You note in your paper that host cities have legally-binding obligations—that is, contacts with the IOC—to cover any cost overruns.</b><div><br /></div><div>
Yes, and that is also part of the massive cost risk. When Rome <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/oct/11/italy-suspends-rome-2024-olympic-games-bid" target="_blank">dropped out</a> of their Olympic bid [for the 2024 Games], one of the things the city’s mayor mentioned during their press conference was how the city hosted the 1960 Olympics and still <a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2016/09/21/romes-anti-establishment-five-star-mayor-olympics/" target="_blank">hasn’t paid back</a> those loans. </div><div><br /></div><div><b>Your paper states that “we cannot count on organizers, the IOC, and governments to provide us with reliable information about the real costs, cost overruns, and cost risks of the Olympic Games.” Why not, and how does that effect trying to research and analyze these costs?</b><div><br /></div><div>
It makes it very hard! There’s an apparent transparency over recent Games, with the bid books being public, and the cost estimate, and the final accounting also being public. But once you start looking into the individual Games, it is difficult to really find apples for apples comparisons between what goes in the bid books and what is given in the final accounts. You don’t quite know how the money was accounted for. For the Sochi Games, for instance, we still don’t know what the security costs were. Nobody has any idea.<div><br /></div><div><b>
So there’s no standardized way that different hosts and different Games keep their books?</b><div><br /></div><div>
Technically, the local organizing committee books are there, and they sort of publish what they spend. You can follow up on that. But then, somehow, sometimes budgetary items just disappear. For Rio, for example, there were some documents published just before the Games where costs were split between the city, the region, and the state for things like refurbishing the Olympic Village into housing after the Games, things that later weren’t counted as official costs.<div><br /></div><div>
At first look, you can say, ‘yeah, it’s all very transparent.’ But once you start moving the numbers, it all becomes a little more complicated and fishy.<div><br /></div><div><b>
Speaking of fishy numbers, your paper looked at 30 Olympics between 1960 and 2016. For 11 of those Games, you were unable to find the estimated and actual costs of putting on the event. How is that possible?</b><div><br /></div><div>
When we study projects in the United States, it’s possible to get quite good data going back to the New Deal. If you want to follow-up on the track record of the Tennessee Valley Authority, which built a lot of energy infrastructure in the U.S. in the 1930s, 1940s,1950s, you can get reliable data, because under [President] Roosevelt, it suddenly became a thing that if you spend public money, even as an arm's length body, you had better account for it. And for some odd reason, that is not the case for the [older] Olympic Games.<div><br /></div><div><b>
Olympic costs can be <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/16/business/dealbook/an-olympic-event-where-1st-prize-is-the-chance-to-lose-billions.html" target="_blank">far more</a> than host cities and countries can afford. For example, it took Montreal 30 years to pay off the debt incurred by the 720 percent cost overrun on the 1976 Summer Games. Of all the Games you looked at, what host suffered the greatest subsequent financial hit?</b><div><br /></div><div>
In terms of extra money spent, it’s Tokyo. It’s unprecedented. In terms of consequences, that’s a bit of conjecture. But maybe the Athens Olympics. Greece hosted the Games, and then, suddenly, the state went bankrupt. Drawing a line between those two things is a bit of speculation, but it’s certainly something that once they had to start paying it back, <a href="https://www.politico.eu/article/how-the-olympics-rotted-greece/" target="_blank">there were problems.</a><div><br /></div><div>
Some countries can afford the Olympics. Others can’t. You know, my sympathies for Montreal. But ultimately, Canada is a rich country. I’m more worried about what is happening in the smaller economies.<div><br /></div><div><b>
By your accounting, the 2014 Sochi Games cost $21.9 billion. That made them the most expensive Games ever—at least until Tokyo—and also made Sochi more expensive than all previous Winter Games combined. Why did they cost so much?</b><div><br /></div><div>
Everybody thinks <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/02/10/the-sochi-effect" target="_blank">it was corruption</a>. That’s the working assumption. Nobody can prove it. But it’s unclear how you could spend so much on the different bits of infrastructure and how particular types of infrastructure could be so expensive. Like ice hockey, how much can you really spend on the stadium? The money must have gone to somebody, somewhere.<div><br /></div><div><b>
So what has happened with ballooning costs for the Tokyo Games? Is it the pandemic? Were cost overruns a problem before Covid?</b><div><br /></div><div>
So, the official, announced budget in 2019 was $12.6 billion. After the pandemic and the Games being postponed, that rose to <a href="https://apnews.com/article/tokyo-coronavirus-pandemic-2020-tokyo-olympics-japan-olympic-games-3c46bce81928865d9aae0832b5ddd9e3" target="_blank">$15.4 billion</a>. A state auditor has said that there are another <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/olympics/2019/12/20/tokyo-olympics-say-costs-126b-audit-report-says-much-more/40858659/" target="_blank">$9.7 billion</a> in costs that aren’t being accounted for and should be accounted for.<div><br /></div><div>
So pre-Covid, the Tokyo Games had at 73 percent cost overrun. Now it’s 111 percent according to their own calculations—and if you trust the state auditor, we’re talking about a 244 percent overrun. It’s hard to see what is due to covid and what isn’t, because to some extent those costs overlapped.<div><br /></div><div><b>
In the paper, you describe the budget for most megaprojects as the maximum value to be spent—but with the Olympics, you write, it is “more like a fictitious minimum” or a “down payment.” Why is that?</b><div><br /></div><div>
The Olympics have a different spending profile compared to other projects. Normally, you have a little bit of a ramp up, then you have a lot of activity and spend a lot of money, and then it ramps down. The middle of a construction period is always the most work-intensive. So you end up with a bell-shaped kind of curve.<div><br /></div><div>
But the Olympics are always back-ended. The activity really happens toward the end of the Games cycle. So people are, to some extent, completely unrealistic about planning. It’s a long time period—seven to nine years—and in the first four years, nobody actually realizes how much things will change once they actually have to host the Olympics. There are always changes around security requirements, requirements for the media, all of that stuff.<div><br /></div><div>
Another thing we hear over and over again from the Olympic cities is that they will just reuse their existing [sports and event] facilities. Which doesn’t really work. The requirements around the Olympics when it comes to security, when it comes to the media, etcetera, are so much higher than those for the stadiums that have already been built. People involved in the Games say that it often would be cheaper to demolish existing stadiums and build new ones than retrofit.<div><br /></div><div>
The other thing is that the people making bids don’t have a particular interest in putting together a realistic bid. They want to stage the Games! And they need to sell it to their country and the local population. A really realistic estimate of cost will probably not be a great selling point to get people on board.<div><br /></div><div><b>
Using statistical analysis, you conclude that the Olympics carry a 20 percent risk of a three-fold increase—or higher—in cost. That seems high! How does that risk compare to the risks of other megaprojects?</b><div><br /></div><div>
It’s in the most extreme category of risks that we’ve found so far.<div><br /></div><div><b>
Your paper also states that Olympic cost overruns are “not just the unfortunate, happenstance incidents they appear to be, that are regrettable but will hopefully be avoided in the future, with more awareness and better luck. Instead, Olympic cost blowouts are systematic, ruled by a power law that will strike again and again, with more and more disastrous results.” Are you basically saying that Olympic cost overruns are not a bug, but rather a feature?</b><div><br /></div><div>
I think that's a fair way to put it. It’s not like life insurance or the weather—things we can reasonably forecast, that sort of average out over time.<div><br /></div><div><b>
Let’s talk about reasons for Olympic cost overruns. Your paper lays out a number of explanations, starting with the fact that once a city decides to host the Games, it’s very difficult to reverse that decision—which leaves hosts in a “in for a penny, in for a pound” position.</b><div><br /></div><div>
It’s very hard for a whole city to back out. Something severely bad must happen. If I remember correctly, Denver is the only Olympic host that said, “no, actually, we’re not going to do that.” The public <a href="https://www.insidethegames.biz/articles/1102916/denver-withdraw-as-olympic-hosts" target="_blank">voted against it</a>. Otherwise, the pattern seems to be to throw good money after bad money.<div><br /></div><div><b>
Another reason for cost overruns is that Olympic hosts—and not the IOC—are legally obligated to cover them.</b><div><br /></div><div>
That’s a point we make about governance structures. The IOC says they’re looking after the operational costs of the Games. If those increase, they can always find a bit more sponsorship money or whatever. But the IOC isn’t involved with the stadiums and all the other infrastructure. The host cities and countries pay for that.<div><br /></div><div>
In projects, you always talk about balancing your cost, your schedule, and your scope. With the Olympics, the schedule is defined. You know exactly when the opening date is going to be. In normal times, that is not going to be moved. Similarly, the scope tends to expand. The governing body for swimming will say, “Okay, your aquatic center must have these specifications for the pool, and these specifications for the warm-up rooms.” And you just have to do it. You need to deliver, and you have no influence over saying “no, let’s do it later or cheaper.” So something has to give, and that ends up being the costs.<div><br /></div><div><b>
Your paper also lays out recommendations for lowering Olympic costs and cost overruns, including budgeting more money up front for contingencies; making the IOC more responsible for paying for cost overruns; shortening the delivery period for the Games; and even having cities walk away from hosting altogether. Which of these steps would be the most effective if taken?</b><div><br /></div><div>
Quite honestly, the last one is probably the least effective: Just walk away, don't do it anymore. That's probably not in anybody's interest! And it's sort of a tongue-in-cheek recommendation.<div><br /></div><div><b>
People have proposed hosting the Games in one or a few permanent locations—something that could lower costs by allowing facilities to be reused and also eliminating the eternal beginner syndrome.</b><div><br /></div><div>
That is how the Olympics used to run in ancient times.<div><br /></div><div><b>
Your paper takes that idea one step further by recommending that the Games “be spread geographically with different events going to different cities, but with each event having a more or less permanent home, say track and field in Los Angeles, tennis in London, equestrian events in Hong Kong.” What are the chances that something like this ever happens?</b><div><br /></div><div>
In some ways, it’s against the principles of the Olympic movement. Participation in sports is kind of their thing. They want to spread Olympic sports across the globe. So they travel around and go to different continents.<div><br /></div><div>
But the question is, does that still work? Because the Olympics increasingly are a thing that only very rich countries can afford.<div><br /></div><div><b>
And even those countries are having second thoughts! In the last 20 years, we have seen a dramatic decrease in the number of cities applying to be Olympic hosts, as well as applicants including Boston, Toronto, Munich, and Rome walk away from the bid process. Next year’s Winter Games will be held in Beijing—a city not exactly known for winter sports—and Kazakhstan was the only other bidder. How important is to the future of the Olympics to get costs and cost overruns under control?</b><div><br /></div><div>
It’s very important. The Olympics are really something that has gotten out of hand. It is tremendously expensive. The IOC launched its <a href="https://www.insidethegames.biz/articles/1101538/big-read-olympic-agenda-2020" target="_blank">“Agenda 2020”</a> in 2014 in part to make the Games more cost-efficient. Tokyo implemented a lot of those ideas. Even before covid, they didn’t seem to be all that cost-effective. We shall see if they manage to do something for Paris and Los Angeles (the respective host cities of the 2024 and 2028 Summer Games). That’s questionable, to say the least.<div><br /></div><div>
Is the IOC in any shape or form an organization that can actually turn this around? I’m not very hopeful.<div><br /></div><div><b>
Are all of these big costs and bigger overruns inherent to the nature of the Olympics themselves? Or are they the result of the people in charge of awarding and staging the Games not being motivated to control costs? Put another way: could we have cheaper Olympics if we really wanted them? Or is it just impossible to control costs?</b><div><br /></div><div>
I think it’s a matter of behavior. The worst outcome from our paper would be that people say, “oh, well, these guys found that the Olympics follow this weird power law, so cost controls are impossible.” Well, what we say is that while cost forecasting is very hard, cost control is very much possible.<div><br /></div><div>
What’s needed is to set a realistic baseline for the costs, up front, and then deliver to that baseline. Do not accept any other overruns. You do that by appreciating the monumental task of delivering the Olympics on time and to specs. Understand how ambition and wanting to show off a bit for the world also can drive these costs. Don’t kid yourself that you’ll be able to get away with a big stadium that’s cheap and ugly—it’s going to be on TV everywhere all the time. You’ll want something pretty!<div><br /></div><div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<kicker><a href="https://globalsportmatters.com/business/2021/07/21/tokyo-olympics-breaking-budgets-skyrocketing-costs-controlled/" target="_blank">Published at Global Sport Matters</a></kicker></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3878043065627433241.post-87800124345717987262021-05-27T09:08:00.096-04:002021-09-01T09:31:15.686-04:00More Athletes, Fewer Leaders: The Paradox Facing Women in College Sports<div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-cocy9XQvvzw/YS-AUdOOgEI/AAAAAAAAFg4/4GrRk1GNzIMJCZF5OdSruP8BZS1ryeJ1gCLcBGAsYHQ/s1024/aariadia.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="683" data-original-width="1024" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-cocy9XQvvzw/YS-AUdOOgEI/AAAAAAAAFg4/4GrRk1GNzIMJCZF5OdSruP8BZS1ryeJ1gCLcBGAsYHQ/s16000/aariadia.jpeg" /></a></div></div><a name='more'></a><div style="text-align: center;"><subhead>Gender in sport scholar Nicole M. LaVoi on why the percentages of women coaching and leading women’s sports have decreased in college athletics, even as participation continues to rise.</subhead></div><div style="text-align: center;"><attribution>By Patrick Hruby | Global Sport Matters | May 2021</attribution></div><span class="drop-cap">L</span>ong before Dr. Nicole LaVoi became a leading scholar of gender in sport looking, she was a 10-year-old elementary school student, unexpectedly called to the principal’s office.<div><br /></div><div>
An avid basketball player, LaVoi had just been selected to play on a boys’ travel team. She assumed that her principal wanted to congratulate her.<div><br /></div><div>
Instead, she says, the principal asked LaVoi if she would join the Girl Scouts or take up ballet.<div><br /></div><div>
“It was because I had displaced a boy on the team,” LaVoi says. “And I said, no, I want to play basketball.”<div><br /></div><div>
She laughs.<div><br /></div><div>
“I think that is where this all started.”<div><br /></div><div>
Today, LaVoi is the director of the <a href="https://www.cehd.umn.edu/tuckercenter/%20Center%20for%20Research%20on%20Girls%20&%20Women%20in%20Sport" target="_blank">Tucker Center for Research on Girls & Women in Sport</a> at the University of Minnesota, which conducts scholarship and outreach focused on understanding and improving sport and physical activity for girls and women.<div><br /></div><div>
One of the Tucker Center’s ongoing research projects, the <a href="https://www.cehd.umn.edu/tuckercenter/research/womencoaches.html" target="_blank">Women in College Coaching Report Card</a>, tracks the percentage of coaches who are women for women’s National Collegiate Athletic Association’s Division I teams. Over time, LaVoi and her fellow researchers have identified a trend: While the number of women playing college sports has increased dramatically, relative opportunities for women to coach have not.<div><br /></div><div>
To better understand this phenomenon – and how it connects to a lack of leaders who are women in college sports administration – Global Sport Matters recently spoke with LaVoi. The following interview responses have been lightly edited for clarity and context.<div><br /></div><div><b>
Global Sport Matters: The Tucker Center’s <a href="https://www.cehd.umn.edu/tuckercenter/research/womencoaches.html" target="_blank">research</a> has consistently found that while opportunities for college athletes who are women have been expanding over time, opportunities for college coaches who are women have not. Broadly speaking, what are the numbers – and what do they tell us?</b><div><br /></div><div>
Dr. Nicole LaVoi: We have a paradox that's operating in college sports. Post-Title IX, the number of participation opportunities for girls and women has gone up. We have a record number of female collegiate athletes today. And we have 50 years of girls and women who have played sports with knowledge, passion, and interest in coaching. So you would think that the percentage of women coaches would have gone up.<div><br /></div><div>
In fact, it has gone down. In 1972, there were fewer women playing college sports —but of those who did play, 90 percent were coached by women. Today, that number is around 42 percent. And in that same 50-year span, the percentage of women coaching men has remained remarkably stable at around 3 percent.<div><br /></div><div><b>
Global Sport Matters: So all the change in terms of who athletes are being coached by has been on one side of the gender table?</b><div><br /></div><div>
Dr. Nicole LaVoi: We've been tracking the percentage of women head coaches in [NCAA] Division I across all women’s sports. Over the last 10 years, that has been <a href="https://www.cehd.umn.edu/tuckercenter/library/docs/media/GameOnToolkit/Decline-and-Stagnation-of-Women-Head-Coaches-2019.pdf" target="_blank">remarkably stagnant</a>. It might go up or down one or two points, but nothing dramatic.<div><br /></div><div><b>
Global Sport Matters: In what sports are college coaches who are women the most and least underrepresented?</b><div><br /></div><div>
Dr. Nicole LaVoi: So we have <a href="http://www.tuckercenter.org/library/docs/research/WCCRC_2019-20_Head-Coaches_All-NCAA-DI-Head-Coaches_2020-September.pdf" target="_blank">a grading system</a>. It’s a fairly generous scale. My students would love it. To get an “A,” you have to have 70 percent of your head coaches of women’s teams be women.<div><br /></div><div>
The sports that have consistently gotten “A” grades have been field hockey, equestrian, lacrosse, and rugby. The sports that have gotten F’s and haven’t really moved much over the years are swimming and diving, cross country, track and field, water polo, fencing, and alpine skiing.<div><br /></div><div>
There’s one more in there: soccer. It’s teetering on, like, a D-minus. It’s really popular, but there are very few women head coaches.<div><br /></div><div><b>
Global Sport Matters: That’s amazing. You would think that the path to becoming a coach starts with being a player—and since the United States has so many girls and women playing, just over time you would have more women coaches.</b><div><br /></div><div>
Dr. Nicole LaVoi: We can go back to 1999 when the U.S. Women’s National Team won the World Cup. That’s kind of the <a href="https://sicovers.com/featured/usa-brandi-chastain-1999-womens-world-cup-final-july-19-1999-sports-illustrated-cover.html" target="_blank">pinnacle</a>, right? And that just hasn’t translated into having women in positions of power in soccer.<div><br /></div><div><b>
Global Sport Matters: Do we have any idea why certain sports are doing better with this and other sports are not?</b><div><br /></div><div>
Dr. Nicole LaVoi: We do not. We get that question a lot. It’s actually on our list of things to inquire about in our research. What is field hockey doing that cross country isn’t?<div><br /></div><div>
While we don’t have data, I can speculate that the answers speak to the culture of the sport you’re looking at, which can be very gendered. Certain sports created cultures where women are valued and supported. Other sports do not.<div><br /></div><div><b>
Global Sport Matters: <a href="https://globalsportmatters.com/from-our-lab/2021/05/08/ncaa-athletic-director-hiring-criteria-and-career-pathways-from-2010-19/" target="_blank">A new study</a> conducted by the Global Sport Institute at Arizona State University uncovered a similar phenomenon among athletic directors. Examining 385 athletic director changes across 248 NCAA Division I schools between 2010 and 2019, the study found that while women made small gains over that period—rising from 8 percent to 12 percent of athletic directors—the field remains dominated by men.</b><div><br /></div><div><b>
What kind of connections are there between women being underrepresented in college coaching, and women being underrepresented in athletic director chairs?</b><div><br /></div><div>
Dr. Nicole LaVoi: The correlation between head coaches who are women and the (gender) of the AD is very strong. One of my grad students, <a href="http://wcs.umn.edu/people/courtney-boucher" target="_blank">Courtney Boucher</a>, looked at that relationship in the Power Five conferences, plus the Big East and American, over a similar timeframe to ASU’s study.<div><br /></div><div>
Every time there was a coach hired, we asked, who is doing the hiring? What we found was that male athletic directors are more likely to hire men, and women are more likely to hire women.<div><br /></div><div>
Global Sport Matters: Why is that? Is there anything in your research or in other research that explains that phenomenon?<div><br /></div><div>
Dr. Nicole LaVoi: One of the theories that we often use is what social scientists call <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/21640629.2020.1760001?journalCode=rspc20" target="_blank">homologous reproduction.</a><div><br /></div><div><b>
Global Sport Matters: For those of us not regularly reading academic literature at home, what does that term mean?</b><div><br /></div><div>
Dr. Nicole LaVoi: It basically means that people like to hire people like themselves. It's very similar to affinity bias, in which we warm up to people like ourselves. We like to surround ourselves with people who are like us because it affirms our identities – and that’s true for athletic directors, too.<div><br /></div><div><b>
Global Sport Matters: People who work in college sports administration will tell you that people within the industry tend to form professional networks with people who are like them, and that also makes a huge difference in who gets hired.</b><div><br /></div><div>
Dr. Nicole LaVoi: The network piece is really important. I can’t speak to all levels of college sports, but the process by which we hire head coaches at the Division I level is not about who applies for the job. It's about who you know. Athletic directors will pick up the phone and call their network or the people they know. They go out and actively recruit who they think is the best fit. They are not sitting in the offices with stacks of random applications. It just doesn’t work like that.<div><br /></div><div>
There’s a narrative that, well, we don’t have a lot of women coaches in women’s sports because they just don’t apply for jobs. That’s really <a href="https://www.cehd.umn.edu/tuckercenter/library/docs/media/GameOnToolkit/Shifting-the-Narrative-about-Women-Sport-Coaches-2019.pdf" target="_blank">a false argument</a>, because it’s not about applying. It’s about your network.<div><br /></div><div><b>
Global Sport Matters: When you look at the background of who becomes athletic directors, often at some point in their career they were a coach themselves. Is it fair to say that if we have underrepresentation of women coaches, we also are limiting the number of future potential women athletic directors?</b><div><br /></div><div>
Dr. Nicole LaVoi: Yes and no. If you have fewer female coaches, the pathway to athletic director becomes narrower. But the other side of the argument is that many big-time athletic directors currently do not have any coaching background. They come from a business background. Of course, that’s largely dominated by men as well.<div><br /></div><div><b>
Global Sport Matters: The underrepresentation of women in college sports leadership roles has a long history. But, as you mentioned earlier, it’s not the entire history of women’s college sports. In the early 1970s, more than 90 percent of women’s college sports programs were overseen by a female administrator, and more than 90 percent of women’s college sports teams were coached by women.</b><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b>
By 1990, however, those numbers had dropped dramatically. Only 15.9 percent of women’s programs were overseen by administrators who are women, and coaching was below 50 percent. What happened between those years, and why did those numbers change so dramatically?</b><div><br /></div><div>
Dr. Nicole LaVoi: There are multiple explanations. One is that early in the history of women’s college sports, in the 1970s and 1980s, those [leadership] positions were not lucrative. They were not desirable. Lots of them were volunteer positions. They were the old teacher-coach model.<div><br /></div><div>
As women's sports gained popularity and visibility and then were taken over by the NCAA, there were more resources. There was more money involved. Coaches of women's teams started to get paid. And in any profession, if there's more prestige and money and power involved, you will find that it becomes male-dominated. Men saw that they had twice the opportunity if they also applied to coach women.<div><br /></div><div>
Another reason is the people doing the hiring. There used to be separate college athletic departments for men and women. Women were in charge of women’s sports – but once those departments merged, in most cases, the male athletic director now ran both.<div><br /></div><div>
The third reason, I think, is when we’re doing hiring, gender bias comes into play. It’s not just that athletic directors like to hire people like themselves. It’s the idea of what the best qualities and traits are that go along with being a coach. Most of those are aligned with men and masculinity: I’m confident, I’m in control, I can make decisions, I take up physical space, I have a loud voice. We typically think these characteristics make a good coach. And that privileges men. So athletic directors automatically perceive men to be more competent than women, just because they are men.<div><br /></div><div><b>
Global Sport Matters: What if you’re a woman who exhibits those traits?</b><div><br /></div><div>
Dr. Nicole LaVoi: If I am a woman and I am strong, confident, assertive – well, now I’m acting like a man. And exhibiting those masculine characteristics can be perceived as being too masculine, too preachy, too aggressive. As being a [expletive].<div><br /></div><div>
It’s a double-edged sword. Women coaches have to walk a fine line between being perceived as highly competent but also being perceived as kind and caring and a nice person, because that is what society’s traditional gender stereotypes tell us women are supposed to be. Men just don’t have to talk that same line.<div><br /></div><div><b>
Global Sport Matters: What career barriers do college coaches who are women face when compared to their counterparts who are men?</b><div><br /></div><div>
Dr. Nicole LaVoi: So many. I mean, they face so many barriers that I’ve written quite a few academic papers about it – and also <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Women-in-Sports-Coaching/LaVoi/p/book/9781138558755" target="_blank">a book</a>. What we know is that the<a href="https://www.cehd.umn.edu/tuckercenter/library/docs/media/GameOnToolkit/Barriers-for-Women-Sport-Coaches-2012.pdf" target="_blank"> barriers are complicated and numerous</a>, ranging from social barriers like homophobia, gender bias, racism, and the <a href="https://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/12/17/the-mommy-penalty-around-the-world/" target="_blank">“mommy penalty”</a> to organizational barriers like the gender pay gap, who is in positions of power, and a lack of family-friendly policies to the interpersonal level of women still doing a majority of the domestic labor and child-caring in their households. Women coaches might have unsupportive partners or a weak social network of support, whereas the men have the old boys’ club.<div><br /></div><div><b>
Global Sport Matters: Data from the Arizona State University Global Sport Institute study indicated that women of color were less likely to become athletic directors than White women. Do women college coaches of color face barriers that their White counterparts do not?</b><div><br /></div><div>
Dr. Nicole LaVoi: Absolutely. It’s the same pattern of intersectionality. Yes, women face more barriers than men. But depending on a woman's intersectional identities – maybe she’s a woman of Color, maybe she’s a gay woman or a queer woman or a mother – she will definitely experience different barriers than her White counterparts.<div><br /></div><div><b>
Global Sport Matters: What are the effects of the underrepresentation of women in leadership – coaches or athletic directors – on both women’s college sports and college sports as a whole?</b><div><br /></div><div>
Dr. Nicole LaVoi: I think the effect in general – that we know from the literature – is that same-sex, same-identity role models matter. One hundred percent of young men get a male coaching role model. A majority of young women don’t.<div><br /></div><div>
Having that role model helps young people see a career pathway. You know that women can become athletic directors. You have mentors who can provide insight and guidance. You have a higher self-perception. All of those things help you get to that job.<div><br /></div><div>
One question I get a lot is, why should we care about this? Well, evidence tells us that women coached by women are more likely to go into coaching and stay in coaching. We know that gender diversity in the workplace produces a more healthy workplace. We know that when women aren’t token employees and hires, they are more likely to experience better occupational and psychosocial health and well-being outcomes. So there are <a href="https://www.cehd.umn.edu/tuckercenter/library/docs/media/GameOnToolkit/Why-Women-Sport-Coaches-Matter-2016.pdf" target="_blank">a lot of reasons</a> why having women in positions of power, whether it’s as athletic directors or as coaches, really matters.<div><br /></div><div>
The flip side of this is that it also matters for boys and men. Seeing women in positions of power in sport – an important social institution that a lot of people care deeply about – helps challenge gender stereotypes. We learn to see women as competent leaders in sports, and that challenges the idea that only men should be leaders. It also helps young men treat women as equals. They're not just sexual objects. They're their equals in their workplaces.<div><br /></div><div><b>
Global Sport Matters: The recent NCAA basketball tournament was notable for <a href="https://globalsportmatters.com/business/2021/05/07/new-case-diversity-college-sports-ncaa/" target="_blank">a series of missteps</a> in which women’s players were treated in a second-class manner, from being prohibited by the NCAA from using the March Madness logo to being outfitted with a paltry dumbbell rack instead of a legitimate weight room. This prompted an avalanche of criticism from inside and outside college sports. People were upset about the disparity in resources between the men’s and women’s tournaments and also upset about the larger lack of investment in women’s basketball as a business and a product worth supporting and growing.</b><div><br /></div><div><b>
How does underrepresentation of women leaders factor into all of this?</b><div><br /></div><div>
Dr. Nicole LaVoi: Well, it's a well-known fact in the business world that having a diversity of perspectives on one's leadership teams leads to better return on investment and better decision-making. So in most industries, recruiting and retaining diverse talent is a business imperative.<div><br /></div><div>
Unfortunately, in sports leadership we are a little behind. Sports have been slow to adopt that mindset. So what we saw with March Madness was not surprising.<div><br /></div><div>
One thing that was great is that the athletes themselves were not having it. They aren’t tolerating these kinds of inequities, because they’ve grown up expecting to be treated equally to their male counterparts. They are speaking out and using their platform in powerful ways that we have never seen before.<div><br /></div><div>
We’re also seeing a shift in seeing women’s sports as a lucrative business endeavor. You can actually make money with marketing, sponsorships, and investing. One thing we’ve commonly heard from people in power, men in power, is that we’re not going to invest in women’s sports or show them on television because no one is interested. What they’re really saying is that men in positions of power aren’t interested. Because there are a lot of people, myself included, that are very interested in women's sports. There’s a realization that it’s an untapped market.<div><br /></div><div><b>
Global Sport Matters: What can be done to lower barriers and improve college sports leadership opportunities for women?</b><div><br /></div><div>
Dr. Nicole LaVoi: It depends on what level of the system you're looking at. The low-hanging fruit is developing leaders at the individual level. That means providing training and pathways for women. We need to build out robust support networks for women. That includes sponsors, gender allies, and mentors.<div><br /></div><div>
The next level is the organizational level. I think that’s where the real sweet spot is, where policies and norms can make a big difference. We need to create work cultures that value and support women.<div><br /></div><div>
One of the questions we get all the time is “How do the schools that get As on your report cards hire all these women? Because I can’t find them.” I don’t accept that argument. We interviewed athletic directors at schools with high grades, and the top-level finding was that these athletic directors valued and supported women, and they <a href="https://www.cehd.umn.edu/tuckercenter/library/docs/research/AD-Report-Best-Practices.pdf" target="_blank">created cultures</a> where women could succeed and thrive.<div><br /></div><div>
Then there’s the societal level. That means changing gender stereotypes, racism, and homophobia. That takes a long time to change.<div><br /></div><div><b>
Global Sport Matters: How confident are you that college sports can or will change when it comes to having more diverse leaders? On one hand, social movements for racial justice and gender equity have been gaining strength in recent years. On the other, college sports have been incredibly stagnant.</b><div><br /></div><div>
Dr. Nicole LaVoi: I'm cautiously optimistic. If I wasn’t, there's no way I could do this work. I do feel there's sort of a tipping point of momentum of really embracing organizational and social change around diversity, equity, and inclusion, and in ways that I don't think have happened before.<div><br /></div><div>
Now, with any motion, there’s an opposite motion. Right? As we’re pushing for gender and racial equity – —which is great, and I think we're making a little headway – —there will be some backlash. We have to be prepared for that.<div><br /></div><div>
But I do think that the athletic departments that have embraced real social change will be the ones that attract the best talent. It will become a business imperative. The schools that have a culture of valuing diversity, people want to work there. And the schools which, for whatever reason, don’t, I think they will be left behind in the Dark Ages.<div><br /></div><div><b>
Global Sport Matters: When you talk about attracting talent, do you also mean college athletes?</b><div><br /></div><div>
Dr. Nicole LaVoi: Yes. Athletes want to go to a place where they see people like themselves, where they have representation, where they feel valued and safe and included. If you have a coaching staff for all your men’s and women’s teams that is only (made up of) White men, that communicates to this generation of athletes who and what is valued, and what is not.<div><br /></div><div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<kicker><a href="https://globalsportmatters.com/research/2021/05/20/paradox-women-college-sports-dr-nicole-lavoi/" target="_blank">Published at Global Sport Matters</a></kicker></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3878043065627433241.post-27678024776402398872021-05-24T08:24:00.005-04:002021-09-01T09:08:09.658-04:00Lonely at the Top: Few College Athletic Directors Are Women and People of Color<div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-u3dKpIMuxZc/YS96ivUmSGI/AAAAAAAAFgw/LkIgc0zrdHo-ufs96DzE0JOvU5KsX5nMwCLcBGAsYHQ/s1456/https---bucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com-public-images-2c8c1460-7232-4b63-a84b-4dab3faf5eaa_1536x1022.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="969" data-original-width="1456" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-u3dKpIMuxZc/YS96ivUmSGI/AAAAAAAAFgw/LkIgc0zrdHo-ufs96DzE0JOvU5KsX5nMwCLcBGAsYHQ/s16000/https---bucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com-public-images-2c8c1460-7232-4b63-a84b-4dab3faf5eaa_1536x1022.jpeg" /></a></div></div><a name='more'></a><div style="text-align: center;"><subhead>As racial justice and gender equity movements demand more representative leadership across society, senior decision-makers in college sports continue to be overwhelmingly White and male. Why?</subhead></div><div style="text-align: center;"><attribution>By Patrick Hruby | Global Sport Matters | May 2021 YEAR</attribution></div><span class="drop-cap">A</span>s a Black woman aspiring to become an athletic director, Renae Myles Payne knew that she faced an uphill career climb. But it wasn’t until she studied the lack of diversity among college athletic directors and sports administrators for her 2005 <a href="http://d-scholarship.pitt.edu/7402/1/renaemylesetd4202005.pdf" target="_blank">dissertation</a> that Myles Pane realized just how steep the hill was.<div><br /></div><div>
In the National Collegiate Athletic Association’s Division I – home to the big-time football and men’s basketball programs that accounted for billions of dollars in annual revenue – nine out of 10 athletic directors were White. The same held true for their top deputies.<div><br /></div><div>
As for the handful of Black people who had advanced to senior leadership positions? Myles Payne personally interviewed four. Their feedback was blunt:<div><br /></div><div>
<i>The odds of us getting jobs at the same rate as our White counterparts are very slim.<div><br /></div><div>
We will always be required to display our credentials and be 10 times better than our White colleagues.<div><br /></div><div>
Whether it is overt or covert racism, or neither, presidents and athletic directors tend to hire people who look like them.<div><br /></div><div></div></div></div></i>
Today, Myles Payne occupies one of those positions, working as the University of Miami’s senior associate athletic director and chief diversity officer. She says that some progress has been made since her time as doctoral student – but far less than she had hoped for.<div><br /></div><div>
“It was terrible back then,” Myles Payne says. “It’s stagnant now. There are still not a lot of opportunities [for women and people of color] to reach that decision-making chair.”<div><br /></div><div>
A new study conducted by the Global Sport Institute at Arizona State University reflects an ongoing lack of opportunity. Examining 385 athletic director changes across 248 NCAA Division I schools over a 10-year period from 2010 through 2019, the study found that:<div><br /></div><div>
* Incoming college athletic directors were overwhelmingly White (77 percent) and male (88 percent).<div><br /></div><div>
* Women and people of color made small gains over the decade, with the overall percentage of Black athletic directors rising from 17 percent to 19 percent and women from 8 percent to 12 percent.<div><br /></div><div>
* Asian-American and Latinx athletic directors also made gains, but combined they account for just 3 percent of people holding athletic director jobs.<div><br /></div><div>
* In no year were more than 12 women or fewer than 23 men hired.<div><br /></div><div>
* In every year but one, at least 30 White men were hired. By contrast, the number of Black men hired reached double digits (11) once.<div><br /></div><div>
* No Asian-American women or Latinas were hired in seven of the 10 years studied.<div><br /></div><div>
* Athletic directors of color were more likely than their White counterparts to have attained graduate and doctoral degrees, and women athletic directors were more likely to have attained those degrees than their male counterparts.<div><br /></div><div>* While the majority of all athletic directors had NCAA playing experience, women were more likely than men and Black men were more likely than White men to have been a NCAA athlete.<div><br /></div><div>* Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) accounted for 37 percent of the Black men and 36 percent of the Black women hired as athletic directors over the period studied.<div><br /></div><div>
Taken together, the study’s findings indicate that women and people of color in college sports administration continue to face career obstacles when compared to their White male counterparts – something that holds particularly true for women of color, with just 11 Black women, three Latinas, and two Asian American women hired as athletic directors.<div><br /></div><div>
Those impediments aren’t unique: other studies of <a href="https://globalsportmatters.com/business/2020/09/24/too-few-black-college-coaches-too-few-opportunities/" target="_blank">college sports coaching</a>, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/12/23/sports/diversity-coaches-sports.html" target="_blank">professional sports coaching</a> and front office management, <a href="https://1xfsu31b52d33idlp13twtos-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Race-and-Ethnicity-in-Higher-Education.pdf" target="_blank">university administration</a>, <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/in-depth/money/business/2020/08/20/racism-black-america-corporate-america-facebook-apple-netflix-nike-diversity/5557003002/" target="_blank">corporate America</a>, and <a href="https://1xfsu31b52d33idlp13twtos-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Race-and-Ethnicity-in-Higher-Education.pdf" target="_blank">state</a> and <a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/news/reports/gender-and-race-2020" target="_blank">federal</a> government repeatedly have found that White men disproportionately occupy senior leadership roles.<div><br /></div><div>
At a time when renewed national movements for racial justice and gender equity are demanding more representative leadership for a <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/research/new-census-data-shows-the-nation-is-diversifying-even-faster-than-predicted/" target="_blank">rapidly diversifying</a> country, many within college sports are calling for the industry’s top decision-makers to <a href="https://lead1association.com/lead1-association-releases-actionable-recommendations-to-increase-senior-diverse-leadership-in-fbs-college-sports/" target="_blank">look more like the athletes they serve</a>, who increasingly are <a href="https://onlinemasters.ohio.edu/blog/equal-opportunity-to-be-a-student-athlete-ncaa-demographics-reflect-improvement/" target="_blank">women and people of color.</a><div><br /></div><div>
But whether the industry can actually lower the barriers Myles Payne once studied remains to be seen.<div><br /></div><div>
“We have too many people in college sports making decisions based on things that they have never experienced,” she says. “More people who look like the students – who have similar situations and backgrounds – sitting at the table making decisions would help.<div><br /></div><div>
“On the football field, nobody thinks anymore about whether the quarterback of a college or [National Football League] team is Black. It’s normal. That is where we need to get to on the administrative side of college sports. Why can’t we have that same feeling of normalcy? What still makes it unusual?”<div>
<hr />
<span class="drop-cap">W</span>hite male dominance of college sports has deep roots. For decades, schools and athletic departments were segregated by race and gender, with Black athletes and administrators largely confined to HBCUs and female athletes and administrators left to fend for themselves outside NCAA governance.<div><br /></div><div>
That changed from the late 1960s to early 1980s, as civil rights and gender equity movements and legislation gradually forced college sports to integrate on the field. Black athletes began to play against and alongside their White counterparts. Women’s teams and programs proliferated.<div><br /></div><div>
But administrative offices were a different story. Beyond HBCUs, athletic leaders of color remained exceedingly rare. In 1998, only nine of the 29 Black athletic directors in Division I worked at Primarily White Institutions (PWIs). One of them, Lee McElroy, <a href="https://www.chronicle.com/article/black-athletics-directors-remain-a-rarity-in-ncaas-division-i/" target="_blank">told</a> the <i>Chronicle of Higher Education</i> that he could predict what strangers at cocktail receptions would ask when they saw the words “American University” on his name tag.<div><br /></div><div>
“The first thing they say is, ‘Oh, are you a coach?’” said McElroy, the school’s athletic director from 1996 to 2000 and now athletic director at the University of Albany. “People can visualize a person of color as a coach.”<div><br /></div><div>
Meanwhile, female decision-makers were losing ground. In 1982, the NCAA completed what amounted to a <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/women-college-sports-ncaa-aiaw-11617422325?st=xf5v6lbgeedbonx&reflink=share_mobilewebshare" target="_blank">hostile takeover</a> of women’s college sports from the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women, which had governed the area in the 1970s.<div><br /></div><div>
The aftermath was <a href="http://www.thesmartjournal.com/endangered%20species.pdf" target="_blank">devastating</a>. According to the Wall Street Journal, hundreds of female administrators lost their jobs or were demoted to middle-management positions within gender-unified athletic departments run by men. In 1972, more than 90 percent of women’s college sports programs were overseen by a female administrator; by 1990, that number had dropped to 15.9 percent, leading Donna Lopiano, then the women's athletic director at the University of Texas-Austin, to tell <i>The New York Times</i> that “sports is a flagrant example of discrimination against women.”<div><br /></div><div>
"It's wild here in the trenches,” Lopiano <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1990/12/11/sports/more-women-playing-but-fewer-are-calling-the-shots.html" target="_blank">said</a> at the time. “When a woman goes after a job, she hears: If you're young, you'll have child-bearing problems. If you have a family, you can't handle the time demands. If you're not a parent, you're homosexual.”<div><br /></div><div>
In addition to overt prejudice and bias, women and people of color looking to become college athletic directors were limited by a traditional conception of the role as a career capstone for successful football, basketball, or baseball coaches – who overwhelmingly tended to be White men.<div><br /></div><div>
Since the 1990s, that view has shifted. A boom in college sports revenues has moved leadership hiring away from former coaches with campus name recognition and toward administrative professionals with business and public relations training.<div><br /></div><div>
“The position has evolved, and you need a wide array of skills like a corporate CEO,” says Dr. Brandon Martin, athletic director at the University of Missouri-Kansas City and co-chair of the Black AD Alliance, a group of approximately 55 athletic directors <a href="https://www.cbssports.com/college-football/news/black-ad-alliance-created-to-develop-more-black-administrators-in-division-i-athletics/" target="_blank">formed in 2020</a> to promote leaders of color in Division I sports. “You can’t just say ‘I’m a fundraiser’ and be a good AD. No. You have to fundraise and put together a good marketing plan, understand student development and academic support, and have the people skills to work with so many different stakeholders on campus.”<div><br /></div><div>
Yet while the job has become more expansive, the pool of people working as athletic directors has not. Last year, The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport (TIDES) at the University of Central Florida <a href="https://www.espn.com/college-sports/story/_/id/30956744/2020-college-racial-gender-report-card-shows-insignificant-progress" target="_blank">reported</a> that 72.3 percent of Division I athletic directors were White men; 86.7 percent of Division I conference commissioners were White; and 76.3 percent of administrators at the NCAA’s headquarters were also White.<div><br /></div><div>
By contrast, just 10.3 percent of Division I athletic directors and 23.5 percent of NCAA senior leaders were Black, while 14.3 percent of Division I athletic directors and 49.6 percent of NCAA senior leaders were women.<div><br /></div><div>
When the University of Pittsburgh hired Heather Lyke as its athletic director in 2017, the school <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/13/sports/countable-on-one-hand-the-women-leading-power-five-athletic-departments.html" target="_blank">reportedly</a> had to remove masculine pronouns from the statements it had prepared in advance – statements written with the assumption that a man would get the job, as had been the case for the previous 106 years.<div><br /></div><div>
“We are making really slight progress, but it’s way too slow, and we have a long way to go,” says Patti Phillips, the chief executive of Women Leaders in College Sports, an organization that works to develop and advance women into positions of power within college sports. “These issues are cultural and systemic and do not change overnight.”<div>
<hr />
<span class="drop-cap">W</span>hen China Jude began working at University of the District of Columbia as a volleyball coach and athletic administrator in the mid-2000s, she quickly noticed that her boss, then-athletic director Harold Merritt, would leave the office early on Friday afternoons – and take the school’s compliance director with him.<div><br /></div><div>
“They would play golf,” says Jude, the Denver Broncos’ vice president of diversity, equity and inclusion. “I felt a little left out.”<div><br /></div><div>
Jude, a Black woman, wanted to move up in her career. "I knew I had to be able to network with individuals who don’t look like me, in social environments where you don’t see large numbers of Black and brown people,” she says. So she took golf lessons for eight weeks. “In private!” Jude says with a laugh. “I didn’t tell anyone in my office.”<div><br /></div><div>
Those lessons paid off when Jude later worked as an athletic director at Division II schools in Pennsylvania and New York. In both cases, she says, the sport “really opened doors for me to talk to people and cultivate alums by being in the clubhouse.”<div><br /></div><div>
“That’s the kind of thing we have to do as Black athletic administrators,” Jude says. “I knew the barriers, but I always felt that I would not let them exclude me from opportunities.”<div><br /></div><div>
For Jude, playing golf was a way into the “good old boy” networks of White people, mostly men, who occupy positions of power in college sports. According to LEAD1, an association that represents NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision athletic directors, 83 percent of presidents and chancellors at FBS schools in 2019 were White men; by contrast, just five FBS schools had women of color as presidents in 2020.<div><br /></div><div>
That disparity doesn’t mean that people like Jude are deliberately being shut out of FBS athletic director positions. However, social scientists have found that in higher education and most other fields, people <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/243695595_Information_Networks_in_Labor_Markets" target="_blank">tend to hire</a> candidates they know or candidates referred by people they know – a behavior that <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/241644136_Networks_Race_And_Hiring" target="_blank">holds true</a> for people of color as well as for Whites.<div><br /></div><div>
The same dynamic also can hold true for the search firms that schools increasingly use to help them identify and hire athletic directors. According to Stan Johnson, executive director of the Minority Opportunities Athletic Association (MOAA), firms place candidates into three groups.<div><br /></div><div>
“There are suspects, which are the 300 or so resumes they go out and get,” says Johnson, whose organization was formed in 2000 to increase participation and administrative opportunities for minorities in athletics. “There are prospects, who are the 15 people they interview on the phone to present names. And there are candidates, who are the three or four people you actually bring in for interviews.<div><br /></div><div>
“Candidates are the only people who can get the job. So the question is, are minorities part of that group?"<div><br /></div><div>
Too often, says Eric Coleman, senior associate athletic director for academics and student development at Florida Atlantic University, they are not. “It’s all about networking and getting into those social circles if you want those jobs,” he says. "I’m not saying a search firm won’t recommend or push a person of color to be hired. They will. But you have to be in their network.”<div><br /></div><div>
Social segregation isn’t the only career roadblock women and people of color have to overcome. While racial and gender bias are less prevalent than in the past, neither has been eliminated. In a 2015 <a href="https://www.ncaa.org/sites/default/files/2015RES_BarriersReport2015_20160506.pdf" target="_blank">survey</a> of 529 women of color working in college sports coaching and administration, 44 percent said they had been discriminated against because of their race or ethnicity, while 60 percent said they had faced gender discrimination.<div><br /></div><div>
“We have women administrators who have to have security details because of death threats, who are called out on blogs and radio shows with people saying, ‘Hey, [expletive], get back in the kitchen,’” says Phillips, the CEO of Women Leaders in College Sports. “We have administrators on the football fields with their teams who have had officials come over and say, ‘No wives on the field.’ We’ve had other ADs – who traditionally give visiting ADs gifts for football games – give women tie racks. It’s just a culture that has been ingrained.”<div><br /></div><div>
In football, Black quarterbacks at all levels of the sport historically <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2019/sep/20/black-quarterbacks-history-stereotypes?CMP=share_btn_tw&__twitter_impression=true" target="_blank">have been moved</a> to other positions out of racial prejudice, making it less likely that they later will become quarterback coaches, offensive coordinators, and head coaches. Likewise, college coaches of color are more likely to be pigeonholed as “recruiters” – charged with enticing predominantly Black high school prospects to attend their schools and managing them once they arrive on campus – or to end up in <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0730888415580651" target="_blank">particular assistant roles</a>, like running backs or defensive backs coach, that are not considered training grounds for future head coaches.</div><div><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-EpO4Yazwx-U/YS95xlrUtaI/AAAAAAAAFgg/tItEAnVK9JglFNQUBtCHNW7MolOfkazKgCLcBGAsYHQ/s1456/https---bucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com-public-images-c7e3cc5f-f318-42cf-8152-df2cccee5c34_2560x1920.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1092" data-original-width="1456" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-EpO4Yazwx-U/YS95xlrUtaI/AAAAAAAAFgg/tItEAnVK9JglFNQUBtCHNW7MolOfkazKgCLcBGAsYHQ/s16000/https---bucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com-public-images-c7e3cc5f-f318-42cf-8152-df2cccee5c34_2560x1920.jpeg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Northern Illinois Huskies athletic director Sean Frazier observes his team during the college football game between the Northern Illinois Huskies and Western Michigan Broncos on November 28, 2020, at Waldo Stadium in Kalamazoo, MI. (Photo by Joseph Weiser/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div>The result? A <a href="https://globalsportmatters.com/business/2020/09/24/is-a-super-bowl-win-enough-to-coach-apparently-not/" target="_blank">paucity</a> of Black head coaches. A similar phenomenon occurs within athletic departments, where public-facing roles in finance and fundraising are seen as more important than student-facing roles in academic support and life skills, which North Carolina Central University athletic director Ingrid Wicker McCree <a href="https://repository.lib.ncsu.edu/bitstream/handle/1840.16/4702/etd.pdf?sequence=1" target="_blank">once described</a> as “similar to the caregiver roles in the fields of nursing, in which the day-to-day type of responsibilities are reminiscent of mothers or big sisters instead of those roles of power brokers or decision-makers within the organization."<br /><div><div><br /></div><div>
According to LEAD1, people of color occupied just 20 percent of finance and fundraising roles at FBS schools in 2019. That isn’t new. In her 2005 dissertation, Myles Payne found that the highest concentration of Black people in college sports administration was in academic advising and counseling.<div><br /></div><div>
To avoid being typecast, Myles Payne once left a job overseeing academics for football players at San Jose State University, a Division I school, to work on athletic department budgeting at a much smaller Division II school.<div><br /></div><div>
“I was known as someone who could turn your football [grades] into a positive,” she says. “But when you do a good job at that, you’re going to be stuck. I had to put myself in a decision-making position, where on a daily basis I was deciding how we would steward and spend money.”<div><br /></div><div>
Yet even that kind of experience can be insufficient. Raising money is the lifeblood of college sports. Athletic donors tend to be wealthy White men. If a school looking for a new athletic director doesn’t believe that a woman or person of color can convince those men to give generously, it’s likely to hire a White man to do the job.<div><br /></div><div>
“The people in power in society are White males,” Myles Payne says. “That is who fundraising appeals are aimed at and what a [university] president is thinking about when they need an athletic director to be the face of a new capital campaign. Who will those donors trust to steward their gifts?<div><br /></div><div>
“I’ve been in a room where a president asked me not to apply for a job, because he knew his school’s donors would not be receptive to me.”<div>
<hr />
<span class="drop-cap">S</span>hortly after video of George Floyd’s murder began to spread on social media, Northern Illinois University athletic director Sean Frazier’s phone rang. Tom McMillen, a former member of Congress and the head of LEAD1, the association for FBS athletic directors, was on the line.<div><br /></div><div>
Other college sports organizations and entities were releasing public statements condemning racism and calling for change. Should LEAD1 follow suit?<div><br /></div><div>
Frazier advised against it. “Let’s<i> do</i> something,” he said.<div><br /></div><div>
McMillen agreed. Last January, the association released a <a href="https://lead1association.com/lead1-association-releases-actionable-recommendations-to-increase-senior-diverse-leadership-in-fbs-college-sports/" target="_blank">white paper</a> – created with input from more than two dozen college sports leaders who are women and/or people of color, including Jude and Myles Payne—with a list of 10 recommendations for how college sports can diversify its senior decision-makers.<div><br /></div><div>
For Frazier, the topic was overdue. And personal. One of the few Black athletic directors in the FBS, he has spent his 30-plus years in college sports both preaching and embodying the value of diverse leadership: as an assistant football coach, a multicultural affairs liaison, and an assistant athletic director at the University of Maine; as an athletic director at three smaller schools in Massachusetts and New York; and as a deputy athletic director at the University of Wisconsin.<div><br /></div><div>
Northern Illinois is the only FBS school with a Black athletic director, a Black football coach, and a Black men’s basketball coach. “We’re it!” Frazier says. “And we have a White woman [university president Lisa Freeman] as our boss.”<div><br /></div><div>
Frazier says his passion for diversity and inclusion can be traced back to his days as a football player at the University of Alabama.<div><br /></div><div>
“We had Black and White players working together to win championships,” he says. “It’s the most diverse and most productive team I’ve ever seen – the reason Fortune 500 companies want to hire college athletes is because they are used to working with different people from different backgrounds under huge amounts of stress and adversity to reach success.<div><br /></div><div>
“The NCAA, its member institutions, they could be the model for diversity and inclusion in this country. Economic diversity, spiritual diversity, not just racial, but all the things that are different about us. By not harnessing that, we’re missing the boat.”<div><br /></div><div>
In corporate America – which also has <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2020/06/11/companies-are-making-bold-promises-about-greater-diversity-theres-a-long-way-to-go.html">disproportionately few</a> women and people of color in decision-making roles – the <a href="https://www.bcg.com/en-us/publications/2018/how-diverse-leadership-teams-boost-innovation.aspx" target="_blank">value of diverse leadership</a> is becoming increasingly apparent. In the wake of the racial and social justice movements that arose across the United States last summer, college sports may be having a similar awakening, with the NCAA <a href="https://www.ncaa.org/about/resources/inclusion/planning-advance-racial-equity" target="_blank">committing to advancing racial equity</a> and many conferences pledging to be more inclusive.</div><div><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Xt1MPvaQlRA/YS96SMShVrI/AAAAAAAAFgo/Y2UXidQ0svUq91J3KHP6qzJK80loDDOLwCLcBGAsYHQ/s1456/https---bucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com-public-images-44fde99c-594b-4d37-94a8-d592c2258601_2560x1681.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="956" data-original-width="1456" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Xt1MPvaQlRA/YS96SMShVrI/AAAAAAAAFgo/Y2UXidQ0svUq91J3KHP6qzJK80loDDOLwCLcBGAsYHQ/s16000/https---bucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com-public-images-44fde99c-594b-4d37-94a8-d592c2258601_2560x1681.jpeg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">West Coast Conference Commissioner Gloria Nevarez (L) presents Joel Ayayi #11 of the Gonzaga Bulldogs with the most outstanding player award after the Bulldogs defeated the Saint Mary's Gaels 84-66 to win the championship game of the West Coast Conference basketball tournament at the Orleans Arena on March 10, 2020 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images)</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div>Frazier and others say that transforming those promises into a more diverse set of college athletic directors will take sustained action in three key areas:<br /><div><div><br /></div><div><b>
1. Purposefully developing and advancing talent:</b> According to Johnson, MOAA’s executive director, the path to “sitting in the [athletic director] chair” consists of a series of career steps. Each one requires mentoring, support, and trust from people already in positions of authority. "The old boy system pulls people through,” he says. "Are minorities being mentored, networked, coached through that process? Is that stamp being put on them by the people in charge that this is the next person? And who are the champions out there helping minorities? This is not a thing they can do by themselves.”<div><br /></div><div><b>
2. More equitable hiring processes:</b> In the National Football League, the “Rooney Rule” requires teams to interview qualified women and candidates for color for senior leadership positions. While the rule has <a href="https://globalsportmatters.com/business/2021/02/05/cyrus-mehris-agenda-creating-a-level-playing-field/" target="_blank">not led</a> to a dramatic increase in the overall number of Black head coaches in the league, it has created opportunities for many individuals.<div><br /></div><div>
Within college sports, the NCAA can’t legally mandate hiring rules across a vast array of public and private schools located in different states. But individual institutions, conferences, and even <a href="https://globalsportmatters.com/business/2020/09/24/oregons-rooney-rule-shifts-the-game/" target="_blank">state lawmakers</a> can require more diverse candidate searches. Last year, the West Coast Conference adopted a “Russell Rule,” named after Hall of Fame basketball player and civil rights advocate Bill Russell, that requires that candidates for every opening for athletic director, senior administrator, head coach or full-time assistant coach within the league to include a member of a "traditionally underrepresented community.”<div><br /></div><div>
West Coast Conference commissioner Gloria Nevarez, the first Latina to serve as a Division I conference commissioner, <a href="https://www.espn.com/college-sports/story/_/id/29646829/national-coaching-groups-endorse-wcc-russell-rule-diversify-hiring-pools" target="_blank">has said</a> that she hopes other conferences will follow suit. So have the National Association of Basketball Coaches and the Women's Basketball Coaches Association.<div><br /></div><div>
“The idea is to have schools do what coaches do when they look for athletes,” Myles Payne says. “They don’t care about Black, White, blue, gold. They want the best person, and they turn over every rock to find them. But schools don’t do that when looking for [athletic] administrators. They stick to the circles they know.”<div><br /></div><div><b>
3. Resources and incentives:</b> The Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics, <a href="https://www.knightcommission.org/about-knight-commission/" target="_blank">a college sports reform group</a>, <a href="https://www.knightcommission.org/2017/05/knight-commission-calls-for-change-in-college-football-playoff-revenues-to-address-national-challenges-facing-the-sport/" target="_blank">has asked</a> the College Football Playoff to donate 1 percent of its nearly $500 million in annual revenues to support college sports diversity initiatives. “None of that money is going toward any kind of national programs to address what all leaders agree is a shortcoming,” says Amy Perko, the commission’s CEO.<div><br /></div><div>
LEAD1 goes further, recommending that contracts for athletic directors and conference commissioners include financial bonuses for hiring and promoting women and people of color. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the association’s white paper notes, the University of Michigan implemented a diversity program that provided increased funding to departments that hired and advanced diverse candidates; seven years later, faculty of color had increased by 55 percent, while faculty of color in leadership positions had increased by 79 percent.<div><br /></div><div>
When Myles Payne worked in academic support, she says, she didn’t believe that coaches should receive bonuses for athletes getting better grades. “But it worked!” she says. “I feel the same way about diversity. You should be doing it regardless, but, at the end of the day, money matters to people. It is an incentive for them to do better.”<div><br /></div><div>
Can college sports do better when it comes to having senior leaders who look more like the athletes on the field – and the quickly diversifying country all around them? Frazier believes the industry has little choice but to change.<div><br /></div><div>
“We are here for our students,” he says. “You can’t forget that. If you can’t relate to them, if you are not listening to social media and to young people, you are at a disadvantage. Race, class, human rights, injustice are permeating throughout what they are saying. Institutions that do not have that in their leadership model will be like the dodo bird or the dinosaurs. They will die out."<div><br /></div><div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<kicker><a href="https://globalsportmatters.com/business/2021/05/07/few-college-athletic-directors-minorities-ncaa/" target="_blank">Published at Global Sport Matters</a></kicker></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3878043065627433241.post-50464784596249777232021-04-15T11:41:00.002-04:002021-08-31T14:33:05.599-04:00The Balancing Act of Playing Through COVID-19<div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-T76mIVlnRdo/YS509pkgFDI/AAAAAAAAFgY/dAubDLhFRCESsdIR-oJwTEGjDE0SlNyrgCLcBGAsYHQ/s1024/https---bucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com-public-images-9b804783-bd50-4320-a429-afb95f29064f_1024x683.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="683" data-original-width="1024" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-T76mIVlnRdo/YS509pkgFDI/AAAAAAAAFgY/dAubDLhFRCESsdIR-oJwTEGjDE0SlNyrgCLcBGAsYHQ/s16000/https---bucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com-public-images-9b804783-bd50-4320-a429-afb95f29064f_1024x683.jpeg" /></a></div></div><a name='more'></a><div style="text-align: center;"><subhead>Epidemiologist Zach Binney and sports business expert Scott Rosner on what sports has gotten right and wrong during the pandemic—and what comes next.</subhead></div><div style="text-align: center;"><attribution>By Patrick Hruby | Global Sport Matters | April 2021</attribution></div><span class="drop-cap">F</span>rom the National Basketball Association’s sudden shutdown last spring to the recent use of Major League Baseball stadiums as mass vaccination centers, few industries have been as dramatically and visibly affected by the ongoing coronavirus pandemic as sports.<div><br /></div><div>
So how did the sports world handle the past year? What did it get right—and wrong—while trying to strike a balance between minimizing safety risks and mitigating business losses? And what lessons about health and wealth can it carry forward into the post-COVID-19 future?</div><div><br /></div><div>
For answers and perspectives, Global Sport Matters spoke with <a href="https://app.oxford.emory.edu/WebApps/Directory/index.cfm/view/9774" target="_blank">Zach Binney,</a> an epidemiologist at Oxford College of Emory University, and <a href="https://sps.columbia.edu/faculty/scott-rosner" target="_blank">Scott Rosner</a>, a sports management professor at Columbia University. The following interview responses have been lightly edited for clarity and context. </div><div><br /></div><div>
<b>Global Sport Matters: What has sports gotten right during the pandemic?</b></div><div><br /></div><div><b>
Zach Binney:</b> I think professional sports have done an outstanding job finding ways to keep players and personnel safe. I was genuinely shocked at how low the [COVID-19 infection] rates were in the [National Football League] last fall. In the middle of the pandemic, they were half of the general population’s rates, even on a bad week. </div><div><br /></div><div>
When teams and leagues have a financial interest in keeping someone healthy, they find ways to do that. They get creative. We saw <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2021/01/25/nfl-teams-with-cdc-paper-explaining-how-it-got-through-season-amid-pandemic/" target="_blank">the NFL learn</a>, as time went on, that it was important to focus on good ventilation and wearing masks and that just avoiding being within six feet of an infected person for more than 15 minutes wasn’t sufficient to avoid spread in certain circumstances.</div><div><br /></div><div>
We saw the same thing with Major League Baseball. They had a spate of outbreaks and cases at the start of last season. They <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/06/sports/baseball/mlb-safety-protocols.html" target="_blank">tightened up their protocols</a>, and [MLB commissioner] Rob Manfred <a href="https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/29601971/rob-manfred-mlb-protocols-working-setbacks" target="_blank">said</a> that he thought those changes—as well as renewed adherence to previous protocols—would keep things under control. I was suspicious of that at the time, because that was the only thing he <i>could</i> say to justify continuing the season. But he turned out <a href="https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2020/10/pandemic-lessons-from-mlbs-surprisingly-successful-season.html" target="_blank">to be right</a>.</div><div><br /></div><div>
The other thing we saw was sports making <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/covid-testing-sports-nba-nfl-11615352090" target="_blank">some real contributions</a> to public health. <a href="https://theathletic.com/2019372/2020/08/25/how-an-assist-from-the-nba-set-up-a-small-yale-lab-for-a-covid-breakthrough/" target="_blank">Working</a> with Yale [University] researchers and the [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention], the NBA was able to <a href="https://theathletic.com/2019372/2020/08/25/how-an-assist-from-the-nba-set-up-a-small-yale-lab-for-a-covid-breakthrough/" target="_blank">provide unique data</a> of the same people being tested day after day. With that data, scientists could do things like see how viral load changes over time and figure out when people are the most infectious. I don’t think we were going to get that data anywhere else outside of the sports leagues. That was a real help to our understanding of the virus, and [that was] something sports can really hang their hat on.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>
Scott Rosner: </b>There’s a real business imperative to play these games. But there’s also the importance of sports to society. We like to talk about that in a highfalutin way, but there’s a lot of truth to it. For a lot of people during the course of the pandemic, sports have been a necessary and welcome distraction for all that has been going on in their lives. Even with <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/22/sports/tv-ratings-sports.html" target="_blank">ratings and viewership down</a>, there still has been a really sizable number of people tuning in.</div><div><br /></div><div>
The other thing the sports industry has done right? Look around the country right now. We just passed <a href="https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2021-03-26/mlb-stadiums-pass-1-million-covid-19-vaccination-shots-given" target="_blank">a million people</a> who have been vaccinated at MLB facilities. That shows how sports have an ability, in a much different way, to serve the public.</div><div><br /></div><div>
<b>Global Sport Matters: What has sports gotten wrong during the pandemic?</b></div><div><br /></div><div><b>
Rosner: </b>The thing that gives me the most pause is intercollegiate athletics, where so many of the decisions at the highest level seem to have been driven entirely by economics. Just look at the Final Four. Those teams will have <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/interactive/2021/ncaa-tournament-bubble-covid-indianapolis/" target="_blank">been in a bubble</a> for about a month. For a group of athletes who are presumably amateurs, at least in the eyes of the [National Collegiate Athletic Association], that seems like an awfully big ask, both for them as students and for their mental health. I think we’ll look back and wonder if that was the right thing to do.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>
Binney:</b> College sports, especially college football, showed it had the fortitude to play through anything. That’s <i>not</i> a compliment. The story I remember most is from last summer, when Clemson [University] had <a href="https://www.ajc.com/sports/clemson-has-had-football-players-with-coronavirus/JiGEZEcKQE46b0hQuINuKO/" target="_blank">37 COVID cases</a> at one point among its football players and <a href="https://theclemsoninsider.com/2020/07/12/while-others-pause-clemson-takes-next-step-in-preparing-for-2020-season/" target="_blank">didn’t even pause</a> workouts. Not practices or games. Workouts! [Clemson football coach] Dabo Swinney showed that he did not give a hoot. His players may as well have been <a href="https://www.themarshallproject.org/2020/12/18/1-in-5-prisoners-in-the-u-s-has-had-covid-19" target="_blank">in prison</a> or working in <a href="https://www.propublica.org/article/after-hundreds-of-meatpacking-workers-died-from-covid-19-congress-wants-answers" target="_blank">a meatpacking plant</a>.</div><div><br /></div><div>
So I have a very dim view of the NCAA and how big football schools handled their responses to the pandemic. The players aren’t paid. They’re not collecting their checks and taking their chances. They don’t have a union. Schools don’t have the same resources for testing that pro leagues have. Yet they showed a greater willingness to push the health and safety envelope. They took their power and did what they wanted with it. We saw a little bit more responsibility from college basketball, though I’m quite upset that they <a href="https://www.ncaa.org/about/resources/media-center/news/ncaa-allow-limited-fan-attendance-division-i-men-s-basketball-tournament" target="_blank">allowed fans</a> in indoor arenas for the NCAA Tournament. </div><div><br /></div><div>
I also didn’t like how some sports pushed for fans being back in stadiums. Take the NFL. They could have funded a contact tracing operation through the local departments of health at a few locations with outdoor stadiums, allowed 2,500 people in the stands, and waited two weeks to see if any cases emerged from that. If not, go to 5,000 fans. Wait another two weeks. Then go to 10,000 fans, and two weeks later, 20,000. </div><div><br /></div><div>
They could have done that and shown that they cared first and foremost about making sure they weren’t sparking outbreaks. But they didn’t. They went forward with as many fans as they thought they could get away with. They showed that they cared about their assets but not about the communities around them. I think they got that wrong.</div><div><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-9LwOsN8tNB4/YS5yTfiEf0I/AAAAAAAAFgA/zCPVJtAMkMMP8fii_64kGZfAQ-t6b_W8ACLcBGAsYHQ/s1456/https---bucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com-public-images-2ccfef18-0df1-458f-9987-7a72506b53a3_2048x1365.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="970" data-original-width="1456" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-9LwOsN8tNB4/YS5yTfiEf0I/AAAAAAAAFgA/zCPVJtAMkMMP8fii_64kGZfAQ-t6b_W8ACLcBGAsYHQ/s16000/https---bucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com-public-images-2ccfef18-0df1-458f-9987-7a72506b53a3_2048x1365.jpeg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Atalanta fans cheer during the UEFA Champions League round of 16 first leg football match Atalanta Bergamo vs Valencia on February 19, 2020 at the San Siro stadium in Milan. (Photo by Miguel MEDINA / AFP)</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div><b>Global Sport Matters: Let’s talk more about fans in the stands. In February 2020, a soccer match held in Milan between an Italian team and a visiting Spanish team that drew over 40,000 fans was dubbed a <a href="https://apnews.com/article/ae59cfc0641fc63afd09182bb832ebe2" target="_blank">“biological bomb”</a> for possibly spreading the coronavirus to players, journalists, fans, and other people in both countries. Fast-forwarding to now, do we have any idea—from studies or other data—that the decisions in some places and cases to have fans back in attendance at sports events contributed to community spread of the virus?</b></div><div><br /></div><div><b>
Binney:</b> No. We don’t. And I want to be clear about that. Based on what we’ve learned, it seems like having 25-30 percent capacity at outdoor stadiums with decent masking is pretty safe.</div><div><br /></div><div>
Also, with what we’ve learned about outdoor transmission, it may be that any viral super-spreading at that soccer match had another explanation beyond having 40,000 people in the stands. Think back to the Amy Coney Barrett <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/white-house/fauci-calls-amy-coney-barrett-ceremony-rose-garden-superspreader-event-n1242781" target="_blank">super-spreader event</a> at the White House. A lot of people focused on the Rose Garden ceremony, but, really, most of the transmission probably occurred at indoor unmasked events held around that. So while it’s possible that an Italian soccer match with 100 percent stadium capacity and people screaming and spraying respiratory droplets in the air with a lot of undetected COVID could have caused a lot of spread, it also could have been people in cars and trains and buses going to and from the stadium or gathering in indoor bars and restaurants before and after the match.</div><div><br /></div><div>
Where I still get nervous today is having fans back at 100 percent capacity—like what the <a href="https://www.espn.com/espn/story/_/id/31174442/president-joe-biden-calls-no-limit-fans-texas-rangers-stadium-not-responsible" target="_blank">Texas Rangers are doing</a>—or about having fans back indoors where the ventilation is going to be somewhat worse. </div><div><br /></div><div>
<b>Global Sport Matters: As mentioned earlier, there’s a very real business imperative to bring as many fans as possible back to stadiums as soon as possible. What kind of financial hit did the sports industry take from not being able to sell tickets, concessions, parking—all of the stuff that comes with holding live events for large crowds of spectators?</b></div><div><br /></div><div><b>
Rosner: </b>The<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/justinbirnbaum/2021/03/06/major-sports-leagues-lost-jaw-dropping-amount-of-money-in-2020/?sh=1a5e129869c2" target="_blank"> magnitude of the losses</a> [has] been dramatic. Even just across the Big Four sports leagues in the United States, it’s hard to conceptualize. Add in [Major League Soccer] and NASCAR and intercollegiate athletics, and it’s a staggering amount of money that has been forsaken, forever. You don’t get instant replay on those dollars. You can’t go back in time and sell tickets to those games. And the cascading effect on other revenue streams is noteworthy, too. You lose sponsorship dollars when you have marketing partners who can no longer engage with fans.</div><div><br /></div><div>
A few years ago, I wrote an article that talked about how perhaps the greatest threat to the sports industry would be a terrorist attack at a game—something that would cause, say, one in five fans to stop attending games. I remember talking to one of the commissioners of one of the leagues about it, and their statement was, basically, “Yeah, that would crater us.”</div><div><br /></div><div>
Well, that’s a 20 percent loss. With the pandemic, it has been more like a 100 percent loss, at least in the short term. And that’s devastating. People have lost their jobs, had their salaries cut back. It’s probably the most traumatic moment in the history of the sports business. We’ve had <a href="https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/27161035/oh-my-god-how-do-oral-history-1994-mlb-strike" target="_blank">work stoppages</a> and even <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2020/sports/1980-usa-olympic-boycott-team-carter/" target="_blank">Olympic Games boycotts</a> before, but never anything so across the board. There isn’t a sports property that hasn’t been dramatically affected by this. </div><div><br /></div><div>
<b>Global Sport Matters: In many ways, sports has mirrored the same push-pull dynamic we’ve seen in broader society between mitigating health risks and mitigating business risks—or, to put it more simply, between slowing down the coronavirus and slowing down the economy. How do you think sports have done with balancing those goals?</b></div><div><br /></div><div><b>
Binney:</b> I think they did a decent job. They negotiated with the athletes at the professional level [and] got protocols in place, and those were fairly effective, as evidenced by the numbers of cases within their organizations. What annoyed me was the greed they showed around getting extra revenue from having fans in the stands. That shouldn’t have been necessary. They should have been more willing to sacrifice that. </div><div><br /></div><div>
But, then again, our society didn’t take a holistic approach to dealing with things like stadium workers who would be out of work without games and fans. We’re the richest country in the history of the world. We should have had a concentrated government effort to make those workers whole while not having large gatherings. Without that effort, sports were left with a false choice of holding potential super-spreader events or having stadium workers go hungry. I refuse to believe [those] were our only choices.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>
Rosner: </b>It’s hard to make a universal statement on that balance. I think you can say that the leagues that had bubbles—the NBA, the [National Hockey League], MLS—got it right, generally speaking. It wasn’t easy for anybody. It was very expensive. But it worked. The NFL got through its season with a couple of <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2020/11/30/nfls-steelers-ravens-game-postponed-a-third-time-due-to-covid-19.html" target="_blank">notable cancellations</a>, but, by and large, it worked out well for them. The NBA and NHL this season have been a little trickier. The NCAA hockey tournament has been very difficult, with a bunch of teams that<a href="https://www.espn.com/college-sports/story/_/id/31146483/ncaa-men-hockey-tournament-how-teams-navigating-covid-19-withdrawals" target="_blank"> have had to withdraw</a> due to COVID protocols. The NCAA men’s basketball tournament had a team that <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2021/03/20/vcu-oregon-canceled-covid-protocols/" target="_blank">had to withdraw</a>, too.</div><div><br /></div><div>
So nothing was perfect. This summer, you may see fewer issues as more teams get vaccinated. </div><div><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-qzMG60sWvf0/YS5zN2BPC9I/AAAAAAAAFgI/S17wSd8d7hQRgKfl1cY8VPtpgFm6hxoIACLcBGAsYHQ/s1024/https---bucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com-public-images-00bd8064-4400-4f24-b6b9-c45354229c0e_1024x683.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="683" data-original-width="1024" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-qzMG60sWvf0/YS5zN2BPC9I/AAAAAAAAFgI/S17wSd8d7hQRgKfl1cY8VPtpgFm6hxoIACLcBGAsYHQ/s16000/https---bucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com-public-images-00bd8064-4400-4f24-b6b9-c45354229c0e_1024x683.jpeg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Patrick Patterson #54 of the LA Clippers stretches before a game against the New Orleans Pelicans at HP Field House at ESPN Wide World Of Sports Complex on August 01, 2020 in Lake Buena Vista, Florida. (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div><b>Global Sport Matters: We saw the NBA and NHL resume their suspended seasons in “bubbles”—that is, controlled environments in which players, coaches, and support staff all were essentially quarantined from the rest of society. The NCAA later held its men’s and women’s basketball tournaments under similar conditions. What did we learn about the pros and cons of doing that?</b></div><div><br /></div><div><b>
Binney: </b>The major pro is that you can, in fact, drive COVID rates to near zero in a bubble in a way that you can’t outside of a bubble. The success of those efforts came as a little bit of a surprise to me. We learned that you can create an environment where the players and staff are at<i> lower</i> risk than the people in the communities around them.</div><div><br /></div><div>
But bubbles are expensive. Bubbles are logistically difficult. And they are psychologically difficult. Isolating from your family for weeks or months at a time has a cost. We’ve since learned that there are ways to keep players and staff safe outside of bubbles. So in retrospect, building them might not have been the optimal choice. But given the fear and uncertainty about pulling off non-bubble plans at the time the bubbles were being done, I think they were the right call.</div><div><br /></div><div>
<b>Global Sport Matters: The NBA and WNBA bubbles also were notable for prominently featuring <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2020/08/29/nba-wnba-racial-injustice/" target="_blank">Black Lives Matter</a> and other social justice messaging that connected to last summer’s widespread protests against police brutality and ongoing racial inequities in the criminal justice system and broader society. </b></div><div><br /></div><div><b>
Some people, mostly from the <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/ted-cruz-nba-ratings-hit-support-marxist-blm-movement-1536968" target="_blank">conservative side</a> of the American political spectrum and including <a href="https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2020/aug/13/NBA-ratings-down-while-baseball-hockey-up/" target="_blank">Donald Trump</a>, argued that all of that was bad for business and resulted in lower ratings. What was the business impact of the social justice messages and movements we saw in sports during the pandemic?</b></div><div><br /></div><div><b>
Rosner:</b> It depends on who you ask. What we know about what fans want and don’t want, at least from surveys of public opinion, often reflects…the company or entity doing the surveying. So a more conservative organization would say it had a <a href="https://thehill.com/changing-america/enrichment/arts-culture/515665-new-poll-says-nba-ratings-have-plunged-because-of" target="_blank">negative impact</a>, while a more liberal organization would say <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/tommybeer/2020/10/15/nbas-ratings-drop-not-due-to-blowback-over-players-activism-poll-suggests/?sh=79fb75676b31" target="_blank">it didn’t</a>.</div><div><br /></div><div>
I think, generally speaking, that there wasn’t the negative business impact that some people would lead you to believe happened. And, in some cases, it has been positive for business. Either way, that doesn’t mean it’s not the right thing to do.</div><div><br /></div><div>
<b>Global Sport Matters: Ratings were down for sports across the board. What factors accounted for that?</b></div><div><br /></div><div><b>
Rosner:</b> I think a large part of that was the lack of atmosphere at games that were played without fans. That carries over [to broadcasts], which just don’t seem as exciting or important.</div><div><br /></div><div>
But there are different reasons. Some of it was the loss of seasonality, and the fact that having so many sports move from their usual places on the calendar to taking place at the same time led to a ridiculous amount of overlap. There was just so much competition for viewers with so many spots going on at the same time. On top of that, you had an unprecedented presidential campaign and election. And the competing news about COVID. </div><div><br /></div><div>
One exception to all of this was women’s sports, interestingly enough. In many cases,<a href="https://theconversation.com/what-pro-sports-should-learn-from-resilient-women-athletes-post-pandemic-151183" target="_blank"> ratings went up.</a></div><div><br /></div><div>
<b>Global Sport Matters: Speaking of surprises during the pandemic, NBA Top Shot has come almost out of nowhere to be a<a href="https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/31164860/dapper-labs-creators-nba-top-shot-get-305m-funding" target="_blank"> thriving marketplace</a> for collectible digital highlights. Meanwhile, “The Last Dance” documentary series on Michael Jordan’s final season with the Chicago Bulls was <a href="https://sports.yahoo.com/michael-jordan-the-last-dance-documentary-numbers-viewership-figures-espn-chicago-bulls-224004795.html" target="_blank">a ratings hit</a>. Why were those two things successful during a time the sports industry as a whole really struggled?</b></div><div><br /></div><div><b>
Rosner: </b>The sports memorabilia and trading card market has been extraordinarily vibrant as well. And, I think, psychologically, we’re seeing a desire for nostalgia—for thinking back to simpler times in our lives. I know that when the pandemic started, I went through all of my old baseball cards with my son. This guy, that guy, explaining who they all were. It’s happy memories, right? And we’ve been in a time where there’s not a whole lot of happiness going on.</div><div><br /></div><div>
I also wonder how much of this has been nudged along by sheer boredom. When the shutdowns were at their fullest, there were no sports on TV. There was not a lot else to do. And there are those baseball cards, just sitting around. Why not go through them?</div><div><br /></div><div>
<b>Global Sport Matters: Youth sports is a multibillion-dollar industry and involves a lot more people than pro or college sports. Yet it hasn’t gotten nearly as much coverage or scrutiny during the pandemic. And its response to the coronavirus has been over the map. In some places, kids playing casual outdoor sports still isn’t allowed, and, in other places, you have big travel team tournaments with kids and families coming to compete from multiple states. You also have examples of kids who can’t play school sports in one state moving to other states to keep playing. </b></div><div><br /></div><div><b>
Overall, what has youth sports gotten right and wrong—and how has it managed that push-pull dynamic between public health and commerce?</b></div><div><br /></div><div></div><b>
Binney:</b> They’ve gotten more wrong than right. And the wrongs have come in both directions: They’ve been too reckless <i>and</i> too cautious. <div><br /></div><div>
In some places, like <a href="https://defector.com/how-d-c-s-toniest-high-schools-are-skirting-the-citys-ban-on-prep-sports/" target="_blank">Washington, D.C</a>., and <a href="https://www.kron4.com/news/covid-restrictions-force-youth-sports-families-out-of-bay-area/" target="_blank">San Francisco</a>, I think they’ve been too aggressive with banning outdoor athletic activities. That’s more than is necessary. We know that it’s very, very difficult for this virus to be transmitted outdoors, even during athletic activity. So I think it’s OK to let students participate in most sports. There’s no reason they shouldn’t be playing golf, tennis, [or] soccer or running track. </div><div><br /></div><div>
But what else have we seen? The first youth sports I saw come back during the pandemic were travel leagues, which make the most money and have the fewest regulations. That was incredibly disappointing. I still remember last July, when the NBA was about to restart its season in Orlando, that area was having a coronavirus surge—and at the Orlando Convention Center, there was a <a href="https://www.orlandosentinel.com/sports/highschool/os-sp-aau-volleyball-advance-0715-20200714-l65mqohipffyho7xjky5fd4qai-story.html" target="_blank">national volleyball tournament</a> with more than 300 teams. Like, what are we doing? If you wanted to design a super-spreader event, you couldn’t have done a better job.</div><div><br /></div><div>
We saw outbreaks at high school wrestling tournaments. In <a href="https://www.wmfe.org/cdc-polk-county-wrestling-tournaments-tied-to-79-covid-19-cases-one-death/172963" target="_blank">one of those</a>, 79 people got sick and at least one person died. We had spread at <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2020/12/04/hockey-covid-transmission-outbreaks/" target="_blank">youth hockey tournaments</a>. There was actually <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/69/wr/mm6941a4.htm#:~:text=An%20investigation%20by%20the%20Florida,5%20days%20after%20the%20game." target="_blank">a report from the CDC</a> on one of those. They think that it occurred inside the arena because ice traps the air and creates worse ventilation.</div><div><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-iTkZt6vOKfI/YS50b_7qFdI/AAAAAAAAFgQ/-aVVKn88L1o2lfGlRL9S-uL6lqlRXl5NgCLcBGAsYHQ/s1200/https---bucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com-public-images-1dcc7220-d2cf-4a6b-859b-5eb86cb0f8a7_1200x675.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="675" data-original-width="1200" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-iTkZt6vOKfI/YS50b_7qFdI/AAAAAAAAFgQ/-aVVKn88L1o2lfGlRL9S-uL6lqlRXl5NgCLcBGAsYHQ/s16000/https---bucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com-public-images-1dcc7220-d2cf-4a6b-859b-5eb86cb0f8a7_1200x675.jpeg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Tokyo 2020 Olympics Games logo is seen in Tokyo on January 28, 2021. (Photo by Charly TRIBALLEAU / AFP)</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div><b>Global Sport Matters: The upcoming Tokyo Olympics will be the biggest sports event held during the pandemic. What can they do to be safe and successful?</b></div><div><br /></div><div><b>
Rosner:</b> The Olympics are such a highly complex event. And they are more than just a sports event. They’re the world coming together. </div><div><br /></div><div>
Of course, the problem during a global pandemic is that the world shouldn’t really be coming together. So you see organizers limiting that by <a href="https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2021/03/10/national/tokyo-olympics-no-fans/" target="_blank">only allowing</a> foreign athletes, coaches, and sport staff to travel and attend. It will be Japanese fans only in the stands. That’s a big business compromise. It’s going to look different for sponsors, and much different for hospitality. The healthy dose of corporate hospitality that we usually see will be dramatically scaled back, essentially to nil. </div><div><br /></div><div>
Still, Japan wants the games to be held. The [International Olympic Committee] needs the games to be held. In some ways, they could represent a turning point in this pandemic. </div><div><br /></div><div><b>
Binney:</b> The Olympics are actually in a great position because they know a whole lot more now than sports leagues did last summer when they were trying to come back. We know the real key to stopping viral spread is minimizing time indoors and maximizing mask usage and vaccinations. You focus on those things, you’re going to do OK. </div><div><br /></div><div>
Tokyo has the benefit of it being summer. They can do a lot of stuff outdoors, and they need to. Not having foreign fans and spectators was a major decision, and I think the right one, but the Japanese fans that attend need to be able to drink and celebrate at outdoor venues. </div><div><br /></div><div>
Meanwhile, the Olympic Village has a reputation for a lot of—how do I put this politely?—<a href="https://www.espn.com/olympics/summer/2012/story/_/id/8133052/athletes-spill-details-dirty-secrets-olympic-village-espn-magazine" target="_blank">activities that should only be done indoors</a>. [Laughs.] Hopefully, most athletes who are going will be vaccinated ahead of time. Then there’s all the coaches and support people who travel with them. I think it’s possible to vaccinate them, too. The IOC has the money, and it would be smart to do it to avoid anyone returning after the games and starting an outbreak in their home country. </div><div><br /></div><div>
<b>Global Sport Matters: What are the most important lessons for sports to have learned—and to remember going forward—coming out of the pandemic?</b></div><div><br /></div><div><b>
Binney: </b>There are some general lessons we can take, like having frameworks in place for negotiating health and safety measures between owners and players. We also can have strengthened basic health practices in place, like having a future where you always wash your hands, wear a mask when you’re sick, and don’t come to work when you’re sick. </div><div><br /></div><div>
These are basic things that many Asian countries have been doing since the SARS outbreak and that the western world never bothered with. And, by the way, they’re also good for stopping things like the flu, which can have a real effect on sports teams!</div><div><br /></div><div>
But flexibility is the watchword. I get asked a lot, will the sports world be better prepared for the next pandemic? And the answer is<i> maybe</i>. Because it depends on what the next pandemic is. There’s no guarantee that it will look like COVID-19 or even be a respiratory virus at all. </div><div><br /></div><div>
Sports teams also have money and access to politicians. It would be great if they recognized the value of ongoing disease prevention efforts and funding public health services. They could lobby for those things, so society as a whole is better prepared to prevent and respond to pandemics. In the long run, that would be better for their bottom lines.</div><div><br /></div><div>
The paradox of public health is that if you fund us and we are doing our jobs, you hardly even notice. You have to have faith that we’re making a difference. With the general decline of infectious diseases in the developed world, however, I think a lot of people had forgotten that. This pandemic has been a real reminder.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>
Rosner:</b> First, people learned that getting on airplanes and traveling great distances for sports business meetings and front office stuff can be done almost as effectively for a fraction of the cost via Zoom. That cross-country flight for a one-hour meeting at the Chicago airport Hilton? That may not need to happen anymore. </div><div><br /></div><div>
Likewise, I think some of the changes to the fan experience will be permanent. We already were on a slow roll toward all-digital ticketing, and that’s now been accelerated by five to seven years. That’s a good thing for the business of sports, because data collection allows you to know so much more about who your customers are and their habits. It’s got to have safeguards to protect people’s privacy, and we’ll have to figure something out for people like me who like to collect ticket stubs as a reminder of a game. But we’re not going back on that.</div><div><br /></div><div>
I also think we’ll probably see long-term differences in concessions. My first job was as a hawker at Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia, selling ice cream and soda in the stands. I’m not so sure that’s coming back the same way. Can you imagine, like, passing a hot dog down the row right now? We’ll probably see more self-serve kiosks and the use of other contactless technologies.</div><div><br /></div><div>
Overall, there won’t be a moment where we hit a light switch and we just go back to how sports were. I think this summer will see a gradual ramp-up, and the fall will be much more likely to look like a normal fan experience, just with everyone wearing masks. By the next NBA and NHL seasons, we have a very good chance of being back to 100 percent attendance at games. </div><div><br /></div><div>
Long term, I’m really bullish about the industry. I think it will come back. It’s still entertainment for people, and entertainment content is valuable. I also think that there’s an opportunity, going forward, to help in the healing process. We’ve seen that before. Think about post-9/11, or after other moments of national tragedy, when sports have brought people together. </div><div><br /></div><div>
That has been different during the pandemic, because, in this case, coming together in person is one of the dangers of it. When people are able to safely do that again, I think it will represent a return to normalcy. It will be a celebration. I know I can’t wait to get back to a game. </div><div><br /></div><div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<kicker><a href="https://globalsportmatters.com/business/2021/04/09/the-balancing-act-of-playing-through-covid-19/" target="_blank">Published at Global Sport Matters</a></kicker></div></div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3878043065627433241.post-54368450432453877822021-04-08T11:38:00.054-04:002021-08-31T11:44:11.533-04:00Meet Chloe Mitchell, the First College Athlete to Profit From NIL<div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvEk_tZP84J-jpccqTxA5jAAt1W0wgj5wffu6oyRoZpmbDRS0Vkdd-tfjE599ltZbc7f1SybLAI0tslga6NsCjIZGAhlsTKsGkr0gn3guDlGr4xzObyoFztZXLvKKoi1JuCOS-VblPtRg/s732/https---bucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com-public-images-efd04259-d303-43bb-935f-f9287d11d660_732x551.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="551" data-original-width="732" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvEk_tZP84J-jpccqTxA5jAAt1W0wgj5wffu6oyRoZpmbDRS0Vkdd-tfjE599ltZbc7f1SybLAI0tslga6NsCjIZGAhlsTKsGkr0gn3guDlGr4xzObyoFztZXLvKKoi1JuCOS-VblPtRg/s16000/https---bucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com-public-images-efd04259-d303-43bb-935f-f9287d11d660_732x551.png" /></a></div></div><a name='more'></a><div style="text-align: center;"><subhead>While the NCAA fights to prevent athletes from freely monetizing their names, images, and likenesses, Mitchell, an NAIA volleyball player, is cashing in. And she wants to help others do the same.</subhead></div><div style="text-align: center;"><attribution>By Patrick Hruby | Hreal Sports | April 2021</attribution></div><span class="drop-cap">A</span>s soon as this summer, college athletes at National Collegiate Athletic Association schools may be able to profit from the use of their names, images, and likenesses (NILs).<div><br /></div><div>
Meanwhile, Chloe Mitchell already has been cashing in.</div><div><br /></div><div>
A freshman volleyball player at Aquinas College in Grand Rapids, Mich., Mitchell is <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/01/08/chloe-v-mitchell-the-first-college-athlete-to-monetize-her-likeness.html" target="_blank">believed to be the first</a> college athlete to be compensated for their NIL, thanks to her social media stardom as a Do-It-Yourself enthusiast.</div><div><br /></div><div>
While the NCAA has dithered and stalled on changing its amateurism rules that prohibit NIL compensation—arguing in federal court, Congress, and the court of public opinion that athletes’ economic rights should be severely curtailed, and that player pay of kind beyond what the association arbitrarily allows will basically destroy college sports—the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics, which Aquinas College belongs to, <a href="https://www.naia.org/general/2020-21/releases/NIL_Announcement" target="_blank">changed its NIL rules</a> last October. </div><div><br /></div><div>
To learn more about what it’s like to make NIL money as a college athlete, what sort of NIL opportunities await NCAA athletes, and whether or not any of the association’s doomsday scenarios have merit, Hreal Sports recently spoke to Mitchell. </div><div><br /></div><div>
(The following conversation has been lightly edited for brevity and clarity).</div><div><br /></div><div><b>
Hreal Sports: Let’s start with where this all started for you, which was actually while you were a high school senior in Michigan last spring. The pandemic begins, your school year is cut short, and you’re stuck at home. So you decide—like lots of other Americans stuck at home—to work on some home renovations?</b></div><div><br /></div><div>
Chloe Mitchell: I was stuck at home. I was bummed. I mean, since I was a freshman, I had been looking forward to my senior year. It’s the pinnacle of your high school career. There’s prom. I have a great group of friends, and we were planning a trip down to Florida. We also had a senior trip set to Chicago. Things we’ve saved up for and worked toward. With club volleyball, I was going to go to Florida for that and also to nationals. In the blink of an eye, that was all gone. And we couldn’t even see each other. We were just stuck inside. It was super, super hard.</div><div><br /></div><div>
I've always been a creative person, and I just needed a creative outlet. And there's only so much you can do inside! I was doing YouTube workouts trying to keep myself busy. I needed a break from my family. So one day, I was outside, working in my backyard, and I took a look at our shed. And I was like, ‘huh, it's separated from the house, it would be my own personal space.’ My room is right next to my brother's room and my parents’ room. So we're all always together.</div><div><br /></div><div>
For once, I had all the time in the world. I didn’t have [volleyball] practice five days a week. Homework was doable because it was online. So I just took it upon myself to transform the shed, and decided on a whim to document it [on TikTok]. Then I wake up one day, and 30,000 people are interested in what I’m doing. And that number kept growing, so I got more motivated. Before I knew it, I had <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@chloevmitchell?" target="_blank">two million-plus</a> followers and a ‘she shed’ in my backyard.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>
Was this your first DIY project?</b></div><div><br /></div><div>
In my household, my mom was the one who always owned the power tools. My dad’s handy, but mom’s the one who loved to make a dining room table, or put up custom frames. </div><div><br /></div><div><i>
[Editor’s note: Mitchell’s mother, Kimberlee, founded a home child-proofing services company called “Boo-Boo Busters.” People Magazine once called her the <a href="https://people.com/parents/childproofer-kimberlee-mitchell-shares-tricks-to-working-with-stars/" target="_blank">“child-proofer to the stars”</a> for working with the likes of Matt Damon and Britney Spears].</i></div><div><br /></div><div>
So growing up, l learned how to reverse a drill. You know which way the bit goes. I could work a power saw, I had my own hammer, my own toolkit. When quarantine came around, it was just time to employ those skills.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>
When you started putting this project online, did it come from feeling isolated?</b></div><div><br /></div><div>
Yes! I had, like 32 followers when I started. Mostly my friends. </div><div><br /></div><div><b>
32?</b></div><div><br /></div><div>
A solid 32. [Laughs]. So it was just a way for me to somehow feel connected with my friends and keep them entertained by what I was doing.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>
I don’t think most people would think to themselves, “this is how I’m going to become a social media influencer, this is the key to my world domination plan. A backyard shed.”</b></div><div><br /></div><div>
No, I had no big picture plans at all. Zero!</div><div><br /></div><div><b>
What was it like to see this take off?</b></div><div><br /></div><div>
I honestly don’t even know if I’ve fully processed it now. But there was a moment when I was in the shed working with my mom and one of my friends who had been in quarantine with me. We went outside and she turned her phone around toward me, and on the screen it was one million views. And it was, like, a video where I was wearing pajama bottoms and had a scuba mask on my face and hadn’t curled my hair or taken a shower in who knows how long! </div><div><br /></div><div>
I was floored by it. I still am. I’m not much of a dancer or singer—</div><div><br /></div><div><b>
That’s what I think of when I think of TikTok.</b></div><div><br /></div><div>
That’s what I think of, too! I didn’t know people were on there to see home renovations. But apparently, a ton of them are.</div><div><br /></div><div>
I’m really grateful. And I don’t really like the word “influencer.” It doesn’t sit well with me. This may sound cheesy, but I feel like I’m more of a friend to all these people. I talked to hundreds of people a day in my Instagram friends and they’re all interested in the same stuff I’m interested in and have the same questions I did before I started DIY. Or they’re sending me pictures of, like, “hey Chloe, you did a backyard fireplace. I tried that out myself and put a little twist on it. Check it out.” These are people I would get along with in everyday life.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>
So this has really expanded your social world during an otherwise tough time.</b></div><div><br /></div><div>
Yeah, 110 percent. </div><div><br /></div><div><b>
Has anyone recognized you for this at college?</b></div><div><br /></div><div>
I didn’t want people to know, or want them to talk to me because they simply know me as a TikTok girl or whatever. I told my roommate, and that’s it. And she only found out because when we were talking about rooming together, she sent me a screenshot and asked, “is this you?”</div><div><br /></div><div>
The one time I was recognized for this, I was walking to my dorm. Everyone’s wearing masks, so you can’t really see my face. And these three freshman boys on the basketball team walk past. All they say is, “Chloe Mitchell, TikTok famous.” And I’m sitting there on the sidewalk, like, what just happened? But everyone has been super sweet about it.</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-WO3JTCrEirM/YSvoT8sCWiI/AAAAAAAAFfA/GCYvyOd5uTwcFQU2fG0Kb1RIXZaxyn9ggCLcBGAsYHQ/s867/https---bucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com-public-images-3eb256ec-3932-41ae-a661-5a46f6c7c372_595x867.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="867" data-original-width="595" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-WO3JTCrEirM/YSvoT8sCWiI/AAAAAAAAFfA/GCYvyOd5uTwcFQU2fG0Kb1RIXZaxyn9ggCLcBGAsYHQ/s16000/https---bucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com-public-images-3eb256ec-3932-41ae-a661-5a46f6c7c372_595x867.png" /></a></div><br /><div><br /></div><div><b>So your first sponsorship for this came last summer, before you went to college, through a company called Smart Cups. How did that happen?</b></div><div><br /></div><div>
Smart Cups is owned by a guy who is super close friends with my dad. They were business partners for years.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>
By that point, I’m assuming, you’re already committed to and planning to play volleyball for Aquinas College. But the NAIA rules about NIL didn’t actually change until October. Did you have to check with your school or the NAIA about the Smart Cups deal to make sure it was okay and that you would still be eligible?</b></div><div><br /></div><div>
I wasn’t technically a college athlete yet when I did that deal. So I didn’t have to talk to them about it.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>
That’s different than the NCAA, which tells high school athletes that they can’t do stuff <i>even though they’re not enrolled or on a college campus yet.</i></b></div><div><br /></div><div>
Exactly. But my parents did reach out to check with my college volleyball coach and the NAIA to make sure we weren’t messing up my eligibility. I was okay because I was making content before I became a college athlete.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>
And after you become one, the NAIA’s NIL rules change in October. Then in December, you become the first college athlete to profit from a NIL endorsement. I think it was for two golf or mini-golf brands. Do I have that right?</b></div><div><br /></div><div>
Yes. I made a full mini-golf course in my living room. My dad’s a huge golfer and he also loves mini-golf. So I just filmed it, put it up, got paid. It was a really smooth and awesome process.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>
That sounds nice—get paid, and also have fun.</b></div><div><br /></div><div>
It was so, so freaking fun. We played on the course for at least an hour afterward. The cleanup after that was kind of annoying!</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="282" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Vc6hToSB8kI" width="340" youtube-src-id="Vc6hToSB8kI"></iframe></div><br /><div><br /></div><div><b>
What’s it like being the first college athlete to do this?</b></div><div><br /></div><div>
It’s amazing. Both of my parents and I are <a href="https://finance.yahoo.com/news/blessed-dress-less-inspiring-teen-launches-prom-pop-store-mission-223320513.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cDovL20uZmFjZWJvb2suY29t&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAMJiHjwfbEdOeGmQj-qpF4DhacwXoOaa-UleHQbleG16KHT7mKFg7XNv69kODer8D-E91t4vp7C_-YTka7ozdRnTLtaSz4FWaHJRCU7Of4uwRdlPzJMP2XN3z9wH7O0-rFCRlEfwOT5ta6dzsaFEeqdWDPxHtE2agDb2WJ6zIK_k" target="_blank">entrepreneurs,</a> and we knew that being the first would mean a lot of things. And I didn’t just want to be the first, business-wise—I wanted to be the first so I could, like, educate other people about the opportunities that are out there. </div><div><br /></div><div><i>
[Editor’s note: Mitchell’s father, Keith, is a <a href="https://gobluefootballhistory.com/august-15-2017-happy-birthday-keith-mitchell/" target="_blank">former University of Michigan football player</a>. He’s also a <a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1044491/bio?ref_=nm_ov_bio_sm" target="_blank">screenwriter</a> who wrote “Mr. 3,000” and “Eddie” and also created the <a href="https://www.thenewsherald.com/downriver_life/entertainment/movies-for-the-masses-downriver-native-debuts-first-online-film-festival/article_289a233e-348b-5870-8685-93037dea5b22.html">world’s first online film festival</a>].</i></div><div><br /></div><div><b>
Let’s talk about NIL opportunities for women college athletes. I recently <a href="https://globalsportmatters.com/business/2021/03/12/womens-worth-how-female-ncaa-athletes-will-profit-in-the-new-era-of-nil-rights/" target="_blank">wrote about that</a>, and one of my big takeaways after talking to marketing experts is that social media is not like traditional media, which is dominated by football and men’s basketball. Social media, one expert told me, is the “great equalizer” for women, because how much your sport is on TV matters a lot less than how engaging you are, who you are as a person, and what things you like to do outside of sports. It’s not just, “did you score a bunch of touchdowns on Saturday afternoon?”</b></div><div><br /></div><div><b>
What kind of NIL opportunities do you see for college athletes, especially women college athletes? </b></div><div><br /></div><div>
I see endless opportunities, to be honest. I’m not a large-scale athlete. I’m not on someone’s TV every weekend. And I’m already working with brands. So much of that depends on what kind of person you are, what you’re interested in, how much you’re willing to work.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>
Do you have any volleyball-related deals?</b></div><div><br /></div><div>
No! I haven’t had one. Which is the craziest part. </div><div><br /></div><div><b><i>
The Athletic</i> <a href="https://theathletic.com/2321804/2021/01/14/meet-the-college-athlete-legally-earning-nil-money-ushering-in-a-new-generation/" target="_blank">reported</a> that your sponsorships have earned you enough to pay for your schooling, a computer, and a car. Is that accurate? I ask because a lot of the conversation around NIL presumes that only, say, the star college quarterback or point guard at a big-time school is going to have any value.</b></div><div><br /></div><div>
I’ve paid off my student loans. I bought a car, bought a computer, and I’m working and saving to buy a house.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>
A house?</b></div><div><br /></div><div>
Yes, I want to buy a house, and then eventually when I go on to graduate school, I’ll have it as an investment property.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>
That’s pretty wise in terms of financial planning. And it’s funny, because I’ve seen NCAA-connected people argue that, basically, we can’t allow college athletes to be paid because they’ll be extremely irresponsible with that money.</b></div><div><br /></div><div>
That physically angers me. First, it’s the athletes’ money. It’s not their business to focus on what they’re spending it on! Second of all, why don’t we give athletes money first, and then see if it’s actually a problem? And if it is, why not teach athletes to file for taxes, to invest their money, to spend it wisely. Because right how, once athletes get out of college, they don’t necessarily know how to use their money. My dad was talking to me about that just the other day. It’s a real problem when athletes are no longer playing their sport, finally get a job, and haven’t had a big boy or big girl job for the past four years.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>
It’s hard to learn money management without actually having some money to manage, isn’t it?</b></div><div><br /></div><div>
Yes. Exactly!</div><div><br /></div><div><b>
The NCAA has argued in federal court—and in the court of public opinion—that if college athletes like yourself are allowed profit from their NILs, some very specific bad things will happen. We just discussed one of them! Anyway, you are a living test case for this. Can we quickly go through some of those things and see if they match your experience?</b></div><div><br /></div><div>
Sure.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>
Has NIL made you <a href="https://www.vice.com/en/article/kzqevz/amateurism-isnt-educational-debunking-the-ncaas-dumbest-lie" target="_blank">a worse student?</a></b></div><div><br /></div><div>
No, if anything it has made me a better student.<i> [Editor’s note: this interview was conducted via Zoom, and Mitchell visibly rolled her eyes at this point].</i></div><div><br /></div><div><b>
Has NIL made you disconnected from the rest of the students at your school?</b></div><div><br /></div><div>
It’s made me me more connected. My company, <a href="https://playbooked.com/" target="_blank">PlayBooked</a>, is paying over 100 athletes right now. So not only am I getting paid, I’m saying to my peers, “I want to give you money, too.” They’re loving it!</div><div><br /></div><div><b>
Here’s another one: NCAA president Mark Emmert once testified in court that if college athletes were allowed to receive money, they would no longer eat at the student cafeteria, which would be, uh, bad. Now, I don’t know if your cafeteria is open right now because of the pandemic—</b></div><div><br /></div><div>
He said that in federal court?</div><div><br /></div><div><b>
Yes.</b></div><div><br /></div><div>
Oh, I am embarrassed for him. Oh, no. That’s terrible! My cafeteria is open and I go there to eat all the time because it’s on campus. I don’t even know how to respond to that. </div><div><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-o7irfGUikPY/YSvpQN0ox5I/AAAAAAAAFfI/6EdGnNtjKcMjViM7DQRfMf9ZelLg3qCsACLcBGAsYHQ/s1103/https---bucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com-public-images-7541aada-fee3-4d50-9c74-e7a6cef94969_800x1103.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1103" data-original-width="800" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-o7irfGUikPY/YSvpQN0ox5I/AAAAAAAAFfI/6EdGnNtjKcMjViM7DQRfMf9ZelLg3qCsACLcBGAsYHQ/s16000/https---bucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com-public-images-7541aada-fee3-4d50-9c74-e7a6cef94969_800x1103.jpeg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">When even the college athletes are embarrassed for you. Photo via Wikipedia</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div><b>Has NIL made it harder for your coaches to coach you? Has it made your teammates resentful of your financial success?</b></div><div><br /></div><div>
It’s the exact opposite. I’m really close with my coaches on and off the court. I love them like crazy. And all the girls on the team are on board. They’ve been phenomenal.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>
Are there any downsides for you to being able to make money, or something challenging about profiting from your NIL that other athletes need to know about?</b></div><div><br /></div><div>
I haven’t found it challenging. I’m comfortable in front of a camera. I love connecting and talking with people. I will say that if you are the kind of person who is a little bit more reserved or aren’t comfortable on camera, and you’re doing deals, it might be a little challenging. But it’s something anyone could work on and get better at.</div><div><br /></div><div>
The most work you really have to do is write a script for yourself, and then do some takes until your [sponsor] has one they love. I mean, it’s 30 minutes, max. And then you get paid!</div><div><br /></div><div><b>
What kind of marketing skills have you learned from doing this?</b></div><div><br /></div><div>
There’s a lot I’ve learned from working with brands that I didn’t even take into consideration before. There’s certain language—things you can and can’t say. There also have been time where I’ve had to shoot videos four-plus times, edit them, and then do voice overs because in my contact it says they have the right to four rounds of edits. I couldn’t get mad about that, because it was it was in the contract and I didn’t look.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>
So one skill is learning to read the fine print. That’s really useful!</b></div><div><br /></div><div>
For sure.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>
Are there any rules from the NAIA or your own school about what you can and can’t endorse?</b></div><div><br /></div><div>
No. I’ve been thinking about wearing my school jersey or branded stuff in certain promotions, and they’re all for that. They are all about the publicity. And with PlayBooked, we try to get all of our athletes to wear stuff from their colleges.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>
Let’s talk about PlayBooked. It’s an online platform that you and your parents built to connect college athletes to NIL opportunities. ESPN reported that the first partnership on there paired an apparel company with other athletes from your school.</b></div><div><br /></div><div>
Yep. I had a few girls from the volleyball team. Obviously! I'm trying to get my girls paid first, right? They're like family to me. So I wrote out a text to all of them and I was like, “hey guys, this is a brand that wants to partner with us. Are any of you interested? A few of them were.</div><div><br /></div><div>
It was a little T-shirt company. I think the pay was $50 each. Just basic “wear the shirt, take a picture, do a post on your feed or story.” </div><div><br /></div><div><b>
Since then, there’s been more deals—ESPN <a href="https://www.espn.com/womens-college-basketball/story/_/id/30945653/social-media-stardom-how-changes-nil-benefit-athlete-influencers-ncaa" target="_blank">reported</a> PlayBooked is up to about 200 NAIA athletes, who are making between $30 and $100 for social media posts.</b></div><div><br /></div><div>
Right now, we have a website and our team at PlayBooked is connecting with brands. Eventually, we will have an app where a lot of that will be automated. We want to get a system in place so what when the NCAA changes its rules, we’ll be able to get those athletes on board. </div><div><br /></div><div><b>
So if I’m an athlete and I want to use PlayBooked, how does the process actually work?</b></div><div><br /></div><div>
We would say, “okay, great. We have these brands lined up. You’re going to do this brand. This is the product. Here’s information about what the brand wants to be said about it.” If the athlete likes the brand and wants to do the deal, it’s pretty seamless. You take a video of yourself talking about it, send it to us to look over, and if we like it, we say “thumbs up” and provide you the cash right now.</div><div><br /></div><div>
If we don’t like it, we’ll say, “hey, do another take.” But we haven’t had much of that. Everybody has been so good at following the directions so far.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>
Could the platform grow to work almost like an online dating platform, where athletes and brands have, like, profiles and they all can just swipe on each other to set up deals, or search for each other to find the best fits? </b></div><div><br /></div><div>
That’s exactly what it is going to be. We also want to be able to allow fans to be able to buy a video of an athlete saying “happy birthday” to them, or a video for their daughter of someone like me saying “You’re a great setter, I see you’ve been doing my drills, you’re awesome.” </div><div><br /></div><div><b>
This sounds like <a href="https://www.cameo.com/" target="_blank">Cameo</a>.</b></div><div><br /></div><div>
Basically!</div><div><br /></div><div><b>
What about other NIL opportunities, like contacting you to come be an assistant coach at my summer volleyball camp or something?</b></div><div><br /></div><div>
Yes, we want it to be across the board, each athlete creating their own profile according to whatever business they want to conduct. They can do shoutouts, special appearances, whatever. </div><div><br /></div><div><b>
Do you see this as something that could become a career—either as a social media influencer or working on the business side of online marketing with college athletes in the future?</b></div><div><br /></div><div>
I see both. I see this app, in 10 years if we’re talking big picture, on the phone of every college athlete in America and on the phones of millions of people who are fans and brand owners. I see myself working with both of my amazing parents, and hopefully my brother getting paid if NIL gets passed and he’s in college [in the future], playing [Division I].</div><div><br /></div><div><b>
What sport does your brother play?</b></div><div><br /></div><div>
[High school] basketball. He’s awesome. He’s going to go places. He’s still being recruited [by colleges] right now. He’s gotten a lot of visits. </div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-owB2yAT6OM8/YSvp06FWoxI/AAAAAAAAFfQ/DgGWNiW7Eb8DMkxueNd-SiZR7YQhRkcWgCLcBGAsYHQ/s1456/https---bucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com-public-images-af9a8352-1771-4a8e-a4cf-dc42867b318e_1573x676.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="626" data-original-width="1456" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-owB2yAT6OM8/YSvp06FWoxI/AAAAAAAAFfQ/DgGWNiW7Eb8DMkxueNd-SiZR7YQhRkcWgCLcBGAsYHQ/s16000/https---bucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com-public-images-af9a8352-1771-4a8e-a4cf-dc42867b318e_1573x676.png" /></a></div><br /><div><br /></div><div><b>So, I mentioned earlier that the NCAA has argued that NIL will interfere with college athletes being educated. Beyond being something that has earned you money, it seems to me that this experience has given you a business education. Could you see schools actually integrating NIL into the education that they provide to athletes as part of entrepreneurship courses or business classes? A lot of college athletes are business students!</b></div><div><br /></div><div>
Yes, I do see that. In fact, a lot of schools already are partnering with NIL marketing organizations and implementing that into a curriculum and teaching students how to do it.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>
Looking at your Twitter account, you’ve been pretty active re-Tweeting and expressing support for the #NotNCAAProperty hashtag and movement, in which a number of men’s and women’s NCAA basketball players are basically demanding that they be allowed to capitalize on their NILs the same way that you already are. What are your thoughts on what they are asking for?</b></div><div><br /></div><div>
I think it's totally warranted. One of my favorite Tweets was [University of Rutgers player] Geo Baker talking about how, “I was an education major and I started tutoring service, I would be able to make full commission. But because I’m an NCAA athlete and play a sport, I can’t make any money.” </div><div><br /></div><div>
When it comes down to it, that’s inequality. That’s not okay. It’s not okay at any level. Speaking of that, look at what has been going on with the March Madness weight rooms for men and women. Are you kidding me? That’s an embarrassment!</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p dir="ltr" lang="en">Let me put it on Twitter too cause this needs the attention <a href="https://t.co/t0DWKL2YHR">pic.twitter.com/t0DWKL2YHR</a></p>— Sedona Prince (@sedonaprince_) <a href="https://twitter.com/sedonaprince_/status/1372736231562342402?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 19, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>
<div><b>It definitely was. I have better weights in my office closet for pandemic workouts than what they provided to women players! It looked like someone realized about 45 minutes before the women’s weight room opened that there weren’t <i>any actual weights</i>, and ran over to a Target to buy some.</b></div><div><br /></div><div>
It was really, really bad. It just showed where the NCAA’s priorities are and where its heart isn’t. </div><div><br /></div><div><b>
One of the #NotNCAAProperty player demands is to sit down and speak to NCAA president Mark Emmert. If you had the chance to do that, what would you tell him about NIL rights for athletes?</b></div><div><br /></div><div>
I would say everything that I just said to you about the lack of equality. I would also ask him why he thinks that’s okay—and for him not to give some terrible excuse. I would want a real, valid reason. And then I would tell him that we live in America, this is a capitalist nation, this is what we do, and ultimately the NCAA is being unfair. NIL will happen. I would tell him to get with the program and start pushing this along—because you have a lot of people angry right now, and rightfully so.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>
That’s good advice. You could charge the NCAA for it!</b></div><div><br /></div><div>
Oh, yeah. I could even ask him, “do you need me to DIY your house? I know you’re really rich.” I could take a good commission! [Laughs]. I’m just kidding.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>
So way back in 1987, your dad won a car on “The Price is Right. <i>The Athletic</i> <a href="https://theathletic.com/2321804/2021/01/14/meet-the-college-athlete-legally-earning-nil-money-ushering-in-a-new-generation/" target="_blank">reported</a> that he put the car in his brother’s name just to make sure he wasn’t running afoul of NCAA amateurism rules. Is that something he has talked to you about?</b></div><div><br /></div><div>
Chloe Mitchell: I’ve watched that clip with my family, and I still can’t believe it. The fact that my dad won a car on “The Price is Right” and then had to put it in his brother's name—like, it’s just the cherry on the top to this whole story. And it goes to show that this has been an issue for so long.</div><div><br /></div><div>
Kimberlee Mitchell, joining the Zoom chat: It’s so cute to watch the video. [Show host] Bob Barker knew who [then-Michigan football coach] Bo Schembechler was, so every commercial break he talked to Keith. At the very end of the show, Keith gets up on stage and wins the car—</div><div><br /></div><div>
Keith Mitchell, also joining the Zoom chat: And Bob starts asking me all the questions about football and Bo and everything—</div><div><br /></div><div>
Kimberlee: And Keith just goes “I don’t know. I’m just here to win some prizes.” He was scared!</div><div><br /></div><div>
Keith: I was thinking, “I’m going to get in trouble, I’m going to get in trouble. This is an eligibility issue.” And I want to win something!</div><div><br /></div><div>
Kimberlee: How it works is that you go back home and they say, “here’s the equivalent of the car you won on the stage. You can pick something you want off the lot.” And what do you think he picked? Like a meathead boy, he picked a candy apple-red Trans Am.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>
It had, like, <a href="https://www.firebirdcentral.com/1985_1987_Trans_Am_Hood_Bird_Only_38_Inch_X_41_p/stn-2239.htm" target="_blank">the flaming Phoenix</a> on the hood?</b></div><div><br /></div><div>
Kimberlee: Yes. Hideous! He drove it all around town, and because he was in a fraternity, they all used it, too. He ended up selling it to move to California when he graduated—</div><div><br /></div><div>
Keith: Because I was broke. I was a college football player. I didn’t have any money, because my job 24/7 was football.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>
Wow, so that car played a role in Keith starting his career.</b></div><div><br /></div><div>
Kimberlee: Yes! So you see, you never know where those NIL kind of opportunities are gong to lead you. He moved to [Los Angeles], we met three years later working at [E!] Entertainment Television, and the rest is history.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>
Speaking of history, I need to check back with you all in a few years and see where PlayBooked is at once the NCAA rules change.</b></div><div><br /></div><div>
Chloe Mitchell: Hopefully, PlayBooked will have its headquarters somewhere cool, and not here in my parents’ kitchen with my brother storming in and out! [Laughs]. And hopefully, there will be thousands of athletes who have benefited and have been able to make money to build and set themselves up for their futures.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>
Fifty bucks to wear a T-shirt and make a post isn’t bad, either.</b></div><div><br /></div><div>
Me and my friends are planning to go on a trip together, and we were going to donate our plasma to help pay for it. Then we looked at each other and I thought, “what am I talking about? Let’s just get more PlayBooks.” One of my teammates was like, “oh, yeah, I hated needles.”</div><div><br /></div><div>
There’s so much you can do with even $50. And it doesn’t have to just be limited to that. The bigger your following, the bigger the endorsement. I mean, you only have four years as a college athlete. And what we’re trying to do is teach these athletes how to leverage this limited time. Hopefully, athletes will be able to do that at the NCAA level—if the NCAA ever gets with it. </div><div><br /></div><div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<kicker><a href="https://hrealsports.substack.com/p/i-just-filmed-it-put-it-up-got-paid" target="_blank">Published at Hreal Sports</a></kicker></div></div></div><br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3878043065627433241.post-20220661686219551892021-03-28T12:50:00.001-04:002021-03-28T12:50:32.620-04:00The Time is Right for a March Madness Player Strike
<div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Sw5pl_Y_xto/YGCzOxzKVII/AAAAAAAAFXY/pbDjLCad9vA9jX0ap73xvNBaalmJJNAyQCLcBGAsYHQ/s0/https---bucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com-public-images-96eabdb3-0c8c-4507-b7d7-90f13b6e1137_1000x600.jpeg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="1000" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Sw5pl_Y_xto/YGCzOxzKVII/AAAAAAAAFXY/pbDjLCad9vA9jX0ap73xvNBaalmJJNAyQCLcBGAsYHQ/s0/https---bucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com-public-images-96eabdb3-0c8c-4507-b7d7-90f13b6e1137_1000x600.jpeg" /></a></div></div><a name='more'></a><div style="text-align: center;"><subhead>History suggests that the athletes behind the #NotNCAAProperty movement won't sit out games. But if they do, this year's basketball tournament presents a unique opportunity for leverage.</subhead></div><div style="text-align: center;"><attribution>By Patrick Hruby | Hreal Sports | March 2021</attribution></div><span class="drop-cap">C</span>ould March Madness be disrupted by an athlete strike? A group of men’s college basketball players protesting the National Collegiate Athletic Association isn’t ruling one out. <div><br /></div><div>
Last week, those players—led by Rutgers University’s Geo Baker, the University of Iowa’s Jordan Bohannon, and the University of Michigan’s Isaiah Livers—criticized NCAA rules forbidding athletes from profiting from their names, images, and likenesses (NILs) on Twitter with the hashtag #NotNCAAProperty.</div><div><br /></div><div>
With the support of the National College Players Association, a college athlete advocacy group, the <a href="https://www.npr.org/2021/03/18/978829815/before-march-madness-college-athletes-declare-they-are-notncaaproperty" target="_blank">players made</a> four demands:</div><div><br /></div><div>* Changes to NCAA rules by July 1 to allow all college athletes the freedom to secure representation and receive pay for use of their NILs;</div><div><br /></div><div>* A Supreme Court ruling in <i>NCAA v. Alston</i>—a federal antirust case challenging association limits on athlete compensation related to educational expenses—that favors college athletes and does not “not give the NCAA any power to deny us equal freedoms.”</div><div><br /></div><div>* Meetings with state and federal lawmakers regarding laws to ensure physical, academic, and financial protections for college athletes;</div><div><br /></div><div>* A meeting with NCAA President Mark Emmert.</div><div><br /></div><div>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p dir="ltr" lang="en">It’s time we student-athletes deserve the chance to create our own money from name, image, and likeness. We are calling for:👇🏽👇🏽<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NotNCAAProperty?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NotNCAAProperty</a> <a href="https://t.co/ZIixWgVqMH">pic.twitter.com/ZIixWgVqMH</a></p>— Isaiah (@isaiah__02) <a href="https://twitter.com/isaiah__02/status/1372582388694405126?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 18, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>
</div><div><br /></div><div>If the players don’t feel like their demands are being acknowledged or met with a sufficient response, Bohannon <a href="https://theathletic.com/2461793/2021/03/18/frustration-over-perceived-exploitation-may-lead-to-player-strike-during-ncaa-tournament-auerbach/" target="_blank">told Nicole Auerbauch</a> of <i>The Athletic</i>, some sort of work stoppage is possible. </div><div><br /></div><div>
“We can have the talks about using our leverage as players to do something like that,” he said. “Maybe it’s protesting a game or delaying a game—because it would be a nightmare for NCAA. I know they don’t want that … right now, we certainly have the leverage to do that.”</div><div>
<hr />
<span class="drop-cap">A</span> sit-down during the Sweet Sixteen, Elite Eight, or Final Four would be seismic, a surefire national news story and a direct threat to the broadcast revenue-driven business model of college sports. But history suggests that the odds are against it.</div><div><br /></div><div>
In 2018, players from all Four Final four teams <a href="https://theathletic.com/1724778/2020/04/06/the-near-2018-final-four-practice-boycott-youve-never-heard-about/?access_token=2580905" target="_blank">discussed boycotting</a> the open practice held a day before the national semifinals. They couldn’t come to unanimous agreement, and their plan fizzled. In 1995, players from multiple schools <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2012/03/basketball-players-of-the-ncaa-unite/254496/" target="_blank">talked about blowing up</a> the opening games of the men’s tournament by walking to center court, sitting down on the hardwood, and letting the balls remain idle. They got cold feet. Four years before that, <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424127887324100904578402773481001506" target="_blank">rumor has it</a>, players from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas—the defending national champion, arguably one of the best teams in college hoops history, and a NCAA bete noire—were set to boycott the title game. They lost to Duke University in the semifinals.</div><div><br /></div><div>
There are many reasons why college basketball players—despite their longtime frustration at being economically exploited—have never managed to pull off a postseason strike. Coordinating agreement and action within a single locker room of 18-to-22-year-olds is hard; doing so among two or four or a dozen or more teams is exponentially more difficult. School and fan backlash is a real threat, both in the short and long term—it’s easy to imagine coaches punishing striking athletes, athletic departments pulling their scholarships or otherwise making their lives miserable, and pissed-off alums <a href="https://www.texastribune.org/2021/03/03/ut-austin-eyes-of-texas-donors/" target="_blank">sabotaging their future</a> networking and career prospects. “You had a lot of pressure,” former University of Massachusetts, Amherst player Rigo Nunez <a href="https://www.thepostgame.com/blog/hruby-tuesday/201201/time-strike-against-ncaa" target="_blank">once said</a> about the 1995 strike that wasn’t. "Am I not going to be able to play in the NBA if I do this? Will I be blackballed? All those things weighted heavily on each player." </div><div><br /></div><div>
Moreover, players are competitive. They enjoy playing and winning games, especially in the tournament. They wouldn’t put up with the sheer amount of bullshit doing so requires—like, for instance, hunkering down in an Indianapolis <a href="https://www.app.com/story/sports/college/rutgers/2021/03/18/march-madness-rutgers-players-have-lived-isolation-months/4743909001/" target="_blank">coronavirus bubble</a>—if they weren’t emotionally invested.</div><div><br /></div><div>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p dir="ltr" lang="en">Geo Baker says Rutgers players discussed delaying NCAA tournament opener vs. Clemson amid <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NotNCAAProperty?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NotNCAAProperty</a> protest <a href="https://t.co/eFoMBwDAFO">https://t.co/eFoMBwDAFO</a></p>— NCPA (@NCPANOW) <a href="https://twitter.com/NCPANOW/status/1375132072344363009?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 25, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>
</div><div><br /></div><div>Heading into this weekend’s Sweet Sixteen, a work stoppage seems unlikely. Iowa and Rutgers are out of the tournament, which means Baker, Bohannon, and their respective teammates already have left Indianapolis. On the other hand, Livers and Michigan remain in the bubble, and there’s nothing stopping players inside and outside the city from communicating and coordinating. (Hello, Zoom!) Meanwhile, the NCAA hasn’t been particularly responsive to the players’ original list of demands, with Emmert agreeing to meet with Baker and company only after the tournament ends.</div><div><br /></div><div>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p dir="ltr" lang="en">The <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NotNCAAProperty?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NotNCAAProperty</a> players have responded to Emmert's letter, expressing frustration about delaying a meeting: <a href="https://t.co/xrGyVCz7l4">pic.twitter.com/xrGyVCz7l4</a></p>— Nicole Auerbach 😷 (@NicoleAuerbach) <a href="https://twitter.com/NicoleAuerbach/status/1374454503567597587?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 23, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>
</div><div><br /></div><div>Should the players remaining in Indianapolis decide that speaking out isn’t enough, they’ll have one big thing working in their favor: There has never, ever been a more opportune moment to throw sand in the gears of the college sports machine by striking.</div><div>
<hr />
<span class="drop-cap">S</span>tart with money. The NCAA and its member schools need it. Badly. Cancelling last year’s tournament because of the pandemic cost the association more than <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/college/2021/01/25/ncaa-revenue-decrease-due-to-no-basketball-tournament/6699352002/" target="_blank">$800 million</a> in television and ticket revenue, and insurance made up only $270 million of that loss. Meanwhile, athletic departments across the country have lost even more expected revenue during the truncated and attendance-limited recent football and basketball seasons. </div><div><br /></div><div>
The NCAA expects to collect over $800 million from the networks broadcasting this year’s tournament—a cash injection that will go a long way toward <a href="https://www.cbssports.com/college-basketball/news/ncaa-to-pay-entire-613-million-revenue-distribution-to-members-if-ncaa-tournament-completed-in-entirety/" target="_blank">salving the financial pain</a> of the last year. By threatening that windfall, athletes could give themselves an enormous amount of <i>immediate</i> leverage. No players, no games. No games, no television inventory to sell ads against. No TV inventory, no broadcast rights payments to the association and its members. No rights payments, no way to pay Emmert’s <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/college/2019/05/23/ncaa-president-mark-emmert-2-9-million-net-salary-2017/1207369001/" target="_blank">nearly $3 million</a> annual salary and various college hoops coaches <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ncaab/2021/03/10/ncaa-tournament-coaches-who-got-bonus-pay-canceled-2020-tournament/4642256001/" target="_blank">five-and six-figure bonuses</a> for games that were never played. You can see how the dominoes are lined up to fall, here.</div><div><br /></div><div>
Cultural headwinds also are favorable. Players don’t need outside sympathy in order to walk out on their jobs, or to pressure the NCAA to make changes. But it absolutely helps! In the past, stealing money from college athletes largely was seen as good and just. The general public supported amateurism. Journalists earned plaudits and industry awards by doing the association’s policework for it. Federal judges essentially laughed legal challenges to the NCAA textbook restraint of trade out of their courtrooms, while politicians passed laws preventing players from unionizing and making giving money to college athletes an actual crime. When Walter Byers, the man who built the NCAA as we know it, gave a 1995 speech decrying college sports’ "neo-plantation mentality" and calling for players to be paid whatever the market would bear, <i>Sports Illustrated</i> <a href="https://vault.si.com/vault/1995/01/16/scorecard" target="_blank">dismissed him</a> as “hysterical.”</div><div><br /></div><div>
Times change. Today, public opinion <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaeltnietzel/2020/02/11/americans-now-overwhelmingly-support-college-athletes-earning-endorsement-and-sponsorship-money/?sh=37742528648e" target="_blank">favors</a> player pay. The media has grown increasingly skeptical of claims that allowing athletes to have basic economic rights will destroy an industry that generates roughly <a href="https://theconversation.com/in-the-name-of-amateurism-college-athletes-make-money-for-everyone-except-themselves-114904" target="_blank">$14 billion</a> a year, and also force Ohio State to <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2014/08/the-end-of-amateurism-not-the-end-of-college-sports/379200/" target="_blank">drop to Division III.</a> The NCAA’s ongoing failures to protect athletes from <a href="https://www.patrickhruby.net/2020/07/the-coronavirus-shows-how-ncaa-isnt.html" target="_blank">COVID-19</a>, <a href="https://www.patrickhruby.net/2018/05/the-ncaa-is-running-out-of-excuses-on.html" target="_blank">concussions</a>, and the likes of <a href="https://www.npr.org/2018/08/30/643465851/the-ncaa-tells-michigan-state-no-rules-violated-in-larry-nassar-scandal" target="_blank">Larry Nassar</a> haven’t won it any friends or allies. Nor has its rake-stepping, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2021/03/25/ncaa-women-basketball-tournament-revenue/" target="_blank">comically sexist</a> administration of women’s sports in general and the women’s basketball tournament in particular. Slowly but surely, the association has been getting its ass handed to it in antitrust court; next week, the Solicitor General of the United States <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/justice-department-backs-college-athletes-in-supreme-court-case-11615416343" target="_blank">will argue</a> on the side of athletes in a case currently before the Supreme Court. Meanwhile, lawmakers are introducing and <a href="https://www.si.com/college/2019/09/30/fair-pay-to-play-act-law-ncaa-california-pac-12" target="_blank">passing</a> bills that will permit players to profit from their NILs, and perhaps enjoy <a href="https://www.booker.senate.gov/news/press/senators-booker-and-blumenthal-introduce-college-athletes-bill-of-rights" target="_blank">additional</a> rights and protections. The idea that people like Baker are being exploited has become conventional wisdom, as has the notion that NCAA amateurism is structurally racist, <a href="https://www.nber.org/digest-202011/revenue-redistribution-big-time-college-sports" target="_blank">transferring large amounts of wealth</a> from predominantly Black laborers to their overwhelmingly White managers and overseers.</div><div><br /></div><div>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p dir="ltr" lang="en">No way <a href="https://twitter.com/Money23Green?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@Money23Green</a> gonna shut up and dribble 🤣. Great to see my <a href="https://twitter.com/morethanavote?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@morethanavote</a> Brother leading on this one. 🙏🏾✊🏾💪🏾👑<a href="https://t.co/cS42w2q5Zb">https://t.co/cS42w2q5Zb</a></p>— LeBron James (@KingJames) <a href="https://twitter.com/KingJames/status/1276652253294858241?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 26, 2020</a></blockquote> <script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>
</div><div><br /></div><div>The NCAA’s coronavirus bubble itself is another advantage. In a normal year, players would be scattered across multiple cities and time zones—but right now, they’re all in the same place, which makes planning and executing a strike much easier. More importantly, the symbolism of refusing to play while inside the bubble would be uniquely powerful. For decades, the association’s amateurism scam has depended on Americans viewing college athletes as “student-athletes”—students who just happen to play sports and should be grateful for whatever they are given—and not as workers who deserve rights and protections. The bubble, however, has made the truth plain: college athletes are workers, and their labor is essential to the health and well-being of an entire entertainment and school marketing industry. Especially during a plague that has forced those same athletes to put their own health and well-being at risk to keep the money printer humming.</div><div><br /></div><div>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p dir="ltr" lang="en">Think you can definitely be grateful to play this game while also understanding there’s more that should be on the table. Players ISOLATED entire year to help make this tournament happen. NCAA: rewarded w/ $900 million. Players: rewarded w/ free deodorant and small boxed meals. <a href="https://t.co/vb9BPGeBkH">https://t.co/vb9BPGeBkH</a></p>— Geo Baker (@Geo_Baker_1) <a href="https://twitter.com/Geo_Baker_1/status/1371908636855959556?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 16, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>
<hr />
<span class="drop-cap">A</span>ll of the above gives players an awful lot of latent power. Will this be the year they finally exercise it?</div><div><br /></div><div>
Personally, I wouldn’t bet on a March Madness work stoppage—but if one happens, I think it could be much more effective than many people expect. After all, the mere threat of not playing has worked for college athletes before. In 2015, Black football players at the University of Missouri <a href="https://twitter.com/MizzouLBC/status/663177684428566532" target="_blank">declared on Twitter </a>that they would strike until then-school president Tim Wolfe resigned or was removed from office. Thirty-six hours later, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/10/sports/ncaafootball/missouri-presidents-resignation-shows-realm-where-young-minorities-have-power.html" target="_blank">Wolfe was gone</a>. </div><div><br /></div><div>
A few years ago, I <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2012/03/basketball-players-of-the-ncaa-unite/254496/" target="_blank">spoke about striking</a> with Dave Meggyesy, a former Syracuse University football player who went on to become a National Football League Players Association executive and teach a sports and society class at Stanford University. When Meggyesy was in college, he and his teammates threatened their coach with a postseason sit-down:</div><div><br /></div><div>
<blockquote>Before the 1961 Liberty Bowl, a made-for-television game between Syracuse and the University of Miami, Meggyesy and his teammates held a private meeting. They were worn down from a long season, unenthused about spending their holiday break playing an extra game in frigid Philadelphia. <i>Why are we playing in this game? Who is financially benefitting here?</i> The players had more questions than answers. They also knew that athletes in other bowls, like the Rose and Orange, received complementary wristwatches. And so they delivered an ultimatum to coach Ben Schwartzwalder.</blockquote></div><div><blockquote>
We want watches, they said. Or else we won't play.</blockquote></div><p></p><div>
"Ben could see we were pissed off and serious," Meggyesy told me. "He was looking at us like, 'Wait a minute, I'm not going to piss off my top players.' He came back a few days later and we got our watches.”</div><div><br /></div><div>
Today’s college athletes, Meggyesy added, are in the same position. Albeit with much higher stakes. My guess? An honest-to-goodness strike could win them much more than watches. “Who's the one percent in NCAA sports?,” Meggyesy said. “And who's the 99 percent? [Athletes] don't realize the power they have. The players are not replaceable. That is what gives them power. Who else is going to play?"</div><div><br /></div><div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<kicker><a href="https://hrealsports.substack.com/p/the-time-is-right-for-a-march-madness" target="_blank">Published at Hreal Sports</a></kicker></div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3878043065627433241.post-24884266634276986442021-03-28T12:28:00.004-04:002021-03-28T12:28:57.283-04:00Women's Worth<div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-fOzpw6SXaPE/YGCuDDJKUFI/AAAAAAAAFXQ/TZkfU-HXs9cHlwwfkS2QaDB3cxSCRrPYQCLcBGAsYHQ/s0/GettyImages-519290254.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="563" data-original-width="1024" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-fOzpw6SXaPE/YGCuDDJKUFI/AAAAAAAAFXQ/TZkfU-HXs9cHlwwfkS2QaDB3cxSCRrPYQCLcBGAsYHQ/s0/GettyImages-519290254.jpg" /></a></div></div><a name='more'></a><div style="text-align: center;"><subhead>From social media influencing to personal coaching, female college athletes are poised to profit in the new era of NCAA name, image, and likeness rights.</subhead></div><div style="text-align: center;"><attribution>By Patrick Hruby | Global Sport Matters | March 2021</attribution></div><span class="drop-cap">A</span>s a prospective college athlete, Hayley Hodson got used to saying no.<div><br /></div><div>
No to the sunglasses brand that asked Hodson, then a 17-year-old high school volleyball star who trained with the U.S. Women’s National Team, to model a pair on Instagram.<div><br /></div><div>
No to Roxy, the clothing company that made her club team’s jerseys and wanted Hodson and her teammates to tag photos of themselves wearing its gear on social media.<div><br /></div><div>
No to the television producer who contacted Hodson and her parents out of the blue, wanting to put together a reality show based on—no joke—tall families.<div><br /></div><div>
“That was a little weird,” Hodson says with a laugh. “But it still would have been nice to cultivate a relationship with that producer, instead of being like, ‘I really can’t talk to you.’”<div><br /></div><div>
Hodson couldn’t talk—or capitalize on those other opportunities—because she didn’t want to run afoul of National Collegiate Athletic Association amateurism rules barring athletes and recruits from accepting compensation connected to playing sports, including profiting from the use of their names, images, and likenesses (NILs).<div><br /></div><div>
Those rules, Hodson says, even prevented her from keeping the water bottles and beach towels that she won while competing in beach volleyball tournaments near her Newport Beach, Calif. home.<div><br /></div><div>
“I was literally told [by colleges] that ‘you can’t accept that,’” says Hodson, 24, who played volleyball for Stanford University before medically retiring <a href="https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.latimes.com/sports/story/2020-12-08/stanford-volleyball-hayley-hodson-concussions-cte-lawsuit__;!!IKRxdwAv5BmarQ!KC6tWF5Pw_0ZlN7pLF0TcJmeSC2zVYue-yF8AfyrFtEjo5BzTlr0etBAjUg3vhkL4cHx1-w$" target="_blank">following a brain injury</a> and now attends law school at the University of California, Los Angeles. “You’re paying the price of admission to play in these tournaments—you should at least be able to take the towel. Are you kidding?<div><br /></div><div>
“Now think about that on a macro level. Think about all the opportunities that are taken from you as an athlete before they even emerge. All I saw was potential that I couldn’t tap into.”<div><br /></div><div>
For college athletes, that’s about to change. As soon as this summer, new state laws will begin allowing them to cash in on their NILs, upending the NCAA’s longtime prohibition on pay and ushering in a new era of endorsement deals, influencer campaigns, and other commercial opportunities.<div><br /></div><div>
While some of the most lucrative opportunities undoubtedly will flow to star athletes in the prominent television sports of football and men’s basketball, women college athletes also are poised to capitalize—and may even enjoy a bigger financial boost than their male counterparts relative to the popularity of their sports:<div><br /></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div>* According to the online athlete marketing platform Opendorse, Fresno State University basketball players Hanna and Haley Cavinder, twin sisters who have 2.7 million followers on TikTok, could earn more than <a href="https://urldefense.com/v3/__http://sjvsun.com/sports/fresno-states-big-winners-for-eventual-endorsements-it-might-surprise-you/__;!!IKRxdwAv5BmarQ!KC6tWF5Pw_0ZlN7pLF0TcJmeSC2zVYue-yF8AfyrFtEjo5BzTlr0etBAjUg3vhkLd0g50ug$" target="_blank">$167,000 annually</a> from social media posts.<br /><br />* A study conducted last year by the website AthleticDirectorU and the marketing firm Navigate Research found that of the 25 college athletes with the greatest endorsement potential, <a href="https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://athleticdirectoru.com/articles/how-much-is-nil-really-worth-to-student-athletes/__;!!IKRxdwAv5BmarQ!KC6tWF5Pw_0ZlN7pLF0TcJmeSC2zVYue-yF8AfyrFtEjo5BzTlr0etBAjUg3vhkLVpETlsQ$">13 were women</a>, with annual endorsement potential between $466,000 and $63,000.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: left;"><div>* Aquinas College volleyball player Chloe Mitchell, who is believed to be the <a href="https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.cnbc.com/2021/01/08/chloe-v-mitchell-the-first-college-athlete-to-monetize-her-likeness.html__;!!IKRxdwAv5BmarQ!KC6tWF5Pw_0ZlN7pLF0TcJmeSC2zVYue-yF8AfyrFtEjo5BzTlr0etBAjUg3vhkLPrxB0EE$" target="_blank">first athlete</a> to earn money under the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics’ recently liberalized NIL rules, has endorsement deals with two mini-golf brands thanks to her status as a do-it-yourself project social media influencer.</div></div><div><div><br /></div><div>
“So far, almost all of the media attention on NIL rights is on the Zion Williamson type of athlete,” says Opendorse marketing director Sam Weber, referring to the former Duke University basketball star. “What’s the Heisman [Trophy] contender, the Naismith [Award] finalist going to earn?" <div><br /></div><div>
“Those big name [male] athletes are going to have a very real opportunity on their hands to make a very real amount of money—tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars a year is realistic. But the Cavinder twins are among the most influential college athletes in the country. They’ll have every chance to make as much as the Zion Williamsons make. And there will be plenty of other opportunities for women athletes.”<div><br /></div><div>
<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/xcEJbt-f5r0" title="YouTube video player" width="560"></iframe>
<hr />
<span class="drop-cap">W</span>hen California governor Gavin Newsom in September 2019 signed into a law a bill that prevents the state’s colleges from punishing their athletes for profiting from their NILs starting in 2023, it sent ongoing shockwaves through NCAA sports—prompting the association to weigh rules changes, other states to consider and pass similar legislation, and members of Congress to propose bills of their own.<div><br /></div><div>
Meanwhile, athletes like Stanford soccer player Bianca Caetano-Ferrara have been left to wonder how the coming shift will affect them.<div><br /></div><div>
“Initially, the conversations among me and my teammates were, ‘oh my gosh, this is exciting, maybe we could get a[n endorsement] contract with [women’s apparel brand] Lululemon,” says Caetano-Ferrara, also a member of the women’s sports advocacy organization <a href="https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.voiceinsport.com/about__;!!IKRxdwAv5BmarQ!KC6tWF5Pw_0ZlN7pLF0TcJmeSC2zVYue-yF8AfyrFtEjo5BzTlr0etBAjUg3vhkL-LOlUvE$" target="_blank">Voice In Sport</a>. “But as people have had more time to think about it, there’s been a lot of concern about how this might affect men and women differently. Is this going to end up with football and men’s basketball getting all of the money?”<div><br /></div><div>
Opendorse CEO Blake Lawrence repeatedly has been asked the same question. A former Nebraska linebacker, he founded the company in 2012 to help his friend and former teammate Prince Amukamara navigate online endorsements as a professional athlete; more recently, Opendorse has been working with schools including his alma mater and Clemson University to help college athletes and athletic departments alike prepare to do the same.<div><br /></div><div>
Lawrence believes that traditional NIL opportunities—think national television ads or sneaker endorsements—will be “top heavy,” favoring football and men’s basketball players at the Power Five conference schools that already collect the bulk of the broadcast money in college sports. But social media is a different story. <div><br /></div><div>
When Lawrence played at Nebraska in the late aughts, Facebook and Twitter were in their infancy; TikTok and Instagram did not yet exist. During a recent <a href="https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.aspeninstitute.org/events/future-of-college-sports-reimagining-athletes-rights/__;!!IKRxdwAv5BmarQ!KC6tWF5Pw_0ZlN7pLF0TcJmeSC2zVYue-yF8AfyrFtEjo5BzTlr0etBAjUg3vhkLKBEhxBI$" target="_blank">Aspen Institute panel discussion</a> on college sports NIL changes, Lawrence recalled attending a school meeting where athletes were told not to use social platforms because doing so might harm their reputations. “It was all scare tactics,” he said.<div><br /></div><div>
Times change. Worth an estimated <a href="https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.businessinsider.com/influencer-marketing-report__;!!IKRxdwAv5BmarQ!KC6tWF5Pw_0ZlN7pLF0TcJmeSC2zVYue-yF8AfyrFtEjo5BzTlr0etBAjUg3vhkLLnqNn-Q$" target="_blank">$8 billion</a> in 2019, the social media influencer industry is predicted to grow to $15 billion by next year. Lawrence expects that college athletes will realize most of their NIL opportunities within that market, where how well you play on the field—or how often your team plays on ESPN—can be less important than how engaging you are to your followers.<div><br /></div><div>
A <a href="https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3771581__;!!IKRxdwAv5BmarQ!KC6tWF5Pw_0ZlN7pLF0TcJmeSC2zVYue-yF8AfyrFtEjo5BzTlr0etBAjUg3vhkLgll-6Ok$" target="_blank">recent study</a> found that while women college athletes receive less than four percent of all coverage in traditional media channels, the median male and female college athletes have comparable numbers of social media followers.<div><br /></div><div>
“The ultimate equalizer is the rise of influencer marketing,” said Lawrence during the Aspen discussion. “Using your online persona to build your own brand. It depends on how large of an audience you can build.”<div><br /></div><div>
Large audiences can mean big dollars. Before the current basketball season, University of Connecticut basketball star Paige Bueckers had more than 475,000 followers on Instagram and 25,000 on Twitter. Based on what professional athletes are paid for social media endorsement deals, <a href="https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/how-much-money-could-student-athletes-make-as-social-media-influencers/__;!!IKRxdwAv5BmarQ!KC6tWF5Pw_0ZlN7pLF0TcJmeSC2zVYue-yF8AfyrFtEjo5BzTlr0etBAjUg3vhkL23PSvbI$" target="_blank">Opendorse estimated</a> that Bueckers’ value could be around $670,000 a year—higher than that of Clemson quarterback Trevor Lawrence, one of college football’s most popular players.<div><br /></div><div>
Similarly, the <a href="https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://athleticdirectoru.com/articles/how-much-is-nil-really-worth-to-student-athletes/__;!!IKRxdwAv5BmarQ!KC6tWF5Pw_0ZlN7pLF0TcJmeSC2zVYue-yF8AfyrFtEjo5BzTlr0etBAjUg3vhkLVpETlsQ$">2020 study</a> of college athletes with the most online endorsement potential by AthleticDirectorU placed female basketball, volleyball, softball, track and field, tennis, and gymnastics participants in the top 25. UCLA’s women’s gymnastics team alone was estimated to have as much as $1.25 million of annual endorsement value.<div><br /></div><div>
When Opendorse analyzed Nebraska, Weber says, it found that the athlete with the <a href="https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/student-athletes-will-soon-be-social-media-influencers-and-one-college-program-is-helping-them-do-it/__;!!IKRxdwAv5BmarQ!KC6tWF5Pw_0ZlN7pLF0TcJmeSC2zVYue-yF8AfyrFtEjo5BzTlr0etBAjUg3vhkLyqlTsaU$" target="_blank">second-highest earning potential</a> at the school was volleyball player Lexi Sun, the school’s most-followed athlete on Instagram. <div><br /></div><div>
That finding wasn’t a fluke. While Nebraska’s football team has a large and passionate fanbase, its volleyball program is one of the best in the nation and the school’s second-most followed team online. According to Opendorse, its players stand to earn an average of $5,747 annually through social media endorsements—more than the average for their football counterparts.<div><br /></div><div>
“If you look at a more regional or local level for [NIL] value, Nebraska is a good example of what it could be worth for women athletes,” Weber says.<div><br /></div><div>
“The volleyball players on campus stack up right alongside the most influential football players.”<div><br /></div><div>
Stephanie Stabulis, who has <a href="https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.socialcreatesimpact.com__;!!IKRxdwAv5BmarQ!KC6tWF5Pw_0ZlN7pLF0TcJmeSC2zVYue-yF8AfyrFtEjo5BzTlr0etBAjUg3vhkLPEpyamQ$" target="_blank">worked in online marketing</a> for a decade, says that companies are eager to hire college athletes as social media influencers—particularly health, fitness, wellness, and sports performance brands trying to connect with customers between the ages of 18 and 25. <div><br /></div><div>
“You need ambassadors and spokespeople who are the same age, because those people are not paying attention to 35-year-olds, they are at a different place in their lives,” Stabulis says. “And you want people who are training at the highest level of sports, every day. As a strategist working in an [ad] agency, I would butt my head against the wall because we couldn’t tap into NCAA athletes.”<div><br /></div><div>
Stabulis expects sports-related online NIL opportunities to be as plentiful for women college athletes as for men. She also suspects that women may have an easier time branching out into non-sports endorsements. “Influence is based on interpersonal relationship building, the ability to emotionally connect with people,” she says. “Who you are off the field can hold as much weight as who you are on the field or what you do there.”<div><br /></div><div>
Case in point? In 2017, then-University of Southern California volleyball player Victoria Garrick gave a <a href="https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sdk7pLpbIls__;!!IKRxdwAv5BmarQ!KC6tWF5Pw_0ZlN7pLF0TcJmeSC2zVYue-yF8AfyrFtEjo5BzTlr0etBAjUg3vhkLvpRFlkY$" target="_blank">Ted Talk</a> about mental health and her struggles with performance anxiety, depression, and an eating disorder. She subsequently started a YouTube channel to discuss mental health in college sports, grew a large audience of followers, and has <a href="https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.extrapointsmb.com/p/contributor-post-nil-rights-are-womens__;!!IKRxdwAv5BmarQ!KC6tWF5Pw_0ZlN7pLF0TcJmeSC2zVYue-yF8AfyrFtEjo5BzTlr0etBAjUg3vhkL3Sh2W50$" target="_blank">now built</a> a self-sustaining brand and business out of her advocacy.<div><br /></div><div>
<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Sdk7pLpbIls" title="YouTube video player" width="560"></iframe> </div><div><br /></div><div>Because of NCAA rules, Garrick wasn’t able to earn money for her work until after she graduated. By contrast, the <i>New York Times</i> recently reported that college cheerleaders—athletes who are not governed by the association—can and do <a href="https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/29/sports/the-college-athletes-who-are-allowed-to-make-big-bucks-cheerleaders.html__;!!IKRxdwAv5BmarQ!KC6tWF5Pw_0ZlN7pLF0TcJmeSC2zVYue-yF8AfyrFtEjo5BzTlr0etBAjUg3vhkLwsmaAxo$">monetize their social media accounts</a>, partnering with major brands including Amazon, Colgate, and Nissan and sometimes earning more than $5,000 per promotional post.<div><br /></div><div>
Rep. Lori Trahan (D-Mass.), a former Georgetown University volleyball player, is <a href="https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.sportico.com/law/analysis/2021/chris-murphy-lori-trahan-nil-1234621976/__;!!IKRxdwAv5BmarQ!KC6tWF5Pw_0ZlN7pLF0TcJmeSC2zVYue-yF8AfyrFtEjo5BzTlr0etBAjUg3vhkLq_t6mpw$" target="_blank">currently sponsoring</a> a bill in the House of Representatives that essentially would create a free market for college athlete NILs. Citing college cheerleaders as an example, she said that her interest in the topic stems largely from her belief that NIL deals will benefit women’s sports.<div><br /></div><div>
“Many of these young women are astonishing athletes,” Trahan said. “It’s a sport in its own right. But it is not governed by the NCAA. What that [<i>Times</i> article] signaled to me is, in fact, there is a market for athletes beyond the stars we watch during March Madness or [football] bowl season.”<div>
<hr />
<span class="drop-cap">T</span>he first person in her family to attend college, Trahan was only able to afford attending Georgetown because of her volleyball scholarship—and even then, she said, she converted her school meal plan into cash one semester so that she would “have money to live.” <div><br /></div><div>
Meanwhile, Trahan wasn’t able to work as an instructor at summer volleyball skills camps. “It would have violated my amateur status,” <a href="https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.aspeninstitute.org/events/future-of-college-sports-reimagining-athletes-rights/__;!!IKRxdwAv5BmarQ!KC6tWF5Pw_0ZlN7pLF0TcJmeSC2zVYue-yF8AfyrFtEjo5BzTlr0etBAjUg3vhkLKBEhxBI$" target="_blank">she said</a>. “But I had to make money. So I spent my summers waiting tables at TGI Friday’s, rather than make a few hundred dollars serving as a positive role model for young women.”<div><br /></div><div>
Opendorse estimates that the total national market for college athlete NILs in 2022 could be as high as $274 million. And that total isn’t limited to social media endorsements. An <a href="https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.espn.com/espn/feature/story/_/id/29388424/how-much-money-college-athletes-make-nil-rights__;!!IKRxdwAv5BmarQ!KC6tWF5Pw_0ZlN7pLF0TcJmeSC2zVYue-yF8AfyrFtEjo5BzTlr0etBAjUg3vhkLlm3t5s4$" target="_blank">ESPN analysis</a> found that star college athletes could earn between $10,000 and $20,000 for sponsoring and making appearances at a summer sports camp, while less-celebrated players could make between $1,000 and $2,000 a week by working as instructors. <div><br /></div><div>
Similarly, athletes could make as much as $200 an hour giving individual and small-group lessons.<div><br /></div><div>
“I’m from central Nebraska and grew up a diehard Huskers fan,” says Opendorse’s Weber. “Every year, between six and a dozen kids from the non-metro areas in the state walk onto the [school’s] football team. Nobody else in the country cares about them, but those walk-on linemen mean a hell of a lot to those small towns. If they could come back in the summers to host skill camps, you can bet every eighth-grader in their counties would come and pay fifty bucks to attend.”<div><br /></div><div>
The same ESPN story lists other ways college athletes could profit from their NILs: regional and local commercials and personal appearances; autograph and memorabilia signing sessions; modeling and brand ambassador deals with sports gear and athleisure wear companies; and even <a href="https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://sporttechie.com/before-anticipated-nil-bill-cameo-strikes-deal-for-college-athletes/__;!!IKRxdwAv5BmarQ!KC6tWF5Pw_0ZlN7pLF0TcJmeSC2zVYue-yF8AfyrFtEjo5BzTlr0etBAjUg3vhkLLymsrFU$" target="_blank">shoutouts on Cameo</a>, an app that lets fans pay to have celebrities record a short, personalized message.<div><br /></div><div>
Not all NIL opportunities will be for cash. Brittany Collens, a former University of Massachusetts, Amherst tennis player who now competes professionally, says that many of her current sponsorship deals are for goods and services, like sports supplements that she uses in exchange for posting about them on her Instagram account and practice court time at tennis clubs that she receives for teaching lessons. <div><br /></div><div>
“When I think back to college, there’s lots of ways we could have benefited from our NILs,” says Collens, who has lobbied Massachusetts lawmakers to pass legislation similar to California’s. “A number of my teammates had several medical expenses that they had to pay out of pocket. I had to get cortisone shots for my knee. What if we could have endorsed those doctors or clinics?”<div><br /></div><div>
During a recent Zoom call with Iowa lawmakers considering NIL legislation, college athlete advocate Ramogi Huma watched as a University of Iowa women’s basketball player explained that for many female athletes, professional opportunities are limited or nonexistent—which in turn means that their college careers are also their peak potential earning years in sports.<div><br /></div><div>
Louisiana State University gymnast Olivia Dunne, for example, has nearly five million social media followers that could be worth hundreds of thousands of dollars a year. As ESPN writer David Hale points out, each day the NCAA and lawmakers delay in moving NIL reform forward costs her money.<div><br /></div><div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-3Mk_qvq2vxw/YGCsMeE42AI/AAAAAAAAFXI/RVe9Hwfl870cw6RY5dIObL1paNfcZb1ZQCLcBGAsYHQ/s1024/GettyImages-1017711142.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="657" data-original-width="1024" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-3Mk_qvq2vxw/YGCsMeE42AI/AAAAAAAAFXI/RVe9Hwfl870cw6RY5dIObL1paNfcZb1ZQCLcBGAsYHQ/s16000/GettyImages-1017711142.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Olivia Dunne practices on the vault for the US Gymnastics Championships at TD Garden in Boston on Aug. 15, 2018. (Photo by Barry Chin/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)</td></tr></tbody></table><br />“Social media opportunities are definitely time-sensitive,” Dunne <a href="https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.espn.com/womens-college-basketball/story/_/id/30945653/social-media-stardom-how-changes-nil-benefit-athlete-influencers-ncaa__;!!IKRxdwAv5BmarQ!KC6tWF5Pw_0ZlN7pLF0TcJmeSC2zVYue-yF8AfyrFtEjo5BzTlr0etBAjUg3vhkLeVKiZjc$">told Hale.</a> “There's no professional sports for gymnastics, so I want to be making money while I can, right? I feel like [male athletes] have a different opportunity than I do, so it's a bit unfair.”</div><div><div><br /></div><div>
“For women, there are less opportunities to fully capitalize on their talents in sport,” says Huma, the executive director of the National College Players Association, a nonprofit advocacy group that has been instrumental in the creation and adoption of NIL legislation. “And alongside that, the current NIL prohibitions restrict players from things that are outside of sports.”<div><br /></div><div>
To illustrate, Huma points to Dylan and Dakota Gonzalez, twin sisters and social media stars who <a href="https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.reviewjournal.com/sports/unlv/unlv-basketball/dylan-and-dakota-gonzalez-find-many-opportunities-post-unlv/__;!!IKRxdwAv5BmarQ!KC6tWF5Pw_0ZlN7pLF0TcJmeSC2zVYue-yF8AfyrFtEjo5BzTlr0etBAjUg3vhkLX4NOGc8$" target="_blank">quit the basketball team</a> at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas because NCAA NIL rules prevented them from pursuing outside business opportunities. At one point, the two reportedly were reprimanded by the association for playing in a charity game; to avoid a multi-game suspension, they were required to give a presentation to other athletes about what they could and couldn’t do with their NILs.<div><br /></div><div>
“There are plenty of creative and talented college athletes that can engage in small business activities that have very little to do with their sports,” Human says. “Right now, they’re not allowed to pursue that.”<div><br /></div><div>
Collens, who likens managing her pro tennis career to running a small business, says that her NIL opportunities have been self-reinforcing: the more that she’s able to do, the more that come her way. “That’s helping me advance my tennis career, too,” she says. “Even stuff that isn’t lucrative can connect you with more people that will lead to opportunities in the future.” <div><br /></div><div>
Caetano-Ferarra, the Stanford soccer player, believes that relaxing NIL rules could have a similar effect on women’s college sports as a whole. “One of the biggest issues in women’s sports is the visibility around it, the hype,” she says. “Sponsorship deals can bring more of that energy. You get more people watching, more attention on social media, more young girls looking up to female athletes and influencers, and then schools want to put more money toward those teams. It could snowball.”
</div><div><br /></div><div>Exactly when and how that will happen remains to be seen. Despite announcing last November its intention to create new NIL rules, the NCAA has yet to follow through. Meanwhile, Congress is considering six different national bills; six states including New Jersey, Nebraska, and Michigan already have passed laws; and 31 states reportedly are <a href="https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.si.com/college/2021/03/04/name-image-likeness-state-laws-congress-ncaa__;!!IKRxdwAv5BmarQ!KC6tWF5Pw_0ZlN7pLF0TcJmeSC2zVYue-yF8AfyrFtEjo5BzTlr0etBAjUg3vhkL-6-_N48$" target="_blank">considering legislation</a>, some of which could go into effect July 1 or earlier.<div><br /></div><div><a href="https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2020/04/30/ncaa-board-governors-approves-name-image-likeness-guidelines__;!!IKRxdwAv5BmarQ!KC6tWF5Pw_0ZlN7pLF0TcJmeSC2zVYue-yF8AfyrFtEjo5BzTlr0etBAjUg3vhkLKVRfZ44$" target="_blank">NCAA and school officials</a> and <a href="https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://abcnews.go.com/Sports/wireStory/senator-allowing-college-athletes-nil-pay-huge-mistake-73032225__;!!IKRxdwAv5BmarQ!KC6tWF5Pw_0ZlN7pLF0TcJmeSC2zVYue-yF8AfyrFtEjo5BzTlr0etBAjUg3vhkLzfGO2HI$" target="_blank">some lawmakers</a> have expressed fears that NIL liberalization will harm college sports by giving schools in larger cities and media markets a recruiting advantage, siphoning money away from women’s sports and toward football and men’s basketball, and even making it harder for athletes to study. But the experience of Mitchell, the NAIA volleyball player and DIY social media influencer already endorsing brands, suggests that those concerns may be overblown. <div><br /></div><div>
Working with her father, Keith—a former University of Michigan football player who once won a red Trans-Am on “The Price is Right” and subsequently registered the prize in his brother’s name to stay on the right side of NCAA rules—she has created an online platform called PlayBooked that connects sponsors and college athletes. According to ESPN, the platform already has facilitated a deal between an apparel company and 10 Aquinas College athletes and is helping other NAIA athletes get paid between $30 and $100 for social media posts.<div><br /></div><div>
Arizona State University softball player Olivia Miller isn’t surprised by those numbers. Recently, she says, one of her teammates posted a TikTok video that went viral. “She had maybe 500 followers before posting, and the next morning she came into the locker room and had gone to 28,000 followers,” Miller says. “There was a ‘M’ next to the number of views. Millions.”<div><br /></div><div>
Miller’s teammate lamented that she couldn’t join TikTok’s $200 million “creator fund,” which pays users for their content, because of NCAA rules. “She was like, ‘I want to enroll and make money,’” Miller says with a laugh. “And I was like, ‘good luck—but don’t get caught.’”<div><br /></div><div>
In the future, Miller says, that won’t be a concern. Instead of having to say no, college athletes like her teammate will be able to say yes. “I play softball,” she says. “I’m not a starting player. But what I learned from that is us normal athletes will have opportunities from our NILs, too. And that’s a good thing. It’s exciting. It’s about time that it’s going to happen.”<div><br /></div><div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<kicker><a href="https://globalsportmatters.com/business/2021/03/12/womens-worth-how-female-ncaa-athletes-will-profit-in-the-new-era-of-nil-rights/" target="_blank">Published at Global Sport Matters</a></kicker></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3878043065627433241.post-20662818600245617022021-03-15T12:49:00.001-04:002021-08-28T11:37:49.923-04:00Defund Fox News<div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-0k0RQ0BmCwk/YE-Ko4BaVmI/AAAAAAAAFWA/KRZm11af1iQ1zWFaKVDMaBHnn7IVZg_kQCLcBGAsYHQ/s790/https---bucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com-public-images-e24bbcc0-c5c1-4bd9-8c44-14a96899fc55_790x627.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="627" data-original-width="790" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-0k0RQ0BmCwk/YE-Ko4BaVmI/AAAAAAAAFWA/KRZm11af1iQ1zWFaKVDMaBHnn7IVZg_kQCLcBGAsYHQ/s16000/https---bucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com-public-images-e24bbcc0-c5c1-4bd9-8c44-14a96899fc55_790x627.jpeg" /></a></div></div><a name='more'></a><div style="text-align: center;"><subhead>Like sports channels, the conservative propaganda network makes most of its money from people who aren’t viewers. What if it didn’t?</subhead></div><div style="text-align: center;"><attribution>By Patrick Hruby | Hreal Sports | March 2021</attribution></div><span class="drop-cap">L</span>ook at this shit:<div><br /></div><div>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p dir="ltr" lang="en">Tucker Carlson calls Black Lives Matter protests a disease: “Minneapolis was our Wuhan” <a href="https://t.co/FiwSOvNSBK">https://t.co/FiwSOvNSBK</a></p>— Media Matters (@mmfa) <a href="https://twitter.com/mmfa/status/1278486684506763264?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 2, 2020</a></blockquote> <script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script><div><br /></div>
No, really. Look at this shit:<div><br /></div><div>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p dir="ltr" lang="en">this is....maybe the dumbest thing ive ever heard? <a href="https://t.co/DQ4gXkCg1n">pic.twitter.com/DQ4gXkCg1n</a></p>— Andrew Lawrence (@ndrew_lawrence) <a href="https://twitter.com/ndrew_lawrence/status/1351694386334195712?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 20, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script><div><br /></div>
Again—and not to put too fine a point on it—but just look at this shit:<div><br /></div><div>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p dir="ltr" lang="en">Stephen Miller: What we are seeing here is the cruelty and inhumanity of Joe Biden’s immigration policies... <a href="https://t.co/FLRESyFewj">pic.twitter.com/FLRESyFewj</a></p>— Acyn (@Acyn) <a href="https://twitter.com/Acyn/status/1364781639469912068?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 25, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script><div><br /></div>
Fox News would be a joke if it weren’t so bloody serious. The conservative propaganda network is less a debilitating cancer metastasizing through American life than a xenomorph that has <a href="https://youtu.be/nPQ7om598OM?t=103" target="_blank">burst through the chest</a> of our body politic and is now on a full-blown rampage, slicing and dicing every good thing—the Constitution, whatever’s left of the New Deal, <a href="https://twitter.com/MattGertz/status/1363871750816227328?s=20" target="_blank">the Muppets</a>—that gets in its way.<div><br /></div><div>
Fox News helped give us Donald Trump, a twice-impeached president who spent four years watching people flatter him on the network, fumed <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/donald-trump/study-two-years-trumps-live-tweeting-obsession-numbers" target="_blank">and Tweeted</a> when that flattery was insufficiently obsequious, and otherwise ran the country about as well he <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2019/apr/08/atlantic-city-trump-ghost-town-gambling-brian-rose-photographer" target="_blank">ran his casino</a>. It <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/2-weeks-after-it-called-election-fox-news-cast-doubt-results-nearly-800-times" target="_blank">pushed the Big Dumb Lie</a> that Trump was <a href="https://archive.org/details/FBC_20201214_000000_Lou_Dobbs_Tonight/start/540/end/629?q=treason" target="_blank">very unfairly cheated</a> out of reelection by, like, the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/25/technology/rudy-giuliani-dominion-election.html" target="_blank">ghost of Hugo Chavez or something</a>, which in turn<a href="https://www.npr.org/2021/01/13/955694096/after-deadly-capitol-riot-fox-news-stays-silent-on-stars-incendiary-rhetoric" target="_blank"> helped spur</a> an insurrectionist riot at the U.S. Capitol that left <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/11/us/who-died-in-capitol-building-attack.html" target="_blank">five people dead</a>. It broadcast coronavirus misinformation an estimated <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/misinformer-year-fox-news" target="_blank">13,551 times</a> last year, denouncing public health measures such as social distancing and mask-wearing, downplaying and hiding death numbers, and giving a platform to contrarian quacks like Scott Atlas and <a href="https://twitter.com/MattGertz/status/1275878286632067074?s=20" target="_blank">Alex Berenson</a>, all while <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/12/media/fox-news-work-from-home-reliable-sources/index.html" target="_blank">allowing its own employees to work from home</a> and reminding them to <a href="https://twitter.com/jeremymbarr/status/1273692843161325571?s=20" target="_blank">wear masks</a>. <div><br /></div><div>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p dir="ltr" lang="en">Tucker Carlson says masks and social distancing "have no basis of any kind in science. It's like a kind of bizarre health theater" <a href="https://t.co/71lIvRubx8">pic.twitter.com/71lIvRubx8</a></p>— Andrew Lawrence (@ndrew_lawrence) <a href="https://twitter.com/ndrew_lawrence/status/1280654150955565056?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 8, 2020</a></blockquote> <script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script><div><br /></div>
The brainchild of <a href="https://www.vox.com/2017/5/19/15660888/roger-ailes-america-trump-television-fox-news" target="_blank">GOP Goebbels</a>-cum-<a href="https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2019/12/inside-roger-ailes-twisted-game-of-mind-control-fox-news-bombshell-movie" target="_blank">paranoid sex creep</a> Roger Ailes, Fox News has <a href="https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/fox-news-propaganda-eric-alterman/" target="_blank">always been</a> a Reeses’ Peanut Butter Cup of conservative political messaging and reactionary cultural grievance, devoted to fair and balanced consideration of the important national questions that liberals don’t want you to ask, such as What About That <a href="https://www.politico.com/blogs/media/2012/11/fox-news-obsessed-with-lone-black-panther-148638" target="_blank">One New Black Panther Guy</a> At The Polls? and Who, Exactly, In Hillary Clinton’s Presidential Campaign <a href="https://www.npr.org/2020/11/24/938545344/fox-news-settles-with-seth-richs-parents-for-false-story-claiming-clinton-leaks" target="_blank">Murdered Seth Rich?</a> The network is where you can find Rudy Giuliani <a href="https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1329615598758883328?s=20" target="_blank">wishing for Clinton’s beheading</a>. Where Sean Hannity promulgates <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/10/15/sean-hannity-unmasks-himself-fraud-again/" target="_blank">non-existent</a> deep state conspiracies and been making <a href="https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2016/08/hannity-called-out-for-voter-fraud-claims-doubles-down.html" target="_blank">unsubstantiated voter fraud claims</a> about Democrats in the Philadelphia area since … 2016. Where Laura Ingraham, not a virologist, lets viewers know that that the <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/laura-ingraham/laura-ingraham-you-know-what-biggest-lie-restaurants-are-spreaders-covid" target="_blank">“biggest lie is, is that restaurants are spreaders of COVID.”</a> Where Jesse Waters is impressed by the <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/fox-news-jesse-watters-qanon-has-uncovered-a-lot-of-great-stuff" target="_blank">“great stuff”</a> that QAnon is uncovering. Where Tucker Carlson, a self-proclaimed <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/02/24/tucker-carlsons-we-could-not-find-qanon-comment-was-worse-than-it-appears/" target="_blank">“freelance thinker”</a> who (successfully!) fought off a defamation suit <a href="https://www.npr.org/2020/09/29/917747123/you-literally-cant-believe-the-facts-tucker-carlson-tells-you-so-say-fox-s-lawye" target="_blank">by arguing</a> that his own viewers know he’s peddling malarkey, makes <a href="https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/people/tucker-carlson" target="_blank">this face</a>, a lot. It was the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/19-people-who-have-worked-at-fox-news-trump-administration-2019-5" target="_blank">Triple-A farm club</a> for the griftastic Trump Administration, and remains home to an entire cinematic universe of ghouls and goombas who in another time and place would be getting their limbs severed for looking at Obi-Wan Kenobi the wrong way, ranging from <a href="https://www.yahoo.com/now/coronavirus-larrykudlow-stocks-americas-worst-financial-advisor-215108082.html" target="_blank">non-economist economist</a> Larry Kudlow to <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2020/11/18/dan-bongino-election-fraud-messaging-437164" target="_blank">Facebook power user</a> Dan Bongino to—<i>wait, is that Geraldo’s music? By God, it is!</i><div><br /></div><div>
Again, this would all be darkly funny if it didn’t shape the world in decidedly dark and unfunny ways. Studies have found that Fox News availability and viewing significantly <a href="https://web.stanford.edu/~ayurukog/cable_news.pdf" target="_blank">increases support</a> for <a href="https://eml.berkeley.edu//~sdellavi/wp/foxvote06-03-30.pdf" target="_blank">Republicans in elections.</a> Polls have show that the network’s viewers are more likely to <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/10/19/stunning-extent-which-trumpism-is-centered-among-fox-news-watching-republicans/" target="_blank">approve of Trump’s presidency</a>, more likely to <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1077699017728919" target="_blank">believe conspiracy theories</a> critical of Democrats, more likely to <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/media/the-data-is-in-fox-news-may-have-kept-millions-from-taking-the-coronavirus-threat-seriously/2020/06/26/60d88aa2-b7c3-11ea-a8da-693df3d7674a_story.html" target="_blank">believe the press exaggerated</a> the risks of the coronavirus, and have taken the virus <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/six-different-polls-show-how-foxs-coronavirus-coverage-endangered-its-viewers" target="_blank">less seriously</a> than people who get their news from other sources. (Media markets where Hannity is particularly popular <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/06/25/fox-news-hannity-coronavirus-misinformation/" target="_blank">had higher COVID-19 death rates</a> early in the pandemic). Anecdotally, Fox News has <a href="https://luke.substack.com/p/i-hate-what-theyve-done-to-almost-39f" target="_blank">brain poisoned America’s cable-watching elders,</a> resulting in what journalist Luke O’Neil <a href="https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/04/i-gathered-stories-of-people-transformed-by-fox-news.html" target="_blank">describes as</a> “failed marriages and estranged parental relationships” born from a loved one finding “some kind of deep, addictive comfort” in the network’s “anger and paranoia, and be[coming] a different person.”<div><br /></div><div>
For conservative-minded folks, there’s no real issue, here. Fox News is cool and good, a <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/fox-news-lie" target="_blank">reliable misinformation dealer</a> that’s available 24/7—oh, and if the network ever dilutes its product or <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/04/us/politics/trump-fox-news-arizona.html" target="_blank">calls the state of Arizona</a> for Joe Biden, there’s plenty of the hard, uncut stuff over at Newsmax and OANN. For everyone else, however, Fox News is a problem. Worse still, it’s a problem that a whole lot of us are subsidizing—by which I mean, <i>paying cold, hard cash out of our own pockets to support.</i> And adding insult to injury, we’re providing that support without even realizing it. <div><br /></div><div>
How so? The answer lies in your cable or satellite television bill.<div>
<hr />
<span class="drop-cap">E</span>ver wondered why big-time sports are swimming in cash?<div><br /></div><div>
Yes, sports are popular. Yes, fans are passionate. And yes, the industry benefits from juicy <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2014/09/03/should-pro-sport-leagues-get-tax-breaks/sports-leagues-do-not-need-taxpayer-help" target="_blank">tax breaks</a>, massive <a href="https://www.patrickhruby.net/2017/06/the-sports-welfare-silver-bullet.html" target="_blank">public subsidies</a>, and both <i><a href="https://mlb.nbcsports.com/2019/05/29/happy-birthday-to-baseballs-antitrust-exemption/" target="_blank">de jure</a></i> and <i><a href="http://cdn.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/opinions/2015/09/30/14-16601.pdf" target="_blank">de facto</a></i> exemptions from federal antitrust law.<div><br /></div><div>
Still, the main reason Russell Westbrook earns $40-plus million a year and the National Collegiate Athletic Association clears nearly $1 billion annually to stage a single basketball tournament is because networks such as ESPN pay billions for the right to broadcast games. And the reason networks can afford those gobsmacking sums is because they make <a href="https://www.patrickhruby.net/2013/07/the-sports-cable-bubble.html" target="_blank">fistfuls of money</a> from people who seldom or never watch sports.<div><br /></div><div>
Cable channels generate revenue in two ways. First, advertisers pay them to air commercials, which is why you’re now humming <i><a href="https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwiQytXB1pLvAhU7EFkFHbJUDZAQwqsBMAB6BAgIEAk&url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vDAg3VkZPg8&usg=AOvVaw1FKSAQfdod78oeTjf4RMJe" target="_blank">scoop, there it is!</a></i> Second, cable and satellite providers—such as Comcast or DirecTV—pay channels a per-subscriber rate for the right to carry them. Those rates vary widely. Relatively unpopular networks cost as little as <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/03/03/cable-future-may-not-include-tv-as-cable-one-shows.html" target="_blank">5 cents</a> per month, per subscriber. Sports networks cost a whole lot more. ESPN’s four costliest offerings (ESPN, ESPN2, SEC Network, ACC Network) <a href="https://variety.com/vip/pay-tv-true-cost-free-1234810682/" target="_blank">total $10.28</a>, while NFL Network ($1.79), Fox Sports 1 ($1.12), and Big Ten Network ($0.59) are also among the 25 most expensive channels on pay TV.<div><br /></div><div>
Why are sports networks able to demand high prices? <i>New Yorker </i>writer Adam Davidson calls rates <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/fox-news-ousts-bill-oreilly-first-thoughts" target="_blank">“a fear tax”</a>—a measure of how scared cable or satellite providers are that viewers will be angry if a particular channel isn’t available. As Davidson explains, channels with relatively small but ferociously dedicated audiences can leverage that ferocity to make more in subscriber fees than more popular networks:</div><div><br /><div><blockquote>
People might love to watch “Law & Order” reruns all day long, and “Mr. Robot” has a loyal audience, but viewers won’t run into the streets to protest if they can’t see the latest episode of those shows.</blockquote><div>The fear tax has been very, very good to ESPN, which for years has been a golden goose for its parent company, Disney. In 2019, ESPN generated an estimated <a href="https://www.fool.com/investing/2020/04/19/how-disneys-espn-makes-money-sports-broadcasting.aspx" target="_blank">$11.4 billion</a> of revenue. About $2.3 billion of that came from advertising. Meanwhile, $8.6 billion came from subscriber fees. That’s a lot! And pay TV providers don’t eat that cost. Instead, they pass it on to their customers—which means that every month, the roughly 80 million American households that get cable or satellite television each hand ESPN about $10, whether they watch ESPN’s channels or not.</div><div><div><br /></div><div>
Most don’t. According to <i>Variety</i>, just <a href="https://variety.com/vip/pay-tv-true-cost-free-1234810682/" target="_blank">21.6 percent</a> of all pay TV households watch ESPN regularly (13.2 percent watch ESPN2, while less than four percent watch the SEC and ACC networks). That doesn’t mean the sports network is unpopular: in a fractured viewing environment, 17 million-ish regular viewers is nothing to sneeze at. But it does mean that ESPN’s bottom line is being heavily subsidized by the 63 million pay TV subscribers who seldom or never use the company’s product.<div><br /></div><div>
How heavily? Let’s be generous and assume that 25 percent of all pay TV households regularly watch ESPN’s networks. If just those customers were paying subscriber fees, the company would earn $2.15 billion a year—a nice chunk of change, but far less than the $8.6 billion it currently rakes in. <div><br /></div><div>
That extra $6-plus billion goes a long way toward making ESPN profitable. It makes it easier for the network to spend about <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ncaaf/2020/01/09/college-football-playoff-financial-success-expansion-future/2838495001/" target="_blank">$7.3 billion</a> over 12 years for the College Football Playoff—a broadcast package of just nine games annually—and roughly <a href="https://nypost.com/2019/11/07/stephen-a-smith-rakes-in-almost-8m-per-year-on-new-espn-megadeal/?utm_source=twitter_sitebuttons&utm_medium=site%20buttons&utm_campaign=site%20buttons" target="_blank">$8 million</a> a year for Stephen A. Smith’s voluble services. It also represents an enormous and mostly unwitting transfer of wealth from people who don’t care about sports to people who do, an alchemic business model that transforms enthusiasm for “Law and Order” marathons and “Guy’s Grocery Games” into skyrocketing franchise values, rising salary caps, and absolutely mind-numbing <a href="https://sports.usatoday.com/ncaa/salaries/football/strength" target="_blank">college football strength coach salaries.</a><div>
<hr />
<span class="drop-cap">F</span>ox News benefits from the same trick. Despite counting just <a href="https://variety.com/vip/pay-tv-true-cost-free-1234810682/" target="_blank">17.2 percent</a> of pay TV households as regular viewers—about the same as Nickelodeon, AMC, and the Disney Channel—the network commands a $1.72 subscriber rate.<div><br /></div><div>
That’s the fourth-largest of any channel, behind only ESPN, TNT, and NFL Network. Since 2004, Fox News has leveraged the fear tax to maximum effect when negotiating with cable and satellite providers, increasing its rates by almost<a href="https://twitter.com/AlloFiber/status/1210613484314091521?s=20" target="_blank"> 800 percent.</a> Today, the network boasts an estimated 60 percent profit margin on roughly <a href="https://www.gurufocus.com/news/853987/some-thoughts-on-new-fox" target="_blank">$3 billion</a> in annual revenue. About $2 billion of that amount comes from subscriber fees, and roughly $1.6 billion of those fees are paid by cable and satellite customers who seldom or never watch Fox News.<div><br /></div><div>
In other words: the company collects <i>more than half of the money it makes</i> from 66 million American households that don’t use its product.<div><br /></div><div>
This is, of course, nice work if you can get it, a hidden-in-plain-sight subsidy to make a sports stadium planner blush. It’s why Fox News can hand Hannity <a href="https://variety.com/2020/tv/news/hoax-brian-stelter-fox-news-channel-1234748006/" target="_blank">$30 million</a> a year to complain about <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2016/09/28/hannity-slams-overpaid-media-elites-then-journalists-respond-noting-his-29m-salary-and-private-jet/" target="_blank">“overpaid media elites”</a> and Carlson <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/08/27/media/fox-news-pays-10m-tucker-carlson/index.html" target="_blank">$10 million</a> annually to spend an entire day trying—and ultimately, failing—to locate <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/02/24/tucker-carlsons-we-could-not-find-qanon-comment-was-worse-than-it-appears/" target="_blank">“the famous QAnon.”</a> It’s why the network can respond to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/18/business/media/tucker-carlson-advertisers-ratings.html" target="_blank">advertising boycotts</a> costing <a href="https://twitter.com/GoAngelo/status/1244819791644364802?s=20" target="_blank">tens of millions</a> of dollars by giving Carlson <a href="https://deadline.com/2021/02/tucker-carlson-new-deal-fox-nation-podcast-specials-rupert-murdoch-1234695391/" target="_blank">more to do</a> while stridently asserting that it won’t cave to <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-10-30/fox-boycott-push-faces-tough-reality-ad-revenue-isn-t-essential" target="_blank">“agenda-driven intimidation.”</a> It’s why the network doesn’t have to care—at all—when veteran broadcaster and reporter Shepard Smith, who worked at the network for 23 years, says his former colleagues’ <a href="https://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/us_600786d4c5b62c0057c132ff/amp?__twitter_impression=true" target="_blank">“lies”</a> have “done us harm as a nation,” and why Smith’s old 7 PM, relatively-straight nightly news slot is <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/media/fox-news-is-a-hazard-to-our-democracy-its-time-to-take-the-fight-to-the-murdochs-heres-how/2021/01/22/1821f186-5cbe-11eb-b8bd-ee36b1cd18bf_story.html?outputType=amp" target="_blank">now home</a> to yet another hour of right-wing opinion programming. When Fox News <a href="https://twitter.com/charlottealter/status/1312455851450408966?s=11" target="_blank">spreads more misinformation</a> about mail-in voting than Russian bots, or <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/fox-news-launches-purge-to-get-rid-of-real-journalists" target="_blank">fires the political editor</a> who correctly called Arizona for Biden, or <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/media/fox-news-blame-capitol-mob-media/2021/01/07/f15f668a-50ee-11eb-b96e-0e54447b23a1_story.html" target="_blank">cheerleads a mass attack on the Capitol</a>, it doesn’t pay an actual price. <div><br /></div><div>
But if you’re a cable or satellite customer? Regardless of your political persuasion, you most certainly do.<div><br /></div><div>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p dir="ltr" lang="en">Insane new <a href="https://twitter.com/pewresearch?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@pewresearch</a> data proves your media source determines your reality.<br /><br />Believe the U.S. did all it could to control COVID:<br />FoxNews / Talk Radio Only: 90% yes<br />MSNBC/CNN/NPR Only: 3% yes<a href="https://t.co/BTjdbbMkVv">https://t.co/BTjdbbMkVv</a> <a href="https://t.co/tmh8OQkMQd">pic.twitter.com/tmh8OQkMQd</a></p>— Bruce Mehlman (@bpmehlman) <a href="https://twitter.com/bpmehlman/status/1314204581228810241?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 8, 2020</a></blockquote> <script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>
<hr />
<span class="drop-cap">W</span>hat if you didn’t?<div><br /></div><div>
That’s the idea behind <a href="https://unfoxmycablebox.com/" target="_blank">UnFox My Cable Box</a>, a social media campaign created by <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/" target="_blank">Media Matters</a>, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit that acts as a watchdog for conservative media. The goal is simple: create public pressure on pay TV providers to remove Fox News from their <a href="https://www.fcc.gov/consumers/guides/choosing-cable-channels" target="_blank">basic channel packages</a>—the bundles you receive just by signing up for cable or satellite—and instead offer the network as an <i>a la carte</i> add-on requiring a separate and additional fee, akin to HBO or NBA League Pass.<div><br /></div><div>
(The UnFox My Cable Box website also has a calculator to figure out how much you’ve personally given Fox News. My total? Roughly $340 over the last five years.<i> Yikes.</i>)</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-VSgwez3EZvM/YE-KhI3J9fI/AAAAAAAAFV4/o1K7oOl_-fECY0gsqGRxknpzXRZPmG6YwCLcBGAsYHQ/s499/https---bucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com-public-images-5c700b2c-afd4-4f4b-b241-2aed5e1ee57c_499x356.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="356" data-original-width="499" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-VSgwez3EZvM/YE-KhI3J9fI/AAAAAAAAFV4/o1K7oOl_-fECY0gsqGRxknpzXRZPmG6YwCLcBGAsYHQ/s16000/https---bucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com-public-images-5c700b2c-afd4-4f4b-b241-2aed5e1ee57c_499x356.png" /></a></div><br /><div>Earlier this year, New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/10/opinion/fox-news-accountability.html" target="_blank">published a piece</a> supporting that goal, arguing that:</div><div><br /><div><blockquote>
Suppose Discovery Channel went haywire and encouraged viewers to drink arsenic to lose weight? Or Cartoon Network was bought by a tobacco company and encouraged children to try smoking? Or MSNBC pundits called on viewers to burn down police stations?<div><br /></div><div>
We would agree that advertisers should not support their programs and that cable channels should not force Americans to subsidize them.</div></blockquote><div>This is a good point! It’s also much easier said than done. Bundling channels has been the backbone of the pay TV business forever, and <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2010/01/25/bundles-of-cable" target="_blank">a stabilizing force</a> for networks and providers alike—one that they’re <a href="https://www.techhive.com/article/3296376/why-a-la-carte-tv-still-isnt-happening.html" target="_blank">loath to dismantle</a>. Cable and satellite companies are not required by law to offer <i>a la carte </i>programming, and legislative efforts to change that have failed: a 2013 Senate bill that would have given providers <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2013/5/9/4316688/john-mccain-introduces-a-la-carte-cable-legislation" target="_blank">incentives to unbundle</a> went nowhere, while a <a href="https://www.courthousenews.com/no-right-to-bundle-big-brother-maine-says-in-fight-over-pick-and-choose-cable-law/?amp=1" target="_blank">first-of-its-kind</a> Maine law mandating that cable companies allow customers to purchase individual channels instead of packages was recently <a href="https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/maine/articles/2021-02-25/cable-companies-win-lawsuit-over-maines-a-la-carte-law" target="_blank">struck down</a> in federal court. (Comcast, Disney, Fox Cable, and NBC/Universal were among the companies that sued the state).</div><div><div><br /></div><div>
A <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-01-22/fox-news-foes-face-uphill-fight-in-getting-cable-network-dropped" target="_blank">recent Bloomberg article</a> lays out other factors that make removing Fox News from basic pay TV a heavy lift: providers have existing contracts with the network that are difficult or impossible to cancel; big providers that also own other news channels, such as Comcast with MSNBC, could run afoul of a federal rule that prohibits them from giving their channels preferential treatment; conservative politicians would likely scream bloody murder and launch grandstanding investigations of any providers with the chutzpah to cut off a media outlet that’s essential to Republicans holding and exercising power.<div><br /></div><div>
Still, none of that means the rest of us are doomed to pick up the tab for Fox News, in perpetuity, until our dying sun expands and swallows the Earth. Like the network itself, cable and satellite companies care first and foremost about making money—and in recent years, they’ve been<a href="https://variety.com/2020/biz/news/cable-satellite-tv-2019-cord-cutting-6-million-1203507695/" target="_blank"> losing millions</a> of “cord-cutting” customers to live TV and on-demand streaming services, most of which offer cheaper and more focused viewing options. <div><br /></div><div>
In response, pay TV providers have looked for ways to reduce the size and cost of their basic bundles. One popular method? <a href="https://www.cordcuttersnews.com/comcast-dish-are-pushing-back-on-the-high-costs-of-sports-programming-as-cord-cutting-grows/" target="_blank">Dropping pricey sports channels</a> and regional sports networks that only are watched by a minority of customers. Fox News is similar, a relatively expensive channel that the vast majority of viewers ignore. If that same majority demanded change by threatening to cut the cord in favor of steaming options that don’t charge a hidden Hannity tax—or better yet, started following through on that threat—then cable and satellite providers might conclude that, actually, the network belongs in the same category as Cinemax and the Tennis Channel. <i>You want to watch <a href="https://money.yahoo.com/tucker-carlson-goes-full-conspiracy-044020213.html" target="_blank">Carlson argue</a> that George Floyd’s death somehow proves that the attack on the Capitol was actually part of a liberal plot to change the “old order” of America? Fine. You’ll just have to pay for it—directly.</i><div>
<hr />
<span class="drop-cap">O</span>f course, it’s easy to predict how Fox News and its allies would react to the network getting bumped from basic and losing its $1.6 billion annual subsidy: very, very badly, and with a whole bunch of wailing and teeth-gnashing about cancel culture, the tolerant left, and freedom of speech.</div><div><div><br /></div><div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-WqVazzq1ekM/YE-KYjMnjAI/AAAAAAAAFV0/rFKd2Zdazxwnyfj74NQCUdFKEYDfzplWgCLcBGAsYHQ/s1456/https---bucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com-public-images-bfa87201-905d-4c1b-a18d-7a7f1daa7969_2048x1150.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="818" data-original-width="1456" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-WqVazzq1ekM/YE-KYjMnjAI/AAAAAAAAFV0/rFKd2Zdazxwnyfj74NQCUdFKEYDfzplWgCLcBGAsYHQ/s16000/https---bucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com-public-images-bfa87201-905d-4c1b-a18d-7a7f1daa7969_2048x1150.jpeg" /></a></div><div><br /></div>
Cases in point? Last month, Reps. Anna G. Eshoo and Jerry McNerney, both California Democrats, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/02/24/hey-democrats-hands-off-fox-newss-cable-carriers/" target="_blank">sent a letter</a> to major pay TV providers asking if:<div><br /></div><div>
a) They had taken any action against Fox News and other right-wing channels based on their coverage of the November elections, the attack on the Capitol, and the coronavirus pandemic; <div><br /></div><div>
b) They planned to continue carry those channels now and “beyond any contract renewal date.” <div><br /></div><div>
Along the same lines, CNN media analyst Oliver Darcy <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/08/media/tv-providers-disinfo-reliable-sources/index.html" target="_blank">wrote in January</a> that:</div><div><br /><div><blockquote>
We regularly discuss what the Big Tech companies have done to poison the public conversation by providing large platforms to bad-faith actors who lie, mislead, and promote conspiracy theories. But what about TV companies that provide platforms to networks such as Newsmax, One America News -- and, yes, Fox News?<div><br /></div><div>
Somehow, these companies have escaped scrutiny and entirely dodged this conversation. That should not be the case anymore. After Wednesday's incident of domestic terrorism on Capitol Hill, it is time TV carriers face questions for lending their platforms to dishonest companies that profit off of disinformation and conspiracy theories. After all, it was the very lies that Fox, Newsmax, and OAN spread that helped prime President Trump's supporters into not believing the truth: that he lost an honest and fair election.<div><br /></div><div>
Yes, Sean Hannity and Tucker Carlson and Mark Levin and others are responsible for the lies they peddle to their audiences. But the TV companies that beam them into millions of homes around the country also bear some responsibility.</div></div></blockquote><div><div>It’s important to note, here, that neither Darcy nor Eshoo and McNerney were demanding that Fox News be taken off the air entirely, or subject to any sort of serious government oversight, or even removed from basic pay packages. They were simply suggesting that cable and satellite providers answer a few questions and maybe think about doing something to discourage an endless torrent of harmful bullshit.</div><div><div><br /></div><div>
Nevertheless, conservative media responded by pitching a self-righteous fit. The <i>Wall Street Journal</i>, a first-rate news-gathering organization welded to an op-ed page too fantastical for Bret Stephens, labeled Democrats <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-censorship-party-11614296803" target="_blank">“the censorship party.”</a> The <i>National Review</i> called for Fox News’ critics to <a href="https://news.yahoo.com/absurd-calls-shut-down-fox-021001137.html" target="_blank">“re-familiarize themselves with the First Amendment.”</a> Carlson <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/tucker-carlson-on-twitter-and-cnn" target="_blank">accused CNN</a> of “working to force the Fox News Channel off the air and run this company out of business,” warning his viewers that an unprecedented “crackdown on America's civil liberties is coming.”<div><br /></div><div><i>
Crackdown! Unprecedented!</i> Sounds bad. Orwellian, even. Only here’s the thing about defunding Fox News: it has nothing to do with censorship, the First Amendment, or civil liberities. Zippy. Nada. The network and its on-air personalities have a fairly broad right to speak—even when they’re spewing politically expedient lies and half-truths, or <a href="https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/politics/fox-news-runs-digitally-altered-images-in-coverage-of-seattles-protests-capitol-hill-autonomous-zone/?amp=1&__twitter_impression=true" target="_blank">doctoring photos</a> to make street protests in Seattle look extra scary. But they do not have a right to anyone’s money, particularly from the pockets of people who just want to watch <i>Bones</i> reruns on TNT. Consumers demanding that Fox News be removed from basic cable and satellite is a bottom-up, free market, no-government-involved solution to the pressing social problem of harmful disinformation, the kind of social solution conservatives purportedly support.<div><br /></div><div>
Would Fox News lose a bunch of money if Americans were truly free to pay for the channels they actually want? <i>Absofreakinlutely!</i> That’s the whole point. But the network also would be free to pull itself back up by the bootstraps. Indeed, there’s no reason Fox News couldn’t make up for a $1.6 billion loss—provided its loyal fans are willing to pay the low, low price of <a href="https://variety.com/vip/pay-tv-true-cost-free-1234810682/" target="_blank">$9.47 a month</a> for inimitable content like this:<div><br /></div><div>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p dir="ltr" lang="en">Please watch the dumbest thing you'll ever see in your life <a href="https://t.co/6YU5V1RKhV">pic.twitter.com/6YU5V1RKhV</a></p>— Andrew Lawrence (@ndrew_lawrence) <a href="https://twitter.com/ndrew_lawrence/status/1102761542959931403?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 5, 2019</a></blockquote> <script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script><div><br /></div>
And this:<div><br /></div><div>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p dir="ltr" lang="en">What is the most iconic Fox News screenshot of the pandemic? <a href="https://t.co/oIwxpaMkPF">pic.twitter.com/oIwxpaMkPF</a></p>— The Daily Show (@TheDailyShow) <a href="https://twitter.com/TheDailyShow/status/1250820378496286721?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 16, 2020</a></blockquote> <script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script><div><br /></div>
And this:<div><br /></div><div>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p dir="ltr" lang="en">This video of Tucker Carlson blessing someone for their righteous fight against the metric system is such a self parody of Fox News <a href="https://t.co/c21DVmOvX8">pic.twitter.com/c21DVmOvX8</a></p>— Brian Klaas (@brianklaas) <a href="https://twitter.com/brianklaas/status/1137059735868493826?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 7, 2019</a></blockquote> <script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script><div><br /></div>
Financial consequences have a way of changing behavior. Last month, the voting-tech company Smartmatic filed a <a href="https://www.npr.org/2021/02/07/965014010/amid-lawsuit-from-election-tech-company-fox-news-media-cancels-lou-dobbs-tonight" target="_blank">$2.7 billion lawsuit</a> against Fox News, alleging it participated in a conspiracy to spread lies about its involvement in election fraud; the very next day, the network cancelled a show hosted by Lou Dobbs, who previously <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/01/18/trump-couldnt-have-incited-sedition-without-help-fox-news/" target="_blank">said on air</a> that Trump’s opponents in the government were guilty of “treason” and that it would be “criminal” for Republicans to recognize Biden’s victory. Ideally, the mere threat of losing its sweet, sweet bundle subsidies would act as a kind of fear tax and force Fox News to moderate its increasingly batshit, OANN-chasing behavior—ending its <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/fox-news-launches-purge-to-get-rid-of-real-journalists" target="_blank">reported purge of “real journalists</a>” in order to double down on Divorced Facebook Dad Takes, curbing its predilection for <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/fox-news-insiders-rage-against-hiring-mini-goebbels-kayleigh-mcenany?source=twitter&via=desktop" target="_blank">career liars like Kayleigh McEnany</a>, and otherwise becoming more like Mitt Romney and less like Ted Cruz. Until that happens, however, the network’s steadfast commitment to making the world a worse and dumber place is reason enough to boot it from basic pay TV. After all, it’s one thing for the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/media/2020/07/14/tucker-carlsons-biggest-advertiser-mypillow-guy-doesnt-think-he-needed-apologize-writers-hate-speech/" target="_blank">My Pillow guy to shovel cash</a> into Carlson and company’s endlessly raging furnace of naked grift and ginned-up grievance. It’s quite another for the rest of us to do the same.<div><br /></div><div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<kicker><a href="https://hrealsports.substack.com/p/defund-fox-news" target="_blank">Published at Hreal Sports</a></kicker></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3878043065627433241.post-78723302450668521482021-03-15T11:23:00.002-04:002021-03-15T11:23:41.902-04:00The NFL's Rooney Rule Has Made a Real but Limited Impact. Now What?<div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-vbZNrK7nUf4/YE4_ylBgn7I/AAAAAAAAFVo/Bv5pF34yQNYh7LNPBWK5ud38J_yLWHUoACLcBGAsYHQ/s1108/https---bucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com-public-images-137ae276-6242-498a-ad52-64d0176cfeb6_1108x575.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="575" data-original-width="1108" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-vbZNrK7nUf4/YE4_ylBgn7I/AAAAAAAAFVo/Bv5pF34yQNYh7LNPBWK5ud38J_yLWHUoACLcBGAsYHQ/s16000/https---bucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com-public-images-137ae276-6242-498a-ad52-64d0176cfeb6_1108x575.jpeg" /></a></div></div><a name='more'></a><div style="text-align: center;"><subhead>Nearly two decades after the rule's adoption, coaches of Color continue to face career barriers when compared to their White peers. Here's why—and what can be done to encourage forward progress.</subhead></div><div style="text-align: center;"><attribution>By Patrick Hruby | Global Sport Matters | February 2021</attribution></div><span class="drop-cap">W</span>hen the Houston Texans hired David Culley in January as the franchise’s first non-interim Black head coach, it illustrated how the National Football League’s “Rooney Rule” has changed the game for coaches of Color—and also how it hasn’t.<div><br /></div><div>
Established in 2003 to promote greater diversity within a NFL leadership fraternity long populated almost exclusively by Whites, the rule requires teams to interview qualified candidates of Color for open head coaching positions.</div><div><br /></div><div>
In Culley’s case, the rule appears to have worked as intended. The Texans <a href="https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/www.houstonchronicle.com/texas-sports-nation/texans/article/As-NFL-criticized-for-minority-hiring-record-15904274.php__;!!IKRxdwAv5BmarQ!Nz6ABdHlMrtR9m9IbhHGF_4rXXp3hKdqgJ--_GvGAxba-C2j2eIcmYjQ_RyZrKyJFHIyIw$" target="_blank">reportedly interviewed</a> several Black coaches—including Kansas City Chiefs offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy and Buffalo Bills assistant head coach Leslie Frazier—before settling on the 65-year-old Baltimore Ravens assistant head coach.</div><div><br /></div><div>
With 27 years of NFL coaching experience, Culley is exactly the sort of candidate that commonly was passed over by team decision-makers prior to the rule’s existence.</div><div><br /></div><div>
Zoom out from his hiring, however, and the league’s sidelines remain something less than a bastion of racial equality. </div><div><br /></div><div>Though NFL players are <a href="https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/43530132-36e9-4f52-811a-182c7a91933b.filesusr.com/ugd/326b62_b84c731ad8dc4e62ba330772b283c9e3.pdf__;!!IKRxdwAv5BmarQ!Nz6ABdHlMrtR9m9IbhHGF_4rXXp3hKdqgJ--_GvGAxba-C2j2eIcmYjQ_RyZrKw6Y_8sHg$" target="_blank">predominantly Black</a>, the league’s head coaches continue to be mostly White. Of the seven head coaching hires made this offseason, only two were of Color: Culley and New York Jets coach Robert Saleh, who is Lebanese.</div><div><br /></div><div>
And that’s no anomaly. Just five of the NFL’s 32 teams currently have head coaches of Color. Over the last four off-seasons, Whites have filled 23 of 27 open head coaching positions.</div><div><br /></div><div>
According to <a href="https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nfl/2021/01/14/nfl-coaches-best-and-worst-nfl-teams-when-hiring-people-color/6653774002/__;!!IKRxdwAv5BmarQ!Nz6ABdHlMrtR9m9IbhHGF_4rXXp3hKdqgJ--_GvGAxba-C2j2eIcmYjQ_RyZrKw_Ws2_qQ$" target="_blank">USA TODAY</a>, six franchises—the Atlanta Falcons, Dallas Cowboys, Jacksonville Jaguars, Los Angeles Rams, New England Patriots, New Orleans Saints, and Tennessee Titans—have never had a head coach of Color.</div><div><br /></div><div>
Those numbers suggest that while the Rooney Rule has made the NFL coaching landscape more equitable, it has not eliminated the barriers and biases that can make it more difficult for the league’s coaches of Color to climb the career ladder than their White peers.</div><div><br /></div><div>
“For coaching candidates of Color to just get in the interview room with a chance to compete in a [hiring] game that is fundamentally about competition has been a breakthrough,” says Cyrus Mehri, a civil rights attorney who was instrumental in the creation of the Rooney Rule and co-founded the Fritz Pollard Alliance, a non-profit organization that champions diversity in the NFL. “More and more doors have opened."</div><div><br /></div><div>
“But the NFL is a reflection of America, and a bellwether of America. And what we see in the league brings to light just how hard it is in general to overcome racial discrimination.”</div><div><br /></div><div>
A <a href="https://globalsport.asu.edu/resources/field-studies-nfl-head-coach-hiring-and-pathways-rooney-rule-era" target="_blank">new study conducted by the Global Sport Institute at Arizona State University</a> supports that view. Examining NFL head coach, offensive coordinator, and defensive coordinator hiring and firing patterns between the 2002-2003 and 2019-2020 seasons, the study found that since the onset of the Rooney Rule:</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">* Head coaches of Color have not experienced consistent increased numbers of new hires, and continue to comprise a small percentage of the total head coaches in the NFL compared to Whites.<br /><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">* NFL offensive coordinators, the vast majority of whom are White, are much more likely than defensive coordinators to be hired as head coaches.
Compared to head coaches of Color, Whites have a broader range of previous playing and coaching experience and are presented with a greater variety of coaching options when their time as a head coach ends.<br /><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">* Compared to their counterparts of Color, White offensive and defensive coordinators come from a wider range of playing levels and coaching experiences, and also enjoy a wider variety of future opportunities.</div><div><br /></div><div>
“In my [legal] work, I fight discrimination on a daily basis,” Mehri says. “Sometimes I think that people don’t realize just how tenacious a foe it is. It permeates society. It is a very entrenched problem.”</div><div>
<hr />
<span class="drop-cap">M</span>ehri was incredulous. A diehard professional football fan, he was reading the newspaper sports page on Martin Luther King Day in 2002 when he saw that the Tampa Bay Buccaneers had fired their head coach, Tony Dungy.</div><div><br /></div><div>
Dungy, who is Black, had transformed the Buccaneers from NFL <a href="https://urldefense.com/v3/__http:/www.espn.com/nfl/news/2002/0114/1311487.html__;!!IKRxdwAv5BmarQ!Nz6ABdHlMrtR9m9IbhHGF_4rXXp3hKdqgJ--_GvGAxba-C2j2eIcmYjQ_RyZrKwxr776Xw$" target="_blank">laughingstock to championship contender</a>, reaching the playoffs four times in six seasons. Now he was out of a job. His dismissal came days after the Minnesota Vikings fired head coach Dennis Green, also Black, who had led the franchise to the playoffs in eight of ten seasons and twice finished one win short of reaching the Super Bowl.</div><div><br /></div><div>
At the time, Dungy and Green were two of five Black head coaches in the NFL’s entire 80-year-history. That didn’t set well with Mehri, who had spearheaded <a href="https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/2000/11/17/coke-to-pay-193-million-in-bias-suit/6a43c0c7-dcde-4d8c-a95f-3fe57c508c85/__;!!IKRxdwAv5BmarQ!Nz6ABdHlMrtR9m9IbhHGF_4rXXp3hKdqgJ--_GvGAxba-C2j2eIcmYjQ_RyZrKxTJb_vGQ$" target="_blank">groundbreaking, multimillion-dollar lawsuits</a> against Coca-Cola and Texaco showing that employees of Color at both companies faced discrimination in pay, promotions, and evaluations.</div><div><br /></div><div>
Mehri suspected that something similar was happening to Black coaches in the NFL—that they were “last hired and first fired,” given far fewer head coaching opportunities than Whites while being held to a higher performance standard. He had a legal intern create a database of the league’s head coach hirings, firings, and win-loss records over the previous 15 seasons, then gave that information to Janice Madden, a University of Pennsylvania professor and labor economist.</div><div><br /></div><div>
Madden’s subsequent analysis was, in Mehri’s words, “stunning.” She found that Black head coaches on average won 1.1 more games per season than their White peers. They led their teams to the playoffs 67 percent of the time, compared to 39 percent for Whites. Yet those same Black coaches also were more likely to be fired.</div><div><br /></div><div>
And that wasn’t all. Mehri and prominent civil rights attorney Johnnie Cochran worked with Madden to produce <a href="https://urldefense.com/v3/__http:/media.wix.com/ugd/520423_24cb6412ed2758c7204b7864022ebb5d.pdf__;!!IKRxdwAv5BmarQ!Nz6ABdHlMrtR9m9IbhHGF_4rXXp3hKdqgJ--_GvGAxba-C2j2eIcmYjQ_RyZrKxmV40fyQ$" target="_blank">a report showing</a> that from 1986 to 2001, the NFL had 139 head coach openings—only six of which went to Blacks. In 2000, all nine vacancies were filled by Whites who had losing records or scant head coaching experience; meanwhile, Black candidates such as Sherman Lewis, an offensive coordinator with four Super Bowl rings, and Emmitt Thomas, a Hall of Fame former player and highly-regarded defensive assistant for over two decades, weren’t even interviewed.</div><div><br /></div><div>
Marvin Lewis, the Black defensive coordinator for a Baltimore Ravens team that won the Super Bowl in 2000 on the strength of its historically dominant defense, was interviewed by the Buffalo Bills. But according to the report, the franchise made it clear that their interest wasn’t serious, as Lewis “never received a tour of the team’s facilities, nor was he invited to meet with the team’s real decision-makers.”</div><div><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-tdRnXOzV7tY/YE4_bQQWO9I/AAAAAAAAFVg/Ikd80c3dxvgVbGFOQTT2qws2uggjDRaLQCLcBGAsYHQ/s1200/GettyImages-508650674-scaled-e1612314115854.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="675" data-original-width="1200" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-tdRnXOzV7tY/YE4_bQQWO9I/AAAAAAAAFVg/Ikd80c3dxvgVbGFOQTT2qws2uggjDRaLQCLcBGAsYHQ/s16000/GettyImages-508650674-scaled-e1612314115854.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Cyrus Mehri, Jocelyn Benson and Willie Lanier at the SiriusXM Business Radio Broadcasts "Beyond The Game: Tackling Race" From Wharton San Francisco on February 5, 2016 in San Francisco, California. (Photo by Kimberly White/Getty Images for SiriusXM)</td></tr></tbody></table><div><br /></div><div>
In October of 2002, Cochran and Mehri <a href="https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/www.baltimoresun.com/news/bs-xpm-2002-10-01-0210010092-story.html__;!!IKRxdwAv5BmarQ!Nz6ABdHlMrtR9m9IbhHGF_4rXXp3hKdqgJ--_GvGAxba-C2j2eIcmYjQ_RyZrKygP70_tA$" target="_blank">held a press conference</a> in Baltimore to discuss the report’s findings—and to call for change. They proposed requiring teams to interview candidates of Color for head coach and coordinator jobs, awarding draft picks to franchises that diversified their front offices, and taking draft picks away from teams that didn’t consider candidates of Color for head coach and coordinator jobs.</div><div><br /></div><div>
“The NFL is part of the epicenter of this country,” Mehri <a href="https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/www.nytimes.com/2002/10/06/sports/pro-football-inside-the-nfl-nfl-pressured-on-black-coaches.html__;!!IKRxdwAv5BmarQ!Nz6ABdHlMrtR9m9IbhHGF_4rXXp3hKdqgJ--_GvGAxba-C2j2eIcmYjQ_RyZrKw4qHrepA$" target="_blank">said at the press conference</a>. “When kids today see so few African-American head coaches, what does that tell them? The fans are being cheated—a lot of African-American coaches are better qualified than some of the people currently holding the job and our data shows that. In a league where 70 percent of the players are African-American, someday those players are going to retire. What does that mean to them when an option important to many of them is shut down?”</div><div><br /></div><div><a href="https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/www.nytimes.com/2002/10/06/sports/pro-football-inside-the-nfl-nfl-pressured-on-black-coaches.html__;!!IKRxdwAv5BmarQ!Nz6ABdHlMrtR9m9IbhHGF_4rXXp3hKdqgJ--_GvGAxba-C2j2eIcmYjQ_RyZrKw4qHrepA$" target="_blank">
According to the <i>New York Times</i></a>, then-Baltimore owner Art Modell did not react favorably to the proposal, stating that “Color is not a factor” in NFL coaching hires and that if he listened to Cochran, he would have “O.J. Simpson coaching my team.'' But shortly thereafter, Mehri met with the NFL, which formed a committee to study the issue and make policy recommendations.</div><div><br /></div><div>
The league subsequently adopted the rule, named after former Pittsburgh Steelers owner Art Rooney. Draft pick rewards and penalties were a no-go, opposed by both team owners and then-NFL Players’ Association executive director Gene Upshaw. Nor were coordinator positions included.</div><div><br /></div><div>
For the first time, however, teams with head coaching vacancies would be required to at least have meaningful interviews with coaches of Color such as Marvin Lewis—who was hired by the Cincinnati Bengals in 2003 and coached the team for 16 seasons, reaching the playoffs seven times.</div><div><br /></div><div>
“You can’t mandate people to do anything,” says Lewis, currently the co-defensive coordinator at ASU. “That’s off the table. In some ways, [hiring a coach is] like when you go in to buy a car. For the most part, you end up with the vehicle you decided on before going into the dealer—make, model, and probably the same color. But if you get a chance to [test] drive something better, you might be swayed.”</div><div>
<hr />
<span class="drop-cap">T</span>he rule helped foster greater sideline diversity—and relatively quickly. The number of Black head coaches in the NFL rose from two in 2001 to six in 2005 to an all-time high of eight in 2011. In 2007, Dungy led the Indianapolis Colts to a championship, becoming the first Black head coach to win a Super Bowl.</div><div><br /></div><div>
The Colts’ opponent in that game? The Chicago Bears—a team coached by Lovie Smith, the franchise’s first Black head coach.</div><div><br /></div><div>
And the rule’s impact wasn’t limited to professional football. In 2009, the state of Oregon passed a law requiring its public colleges and universities to interview at least one qualified minority candidate for all head coach and athletic director openings. Last year, the West Coast Conference announced the adoption of a <a href="https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/wccsports.com/news/2020/8/2/general-russell-rule-diversity-hiring-commitment.aspx__;!!IKRxdwAv5BmarQ!Nz6ABdHlMrtR9m9IbhHGF_4rXXp3hKdqgJ--_GvGAxba-C2j2eIcmYjQ_RyZrKyQ9Hoq6Q$" target="_blank">“Russell Rule”</a>—named after Hall of Fame basketball player Bill Russell—that will require all of its schools to include a member of a traditionally underrepresented community in the pool of final candidates for every athletic director, senior administrator, head coach, and full-time assistant coach job opening.</div><div><br /></div><div>
In 2015, the Rooney Rule was held up as an example by President Obama when he <a href="https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/www.wired.com/2015/10/tech-silicon-valley-nfl-rooney-rule-diversity/__;!!IKRxdwAv5BmarQ!Nz6ABdHlMrtR9m9IbhHGF_4rXXp3hKdqgJ--_GvGAxba-C2j2eIcmYjQ_RyZrKzdzHkwwQ$" target="_blank">called for</a> tech companies to do more to increase diversity within their ranks. Since then, Amazon, Facebook, and Uber are among the Silicon Valley giants <a href="https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/www.thestar.com.my/tech/tech-news/2018/05/21/amazon-follows-bay-area-tech-companies-on-nfl-rooney-rule-for-diversity__;!!IKRxdwAv5BmarQ!Nz6ABdHlMrtR9m9IbhHGF_4rXXp3hKdqgJ--_GvGAxba-C2j2eIcmYjQ_RyZrKxphDkYIQ$" target="_blank">to have adopted</a> versions of the rule for various positions.</div><div><br /></div><div>
“It has made a difference,” Mehri says. “You can quantify the success.” To wit: a 2015 study that compared NFL head coach hiring patterns in the Rooney Rule era to similar groups that were not affected by the policy—including college football head coaches and NFL coordinators—found that candidates of Color were roughly <a href="https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/fivethirtyeight.com/features/what-the-nfl-can-teach-congress-about-hiring-more-diverse-staffs/__;!!IKRxdwAv5BmarQ!Nz6ABdHlMrtR9m9IbhHGF_4rXXp3hKdqgJ--_GvGAxba-C2j2eIcmYjQ_RyZrKyOtkSXZg$" target="_blank">20 percent more likely</a> to fill NFL head coaching vacancies following the rule’s adoption.</div><div><br /></div><div>
Another tangible measure? The <a href="https://globalsport.asu.edu/resources/field-studies-nfl-head-coach-hiring-and-pathways-rooney-rule-era" target="_blank">Global Sport Institute at ASU Field Study</a> found that coaches of Color and Whites in the seasons since the rule’s adoption have similar winning percentages—and that team tenure is directly related to wins and losses, not race or ethnicity.</div><div><br /></div><div>
In other words, NFL head coaches of Color no longer appear to be held to a higher performance standard than Whites when it comes to keeping their jobs. Madden, the labor economist who originally crunched numbers for Mehri, <a href="https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/www.researchgate.net/publication/227574436_Has_the_NFL's_Rooney_Rule_Efforts_Leveled_the_Field_for_African_American_Head_Coach_Candidates__;!!IKRxdwAv5BmarQ!Nz6ABdHlMrtR9m9IbhHGF_4rXXp3hKdqgJ--_GvGAxba-C2j2eIcmYjQ_RyZrKwkMHYBjg$" target="_blank">has noticed</a> the same effect. “To her, it showed that racial bias has decreased,” he says.</div><div><br /></div><div>
Yet overall progress toward head coaching equity in the NFL has been halting. During the 18 seasons in the <a href="https://globalsport.asu.edu/sites/default/files/resources/globalsportinstitute-fieldstudiesnflfeb2021.pdf" target="_blank">Global Sport Institute study</a>, 115 head coaches were hired. Ninety-two were White. Only two of those seasons saw more than two head coaches of Color hired; in three seasons, no head coaches of Color were hired.</div><div><br /></div><div>
The <a href="https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/43530132-36e9-4f52-811a-182c7a91933b.filesusr.com/ugd/326b62_b84c731ad8dc4e62ba330772b283c9e3.pdf__;!!IKRxdwAv5BmarQ!Nz6ABdHlMrtR9m9IbhHGF_4rXXp3hKdqgJ--_GvGAxba-C2j2eIcmYjQ_RyZrKw6Y_8sHg$" target="_blank">most recent edition</a> of a yearly analysis of racial and gender hiring equity in the NFL produced by <a href="https://www.tidesport.org/" target="_blank">The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport</a> (TIDES) at the University of Central Florida also paints a mixed picture of the rule’s impact. In 2003, the league’s head coaches were 91 percent White—and in 2020, they were 87.5 percent White. Moreover, coaches of Color have never accounted for more than 25 percent of NFL head coaches in any single season.</div><div><br /></div><div>
According to <a href="https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nfl/2021/01/14/nfl-coaches-best-and-worst-nfl-teams-when-hiring-people-color/6653774002/__;!!IKRxdwAv5BmarQ!Nz6ABdHlMrtR9m9IbhHGF_4rXXp3hKdqgJ--_GvGAxba-C2j2eIcmYjQ_RyZrKw_Ws2_qQ$" target="_blank">USA TODAY</a>, two NFL owners who were members of the league committee that created the rule—Arthur Blank of the Falcons and Stan Kroenke of the Los Angeles Rams—have never hired a coach of Color. A third owner that was on the committee, Jeffrey Lurie of the Philadelphia Eagles, hasn’t hired a coach of Color since dismissing Ray Rhodes in 1998.</div><div><br /></div><div>
“The [Rooney Rule] hasn’t produced the numbers some of us would have liked, but it certainly has produced a consciousness about diversity that has been helpful,” says ASU athletic director Ray Anderson, a former NFL executive and member of the league committee that helped create the rule. “Without that, people forget [about diversity]. They get amnesia very quickly.”</div><div>
<hr />
<span class="drop-cap">W</span>hen the Buccaneers and Chiefs meet in Super Bowl LV, the matchup will feature an NFL rarity: two Black offensive coordinators, the Buccaneers’ Byron Leftwich and the Chiefs’ Bieniemy, coaching in the same game.</div><div><br /></div><div>
During the 2020-21 regular season, Leftwich and Bieniemy were the only Black offensive coordinators in the league; following the <a href="https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/www.indystar.com/story/sports/nfl/colts/2021/01/21/colts-promoting-quarterbacks-coach-marcus-brady-offensive-coordinator/6665038002/__;!!IKRxdwAv5BmarQ!Nz6ABdHlMrtR9m9IbhHGF_4rXXp3hKdqgJ--_GvGAxba-C2j2eIcmYjQ_RyZrKzOGg8_-A$" target="_blank">recent promotion</a> of Marcus Brady in Indianapolis and hiring of Anthony Lynn in Detroit, that number has doubled to four.</div><div><br /></div><div>
The relative paucity of coordinators of Color in general—and of offensive coordinators of Color in particular—helps explain the Rooney Rule’s limited impact.</div><div><br /></div><div>
“Focusing on the lack of diversity among head coaches makes sense,” says University of North Carolina at Wilmington sociology professor Jacob Day, who has studied race and career mobility in college football coaching. “But there’s also inequality at lower levels that helps lead to that.”</div><div><br /></div><div>
Think of the career path to a NFL head coaching job as an elevator in a luxury hotel. You start at the ground floor as a former player, then work your way up, floor-by-floor, through a series of coaching positions with increasing responsibilities.</div><div><br /></div><div>
More often than not, coordinator jobs are the final stop before the rooftop presidential suite: a 2016 study of NFL head coaching hires from 1985-2012 found that 70 percent involved promotions from coordinator positions.</div><div><br /></div><div>
The same study found that White position coaches were 114 percent more likely to be promoted to coordinator positions than their Black counterparts—which means that coaches of Color are getting stuck on the lower floors of the league’s career elevator, long before the Rooney Rule can create opportunities for them.</div><div><br /></div><div>
According to the <a href="https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/operations.nfl.com/media/4229/2020-nfl-diversity-and-inclusion-report.pdf__;!!IKRxdwAv5BmarQ!Nz6ABdHlMrtR9m9IbhHGF_4rXXp3hKdqgJ--_GvGAxba-C2j2eIcmYjQ_RyZrKwuNM5YDg$" target="_blank">NFL’s 2020 Diversity and Inclusion report,</a> league teams hired 192 coordinators between 2012-2020. Of that total, 150 were White, while just 42 were of Color.</div><div><br /></div><div>
The same report notes that 11 franchises collectively interviewed approximately 40 candidates for open offensive and defensive coordinator positions. Only seven of those candidates were of Color. More than half of the franchises did not interview multiple candidates for the positions.</div><div><br /></div><div>
Moreover, coordinator positions are not equal. <a href="https://globalsportmatters.com/from-our-lab/2021/02/05/field-studies-nfl-head-coach-hiring-and-pathways-in-the-rooney-rule-era/" target="_blank">The Global Sport Institute study</a> of league hiring patterns in the Rooney Rule era found that offensive coordinators are much more likely to become NFL head coaches then defensive coordinators—imagine offensive coordinator as a career express elevator—and that the overwhelming majority of offensive coordinators are White.</div><div><br /></div><div>
Of the 39 NFL offensive coordinators who were hired as head coaches between the 2002-2003 and 2019-2020 seasons, 35 were White. Over the same 18-season time frame, teams hired nearly 10 timesas many White offensive coordinators (210) as offensive coordinators of Color (22).</div><div><br /></div><div>
Why the massive gap? The best way to become a NFL offensive coordinator is to have been a quarterback coach: a 2017 <a href="https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/www.denverpost.com/2017/09/11/nfl-black-coaches/amp/__;!!IKRxdwAv5BmarQ!Nz6ABdHlMrtR9m9IbhHGF_4rXXp3hKdqgJ--_GvGAxba-C2j2eIcmYjQ_RyZrKwNyop3GQ$" target="_blank"><i>Denver Post</i> analysis</a> found that 110 of the 147 offensive coordinators hired between 2007 and 2017 were former league or college quarterback coaches. Of those 110 hires, 105 were White; of the five jobs that went to Black coaches, three went to the same person, longtime NFL coach Hue Jackson.</div><div><br /></div><div>
The <a href="https://globalsport.asu.edu/resources/field-studies-nfl-head-coach-hiring-and-pathways-rooney-rule-era" target="_blank">Global Sport Institute study</a> found the same pattern: of the 68 former NFL quarterback coaches who became offensive coordinators during the Rooney Rule era, 67 were White.</div><div><br /></div><div>
The lack of quarterback coaches of Color almost certainly is related to <a href="https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/www.theguardian.com/sport/2019/sep/20/black-quarterbacks-history-stereotypes?CMP=share_btn_tw&__twitter_impression=true__;!!IKRxdwAv5BmarQ!Nz6ABdHlMrtR9m9IbhHGF_4rXXp3hKdqgJ--_GvGAxba-C2j2eIcmYjQ_RyZrKwCivyaEA$" target="_blank">football’s long history</a> of on-field racial discrimination. For decades, Blacks were erroneously believed to lack the intellectual capacity and leadership qualities to play quarterback, and capable<a href="https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/sports.yahoo.com/marlin-briscoe-became-nfls-first-black-starting-quarterback-50-years-ago-week-173322653.html__;!!IKRxdwAv5BmarQ!Nz6ABdHlMrtR9m9IbhHGF_4rXXp3hKdqgJ--_GvGAxba-C2j2eIcmYjQ_RyZrKzEoKi0Sg$" target="_blank"> signal-callers of Color</a> often <a href="https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1007/s12114-012-9149-z__;!!IKRxdwAv5BmarQ!Nz6ABdHlMrtR9m9IbhHGF_4rXXp3hKdqgJ--_GvGAxba-C2j2eIcmYjQ_RyZrKzSVdQqsA$" target="_blank">were forced</a> to play other positions.</div><div><br /></div><div>
While the quarterback position <a href="https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/sports.yahoo.com/ten-of-the-nf-ls-week-1-starting-q-bs-were-black-a-record-that-shows-ability-is-trumping-antiquated-notions-171108525.html__;!!IKRxdwAv5BmarQ!Nz6ABdHlMrtR9m9IbhHGF_4rXXp3hKdqgJ--_GvGAxba-C2j2eIcmYjQ_RyZrKxJ-_7qOQ$" target="_blank">is now diversifying</a> at all levels of the sport, the downstream consequences of positional segregation continue to play out: according to the NFL’s diversity report, the majority of the league’s 50 position coaches of Color in 2020 were running backs (23) or wide receiver (16) coaches. Only one, Indianapolis’s Brady, coached quarterbacks.</div><div><br /></div><div>
“There’s more work that needs to be done in the [career] pipeline for certain positions,” Mehri says. “We’ve been making noise about that issues for quite some time.”</div><div><br /></div><div>
Coaches of Color face other career barriers, too. <a href="https://globalsport.asu.edu/resources/field-studies-nfl-head-coach-hiring-and-pathways-rooney-rule-era" target="_blank">The Global Sport Institute study</a> found that they have fewer pathways to NFL head coaching positions than their White counterparts:</div><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">* 10 Whites were hired directly from college head coaching jobs. No coaches of Color were.<br /><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">* 10 Whites were hired directly from NFL position coach positions. Four coaches of Color were.<br /><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">* 19 Whites were hired at age 40 or younger. Three coaches of Color were.<br /><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">* While some White head coaches had playing experience only at the high school level or below, all head coaches of Color at least played at the college level.</div><div><br /></div><div>
Similarly, the<a href="https://globalsport.asu.edu/resources/field-studies-nfl-head-coach-hiring-and-pathways-rooney-rule-era" target="_blank"> Global Sport Institute study</a> found that when White NFL head coaches are let go, they are more likely than head coaches of Color to be recycled into positions that are favorable to becoming a head coach again—including NFL assistant head coach, college head coach, and NFL offensive coordinator.</div><div><br /></div><div>
Social scientists who study workplace dynamics have identified <a href="https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/globalsportmatters.com/business/2020/09/24/is-a-super-bowl-win-enough-to-coach-apparently-not/__;!!IKRxdwAv5BmarQ!Nz6ABdHlMrtR9m9IbhHGF_4rXXp3hKdqgJ--_GvGAxba-C2j2eIcmYjQ_RyZrKze8gPqZA$" target="_blank">other factors</a> that stymie coaches of Color, including <a href="https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/43530132-36e9-4f52-811a-182c7a91933b.filesusr.com/ugd/326b62_b84c731ad8dc4e62ba330772b283c9e3.pdf__;!!IKRxdwAv5BmarQ!Nz6ABdHlMrtR9m9IbhHGF_4rXXp3hKdqgJ--_GvGAxba-C2j2eIcmYjQ_RyZrKw6Y_8sHg$" target="_blank">a lack of diversity</a> among the NFL owners and general managers making hiring decisions; <a href="https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/muse.jhu.edu/article/372329__;!!IKRxdwAv5BmarQ!Nz6ABdHlMrtR9m9IbhHGF_4rXXp3hKdqgJ--_GvGAxba-C2j2eIcmYjQ_RyZrKyDpDVr8Q$" target="_blank">ongoing racial bias;</a> and social segregation that can leave coaches of Color with weaker occupational networks and social capital.</div><div><br /></div><div>
According to the NFL’s 2020 diversity report, nine of the league’s 32 head coaches in 2019-2020 were either the son or father of a current or former NFL head coach, coordinator, or position coach. Meanwhile, 63 of the league’s coaches were related to each other either biologically or through marriage—and 53 of those related coaches were White.</div><div><br /></div><div>
C. Keith Harrison, the University of Central Florida professor who authored the report, wrote that the league has “a systemic problem” that is “talked about less than racism yet is just as detrimental to equity and inclusion: cronyism.”</div><div><br /></div><div>
“There’s a whole body of research showing that people tend to hire people who they trust or have worked with before, or have close relationships with,” Day says. “That means you can produce inequality simply by helping out your friends.”</div><div>
<hr />
<span class="drop-cap">W</span>ith the exception of Houston hiring Culley, the current NFL offseason has thrown the limits of the Rooney Rule into sharp relief.</div><div><br /></div><div>
Bieniemy, a 51-year-old coaching veteran who <a href="https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/www.nytimes.com/2021/02/01/sports/football/NFL-black-coaches-Eric-Bienemy.html__;!!IKRxdwAv5BmarQ!Nz6ABdHlMrtR9m9IbhHGF_4rXXp3hKdqgJ--_GvGAxba-C2j2eIcmYjQ_RyZrKy0LmfTbw$" target="_blank">has coordinated</a> a league-leading offense and is on the verge of earning a second Super Bowl ring with the Chiefs, was unable to land a head coaching job. Leftwich, the 41-year-old Buccaneers offensive coordinator who is a former NFL quarterback and has set records with both Jameis Winston and Tom Brady under center, reportedly did not receive a single head coaching interview during the most recent hiring cycle—a seeming snub that left Tampa Bay head coach Bruce Arians <a href="https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/super-bowl-2021-bruce-arians-upset-byron-leftwich-didnt-get-a-single-head-coaching-interview/__;!!IKRxdwAv5BmarQ!Nz6ABdHlMrtR9m9IbhHGF_4rXXp3hKdqgJ--_GvGAxba-C2j2eIcmYjQ_RyZrKyl_0MkLQ$" target="_blank">“very, very pissed.”</a></div><div><br /></div><div>
Rod Graves, Executive Director of the Fritz Pollard Alliance, <a href="https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2021/01/28/nfl-coach-diversity-hiring/__;!!IKRxdwAv5BmarQ!Nz6ABdHlMrtR9m9IbhHGF_4rXXp3hKdqgJ--_GvGAxba-C2j2eIcmYjQ_RyZrKyrW61J3A$" target="_blank">told the <i>Washington Post</i></a> that he was “disappointed” that more Black head coaches were not hired and added that the group and the league will have to reevaluate teams’ hiring procedures to determine whether “something totally different” must be done.</div><div><br /></div><div>
After no head coaches of Color were hired during the 2019-2020 offseason, the NFL adopted a number of measures to promote diversity. Teams now are required to interview at least two external minority candidates—defined as people of Color or women—for head coach vacancies, at least one minority candidate for coordinator vacancies, and at least one minority candidate for senior football operations or general manager vacancies.</div><div><br /></div><div>
In addition, teams that develop minority candidates for head coach or primary football executive positions will receive a future third-round draft pick when those candidates are hired.</div><div><br /></div><div>
Mehri, who works with Graves, believes that the new measures are a step in the right direction. In some ways, they bring the NFL closer to both the letter and the spirit of the original proposal he and Cochran made in 2003—a proposal rooted in their other anti-discrimination cases.</div><div><br /></div><div>
What worked to chip away what Mehri calls “the race glass ceiling” at companies like Texaco and Coca-Cola, he says, was “muscular equal opportunity” via fair hiring processes and diverse candidate slates. The former means that everyone applying and interviewing for an open job is treated the same; the latter means that <i>everyone</i> intentionally includes candidates from traditionally overlooked groups, usually women and people of Color.</div><div><br /></div><div>
“With Coke, they had an incredible wealth of talented people of Color,” Mehri says. “But the top jobs, the big money jobs, were all White people. So how could we break through?</div><div><br /></div><div>
“I had read an article about Clifford Alexander, who was [President] Jimmy Carter’s Secretary of the Army. He was given a list of the officers in the pipeline to become generals. It was an all-White list. He was apoplectic. <i>Are you telling me that in the entire U.S. Army there is not one person in the pipeline of Color? Go back and do your homework!</i>”</div><div><br /></div><div>
Mehri laughs. “So they did,” he says. “And they came back with a list that <a href="https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/www.nytimes.com/1997/12/23/opinion/colin-powell-s-promotion-the-real-story.html__;!!IKRxdwAv5BmarQ!Nz6ABdHlMrtR9m9IbhHGF_4rXXp3hKdqgJ--_GvGAxba-C2j2eIcmYjQ_RyZrKyRVTQTnA$" target="_blank">included Colin Powell.</a>”</div><div><br /></div><div>
Powell, of course, later became the first Black chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and Secretary of State. The NFL’s recent efforts to strengthen and expand the Rooney Rule, Mehri says, can have a similar effect on future opportunities for minorities. For example, <a href="https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/hbr.org/2016/04/if-theres-only-one-woman-in-your-candidate-pool-theres-statistically-no-chance-shell-be-hired__;!!IKRxdwAv5BmarQ!Nz6ABdHlMrtR9m9IbhHGF_4rXXp3hKdqgJ--_GvGAxba-C2j2eIcmYjQ_RyZrKzuoWHcjg$" target="_blank">research shows</a> that having two or more women or people of Color as candidates for an open job—as opposed to just one—makes it far more likely that one of those candidates will be hired.</div><div><br /></div><div>
“It took three years of lobbying for us to finally convince the NFL to do that,” Mehri says. “But it turns out that with very coveted jobs, you have to break the norms—you have to get people out of the mindset of thinking ‘that’s the woman candidate’ or ‘that’s the Black candidate’ when they’re interviewing, which means you can’t just interview one person of Color or woman for those jobs.”</div><div><br /></div><div>
Already, there are small signs that the NFL is becoming more diverse. Three franchises hired Black general mangers during the most recent offseason, bringing the league-wide total to five. Washington hired the first Black team president in NFL history, Jason Wright, becoming the only team with a president, general manager, and head coach of Color. The franchise also hired Jennifer King, the league’s first-ever full-season Black female assistant coach.</div><div><br /></div><div>
By March, the league office and all 32 franchises are required to finalize diversity, equity, and inclusion plans, which much be implemented by 2022.</div><div><br /></div><div>
“Change takes time,” Mehri says. “You can’t see it in six months. And you have to have a holistic approach for the whole thing to work. You need to give people a chance in the pipeline. You need to level the playing field so they can advance. And you need diversity in decision-makers. You need more than a rule—you need cultural changes.”</div><div><br /></div><div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<kicker><a href="https://globalsportmatters.com/business/2021/02/05/cyrus-mehris-agenda-creating-a-level-playing-field/" target="_blank">Published at Global Sport Matters</a></kicker></div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3878043065627433241.post-55042426228957737452021-01-26T11:52:00.196-05:002021-08-28T11:37:44.921-04:00The Longest Cons<div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-fTUaTG7UN-s/YEJqEG52vjI/AAAAAAAAFUc/t4GJxFx5wWox9NVBthT2dXjEscjHhxc_QCLcBGAsYHQ/s1280/https---bucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com-public-images-07aa0a03-2269-4f8d-ae67-0b4838e4148a_1280x720.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="1280" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-fTUaTG7UN-s/YEJqEG52vjI/AAAAAAAAFUc/t4GJxFx5wWox9NVBthT2dXjEscjHhxc_QCLcBGAsYHQ/s16000/https---bucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com-public-images-07aa0a03-2269-4f8d-ae67-0b4838e4148a_1280x720.jpeg" /></a></div></div><a name='more'></a><div style="text-align: center;"><subhead>Like athletes swindled by financial scammers, Republicans convinced that Donald Trump beat Joe Biden are having a hard time accepting that they’ve been duped. Why?</subhead></div><div style="text-align: center;"><attribution>By Patrick Hruby | Hreal Sports | January 2021</attribution></div><span class="drop-cap">C</span>hase Carlson brought receipts. Enough to fill a binder. A Miami-based investment fraud lawyer who <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/magazine/wp/2019/05/09/feature/athletes-hire-him-when-they-think-theyve-been-swindled/">specializes in representing professional athletes</a> who have been swindled by crooked financial advisors, he was meeting at a coffeeshop with two National Football League players who had invested money with a man named Jinesh “Hodge” Brahmbhatt.<div><br /></div><div>
Brahmbhatt talked a good game. He told his athlete clients, mostly NFL and National Basketball League players, that he would create wealth for “their kids and grandchildren” through “ultraconservative” investments. Among those investments? Promissory notes purportedly delivering returns between 12 and 30 percent.</div><div><br /></div><div>
Carlson figured that was too good to be true: most low-risk investments, he knew, offered returns in the low single-digits. So he dug into Brahmbhatt’s business, and ultimately shared what he found with both the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (Finra), a nongovernmental organization that also oversees parts of the securities industry.</div><div><br /></div><div>
Finra later <a href="https://www.investmentnews.com/nfl-approved-broker-barred-by-finra-2-55117" target="_blank">banned Brahmbhatt</a> for life, determining that some of the promissory notes were bogus and part of a Ponzi scheme orchestrated by one of the advisor’s acquaintances. Similarly, the SEC <a href="https://www.investmentnews.com/sec-bars-former-adviser-orders-him-to-pay-1-58-million-75532" target="_blank">fined Brahmbhatt</a> nearly $1.6 million for failing to tell clients that his firm was receiving payments for peddling the notes.</div><div><br /></div><div>
Before Carlson tipped off regulators, however, he tried to warn athletes directly—including the two NFL players at the coffeeshop.</div><div><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-XBd2GJMj1Iw/YEJrEwEFNqI/AAAAAAAAFUo/c2VGZyMTAloi6cQeU2rb-x4qUbNY7xZFQCLcBGAsYHQ/s1293/https---bucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com-public-images-26b5d38d-c790-4d8a-bb8d-98ff68e716c0_1293x876.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="876" data-original-width="1293" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-XBd2GJMj1Iw/YEJrEwEFNqI/AAAAAAAAFUo/c2VGZyMTAloi6cQeU2rb-x4qUbNY7xZFQCLcBGAsYHQ/s16000/https---bucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com-public-images-26b5d38d-c790-4d8a-bb8d-98ff68e716c0_1293x876.png" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Chase Carlson in the Washington Post Magazine.</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div>Working from a binder containing 14 exhibits, Carlson laid out his evidence. One of the companies offering the promissory notes had been fined by the Department of Justice for lying to obtain a federal contract. Brahmbhatt’s seemingly successful advisory company was loaded with debt, bringing in insufficient income, and owed more than $100,000 in unpaid state and federal taxes. Brahmbhatt previously had settled an arbitration case with a former NFL player who had accused him of mismanaging nearly $1 million. Brahmbhatt and two of his employees had even failed their financial licensing exams multiple times.</div><div><br /></div><div>
<i>These are red flags,</i> Carlson explained. <i>You need to take a hard look at where your money is going. Before it’s too late. </i></div><div><br /></div><div>
One of the players listened intently. He seemed concerned. But the other player was dismissive—and defensive. “He actually tape-recorded me and sent it to Hodge,” Carlson says. “I got a letter from Hodge’s lawyer.”</div><div><br /></div><div>
The tape-recording, Carlson says, was unusual. But the rest? Not so much. Too often, Carlson says, athletes on the wrong end of financial scams have a hard time accepting that they’ve been hoodwinked. “I warned a bunch of athletes about Hodge, and a lot of them didn’t want to believe it,” he says. “I’ve seen a lot of guys get warned in other cases, and sometimes they don’t believe it.” Even when there are red flags, athletes can end up looking past them.</div><div><br /></div><div>
<hr />
<span class="drop-cap">A</span>merica has a problem. Tens of millions of people, almost all of them Republicans and/or <a href="https://www.startribune.com/minnesota-s-mike-lindell-among-last-remaining-election-fraud-crusaders-for-trump/600014348/" target="_blank">pillow tycoons</a>, have been conned. Like the athletes who placed their trust in Brahmbhatt, they’re in thrall to a big lie: that Donald Trump actually won an election that he <a href="https://cookpolitical.com/2020-national-popular-vote-tracker" target="_blank">very clearly lost</a>, all because Joe Biden cheated.</div><div><br /></div><div>
Of course, there is <a href="https://apnews.com/article/barr-no-widespread-election-fraud-b1f1488796c9a98c4b1a9061a6c7f49d" target="_blank">no actual evidence</a> that the 2020 presidential election was marred by widespread or outcome-changing fraud. Claims to the contrary have been <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/01/03/voter-fraud/" target="_blank">disproven, debunked</a>, and <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/judges-trump-election-lawsuits/2020/12/12/e3a57224-3a72-11eb-98c4-25dc9f4987e8_story.html" target="_blank">tossed out of courtrooms</a> by nearly 90 judges. The primary proponents of those claims are Trump himself—a <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/01/24/trumps-false-or-misleading-claims-total-30573-over-four-years/" target="_blank">volume-shooting fabulist</a> whose lifelong relationship with the truth is roughly akin to <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U4iwY2LXhz0" target="_blank">Galvatron’s relationship with Starscream</a>—and Rudy Giuliani, a Fox News Cinematic Universe glue guy whose public pronouncements and public bouts of flatulence are <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/rudy-giuliani-fart-on-camera-confirmed-by-michigan-state-representative-2020-12" target="_blank">increasingly indistinguishable</a>.</div><div><br /></div><div>
Yet despite those red flags, large majorities of Republicans—between 65 and 77 percent, depending on the particular poll—believe that there was <a href="https://www.courant.com/politics/hc-pol-q-poll-republicans-believe-fraud-20201210-pcie3uqqvrhyvnt7geohhsyepe-story.html" target="_blank">widespread voter fraud</a> during the election, that Biden <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/meet-the-press/poll-trump-approval-remains-stable-republicans-unmoved-after-capitol-violence-n1254457" target="_blank">did not win</a> the election legitimately, that Trump <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/01/19/which-republicans-think-election-was-stolen-those-who-hate-democrats-dont-mind-white-nationalists/" target="_blank">received more votes</a> than Biden, and that the electoral process in the United States <a href="https://www.vox.com/2021/1/11/22225531/joe-biden-trump-capitol-inauguration" target="_blank">can’t be trusted</a>.</div><div><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-A8ActoQ9gVs/YEJr5a03r7I/AAAAAAAAFUw/GgxG536Qfvskz_LCTUQ4MHFrQzPLONe0QCLcBGAsYHQ/s1024/https---bucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com-public-images-0d2b5474-f07c-4ce6-a419-b41549bf1d7f_1024x1004.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1004" data-original-width="1024" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-A8ActoQ9gVs/YEJr5a03r7I/AAAAAAAAFUw/GgxG536Qfvskz_LCTUQ4MHFrQzPLONe0QCLcBGAsYHQ/s16000/https---bucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com-public-images-0d2b5474-f07c-4ce6-a419-b41549bf1d7f_1024x1004.jpeg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Extremely healthy stuff. Photo by Tyler Merbler via Creative Commons.</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div>None of this is great for American democracy! Trump’s con undermines the legitimacy of both the Biden administration and the federal government in general. It gives state-level Republican lawmakers even more motivation to disenfranchise Democratic-leaning voters with <a href="https://www.vox.com/22214061/trump-congress-2020-election-steal-democracy-authoritarian-coup" target="_blank">new voting regulations</a> like eliminating at-will absentee balloting and tightening voter ID requirements. It led directly to the violent and deadly storming of the Capitol by a rioting mob of angry Trump superfans, all of whom were egged on by Trump and other GOP elected officials-cum-malarkey merchants, including Josh Hawley and Ted Cruz. And it leaves Republican voters like Daniel Scheerer, a 43-year-old truck driver in Colorado <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/18/us/supporters-of-donald-trump.html" target="_blank">recently interviewed</a> by the <i>New York Times,</i> contemplating some extremely stupid and dangerous shit:</div><div><br /></div><div>
<blockquote> “I can’t just sit back and say, ‘OK, I’ll just go back to watching football,’” said Scheerer, who went to the rally in Washington this month, but said he did not go inside the Capitol and had nothing to do with those who did. He said he did not condone those who were violent but believed that the news media had “totally skewed” the event, obscuring what he saw as the real story of the day — the people’s protest against election fraud.
“If we tolerate a fraudulent election, I believe we cease to have a republic,” he said. “We turn into a totalitarian state.”</blockquote></div><div><br /></div><div>
Asked what would happen after Mr. Biden took office, Mr. Scheerer said, “That’s where every person has to soul search.”</div><div><br /></div><div>
He continued: “This just isn’t like a candidate that I didn’t want, but he won fair and square. There’s something different happening here. I believe it needs to be resisted and fought against.”</div><div><br /></div><div> </div>
And:<div><br /></div><div>
<blockquote> “It’s way more than just being some kind of a Trump fanatic,” Scheerer said. He said he saw himself as “a guy up on the wall of a city seeing the enemy coming, and ringing the alarm bell.”</blockquote></div><div><br /></div><div>
Force, he said, is only a last resort.</div><div><br /></div><div>
“Are you OK with internment camps if you refuse to wear a mask or take a vaccination?” he asked. “I believe in a world where force has to be used to stop evil or the wrong act.”</div><div><br /></div><div></div>
You can see where this is going: unless marks such as Scheerer realize <i>en masse</i> that they’ve been had, Trump’s stolen election story will continue to metastasize, causing more harm to the body politic for years to come. But is such a shift forthcoming? If the parallel experiences of hornswoggled athletes and other scam victims are a guide, then change is possible—and also far from guaranteed. <div><br /></div><div>
<hr />
<span class="drop-cap">A</span>nyone can be scammed. A <a href="https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/professional-athletes-alleged-almost-500-million-in-losses-as-fraud-targeting-them-continues-to-rise-300707408.html" target="_blank">2018 report</a> from the financial firm Ernst & Young estimated that from 2004 through 2017, athletes across all sports alleged fraud-related losses of nearly $500 million. (Carlson, who tracks cases on a spreadsheet of his own, believes the actual total exceeds $1 billion). In 2019, the <a href="https://www.ftc.gov/system/files/documents/reports/consumer-sentinel-network-data-book-2019/consumer_sentinel_network_data_book_2019.pdf" target="_blank">Federal Trade Commission received</a> nearly 1.7 million fraud complaints and reported that overall fraud losses were more than $1.9 billion.</div><div><br /></div><div>
To understand why cons solider on—even in the face of compelling contrary evidence—it helps to understand how people are snookered in the first place. In her 2016 book <i><a href="https://www.mariakonnikova.com/books/the-confidence-game/" target="_blank">The Confidence Game: Why We Fall for It … Every Time</a>,</i> aptly-surnamed author Maria Konnikova uses interviews, anecdotes, and a whole lot of behavioral psychology to construct what amounts to a Grand Unified Theory of Scamming.</div><div><br /></div><div>
Con artists, she writes, are successful largely because we do most of their work for them. </div><div><br /></div><div>
Nobody sees themselves as a sucker. According to a study cited by Konnikova, about 95 percent of people think that they are better than average at judging other people’s trustworthiness. In reality, however, we’re exceedingly mediocre at discerning deception: researcher Paul Ekman has spent more than 50 years having over 15,000 subjects watch video clips of people either lying or telling the truth about a wide variety of topics. The success rate at identifying honesty? About 55 percent—slightly better than a coin flip.</div><div><br /></div><div>
More importantly, Konnikova writes, we all want something. Scammers suss that out, and present themselves as genies who can fulfill our deepest wishes. They bond with us by creating rapport and exploiting our empathy—becoming like us, or like the kinds of people we want to be around. In one psychological study cited by Konnikova that involved evaluating a series of altered head shots, participants judged the people in the photos to be more trustworthy the more similar to their own faces the pictures became.</div><div><br /></div><div>
Once trust has been established, Konnikova writes, con artists encourage us to feel instead of think. They persuade us by amplifying reasons to say yes and obscuring reasons to say no. They show us just enough evidence of an actual, legitimate payoff to make us believe that more (much more!) is on the way. And they seduce us with gripping stories that compel us to emotional and behavioral receptivity—the most successful commercials, researchers have found, are the ones with memorable narratives.</div><div><br /></div><div>
<i>Our enemies are getting stronger and stronger by the day, and we as a country are getting weaker. The world is laughing at us. We need somebody that can take the brand of the United States and make it great again. I will be the greatest jobs president that God ever created. America will start winning again, winning like never before. We will bring back our jobs, bring back our borders, bring back our wealth and we will bring back our dreams. I will build a great wall, very inexpensively, and have Mexico pay for it. I am your voice. I alone can fix it. </i></div><div><br /></div><div></div>
Sound familiar?<div><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-USdY5rSYLYQ/YEJskOEPS2I/AAAAAAAAFU4/Hbe6SH9XE-U6kFwZ7o699y6K9dDdDEWIACLcBGAsYHQ/s1280/https---bucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com-public-images-6c7a573e-6fcf-4fd6-ab9b-ca0059dd02b4_1280x853.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="853" data-original-width="1280" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-USdY5rSYLYQ/YEJskOEPS2I/AAAAAAAAFU4/Hbe6SH9XE-U6kFwZ7o699y6K9dDdDEWIACLcBGAsYHQ/s16000/https---bucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com-public-images-6c7a573e-6fcf-4fd6-ab9b-ca0059dd02b4_1280x853.jpeg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Author Maria Konnikova, talkin’ cons. Photo by Brian D. Engler via Creative Commons.</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div>While working with his clients, Carlson has seen this pattern play out over and over again. Athletes have relatively short careers. They want long-term financial security for themselves and their families. They know they need to invest, but don’t know how to go about it.<br /><div><br /></div><div>
“There’s a big difference between being street smart—knowing that some things are too good to be true—and knowing how to vet financial investments,” Carlson says. “Most athletes wouldn’t know that a 12 percent promissory note is too good to be true. Most Americans wouldn’t know that. If you’re a couple years out of college or never took a finance class in the first place, how would you know that?”</div><div><br /></div><div>
When it comes to managing their money, athletes are looking for someone to trust. Scammers know how to fit the bill. Some, Carlson says, drive flashy cars, wear pricey watches, and throw big parties in bigger houses—all to project an image of success. <i>I’ve made it. Work with me, and you can, too.</i> “A lot of athletes are the first person in their family who really has money,” Carlson says. “So when they see an advisor living in a mansion, wearing really expensive suits, hanging out with all these other big-name athletes, that makes them seem credible.”</div><div><br /></div><div>
Others take the opposite approach. One advisor, I’ve heard, likes to throw a Bible in his bag and point it out when he’s meeting with religious athletes—even though the advisor isn’t religious himself. “A lot of these guys are chameleons,” Carlson says. “They will pretend to be who you want them to be. They bond with you, gain trust and loyalty with you, and manipulate you by telling you what you want to year.”</div><div><br /></div><div>
Aaron Parthemer, a South Florida-based adviser who worked with roughly 40 athletes before being <a href="https://www.finra.org/sites/default/files/fda_documents/2011030405801_FDA_RB7X1658%20%282019-1563043775274%29.pdf" target="_blank">barred by Finra</a> and <a href="https://www.sec.gov/litigation/admin/2017/34-81471.pdf" target="_blank">the SEC</a> for misconduct that <a href="https://advisorhub.com/barred-bada-bing-broker-gives-morgan-stanley-more-headaches/" target="_blank">cost his clients millions</a>, pitched himself as more than a financial sherpa. He was a friend. Former NFL player and Carlson client Antwan Barnes ultimately lost about $200,000 investing with Parthemer. “I signed with Aaron because he felt warm, like home,” <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/magazine/wp/2019/05/09/feature/athletes-hire-him-when-they-think-theyve-been-swindled/" target="_blank">Barnes says</a>. “I felt like this guy’s not bulls—-ing me about anything. So I was mad, but more disappointed. I had grown to know Aaron over the years. I knew his mom and brother. I met his wife and kid. It felt like a betrayal of trust.”</div><div><br /></div><div>
<hr />
<span class="drop-cap">T</span>he same factors that make cons compelling also make them sticky. By the time red flags start to appear, victims often are so emotionally invested in scammers—or in the tales they’re telling—that they look the other way. </div><div><br /></div><div>
In her book, Konnikova describes a 2006 study in which a computer program was able to detect fraudulent financial statements 85 percent of the time; by contrast, a group of professional human auditors who spot fraud for a living were only able to identify 45 percent of the bogus statements. </div><div><br /></div><div>
Why the vast gap? The auditors’ feelings got in the way:</div><div><br /></div><div>
<blockquote>When they found a potential discrepancy, they would often recall a case where there was a perfectly reasonable explanation for it, and would then apply it there as well. Their assumptions probably gave people the benefit of the doubt more generously than they should have. Most people don’t commit fraud, so chances are, this one isn’t, either.</blockquote></div><div><br /></div><div></div>
Louis Delmas, a Carlson client who lost money with Parthemer, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/magazine/wp/2019/05/09/feature/athletes-hire-him-when-they-think-theyve-been-swindled/" target="_blank">can relate.</a> When Delmas was drafted by the Detroit Lions in 2009, he later told federal investigators, he wanted to “focus on football.” So Delmas went along with Parthemer’s suggestion that he invest in Club Play, a Miami Beach nightclub; he even let Parthemer decide the amount of money.<div><br /></div><div>
According to Delmas, Parthemer never offered to show him the club’s financial statements, which would have revealed roughly $3 million in losses over a three-year period. And Delmas never thought to ask for them. Nor did he think to question why Parthemer bought a boat to promote Club Play; why he fronted money for promotional expenses like securing a hotel room for Tommy Lee and Pamela Anderson when the Super Bowl was held in Miami in 2010; why he also worked on opening a strip club in Doral; why he pitched a pie-in-the-sky club-centric promotional tequila deal to Bacardi that cost Delmas and others even more money; and why he tried to create a club-affiliated Miami Bikini Team in order to, in Parthemer’s words, “meet girls,” according to depositions taken as part of investigations by regulators.</div><div><br /></div><div>
Delmas was stunned to learn from investigators that Parthemer had transferred $200,000 from his bank account into accounts connected to Club Play and the prospective strip club. Parthemer did “a great job of putting numbers together and making me happy,” Delmas told investigators, “knowing I don’t know where to go or I don’t know how to go about it, getting the truth out of this information.”</div><div><br /></div><div>
And even when scams are revealed, we struggle to accept—and admit—that we’ve been tricked. Konnikova writes that cons are chronically underreported. Why?</div><div><br /></div><div>
<blockquote>… to the end, the marks insist they haven’t been conned at all. Our memory is selective. When we feel that something was a personal failure, we dismiss it rather than learn from it. And so, many marks decide that they were merely victims of circumstance; they had never been taken for a fool. </blockquote></div><div><br /></div><div>
In June 2014, a so-called suckers list of people who had fallen for multiple scams surfaced in England. The list had been passed on from shady group to shady group, sold to willing bidders, until law enforcement had gotten hold of its contents. It was 160,000 names long. When authorities began contacting some of the individuals on the list, they were met with surprising resistance. I’ve never been scammed, the victims insisted. You must have the wrong information.</div><div><br /></div><div></div>
Carlson has noticed a similar phenomenon among athletes who have been ripped off. Many keep quiet, eat their losses, and move on without calling the cops or filing lawsuits—all because they don’t want anyone to know they’ve been had. “The cool thing for athletes today is to portray the image that they are sophisticated investors,” he says. “If an article came out about how they got screwed on some investments, it would make them look unsophisticated.”<div><br /></div><div>
In some cases, scam victims respond to the walls closing in by doubling down. Psychologists call this the “sunk cost effect”: once we’ve invested heavily in something, we become less likely to see it clearly. We’re also loathe to cut our losses, because doing so would mean admitting a mistake. And that carries a heavy emotional price. </div><div><br /></div><div>
In one Northwestern University study of business schools students, Konnikova writes, researchers found that telling the students flat out that an investment decision was bad wasn’t enough to get them to reverse it. Instead, the students felt responsible for the investment and kept putting money into it—<i>more than into any other option.</i></div><div><br /></div><div>
A few years ago, Carlson and his father Curtis—a longtime securities fraud litigator with his own practice—were meeting with a NFL player who had been a client of an advisor named Jeff Rubin, who was barred from the securities industry by regulators after 31 NFL players lost a combined $40 million investing in a failed Alabama electronic bingo casino that Rubin recommended and partially owned. </div><div><br /></div><div>
The player was looking for a lawyer. The Carlsons reviewed his financial statements. They broke the bad news: <i>Your money is gone. You need to cut ties with your adviser.</i></div><div><br /></div><div>
<i>I can’t,</i> said the player, who subsequently hired other attorneys. <i>He’s paying my mortgage.</i></div><div><br /></div><div>
“It didn’t sink in,” Curtis Carlson says. “He thought Rubin would keep paying.”</div><div><br /></div><div>
<hr />
<span class="drop-cap">W</span>hat makes reality sink in? For athletes, Chase Carlson says, the answer is usually pain. Loss. There is <a href="https://www.si.com/nba/2019/09/19/athete-financial-advisor-embezzlement-fraud-scandal-peggy-ann-fulford" target="_blank">always a moment</a>, he says, when his clients realize that their money is gone—and that there’s no way to explain it back into existence. </div><div><br /></div><div>
“Imagine you’ve invested in something like a Dunkin’ Donuts franchise and your advisor keeps telling you that it’s going good, even though you don’t see a dividend for years,” Carlson says. “At some point, you’re like, ‘what the f___? Where’s my dividend?’ You get fed up. Or one day, you get a bankruptcy notice for the franchise in the mail. </div><div><br /></div><div>
“That can take a long time. But these [scammers] can only BS for so long. Eventually, things get real.”</div><div><br /></div><div>
Things have gotten real for Trump. He’s no longer president. He has been <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/house-poised-impeach-trump-second-time-incitement-insurrection-n1254051" target="_blank">impeached by the House</a> for incitement of insurrection. He <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/22/politics/mcconnell-trump-impeachment-conviction-republicans/index.html" target="_blank">may have lost</a> enough support among influential Republicans to be convicted by the Senate, an outcome that could prevent him from holding federal office ever again. He faces <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/jan/20/donald-trump-post-presidency-legal-woes" target="_blank">ongoing legal jeopardy</a> on multiple fronts including tax evasion, election interference, and business fraud. GOP politicians and government officials who supported his efforts to overturn the election on the basis of pure fantasy <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/23/us/politics/scott-perry-trump-justice-department-election.html" target="_blank">could be in trouble</a>, too. And Trump’s most fervent supporters—the ones who stormed the Capitol because they believed, like the Colorado truck driver Scheerer, that the election was fraudulent—already are <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-55626148" target="_blank">facing consequences</a>. </div><div><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-9rdgRvfKM2M/YEJs5_-PWxI/AAAAAAAAFVA/B8c3N7K-mZI2dburm9PwKK4s5yoZX369ACLcBGAsYHQ/s1280/https---bucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com-public-images-71a1bb33-a318-4983-8081-8e0c099b528f_1280x960.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="960" data-original-width="1280" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-9rdgRvfKM2M/YEJs5_-PWxI/AAAAAAAAFVA/B8c3N7K-mZI2dburm9PwKK4s5yoZX369ACLcBGAsYHQ/s16000/https---bucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com-public-images-71a1bb33-a318-4983-8081-8e0c099b528f_1280x960.jpeg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">When you can’t just sit back and watch football. Photo via Creative Commons.</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div>That’s the good news. The bad news? The vast majority of Republicans who have swallowed Trump’s nonsense—who are deeply invested in keeping the faith—are not paying a price for it. There is no missing dividend, no bankruptcy notice in the mail, no empty checking account. There’s no actual downside to believing that Biden cheated his way to the White House. To the contrary, there’s only emotional upside, an enormous shot in the arm to the deep <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/01/conservatism-reaches-dead-end/617629/" target="_blank">feelings of victimhood</a> that animate <a href="https://theweek.com/articles/914220/conservative-victimhood-complex-made-america-impossible-govern" target="_blank">contemporary GOP politics</a>, the perpetual <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/25/opinion/trump-convention-platform.html" target="_blank">sense of grievance</a> that unites <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2018/04/the-last-temptation/554066/" target="_blank">Evangelical Christians</a>, reactionary billionaires, <a href="https://www.vox.com/identities/2017/12/15/16781222/trump-racism-economic-anxiety-study" target="_blank">racially resentful Whites</a>, and the rest of the Republican coalition with a narcissistic New York real estate failson whose lifelong lodestar has been <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/01/donald-trump-scandals/474726/" target="_blank">stiffing, screwing, cheating</a>, and <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/list-trumps-accusers-allegations-sexual-misconduct/story?id=51956410" target="_blank">hurting</a> almost everyone he encounters, all while telling anyone who will listen how very unfair the world has been to him.</div><div><br /></div><div>
In her book, Konnikova tells the story of a man named David Sullivan, a cultural anthropologist turned private investigator who spent 20 years infiltrating cults. Sullivan, she writes, would learn the cults’ language, their customs and ways, and their views on life—because only as a “true believer” could he hope to talk to cult members and persuade them to leave.</div><div><br /></div><div>
Sullivan was very good at what he did. When working to extract cultists, he would show them receipts, proof that cult leaders were not the selfless and holy figures they portrayed themselves to be. “I have to show them that the money that went to the mission was actually spent on a second house, a mistress, a lavish lifestyle in LA,” Sullivan says in the book. “And the trip to visit the orphanage, well, here’s the receipt: they were in Vegas, gambling.” </div><div><br /></div><div>
Sometimes, this helped. But many times, it didn’t. Konnikova writes:</div><div><br /></div><div><blockquote>
… as Sullivan frequently pointed out, physical evidence often didn’t even matter. Show it to those who’d already bought into the fiction, and many would say, “No, that’s impossible. I know this man; he’s a man of God. No way.” And even though Sullivan had seen the same dynamic play out dozens of times, it didn’t make it any less troubling or difficult to wrap his head around. “That still to this day sometimes stops me in my tracks.”</blockquote></div><div><br /></div><div>
Scams, Carlson says, work a bit like stock prices. The numbers go up. The numbers go down. It’s easy to tell a convincing story explaining movement in either direction—because ultimately, you don’t register an actual gain or loss until you sell your shares. But what if you never have to? “Hypothetically,” he says, “that kind of con could go on forever.”</div><div><br /></div><div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<kicker><a href="https://hrealsports.substack.com/p/the-longest-cons" target="_blank">Published at Hreal Sports</a></kicker></div></div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3878043065627433241.post-24257194466715781152021-01-12T09:56:00.094-05:002021-02-02T10:53:05.248-05:00The NCAA Is Punishing Brittany Collens to Keep Its Amateurism Con Going<div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-3sK_SoeCj8U/YBlz7_CuGOI/AAAAAAAAFS8/kS6dyjcGdb8KtKq6CDqN8N-LTnV0PP24ACLcBGAsYHQ/s1456/https---bucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com-public-images-3bcf76f8-a8c7-4c39-a30f-dc6cf2c16464_2250x1266.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1333" data-original-width="2000" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-3sK_SoeCj8U/YBlz7_CuGOI/AAAAAAAAFS8/kS6dyjcGdb8KtKq6CDqN8N-LTnV0PP24ACLcBGAsYHQ/s1456/https---bucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com-public-images-3bcf76f8-a8c7-4c39-a30f-dc6cf2c16464_2250x1266.jpeg" /></a></div></div><a name='more'></a><div style="text-align: center;"><subhead>The association stripped the former UMass tennis player and her teammates of 49 victories because of a $504 accounting error. Why?</subhead></div><div style="text-align: center;"><attribution>Patrick Hruby | Hreal Sports | January 2021</attribution></div><span class="drop-cap">W</span>hen Brittany Collens first saw the news, she figured it was a joke. It was last October, and Collens, <a href="https://www.itftennis.com/en/players/brittany-collens/800497878/usa/wt/s/overview/" target="_blank">a professional tennis player,</a> was driving home following a workout when her coach texted her an article about the National Collegiate Athletic Association punishing the University of Massachusetts, Amherst women’s tennis program for violating its amateurism rules. <div><br /></div><div><i>
Didn’t you play at UMass?</i> her coach texted. </div><div><br /></div><div>
Collens did. As a senior in 2017, she helped the school win its first Atlantic 10 title in 15 years, capping a memorable season for Collens and her tight-knit teammates with what she calls <a href="https://www.bostonglobe.com/2020/10/23/sports/ncaa-again-shows-its-pettiness-by-punishing-umass-tennis-team-252-violation/" target="_blank">“an absolutely fairy-tale ending.”</a> </div><div><br /></div><div>
But now—three years later and completely out of the blue—the clock was striking midnight. After pulling off the road, Collens <a href="https://www.masslive.com/umassbasketball/2020/10/umass-expecting-to-appeal-ncaa-mens-basketball-womens-tennis-penalties-for-accidental-extra-benefit-violations-worth-9187.html" target="_blank">read the article</a>. The NCAA was vacating 49 UMass women’s tennis victories from 2014-15 to 2016-17, including the team’s conference championship, because two players had received money from the school exceeding the full cost of attendance—thereby flouting the sacred and fundamental principle that college athletes shall not get more than whatever the NCAA says they are allowed to get, currently the value of their athletic scholarships plus cost of living stipends. </div><div><br /></div><div>
Curiosity curdling into disbelief, Collens realized that she and her former roommate, Anna Woosley, were the two players in question. Their terrible, no-good amateurism crime? When the pair moved out of dorms and into off-campus housing during their junior year, the school mistakenly continued to include a $252 telecommunications subsidy in their scholarship checks. </div><div><br /></div><div>
“It’s a stipend for athletes in on-campus housing, so they can have a phone jack for a landline,” Collens says. “I didn’t have a landline when I lived on campus. So I never even noticed it. I had to call my former coach and the UMass [athletic director] so they could explain what was happening, and why I was in trouble. </div><div><br /></div><div>
“It just doesn’t make sense. The rules don’t make sense.” </div><div><br /></div><div>
Collens is right: NCAA rules that turn college athletes into second-class economic citizens forbidden from earning whatever somebody wants to pay them do not, in fact, make a whit of sense. There is no morally justifiable reason to prevent Zion Williamson from signing a shoe deal while playing basketball at Duke University, prohibit University of Minnesota wrestler Joel Bauman from <a href="https://sports.yahoo.com/news/ncaa-rules-wrestler-ineligible-for-selling-songs-in-itunes-021616195.html" target="_blank">selling his rap songs on iTunes,</a> sanction University of Central Florida kicker Donald De La Haye for <a href="https://www.latimes.com/sports/more/la-sp-ucf-kicker-ineligible-youtube-20170801-story.html" target="_blank">making money from his YouTube channel</a>, or crack down on California Polytechnic State University because some of its athletes <a href="https://www.sanluisobispo.com/sports/college/cal-poly/article236058843.html" target="_blank">received too much textbook funding</a>. Particularly not when the NCAA purportedly exists to support the <a href="http://www.ncaa.org/about/resources/media-center/ncaa-101/what-ncaa" target="_blank">“well-being and lifelong success of college athletes,”</a> and cash in one’s pocket continues to be (surprise!) a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/16/science/rich-people-longer-life-study.html" target="_blank">key variable</a> in <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/blog/social-mobility-memos/2016/02/19/a-college-degree-is-worth-less-if-you-are-raised-poor/" target="_blank">furthering both.</a> </div><div><br /></div><div>
On the other hand, amateurism’s sheer nonsensicalness is exactly <i>why</i> the NCAA and its member schools have no choice but to pretend otherwise—and why an unintentional accounting error worth about as much as <a href="https://www.tennis-warehouse.com/Babolat_Pure_Drive_2018/descpageRCBAB-BPD1H.html?from=tribe" target="_blank">a nice tennis racket</a> has resulted in the bulk of Collens’ collegiate tennis career being declared null and void. Like the Wizard of Oz, the people who run college sports have a grand illusion to maintain, the myth that their rules are somehow sacrosanct. And that means enforcing them as such. </div><div><br /></div><div>
Otherwise, the whole con falls apart. </div><div>
<hr />
<span class="drop-cap">T</span>he details of how the NCAA came for Collens are both absurd and illustrative, a Joseph Heller B-plot come to life. The story begins in 2017, when just-hired UMass men’s basketball coach Matt McCall was asked by one of his players about getting free tickets to an on-campus concert—something other players previously had received. </div><div><br /></div><div>
Worried that the free tickets could constitute a NCAA rules violation, McCall brought the issue to UMass athletic director Ryan Bamford. Bamford’s department looked into the matter, ultimately determining that the tickets did not break amateurism rules because they were free to all students. (Phew! Crisis averted!) During that process, the department also realized that a handful of men’s basketball and tennis players who had moved from on-campus to off-campus housing had received more money in their scholarship housing allowances than they were supposed to—not because UMass was surreptitiously trying to slip its athletes some extra cash (which, frankly, would have been cool and good), but rather because the school had made an accounting error. UMass hired an outside law firm that specializes in NCAA-related cases to conduct an internal audit, which found that 12 athletes received roughly $9,100 in excess housing money. </div><div><br /></div><div>
Of that total, a combined $504 went to Collens and Woosley. “We would just get, like, lump sum direct deposits into our bank accounts [for our housing expenses],” Collens says. ““I didn’t even know I was getting any extra money. And my bank account never went below $252, so I didn’t even spend it!” </div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/w7asdcA9buw" width="320" youtube-src-id="w7asdcA9buw"></iframe></div><div><br /></div><div>
In a totally sane college sports world, none of this would have mattered, because none of it would have been against any rules. McCall and Bamford wouldn’t have wasted their time worrying about free concert tickets. UMass wouldn’t have wasted time and money—reportedly $100,000—hiring an outside law firm to investigate an internal clerical mixup. Even in a semi-sane college sports world, said investigation would have been the end of things: maybe UMass would have asked Collens and the other athletes to pay back their puny housing allowance overages, or maybe the school simply would have eaten a financial loss so insignificant that <i>nobody working there even noticed it had happened</i> until accidentally stumbling across it. </div><div><br /></div><div>
Alas, the college sports world is governed by the NCAA. So things played out as stupidly as possible. UMass self-reported the overpayments to the association, which otherwise would not have known about them, and agreed to pay a $5,000 fine. In return, the NCAA took the school’s money—and also vacated nearly 100 combined men’s basketball and women’s tennis victories from the 2014-15, 2015-16, and 2016-17 seasons, explaining that “the excessive financial aid rendered the student-athletes ineligible. NCAA rules require member schools to withhold ineligible student-athletes from competition until their eligibility is restored, regardless of the school’s knowledge.” </div><div><br /></div><div>
In other words: <i>Here’s your speeding ticket. Next time, don’t drive 57 miles per hour in a 55 mph zone, and definitely don’t admit as much to the cops. Rules are rules. </i></div><div><br /></div><div>
The NCAA’s decision left Collens perplexed. For the sake of a bookkeeping screw-up she didn’t make, an amateurism violation she didn’t understand, and a purportedly ill-gotten financial windfall so penny-ante that UMass couldn’t find it without hired help, an organization founded to protect the health and safety of athletes was instead dropping her college career into a memory hole. </div><div><br /></div><div>
Collens thought about how hard she and her teammates had worked to win matches. “I felt sad for our group,” she says. “I talked to them. They’re heartbroken. I know what those victories meant, especially to my teammates who are international—who packed up and moved away from their families, who had their families joining in to watch them play on live video streams at, like, two in the morning their time.” She thought about Woosley clinching the A-10 championship on the final point of the final match to cap an improbable UMass comeback against Virginia Commonwealth University, and how the team literally went to Disney World to celebrate. She thought about what the NCAA essentially branding them as cheaters would mean for their futures. </div><div><br /></div><div>
“I was worried about our reputations,” Collens says. “The NCAA is saying we did something wrong. I know some of my teammates have used that championship in their job interviews. I’m still a professional tennis player. What if people really think that about me? Will I ever be able to get another wild card [entry] into a tournament?” </div><div><br /></div><div>
Collens thought about her grandfather, Lester, a nonagenarian who would drive two hours to watch her UMass home matches and regularly sent his granddaughter heartfelt messages of inspiration and support before his death in 2019. Her confusion was replaced by anger. “What would my papa feel if he knew that this is what the NCAA was doing?” she says. “That’s why it’s emotional for me. It’s a slap in the face.”</div><div><br /></div><div>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p dir="ltr" lang="en">This brought tears out. My papa was my biggest supporter in tennis. He used to print out stats on every opponent. If he knew that I was fighting the NCAA he’d be printing out their stats and bio too haha. I love you so much you give me strength to compete and do the right thing. <a href="https://t.co/RXrVggasLy">pic.twitter.com/RXrVggasLy</a></p>— Brittany Collens (@Brittcollens22) <a href="https://twitter.com/Brittcollens22/status/1332735331850973185?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 28, 2020</a></blockquote> <script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>
<hr />
<span class="drop-cap">C</span>ollens isn’t the first college athlete to feel the sting of the NCAA’s absolutist justice. From football to basketball to soccer, <a href="https://hrealsports.substack.com/p/so-dumb-how-the-ncaa-fines-athletes" target="_blank">athletes have been punished</a> for high amateurism crimes and misdemeanors including using a Xeroxed faculty parking pass during winter break, having one’s stepmother receive a discounted rate at a campus hotel, and eating more pasta than permitted at a graduation banquet. </div><div><br /></div><div>
All of this raises a question. <i>Why? </i>Why go full broken windows, vigorously policing picayune stuff? Why send a SWAT team to put down a housefly? Why not show the slightest bit of commonsense enforcement discretion by leaving athletes such as Collens alone? </div><div><br /></div><div>
The answer lies in how the NCAA defends its rules against legal challenges in federal court—by pretending that amateurism is a matter of principle, not price. </div><div><br /></div><div>
To be fair, this defense is a pretty good magic trick. By which I mean a scam. Even Oscar Diggs would be impressed. To understand the NCAA’s devotion to it—and its parallel indifference to athletes ending up as collateral damage—it helps to understand the nature of those legal challenges. So let me explain with a quick analogy. </div><div><br /></div><div>
Imagine you’re a restaurant owner. A brilliant young chef has just moved into your town. You want to hire her. So do the owners of five other restaurants. One offers the chef a high salary. Another offers better health benefits. You offer both, plus a generous signing bonus. </div><div><br /></div><div>
You land the chef. But it costs you. And over time, all of this darn bidding drives up labor costs for you and your competitors alike. So you get together and make a pact: from now on, nobody pays more than $50,000 a year for a chef. No exceptions. </div><div><br /></div><div>
The pact pays off for everyone. Handsomely! The chefs have no choice but to accept your offers—in fact, it’s a privilege for them to work in your restaurants. And with all the money you’re saving on salaries, <a href="https://www.patrickhruby.net/2013/03/the-gold-plating-of-college-sports.html" target="_blank">you can afford to pay yourself more. Or put a lazy river in your parking lot. </a></div><div><br /></div><div>
Pretty sweet deal, right? For sure. It’s also <i>completely freaking illegal</i>. Federal antitrust law, which exists to protect and promote economic competition, prohibits this sort of collusion. Usually. However, if an agreement among marketplace rivals is necessary for a product to exist in the first place, like the USB interface standard in electronics, then that agreement can be considered “procompetitive” and allowed to exist. </div><div><br /></div><div>
Back to college sports. Think of the NCAA and its members schools as restaurants, and athletes as chefs. Over the last decade, athletes including former University of California, Los Angeles basketball player Ed O’Bannon repeatedly have sued the association in federal court, arguing that amateurism violates antitrust law. In response, the NCAA has claimed its rules prohibiting athlete compensation are procompetitive for a number of reasons, including preserving competitive balance among schools, promoting athletes’ educations, and allowing athletic departments to field teams that don’t make money. </div><div><br /></div><div>
One by one, these reasons have been discredited in court. And rightfully so, because they’re—to use a legal term of art—<i>total bullshit.</i> Amateurism<a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2014/08/the-end-of-amateurism-not-the-end-of-college-sports/379200/" target="_blank"> has not put the men’s basketball programs at the University of Kentucky and Ball State University on a level playing field</a>. It <a href="https://www.vice.com/en/article/kzqevz/amateurism-isnt-educational-debunking-the-ncaas-dumbest-lie" target="_blank">does not make college athletes better students,</a> despite NCAA president Mark Emmert’s contention that paid players probably wouldn’t eat in school cafeterias, which in turn could hurt their studies, which is an actual argument Emmert made in a federal trial, and an actual sentence I just typed. Nor is amateurism necessary for men’s track and other non-revenue sports to exist; if it was, athletic departments crying poverty during the coronavirus pandemic wouldn’t be <a href="https://andywittry.substack.com/p/lets-have-a-reasonable-discussion" target="_blank">slashing those programs</a> while <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/2020/12/17/college-football-coach-firing-costs-rise-much-75-million/3930808001/" target="_blank">simultaneously paying football coaches millions of dollars to not work</a>. </div><div><br /></div><div>
Today, the NCAA is down to a single procompetitive defense for amateurism: if college athletes were paid, the association claims, then there would be no difference between professional sports and college sports—and importantly, fans would no longer tune in to or buy tickets for the latter. Outside of campus athletic directors saying so in depositions, there’s no concrete evidence that this claim is true. Nevertheless, federal judges have bought it. Case in point? After Judge Claudia Wilken ruled in O’Bannon’s case that schools could pay athletes up to $5,000 a year through trust funds those athletes could access following the end of their college careers, an appeals court struck that provision down, <a href="https://www.courant.com/sports/college/hc-obannon-case-court-strikes-down-payments-1001-20150930-story.html" target="_blank">reasoning that</a>: </div><div><br /></div><div><blockquote>
… the difference between offering student-athletes education-related compensation and offering them cash sums untethered to educational expenses is not minor; it is a quantum leap.<b> Once that line is crossed, we see no basis for returning to a rule of amateurism and no defined stopping point. (Bold added)</b>. </blockquote></div><div><br /></div><div>
The logic here is simple: if amateurism exists to uphold a particular price point for athlete compensation instead of a existing as a product-defining principle—if it’s a highfalutin excuse for a salary cap instead of the mystical and inviolable line between college sports and the void—then there’s no reason for the federal judiciary to keep protecting it. Pay athletes $5,000 in deferred compensation, and you might as well pay them $500,000 in straight cash, homey. </div><div><br /></div><div>
In reality, of course, amateurism has always been <a href="https://deadspin.com/the-ncaa-has-always-paid-players-now-its-just-harder-t-1727419062" target="_blank">a price-fixing scam</a>. Once upon a time, <a href="http://deadspin.com/the-ncaa-has-always-paid-players-now-its-just-harder-t-1727419062" target="_blank">athletic scholarships counted as pay</a>. Then they didn't. <a href="http://articles.dailypress.com/1990-04-04/sports/9004040002_1_athletes-stipend-virginia-tech" target="_blank">Laundry money given to athletes</a> <i>didn't</i> count as pay. Then it did. The NCAA was deeply, existentially opposed to both cost-of-living stipends and <a href="http://www.athleticscholarships.net/2012/10/04/how-ncaa-banned-cream-cheese.htm" target="_blank">complimentary bagel toppings</a>—that is, until bad press and expensive lawsuits convinced Emmert and company that, actually, cream cheese should be spread liberally, that gas and pizza money won't break the bank of an industry that can <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ncaaf/sec/2016/06/21/alabama-strength-coach-scott-cochran-salary-525000-per-year/86178328/" target="_blank">afford to pay football strength coaches $525,000 per year,</a> and that we have always been at war with East Asia. In the here and now, the NCAA allows plenty of quantum leaps into compensation that have nothing to do with educational expenses, with athletes <a href="https://ftw.usatoday.com/2020/12/playstation-fiesta-bowl-wins-for-best-gift-for-oregon-iowa-state-players-a-ps5" target="_blank">getting PlayStation 5s for playing in the Fiesta Bowl</a>, <a href="https://www.vice.com/en/article/8qyxmg/the-ncaa-lets-college-olympians-collect-cash-for-gold-because-amateurism-is-a-self-serving-lie" target="_blank">$740,000 from the government of Singapore for winning Olympic gold medals</a>, and actual, honest-to-goodness salaries for<a href="https://247sports.com/college/navy/ContentGallery/2021-NFL-Mock-Draft-The-First-Round-145681526/" target="_blank"> playing sports at service academies</a>. </div><div><br /></div><div>
But pay no attention to those glaring inconsistencies. Akin to Oscar Diggs barking about the great and powerful Oz while <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWyCCJ6B2WE" target="_blank">furiously working the assorted levers and doodads behind his chintzy green curtain</a>, the NCAA puts <a href="https://deadspin.com/the-ncaa-is-gaslighting-you-1829716653" target="_blank">real effort into make-believing that amateurism is more than a grubby price-fix</a>—effort that includes dropping the hammer on absurd rules violations, like unknowingly receiving phone jack money. Rules are rules, after all. Allow college athletes to cross the amateurism line by receiving even $252, and people might start to wonder why there’s a line in the first place, or whose interests that line really serves. </div><div>
<hr />
<span class="drop-cap">D</span>uring her time at UMass, Collens didn’t give those interests much thought. She was too busy practicing and playing tennis, studying sports journalism, and trying to get through days that started as early as 5 AM and often ended after midnight. “You’re told to be grateful,” she says. “I was super grateful to have a scholarship. And if you don’t perform, you could lose that scholarship. So that’s kind of where I was.” </div><div><br /></div><div>
Besides, NCAA amateurism rules were confusing, simultaneously abstract and arcane. At the start of each school year, Collens and other athletes would sit through compliance meetings—complete with paperwork and PowerPoint presentations—informing them exactly what they were allowed to receive and do. “There’s so many rules,” Collens says. “It’s boring to sit there for a couple of hours. You’re tired. You’re falling asleep. And for me, with tennis, are they really worried about us, like, taking boosters’ money? We didn’t really have boosters. </div><div><br /></div><div>
“Honestly, I probably didn’t know all the rules when I was playing. I would just hope that I was doing the right thing.” </div><div><br /></div><div>
Today, Collens wants the NCAA to do the right thing. Hours after she learned about the association’s punishment, <a href="https://www.change.org/p/ncaa-support-a10-champion-umass-women-s-tennis-vs-the-ncaa?utm_content=cl_sharecopy_25324882_en-US:4&recruiter=22854092&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=copylink&utm_campaign=share_petition&utm_term=psf_combo_share_initial" target="_blank">she started an online petition to have UMass’ tennis victories reinstated</a>. The petition has since attracted more than 7,500 signatures; meanwhile, Collens has shared her story with the <i><a href="https://www.bostonglobe.com/2020/10/23/sports/ncaa-again-shows-its-pettiness-by-punishing-umass-tennis-team-252-violation/" target="_blank">Boston Globe</a></i>, <a href="https://www.espn.com/college-sports/story/_/id/30218466/ncaa-gives-umass-tennis-harsh-lesson-power-phone-jack" target="_blank">ESPN</a>, the <a href="https://www.burnitalldownpod.com/episodes/interview-brittany-collens-on-taking-on-the-ncaa" target="_blank">Burn It All Down podcast</a>, and local television. </div><div><br /></div><div>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p dir="ltr" lang="en">Spoke with <a href="https://twitter.com/TomLeyden?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@TomLeyden</a> of <a href="https://twitter.com/boston25?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@boston25</a> and this is airing tonight after the Eagles game! Sign the petition and hear our story! <a href="https://t.co/NC6pXGeufQ">https://t.co/NC6pXGeufQ</a> <a href="https://t.co/Xe0V6PIcQs">pic.twitter.com/Xe0V6PIcQs</a></p>— Brittany Collens (@Brittcollens22) <a href="https://twitter.com/Brittcollens22/status/1319442913248555010?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 23, 2020</a></blockquote> <script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script><div><br /></div>
UMass is appealing the NCAA’s penalties, and both school athletic director Bamford and A10 commissioner Bernadette McGlade have <a href="https://www.masslive.com/umassbasketball/2020/10/umass-expecting-to-appeal-ncaa-mens-basketball-womens-tennis-penalties-for-accidental-extra-benefit-violations-worth-9187.html" target="_blank">expressed public disapproval of the association’s decision</a>. (So have<a href="https://www.gazettenet.com/District-attorneys-send-letter-to-NCAA-37553833" target="_blank"> four Massachusetts district attorneys who graduated from the school</a>). A favorable ruling, Collens says, would make her happy. But not satisfied. Not anymore. Ironically, the NCAA’s heavy-handed amateurism enforcement has a way of inspiring people to peek behind the curtain. </div><div><br /></div><div>
Over the last two months, Collens has spoken with Taylor Branch, the Pulitzer Prize-winning civil rights historian whose definitive 2011 takedown of amateurism, <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2011/10/the-shame-of-college-sports/308643/" target="_blank">“The Shame of College Sports,”</a> still stings; with Sonny Vaccaro, the former Sneaker Don who has <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/14/sports/ncaabasketball/a-reformed-sneaker-pimp-takes-on-the-ncaa.html" target="_blank">become an outspoken advocate for college athletes’ rights</a> and was a<a href="https://www.cbssports.com/college-basketball/news/how-sonny-vaccaro-accidentally-created-the-ed-obannon-case/" target="_blank"> driving force behind O’Bannon’s seminal lawsuit</a>; with Andy Schwarz, an influential economist who has consulted on NCAA antitrust suits and <a href="https://slate.com/culture/2014/01/paying-college-athletes-a-point-by-point-evisceration-of-the-ridiculous-myths-that-prevent-ncaa-athletes-from-getting-the-money-they-deserve.html" target="_blank">written extensively about amateurism’s failings</a>; with Tim Nevius, a lawyer and former NCAA investigator <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2019/03/18/disillusioned-ex-ncaa-investigator-launches-new-player-advocacy-group/" target="_blank">who now works on behalf of college athletes</a>; and with a legislative aide to Sen. Cory Booker, who last December <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/17/sports/ncaafootball/college-athlete-bill-of-rights.html" target="_blank">introduced a bill in Congress</a> that would give athletes a share of the profits generated by college sports and create government oversight of health and safety standards. </div><div><br /></div><div>
Those conversations have left Collens questioning much more than just her own team’s vacated victories. <i>Why did UMass have to spend $100,000 defending itself in the NCAA’s kangaroo court when that same money could have gone directly to supporting athletes? Why does the association zealously police amateurism, but not the emotional, physical, and sexual abuse of athletes? Why do the people in charge of college sports get to tell athletes what they can and can’t earn?</i> “It’s super mind-boggling how much I didn’t know before this,” Collens says. </div><div><br /></div><div>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p dir="ltr" lang="en">Just had a great convo with <a href="https://twitter.com/CoryBooker?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@CoryBooker</a>’s office and legislative aid. It is inspiring to hear the work they’re doing and I’m so happy to get involved with this movement.</p>— Brittany Collens (@Brittcollens22) <a href="https://twitter.com/Brittcollens22/status/1346875320805146630?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 6, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script><div><br /></div>
Last year, a former financial adviser named Marty Blazer was <a href="https://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/28647726/bribery-informant-marty-blazer-gets-probation-fraud-case" target="_blank">facing up to 67 years in prison after pleading guilty to defrauding five clients</a>—most of them professional football players—out of $2.35 million. He instead was sentenced to one year of probation, perhaps in part because the NCAA wrote a letter to the court asking for sentencing leniency. Why intervene on behalf of a conman and a thief? Blazer also was helping the association identify amateurism rule breakers, basketball players and recruits who allegedly were receiving under-the-table payments. The people running college sports were willing to go to bat for a man who was pickpocketing athletes, so long as he could help them prop up a system that does the same. It sounds like a joke. A cruel one. “We’re told that the NCAA is protecting us,” Collens says. “But I’ve realized that their rules are actually just meant to keep us in line. They are not for our benefit at all. I probably wouldn’t have said that a few months ago. But I’m starting to understand how wrong it is.” </div><div><br /></div><div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<kicker><a href="https://hrealsports.substack.com/p/the-ncaa-is-punishing-brittany-collens" target="_blank">Published at Hreal Sports</a></kicker></div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3878043065627433241.post-62040924746273262342020-12-29T11:42:00.001-05:002020-12-29T11:46:55.682-05:00What Happened to Hayley Hodson<div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-4z4hWRS8s9U/X-tWiHG9cFI/AAAAAAAAFQY/iZkaWmW-2oUkqxd1hYBS434FJ034y5uEACLcBGAsYHQ/s2000/90.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1333" data-original-width="2000" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-4z4hWRS8s9U/X-tWiHG9cFI/AAAAAAAAFQY/iZkaWmW-2oUkqxd1hYBS434FJ034y5uEACLcBGAsYHQ/s16000/90.jpeg" /></a></div></div><a name='more'></a><div style="text-align: center;"><subhead>She was a volleyball star with a bright future in the sport, until blows to her head changed everything</subhead></div><div style="text-align: center;"><attribution>Patrick Hruby | The Los Angeles Times | December 2020</attribution></div><span class="drop-cap">S</span>omething was wrong with Hayley Hodson. She had come to Stanford as the country’s top volleyball recruit, an Olympic hopeful whose high school mornings in Newport Beach were self-scheduled down to the minute, the better to start classes early so she could lift weights before afternoon practice. <div><i><br /></i></div><div><i>6:00 a.m. — Wake up 6:03 a.m. — Brush teeth 6:07 a.m. — Drink coffee, eat Greek yogurt 6:13 a.m. — Get backpack</i> </div><div><br /></div><div>Now Hodson could barely get out of bed. It was late September 2016, and the Cardinal were in Washington state. Hodson, a sophomore captain, was a returning All-American and National Freshman of the Year. </div><div><br /></div><div>
She also was in pain. Her shins had been aching for months. Her swollen left foot was in a walking boot. </div><div><br /></div><div>
Those were the visible problems. </div><div><br /></div><div>
Since late 2015, Hodson had suffered migraines and insomnia, anxiety and exhaustion. A diligent student who learned calculus through online self-study, she couldn’t concentrate in class. She needed reminders to eat. </div><div><br /></div><div>
Earlier in the month, Hodson had been diagnosed with clinical depression. She took medication but didn’t feel better. Prior to the Washington trip, Hodson called her parents — Jimmy, an actor who is the voice of In-N-Out Burger, and Sonya, a television producer who worked for CBS Sports and on “Touched by an Angel.” </div><div><br /></div><div>
<i>I won’t be playing,</i> she said. <i>But I need you here anyway.</i> </div><div><br /></div><div>
Sonya made the trip with her sister-in-law, Char Hodgson. The team was staying at a hotel in Spokane. Around 4 p.m., Sonya called her daughter’s room. </div><div><br /></div><div>
<i>There’s a steakhouse downstairs. Why don’t you come meet us?</i> </div><div><br /></div><div>
<i>Mom, I can’t imagine getting out of bed.</i> </div><div><br /></div><div>
Hodson hung up. Moments later, Sonya called back. </div><div><br /></div><div>
<i>You need to eat. I’ll come get you.</i> </div><div><br /></div><div>
Hodson’s mood was dark. Her eyes watered. She kept resting her head on the restaurant table. She “talked in circles,” Sonya says. “Nothing made sense.” </div><div><br /></div><div>
Under the table, Char grabbed Sonya’s hand. Sonya was afraid. She knew something was very wrong. </div><div><br /></div><div>
Only later would she learn Hodson already had played her last match. </div><div><br /></div><div>
Within 10 months, her daughter retired from the sport with a diagnosis of post-concussion syndrome, the result of what the family would claim were brain injuries suffered after being hit in the head with volleyballs near the end of her freshman season. Hodson filed a lawsuit in 2018 against Stanford and the National Collegiate Athletic Assn. for failing to provide proper medical care for those injuries, allegations the school and the NCAA deny. </div><div>
<hr />
<span class="drop-cap">E</span>ver since her family attended the 2002 Salt Lake City Games when she was 5, Hodson wanted to be an Olympian. Her youth softball team won a national championship when she was 8; the next year, she quit after the sport was dropped from the Summer Games. </div><div><br /></div><div>
“I was a go-for-the-gold-type person,” she says. </div><div><br /></div><div>
Hodson turned to volleyball. At first, she hated it. The net was too high. The ball jammed her fingers. But Hodson was tall, standing 6 feet in eighth grade. </div><div><br /></div><div>
She also was determined. At 12, Hodson attended a tryout in San Jose for USA Volleyball’s high-performance youth program and caught the eye of then-program director Denise Sheldon. </div><div><br /></div><div>
“Hayley was at the top of my depth chart” from that moment forward, says Sheldon, who in 2016 managed the women’s national team at the Rio Games. “What stood out to me with her, year after year, is that she would do whatever it takes to make our [youth] national teams.” </div><div><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-DHijnbcBYfc/X-tZIfA7wFI/AAAAAAAAFQw/q3n_TCV-XGgEKYk3_CVWx2Km8rjlmowJgCLcBGAsYHQ/s1080/90.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="721" data-original-width="1080" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-DHijnbcBYfc/X-tZIfA7wFI/AAAAAAAAFQw/q3n_TCV-XGgEKYk3_CVWx2Km8rjlmowJgCLcBGAsYHQ/s16000/90.jpeg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Hayley Hodson, right, and Tia Scambray show off the silver medals they won after competing for the USA Girls’ Youth National Team at the FIVB U18 World Championships in Thailand in August 2013.(Los Angeles Times)</td></tr></tbody></table><div><br /></div><div>
As a freshman, Hodson led Corona del Mar High in scoring as the school reached the 2011 Southern Section finals; as a junior, she took a leave of absence from school to play for the gold medal-winning U.S. squad in the U23 world championships in Mexico, finishing as the team’s third-leading scorer. </div><div><br /></div><div>
At the invitation of women’s national team coach Karch Kiraly, Hodson became just the third high school player to train with America’s senior squad, spending two months competing against professional players she mostly had seen on television. </div><div><br /></div><div>
“Hayley absolutely had the potential to play on the Olympic team,” says Holly McPeak, a three-time Olympian and Hodson’s high school beach volleyball coach. “She had all the skills. She was coachable and hardworking. In my eyes, she was a dream athlete.” </div><div><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-li97iUsXg-Q/X-tZ7zC2JEI/AAAAAAAAFRA/dFFJnMpBYBYF3BphD_XknlGZYE53FQhLgCLcBGAsYHQ/s1080/90.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="729" data-original-width="1080" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-li97iUsXg-Q/X-tZ7zC2JEI/AAAAAAAAFRA/dFFJnMpBYBYF3BphD_XknlGZYE53FQhLgCLcBGAsYHQ/s16000/90.jpeg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Hayley Hodson was a standout volleyball player at Corona del Mar High School before enrolling in Stanford in 2015.(Don Leach / Costa Mesa Daily Pilot)</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div>In April 2015, Volleyball Magazine featured Hodson on its cover as the nation’s No. 1 college volleyball recruit. </div><div><br /></div><div>
And Hodson had a plan: Graduate college in less than four years. Train with Team USA. Play in the 2020 Tokyo Games. Play pro volleyball overseas. Return for law school, spring-boarding from sports into broadcasting or legal work. </div><div><br /></div><div>
“Hayley never seemed to go through the chaos teenagers go through,” Sheldon says. “If you gave her a responsibility, there was absolutely no question she would make sure it got taken care of. She was the epitome of a kid with persistence and mental strength.” </div><div><br /></div><div>
When Hodson arrived at Stanford in August 2015, Jimmy Hodson says, then-Cardinal coach John Dunning told him that she was the most well-prepared freshman he had ever seen. She earned All-Pac-12 honors, leading the team in kills, points and service aces. </div><div><br /></div><div>
Hodson’s days were demanding: four hours of morning classes. Get to Maples Pavilion by 2 p.m. to get taped and warm up for practice. Practice from 4 to 8 p.m. Lift weights until 9. Homework and film study until after midnight. </div><div><br /></div><div>
Yet, Sonya says, “all I got every day from Hayley was, ‘Mom, this place is great. I’m at home here. I love it.’” </div><div>
<hr />
<span class="drop-cap">T</span>wo hits, the family says, changed everything. </div><div><br /></div><div>
The first happened Nov. 9, 2015. During a Stanford practice, Hodson says, Dunning had her and teammate Madi Bugg perform the “courage” drill. </div><div><br /></div><div>
In a 2012 YouTube video, Dunning demonstrates the drill, which he says improves “reaction time and focus.” Players stand 10 feet from the net; on the other side, a coach atop a stool slaps sharply angled, medium-speed shots toward the players, who dig the ball with their arms while keeping their heads out of harm’s way. </div><div><br /></div><div>
“You need to be careful with this,” Dunning says in the video. “We call it the ‘courage’ drill appropriately. If I were you and going to do this — well, I don’t know if I would do it at all.” </div><div><br /></div><div>
Hodson’s lawsuit says the drill was “dangerous,” and she said her teammates hit full-speed shots. </div><div><br /></div><div>
A ball struck Hodson on the right side of her head. Her Stanford athletic medical records describe what happened next: A team athletic trainer had her take a sideline neurocognitive test used to evaluate injured athletes for concussions. Hodson had trouble seeing out of her right eye. There was worry she had suffered a detached retina. </div><div><br /></div><div>
A teammate drove Hodson to the campus hospital, where she was diagnosed with a “likely closed head injury/maybe minor concussion.” The next day, the medical records show, a Stanford team doctor diagnosed a “mild concussion.” </div><div><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-IDVQYr2Gx4M/X-taadKcTJI/AAAAAAAAFRI/pRMac0hznwgLxyH8jdoTw3o3-YQGzYqYwCLcBGAsYHQ/s1080/90.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="1080" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-IDVQYr2Gx4M/X-taadKcTJI/AAAAAAAAFRI/pRMac0hznwgLxyH8jdoTw3o3-YQGzYqYwCLcBGAsYHQ/s16000/90.jpeg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Hayley Hodson on the cover of Volleyball Magazine in 2015.(Dania Maxwell / Los Angeles Times)
</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div>
According to a 2015 study published in the American Journal of Sports Medicine, women’s volleyball has the ninth-highest concussion rate among 25 NCAA sports. Most athletes who suffer a single concussion — with rest and a gradual return to activity — experience no lasting ill effects. </div><div><br /></div><div>
However, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and a number of medical studies, athletes who suffer a second concussion while recovering from a previous one face a greater risk of prolonged or permanent symptoms, including chronic headaches, mood and behavioral changes, and cognitive impairment. </div><div><br /></div><div>
Suffering multiple concussions also has been linked to increased risk later in life of depression and cognitive impairment, while exposure to repetitive brain trauma — including sub-concussive hits to the head that don’t cause obvious symptoms — is associated with the development of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a neurodegenerative disease found in the brains of several high-profile athletes following their deaths. </div><div><br /></div><div>
In high school, Hodson says, she was diagnosed with her first concussion following volleyball hits to the head. Afterward, she suffered from insomnia and distorted vision, an account confirmed by Team USA doctor Chris Koutures, who treated her. She didn’t play for more than a month; when she experienced vertigo and a tingling sensation in her first practice back, she was sidelined again until her symptoms subsided. </div><div><br /></div><div>
Ideally, Koutures says, athletes should not return to play until they are symptom-free. But in the middle of a season, he says, all of that can be challenging. </div><div><br /></div><div>
“There’s pressure for athletes to get back,” Koutures says. “It can be self-imposed, ‘I don’t want to miss the big game, so I will tell people what they want to hear.’ Or it can be pressure from the team or coach.” </div><div><br /></div><div>
Hodson was concussed on a Monday night. On Tuesday, Stanford’s medical records indicate she told a team doctor that she was suffering from headaches and “feeling in a fog.” She was held out of a road match against Washington on Thursday. Stanford’s records show she continued to have distorted vision in her right eye Friday, yet was cleared by a team doctor over the phone Saturday to participate in a full practice and play in Stanford’s road victory over Washington State on Sunday. </div><div><br /></div><div>
The same team doctor examined Hodson on Monday and recorded her condition as “concussion, resolved.” Over the next two weeks, she played in four Stanford victories, twice leading the team in kills. On Nov. 26, she visited her parents for Thanksgiving. The Cardinal were playing UCLA the next day. At dinner, Hodson was edgy and irritable, her family said, telling them volleyball was an “off-limits topic.” </div><div><br /></div><div>
“She very much wasn’t herself, but we never even thought about the concussion,” Sonya says. “Once a kid gets cleared, nobody ever mentions it again.” </div><div><br /></div><div>
In the UCLA match, Hodson tried to block a hard shot. The ball ricocheted off her forehead and into the stands. </div><div><br /></div><div>
The Cardinal won in five sets. To this day, Hodson barely remembers the rest of the match. In her lawsuit, she claims she suffered a undiagnosed concussion during that match — and that Stanford did not evaluate her for a second brain injury. </div><div><br /></div><div>
Medical records reviewed by The Times do not indicate that Hodson was evaluated for a concussion during or following the UCLA match. A Stanford athletic department spokesperson declined to answer questions and said the school does not comment on pending litigation. </div><div><br /></div><div>
“Athletically,” Hodson says, “that was the last time I played well.” </div><div>
<hr />
<span class="drop-cap">F</span>ollowing Stanford’s season-ending NCAA tournament loss to Loyola Marymount that Dec. 4, Hodson spiraled downward. </div><div><br /></div><div>
She couldn’t sleep. Her appetite vanished. Suddenly afraid to be alone, she called friends at all hours. She struggled to study for final exams. “Nothing was going into my brain,” she says. “Anything new, I couldn’t learn it.” </div><div><br /></div><div>
When her family took a holiday ski vacation, she mostly stayed inside, avoiding people and scribbling negative thoughts in a journal. </div><div><br /></div><div>
Hodson’s insomnia worsened when she returned to campus. So did the shin pain she had been experiencing since late in her freshman season. She had frequent migraines. She used to love exercise and hated sugary foods; now, she was perpetually exhausted and craved sweets. </div><div><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Z1Hr-mjIfHM/X-tayNo_IwI/AAAAAAAAFRQ/2p-3GKg6f6gw1JSXW0kG3jtmG28AIvsegCLcBGAsYHQ/s1080/90-1.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="1080" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Z1Hr-mjIfHM/X-tayNo_IwI/AAAAAAAAFRQ/2p-3GKg6f6gw1JSXW0kG3jtmG28AIvsegCLcBGAsYHQ/s16000/90-1.jpeg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Hayley Hodson stands in her parents’ Newport Beach home while wearing her U.S. Women’s National Team jacket.(Dania Maxwell / Los Angeles Times)</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div>Hodson struggled through Stanford’s spring season of beach volleyball. In March, she experienced vertigo on her way to the student union and nearly collapsed — something she says had happened following a concussion in high school. </div><div><br /></div><div>
On another day, Hodson says, she broke down sobbing in a training room. She says that Dunning called her into his office. </div><div><br /></div><div>
“I told him, ‘John, my mom is coming on a plane right now because I have been crying for the last eight hours. I don’t know what is going on, but I am not OK.’ ” </div><div><br /></div><div>
Dunning did not respond to a request for comment. </div><div><br /></div><div>
To treat Hodson’s shins, records confirm, Stanford athletic trainers gave her acupuncture and performed instrument-assisted soft tissue mobilization, a painful process in which a metal tool was repeatedly pressed into her shins; to treat her lethargy, a sports dietitian recommended eating more carbohydrates. </div><div><br /></div><div>
Before her sophomore season began, Hodson was named a co-captain. </div><div><br /></div><div>
“They were really counting on me to lead,” Hodson says, adding that she felt pressured. “I knew all the freshmen girls coming in, and I loved them so much. I wanted it to be a redemptive season after losing in the NCAA tournament.” </div><div><br /></div><div>
In early September 2016, Hodson’s parents visited Palo Alto. Jimmy had printed out a checklist of depression symptoms. In their daughter’s room, Sonya says, “I was checking them off, one after the other.” A Stanford psychiatrist, unaffiliated with the athletic department, diagnosed Hodson with clinical depression and prescribed Prozac. </div><div><br /></div><div>
During a match against Purdue, Hodson experienced dizziness, blurry vision and tingling in her fingers, all of which she says “happened to me during my concussion [in high school].” During her next match, against Cal Poly San Luis Obispo on Sept. 11, she felt a stabbing pain in her left foot, which swelled up and left her sidelined. </div><div><br /></div><div>
“That was a blessing,” she says. “[The coaches] couldn’t put me on the court.” </div><div><br /></div><div>
Sonya says that she asked coaches to redshirt Hayley during the Washington state trip. “They told me injuries are a part of the game and that I would just have to trust them,” Sonya says. </div><div><br /></div><div>
When the Cardinal returned to Stanford, Hodson says, “I was so depressed, I was walking across streets hoping I would get hit by a bus and die. Not actively suicidal. But I didn’t really care about life at that point. Or being on a court.” </div><div><br /></div><div>
Two days later, Oct. 4, Hodson took a medical leave of absence. </div><div>
<hr />
<span class="drop-cap">T</span>hat December, Stanford defeated Texas to win the 2016 national championship. Hodson didn’t watch. Instead, she was meeting with a psychologist in Manhattan Beach. </div><div><br /></div><div>
Hodson still wanted to play. She read every self-help book she could, and met almost daily with doctors and physical therapists. She considered transferring. </div><div><br /></div><div>
The family did not trust Stanford. School doctors, Hodson says, had diagnosed her foot pain as inflammation and told her that she wasn’t risking further injury by playing. Medical records show that an independent doctor subsequently reviewed MRI scans taken by Stanford and determined she had a stress fracture. </div><div><br /></div><div>
On the day of title game, Hodson says, her mobile phone lighted up. “It was all sort of people I knew from volleyball,” she says, “saying things like, ‘Congratulations, this is your title, too.’ ” None of the messages, she says, came from Stanford. </div><div><br /></div><div>
Dunning retired in January 2017. His replacement, Kevin Hambly, visited the Hodsons at their Newport Beach home. “He said, ‘I can’t help you with what happened in the past, but I can help going forward,’” Sonya says. “‘If it takes to your senior year, I will help you love volleyball again.’” </div><div><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-U4ZrOkhwwkQ/X-tbFqRiEeI/AAAAAAAAFRY/zkGlK0o_ZmEQwvGh2_eYve51NQokqW3tACLcBGAsYHQ/s1080/90.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="1080" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-U4ZrOkhwwkQ/X-tbFqRiEeI/AAAAAAAAFRY/zkGlK0o_ZmEQwvGh2_eYve51NQokqW3tACLcBGAsYHQ/s16000/90.jpeg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A clinical neuropsychologist at UC Riverside determined that parts of Hayley Hodson’s brain “were working at 10%" after her playing days were over at Stanford.(Dania Maxwell / Los Angeles Times)</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div>Hodson was hopeful. By early March, her foot had healed. Her shins were pain-free. She planned to return to Stanford in April. But she was still struggling emotionally, and dealing with insomnia and listlessness. </div><div><br /></div><div>
While researching NCAA transfer and medical rules, Sonya had connected with Ramogi Huma, a former UCLA linebacker and executive director of the National College Players Assn., a nonprofit advocacy organization. Sonya mentioned that her daughter’s decline had started after she was concussed. </div><div><br /></div><div>
<i>Go back in time,</i> Huma advised. <i>Start there.</i> </div><div><br /></div><div>
Sonya and Hayley reached out to experts, starting with David Baron, a USC professor and neuropsychiatry researcher who has worked with many athletes. Baron said it was likely Hodson was suffering from post-concussion syndrome (PCS), a disorder in which symptoms such as dizziness, light sensitivity and intense headaches persist long after someone experiences an initial brain injury. </div><div><br /></div><div>
“Oftentimes, the symptoms look like depression or anxiety, and sometimes they are misdiagnosed,” says Baron, now the senior vice president and provost of the Western University of Health Sciences “But we see changes in moods, sleep, irritability. Those can be related to, and directly caused by, the effects of impacts to the brain.” </div><div><br /></div><div>
A lengthy evaluation by David Franklin, a clinical neuropsychologist at UC Riverside, confirmed Baron’s suspicions. Parts of her brain, Hodson says, “were working at 10%.” </div><div><br /></div><div>
Franklin said her impaired concentration and reaction time made it dangerous for her to continue playing volleyball, Hodson says. (Stanford doctors unaffiliated with the school’s athletic department subsequently came to the same conclusion.) Koutures, the Team USA doctor who had treated Hodson in high school, recommended she medically retire. </div><div><br /></div><div>
Hodson returned to Stanford in April 2017. She announced her medical retirement in June. In between, she worked as a production assistant for the Pac-12 Network on a beach volleyball match. By the end of the broadcast, she was shaking uncontrollably. </div><div><br /></div><div>
“I realized that volleyball was over for me,” Hodson says. “And that’s not what I would have chosen.” </div><div>
<hr />
<span class="drop-cap">B</span>rain injuries are intensely isolating. A torn knee ligament can cut athletes off from their sport — but post-concussion syndrome can alienate someone from their entire life. </div><div><br /></div><div>
“You’re not you in a lot of ways,” Hodson says. “There’s invisible and silent suffering, days you are stuck in the dark. Looking other people in the eye can be difficult. Nobody knows how to deal with it. You lose friends. It’s just so lonely.” </div><div><br /></div><div>
To cope, Hodson shared her story. </div><div><br /></div><div>
On her blog, she wrote about trusting Stanford and feeling pressured to play through injuries. About spending a week at a brain injury clinic in Utah. About the loss of her Olympic dreams and a volleyball community that, she says, “felt like family.” </div><div><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-C13ReKSCwjI/X-tbW8jILGI/AAAAAAAAFRk/B5nN_o4ES2co_ty3c2Ec1lcz7DZCYbQfACLcBGAsYHQ/s1080/90-1.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="1080" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-C13ReKSCwjI/X-tbW8jILGI/AAAAAAAAFRk/B5nN_o4ES2co_ty3c2Ec1lcz7DZCYbQfACLcBGAsYHQ/s16000/90-1.jpeg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Hayley Hodson, center with her parents, Jimmy, and Sonya. Sharing her story with others has helped Hodson understand she is not alone.(Dania Maxwell / Los Angeles Times)</td></tr></tbody></table><div><br /></div><div>Stories started coming in return. </div><div><br /></div><div>
Hodson heard from Haylee Williams (née Roberts), a Bakersfield native she played against in club matches during high school. A top recruit in 2013, Williams went to Oregon, suffered a debilitating concussion during summer workouts and left the school before ever playing a match. Hodson also heard from Jordyn Schnabl, a Long Beach native who says that during her senior year at North Carolina in 2015, she took a ball to the head that produced a career-ending concussion diagnosis and left her with long-term symptoms including excruciating headaches and vertigo. </div><div><br /></div><div>
“I felt like I needed to reach out to Hayley,” Schnabl says. “I wanted to see how she was coping. And I wanted to know, ‘Am I an outlier, or is this systemic?’ It seems systemic.” </div><div><br /></div><div>
Hodson connected with Huma, the campus athlete advocate. She read articles and watched documentaries about abusive coaches and economic exploitation of young athletes. She learned that the NCAA says “safeguarding the well-being” of athletes is its mission, but it neither makes nor enforces binding concussion care and management rules for its member schools. </div><div><br /></div><div>
“There’s no accountability,” Hodson says. “There are good people in the system, but it’s not set up to look out for kids.” </div><div><br /></div><div>
Hodson’s lawsuit against the NCAA and Stanford is in discovery. According to her Los Angeles-based attorney, Robert Finnerty, a trial could occur next year or in 2022 depending on how the COVID-19 pandemic affects civil court scheduling. </div><div><br /></div><div>
In addition to damages for pain, suffering and lost volleyball income, Hodson’s suit seeks to force the NCAA to place brain injury warning labels on volleyballs; train college coaches and athletic trainers to recognize and properly treat brain injuries; and monitor and discipline those who fail to do so. </div><div><br /></div><div>
Contacted by The Times, a spokesperson for the NCAA declined to comment or answer questions about Hodson. </div><div><br /></div><div>
Now 24, Hodson still suffers from migraines and insomnia. She takes medication for depression and chronic fatigue, and sees a therapist for post-traumatic stress disorder. She needs extra time and a special note-taking app to complete her schoolwork and exams, and for a time lived by herself so that she could “come home to what is essentially a sensory deprivation room.” Hodson says that she has improved from “four hours of brain function a day to eight” but can end up exhausted and overwhelmed by daily life. </div><div><br /></div><div>
“There are days where I am haunted,” Hodson says. “I was a really capable person before [my injuries]. Will I be 40 with dementia? If I hit a life crisis, will I spin out?” </div><div><br /></div><div>
It would be easier, she says, not to litigate her brain injury — and easier still not to publicly discuss her trauma. “About every other day,” she says, “I’m like, ‘Why have I done this?’” </div><div><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-A_ThERvI5Go/X-tbnk6tsNI/AAAAAAAAFRs/Gd1eTo5jrYMwp9vAjEBaTWF5J6TJFb-pQCLcBGAsYHQ/s1080/90.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="1080" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-A_ThERvI5Go/X-tbnk6tsNI/AAAAAAAAFRs/Gd1eTo5jrYMwp9vAjEBaTWF5J6TJFb-pQCLcBGAsYHQ/s16000/90.jpeg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Hayley Hodson sits with her dog, Buddy, at her parents’ Newport Beach home. Hodson doesn’t want other college athletes to sacrifice their health for sport.(Dania Maxwell / Los Angeles Times)</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div>Hodson knows the answer: to advocate for other young athletes. She graduated from Stanford in June 2019, and this month is finishing her third semester of law school at UCLA. </div><div><br /></div><div>
Hodson recently connected with a volleyball player at a Division I school who suffered two concussions and subsequently struggled with her mental health. “When I was younger, I totally looked up to Hayley,” says the player, who asked not to be identified to protect her privacy. “She was the it volleyball player. Hearing her story was like, ‘I am not crazy.’ It was validation for what I was feeling and going through.” Rather than play hurt, the player took a medical leave. She’s now at home, recovering. </div><div><br /></div><div>
“We have kids all over the country that need to save themselves and don’t know how,” Hodson says. “If I speak out, then maybe someone else with something wrong will have the courage to speak out, too.” </div><div><br /></div><div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<kicker><a href="https://www.latimes.com/sports/story/2020-12-08/stanford-volleyball-hayley-hodson-concussions-cte-lawsuit" target="_blank">Published at The Los Angeles Times</a></kicker></div></div><br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3878043065627433241.post-58142307888807723852020-11-23T11:17:00.000-05:002020-11-23T11:17:01.060-05:00Why Marijuana is Winning the Sports Drug War<div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-aJaenWHMiQY/X7vfkMVkmmI/AAAAAAAAFPE/iMcvS4JBTlATP7tv1kAJpHmk4xBxCZ1TACLcBGAsYHQ/https---bucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com-public-images-a1153765-ded0-49ea-ac60-b4aabf858c16_1200x675.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img data-original-height="675" data-original-width="1200" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-aJaenWHMiQY/X7vfkMVkmmI/AAAAAAAAFPE/iMcvS4JBTlATP7tv1kAJpHmk4xBxCZ1TACLcBGAsYHQ/s16000/https---bucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com-public-images-a1153765-ded0-49ea-ac60-b4aabf858c16_1200x675.jpeg" /></a></div></div><a name='more'></a><div style="text-align: center;"><subhead>As America liberalizes its cannabis laws, professional sports leagues are following suit</subhead></div><div style="text-align: center;"><attribution>By Patrick Hruby | Global Sport Matters | November 2020</attribution></div><span class="drop-cap">A</span>l Harrington had a plan. It was October 2017, and Harrington, a retired National Basketball Association player turned <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2019/12/25/nba-cbd-marijuana-al-harrington-weed/" target="_blank">cannabis entrepreneur and advocate</a>, was <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9sVsR2DsFKs" target="_blank">interviewing former league commissioner David Stern</a> in his New York office. <div><br /></div><div>Harrington was nervous. Following a 16-year NBA career, he founded a cannabis company named after his grandmother, Viola, who used cannabidiol (CBD)—a component of marijuana that <a href="https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/cannabidiol-cbd-what-we-know-and-what-we-dont-2018082414476" target="_blank">does not produce a high and is used for therapeutic purposes</a>—to treat her glaucoma and diabetes. </div><div><br /></div><div>Harrington himself used CBD oils and creams for pain relief while playing. Now he wanted Stern, who was commissioner when the NBA added marijuana to its list of banned substances in 1999, to reconsider that policy.</div><div><br /></div><div>Hoping to lead Stern along, Harrington brought <a href="https://www.nbcsports.com/philadelphia/nba-insider-tom-haberstroh/marijuana-and-nba-erasing-stigma-and-healing-league" target="_blank">a list of 20 questions, carefully structured to culminate with a Big Ask.</a> “Knowing [Stern] was an attorney for so long, I knew you can’t trick him into anything,” Harrington says. “But I was trying to figure out how to make him make a statement.”</div><div><br /></div><div>The list wasn’t necessary. Early in the discussion, Stern volunteered that he thought marijuana should be removed from the NBA’s list—and he later added that as medicinal and recreational use of the drug became legal in an increasing number of states, it would be “up to the sports leagues to anticipate where this is going, and maybe lead the way.”</div><div><br /></div><div>“After that, most people thought he was going to invest in my company!” Harrington says with a laugh. “But he didn’t. He just really believed in what he was saying.”</div><div><br /></div><div>Three years later, Stern appears to have been ahead of the curve—both inside and outside professional sports. On Election Day, New Jersey, South Dakota, Montana, and Arizona made recreational marijuana legal, while Mississippi and South Dakota legalized medical use of the drug.</div><div><br /></div><div>According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, 15 states and the District of Columbia have now <a href="https://www.ncsl.org/research/civil-and-criminal-justice/marijuana-overview.aspx" target="_blank">legalized the drug for recreational purposes</a>. A total of 35 states—as well as the District of Columbia, Guam, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands—<a href="https://www.ncsl.org/research/health/state-medical-marijuana-laws.aspx" target="_blank">have legalized its medical use</a>.</div><div><br /></div><div>Liberalization of marijuana laws mirrors an increasingly accepting attitude toward the drug by sports leagues. In December 2019, MLB <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2019/12/12/sport/mlb-changes-drug-program/index.html" target="_blank">removed cannabis from its list of “drugs of abuse.”</a> The NFL’s recently adopted collective bargaining agreement <a href="https://sports.yahoo.com/new-nfl-cba-has-its-pluses-but-benefits-for-marijuana-users-are-far-down-the-list-224020429.html" target="_blank">eliminates suspensions for marijuana use</a>. </div><div><br /></div><div>Earlier this year, a <a href="https://globalsport.asu.edu/resources/banned-substances-sport-public-perception-performance-enhancing-drugs-and-marijuana-use" target="_blank">survey conducted by Global Sport Institute at Arizona State University</a> found that a majority of the American public believes that professional athletes should be allowed to use marijuana: 45 percent of respondents stated that athletes should be allowed to use medical and/or recreational marijuana if such use is legal in their states, and another 24 percent stated that athletes should be allowed to use even if the drug is prohibited in their states.</div><div><br /></div><div>Taken together, the survey’s results and broader political support for relaxing marijuana prohibition suggest that leagues may be able to further liberalize—or entirely eliminate—existing rules and policies that test and penalize athletes for marijuana use without upsetting fans or harming their bottom lines.
</div><div><br /></div><div>“Societal tolerance is creeping into sports,” says Andrew Brandt, a Villanova University sports law professor and former Green Bay Packers executive. “I was in a [National Football League] front office from 1999 to 2009. Marijuana in general was much more of a taboo than it is now. We looked at players [linked] with cannabis much differently in the draft, free agent, and signing process.</div><div><br /></div><div>“I’m not in front offices anymore, but if someone yelled, ‘You know, [that player] is a weed smoker,’ I don’t think they’re going to drop in anyone’s evaluation.”<hr /></div><div><span class="drop-cap">F</span>or decades, major sports leagues and organizations have treated cannabis as an illicit drug of abuse, taking a punitive approach to its use by athletes.</div><div><br /></div><div>At the 1998 Nagano Olympics, Canadian snowboarder Ross Rebagliati won the first gold medal in the history of his sport—and almost lost it after he tested positive for marijuana, a result that landed him in <a href="http://https/www.vice.com/en_ca/article/8x8d7x/this-canadian-gold-medalist-was-banned-from-the-us-for-smoking-pot" target="_blank">a Japanese jail cell and on the U.S. “no-fly” list</a>, inspired mockery from <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nS2h9EQn90E" target="_blank">late-night talk host Jay Leno</a> and <a href="https://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/cast/jim-breuer-14901/impersonation/ross-rebagliati-195996" target="_blank">“Saturday Night Live,”</a> and helped spur the World Anti-Doping Agency to add the drug to its list of banned substances.</div><div><br /></div><div>In 2006, NFL running back Ricky Williams was <a href="https://www.espn.com/nfl/news/story?id=2421774" target="_blank">suspended for an entire season</a> for repeatedly failing marijuana tests administered by the league. From 2003 to 2008, 21 American athletes under WADA’s jurisdiction <a href="https://www.csindy.com/coloradosprings/a-look-at-evolving-attitudes-toward-marijuana-in-the-professional-sports-arena/Content?oid=5221151" target="_blank">received punishments ranging from public warnings to two-year suspensions</a> for using cannabis-related substances.</div><div><br /></div><div>More recently, professional athletes including NFL players Josh Gordon and Randy Gregory, NBA players Nerlens Noel and Thabo Sefolosha, and Ultimate Fighting Championship fighters Nick Diaz and Cynthia Calvillo have been suspended for positive marijuana tests.</div><div><br /></div><div>In 2016, Buffalo Bills lineman Seantrel Henderson smoked marijuana to cope with his Crohn’s disease, a painful condition that <a href="https://deadspin.com/nfl-suspends-bills-seantrel-henderson-who-has-used-wee-1789479827" target="_blank">ultimately led to him having about 2 1/2 feet of toxic sections of his small and large intestines removed in surgery</a>. The NFL suspended Henderson for 10 games—even though Crohn’s is a qualifying condition under New York’s medical marijuana law.</div><div><br /></div><div>League and organizations have justified prohibition and punishment as necessary for <a href="https://thecomeback.com/nfl/roger-goodell-sticks-to-anti-marijuana-stance.html" target="_blank">athlete health and safety</a>. Frequent or high-dose marijuana use has been linked to <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/marijuana/health-effects.html" target="_blank">respiratory, cardiac, and mental health problems</a>, and the drug is considered a Schedule 1 substance—alongside heroin and ecstasy—under federal law. In his interview with Harrington, Stern said that the NBA toughened its marijuana rules partially because “some of our players came to us and said some of these guys are high coming into the game.”</div><div><br /></div><div>The sports world also has taken a stern stance for public relations purposes, adopting policies that dovetailed with legal restrictions and broader social perceptions. Two years before President Richard Nixon launched the “War on Drugs,” a 1969 Gallup poll found that <a href="https://news.gallup.com/poll/267698/support-legal-marijuana-steady-past-year.aspx" target="_blank">just 12 percent of Americans</a> believed that using marijuana should be legal—a number that hovered below 25 percent during the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CYcRQIJRGzY" target="_blank">“Just Say No”</a> 1980s and stood at 30 percent in 2000, shortly after Rebagliati’s Olympic scandal.</div><div><br /></div><div>“Cannabis back then was seen as being for losers and lazy stoners,” Rebagliati <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/02/world/canada/canada-pot-snowboarder-olympics.html" target="_blank">told The New York Times in 2018</a>. “The big corporate sponsors didn’t want to sponsor me. I became a source of entertainment, a joke. I went from hero to zero overnight.”</div><div><hr /></div><div><span class="drop-cap">S</span>ince then, however, much of the stigma surrounding marijuana use has evaporated. From 2005 to 2018, public support for legalizing the drug <a href="https://news.gallup.com/poll/267698/support-legal-marijuana-steady-past-year.aspx" target="_blank">rose 30 percentage points</a> in Gallup’s poll to 66 percent, where it remained last year.</div><div><br /></div><div>In 2019, a survey from the <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/11/14/americans-support-marijuana-legalization/" target="_blank">Pew Research Center</a> found that 91 percent of American adults believe that marijuana should be legal for either medical and recreational use (59 percent) or medical use alone (32 percent).</div><div><br /></div><div>Susan Snycerski, a San Jose State University psychology professor who studies the effects of drugs on behavior and currently is conducting a survey of the public’s perception of cannabis use by athletes, says that the same changes can be seen among sports fans.</div><div><br /></div><div>“Attitudes toward pro athletes using cannabis have gotten more accepting, especially for pain management or for psychological purposes like anxiety,” she says. “And, in general, we see that more avid fans are generally okay with recreational use.”</div><div><br /></div><div>In the ASU GSI survey, 43 percent of respondents said that they still would be “likely” or “very likely” to purchase their favorite athlete’s jersey or shoe if they found out that athlete used marijuana, with only 16 percent saying that such knowledge would make a purchase “unlikely” or “very unlikely.”</div><div><br /></div><div>Why the shift? Amy Adamczyk, a sociology professor at the City University of New York, <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/science/why-so-many-americans-now-support-legalizing-marijuana-in-4-charts" target="_blank">attributes the change primarily to how the media has portrayed marijuana</a>. When support for legalization was low, press reports mostly depicted the drug in the context of crime and abuse.</div><div><br /></div><div>By contrast, when stories began to frame marijuana use as a medical issue—particularly in the aftermath of a groundbreaking 1996 California state law permitting medical cannabis—support steadily rose. Rather than view the drug as illicit or as a “gateway” to more addictive and dangerous substances like heroin and cocaine, the public began to see marijuana as a physical and psychic pain reliever that was less dangerous than alternatives such as alcohol and prescription opioids.</div><div><br /></div><div>In 2017, a Marist College poll conducted for Yahoo News found that 72 percent of Americans believed that regular alcohol use posed more of a health risk than regular marijuana use; that nearly one in five marijuana users rely on the drug to help manage pain; and that 67 percent of respondents believed that using a doctor’s prescription for an opioid painkiller posed a greater health risk than medical marijuana.</div><div><br /></div><div>The same survey also found that if professional athletes used marijuana for pain relief, 69 percent of Americans would approve.</div><div><br /></div><div>Similarly, a majority of respondents in the ASU GSI survey said that the amount of respect that they have for their favorite athlete would either increase (16 percent) or remain the same (58 percent) if they found out that athlete was using marijuana to treat pain.</div><div><br /></div><div>“I think the public feels that way because they all smoke, or know someone who does, or know someone who has benefitted from it,” Harrington says. “When you have an intimate relationship with the plant, it shows. You know firsthand that cannabis has medical benefits.”</div><div><br /></div><div>Harrington speaks from experience. He says that he avoided cannabis altogether until 2012, when he underwent knee surgery while playing for the Denver Nuggets and developed a staph infection.
Harrington was prescribed painkillers, which made him feel foggy. A nurse at a Colorado clinic where he was rehabbing his knee suggested that he try CBD. Harrington found the relief he was looking for—and also realized that alternatives to opioids could be a major business opportunity.</div><div><br /></div><div>During his final NBA season in 2013-14, Harrington began growing marijuana in a greenhouse. Today, he sells medicinal and recreational cannabis products, and he <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2019/12/25/nba-cbd-marijuana-al-harrington-weed/" target="_blank">credits CBD with allowing him to walk without pain despite 13 surgeries.</a></div><div><br /></div><div>“In my prime [as a basketball player], you could not talk about cannabis, period,” Harrington says. “Now, I’m probably one of the most popular guys in every room I walk into. Everybody wants to figure out what is going on in the [marijuana] space and how they can participate. And the way players view cannabis is totally different. They are consuming it—and they let people know about it and how they feel about it.”
<hr />
<span class="drop-cap">H</span>arrington isn’t alone in speaking out. In 2015, MMA fighter Ronda Rousey publicly criticized the UFC for suspending Nick Diaz for five years after he tested positive for marijuana, saying she was “against testing for weed at all.” A year later, then-active NFL player Derrick Morgan and eight league retirees partnered with the organization Doctors for Cannabis Regulation to publish an open letter calling on the NFL to consider marijuana a <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2016/11/11/health/nfl-marijuana-stance/" target="_blank">“viable pain management alternative.”</a></div><div><br /></div><div>Golfer Robert Garrigus owns a marijuana farm in Washington state, where the drug is legal. He uses medical cannabis to treat knee and back pain. After he was suspended for three months last year for testing positive, <a href="https://www.golfchannel.com/news/robert-garrigus-returns-marijuana-suspension-i-dont-cheat" target="_blank">he told the Golf Channel</a> that the drug should be dropped from the PGA Tour’s banned substance list because it “doesn’t help you get [the ball] in the hole.”</div><div><br /></div><div>“I wasn’t trying to degrade the PGA Tour in any way, my fellow professionals in any way. I don’t cheat the game,” Garrigus said. “I understand HGH (Human Growth Hormone), anything you are trying to do to cheat the game you should be suspended for 100 percent. Everything else should be a discussion.</div><div><br /></div><div>“If you have some sort of pain and CBD or THC may help that, and you feel like it can help you and be prescribed by a doctor, then what are we doing?”</div><div><br /></div><div><a href="https://www.espn.com/nhl/story/_/id/26046596/is-nhl-future-marijuana-pro-sports-why-be" target="_blank">According to ESPN</a>, 101 of the 123 teams in the NFL, NBA, National Hockey League, and Major League Baseball already played in jurisdictions where medical and/or recreational marijuana is legal before November’s elections. The <i>American Journal on Addictions</i> reports that cannabis is the <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/ajad.12425" target="_blank">second-most widely used drug among athletes after alcohol</a>.</div><div><br /></div><div>Faced with those numbers and shifting mores, professional leagues have been liberalizing their marijuana policies—but only to a point. MLB players who engage in “marijuana-related conduct” are subject to a mandatory evaluation and a voluntary treatment program. NFL players remain subject to testing during training camp and are fined for positive results.</div><div><br /></div><div>The NHL tests for marijuana but neither prohibits nor punishes its use. Instead, players whose tests show <a href="https://www.espn.com/nhl/story/_/id/26046596/is-nhl-future-marijuana-pro-sports-why-be" target="_blank">“abnormally high levels”</a> of THC are invited to participate in a voluntary substance abuse program.</div><div><br /></div><div>While NBA commissioner Adam Silver has said that he is <a href="https://www.slamonline.com/archives/adam-silver-nba-open-legalizing-medical-marijuana/" target="_blank">open to allowing medical marijuana use</a>, the league has yet to change its cannabis policy.</div><div><br /></div><div>One roadblock to further reform may be marijuana’s status under federal law. The drug currently is classified as having <a href="https://www.dea.gov/drug-scheduling" target="_blank">“no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse.”</a> Possessing, cultivating, and selling cannabis remain criminal offenses, punishable by fines and prison.</div><div><br /></div><div>In 2018, NBA Players Association executive director Michele Roberts <a href="https://www.sbnation.com/nba/2018/2/19/17027238/michele-roberts-interview-lebron-james-nba-all-star-game" target="_blank">expressed interest in allowing medicinal cannabis</a> but also said that if the league went “down that road, we have to protect our players. … I don’t want my guys being arrested at airports in possession of a cannabinoid by some fed. It’s against the law.”</div><div><br /></div><div>Sports leagues and organizations may have additional reasons to slow-walk their acceptance: the preferences of older fans. In the ASU GSI survey, 60 percent of respondents over age 60 believed that athletes should not be allowed to use marijuana for any reason. Almost 50 percent of that same cohort said that marijuana use would lead them to having “less respect” for an athlete.</div><div><br /></div><div>In 2017, <a href="https://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/Journal/Issues/2017/06/05/Research-and-Ratings/Viewership-trends.aspx" target="_blank">a Sports Business Journal study of Nielsen data</a> found that the average age of television viewers for all major American sports was increasing, with the PGA (64 years old), MLB (57) and NFL (50) among the oldest.</div><div><br /></div><div>“If you think about the amount of money leagues make, they’re going to be conservative,” Snycerski says. “Their business has to come first. I think that you’d have to take away the federal [laws against marijuana] for them to really re-examine it.”
<hr />
<span class="drop-cap">O</span>n the other hand, public reaction to state-level marijuana legalization hints that sports entities could continue to loosen their cannabis rules with minimal blowback. Third Way, a center-left think tank, <a href="https://www.thirdway.org/report/americas-marijuana-evolution" target="_blank">analyzed 10 state elections that took place immediately after the passage of medical cannabis legislation</a> and found that neither voting for nor signing those bills into law hurt incumbent lawmakers at the ballot box.</div><div><br /></div><div>Harrington doesn’t believe that allowing NBA players to use marijuana would damage the league in the eyes of its fans—or at the ticket window. “I don’t think it will affect them at all,” he says. “Nobody said anything bad about baseball. And we’ll see what happens with the NFL’s changes. I doubt it will be an issue.”</div><div><br /></div><div>Rather than hurt the business of sports, Harrington says, destigmatizing marijuana use could open up new money-making opportunities for active athletes and organizations alike. In 2016, professional skier Tanner Hall became the first active athlete to be sponsored by a cannabis accessory company; today, soccer star Megan Rapinoe and ultra-marathoner Avery Collins are sponsored by CBD and cannabis companies, while USA Triathlon recently became the first national governing body of an American sport to sign a sponsorship deal with a CBD company.</div><div><br /></div><div>“In time, I think you’ll see leagues have products that are exclusively created for them,” Harrington says. “That is just the natural evolution of the industry. For pain relief, who is better to speak to that than someone who puts their body through hell every game?”</div><div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<kicker><a href="https://globalsportmatters.com/culture/2020/11/17/cannabis-changing-perceptions-attitudes-policies/" target="_blank">Published at Global Sport Matters</a></kicker></div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3878043065627433241.post-52282005659174638802020-10-16T12:44:00.000-04:002020-10-16T12:44:05.477-04:00Cutting Away Black Athletes?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Ok3WpjE_xQw/X4nMu4yWwZI/AAAAAAAAFNs/82fjikxjor0DUm6upDnwcFgJy4b1A1nnwCLcBGAsYHQ/s640/https---bucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com-public-images-127cd8fb-d376-4cc3-9625-1d2601070083_640x360.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="360" data-original-width="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Ok3WpjE_xQw/X4nMu4yWwZI/AAAAAAAAFNs/82fjikxjor0DUm6upDnwcFgJy4b1A1nnwCLcBGAsYHQ/s16000/https---bucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com-public-images-127cd8fb-d376-4cc3-9625-1d2601070083_640x360.jpeg" /></a></div><a name='more'></a><div style="text-align: center;"><subhead>Former Princeton runner Russell Dinkins on how efforts to save men's track at Brown, Minnesota, and William & Mary reflect larger racial inequities in college sports</subhead></div><div style="text-align: center;"><attribution>By Patrick Hruby | Hreal Sports | October 2020</attribution></div><span class="drop-cap">W</span>hen Brown University announced in May a plan to cut its men’s track and field team along with 10 other varsity squads, the school said the move would help its other teams become more competitive. <div><br /></div><div>Russell Dinkins saw something else: an Ivy League college making itself less diverse by culling rare and valuable admission opportunities for Black athletes. </div><div><br /></div><div>A former runner at Princeton University, Dinkins subsequently wrote an influential article arguing as much. Titled <a href="https://medium.com/@dancingdinks/brown-university-if-you-were-actually-serious-about-racial-justice-you-would-not-be-cutting-the-d9e698b707e1" target="_blank">“Brown University, If You Were Actually Serious About Racial Justice You Would Not Be Cutting the Men’s Track Team,”</a> the piece points out that: </div><br />* While college sports can offer a offer a pathway to higher education and upward mobility, particularly at elite schools such as Brown, most of those opportunities skew toward athletes from middle class and affluent families—who in turn tend to be white; <br /><br /><div>* This skew occurs because the majority of sports offered by colleges are relatively expensive and inaccessible at the youth level; <br /><br /></div><div>* By contrast, track is relatively affordable and accessible, making it one of a handful of sports that is relatively racially diverse at the college level—for example, Brown’s track team has more Black male athletes (11) than its lacrosse, baseball, hockey, and crew teams combined; <br /><br /></div><div>* By planning to cut track, Brown was taking away admissions opportunities for Black athletes while preserving opportunities in sports that disproportionately favor affluent White athletes. <br /><div><br /></div><div>Dinkins’ article went viral, bolstering an all-hands effort by Brown track alums to save the men’s team. Twelve days after the school’s initial announcement, Brown reversed course.</div><div> </div><div><blockquote class="instagram-media" data-instgrm-captioned="" data-instgrm-permalink="https://www.instagram.com/tv/CBPBduOBhNj/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" data-instgrm-version="12" style="background-color: white; background: #FFF; border-bottom-left-radius: 3px; border-bottom-right-radius: 3px; border-radius: 3px; border-top-left-radius: 3px; border-top-right-radius: 3px; border: 0px; box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.5) 0px 0px 1px 0px, rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.15) 0px 1px 10px 0px; margin: 1px; max-width: 540px; min-width: 326px; padding: 0px; width: calc(100% - 2px);"><div style="padding: 16px;"> <a href="https://www.instagram.com/tv/CBPBduOBhNj/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" style="background-color: white; background: #FFFFFF; line-height: 0; padding: 0px; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; width: 100%;" target="_blank"> <div style="align-items: center; display: flex; flex-direction: row;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-bottom-left-radius: 50%; border-bottom-right-radius: 50%; border-radius: 50%; border-top-left-radius: 50%; border-top-right-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 40px; margin-right: 14px; width: 40px;"></div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-bottom-left-radius: 4px; border-bottom-right-radius: 4px; border-radius: 4px; border-top-left-radius: 4px; border-top-right-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 100px;"></div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-bottom-left-radius: 4px; border-bottom-right-radius: 4px; border-radius: 4px; border-top-left-radius: 4px; border-top-right-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 60px;"></div></div></div><div style="padding: 19% 0px;"></div> <div style="display: block; height: 50px; margin: 0px auto 12px; width: 50px;"><svg height="50px" version="1.1" viewbox="0 0 60 60" width="50px" xmlns:xlink="https://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xmlns="https://www.w3.org/2000/svg"><g fill-rule="evenodd" fill="none" stroke-width="1" stroke="none"><g fill="#000000" transform="translate(-511.000000, -20.000000)"><g><path d="M556.869,30.41 C554.814,30.41 553.148,32.076 553.148,34.131 C553.148,36.186 554.814,37.852 556.869,37.852 C558.924,37.852 560.59,36.186 560.59,34.131 C560.59,32.076 558.924,30.41 556.869,30.41 M541,60.657 C535.114,60.657 530.342,55.887 530.342,50 C530.342,44.114 535.114,39.342 541,39.342 C546.887,39.342 551.658,44.114 551.658,50 C551.658,55.887 546.887,60.657 541,60.657 M541,33.886 C532.1,33.886 524.886,41.1 524.886,50 C524.886,58.899 532.1,66.113 541,66.113 C549.9,66.113 557.115,58.899 557.115,50 C557.115,41.1 549.9,33.886 541,33.886 M565.378,62.101 C565.244,65.022 564.756,66.606 564.346,67.663 C563.803,69.06 563.154,70.057 562.106,71.106 C561.058,72.155 560.06,72.803 558.662,73.347 C557.607,73.757 556.021,74.244 553.102,74.378 C549.944,74.521 548.997,74.552 541,74.552 C533.003,74.552 532.056,74.521 528.898,74.378 C525.979,74.244 524.393,73.757 523.338,73.347 C521.94,72.803 520.942,72.155 519.894,71.106 C518.846,70.057 518.197,69.06 517.654,67.663 C517.244,66.606 516.755,65.022 516.623,62.101 C516.479,58.943 516.448,57.996 516.448,50 C516.448,42.003 516.479,41.056 516.623,37.899 C516.755,34.978 517.244,33.391 517.654,32.338 C518.197,30.938 518.846,29.942 519.894,28.894 C520.942,27.846 521.94,27.196 523.338,26.654 C524.393,26.244 525.979,25.756 528.898,25.623 C532.057,25.479 533.004,25.448 541,25.448 C548.997,25.448 549.943,25.479 553.102,25.623 C556.021,25.756 557.607,26.244 558.662,26.654 C560.06,27.196 561.058,27.846 562.106,28.894 C563.154,29.942 563.803,30.938 564.346,32.338 C564.756,33.391 565.244,34.978 565.378,37.899 C565.522,41.056 565.552,42.003 565.552,50 C565.552,57.996 565.522,58.943 565.378,62.101 M570.82,37.631 C570.674,34.438 570.167,32.258 569.425,30.349 C568.659,28.377 567.633,26.702 565.965,25.035 C564.297,23.368 562.623,22.342 560.652,21.575 C558.743,20.834 556.562,20.326 553.369,20.18 C550.169,20.033 549.148,20 541,20 C532.853,20 531.831,20.033 528.631,20.18 C525.438,20.326 523.257,20.834 521.349,21.575 C519.376,22.342 517.703,23.368 516.035,25.035 C514.368,26.702 513.342,28.377 512.574,30.349 C511.834,32.258 511.326,34.438 511.181,37.631 C511.035,40.831 511,41.851 511,50 C511,58.147 511.035,59.17 511.181,62.369 C511.326,65.562 511.834,67.743 512.574,69.651 C513.342,71.625 514.368,73.296 516.035,74.965 C517.703,76.634 519.376,77.658 521.349,78.425 C523.257,79.167 525.438,79.673 528.631,79.82 C531.831,79.965 532.853,80.001 541,80.001 C549.148,80.001 550.169,79.965 553.369,79.82 C556.562,79.673 558.743,79.167 560.652,78.425 C562.623,77.658 564.297,76.634 565.965,74.965 C567.633,73.296 568.659,71.625 569.425,69.651 C570.167,67.743 570.674,65.562 570.82,62.369 C570.966,59.17 571,58.147 571,50 C571,41.851 570.966,40.831 570.82,37.631"></path></g></g></g></svg></div><div style="padding-top: 8px;"> <div style="color: #3897f0; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 550; line-height: 18px;"> View this post on Instagram</div></div><div style="padding: 12.5% 0px;"></div> <div style="align-items: center; display: flex; flex-direction: row; margin-bottom: 14px;"><div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-bottom-left-radius: 50%; border-bottom-right-radius: 50%; border-radius: 50%; border-top-left-radius: 50%; border-top-right-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; transform: translateX(0px) translateY(7px); width: 12.5px;"></div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; flex-grow: 0; height: 12.5px; margin-left: 2px; margin-right: 14px; transform: rotate(-45deg) translateX(3px) translateY(1px); width: 12.5px;"></div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-bottom-left-radius: 50%; border-bottom-right-radius: 50%; border-radius: 50%; border-top-left-radius: 50%; border-top-right-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; transform: translateX(9px) translateY(-18px); width: 12.5px;"></div></div><div style="margin-left: 8px;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-bottom-left-radius: 50%; border-bottom-right-radius: 50%; border-radius: 50%; border-top-left-radius: 50%; border-top-right-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 20px; width: 20px;"></div> <div style="border-bottom-color: transparent; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 2px; border-bottom: 2px solid transparent; border-left-color: rgb(244, 244, 244); border-left-style: solid; border-left-width: 6px; border-left: 6px solid #f4f4f4; border-top-color: transparent; border-top-style: solid; border-top-width: 2px; border-top: 2px solid transparent; height: 0px; transform: translateX(16px) translateY(-4px) rotate(30deg); width: 0px;"></div></div><div style="margin-left: auto;"> <div style="border-right-color: transparent; border-right-style: solid; border-right-width: 8px; border-right: 8px solid transparent; border-top-color: rgb(244, 244, 244); border-top-style: solid; border-top-width: 8px; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; transform: translateY(16px); width: 0px;"></div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; flex-grow: 0; height: 12px; transform: translateY(-4px); width: 16px;"></div> <div style="border-left-color: transparent; border-left-style: solid; border-left-width: 8px; border-left: 8px solid transparent; border-top-color: rgb(244, 244, 244); border-top-style: solid; border-top-width: 8px; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; height: 0px; transform: translateY(-4px) translateX(8px); width: 0px;"></div></div></div></a> <p style="margin: 8px 0px 0px; padding: 0px 4px;"> <a href="https://www.instagram.com/tv/CBPBduOBhNj/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none; word-wrap: break-word;" target="_blank">We did it! We applied that pressure and we won!!!!!!! Fight for what you believe in. Effect that change!!!!!!</a></p> <p style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 8px; overflow: hidden; padding: 8px 0px 7px; text-align: center; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;">A post shared by <a href="https://www.instagram.com/dancingdinks/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px;" target="_blank"> Russell Dinkins</a> (@dancingdinks) on <time datetime="2020-06-10T00:38:28+00:00" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px;">Jun 9, 2020 at 5:38pm PDT</time></p></div></blockquote> <script async="" src="//www.instagram.com/embed.js"></script><div><br /></div>
Dinkins was overjoyed. But his work isn’t finished. The University of Minnesota and The College of William & Mary both have announced plans to cut their men’s track and field teams—and Dinkins has joined efforts to save both programs. </div><div><br /></div><div>To better understand the overlooked racial dynamics of college sports and the opportunities they provide, Hreal Sports spoke with Dinkins, who has worked in education and diversity since graduating from Princeton in 2013 and continues to run at an elite level. </div><div><br /></div><div>(The following conversation has been lightly edited for brevity and clarity). </div><div><hr /><div><b>Hreal Sports: What was your initial, gut reaction to the news that Brown was planning to cut its men’s track and field team?</b></div><div><br /></div><div>Dinkins: I was just, like, shocked. One of my peer institutions, an institution that I ran against as an Ivy League athlete—I was shocked. And I was angry, because I also knew, without even looking at the data, that the track team has a good amount of Black athletes. So indirectly, what they were doing was cutting away Black athletes. </div><div><br /></div><div>Now, I even had some friends push back on me who said, ‘Oh, well, you know, the university can spend resources to get Black students into college in other ways, targeting Black scientists or Black dancers.” And that is true. </div><div><br /></div><div>However, if we’re going to have college sports—which we do have!—and if we’re going to have all of these college spots that cater for affluent white communities almost exclusively, and if Brown specifically was planing to elevate <i>sailing</i> to replace track and field—</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Wait, sailing? [Editor’s note: While announcing that it was cutting men’s track and 10 other varsity sports, <a href="https://www.golocalprov.com/sports/brown-cuts-11-varsity-sports-mens-track-and-cross-country-among-eliminated" target="_blank">Brown also announced</a> that it planned to elevate club coed sailing and club women's sailing to varsity status].</b></div><div><br /></div><div>I mean, the only people who participate in sailing live in Connecticut! </div><div><br /></div><div><b><Laughing in agreement></b></div><div><br /></div><div>There’s nothing wrong with Connecticut, and obviously there are people sailing in other places. But you can’t sail in Oklahoma, you know? It’s on the coasts, and boats are expensive, right? </div><div><br /></div><div><b>Right—if you’re not somewhere up there on the socioeconomic ladder, the chances are minuscule that you are going to be a coveted college sailing recruit.</b></div><div><br /></div><div>Exactly. And so, since these pathways via sport exist, then we should not be enshrining additional pathways for those who already are privileged and taking away pathways for those who historically have not had access to an Ivy League education.</div><div><br /></div><div>That’s not to say that all Black athletes are from the lower income families. But some are. And historically, the Ivy League has been a place that no matter your socioeconomic status, it has been inaccessible for minorities and for women. Those are just facts.</div><div><br /></div><div>The other thing that sent me over the edge was the university saying that its decision wasn’t based on financial reasoning, but on an effort to make their teams more competitive. So instead of spreading their athletic budget around to, say, 30 teams, they were cutting seven to distribute the same funds to fewer teams.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>That doesn’t sound so unreasonable—</b></div><div><br /></div><div>They <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u43hKzC3QTo&feature=emb_title" target="_blank">also said</a> it was to increase and enhance their efforts at diversity across their varsity and club sport offerings.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Um … how does getting rid of a sport where there’s a lot of young Black men participating increase diversity efforts?</b></div><div><br /></div><div>The idea was that by moving track down to club status, it would make the <i>club </i>teams more diverse. But club athletics are not the same as varsity athletics—varsity teams get recruiting spots that club teams don’t.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>So if I take a varsity sport and turn it into a club sport, I’m basically taking away an admission spot that is essentially guaranteed?</b></div><div><br /></div><div>Yes.</div><div><br /></div><div>You went to school and ran track at Princeton. Not Brown. What made you want to help athletes at a different school?</div><div><br /></div><div>A few things. One, if Brown can make that decision, who's to say that it wouldn't be made at Princeton—or made anywhere else?</div><div><br /></div><div>I have a lot of appreciation for my alma mater. But I would’ve been just as happy to have gone to any Ivy League school, to be honest. It’s an amazing opportunity that’s being afforded via athletes, and I didn’t want to see that squandered away.</div><div><br /></div><div>Educational access and opportunity is something that's very important to me, something that has been instilled in me since I was a kid. I’ve been running track since I was six years old. And my coach, Bob Jackson—who has since unfortunately passed away—conveyed to us that we could use track to get into college. He would even say, <i>I don’t care what you do when you get there. You don’t need to run another step. But if you’re going to be in my program, know that this is a tool that you can use to get in.</i></div><div><br /></div><div><b>Was there a point in your youth when you realized track might not just be a way to go to college, but also a way to go to an Ivy League school?</b></div><div><br /></div><div>The Ivy League came to me! I knew that I could run to get into college, so my goal was always to make myself the full package—have really good track results and also really good grades, because I wanted to go to a good school with a good track program. Have the best of both worlds.</div><div><br /></div><div>To be honest, Duke [University] and the University of Virginia were my targets. But once Ivy League schools reached out to me, I gave them a serious look. And it turns out they have some pretty strong track programs—at Princeton, I was on a distance medley relay team that won the NCAA championship in 2013.</div><div><br /></div>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p dir="ltr" lang="en">“Most of the athletes were white," says <a href="https://twitter.com/DancingDinks?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@DancingDinks</a>, who ran track at Princeton. “Even our basketball team was pretty white.”<br /><br />And the whiteness of college athletics isn’t unique to Princeton — or even the Ivy League.<a href="https://t.co/3eB8PyCFHy">https://t.co/3eB8PyCFHy</a></p>— NPR's Only A Game (@OnlyAGameNPR) <a href="https://twitter.com/OnlyAGameNPR/status/1277292678649008129?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 28, 2020</a></blockquote> <script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b>So coming from that background, you see what’s happening at Brown, and it understandably makes you upset. How did you end up writing your article?</b></div><div><br /></div><div>A few days after the university made its decision, George Floyd was killed. And after that, Brown <a href="https://www.brown.edu/news/2020-06-01/injustice" target="_blank">made an announcement</a>—just like every place made an announcement at that time—that they were committed to racial justice, that they were going to take a deep look at themselves, that they were committed to thinking about racial inequity and looking at their own processes, systems, and structures to see how they uphold racial bias and things of that nature.</div><div><br /></div><div>That really set me off, because that came on the heels of them cutting a track program that had 11 Black athletes—more Black athletes than four of their other teams combined! So I was just like, okay, your actions are not matching up with your words and your stated commitments. <i>Your stated commitments are a farce.</i></div><div><br /></div><div>So I spent an entire day—when I probably should have been applying to jobs—writing this article, looking up the research, getting the numbers, getting the data. And then I just posted it at, like, around midnight.</div><div><br /></div><div>I didn't have any intention of going viral. I’m not someone with a big platform. I mean, I’ve been <a href="https://medium.com/@dancingdinks" target="_blank">writing on Medium</a> throughout the pandemic, and I would get about 100, maybe 200 views on a piece. One time I got 900 views, and I was so excited! </div><div><br /></div><div>I was hoping that this piece would get bigger publications to see that this was an issue they should cover. So I went to bed. When I woke up, I think it had 2,000 views. And then it started gong up by 1,000 views per hour. It was really connecting with people.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>What happened next?</b></div><div><br /></div><div>The next week was interesting. I was reaching out to as many people as I knew, to try to get the article in the hands of people with a prominent platform. I was trying to get Jemele Hill. I didn't get her, but Malcolm Gladwell did Tweet it out, which was amazing.</div><div><br /></div><div>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p dir="ltr" lang="en">Brown looked at all the possible ways they could save money...and chose to cut the cross country team. WTF? <a href="https://t.co/BUSmsApCDY">https://t.co/BUSmsApCDY</a></p>— Malcolm Gladwell (@Gladwell) <a href="https://twitter.com/Gladwell/status/1268951874113359879?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 5, 2020</a></blockquote> <script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b>A lot of people follow him. </b></div><div><br /></div><div>It also was able to get to <a href="http://letsrun.com.">letsrun.com.</a></div><div><br /></div><div><b>They have a very interesting forum!</b></div><div><br /></div><div>They do. They were great. They featured the piece on their site. That really helped to spur conversation. And I think within a week, the piece had about 30,000 views—today it’s close to 60,000.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>What sense do you have that it was being read by people at Brown, or by the people who were working to get Brown to reverse its decision to cut men’s track?</b></div><div><br /></div><div>I believe that the school’s administration would probably stay pretty tight-lipped about the direct impact that my article had. But I do know, anecdotally, that it was passed around the Brown admissions office. That makes me think it was likely passed around in other departments. </div><div><br /></div><div>The athletic director of Princeton reached out to me and told me it was a great article. That was a crazy six days. I got calls. I spoke to a lot of people via phone and email. </div><div><br /></div><div><b>Let’s talk about the bigger issues that you brought up in your piece. Many people believe that college sports is a pathway to upward mobility and educational opportunity for people of color or people from low-income backgrounds. But you pointed out that this is not always—or even often—the case in many of the sports that NCAA schools sponsor.</b></div><div><br /></div><div>I think the NCAA really enjoys propagating this idea. This fantasy of college sports as this pathway for kids who come from really meager backgrounds to play for a university, and then they become doctors and lawyers. I think there is almost a fetishization of that idea. It’s kind of like <i><a href="https://www.warnerbros.com/movies/blind-side" rel="nofollow">The Blind Side</a></i> on steroids.</div><div><br /></div><div>While that does end up happening, it doesn't happen nearly at the rate that the NCAA likes to promote. When you look at the sports that are sponsored across the NCAA, <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2018/10/college-sports-benefits-white-students/573688/" rel="nofollow">something like 61 percent of the athletes are white—in the Ivy League, it’s 65 percent</a>. And there are only three sports that are really kind of diverse: football, basketball, and track. I mean, that's it. The diversity numbers slide down pretty precipitously after that.</div><div><br /></div><div>The Ivy League also sponsors a number of sports that are not official NCAA sports, like men’s crew and squash.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>The same principle seems to apply those sports—they’re not particularly diverse in terms of the pool of athletes you'd be recruiting from high schools in the first place, right?</b></div><div><br /></div><div>What all of these sports have in common is that they’re not particularly diverse, and also, they’re not particularly <i>accessible</i>. A lot of these sports are pretty expensive to participate in. The kids playing them tend to be more middle class or affluent than people think.</div><div><br /></div><div>For instance, hockey costs a family, I think, close to $2,500 per year. That's the average via the <a href="https://www.aspenprojectplay.org/youth-sports-facts/challenges" target="_blank">Aspen Institute's data</a>. Whereas track and field is the cheapest sport, by far. It’s about $200 per family, per year to participate.</div><div><br /></div><div>When you include both males and females, track and field also has the largest participation out of any high school sport. In terms of female participation, track and field is No. 1. So it’s the most accessible and diverse sport. </div><div><br /></div><div>And that’s also true in terms of college recruitment. That’s another layer of this. Getting recruited in track is very easy. There’s a national database called <a href="https://www.milesplit.com/" target="_blank">MileSplit</a>. If you go to any track meet that is large enough to have electronic timing—and even many small meets have that—those results get uploaded to it. So coaches can just look at the results, click on them, see that athlete, and contact them. </div><div><br /></div><div>You don’t need to go to an expensive sports camp, or a coaches’ clinic, or any of these travel teams and tournaments, or really do any of the expensive other things that athletes in other sports have to do. You don’t have to make a highlight reel or hire a consultant. You can do that, but it’s not required. If you run a good time, or throw a good mark, or jump high, you’ll get noticed. </div><div><br /></div><div>That makes things really easy and clean. It takes away another barrier to the college recruitment process. That’s a huge deal!</div><div><br /></div><div><b>I'm really glad you brought that up. There’s a <a href="https://time.com/4913687/how-kids-sports-became-15-billion-industry/" target="_blank">youth sports industrial complex in America.</a> It’s kind of a monster, <a href="https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20191226005095/en/Youth-Sports-Market-Shares-Strategies-and-Forecasts-Worldwide-2019-2026---ResearchAndMarkets.com" target="_blank">something like a $20 billion industry</a>. And it sounds like track and field is one of the sports that is the least touched by this monetized arms race among families and athletes <a href="https://www.patrickhruby.net/2018/04/the-ride.html" target="_blank">all trying to chase college scholarships.</a></b></div><div><br /></div>Yeah, track is still impacted by it, but just not to the same extent. In other sports, you have to be a part of, say, a certain academy’s soccer team, otherwise you’re not getting recruited.</div><div> <br /></div>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p dir="ltr" lang="en">TOMORROW @ 6pm: <a href="https://twitter.com/WBUR?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@WBUR</a> & <a href="https://twitter.com/NPR?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@NPR</a>'s <a href="https://twitter.com/OnlyAGameNPR?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@OnlyAGameNPR</a> hosts a conversation on sports, racism and the myth of meritocracy with <a href="https://twitter.com/klgiven?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@klgiven</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/mirarose88?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@mirarose88</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/DancingDinks?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@DancingDinks</a> & <a href="https://twitter.com/DerrickZJackson?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@DerrickZJackson</a>. Register here: <a href="https://t.co/WJjjwf8qpu">https://t.co/WJjjwf8qpu</a></p>— Alex Schneps (@AlexSchneps) <a href="https://twitter.com/AlexSchneps/status/1293196358485250055?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 11, 2020</a></blockquote> <script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b>Okay, let’s zoom out. Everything you just described arguably makes cutting track <i>more</i> consequential—in terms of racial equity—at elite schools like Princeton and Brown.</b></div><div><br /></div><div><b>What I mean is, the opportunity for upward mobility with a degree from those schools is supposedly greater than at other places. The competition to get into those schools is fiercer. And here you have athletic recruits getting rare and coveted reserved admissions spots—<a href="https://features.thecrimson.com/2016/freshman-survey/makeup/" target="_blank">more than 10 percent of Harvard Univerity’s Class of 2020</a> is recruited athletes, while <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2019/06/12/varsity-athletes-admissions-enrollment-top-colleges/?arc404=true" target="_blank">13 percent of Yale University’s incoming class each year</a> is the same.</b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b>So now you’re taking away one of the few sports where Black athletes have the most opportunity to compete and become recruitable into those spots, and you’re keeping a bunch of sports where they have far less opportunity.</b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b>There was a piece in <i>The Atlantic</i> a few years ago with the headline <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2018/10/college-sports-benefits-white-students/573688/" target="_blank">“College Sports Are Affirmative Action for Rich White Students.”</a> It basically argued expensive sports give families with money, who are predominantly white, one more advantage when it comes to getting their kids into elite colleges. Cutting track would seem to exacerbate that. Is that a fair assessment? </b></div><div><br /></div><div>Yes, I believe that is the case. It’s kind of tough to say, because I’m also someone who understands and appreciate the value of sports and what it can do for students and communities. I think sports have an important place on campus.</div><div><br /></div><div>However, there are ways in which the college athletic system advantages those who have more means and more access. So we should not be taking away one of the few sports that actually doesn’t do that. And in terms of diversity, that doesn’t just pertain to race and socioeconomic status. It also pertains to gender. What other sport as efficiently and effectively delivers academic opportunities via athletics to female athletes than track and field?</div><div><br /></div><div><div><b>In your piece, you also wrote that “universities such as Brown, that have <a href="https://library.brown.edu/create/firstreading2012/browns-legacy-of-slavery/" target="_blank">directly benefited from American slavery</a>, have an obligation to right a historic wrong and provide opportunities for qualified, talented descendants of American slavery. Brown’s decision to cut Track and Field just took 11 of those opportunities away.” </b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b>How and why did you decide to make that part of your argument, and what kind of reaction and pushback did you get? In America, when you bring up the S-word and this nation’s history, white people can get pretty defensive—just look at our politics right now.</b></div><div><br /></div><div>It's funny—that part of the article kind of got glossed over by a lot of people. I think because so many other parts of the article were so inflammatory!</div><div><br /></div><div>The reason why I included slavery is because I needed people to see that when we think about racism, we think about it as someone acting with malicious intent, someone acting personally against someone else. And that is a <i>form</i> of racism.</div><div><br /></div><div>But racism functions in a lot of different ways. And to me, it is functionally racist for a school to take away opportunities via athletics, and replace those opportunities with additional opportunities for a demographic that already has a lot of benefits. And those benefits we're talking about, they come from historic wrongs. They all connect back to the founding of this country and the economic system of slavery, chattel slavery, upon which this country was built. </div><div><br /></div><div>I mean, the reason why we have Title IX is because there haven't been opportunities given to women, historically. It is really important that women have opportunity in education. So we also need to think about the fact that the schools we’re taking about in sports, many of them <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/17/us/georgetown-university-search-for-slave-descendants.html" target="_blank">benefitted</a> or got rich either directly or indirectly from the slave trade—whether through selling slaves or having bonds connected to it, or different investments, or investing in insurance companies which were connected to it.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>When Brown reinstated its men’s track program, <a href="https://www.brown.edu/news/2020-06-09/track" target="_blank">the school said</a> that “through Brown’s history, these sports have been a point of entry to higher education for academically talented students who otherwise would not have had the opportunity, many of them students of color.”</b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b>What was it like to see Brown explicitly acknowledge the argument that you made?</b></div><div><br /></div><div>It was a huge win. And it wasn't just a win for me, but for the entire Brown community, for the entire track community.</div><div><br /></div><div>Brown’s track alumni were very organized. They had a really tight unit. They did a lot of work behind the scenes. Some of that was elevating the issues that I brought up my article. They created a video where Brown’s president was talking about the school’s commitment to diversity and inclusion, and then it was cut up with clips of Black athletes saying things like, “Am I not worth it? Is my place here? Am I not valued?” They did a lot of great work around these issues. I was one part of a larger effort.</div></div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/aMzcqy--4Ow" width="320" youtube-src-id="aMzcqy--4Ow"></iframe></div><br /><div><div><b>Did George Floyd’s death and this summer’s racial and social justice protests make a difference in terms of Brown changing course? And in terms of there being a receptive environment for your message? Is it just a coincidence that all of these things were happening at the same time?</b></div><div><br /></div><div>There was no coincidence at all! It was the right message at the right time. If I had written the exact same article two years earlier, it would have went nowhere. That’s the unfortunate reality.</div><div><br /></div><div>But this was a time when non-Black people, and particularly white people, saw in stark relief exactly was the issue was. Right in front of their faces. And there was no avoiding it. <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2019/05/07/open-up-case-period-sandra-blands-family-demands-answers-over-new-video-her-arrest/" target="_blank">Sandra Bland?</a> Oh, we don’t know what happened to her in the holding cell. <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2013/06/05/us/trayvon-martin-shooting-fast-facts/index.html" target="_blank">Trayvon Martin?</a> Oh, maybe he charged George Zimmerman. <a href="https://apnews.com/9aa32033692547699a3b61da8fd1fc62" target="_blank">Michael Brown?</a> You know, he was—</div><div><br /></div><div><b>There’s always a way to explain things away. But you can’t do that with the George Floyd video, no matter how much you want to try. It’s revolting. Outside of the maybe the hardest-core racist, I don’t think you could watch that and not see it for what it is.</b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div>Unfortunately, that's kind of how these things work.</div><div><br /></div>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p dir="ltr" lang="en">As promised here you go, a "How to organize and save your track program" video with Brown alumni who successfully saved their program. A toolkit of materials is linked in the description. <a href="https://twitter.com/GopherCCTF?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@GopherCCTF</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/WMTribeXCTF?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@WMTribeXCTF</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/SaveMensTrack?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#SaveMensTrack</a> Let's Go!<a href="https://t.co/wWwAqz8Swj">https://t.co/wWwAqz8Swj</a></p>— Russell Dinkins (@DancingDinks) <a href="https://twitter.com/DancingDinks/status/1304892205451051010?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 12, 2020</a></blockquote> <script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b>So right now, you're trying to make a similar argument about what’s happening at <a href="https://www.flotrack.org/articles/6778680-university-of-minnesota-is-cutting-mens-track-and-field" target="_blank">Minnesota</a> and <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2020/09/22/william-mary-plagiarized-statement-athletics-cuts" target="_blank">William & Mary</a>—two schools have announced plans to cut men's track. How's that effort going, and what do people need to know? </b></div><div><br /></div><div>Well, I think there's been some breaking news. Let me see—</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Breaking news as we're talking? Awesome.</b></div><div><br /></div><div>I know, right? Let's see. <a href="https://twitter.com/ByDavidTeel/status/1313544142421721089" target="_blank">According to the<i> Richmond Times-Dispatch</i>,</a> it looks like Wiliam and Mary athletic director Samantha Huge is resigning in the wake of protests over cutting seven sports. </div><div><br /></div><div>We don’t know what that means for track yet. But we know it means that there’s some pressure being felt at that university. Meanwhile, at Minnesota, their board of regents is meeting on Friday to vote.</div><div><br /></div><div>There’s a group of people there who have been very well organized, getting the message out, targeting those regents. But it all comes down to that vote.</div><div><br /></div>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p dir="ltr" lang="en">Track has more Black male athletes than all other NCAA sports combined besides football and basketball. So why are schools cutting it? Is it because it's the one sport where schools can't make money off of their Black students-athletes? <a href="https://twitter.com/UMNews?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@UMNews</a> & <a href="https://twitter.com/williamandmary?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@williamandmary</a>, care to answer? <a href="https://t.co/JWDhf4AZs8">pic.twitter.com/JWDhf4AZs8</a></p>— Russell Dinkins (@DancingDinks) <a href="https://twitter.com/DancingDinks/status/1312104775094210561?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 2, 2020</a></blockquote> <script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b>So I’ve written a lot about amateurism, especially in big time college football and basketball, and how it acts as <a href="https://www.vice.com/en/article/ezexjp/four-years-a-student-athlete-the-racial-injustice-of-big-time-college-sports" target="_blank">a sort of racial wealth transfer system</a> that funnels money upward from predominantly Black athletes doing the work on the field to overwhelmingly white coaches, athletic administrators, facility construction contractors, and non-revenue sport athletes. </b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b>Do you see that as a racial injustice in college sports, even if some of that money is being used to fund track teams?</b></div><div><br /></div><div>It certainly is a injustice. I mean, when we look at the non-revenue sports, especially at the major institutions who are part of the Power Five, they are predominantly white sports. So you effectively have Black athletes subsidizing them. And as you mentioned, you have another layer on top of that—the athletic directors, the coaches, the contractors, all of them are getting handsomely rewarded for the labor of the athletes.</div><div><br /></div><div>That labor is being compensated by tuition and college degrees. But we know the value of that labor is much more than that. So in my view, there needs to be a fundamental rethinking of how football and men’s basketball—and to a lesser extent, women’s basketball—works in college sports. They’re just different, because they make so much more money. The athletes in those sports need to be treated differently, and they definitely need to be compensated with fair payment for their services and have labor rights.</div><div><br /></div><div>And then for the other sports, we need to ask—what are we actually valuing? Are we valuing sport as an educational opportunity? And if that’s what’s important, then <i>that needs to be what’s important</i>. We don’t need to spend money on these multimillion dollar facilities. That arms race is ridiculous, with palatial locker rooms and lounges with, like, waterfalls. Cut all that crap out. It’s not needed. You need a high school locker, a bench, and a shower. </div><div><br /></div><div>There are so many ways college sports have been operated as a business. Even when you think about the way that these decisions to cut sports are made—they always center on the finances. Is this a business? Or is it something to provide students access to an education through sports?</div><div><br /></div><div>I think sport provides a lot of benefits that are incalculable to a university, such as pride, bringing in more diversity—some of that can mean just bringing in a lot of out-of-state students for the state institutions. </div><div><br /></div><div><b>Speaking of benefits, I’ve always felt that college athletes are almost like marketing employees of their universities. Even those smaller sports, they are still the so-called “front porch.” And that’s not just getting the name of a school out there and creating good feelings around it. It’s marketing in terms of creating future alumni who are passionate about the school, who are going to come back to donate, who are still going to deeply care about their alma maters in 20 years. </b></div><div><br /></div><div>Sports is probably the No. 1 way to create that kind of bond. It creates nostalgia.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>It creates that desire to give money back to the school when you get those fundraising letters!</b></div><div><br /></div><div>Exactly. And you know, I can even speak to my experience at Princeton when we won the national championship. That made the front page of our student newspaper. There were alums who were contacting us, congratulating us, people who weren’t even connected to track and field. It was a big, galvanizing, exciting moment. And we’re not a sport that people typically care about. We ran a distance medley relay in Arkansas! But that was a big deal, in a way that the debate time or the science competition club can’t be. So yeah, athletics brings a unique value.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Since graduating in 2013, you’ve worked in education and diversity and inclusion. That sounds pretty relevant to our discussion! What kind of work have you been doing in that?</b></div><div><br /></div><div>I worked at Princeton for three years as the diversity inclusion coordinator within the school’s office of career services, developing programming for first generation, low-income students. I actually created that position, which was pretty cool! I wrote a proposal to the university, because I was mad at the university for responding pretty poorly to some social unrest that was happening on campus at the time—</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Seems like you get stuff done when you’re mad! Do you race angry?</b></div><div><br /></div><div><Laughs> Actually, my best races have been when I’m really calm.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Are you still running?</b></div><div><br /></div><div>I've continued running since I've graduated. I've run at an elite level for the New York Athletic Club. I was planning to end my running career this year—but the pandemic hit, and <a href="https://www.gofundme.com/f/russellolympicfund" target="_blank">I still want to go to the Olympic trials and have that experience</a>. So I'm focusing on that. I’m also working with an athletic apparel brand on an effort to support track and field teams that have been cut. That’s been an exciting new development.</div><div><br /></div>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p dir="ltr" lang="en">Big schools like <a href="https://twitter.com/UMNews?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@UMNews</a> use their Black football and basketball players for profit but cut their Black athletes who don't make money for them. That's what happens when schools cut track and field. Read my piece on the issue here: <a href="https://t.co/iOyG8QGPfw">https://t.co/iOyG8QGPfw</a><a href="https://twitter.com/UmnMen?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@UmnMen</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/saveGophertf?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#saveGophertf</a> <a href="https://t.co/lU2UDBBvAo">pic.twitter.com/lU2UDBBvAo</a></p>— Russell Dinkins (@DancingDinks) <a href="https://twitter.com/DancingDinks/status/1313999433986699264?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 8, 2020</a></blockquote> <script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script><div><br /></div><div>The pandemic gave me a moment to take a beat. And I decided that I wanted to start writing. I have a lot of ideas—but I've always been a bit tentative to express those ideas. Which is funny, because I express myself very vociferously in speaking to people, and also on my personal Facebook. But writing is a really vulnerable way of expressing yourself. Someone can go back and look at it and be like, ‘hmmm, his period is not in the right place.’</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Welcome to my neurotic world!</b></div><div><br /></div><div>I'm still thinking about what my next steps specifically will be. I never thought of writing as activism, and that my writing could crate a change. But I’ve been developing a voice and a platform. And one of the things I’ve taken away from what’s happened with Brown—one of the things I really want people to take away—is that we don’t necessarily understand or know the power of our own voices unless we use them. There are ways that we all can be active.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">
<kicker><a href="https://hrealsports.substack.com/p/what-they-were-doing-was-cutting" target="_blank">Published at Hreal Sports</a></kicker></div></div></div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3878043065627433241.post-59192686515027739262020-09-26T18:40:00.001-04:002020-09-26T18:40:10.753-04:00State Of Oregon's 'Rooney Rule' Shifts The Game<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-3DrI5VPwtp8/X2_Ba5kN0NI/AAAAAAAAFM0/mFFVN8c--2c91aZX2gSysQBSSXscOZAKwCLcBGAsYHQ/s0/Oregon-01-1536x864.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="864" data-original-width="1536" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-3DrI5VPwtp8/X2_Ba5kN0NI/AAAAAAAAFM0/mFFVN8c--2c91aZX2gSysQBSSXscOZAKwCLcBGAsYHQ/s0/Oregon-01-1536x864.jpg" /></a></div><div>
<a name='more'></a><div style="text-align: center;"><subhead>How a college sports version of the NFL's Rooney Rule could increase coaching diversity</subhead></div><div style="text-align: center;"><attribution>By Patrick Hruby | Global Sport Matters | September 2020</attribution></div><span class="drop-cap">S</span>am Sachs doesn’t mince words. “I was pissed,” he says. It was February 2007, and Portland State University had just hired Jerry Glanville as the head coach of its football team.<div><br /><div>Sachs, a former sheriff’s deputy who was a student at the school, had nothing against Glanville as person or a coach. His problem was with Portland State’s hiring process.</div><div><br /></div><div>Glanville was White. Sachs, a Black Studies major, had asked the school’s athletic department to interview at least one qualified candidate of color for the job—a request, Sachs says, that fell on deaf ears.</div><div><br /></div><div>“It would not have taken anything for them to just interview one qualified person of color for the job, even if they were going to give it to Jerry Glanville,” Sachs says. “Just do it!’</div><div><br /></div><div>Sachs made a promise to himself: <i>The next time Portland State hires a coach, they will have to interview a minority candidate.</i> He then made good, serving as <a href="http://theundefeated.com/features/oregon-law-on-hiring-minority-college-coaches-works-so-why-isnt-it-used-elsewhere/" target="_blank">the catalyst</a> behind the 2009 passage of a law that made Oregon the first state to require its public colleges and universities to interview at least one qualified minority candidate for all head coach and athletic director openings.</div><div><br /></div><div>More than a decade later, Oregon remains the only state with such a law—something Sachs believes needs to change in order to increase career opportunities for football coaches and other college sports leaders of color.</div><div><br /></div><div>“This is such an easy fix,” says Sachs, a Portland-based anti-racism activist and founder of the No Hate Zone. “It’s something states could do, and something the [National Collegiate Athletic Association] could do.</div><div><br /></div><div>“I believe that if you can get people to change the way they are used to doing things, even if it’s just including one person of color in the interview process, ultimately your results will change as well.”</div><div><br /></div><div>A new study conducted by the Global Sport Institute at Arizona State University of head football coach hiring patterns in the National Collegiate Athletic Association’s “Power Five” conferences paints a picture of stunted opportunity—one in which African-American and Latino coaches disproportionately are stymied from advancing to head coaching jobs.</div><div><br /></div><div>Examining a 10-year period beginning in the 2009-10 season, the study found that:</div><div><br /></div><div><div>* There were relatively few coaches of color hired as head coaches at the highest level of college football—just 24 out of 111 hires (21.6 percent) in the Atlantic Coast, Big Ten, Big 12, SEC, and Pac-12 conferences.</div><div><br /></div><div>* White head coaches were hired with proportionally lower levels of playing and coaching experience than their African-American and Latino peers.</div><div><br /></div><div>* When coaches of color were hired, their tenure was shorter on average than that of white coaches—and the range of ages at which they were hired was comparatively truncated.</div><div><br /></div><div>* In contrast to white head coaches, when coaches of color left head coaching positions, they had fewer avenues for future coaching opportunities at similar levels than their previous positions and did not move directly to National Football League head coaching positions.</div><div><br /></div><div>* Moreover, coaches of color were less likely than their white counterparts to move directly to NFL offensive coordinator positions, a main pipeline for future NFL head coaches.</div><div><br /></div><div>The study’s findings dovetail with other examinations of race and senior leadership hiring patterns in college football, professional football, college sports in general, and <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/in-depth/money/business/2020/08/20/racism-black-america-corporate-america-facebook-apple-netflix-nike-diversity/5557003002/" target="_blank">even corporate America</a>. Moreover, the specific barriers that make it more difficult for college football coaches of color to advance than their white counterparts—including historical segregation to ongoing bias—are similar to <a href="https://operations.nfl.com/media/4229/2020-nfl-diversity-and-inclusion-report.pdf" target="_blank">those facing coaches of color in the National Football League.</a></div><div><br /></div><div>As such, Sachs says, college sports should follow the NFL’s example and adopt a nationwide version of the league’s “Rooney Rule,” which requires teams to interview at least one minority candidate for open head coaching and executive positions.</div><div><br /></div><div>Arizona State University athletic director Ray Anderson agrees. Before coming to Tempe in 2014, Anderson was a NFL executive and part of a working group that was instrumental in the league’s 2003 adoption of the rule—which in 2015 was held up as an example by President Obama when <a href="https://www.wired.com/2015/10/tech-silicon-valley-nfl-rooney-rule-diversity/" target="_blank">he called in for tech companies to do more to increase diversity within their ranks.</a></div><div><br /></div><div>“[The Rooney Rule] didn’t blow the doors down, but it has had some impact,” Anderson says. “And you would much rather have it than not to have it. It certainly has gotten people conscious about what it means to have a diverse slate and to give legitimate interview opportunities. That has been helpful.”</div><div><br /></div><div>The Rooney Rule has not made hiring in professional football completely fair and equitable. <a href="https://43530132-36e9-4f52-811a-182c7a91933b.filesusr.com/ugd/7d86e5_5af5faf45ba7443da733f900f54638b4.pdf" target="_blank">A recent report</a> from the Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport (TIDES) at the University of Central Florida said that 2019 was NFL’s worst year for diversity in more than a decade, while <a href="https://globalsport.asu.edu/sites/default/files/resources/diversity_and_inclusion_in_hiring_football_coaches_1.6.2020.12pm.pdf" target="_blank">a separate GSI study</a> of head coaching movement in the league from 2009-10 to 2018-19 found statistical evidence that coaches of color remain stymied—a conclusion shared by the NFL’s own <a href="https://operations.nfl.com/media/3789/2019-nfl-diversity-inclusion-report.pdf" target="_blank">annual diversity and inclusion report.</a></div><div><br /></div><div>In Oregon, however, the law championed by Sachs has produced results. Portland State and Western Oregon Universities both have Black athletic directors. The last two head football coaches at the University of Oregon, Willie Taggart and Mario Cristobal, are African-American and Cuban American, respectively.</div><div><br /></div><div>Taggart coached at Oregon for a single season before becoming the head coach at Florida State University. He was succeeded by Cristobal, Oregon’s offensive line coach and co-offensive coordinator, who in 2019 led the school to a Rose Bowl appearance and was named Pac-12 Coach of the Year.</div><div><br /></div><div>Sachs says that he encountered less resistance during meetings with state legislators than he expected while lobbying for the law’s passage. “People told me it would be hard to get support, that it’s discriminatory, that it’s reverse racism,” he says. “But it’s not. You can still interview as many white people as you want. You just have to interview one qualified minority candidate. You don’t have to hire them.”</div><div><br /></div><div>“And what we’ve found out is that it’s a model that works. Not perfectly. But the schools are having more diverse candidates. They’re hiring more assistants who are diverse. Over time, it’s slowly changing the way they go about interviewing and hiring.”</div><div><br /></div><div>In August, the West Coast Conference <a href="https://wccsports.com/news/2020/8/2/general-russell-rule-diversity-hiring-commitment.aspx" target="_blank">announced the adoption of a “Russell Rule”</a>—named after Hall of Fame basketball player Bill Russell—that will require all of its schools to include a member of a traditionally underrepresented community in the pool of final candidates for every athletic director, senior administrator, head coach, and full-time assistant coach job opening.</div><div><br /></div><div>Yet so far, no other conference has followed suit. Nor has the NCAA, which in the past has claimed that its status as a nonprofit, voluntary membership organization prevents it from requiring schools to adopt particular hiring practices.</div><div><br /></div><div>Sachs, who repeatedly has lobbied the NCAA to reconsider, says that the association could prohibit schools that don’t adopt Rooney Rules from hosting championship competitions—as it already does for schools with racially or ethnically “hostile or abusive” mascots, nicknames, or imagery. “Why don’t they do it?” Sachs says. “Whether you call it racism or not, I think it has to do with the power structure of college sports. Presidents, athletic directors, head coaches. They’re white men. They realize that if they support this, it will change outcomes for people of color, and part of that means redistributing power to people of color.”</div><div><br /></div><div>When the WCC unveiled its Russell Rule, conference commissioner Gloria Nevarez—the first Latinx to hold that position in Division I—said that the killing of George Floyd and subsequent protests nationwide for social justice and equity <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/Sports/wcc-creates-russell-rule-encourage-hiring-minority-candidates/story?id=72145020" target="_blank">accelerated the league’s new diversity initiatives,</a> which also include recognizing Juneteenth and helping athletes register to vote. Brandon Martin, the athletic director at the University of Missouri-Kansas City and <a href="https://www.cbssports.com/college-football/news/black-ad-alliance-created-to-develop-more-black-administrators-in-division-i-athletics/" target="_blank">the co-chair of the Black AD Alliance,</a> believes that the time may be right for broader change.</div><div><br /></div><div>“The frustration that comes from racism, discrimination, and inequities is right in our face now,” Martin says. “So I think it’s a watershed moment in our nation. Everyone in the country is being forced to say, ‘well, what can I do?’ And we are being forced to really try to fix some of the ever-present issues that we’ve had in this nation as it pertains to race and equity. I think we’re going to see advancements in the college athletics space.”</div><div><br /></div><div>Spearheaded by University of Maryland head football coach Mike Locksley and born from his frustration that <a href="https://www.nfl.com/news/maryland-s-michael-locksley-forms-group-for-minority-football-coaches" target="_blank">“pathway to becoming a head coach is still as difficult as when I got into the business in 1992,”</a> the recently-created National Coalition of Minority Football Coaches has announced plans to identify and promote qualified coaches of color for career advancement. But Anderson speculates that pressure on the NCAA and conferences to increase opportunities—through Rooney/Russell Rules or other measures—may come from an unexpected source: college athletes themselves.</div><div><br /></div><div>Already this year, football players at the University of Iowa and Florida State university have <a href="https://www.freep.com/story/sports/columnists/shawn-windsor/2020/06/14/coronavirus-racism-college-football/3184735001/" target="_blank">publicly called out their coaches for racial insensitivity and inequitable treatment;</a> Pac-12 football players have demanded that the conference spend roughly $10 million to<a href="https://www.seattletimes.com/sports/uw-husky-football/like-it-or-not-the-athlete-empowerment-movement-in-college-sports-is-rightfully-gaining-steam/" target="_blank"> support low-income Black students and community initiatives</a>; and athletes at the University of Texas at Austin successfully lobbied their school to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/14/us/eyes-of-texas-football.html" target="_blank">rename a building named for a racist professor, erect a statue of the school’s first Black football player, and commission a monument to its first Black undergraduates.</a></div><div><br /></div><div>When Anderson was a football player at Stanford University in the 1970s, he says, he and his African-American teammates came together to tell their white head coach, Jack Christiansen, that having only one Black assistant on the team’s staff “didn’t seem right” and that they “needed to have some people of color working with us.” “Very frankly,” Anderson says, “that is how Willie Shaw became an assistant [coach] while I was there.”</div><div><br /></div><div>Shaw, an African-American, later became a defensive coordinator for Stanford and a coordinator and assistant head coach in the NFL. His son David is currently the school’s head coach.</div><div><br /></div><div>“Is there a chance for today’s athletes to get together and exert more potential pressure in other areas?” Anderson says. “Yes. I see that happening.”</div><div><br /></div><div>Sachs, who has twice asked attendees at the Black Caucus of State Legislators to sponsor legislation similar to Oregon’s law, says that he would welcome college athlete advocacy. So would Fitz Hill, formerly the first Black head football coach at San Jose State University and co-author of the 2012 book <i>Crackback! How College Football Blindsides the Hopes of Black Coaches.</i></div><div><br /></div><div>Hill, who wrote his doctoral dissertation on the barriers restricting employment opportunities for African-American coaches in college football, says that the sport has yet to fully acknowledge or eliminate those barriers—and that a Rooney or Russell-type rule could help open the eyes of school decision makers.</div><div><br /></div><div>How so? When Hill resigned from San Jose State in 2004 after four straight losing seasons, he says, he told the school’s then-president, Don Kassing, that he hoped his lack of success wouldn’t prevent Kassing from considering hiring another head coach of color.</div><div><br /></div><div>Hill recalls Kassing asking him if there was someone out there the school should consider.</div><div><br /></div><div>“I told him, ‘you missed my whole point,’” Hill says. “‘Because you don’t<i> think</i> there is somebody out there to consider, you won’t look for them.”</div></div><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">
<kicker><a href="https://globalsportmatters.com/business/2020/09/24/oregons-rooney-rule-shifts-the-game/" target="_blank">Published at Global Sport Matters</a></kicker></div></div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3878043065627433241.post-12366209356526455122020-09-26T18:25:00.003-04:002020-09-26T18:25:43.396-04:00Is A Super Bowl Win Enough To Coach? Apparently Not.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><img alt="" data-original-height="864" data-original-width="1536" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-AJRUJwSKpNo/X2-9fwKKYiI/AAAAAAAAFMI/gQbYSbJDuTIgBVTujgGXWWHzdOcvEwYBwCLcBGAsYHQ/s16000/Doug-01-1536x864.jpg" /></div><br /><div><a name='more'></a><div style="text-align: center;">Why coaches of color face barriers to career advancement in major college football</div><div style="text-align: center;"><attribution>By Patrick Hruby | Global Sport Matters | September 2020</attribution></div>In 2002, Doug Williams had a chance to make history—again. The first African-American quarterback to win a Super Bowl, Williams was a candidate to become the head football coach at the University of Kentucky, which would have been a racial first for both the school and the powerhouse Southeastern Conference.<div><br /><div>A former college star and longtime professional player, Williams had a strong coaching resume and had just led Grambling State University to its third consecutive conference title. However, Kentucky ultimately hired former University of Oregon coach Rich Brooks, who is white.</div><div><br /></div><div>According to Williams, Kentucky’s athletic director told him that the school’s hiring decision was influenced by a “comfort” factor.</div><div><br /></div><div>“When I talked to Doug about that, he asked me, ‘what does comfort mean?’” says Fitz Hill, a former college football coach and co-author of the 2012 book <i>Crackback! How College Football Blindsides the Hopes of Black Coaches</i>. “Does that mean you don’t want to drink tea with me?”</div><div><br /></div><div>Williams will never know exactly why Kentucky passed him over, or if his race played a part. But he was left to wonder. And among aspiring head college football coaches of color, he’s hardly alone.</div><div><br /></div><div>A new study conducted by the Global Sport Institute at Arizona State University of head football coach hiring patterns in the National Collegiate Athletic Association’s “Power Five” conferences paints a picture of stunted opportunity—one in which African-American and Latino coaches disproportionately are stymied from advancing to head coaching jobs.</div><div><br /></div><div>Examining a 10-year period beginning in the 2009-10 season, the study found that:</div><div><br /></div><div><div>* There were relatively few coaches of color hired as head coaches at the highest level of college football—just 24 out of 111 hires (21.6 percent) in the Atlantic Coast, Big Ten, Big 12, SEC, and Pac-12 conferences.</div><div><br /></div><div>* White head coaches were hired with proportionally lower levels of playing and coaching experience than their African-American and Latino peers.</div><div><br /></div><div>* When coaches of color were hired, their tenure was shorter on average than that of white coaches—and the range of ages at which they were hired was comparatively truncated.</div><div><br /></div><div>* In contrast to white head coaches, when coaches of color left head coaching positions, they had fewer avenues for future coaching opportunities at similar levels than their previous positions and did not move directly to National Football League head coaching positions.</div><div><br /></div><div>* Moreover, coaches of color were less likely than their white counterparts to move directly to NFL offensive coordinator positions, a main pipeline for future NFL head coaches.</div></div><div><br /></div><div>While the barriers that make it more difficult for coaches of color to advance than their white counterparts are rooted in historical racism and segregation, people who have studied the college football workplace have identified three key ways in which those barriers continue to be perpetuated.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Thwarted pathways</b></div><div><br /></div><div><div>Almost all former college head coaches are former players. And the overwhelming majority worked as coordinators before being hired to their first head coaching job.</div><div><br /></div><div>Between those steps, however, coaches of color are more likely to be steered away from the playing and assistant coaching positions that most commonly lead to coordinator jobs. For example, a 2013 study found that <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1540-6237.2012.00931.x" target="_blank">former quarterbacks are far more likely</a> to eventually become head coaches than other positions, almost certainly because they are more likely to become quarterback coaches, which in turn are <a href="https://www.denverpost.com/2017/09/11/nfl-black-coaches/" target="_blank">more likely to become offensive coordinators</a>.</div><div><br /></div><div>Meanwhile, African-American quarterbacks at all levels of football <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2019/sep/20/black-quarterbacks-history-stereotypes?CMP=share_btn_tw&__twitter_impression=true" target="_blank">historically have been moved to other positions out of racial prejudice</a>—and as recently as 2013, <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1007/s12114-012-9149-z" target="_blank">a study of over 1,000 high school players</a> who went to Power Five schools found that Black quarterbacks were 38.5 percent more likely to change positions in college than white quarterbacks.</div><div><br /></div><div>A similar dynamic occurs as coaches of color climb the career ladder. They are <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0730888415580651" target="_blank">more likely to end up in particular assistant roles</a>, like running backs or defensive line coach, that are considered less essential to game-planning—and therefore less of a training ground for coordinator and head coach jobs.</div><div><br /></div><div>In addition, college coaches of color have long been pigeonholed as “recruiters,” charged with enticing predominantly Black high school prospects to attend their schools and managing them once they arrive on campus. In his book, Hill tells the story of an unnamed African-American coach at a prominent Power Five school in the 1980s. The coach, Hill writes, “was rarely involved in preparing game plans” and instead acted as “a father figure to Black players, which he did very well.”</div><div><br /></div><div>On game days, however, the African-American coach wore a disconnected headset on the sideline—leaving the rest of the school’s coaching staff to nickname him “deadset.”</div><div><br /></div><div>“Historically, if you go back to the 1960s and the integration of college sports and the beginning of hiring Black coaches, these coaches had a specific responsibility—to manage the Black players on the roster, and make sure they stay satisfied despite the issues of being Black at a primarily white institution,” says Derrick White, a University of Kentucky history professor and author of <i>Blood, Sweat, and Tears: Jake Gaither, Florida A&M, and the History of Black College Football</i>. “So they end up as running backs coaches, defensive backs coaches, wide receivers coaches. There’s no path for them to move up or become coordinators. And that continues for a long while.”</div><div><br /></div><div>In the here and now, says Arizona State co-defensive coordinator Marvin Lewis, recruiting acumen can be a double-edged sword for coaches of color. On one hand, it can lead to rapid career advancement from smaller to bigger programs, with paychecks and prestige to match. But on the other, Lewis says, “when coaches ascend in college football by recruiting, a lot of times they don’t stay long enough in a job to become the coordinator or the play-caller. So they end up making lateral moves.”</div><div><br /></div><div>Even when African-American coaches are able to avoid the above pitfalls, they remain disadvantaged. Examining the career histories of more than 300 FBS coaches during the 2009 season, University of North Carolina at Wilmington sociology professor Jacob Day found that when Black and white coaches occupied the same position—say, linebackers coach—white coaches were more likely to be promoted the next season.</div><div><br /></div><div>Moreover, Black coaches in the positions that most commonly lead to coordinator jobs were only slightly more likely to be promoted than white coaches in positions that<i> least</i> commonly lead to coordinator jobs—a finding, Day says, that is consistent with research from deceased Harvard University sociologist Devah Pager, who studied racial discrimination in labor markets.</div><div><br /></div><div>“She would send out similar people to apply for the same entry-level job, two young Black men and two young white men, and randomly assign one of each to have a criminal record—a minor drug offense,” Day says. “Then she would measure the callbacks. People with criminal records were less likely to get called back. But a black person without a criminal record was roughly as likely to get a callback as a white person with one.”</div></div><div><br /></div><div><b>Social segregation</b></div><div><br /></div><div><div>Head coaches don’t employ themselves. As is the case in any workplace, someone has to make a hiring decision—and in college football, that someone is almost always white.</div><div><br /></div><div>According to the Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport (TIDES) at the University of Central Florida, <a href="https://43530132-36e9-4f52-811a-182c7a91933b.filesusr.com/ugd/7d86e5_d69e3801bb8146f2b08f6e619bcddf22.pdf" target="_blank">only 24</a> of the 130 Division I athletic directors in 2018-19 were people of color. <a href="https://dukespace.lib.duke.edu/dspace/handle/10161/20697" target="_blank">A recent study</a> conducted by Duke University assistant football coach Eli Keimach found that in every year between 2008 and 2018, the percentage of Division I athletic directors who were white <a href="https://dukespace.lib.duke.edu/dspace/handle/10161/20697" target="_blank">ranged between 84 and 90 percent.</a></div><div><br /></div><div>The ways in which a particular athletic director’s race influences a particular hire is largely unknowable. But in the aggregate, a lack of diversity matters. Social scientists have found that <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/254077911_The_Academic_Caste_System_Prestige_Hierarchies_in_PhD_Exchange_Networks" target="_blank">in higher education</a> and most other fields, people <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/243695595_Information_Networks_in_Labor_Markets" target="_blank">tend to hire candidates they know</a> or candidates referred by people they know—a behavior that <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/241644136_Networks_Race_And_Hiring" target="_blank">holds true for people of color as well as whites.</a></div><div><br /></div><div>“You expect people to help out their friends, who they have more information about and trust more,” Day says. “But to the extent that our social networks are segregated by race—which they are in the United States—simply following that when you hire can perpetuate inequality.”</div><div><br /></div><div>Hill, who was the first Black head football coach at San Jose State University and later served as the president of Arkansas Baptist College, says that he twice benefitted from personal relationships during his coaching career: once when a former University of Arkansas colleague recommended him as potential head coach to San Jose State’s athletic director, which led to an interview and job offer, and again when he was a finalist for the head coaching job at Oregon State University.</div><div><br /></div><div>“That was because I knew the [school’s] athletic director, Kevin Anderson,” Hill says. “Our relationship made him think of me as a legitimate candidate. But how many people at the top of the college football food chain have genuine relationships with people of color?”</div><div><br /></div><div>Lewis coached in the NFL for 26 years. There, he says, aspiring head head coaches must impress “a hiring committee of two—the team owner, and the general manager or team president.” College football is different. Athletic directors choose football coaches with input from a wide range of stakeholders: school presidents, boards of regents and trustees, state politicians, coaching search firms, donors and boosters, rabid fan bases, and <a href="https://www.espn.com/espn/story/_/id/23382605/espn-leads-way-hiring-practices-sports-media" target="_blank">even sports media</a>, all of whom tend to be predominantly white.</div><div><br /></div><div>“These folks have a big voice,” says Arizona State athletic director Ray Anderson. “In some places, athletic directors can’t really control all of the folks in their ear about the next coach. And in a lot of cases, that won’t help coaches of color.”</div><div><br /></div><div>White, the college football historian, says that this dynamic most commonly plays out with the boosters that athletic departments depend upon for financial support. “You have these wealthy whites who mostly likely rarely meet with any African-Americans on an equal plane,” he says. “And they operate in a corporate world where all of the leaders are white.</div><div><br /></div><div>“So for them, there’s an implicit belief that power is white and leadership is white. It’s hard for them to imagine something they are so passionate about being led by an African-American.”</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Ongoing bias</b></div><div><br /></div><div>Hill concurs. While coaching at San Jose State, he found himself talking to a white booster, who congratulated Hill for hiring a new defensive coordinator, Keith Burns, who had worked with Hill at Arkansas and happened to be white.</div><div><br /></div><div>The booster then told Hill that he and some of his friends believed that Hill would have been more successful the previous season if he had fewer Black assistants on his staff.</div><div><br /></div><div>Hill was taken aback—but not surprised. He told the booster that he had won more games during his first three seasons than the school’s previous two white coaches, then asked if the booster had told those coaches that “they didn’t do better because they had too many white assistants.”</div><div><br /></div><div>“This is one of the fundamental reasons there are so few head coaches of color,” Hill says. “There’s an unconscious idea about leadership that is ingrained in society.”</div><div><br /></div><div>To illustrate, Hill points to the University of Notre Dame’s 2001 hiring of George O’Leary—who was forced to resign five days later for <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2001/12/15/sports/notre-dame-coach-resigns-after-5-days-and-a-few-lies.html" target="_blank">lying about his past athletic and academic accomplishments</a>. Kevin White, then the school’s athletic director, later explained that O’Leary, who is white, "appeared to all of us as something out of central casting. A second-generation Irish Catholic, a good football coach and a good institutional fit."</div><div><br /></div><div>“It goes back to central casting,” Hill says. “When you start thinking about a head coach, who comes to mind?”</div><div><br /></div><div>Day, the sociologist, says that labor market researchers have a term of this type of typecasting: the <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0049089X14000593" target="_blank">“particularistic mobility thesis,”</a> which in plain English means that when performance in particular jobs is difficult to objectively measure, then hiring and promotion decisions are based, in part, on the subjective perceptions of the people making those decisions.</div><div><br /></div><div>College football coaches need to win more games than they lose. But they also need to recruit skilled players, manage ambitious and competitive staffs, excite alumni, be able to hobnob with donors, serve as the public faces of schools, and avoid personal and professional scandal. “With any individual coach, evaluating their performance beyond wins and losses is kind of fuzzy,” Day says. “It’s not always clear and objective. So people have to rely on shorthand—on perceived personal, intangible traits like leadership ability or work ethic. And bias can oftentimes play a role in that.”</div><div><br /></div><div>To wit:<a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/article/372329" target="_blank"> a 2010 study</a> of press releases announcing new college football coach hires found that white coaches were more likely to be described as helping their new teams through knowledge and experience—traits associated with leadership—while Black coaches were more likely to be lauded for their ability to recruit and relate to athletes.</div><div><br /></div><div>“We don’t have segregation anymore, <i>per se</i>, but we still have bias that exists at scale in this country—in some cases subtle, and in some cases not so subtle,” Anderson says. “There’s just no denying it. And that impacts why there are so disproportionately few African-American coaches in football.”</div></div><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">
<kicker><a href="https://globalsportmatters.com/business/2020/09/24/is-a-super-bowl-win-enough-to-coach-apparently-not/" target="_blank">Published at Global Sport Matters</a></kicker></div></div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3878043065627433241.post-46177412765386237722020-09-26T18:11:00.001-04:002020-09-26T18:11:19.056-04:00Too Few Black College Coaches, Too Few Opportunities<div><div style="text-align: center;"><img alt="" data-original-height="675" data-original-width="1200" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-_6zgQxjRCRI/X2-6NLV1wfI/AAAAAAAAFL8/8tTfaDfFOtUokEfuvV10fEM1toZUU2zAwCLcBGAsYHQ/s16000/Fitz-01-scaled-e1600990230232.jpg" /></div><br /></div><a name='more'></a><div style="text-align: center;"><subhead>A new study shows Power Five football continues to lack diversity at its top tier coaching positions</subhead></div><div style="text-align: center;"><attribution>By Patrick Hruby | Global Sport Matters | September 2020</attribution></div><span class="drop-cap">F</span> or Fitz Hill, the memory remains vivid. It was January 1989, and Hill, then a 24-year-old graduate assistant football coach at Northwestern State University, had come to the American Football Coaches Association’s annual convention in Nashville to look for a better job.<div><br /><div>Standing in the sprawling lobby of the Opryland Hotel—where hungry young assistants mingled with established head coaches and coordinators in what amounted to an unofficial career fair—Hill spotted David Lee, who had just been hired as the head coach at the University of Texas at El Paso. Maybe, Hill thought, I’ll share my resume.</div><div><br /></div><div>Another assistant told Hill not to bother.</div><div><br /></div><div>“How long have you been in the profession?” the other assistant asked.</div><div><br /></div><div>Hill told him it was his first year.</div><div><br /></div><div>“No wonder you don’t understand,” the other assistant said. “He’s already hired his one Black coach.”</div><div>Hill is African-American. So was the other assistant. Lee, like almost every other head coach in major college football, was white.</div><div><br /></div><div>“Aren’t there nine positions?” Hill asked, referring to the coaching spots on Lee’s staff.</div><div><br /></div><div>“Not for us,” the other assistant said.</div><div><br /></div><div>“That just kind of hit me,” Hill says now. “It was normal back then for some [football] programs to not have but one Black coach on their staff.”</div><div><br /></div><div>Hill went on to become the first Black head football coach at San Jose State University and later served as the president of Arkansas Baptist College. He also wrote his doctoral dissertation on the barriers restricting employment opportunities for African-American coaches in college football, and co-authored the 2012 book <i>Crackback! How College Football Blindsides the Hopes of Black Coaches.</i></div><div><br /></div><div>Since his time as a young assistant, says Hill, 56, “there has been progress” for African-American coaches. But race, he says, “still defines space. It defines the employment space for black coaches, even today.”</div><div><br /></div><div>A new study conducted by the Global Sport Institute at Arizona State University supports that view. Examining head football coach hiring patterns in the National Collegiate Athletic Association’s “Power Five” conferences over a 10-year period beginning in the 2009-10 season, the study found that:</div><div><br /></div><div><div>* There were relatively few coaches of color hired as head coaches at the highest level of college football—just 24 out of 111 hires (21.6 percent) in the Atlantic Coast, Big Ten, Big 12, Southeastern, and Pac-12 conferences.</div><div><br /></div><div>* White head coaches were hired with proportionally lower levels of playing and coaching experience than their African-American and Latino peers.</div><div><br /></div><div>* When coaches of color were hired, their tenure was shorter on average than that of white coaches—and the range of ages at which they were hired was comparatively truncated.</div><div><br /></div><div>* In contrast to white head coaches, when coaches of color left head coaching positions, they had fewer avenues for future coaching opportunities at similar levels than their previous positions and did not move directly to National Football League head coaching positions.</div><div><br /></div><div>Moreover, coaches of color were less likely than their white counterparts to move directly to NFL offensive coordinator positions, a main pipeline for future NFL head coaches.</div></div><div><br /></div><div>Taken together, these findings paint a picture of stunted opportunity—and one that isn’t unique. Other studies of college football, professional football, college sports in general, and even <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/in-depth/money/business/2020/08/20/racism-black-america-corporate-america-facebook-apple-netflix-nike-diversity/5557003002/" target="_blank">corporate America</a> consistently have found that African-Americans disproportionately are stymied from advancing to senior leadership positions.</div><div><div><br /></div><div>Rooted in historical racism and segregation and perpetuated by an array of sociological factors, this phenomenon continues to transform the career ladder for Black college football coaches into an uphill obstacle course—one rife with what Hill calls “crackbacks,” an on-field term for punishing, blindside blocks that players never see coming.</div><div><br /></div><div>“I never thought when I was writing my book that 10 years later we would be in the same situation,” Hill says. “Never. But for black coaches, there still are not a lot of opportunities out there.”</div></div><div><br /></div><div><b>“Like playing the lottery”</b></div><div><br /></div><div><div>For decades, there were <i>no</i> football coaching opportunities for African-Americans. At least not at primarily white colleges and universities. By law and custom, the nation was segregated—and so was college football, with Black coaches and athletes largely confined to historically Black schools such as Grambling State University.</div><div><br /></div><div>As <i>de jure</i> American racial segregation crumbled in the 1960s and 70s, so did the sport’s color barrier. Black athletes trickled, then flooded onto the rosters of minor and major programs alike, even in the Deep South. In 1967, the University of Kentucky’s Nate Northington <a href="https://theundefeated.com/features/nate-northington-the-first-black-football-player-in-the-sec-finally-understands-his-place-in-history/" target="_blank">became the first African-American football player in the SEC</a>; by 1972, every school in the conference had integrated its team.</div><div><br /></div><div>Today, <a href="https://abfe.issuelab.org/resources/29858/29858.pdf" target="_blank">55 percent</a> of the football players in the Power Five are Black—and when Louisiana State University and Clemson University met in the 2020 national championship game, 35 of the game’s 44 starting players were African-American.</div><div><br /></div><div>But coaching boxes and offices have been a different story. In 1979, Willie Jeffries became the first Black head football coach at a NCAA Division I school when he was hired by Wichita State University. Thirteen years later, only five other African-American head coaches had ever been hired by D-I programs—leaving Alan Wood, then a Black assistant coach at the University of Miami, to state that “for a Black to become a head coach is like playing the lottery.”</div><div><br /></div><div>“It's crazy,” Wood said in 1992. “You spend your whole life as an assistant coach. It's like renting a house all your life. You build up someone else's equity, then they kick you out. The opportunity is there, all right. The opportunity is for a young Black coach to enter the business as a young assistant and leave as an old Black assistant coach.”</div><div><br /></div><div>Aspiring Black assistant coaches now face fewer of the entry level and early career obstacles that Hill observed in the 1980s: <a href="https://dukespace.lib.duke.edu/dspace/handle/10161/20697" target="_blank">according to a recent study</a> conducted by Duke University assistant football coach Eli Keimach, 37.6 percent of the assistant coaches in the NCAA’s Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) in 2018 were African-American. Yet when it comes to reaching the top of the profession, Wood’s lottery analogy remains appropriate.</div><div><br /></div><div>While writing his 2012 book, Hill examined historical data for FBS schools and calculated that a fan of a FBS team was roughly five and a half times more likely to have seen an undefeated, un-tied team in their lifetime than to have seen a African-American head coach introduced at a press conference. And though the GSI study suggests that the odds for coaches of color have slightly improved over the last decade—a period in which 14 left Power Five head coaching jobs and 24 were hired—stark disparities remain.</div><div><br /></div><div>In February, journalist Paul Newberry of <a href="https://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/college/ct-college-football-black-coaches-20200210-jqsv6qbjpfdyxnxnvmcattnfmi-story.html" target="_blank">the Associated Press reported</a> that just 13 of 130 FBS schools had African-American head coaches, down from 15 in 2018. In the Power Five, the Pac-12 and Big Ten currently have a combined eight coaches of Color, while the SEC and ACC each have one and the Big 12 has none.</div><div><br /></div><div>Moreover, not all head coaching opportunities are equally attractive or conducive to long-term success. Newberry observed that when Black coaches manage to ascend to head jobs, they “usually face huge obstacles” to success, landing at moribund or scandal-struck programs instead of the sport’s blue bloods. For instance, Derek Mason coaches at Vanderbilt University—a longtime SEC doormat that has enjoyed seven winning seasons over the last 40 years—while Syracuse University’s Dino Babers and the University of Illinois’ Lovie Smith both took over teams that had been mediocre or worse for more than a decade.</div><div><br /></div><div>Hill can relate. When he arrived at San Jose State in 2001, he inherited a program that had gone 39-69-1 over the previous 10 years. “It probably wasn’t a great job to take,” he says. “But how many Black coaches get these opportunities?”</div><div><br /></div><div>According to Keimach’s study, it takes African-American coaches roughly 3.5 years longer than their white peers to advance from their first season as an assistant to their first FBS head job. Meanwhile, a <a href="https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/college-football-doesnt-give-black-coaches-many-chances/" target="_blank">FiveThirtyEight analysis</a> determined that between 1979 and 2019, only one Power Five school, the University of Colorado, had fired a Black head football coach and later hired another.</div><div><br /></div><div>The GSI study found that 39 percent of Power Five schools have never hired a head football coach of Color—a number that rises to 64 percent for schools in the SEC, college football’s marquee conference, which did not have its first African-American head coach until 2004.</div><div><br /></div><div>Richard Lapchick, a longtime human rights activist and director of the Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport (TIDES) at the University of Central Florida, has been studying and advocating for diversity within sports for decades. Every year, he helps create comprehensive reports that assess hiring for women and people of Color in professional and college sports.</div><div><br /></div><div>The <a href="https://43530132-36e9-4f52-811a-182c7a91933b.filesusr.com/ugd/7d86e5_d69e3801bb8146f2b08f6e619bcddf22.pdf" target="_blank">most recent TIDES report</a>, published in June, calls the ongoing “lack of opportunities” for head coaches of color in college football “unacceptable.”</div><div><br /></div><div>“It has been an issue ever since I have gotten involved with this work,” Lapchick says. “And it has not gotten any better.”</div></div><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">
<kicker><a href="https://globalsportmatters.com/business/2020/09/24/too-few-black-college-coaches-too-few-opportunities/" target="_blank">Published at Global Sport Matters</a></kicker></div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3878043065627433241.post-69274536416323855382020-09-26T17:55:00.001-04:002020-09-26T17:55:36.365-04:00Damage Assessment<img alt="" data-original-height="967" data-original-width="1450" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-yp75JcxrQ88/X2-uUuBJt6I/AAAAAAAAFKk/Z0eerZz63Bsh-0rqwsb-TeznHJqKzxLgQCLcBGAsYHQ/s16000/I3V3OECG2MI6VENLZZBZVJOHYE.jpg" /><br /><a name='more'></a><div style="text-align: center;"><subhead>The quest to detect the degenerative brain disease CTE in the living and what it could mean for football’s concussion crisis</subhead></div><div style="text-align: center;"><attribution>Patrick Hruby | Washington Post Magazine | September 2020</attribution></div><span class="drop-cap">R</span>ed and yellow were bad. Blue and green were good. The rest, Sam Gandy explained, remains unclear.
<div><br /></div><div>It was December 2015, and Gandy, a neurologist at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York, was showing a former National Football League player named Sean Morey scans of his brain. A professional athlete for 10 seasons, Morey retired from the NFL in 2010 after doctors told him he had suffered too many concussions. </div><div><br /></div><div>Morey subsequently became a behind-the-scenes health and safety advocate, co-chairing an NFL Players Association committee devoted to brain injuries and leading a mid-2010s effort to improve the settlement terms of a class action concussion lawsuit brought by retirees against the league. Just 39 years old, he also was suffering debilitating headaches, memory lapses, angry outbursts and other symptoms associated with chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a neurodegenerative disease linked to repeated blows to the head. </div><div><br /></div><div>While CTE had been found in the brains of dozens of former players, including Pro Football Hall of Fame members Mike Webster and Junior Seau, there was no way to know if Morey had it. The disease could be diagnosed only posthumously. </div><div><br /></div><div>Gandy was working to change that. To try to identify CTE, he was using an experimental technique to scan the brains of retired football players and soldiers. The scans were color-coded. Healthy people’s brains appeared mostly blue and green, like grassy islands surrounded by sea. By contrast, probable areas of damage looked yellow and red, as if fires were burning on those same islands. The images Gandy was showing Morey were the results of brain scans done seven months earlier using a positron-emission tomography (PET) machine. They were unlike any brain images Gandy had seen before. (He would go on to publish his case study of Morey, one of the first of its kind, in a scientific journal in 2016.) </div><div> </div><div>Much of Morey’s brain was green. But some areas were red. Bright, flaming red. And those areas corresponded to the damaged areas found in the autopsied brains of Seau, Webster and others with CTE. “I knew they would find something,” Morey told me later. “The question was, what was the extent of it?” </div><div><br /></div><div>Gandy strongly suspected CTE. Yet he couldn’t say for sure and cautioned Morey not to draw sweeping conclusions. The pictures were merely snapshots, produced by a new and unverified method of peeking through the skull to spot a very specific thing. They didn’t indicate that Morey indisputably had the disease, or that his condition would worsen over time. To know anything with certainty, Gandy explained, many more people would need to be scanned. And much more work would need to be done. Morey’s images were not the last word; instead, they were an important step toward solving a medical puzzle. Namely, can CTE be diagnosed in living people? </div><div><br /></div><div>Now a 44-year-old assistant high school football coach living in Princeton, N.J., and still coping with the damage done by his professional career, Morey knows better than anyone what an answer could mean — both for a sport grappling with the disease and for the lives of the people who play it.</div><div><span><!--more--></span><div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img alt="" data-original-height="1979" data-original-width="1484" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-lFPt4L-Bdpo/X2-wcE-PlJI/AAAAAAAAFK0/X8bLukhu2OYo5cZzyhlnB1ZXWH5IUYyRgCLcBGAsYHQ/s16000/LAJBRRSGWYI6VENLZZBZVJOHYE.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" /></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Neurologist Sam Gandy at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York in January. Photo by Chris Sorenson.</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><span class="drop-cap">S</span>uppose you’re a football player. Here’s what happens when doctors suspect that you’ve torn a knee ligament: They use a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machine to look at the tissues inside your leg, determine if and how they’ve been damaged, and use that information to prescribe a course of treatment and recovery. By contrast, here’s what happens when doctors suspect you’re suffering from CTE: They wait for you to die. After that, they carefully remove your brain from your skull, slice certain portions of it into small, thin pieces, stain those pieces with special chemicals and then place them under microscopes to look for the disease’s biological signature: tangles of a toxic, abnormal variation of a protein called tau in the depths of the sulci, which are the crevasses between the brain’s many wrinkles. Then, and only then, can it be said conclusively that you had CTE — and not some other neurodegenerative disease or type of brain injury.<div><br /></div><div>This is a problem. Like society at large, football is now coping with the coronavirus pandemic. But the sport has been gripped by an ongoing health crisis since 2005, when a neuropathologist named Bennet Omalu published a study identifying what he believed to be CTE in Webster’s brain. His discovery inspired the 2015 Will Smith film “Concussion.” A 2017 Boston University study of the brains of 202 deceased former football players found that 110 of the 111 who had played in the NFL had the disease, as did lower percentages of athletes who stopped playing in college (48 of 53) and high school (3 of 14).</div><div><br /></div><div>Linked to aggression, depression, suicidal thoughts, impaired judgment, impulse control problems and dementia, CTE was found in the brain of Tyler Hilinski, a 21-year-old Washington State University quarterback who died of suicide in 2018, and in the brain of Aaron Hernandez, a 27-year-old former NFL player who in 2017 hanged himself in prison while serving a life sentence for murder. The disease sparked thousands of individual lawsuits that led to the NFL’s settlement, which already has awarded nearly $790 million to retirees with cognitive impairment or conditions such as Parkinson’s or Alzheimer’s. CTE was a major factor in a similar settlement between former college athletes and the NCAA and is a key part of a second wave of football-related suits against the association and various athletic conferences and schools.</div><div><br /></div><div><div>Concerns about CTE also have contributed to a nationwide decline in high school and youth tackle football participation, local and state-level efforts to ban both activities, and a number of NFL and college players walking away from the game. “The impact of CTE has been dramatic,” says former San Francisco 49ers linebacker Chris Borland, who in 2015 retired from the NFL at age 24 following his rookie season because of concerns about the disease. “We’re seeing players take it into consideration more and more. And it calls into question a lot of the circumstances surrounding football: How much public money should be contributed to the game, whether or not college athletes should be compensated for doing a risky job, if it’s an appropriate activity for young children.”</div><div><br /></div><div>Scientists believe that repetitive brain trauma — not just concussions, but also less severe subconcussive blows like the hits football linemen absorb on every snap — is a precondition for CTE. Last year, Boston University researchers found that for football players, both the risk of developing the disease and its severity increase with the number of years playing the sport; athletes whose youth-to-pro careers lasted more than 14.5 years were 10 times as likely to have CTE as those who played fewer.</div><div><br /></div><div>Yet because there’s no way to identify the disease in the living, many basic and important questions remain unanswered. Researchers don’t know why some people who suffer repeated head hits develop CTE while others do not. They don’t know how many hits are too many. They don’t know exactly how the disease first arises, or how and why it spreads across the brain over time. They don’t know why individuals develop different symptoms with different levels of severity. They don’t know how common CTE is, nor how risky football and other contact sports truly are. Most of the brains given to Boston University and other research institutions for study come from donors and families who were experiencing problems during life, which creates selection bias in studies and means headline numbers like 110 of 111 NFL brains skew high.</div><div><br /></div><div>Moreover, the inability to detect the disease in people such as Morey makes developing effective therapies almost impossible. But with detection, “We’d be able to begin clinical trials for new compounds to be able to treat the disease once it starts — and hopefully even prevent it if we can detect it early on,” says Robert Stern, the director of clinical research for Boston University’s CTE Center and an expert on the disease. “So the next critical step is to diagnose it during life.”</div></div><span></span><span><!--more--></span><div><span class="drop-cap">G</span>andy joined the quest to find a way to detect CTE in the living after studying Alzheimer’s for decades. He helped to discover the first drugs that reduce the formation of beta-amyloid, a sticky protein that builds up in the brains of Alzheimer’s patients. His interest in brain disease was intellectual, rooted in a desire to go from “no understanding of a situation” to “that sudden flash of insight.”</div><div><div><br /></div><div>It also was personal. One of Gandy’s earliest memories is of riding in his parents’ car, following a police cruiser that was taking his grandmother to a South Carolina hospital to be institutionalized for dementia. She would confuse her grandson with his father. She would leave her single-story brick cabin and walk down the highway until police picked her up. Before her death in the late 1960s, she spent her final years largely confined to a rocking chair, singing hymns to herself. “I knew something was going on, clearly stressful and important, but I didn’t really understand,” Gandy says.</div><div><br /></div><div>Gandy, 63, now believes that his grandmother had Alzheimer’s, which wasn’t considered to be a major disease until the 1970s. Gandy’s mother later was diagnosed with the disease. Before her death in 2018, she became paranoid and absent-minded; nurses often found her on the floor between her wheelchair and bathroom after she would call for assistance, forget that help was on the way, and then unsuccessfully try to reach the toilet herself. “I’m sure that all had an effect on me,” Gandy says. “At some level, [brain disease] almost never leaves my mind.”</div><div><br /></div><div>In the 1990s, Gandy was part of a research team that discovered professional boxers carrying a particular gene known to increase Alzheimer’s risk were more likely to suffer long-term brain damage from prizefighting than their peers. Over the next decade, he closely followed the emerging connection between football and CTE, in part because one of the researchers who helped find the disease in Webster’s brain, Steve DeKosky, was a longtime friend and colleague.</div><div><br /></div><div>In 2014, Dave Herman, a 73-year-old retired NFL player with memory problems, wanted to join a Mount Sinai clinical trial for an Alzheimer’s drug. Problem was, the five doctors who examined Herman couldn’t agree on a diagnosis. Based on his symptoms, three believed he had the disease. Two suspected CTE. Gandy, who later published a paper on Herman’s case, scanned Herman’s brain twice with a PET machine, which detects radiation. For the first scan, Herman was injected with a radioactive chemical, called a tracer, that binds to beta-amyloid, the protein involved in Alzheimer’s. For the second scan, Herman was given a tracer that binds to the tau protein. In healthy brain cells, tau acts like a kind of scaffolding and is essential to normal functioning; but in CTE, an abnormal variation called p-tau clumps in the valleys of the brain’s wrinkles, killing cells and disrupting function.</div><div><br /></div><div>Herman’s first scan came back negative: greens and blues, indicating minimal beta-amyloid concentration. Alzheimer’s was ruled out. By contrast, the second scan showed yellow and red. The tracer was sticking to p-tau. Gandy thought it was likely Herman had CTE, but the quality of the scans made it hard to tell whether the p-tau was concentrated in the same brain valleys as seen in autopsies of people who had the disease. To reach a more definitive conclusion, Gandy would need better scans. And he would need more subjects.</div></div><span><!--more--></span><div><div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img alt="" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="750" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-pkX-qGy4WC4/X2-yqJTYpRI/AAAAAAAAFLA/YfDQEW7yr50VCbdO5pM14dW5LRTV4SKWgCLcBGAsYHQ/s16000/I73URLSG2MI6VENLZZBZVJOHYE.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" /></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Morey with daughter Piper after her hockey game in Princeton in November. Photo by Chris Sorenson.</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><span class="drop-cap">M</span>orey never planned on becoming a medical case study. Undersized at 5-foot-11 and 193 pounds, he played his way from practice squads to the 2008 Pro Bowl as a hard-hitting special teams standout for the Arizona Cardinals. After football, Morey figured, he would put his Brown University degree to use and become an athletic director. Or perhaps go into politics like Steve Largent, a former NFL receiver who served in Congress. “I wanted to do something positive and serve other people,” Morey says. “Make sure they are not forgotten or misrepresented.”</div><div><br /></div><div>Brain injuries derailed those ambitions. Morey estimates that he suffered more than 20 concussions over his career, most of them undiagnosed, and countless other blows to the head. Following the 2009 season, he began having blind spots in his vision and excruciating headaches that would leave him immobilized for hours at a time. “I played in the NFL with ripped-off toenails, dislocated fingers, separated shoulders, broken ribs, patellar tendinitis, torn ligaments in my ankle, a torn biceps,” he says. “But I had never experienced that kind of pain.”</div><div><br /></div><div>When two doctors advised Morey to retire in the summer of 2010, he knew enough to take their advice. Two years earlier at the Super Bowl, he had had a long conversation with Chris Nowinski, a former Harvard University football player and professional wrestler who was trying to warn the sports world about the potential dangers of concussions and repetitive brain trauma, including CTE. First identified in 1928, the disease had been studied in boxers for decades. But football’s medical community largely hadn’t paid attention. “When Chris and I first spoke,” Morey says, “I couldn’t even pronounce ‘chronic traumatic encephalopathy.’ ”</div><div><br /></div><div>Morey was a quick study. He co-chaired the NFL Players Association’s first brain injury committee and recruited scientists to advise it. He read every study he could get his hands on and co-wrote a 90-page report outlining health risks faced by players. During 2011 collective bargaining negotiations between the league and the union, he helped create a return-to-play protocol for concussed players and helped secure more than $300 million in new player health care and research funding. (Morey later resigned from the union committee because he felt that the programs the union chose to spend that money on did not adequately study or treat retirees with brain injuries. The NFLPA, which is funding a large and ongoing medical study of former players through Harvard University that includes brain injury research, declined to comment on Morey’s resignation.)</div><div><br /></div><div>All the while, Morey’s own symptoms were intensifying. His headaches, he says, felt like “being beaten in the head with a rubber mallet. Like someone is squeezing your eyeballs together. Every time the blood pumps through your skull, you literally feel it.” He would lose his train of thought mid-conversation, miss appointments, struggle to sleep and find words, leave the stove on, drive away from gas stations with the refueling nozzle still in his sport-utility vehicle. At his daughters’ sports practices, Morey says, he would “show up and introduce myself and ask [other parents] their names, and they would look at me like I’m crazy — because I take them to practice every week, and I’m asking every week.”</div><div><br /></div><div>Worse still were the explosions of rage. In locker rooms, Morey took pride in being calm and thoughtful. Now he was erupting at his wife, Cara, and their three young daughters, “dropping f-bombs and screaming at the top of my lungs,” he says. Anything could trigger an outburst, like his children arguing in the back seat during a drive to their grandparents’ house. The fallout left Morey confused and ashamed. “I would think to myself, ‘What the f--- did I just say?’ ” he says. “ ‘How can I do this?’ ”</div></div><span></span><span><!--more--></span><div><span class="drop-cap">F</span>ive years ago, when Gandy first saw the images of Morey’s brain scans, a single thought went through his mind. That’s it. That’s CTE. The scans were negative for beta-amyloid and positive for p-tau; more important, they were at a higher resolution than Dave Herman’s scans, which meant Gandy could see more clearly that the p-tau in Morey’s brain was concentrated in the areas associated with the disease.</div><div><div><br /></div><div>“I was amazed,” Gandy says. Ensuing research has produced a more complicated picture, indicating that a CTE test will take a while to develop. To wit: Since 2016, Gandy and his team have scanned and examined 25 combat veterans and 25 former collision-sport athletes. Of the 20 patients suffering clinical symptoms associated with CTE, 16 have scans showing excess retention of the tracer that indicates tau tangles.</div><div><br /></div><div>However, the other four do not — perhaps because they don’t have the disease, Gandy says, or perhaps because they have CTE but haven’t yet accumulated enough p-tau in their brains to register on scans. “The positives were in people who had obvious symptoms, who already had seen a neurologist or a psychiatrist and were being medicated,” he says. “So, is this technique sensitive enough to see if you have a lower level of [p-tau] or early CTE? Would it be useful in screening NCAA [football] players? Probably unlikely.”</div><div><br /></div><div>A 2019 Boston University scanning study that compared 26 former NFL players suffering from symptoms associated with CTE and 31 people with no history of head injuries or symptoms was similarly suggestive — and similarly inconclusive. At the group level, the football retirees had higher p-tau levels in their brains than the non-players; among individuals, retirees who had played the longest had the highest levels. However, some of the retirees had the same levels of p-tau as individual non-players, and researchers found no correlation between p-tau levels and symptom severity.</div></div><div><br /></div><div><div>Stern, the Boston University researcher and one of the study’s co-authors, believes that the tracer used to detect p-tau, a compound called flortaucipir, may prove inadequate for a reliable CTE test. “It can bind to stuff in and around the brain that is not abnormal tau,” he says, “and that may alter how the scans are interpreted.” Improved compounds are being developed; last year, British scientists found that the p-tau in CTE has a unique atomic structure compared with the p-tau that can build up in other neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer’s, a discovery that they believe could lead to a CTE-specific tracer.</div><div><br /></div><div>Even if that happens, doctors still will need to scan a large number of suspected CTE patients, track them over time and examine them after death to validate that the yellow and red areas seen in scans correspond to what’s actually inside their brains. That process will likely take years. When researchers previously worked to validate the PET scans now used to detect beta-amyloid in the brains of Alzheimer’s patients, Gandy says, they were able to move relatively quickly because it is easier for doctors to find patients with Alzheimer’s near the end of their lives. By contrast, he says, there are “fewer people with CTE. And the disease isn’t necessarily going to kill them within the next six months.”</div><div><br /></div><div>But Stern feels a sense of urgency and wants to speed things up. He is heading the largest and most thorough study designed to identify CTE in living people. The seven-year, $16 million project funded by the National Institutes of Health has put 180 former NFL and college football players and 60 noncontact-sport control subjects through a series of tests including two PET scans; two other types of imaging; blood, saliva and spinal-fluid collection; genetic evaluations; neuropsychological testing; and clinical examinations and histories.</div><div><br /></div><div>One of the study’s goals is to use imaging alongside the other biomarkers to create a detection tool kit for CTE — if a scan alone isn’t enough to diagnose the disease, then perhaps a scan plus, say, high levels of a chemical in the blood that indicates brain trauma will be. Researchers also hope to find a simple, inexpensive screening method to help doctors determine which patients need costly PET scans and other diagnostic procedures, the way doctors looking for prostate cancer use blood tests to decide who needs more thorough examination. “There are great stretches of the world where you can’t plug in a PET scanner,” Gandy says. “Having a blood test [to screen for CTE] would make it more available and convenient.”</div><div><br /></div><div>Initial testing in Stern’s study was completed in late February, just days before the coronavirus pandemic shut down college campuses and research labs across the country. Working from home and conferring regularly via video chat, researchers in the study are analyzing the data that they’ve collected and expect to submit the first papers reporting their findings to medical journals before the end of the year. “It’s a long road,” Stern says. “The more neuroscience moves forward making discoveries about the brain, the more we realize how complex it is.”</div></div><span><!--more--></span><div><div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img alt="" data-original-height="1113" data-original-width="1484" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-vhhuORnE4oE/X2-28XTuWmI/AAAAAAAAFLw/dAYWei5qLWQjDQQWAvlSZiYD9rnPMltSQCLcBGAsYHQ/s16000/RAYUBGSGWYI6VENLZZBZVJOHYE.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" /></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Gandy in his office lab at Mount Sinai in January. Photo by Chris Sorenson.</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><span class="drop-cap">O</span>n a cool and sunny Saturday afternoon last fall, Morey stood on the sideline at the Lawrenceville School in Lawrenceville, N.J., holding a kickoff coverage play sheet he designed himself. Since 2016, he has been an assistant football coach at the private prep school, which has been playing the sport since the 1800s. Outside the Lawrenceville locker room, players lined up to take the field. It was Senior Day. “Let’s do it one more time!” someone yelled.</div><div><br /></div><div>What Morey loved most about football was community: the relationships with teammates and coaches, the shared sense of sacrifice, the pursuit of a common goal. Brain injuries often have left him isolated. Over time and by himself, Morey has shuffled through doctors and medications, searching for relief. Today, brain injury specialists have prescribed that he take a stimulant for focus, an antidepressant that he says “lengthens the fuse” on his blowups, and a blood pressure medication that softens his migraines. He says that he spends roughly $20,000 a year on treatment. He has worked for the athletic department at Princeton University, where his wife coaches the women’s hockey team, and held speed training clinics for local athletes. He also advises Maven Diagnostic, a company working on rapid covid-19 testing in sports. But a full-time job isn’t feasible.</div><div><br /></div><div>Maybe the hardest thing about his condition, Morey says, is its invisibility. When you have a bum knee, others can see the swelling in the joint, the brace around your leg, the crutches you’re using to get around. Nobody says that you’re faking a limp, or that your inability to climb stairs is all in your head. Not so with a battered brain. After Morey retired from football, a neurologist who examined him in 2012 for a workers’ compensation claim concluded that while “multiple concussions can certainly result in some cumulative cognitive impairment,” Morey’s problems were “substantially if not completely the result of his psychological state” — and not the result of brain damage from getting hit in the head. The neurologist based that conclusion, in part, on MRI and electroencephalogram (EEG) scans of Morey’s brain that did not “confirm the presence of a structural brain injury.” But those types of scans are less sensitive than the ones used by Gandy and Stern.</div><div><br /></div><div>The NFL publicly touts its commitment to player health and safety, and four years ago announced plans to donate $100 million toward technological and medical research aimed at improving helmet safety and better understanding brain injuries. “It is clear there can be long-term health risks associated with repetitive head injuries, particularly if they are not treated properly,” NFL chief medical officer Allen Sills said in a statement. “Close attention needs to be paid to these research findings and collectively the research community must work together to seek more answers. Specifically, researchers and clinicians continue to work together to answer important questions about CTE, including how and why the disease manifests itself, who is at risk, and why.”</div><div><br /></div><div>However, the NFL also spent years downplaying and denying the damage its product can cause, conducting since-discredited scientific research in the 1990s and 2000s that, in part, claimed concussions “are not serious injuries” and admitted only in 2016 that there is a link between football and CTE. Similarly, the league’s concussion settlement, which covers roughly 20,500 retired players, only pays CTE claims to the families of players posthumously diagnosed with the disease between 2006 and April 2015. It also does not compensate mood and behavior disorders associated with CTE. Lawyers who negotiated the deal said it was the best they could do given that the disease can’t be diagnosed in the living; between 2014 and 2016, Morey organized an unsuccessful legal challenge that attempted to remove those restrictions.</div></div><div><br /></div><div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img alt="" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1365" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-_NiYJBqiqXo/X2-0wb3AaDI/AAAAAAAAFLc/ChRib9Wqzh4BR8e_uYKXcQ_k47nrSIz2wCLcBGAsYHQ/s16000/FK6ZVOCG2MI6VENLZZBZVJOHYE.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" /></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Morey and daughter Piper watch his daughter Devan’s field hockey game in Lawrenceville in November. Photo by Chris Sorenson.</td></tr></tbody></table><br />All of this made Morey eager to have his brain scanned by Gandy, because seeing, he says, is believing. “So much of the imaging that was discussed or debated or referenced for years and years was simply not sensitive enough to identify the damage that players had been sustaining,” Morey says. “Doctors and lawyers could point to that and suggest there were no long-term outcomes from football, even though guys were suffering.</div><div><div><br /></div><div>“There must have been so many people experiencing these issues who were painted as bulls---ting or crazy. Don’t f---ing call us crazy. We’re not crazy. We’re hurting and we need help.”</div><div><br /></div><div>A viable CTE test for living people could prompt a deeper and more widespread reckoning within football. What happens when someone scans the brains of every player on an NFL, college or high school roster? Autopsies have found the disease at every level of the sport. How much red is too much? “People in football are making a similar choice right now with covid: At what point is it not safe for me to play, or let my kids play, this sport?” Morey says. “Having some sort of objective scientific test for CTE could help inform the decision-making process for coaches and administrators determining the appropriate time to begin playing, and of athletes who want to understand the extent of the injuries they’ve sustained and when it’s time to walk away. ... I love football. Unapologetically. But you don’t want to sacrifice more than you’re willing to in order to compete.”</div><div><br /></div><div>The existence of a test may also force other decisions, such as whether you even want to know you have CTE before there are effective treatments. For decades, Alzheimer’s researchers have focused on imaging beta-amyloid within the brain and creating compounds to get rid of it. They have succeeded at both, yet have failed to cure the disease. “We have a drug that purges your brain of amyloid, and your symptoms still get worse,” Gandy says.</div><div><br /></div><div>Gandy has faced this testing dilemma himself. Last year, he applied to participate in an Alzheimer’s prevention clinical trial — not as a researcher, but as a subject. For the first time in Gandy’s life, his brain was scanned. Ultimately, the test came back negative. But the week-long wait for results was excruciating. Gandy felt helpless. He thought about his grandmother and mother, and all of the patients he had seen over his long career — all of the suffering he could not alleviate, all of the jigsaw pieces he had yet to connect. “The whole week,” he says, “I was thinking, ‘How am I going to live with knowing that my head is full of amyloid?’ ”</div><div><br /></div><div>But Morey says he would still want to know whether he has CTE. When you’re afraid of what you might find, he says, it’s easier not to look. Yet while seeing his scans was sobering, it also was oddly comforting. “I always perceived [my scans] as the first step in a process,” Morey says, pausing to find the right words. “A process of trying to gain, like, the truth.”</div></div><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">
<kicker><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/magazine/2020/09/02/quest-detect-cte-living-former-nfl-players-other-athletes/?arc404=true" target="_blank">Published at Washington Post Magazine</a></kicker></div></div></div><br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3878043065627433241.post-75108454203285720052020-07-06T15:50:00.029-04:002020-07-17T16:01:13.632-04:00The Coronavirus Shows How the NCAA Isn’t Built to Protect Athletes<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-E5iL6CUZGcA/XwOEGGRubhI/AAAAAAAAFBs/MqLI8saFK3wtSRfZ7cZLnvufGIQnCSOdQCK4BGAsYHg/s800/a.jpeg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-E5iL6CUZGcA/XwOEGGRubhI/AAAAAAAAFBs/MqLI8saFK3wtSRfZ7cZLnvufGIQnCSOdQCK4BGAsYHg/d/a.jpeg" /></a><br />
<a name='more'></a><div style="text-align: center;"><subhead>The organization in charge of college sports vigorously governs amateurism.
But health and safety is another story.</subhead></div><div style="text-align: center;"><attribution>By Patrick Hruby | Hreal Sports | July 2020</attribution></div>
<span class="drop-cap">L</span>
ast week, Rand Paul said something profoundly stupid. On its own, that wouldn’t
necessarily be noteworthy. The Republican Senator from Kentucky says lots of
dumb stuff about a
<a
href="http://voices.washingtonpost.com/right-now/2010/05/rand_paul_in_2002_i_may_not_li.html"
target="_blank"
>great</a
>
<a
href="https://www.politico.com/story/2011/05/paul-right-to-health-care-is-slavery-054769"
target="_blank"
>many</a
>
<a
href="https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2012-may-12-la-na-nn-rand-paul-obama-gayer-20120512-story.html"
target="_blank"
>things.</a
>
<div><br /></div>
<div>
<div>
In the context of a Congressional hearing on the ongoing coronavirus
pandemic that already has killed nearly 130,000 Americans, however, the
idiocy streaming from Paul’s mouth was downright terrifying. When he wasn’t
whining that infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci stood in the way of
Americans playing baseball, Paul was proclaiming that Friedrich Hayek—a
Austrian-born libertarian economist who is very much not an expert on
infectious diseases, and also happens to be dead—somehow had the policy
prescription for un-fucking the United States out of its worst public health
crisis in a generation.
</div>
<div><br /></div>
<div>
“Hayek had it right!”
<a
href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/06/30/could-americas-pandemic-response-be-any-more-medieval/"
target="_blank"
>Paul said.</a
>
“Only decentralized power and decision-making based on millions of
individualized situations can arrive at what risks and behaviors each
individual should choose.”
</div>
<div><br /></div>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p dir="ltr" lang="en">
Where is Rand Paul’s neighbor when you really need him?
<a href="https://t.co/RdgF0jJaLD">pic.twitter.com/RdgF0jJaLD</a>
</p>
— Patrick Hruby (@patrick_hruby)
<a
href="https://twitter.com/patrick_hruby/status/1278141479186202628?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"
>July 1, 2020</a
>
</blockquote>
<script
async=""
charset="utf-8"
src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"
></script>
<div><br /></div>
<div>
<div>
In other words: wear a mask, or don’t. Go to a bar, or don’t. Play
baseball, or don’t. Respond to the virus however you want, let everyone
else do the same, and let the sum of our decisions be our national
strategy. Don’t ask the government to take charge of anti-COVID-19
efforts—or, God forbid, force Americans to, like,
<a
href="https://fox6now.com/2020/06/27/florida-governor-says-he-will-not-make-face-masks-mandatory-says-it-would-backfire/"
target="_blank"
>mildly inconvenience themselves</a
>.
</div>
<div><br /></div>
<div>
Of course, this is exactly the wrong way to combat communicable diseases,
which care a lot less about the philosophical merits of
<i>The Road to Serfdom</i> than finding antibody-free hosts. If the
coronavirus has taught us anything—beyond the continuing inadvisability of
drinking bleach—it’s that pandemics are best managed through collective
action coordinated by a central authority. The government makes and
enforces sensible safety rules. People trust and follow them. Everybody is
not
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-zg-MhEXb4c" target="_blank"
>free to feel good</a
>, doing whatever they think is best. Adopting that approach is largely
why
<a
href="https://thediplomat.com/2020/04/covering-all-the-bases-how-taiwan-opened-its-baseball-season-amid-covid-19/"
target="_blank"
>Taiwan is playing baseball</a
>
and
<a
href="https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2020/06/08/871822321/with-no-current-cases-new-zealand-lifts-remaining-covid-19-restrictions"
target="_blank"
>New Zealand is celebrating entire days without any new COVID-19
cases</a
>; rejecting it is largely why America’s new case counts are exploding and
the National Basketball Association
<a
href="https://hrealsports.substack.com/p/just-look-at-the-numbers-would-the"
target="_blank"
>probably would be better off scrapping plans to restart its season in
Florida and instead moving to Australia.</a
>
</div>
<div><br /></div>
<div>
Not coincidentally, it also helps explain why the National Collegiate
Athletic Association and its member schools are struggling to contain the
coronavirus.
</div>
<div><br /></div>
</div>
<span class="drop-cap">P</span>erhaps you’ve heard: College sports are
scheduled to resume this fall. So far,
<a
href="https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2020/06/22/college-football-programs-hit-covid-after-resumption-voluntary-workouts"
target="_blank"
>the ramp-up isn’t going very well. </a
>
<div><br /></div>
<div>
Over the last month, athletes have been returning to otherwise empty
campuses for voluntary—<a
href="https://www.lrt-sports.com/blog/the-problem-with-voluntary-workouts/"
target="_blank"
>ahem</a
>—workouts. More than 150 of them have since tested positive for
coronavirus, including 23 Clemson University football players. At Louisiana
State University,
<a
href="https://www.si.com/college/2020/06/20/lsu-football-players-quarantined-coronavirus"
target="_blank"
>at least 30 football players have been in COVID-19 quarantine</a
>; at Kansas State University, the school
<a
href="https://www.kstatesports.com/news/2020/6/21/k-state-athletics-pauses-all-voluntary-workouts-for-football-student-athletes.aspx"
target="_blank"
>paused workouts for 14 days</a
>
after 14 athletes tested positive.
</div>
<div><br /></div>
<div>
Thankfully, no serious illnesses or hospitalizations have been reported.
Still, these initial infections have
<a
href="https://sports.yahoo.com/will-there-be-college-football-a-new-flurry-of-pessimism-has-arrived-222609082.html"
target="_blank"
>cast a pall over athletic departments</a
>. After all, locker rooms aren’t full. Actual practices haven’t started.
Classes, complete with other students, aren’t in session. Precautions are
being taken, with toes dipping gently into the sporting water.
</div>
<div><br /></div>
<div>
Nevertheless, athletes already are being quarantined—and the virus is far
from being under control. So what happens when games resume?
</div>
<div><br /></div>
<div>
Sheldon Jacobson, a University of Illinois computer science professor whose
research has been used to create public health policy and design TSA
PreCheck at airports, calculates that between 30 and 50 percent of the
approximately 13,000 athletes playing major college football will be
infected with coronvirus if the upcoming season takes place—<a
href="https://www.cbssports.com/college-football/news/coronavirus-in-college-football-hospitalizations-deaths-projected-by-data-analysts-if-fbs-plays-in/"
target="_blank"
>causing as many as seven of those athletes to die</a
>. Zach Binney, an Emory University epidemiologist (and
<a
href="https://hrealsports.substack.com/p/can-sports-return-without-setting"
target="_blank"
>previous Hreal Sports Q&A subject</a
>),
<a
href="https://twitter.com/zbinney_NFLinj/status/1278139616583913472?s=20"
target="_blank"
>believes that Jacobson’s death projection is too high</a
>.
</div>
<div><br /></div>
<div>
Yet even if no college athletes are killed by COVID-19 in the coming months,
other risks remain. The disease can cause serious illness, and leave
otherwise young and healthy people—<a
href="https://twitter.com/TrueHoop/status/1277673016906874880?s=20"
target="_blank"
>including elite athletes, like 32-year-old Olympic gold medalist swimmer
Cameron van der Burgh</a
>—suffering from lasting symptoms. Infections among athletes also could help
the virus spread to older and more vulnerable individuals on campus,
including professors, administrators, and coaches.
</div>
<div><br /></div>
<div>
Efforts to prevent outbreaks make it highly unlikely that college sports
will be able to have what Yahoo’s Pete Thamel calls a “functional season”
free of interruptions, cancellations, and scheduling chaos. This is
especially true for football, a large-roster, close-contact sport that
doesn’t lend itself to social distancing.
<a
href="https://sports.yahoo.com/why-the-college-football-season-should-be-moved-to-spring-230453247.html"
target="_blank"
>As Thamel reports</a
>:
</div>
<div><br /></div>
<blockquote>
“I have no idea how we play,” one Power Five [football] coach told Yahoo
Sports. “We are cleared to have 10 guys work out at a time with no one
within 10 feet of each other and have to clean the whole weight room. And
two weeks later, we can line up in a walk (through) 11 on 11?”<br /><br />Added
another Power Five coach: “If it’s contact tracing and lose a guy for 14
days, I don’t know how we’re going to have a football season.”<br /><br />The
third Power Five coach quantified the chances of a 12-game season being
executed in the fall without significant cancellations and chaos as “close
to zero” percent.<br /><br />With workout cancellations and quarantines the
new normal at places like LSU, Clemson and Texas – and those are just the
ones reported – there’s an emerging feeling that this season is headed
toward a buzzsaw of medical risk, mass cancellations and eventual financial
disaster. “If it’s not working in [professional] golf and tennis, how is it
going to work in football?” asked one high-ranking college official.
</blockquote>
<br />
<div>
<div><br /></div>
<div>
In a<i> New York Times</i> op-ed, University of Notre Dame president John
Jenkins argued that his school can and will keep athletes and other campus
community members safe through
<a
href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/26/opinion/notre-dame-university-coronavirus.html?referringSource=articleShare"
target="_blank"
>“aggressive testing, hygiene and careful monitoring.”</a
>
His optimism is not universal. Pennsylvania State University football
coach James Franklin plans to return to State College this fall—but leave
his family in Florida<a
href="https://www.pennlive.com/pennstatefootball/2020/06/penn-states-james-franklin-planning-to-be-away-from-family-if-college-football-returns-during-coronavirus-pandemic-per-report.html"
target="_blank"
>
because his youngest daughter has an autoimmune disease that makes her
more vulnerable to COVID-19</a
>. Southern Methodist University and East Carolina University are
requiring athletes to sign waivers<a
href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/context/east-carolina-covid-19-risk-form/a7a73e95-f2c6-486f-af22-2c04478ee9e3/?itid=lk_inline_manual_45"
target="_blank"
>
immunizing the schools and their employees against any legal claims
related to the virus</a
>. Morehouse College cancelled its football season outright after school
president David Thomas determined that the program
<a
href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/01/sports/ncaafootball/coronavirus-college-football-hbcus-clemson.html"
target="_blank"
>couldn’t guarantee the safety of its players</a
>. South Carolina’s governor has warned that he
<a
href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/columnist/dan-wolken/2020/07/01/college-football-season-starting-fall-dubious-covid/5352371002/"
target="_blank"
>will not allow college football games to be played in the state this
fall if infections keep increasing</a
>. The Ivy League
<a
href="https://theathletic.com/1911122/2020/07/06/will-college-football-season-actually-happen-this-fall-ivy-league/"
target="_blank"
>may move all of its fall sports to the spring</a
>. Some FBS conferences
<a
href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/columnist/dan-wolken/2020/07/01/college-football-season-starting-fall-dubious-covid/5352371002/"
target="_blank"
>reportedly are talking to banks about opening up lines of credit</a
>
to make up for lost revenue if more cancellations occur.
</div>
<div><br /></div>
<div>
Meanwhile, University of Arizona football player Malik Hausman expressed
concern over the state’s coronavirus outbreak:
</div>
</div>
<div><br /></div>
<br />
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p dir="ltr" lang="en">
So why me and my team on campus then?
<a href="https://t.co/qbY5y0GSbt">https://t.co/qbY5y0GSbt</a>
</p>
— Malik Hausman (@LeekHausman)
<a
href="https://twitter.com/LeekHausman/status/1278006928824664066?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"
>June 30, 2020</a
>
</blockquote>
<script
async=""
charset="utf-8"
src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"
></script>
<div><br /></div>
<div>
Hausman isn’t alone. On Wednesday, University of Illinois football player
Milo Eifler shared similar sentiments:
</div>
<div><br /></div>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p dir="ltr" lang="en">
I understand that people want to see us play this season but in reality
how can a team full of 100+ student athletes fully function during a
pandemic. Trust, my teammates and I want to play. But schools around the
country are showing blatant disregard for student athletes.
</p>
— Milo (@_miloeifler)
<a
href="https://twitter.com/_miloeifler/status/1278367134129807361?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"
>July 1, 2020</a
>
</blockquote>
<script
async=""
charset="utf-8"
src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"
></script>
<div><br /></div>
<div>
<div>
Following a discussion with the school’s coach and athletic director,
Eifler
<a
href="https://247sports.com/college/illinois/Article/Milo-Eifler-tweet-Illinois-football-COVID-19-concerns-college-football-148745363/"
target="_blank"
>spoke to reporters,</a
>
reiterating his desire to see college football’s various athletic
conferences “work together to make sure every athlete has equal access to
safety protocols that protect our health.”
</div>
<div><br /></div>
<div>
“We’re still at risk,” Eifler said. “We’re not superheroes. I want the
NCAA to know that and be more vocal. They have all the power in the
world."
</div>
<div><br /></div>
</div>
<div>
<span class="drop-cap">B</span>ut the NCAA isn’t using its power. Instead,
the national governing body of college athletics has been
hands-off—mirroring the laissez-faire pandemic response that has left the
United States as whole failing miserably where many other nations have
succeeded.
</div>
<div><br /></div>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p dir="ltr" lang="en">
This is a governance failure, not an inevitability of the disease.
<a href="https://t.co/A083PtNvD3">pic.twitter.com/A083PtNvD3</a>
</p>
— Ezra Klein (@ezraklein)
<a
href="https://twitter.com/ezraklein/status/1277641430962323456?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"
>June 29, 2020</a
>
</blockquote>
<script
async=""
charset="utf-8"
src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"
></script>
<div><br /></div>
<div>
<div>
In
<a
href="https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2020/06/how-white-house-coronavirus-response-went-wrong/613591/"
target="_blank"
>a recent and unsparing look at what went wrong</a
>, <i>The Atlantic’s</i> James Fallows likens disease control to managing
air travel. Modern passenger flights, he explains, are remarkably safe
because of strict rules, engaged leadership, and careful coordination.
Pilots rely on detailed checklists and contingency plans for every
imaginable mishap; air traffic controllers direct movement so planes don’t
put each other at greater risk; everyone works together from a common
playbook to prevent tragedy.
</div>
<div><br /></div>
<div>Why is being on the same page so important? Here’s Fallows:</div>
<div><br /></div>
<div></div>
<blockquote>
<div>
From the sky you see only the natural features that separate countries
and continents—mountains, water—and not the political demarcation lines.
The system that makes flying safe has done so by means of a
thoroughgoing, borderless internationalism.
</div>
<div><br /></div>
<div>
Controllers and flight crews around the world are supposed to be
competent in the same spoken language—English—and use the same formulaic
instructions that serve as an unambiguous code. For instance: Aviation
English prescribes “tree” as the pronunciation for <i>three</i>, in part
because the <i>th-</i> sound can be difficult for non-native speakers.
Controllers around the world say “Climb and maintain 4,000 feet” rather
than “Climb to 4,000 feet,” because to could be misheard as two.
Controllers in Paris sequencing a Korean Air plane to land between ones
from Lufthansa and Aeromexico at Charles de Gaulle Airport must be sure
that all the nationalities involved will follow the same procedures in
the same way.
</div>
</blockquote>
<div></div>
<div><br /></div>
<div>
The federal government has a pandemic playbook. It has the ability to
lead, internationally and domestically, creating a unified response. Only
the Trump administration has chosen to
<a
href="https://time.com/5861697/us-uk-failed-coronavirus-response/"
target="_blank"
>ignore the former and half-ass the latter</a
>,
<a
href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-04-17/trump-s-virus-reopening-plan-leaves-toughest-decisions-to-states"
target="_blank"
>effectively leaving states and cities on their own</a
>
to implement a disjointed pastiche of masking, testing, social distancing,
and other public health measures.
</div>
<div><br /></div>
<div>
The result of pulling a Hayek? Death, illness, and unchecked viral spread
across much of the country. A deteriorating state of affairs that a former
government official who spoke to Fallows calls a “catastrophic
failure.”
</div>
</div>
<div><br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a
href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-jwwX2XFvkgQ/XwNoq9TrB3I/AAAAAAAAFAg/LgIJ5H-Bw-Qz6qpn2XA3LkAlL15XS66mQCK4BGAsYHg/s1456/https---bucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com-public-images-7fdb87e8-d28c-48c4-a5ee-219ab4825fe6_3316x1865.jpeg"
style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"
><img
border="0"
data-original-height="819"
data-original-width="1456"
src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-jwwX2XFvkgQ/XwNoq9TrB3I/AAAAAAAAFAg/LgIJ5H-Bw-Qz6qpn2XA3LkAlL15XS66mQCK4BGAsYHg/d/https---bucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com-public-images-7fdb87e8-d28c-48c4-a5ee-219ab4825fe6_3316x1865.jpeg"
/></a>
</div>
<div><br /></div>
<div><br /></div>
<div>
<div>
Back to the NCAA. The organization has issued
<a
href="http://www.ncaa.org/sport-science-institute/resocialization-collegiate-sport-action-plan-considerations"
target="_blank"
>two sets</a
>
of coronavirus
<a
href="http://www.ncaa.org/sport-science-institute/core-principles-resocialization-collegiate-sport"
target="_blank"
>health and safety guidelines</a
>
for schools to follow. Which is all well and good. Only those guidelines
are mere suggestions—not enforceable rules. The NCAA doesn’t
<i>require</i> athletic programs to conduct a certain number of tests at a
certain frequency; or to quarantine positive cases for a certain number of
days; or to cancel practices and games if a certain percentage of athletes
on a team are infected.
</div>
<div><br /></div>
<div>
Moreover, nobody from the NCAA’s compliance office is checking to see if
schools actually follow the organization’s guidelines and otherwise act
responsibly. And nobody will punish them with fines and sanctions if they
don’t.
</div>
<div><br /></div>
<div>
Consequently, school efforts to protect athletes such as Eifler are
individualized and scattershot—think pilots and air traffic controllers,
speaking a dozen different languages. The Patriot League already has
announced special restrictions for the fall football season: athletes
won't return to campus until August, and flights to games and overnight
stays are forbidden. Other conferences aren’t taking those precautions.
The University of Houston suspended workouts after six athletes tested
positive for COVID-19; by contrast, schools such as Clemson have allowed
workouts to continue despite dozens of positive tests.
</div>
<div><br /></div>
<div>
Or take testing itself. Because the coronavirus has an incubation period
from initial infection to symptom onset that can last as long as 14
days—and also can be transmitted by people who never develop
symptoms—medical experts agree that athletes should be tested upon
returning to campus, and at least weekly thereafter. Yet
<a
href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2020/06/19/testing-troubles-varying-policies-jeopardize-college-football-season-experts-say/"
target="_blank"
>according to an analysis</a
>
conducted by Will Hobson of <i>The Washington Post</i>, the policies and
plans of the 65 schools in the Power Five conferences:
</div>
<div><br /></div>
<div>
<blockquote>
… vary widely from school to school — most of them subject to change —
ranging from weekly tests for all players, regardless of symptoms, to no
tests for players unless they display symptoms or are discovered to have
been near an infected person.
</blockquote>
</div>
<div><br /></div>
<div>
Athletes at different schools in different conferences receiving different
levels of protection and care is far from ideal. And once the season
starts, it threatens to undo the safety efforts of programs that have
managed to shield their athletes from the virus. Jackie Hamilton, the
mother of Notre Dame football player Kyle Hamilton,
<a
href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2020/06/26/ncaa-rules-coronavirus-parents/#click=https://t.co/uKIqIrWiep"
target="_blank"
>told Hobson</a
>
that she worries about her son’s safety:
</div>
<div><br /></div>
<div></div>
<blockquote>
<div>
Notre Dame plans to test all players every week for the novel
coronavirus, and Hamilton said in a phone interview this week she
believes the school is doing everything it can to keep her son safe. But
what about Arkansas — Notre Dame’s opponent for its home opener in
September — where players are getting tested only if they have symptoms
or learn they were near an infected person?
</div>
<div><br /></div>
<div>
“Do I want my child on the field, tackling some kid who may have it but
doesn’t know because he’s asymptomatic?” said Hamilton, a human
resources manager from suburban Atlanta. “How is that supposed to work?”
</div>
<div></div>
</blockquote>
<div><br /></div>
<div>
If Hamilton’s son ends up infected, it won’t necessarily be because Notre
Dame or any of its opponents did something reckless or unwise. At LSU, for
instance, positive coronavirus tests have been traced not to workouts
within the school’s facilities,
<a
href="https://www.si.com/college/2020/06/20/lsu-football-players-quarantined-coronavirus"
target="_blank"
>but rather to athletes attending local bars and restaurants</a
>.
</div>
<div><br /></div>
<div>
Still, Hamilton told Hobson that she couldn’t understand why the NCAA
isn’t imposing uniform COVID-19 protections, mandating that every school
follow a set of best practices.
</div>
<div><br /></div>
<div>
<blockquote>
“It just seems like everyone’s freelancing,” Hamilton said. “The NCAA
has rules and guidelines for everything under the sun … how are they not
making any rules for this?”
</blockquote>
</div>
<div><br /></div>
<div>
<span class="drop-cap">A</span>ccording to NCAA chief medical officer
Brain Hainline, his organization hasn’t made COVID-19 rules because it
can’t make COVID-19 rules. Not when hundreds of member schools with
different budgets and priorities would have to agree on what those rules
should be, write them up, and then vote on them, a convoluted process that
could take years. And not when medical understanding of the virus is
rapidly evolving.
</div>
<div><br /></div>
<div>
“I’ve been very strongly discouraged … on the idea of coming up with a
concrete policy or a concrete testing plan or rule when what we know today
is going to be very different than what we know two weeks from now,”
<a
href="https://theathletic.com/1901856/2020/07/01/why-doesnt-a-nationwide-standard-for-safety-guidelines-testing-exist-in-cfb/#click=https://t.co/mqGPjAhtZT"
target="_blank"
>Hainline told <i>The Athletic’s</i> Nicole Auerbach last week</a
>. “They have asked me to give as much guidance as possible with built-in
flexibility.”
</div>
<div><br /></div>
<div>
Hainline isn’t lying. But he isn’t telling the full truth, either. Yes,
the NCAA can be a slow-moving bureaucracy. And yes, national safety
standards put into place today could very well be obsolete by October.
Still, those are reasons to adopt coronavirus rules that can be changed
quickly when needed—<i>not to punt on the idea of having rules at all.</i>
Especially when lives potentially are at stake.
</div>
<div><br /></div>
<div>
Moreover, Jackie Hamilton is right. The NCAA and its member institutions
are plenty capable of vigorous, top-down governing—<a
href="https://deadspin.com/ncaa-confiscates-reporters-cat-mug-1556035780"
target="_blank"
>at least when it suits them</a
>. Case in point? The association’s 400-plus-page rulebook, which devotes
nearly 40 pages to amateurism rules that cover everything from when
coaches call call high school recruits to limits on the size of housing
stipends available to married athletes.
</div>
<div><br /></div>
<div>
Those rules are policed by the NCAA’s national enforcement staff and by
on-campus school compliance officers. No case is too small. In 2013, Yahoo
Sports reported that officials at a West Coast Athletic conference school
spotted a member of their women’s golf team washing her car with a campus
water hose. Concerned that doing so would qualify as an impermissible
benefit—the water was not available to all students—they demanded that she
reimburse the school $20. The conference later clarified that the car wash
was a “non-issue,” but only after the school self-reported a violation.
</div>
<div><br /></div>
<div>
And the NCAA doesn’t just investigate suspected incidents of athletes
getting money and other goodies. It punishes violators with a
Torquemada-like zeal—preventing athletes from playing, stripping schools
of athletic scholarships, levying postseason bans on entire teams, and
often penalizing people whose only offense is being part of a program
where past rule-breaking took place. The organization even has something
called
<a
href="http://www.ncaa.org/student-athlete-repayment-plan"
target="_blank"
>“Student-Athlete Repayment Plans,”</a
>
which sound like a way to pay off the purchase of a new Honda or a iPhone,
but actually are how the NCAA
<a
href="https://hrealsports.substack.com/p/so-dumb-how-the-ncaa-fines-athletes"
target="_blank"
><i>fines</i> unpaid amateur college athletes for amateurism
transgressions</a
>
like<a
href="https://oklahoman.com/article/3934985/ou-releases-list-of-self-reported-ncaa-violations?page=1"
target="_blank"
>
eating too much pasta at graduation banquets</a
>
by forcing them to make cash donations to charities.
</div>
<div><br /></div>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p dir="ltr" lang="en">
And a few dumbass examples of compliance making kids pay fines (in the
form of charitable donations) as restitution for breaking the dumbest
NCAA rules imaginable...
<a
href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/amateurism?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"
>#amateurism</a
>
<a href="https://t.co/j2ozUtrwB9">pic.twitter.com/j2ozUtrwB9</a>
</p>
— Luke Bonner (@LukeyBonner)
<a
href="https://twitter.com/LukeyBonner/status/1197299683858812930?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"
>November 20, 2019</a
>
</blockquote>
<script
async=""
charset="utf-8"
src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"
></script>
<div><br /></div>
<div>
<div>
So what gives? Why does the NCAA forcefully insist that schools and
athletes adhere to amateurism—or else—while balking at the idea of
national coronavirus rules?
</div>
<div><br /></div>
<div>
The answer lies in
<a
href="https://www.murphy.senate.gov/download/madness-inc-3"
target="_blank"
>how the organization treats athlete health and safety in general</a
>.
</div>
</div>
<div><br /></div>
<div>
<span class="drop-cap">C</span>ollege football
<a
href="https://deadspin.com/the-ncaa-is-running-out-of-excuses-on-brain-injuries-1819854361"
target="_blank"
>has a brain injury problem</a
>. The NCAA has known about this for more than a century—in fact, the
organization’s precursor, the 62-school Intercollegiate Athletic
Association of the United States, was founded in the early 1900s in
response to a head trauma crisis that saw multiple schools suspend their
football programs and Harvard University president Charles Eliot liken the
sport to cockfighting.
</div>
<div><br /></div>
<div>
One of the best ways to prevent and mitigate brain injuries is simple:
immediately removed concussed athletes from play, and don’t allow them to
return while they still are experiencing symptoms. Again, the NCAA has
known this forever. A 1908 study of Harvard football players concluded as
much. So did the NCAA’s 1933 medical handbook for member school, a 1937
declaration from the American Football Coaches Association, and a 1968
statement from the NCAA’s Committee on Competitive Safeguards and Medical
Aspects of Sports. In 1996, the presidents of the American Academy of
Neurology, the Brain Injury Association, and the American Association of
Neurological Surgeons wrote a letter to then-NCAA executive director
Cedric Dempsey stating that concussions were being “overlooked” by
unqualified coaches and trainers, and imploring the organization to adopt
uniform rules that would prevent injured athletes from returning to play
until they were free of symptoms for at least a week and had been examined
by a neurologist.
</div>
<div><br /></div>
<div>
And what has the NCAA done in response to a century’s worth of internal
and external red flags?
</div>
<div><br /></div>
<div>
Almost nothing. Not until 2010 did the NCAA require schools to create
concussion management plans that included provisions for removing athletes
with suspected concussions from play, barring athletes with diagnosed
concussions from returning on the same day, and not allowing those
athletes to return to competition before being cleared by a doctor. And
not until 2014 did the organization release expanded guidelines
recommending that schools implement football practice hitting limits and
have independent doctors make return to play decisions.
</div>
<div><br /></div>
<div>
To this day, these concussion care guidelines remain just that.
Suggestions, not rules. When an athlete like University of Texas
quarterback Sam Ehlinger
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wlnMG10qu9Y" target="_blank"
>bounces his head against the ground</a
>
while being tackled, lies motionless for roughly 30 seconds, returns to
play in the same game, and
<a
href="http://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/21128293/texas-longhorns-quarterback-sam-ehlinger-concussion-protocol"
target="_blank"
>is subsequently sidelined with concussion symptoms</a
>, the NCAA does not send health and safety investigators to get to the
bottom of what went wrong. Longhorns coach Tom Herman is not required to
make any charitable donations. Everybody really is free to feel good.
</div>
<div><br /></div>
<div>
The same holds true for offseason workouts. Between 2000 and 2016,
<a
href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5343527/"
target="_blank"
>26 NCAA football players died as the result of intense exercise</a
>—that is, not from violent collisions during games or practices, but
rather because they worked out too much, too fast, for too long, under
irresponsible direction and without proper medical protections. Basically,
they died of idiot CrossFit.
</div>
<div><br /></div>
<div>
Scott Anderson, a longtime athletic trainer at the University of Oklahoma
who has spent two decades studying deaths in college football,
<a
href="https://www.patrickhruby.net/2018/08/junction-boys-syndrome.html"
target="_blank"
>insists that workout fatalities are entirely preventable</a
>. What’s needed, he says, is a long-overdue cultural shift—away from
using sadistic, pain-based workouts to punish players or purportedly
instill mental and emotional toughness, what Anderson calls
<a
href="https://www.patrickhruby.net/2018/08/junction-boys-syndrome.html"
target="_blank"
>“Junction Boys Syndrome,”</a
>
and toward scientifically sound exercise plans that build strength, speed,
and stamina.
</div>
<div><br /></div>
<div>
In 2012, Anderson was part of a task force led by athletic trainers and
strength coaches—in association with the University of Connecticut’s Korey
Stringer Institute, a leading organization on heat stroke prevention—that
gave the NCAA
<a
href="https://www.nata.org/sites/default/files/preventingsuddendeath-consensusstatement.pdf"
target="_blank"
>a list of recommendations to make workouts safer</a
>, including mandating safety training for strength coaches and having ice
tubs on hand to immediately treat heat strokes. Eight years later, the
organization has yet to turn any of those recommendations into rules—and
still is<a
href="https://ksi.uconn.edu/2019/01/26/ncaa-considering-guidelines-to-help-prevent-offseason-workout-deaths-sporting-news/"
target="_blank"
>
deliberating over whether to even adopt them as toothless guidelines.</a
>
</div>
<div><br /></div>
<div>
Meanwhile, University of Maryland football player Jordan McNair died in
2018 of heatstroke after collapsing during an offseason workout.
</div>
<div><br /></div>
<div>
From the NCAA’s perspective, guidelines have one major advantage over
rules: the latter create responsibility. Which, in turn, creates legal
liability, at least when things go wrong and athletes get hurt. Sports
injuries can be awfully expensive—<i>you break it, you buy it</i>—and the
organization isn’t exactly keen on footing the bills.
</div>
<div><br /></div>
<div>
Consider the story of Derek Sheely. In 2011, the Frostburg State
University football player died from a brain injury suffered during
practice, sustaining trauma so severe that doctors asked his parents if he
had been in a car accident. Four times over the three days before he
collapsed on the field, Sheely had visited the school’s athletic trainer
and complained of symptoms, including blood coming from his forehead. He
was not checked for a concussion.
</div>
<div><br /></div>
<div>
Believing their son’s death was preventable, Sheely’s parents sued the
NCAA in 2013 for failing to implement concussion rules and investigate the
incident. The organization later settled the case for $1.2 million—but not
before arguing in court that it had no legal duty to protect college
athletes from physical harm. This was nothing new: in the 1950s, the NCAA
invented the quasi-legal term “student-athlete” as a liability dodge to
avoid paying worker’s compensation to the widow of a college football
player who had died from a head injury.
</div>
<div><br /></div>
<div>
Last week, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other business lobbying groups
typically antipathetic to government regulation
<a
href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/powerpost/business-groups-for-hard-hit-industries-clamor-for-regulations-during-pandemic/2020/07/03/eb98992a-bca5-11ea-8cf5-9c1b8d7f84c6_story.html"
target="_blank"
>wrote a letter to the White House pleading for a nationwide standard on
when mask-wearing should be mandatory</a
>—the better to instill confidence in coronavirus-fearing customers and
make it easier for businesses to deny entry to those who will not wear
masks or adhere to social-distance guidelines. The NCAA’s Trump-ian
abdication of basic health and safety responsibility has left athletes in
a similar position to American businesses: fending for themselves, now
more than ever.
</div>
<div><br /></div>
<div>
Last month, 30 University of California, Los Angeles football players
authored a document
<a
href="https://www.latimes.com/sports/ucla/story/2020-06-19/ucla-football-players-demand-protections-amid-pandemic-return"
target="_blank"
>demanding independent COVID-19 protections</a
>
as they returned to campus for offseason workouts. Asserting that they did
not trust the school to act in their best interest in regard to their
health, the players demanded that a “third-party health official” be on
hand for all football activities to see that protocols for COVID-19
prevention are being followed; that anonymous whistleblower protections
are provided for athletes and staff to report violations; and that each
player be allowed make a decision about whether to come back without fear
of losing his scholarship or other retaliation.
</div>
<div><br /></div>
<div>
In a world where the NCAA took its self-proclaimed mission of<a
href="http://www.ncaa.org/about/who-we-are"
target="_blank"
>
“safeguarding the well-being”</a
>
of athletes seriously, UCLA’s players wouldn’t have to make such demands.
The NCAA would be the third-party aggressively ensuring that schools are
protecting their athletes with rules and leadership that looks more like
the system that keep airplanes from crashing than Galt’s Coronavirus
Gulch.
</div>
<div><br /></div>
<div>
Alas, the people in charge of college sports have other priorities.
</div>
<div><br /></div>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p dir="ltr" lang="en">
A reminder of where the money goes in college sports: While expenses for
coaches, facilities, and<br />non-athlete administrators make up nearly
two-thirds of athletics spending, only about 1% of the spending is on
athlete health care, according to
<a href="https://twitter.com/KnightAthletics?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"
>@KnightAthletics</a
>.
</p>
— Jon Solomon (@JonSolomonAspen)
<a
href="https://twitter.com/JonSolomonAspen/status/1278672909117067264?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"
>July 2, 2020</a
>
</blockquote>
<script
async=""
charset="utf-8"
src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"
></script>
<div><br /></div>
<div>
<span class="drop-cap">T</span>wo days after Rand Paul’s dunderheaded
remarks,
<a
href="https://www.c-span.org/video/?473527-1/senate-hearing-college-athlete-compensation"
target="_blank"
>Congress held another hearing</a
>. This one was about college athletes being able to make money from their
names, images, and likenesses.
</div>
<div><br /></div>
<div>
NCAA amateurism rules currently bar athletes from doing so. States
including California and Florida recently have passed laws—some going into
effect as soon as next summer—that would supersede the NCAA’s prohibition.
</div>
<div><br /></div>
<div>
In response, the organization has turned both<a
href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/magazine/2020/03/17/how-fighting-ncaa-became-bipartisan-sport/?arc404=true"
target="_blank"
>
its attention and lobbying muscle toward Capitol Hill</a
>, imploring Congress to create a national NIL law. Arguing that having 50
states with their own NIL laws would harm college sports and make managing
them unwieldy, the NCAA wants lawmakers to put public power behind its
private rules telling athletes what they can and cannot do with their own
property—all while providing a federal antitrust exemption to protect the
organization from lawsuits.
</div>
<div><br /></div>
<div>Hayek, it ain’t.</div>
<div><br /></div>
<div>
During the hearing, Nevada Democratic Senator Jacky Rosen pointed out that
that the NCAA’s guideline-based response to COVID-19 resembled “what we
see playing out in the states,” a patchwork “potentially resulting in
spikes and transmissions of the virus in some states and some schools and
not in others.” She then asked NCAA Board of Governors chair Michael Drake
if his organization planned to
<a
href="https://www.wired.com/story/womens-roller-derby-has-a-plan-for-covid-and-it-kicks-ass/"
target="_blank"
>develop a national strategy to deal with the virus</a
>.
</div>
<div><br /></div>
<div>
Drake’s answer was noncommittal—befitting a machine built not to protect
college athletes, but rather the economic value that can be extracted from
them.
</div>
<div><br /></div>
<div>
“This is under discussion actively on a daily basis, and we will talk
about this later on in this week,” he replied. “I certainly support that.
But this is a 50-state organization with 1,100 schools, and health
policies tend to be guided locally.”
</div>
<div><br /></div>
<div>
Less than 48 hours later, the University of Kansas
<a
href="https://amp.kansascity.com/sports/college/big-12/university-of-kansas/article243985817.html?__twitter_impression=true"
target="_blank"
>suspended workouts for its football players</a
>, announcing that 12 of them had tested positive for COVID-19. In a
statement, Les Miles, the school’s football coach, said the decision was
rooted in “events outside of our control.”
</div>
<div><br /></div>
</div>
<div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<kicker
><a
href="https://hrealsports.substack.com/p/the-coronavirus-shows-how-the-ncaaE"
target="_blank"
>Published at Hreal Sports</a
></kicker
>
</div>
</div>
</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3878043065627433241.post-4066707437070135552020-06-26T16:31:00.008-04:002020-07-27T14:32:45.867-04:00Would the NBA Be Safer Playing in Australia Than Florida?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-db5wQiTfJp8/XwOJ8VexIxI/AAAAAAAAFC8/QY3ZcVieSZcNXJ8XBr-qxES5mWRDHKUSgCK4BGAsYHg/s1280/A.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="1280" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-db5wQiTfJp8/XwOJ8VexIxI/AAAAAAAAFC8/QY3ZcVieSZcNXJ8XBr-qxES5mWRDHKUSgCK4BGAsYHg/d/A.jpeg" /></a></div><a name='more'></a>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<subhead>As the coronavirus surges in the United States, the league's planned
Orlando restart might make more sense Down Under</subhead>
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<attribution>By Patrick Hruby | Hreal Sports | June 2020</attribution>
</div>
<span class="drop-cap">I</span>f you want to grasp just how badly the
United States has botched its response to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, then
consider this: it arguably makes more sense for the National Basketball
Association to play the rest of its truncated season in Australia than in
Florida.
<div><br /></div>
<div>Yes, Australia.</div>
<div><br /></div>
<div>No, really.</div>
<div><br /></div>
<div>
I know what you’re likely thinking.<i> Move an entire American professional
sports league to … another continent? That sounds completely bonkers.
</i></div>
<div><br /></div>
<div>
I thought so, too. Then I talked to Josh Wheeling. Wheeling is a numbers guy,
a San Francisco-based data visualization specialist for the Climate Policy
Initiative.
</div>
<div><br /></div>
<div>
He’s also an avid basketball fan who used to be a sportswriter. A few days
ago, he sent me this:
</div>
<div><br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-rDFH4Y6Ip58/XwOG7b5s8ZI/AAAAAAAAFCU/EqF_pTAYwgcVaX9ZWKlP7DyfHHvmyOEKwCK4BGAsYHg/s1076/B.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="983" data-original-width="1076" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-rDFH4Y6Ip58/XwOG7b5s8ZI/AAAAAAAAFCU/EqF_pTAYwgcVaX9ZWKlP7DyfHHvmyOEKwCK4BGAsYHg/d/B.png" /></a></div><div><br /></div>
<div><br /></div>
<div>
<div>
Intrigued, I called Wheeling. Has anyone, I asked him, told you this is
crazy?
</div>
<div><br /></div>
<div>
“A lot of people have told me that,” he says. “But I’m coming from a
perspective of thinking that the NBA’s current plan to restart has a lot
less of chance of succeeding than other people do.
</div>
<div><br /></div>
<div>
“At the same time, everyone is saying that the league can’t afford to cancel
the season. So what are the other options?”
</div>
<div><br /></div>
<div>
It’s a good question. And as it turns out, far less crazy than it seems.
</div>
<div><br /></div>
</div>
<hr />
<div><br /></div>
<div>
<div>
The NBA’s current restart plan will have 22 of the league’s teams relocate
to a Disney campus near Orlando beginning in early July.
</div>
<div><br /></div>
<div>
Those teams will play eight regular season games followed by a full playoff
schedule that could stretch into October—salvaging a season that has been
shut down since early March, when the league suspended play after Utah Jazz
center Rudy Gobert tested positive for COVID-19.
</div>
<div><br /></div>
<div>
Vowing to prioritize the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2020/05/23/nba-opens-talks-july-return-disney-world-during-coronavirus-pandemic/" target="_blank">“health and safety of all involved,”</a> the NBA plans
to play games without fans in attendance and to house players and other
personnel at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex. Spread across 230 acres
in Florida’s Orange County, the complex has multiple practice and game
facilities and thousands of hotel rooms and will serve as <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2020/06/16/nba-pitches-players-life-bubble-luxe-hotels-golf-lots-social-distancing/" target="_blank">a sort of geographic bubble</a> that theoretically could isolate its inhabitants from the
outside world and the risk of coronavirus infection.
</div>
<div><br /></div>
<div>
When the league first floated its Florida plan, Wheeling thought that it
would be challenging—but also potentially doable, based on available public
health data.
</div>
<div><br /></div>
<div>
On May 23, Orange County was reporting 1.4 new cases of COIVD-19 per 100,000
people per day, about twice as many as Germany. And Germany’s top soccer
league, the Bundesliga, had just <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-soccer-germany/soccer-eerie-silence-across-stadiums-as-bundesliga-restarts-idUSKBN22S0PA" target="_blank">restarted play without fans and with strict health protocols a few days earlier.</a></div>
<div><br /></div>
<div>
“I’m a soccer fan, and I thought they might fail,” Wheeling says. “But they
haven’t had too many problems since restarting. Germany has been doing well
over the last month with the coronavirus—their curve of new cases has gotten
a lot better.”
</div>
<div><br /></div>
<div>
Not so in the United States, where <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2020/national/coronavirus-us-cases-deaths/?itid=lk_inline_manual_6" target="_blank">at least 120,000 people</a> already have died
from COVID-19. Over the last month, more than half the country has seen an
uptick in infections, with some states experiencing what National Institute
of Allergy and Infectious Diseases director Anthony Fauci calls a
<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/23/us/politics/fauci-congress-coronavirus.html" target="_blank">“disturbing surge.”</a></div>
<div><br /></div>
<div>
Among those states? <a href="https://www.sun-sentinel.com/coronavirus/fl-ne-florida-coronavirus-deaths-cases-monday-june-22-20200622-h6zlpxtbeje2ng4opm7x5mg5r4-story.html" target="_blank">Florida</a>. Daily new coronavirus case counts are <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2020/06/22/nba-prepares-its-return-disney-floridas-coronavirus-cases-are-spiking/" target="_blank">three to five times higher</a> than they were when the NBA first announced its plans to
play at Disney. Meanwhile, public health researchers are warning that the
state has <a href="https://policylab.chop.edu/blog/covid-19-outlook-america-hangs-balance-early-evidence-behavior-shifts?referringSource=articleShare" target="_blank">“all the makings of the next large epicenter.”</a></div>
</div>
<div><br /></div>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p dir="ltr" lang="en">BREAKING: New <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/coronavirus?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#coronavirus</a> numbers in <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Florida?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Florida</a>: State reports another 8,942 new cases, the highest ever in a single day. <br />While a record number of people were tested, more than 13% were positive. <a href="https://t.co/j76ZI9hbv3">https://t.co/j76ZI9hbv3</a></p>— 10 Tampa Bay (@10TampaBay) <a href="https://twitter.com/10TampaBay/status/1276527556825620480?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 26, 2020</a></blockquote> <script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>
<div><br /></div>
<div>
<div>
As the federal and state governments alike have mostly failed to contain the
virus through a combination of <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/03/us/cdc-coronavirus.html" target="_blank">ineptitude</a> and <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2020/05/trumps-lies-about-coronavirus/608647/" target="_blank">magical thinking</a>, sports have
struggled. <a href="https://theathletic.com/1882599/" target="_blank">The Philadelphia Phillies</a> and <a href="https://www.espn.com/nhl/story/_/id/29334802/source-lightning-close-facility-due-coronavirus-outbreak" target="_blank">Tampa Bay Lighting</a> both recently
shut down their training facilities in Florida after having players test
positive for COVID-19, while the Orlando Pride <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2020/06/22/nwsl-will-hold-tournament-not-regular-season/" target="_blank">withdrew from the National Women’s Soccer League’s Challenge Cup</a> after six players and four staffers
tested positive.
</div>
<div><br /></div>
<div>
All of that led Wheeling, a former Philadelphia 76ers season ticket holder,
to imagine worst-case Florida restart scenarios for his team—and for the NBA
in general.
</div>
<div><br /></div>
<div><i>
What happens if 76ers center Joel Embiid tests positive during the second
round of the playoffs and is quarantined and the team has a game the next
night? Wouldn’t the rest of the team need to be quarantined, too? Do they
forfeit? And what if Los Angeles Lakers superstar LeBron James tests
positive during the Finals?
</i></div>
<div><br /></div>
<div>
Maybe, Wheeling thought, the NBA would be better off relocating to a place
where the coronavirus was more in check. A place with rational and attentive
political leadership; adequate testing and contact tracing; and a populace
that doesn’t consider social distancing, mask-wearing, and other public
health measures to be egregious affronts to personal liberty and/or the
fundamental right to have your adoring superfans cheer your <a href="https://www.elle.com/culture/career-politics/a32933961/trump-water-glass-tulsa/" target="_blank">superhuman ability to talk and drink from a glass of water at the same time.</a></div>
<div><br /></div>
<div>In other words, not the United States.</div>
<div><br /></div>
<div>
“My first thought was actually New Zealand,” he says. “They had a day the
other week with <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2020/06/08/871822321/with-no-current-cases-new-zealand-lifts-remaining-covid-19-restrictions" target="_blank">zero new cases.”</a></div>
</div>
<div><br /></div>
<hr />
<div><br /></div>
<div>
Wheeling’s argument for the NBA going abroad is simple. <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2020/06/08/871822321/with-no-current-cases-new-zealand-lifts-remaining-covid-19-restrictions" target="_blank">COVID-19 is winning</a>.
America can’t stop <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2WZLJpMOxS4" target="_blank">stepping on rakes</a>. The best bet to finish a season that
doesn’t implode in a flurry of positive tests—or, God forbid, leave players or
league personnel hooked up to Intensive Care Unit ventilators—is to set up
shop where the virus mostly isn’t.
</div>
<div><br /></div>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p dir="ltr" lang="en">Comparing COVID-19 cases in high-income countries that started seeing patients around the same time (adjusted for population) makes really, really clear which one of them failed its citizens at every level. <a href="https://t.co/L6Qe1akaxl">pic.twitter.com/L6Qe1akaxl</a></p>— Megan Greenwell (@megreenwell) <a href="https://twitter.com/megreenwell/status/1275974825358626817?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 25, 2020</a></blockquote> <script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p dir="ltr" lang="en">June 24: 38,672 positive COVID cases.<br /><br />That is a record high for the United States. <a href="https://t.co/tIj4blQ5OV">pic.twitter.com/tIj4blQ5OV</a></p>— Derek Thompson (@DKThomp) <a href="https://twitter.com/DKThomp/status/1275911395364818948?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 24, 2020</a></blockquote> <script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p dir="ltr" lang="en">This graph is like, “you need to be this dumb to screw up this bad” <a href="https://t.co/K9G5SPsVKM">pic.twitter.com/K9G5SPsVKM</a></p>— Lindsay Goldwert (@lindsaygoldwert) <a href="https://twitter.com/lindsaygoldwert/status/1275974583221444609?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 25, 2020</a></blockquote> <script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>
<div><br /></div>
<div>
<div>
Wheeling isn’t trying to be a contrarian. Or cute. He badly wants the NBA
back. He played junior varsity basketball at the University of Pennsylvania,
and even attended one of the school’s games on March 6, less than a week
before Gobert’s positive test.
</div>
<div><br /></div>
<div>
“It was a great game, tons of fun,” Wheeling says. “But looking back now, it
was so dumb to attend a basketball game and be around all of those people
with the virus already circulating.”
</div>
<div><br /></div>
<div>
Wheeling worries that the NBA is making a similar mistake. He believes that
there’s a significant hole in the league’s Florida plan, one that will be
exacerbated by rising coronavirus case numbers in the state and across the
country.
</div>
<div><br /></div>
<div>
The problem? The league’s anti-viral “bubble” is hardly airtight. The nearly
400 players and hundreds of other NBA personnel who will occupy the Disney
campus will be subject to testing and limited social distancing before they
depart for Florida, isolated for 36 to 48 hours upon arrival, and given
regular tests during the restarted season.
</div>
<div><br /></div>
<div>
However, the Disney workers will service the players’ rooms and some of the
reporters who will cover games <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2020/06/22/nba-prepares-its-return-disney-floridas-coronavirus-cases-are-spiking/" target="_blank">will be allowed to work in the bubble and return to their homes or hotels outside it.</a> Every one of those people—as
well as everyone they come into contact with in the outside world—could
serve as a vector of viral transmission.
</div>
<div><br /></div>
<div>
Moreover, expecting every player and league staffer to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/16/sports/basketball/nba-bubble-coronavirus-disney-world.html" target="_blank">remain on the Disney campus at nearly all times for two months or more</a> may be unrealistic. A
recent COVID-19 outbreak among football players at Louisiana State
University was linked to players <a href="https://www.si.com/college/2020/06/20/lsu-football-players-quarantined-coronavirus" target="_blank">going to nearby nightclubs</a>, while the
positive tests for members of the NWSL’s Pride came following <a href="https://www.si.com/college/2020/06/20/lsu-football-players-quarantined-coronavirus" target="_blank">a visit to an Orlando bar</a> that may have exposed them to the virus.
</div>
<div><br /></div>
<div>
“Even for a single family, it’s hard to keep separated from everyone else,”
Wheeling says. “And even when you’re trying to be super safe, it’s hard not
to relax your guard. I see that here in San Francisco—there aren’t as many
masks as they used to be, and there are more groups of people around, doing
more things. <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/25/style/coroanvirus-america-summer.html?action=click&algo=top_conversion&block=trending_recirc&fellback=false&imp_id=975421938&impression_id=627935839&index=0&pgtype=Article&region=footer&req_id=245021166&surface=most-popular" target="_blank">People get impatient</a>.
</div>
<div><br /></div>
<div>
“With the NBA, you’re talking about a bubble—that isn’t actually a bubble—of
more than 1,000 people. All it takes is 10 people going outside. So many
things have to go right, and if only one of those precautions doesn’t work,
the whole system falls apart.”
</div>
<div><br /></div>
<div>
Rather than count on good luck as the pandemic intensifies in Florida and
other parts of the United States, Wheeling says, the league would be better
off relocating to a country where the risk of infection and disruption is
much lower because society has done a better job of keeping COVID-19 in
check. Somewhere like <a href="https://time.com/5851633/best-global-responses-covid-19/" target="_blank">Taiwan, which in June reported just 433 cases and seven deaths, or South Korea, which has limited deaths to less than 300 while not shutting down its economy with Hail Mary social distancing measures</a>.
</div>
<div><br /></div>
<div>
Not coincidentally, professional sports are up and running in both
countries. The same <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/03/magazine/german-soccer-tries-to-kick-off-a-comeback-for-pro-sports.html" target="_blank">is true</a> <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/17/sports/basketball/marc-stein-newsletter.html" target="_blank">in Germany</a>, which <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/25/world/europe/germany-coronavirus-reopening.html" target="_blank">until this week</a> had seen a
decline in daily new coronavirus case counts.
</div>
<div><br /></div>
<div>
Wheeling thinks that the NBA could effectively operate in a similar fashion
in Australia, where new coronavirus case counts have <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-australia/australian-state-lets-sports-fans-back-in-stadiums-as-covid-19-cases-slow-idUSKBN23G0K0" target="_blank">dropped to less than 20 per day, professional sports have resumed after a two-month hiatus, and officials even have begun to let fans attend games.</a> The country has a
nine-team professional league, the National Basketball League, which means
it has an infrastructure of arenas and facilities. It also is wealthy,
developed, English-speaking, tourist-friendly, and <a href="https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/6350282/nba-should-play-games-in-australia-lopez/digital-subscription/" target="_blank">enthusiastic about hoops</a>—all of which make it an attractive foster home candidate.
</div>
<div><br /></div>
<div>
“I would assume that Australia would be super-hyped to host this,” Wheeling
says.
</div>
<div><br /></div>
<div><a href="https://twitter.com/zbinney_NFLinj?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor" target="_blank">Zach Binney</a>, an epidemiologist at Oxford College of Emory University, agrees
that playing down under could be a medical plus. But it also might be
impractical. After all, it’s one thing to ask NBA players and staffers to
leave their families, upend their lives, and move to Florida for an
extremely long business trip; it’s quite another to ask them to fly halfway
across the globe to do the same. “I mean, sure, if you can go somewhere with
less disease, [that’s good],” he says. “I’m skeptical.” Earlier this week,
the <i>New York Times </i>reported that the European Union <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/23/world/europe/coronavirus-EU-American-travel-ban.html" target="_blank">may block American travelers from entering because the United States has failed to control the virus.</a> “Would Australia even let [the NBA] in?” Binney asks.
</div>
<div><br /></div>
<div>
There are other drawbacks. The league and its broadcast partners likely have
spent considerable time and money planning and preparing for Florida;
pivoting to Australia undoubtedly would increase costs and push back a
restart date by by weeks or months. Time zones also are a hurdle: to play
during the standard 8 PM EDT window, the NBA would have to start games in
Sydney and Melbourne at 10 AM local time.
</div>
<div><br /></div>
<div>
Then there’s the potential political fallout of an American professional
sports league—predominantly composed of African-American athletes—responding
to the chronic and compounding failures of current national leadership by
literally taking its balls and finding a safer home.
</div>
<div><br /></div>
<div>
“I think it would piss off a lot of people to have the NBA basically saying,
‘America is not good enough, so we are going overseas,’” Wheeling says.
“Imagine what Republicans would say. They would <i>freak out.</i>”
</div>
<div><br /></div>
<div>
Despite those obstacles, Wheeling is convinced that Australia would be a
better choice than Florida. The virus may yet prove him right. Five
professional golfers this week p<a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/24/us/travelers-championship-coronavirus-spt-trnd/index.html" target="_blank">ulled out of an upcoming tournament</a> because
of COVID-19 concerns. On Thursday, the pandemic forced the Pro Football Hall
of Fame to <a href="https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/29363190/cowboys-steelers-hall-fall-game-called-enshrinement-ceremony-postponed" target="_blank">cancel the National Football League’s preseason-opening game and postpone its annual enshrinement ceremony. </a></div>
<div><br /></div>
<div>
Two NBA players already have decided to sit out the season restart, with
Lakers guard Avery Bradley stating that he does not want to put his oldest
son, who has a history of respiratory issues, at <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/which-players-have-opted-out-nba-season-restart-1513095">“even the slightest risk.”</a>
Meanwhile, the league <a href="https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/29369877/16-302-nba-players-test-positive-coronavirus" target="_blank">announced on Friday</a> that 16 of 302 players tested this
week were positive for coronavirus—11 days before players and staffers are
scheduled to begin arriving in Orlando, which currently has the
<a href="https://www.clickorlando.com/news/local/2020/06/26/florida-reports-nearly-9000-new-cases-of-covid-19-shattering-single-day-record/" target="_blank">second-highest total number of COVID-19 cases</a> in the state.
</div>
<div><br /></div>
<div>
“I don’t think Florida was a bad decision, originally,” Wheeling says. “But
it has gotten so much worse since then. Just look at the numbers. Why put
people in harm’s way when we have other options?
</div>
<div><br /></div>
<div>
“I feel like everyone in the NBA is just assuming that this is going to
work—that it has to work, so it’s going to work. But sometimes, things are
out of your control. Sometimes, you have to pivot.”
</div>
</div>
<div><br /></div>
<div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<kicker><a href="https://hrealsports.substack.com/p/just-look-at-the-numbers-would-the" target="_blank">Published at Hreal Sports</a></kicker></div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com