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Your Black Brothers: Dr. Boyce Watkins: Lessons Jim Brown Has Taught Me
Why I love The Great Jim Brown
By: Dr. Boyce Watkins
Founder – YourBlackWorld.com
I got a phone call today. I get a lot of calls from “observers” (translation: supporters and haterologists), and I appreciate every single one of them. However, being as busy as I am, I usually don’t have time to call anyone back. I call my mama back and if my daughter would call me, she would be at the top of my list. I also call my grandmother. That’s enough to fill the free time at airports or on the way to the office. [...]
On this day, I had some free time. I was driving to the office and I had a message from a woman named Karen. Karen’s family is full of Syracuse alumni. Honestly, most calls and emails I get from Syracuse alumni are not all that favorable. [...]
But Karen was worth the investment because she was super duper cool. It also turned out that Karen is the daughter of the greatest alumnus in Syracuse University history, the great Jim Brown.
Jim was not amazing for what he did on the field. Yes, he had super human strength and was such an outstanding athlete that they changed the rules to find ways to stop him. But that doesn’t impress me, for black men have always possessed amazing athletic ability. [...]
What impressed the HELL out of me was Jim Brown’s COURAGE. That is what left his mark on the university, and that is what will leave his mark on the world [...]
More At The Boyce Blog
Your Black Education: NCAA = Black Student Athlete Pimps
The Sports MCs Present: The Saturday Huddle
By: The Sports MCs
BASN
The approach of autumn leaves and pom – poms can mean only one thing: college football is back for another season of Pigskin Pimpin’.
And the prognosticators and perpetrators will, no doubt offer their take on which institution will get paid the most BCS money come January.
But what always seems to get lost in the sauce is the fact the machine that is college football keeps it crack – a – lackin’ for everyone; except those most responsible for its success – the student – athletes.
Enter the MCs.
In our endeavor to flip the script, we plan to show some of the inner workings of this machine – and hopefully address some big – picture issues that will get some of the capitalist pigs to move over in the trough — or least think twice before they oink [...]
More At Your Black Education
Your Black Sports: Hypocrisy Engulfs Plaxico Burress Controversy
Burress and the Bloomberg
By: Dave Zirin
Twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week: all Plaxico, all the time. There’s nothing like an NFL player shooting a hole in his own leg in a packed nightclub to become our latest walking, talking weapon of mass distraction. Why ponder the global economic meltdown, two wars, and rising unemployment, when millionaire black athletes like Plaxico Burress walk among us… with guns?
Don’t think that this is a defense of the New York Giants star wide receiver. Having a loaded gun in your pants, with no safety, in a crowded club, is about as smart as using a toaster as a bathtub toy. In fact, shooting yourself in the leg is really one of more preferable outcomes. Now Burress faces three and a half years in prison for carrying a loaded handgun in the city.
Right on cue, the moralists are slithering onto their soapboxes to hiss at the latest athletic bogeyman. Hypocrisy reigns supreme [...]
More At Your Black Sports
Your Black Sports: Houston Police Accused Of Assaulting Donald Driver’s Dad
Three Houston police officers under investigation for allegedly beating the father of Green Bay Packers wide receiver Donald Driver have been taken off patrol duty.
The decision was welcomed by Marvin Driver Jr.’s family members, who said they now want the officers fired and brought up on charges.
“We just want justice,” Michael Driver, Marvin Driver’s son, said after a news conference Friday outside his father’s home.
[...]
Family members of 56-year-old Marvin Driver claim he was arrested early Monday morning outside his mother’s home, where he also lives, for outstanding traffic warrants. But before arriving at a Houston jail, they say, he was taken to a gas station, where he was beaten by at least two officers and had something forced down his throat [...]
More At Your Black Sports
Your Black Politics: Did Tiger Woods Pave Barack Obama’s path?
Did Tiger Woods pave Barack Obama’s path? Are you joking?
By: Dave Zirin
Originally Appeared In NY Daily News
It’s always dangerous, but never boring, when a newspaper sports columnist uncorks a political thesis. Enter Mike Bianchi of the Orlando Sentinel. Bianchi thinks that there are some unsung heroes who deserve credit for helping put a black man in the White House – and they are athletes. “If you’re searching for tangible reasons why it became possible for Barack Obama to make his historic run at the presidency … look no further than the golf course, basketball court or football field.”
Bianchi believes that, since sports have conditioned white America to accept African-Americans as heroes and leaders, black sportsmen deserve a pat on the back. He wonders: “Where else but sports can you go to Amway Arena and see 15,000 mostly white fans cheer and celebrate the accomplishments of a team that is mostly black?”
Sounds lovely. But it happens to be embarrassingly wrong – and an insult to the reason that millions waited on long lines to cast their vote [...]
More At Your Black Politics
Your Black Sports: Michael Vick To Plead Guilty On Dogfighting Charges
SURRY, Va. (AP)-Former NFL quarterback Michael Vick plans to plead guilty to state dogfighting charges, a step that could allow him to qualify for an early release from federal prison and into a halfway house, court papers show.
In a motion filed Oct. 15 in Surry County Circuit Court, Vick’s attorneys asked to have him enter his plea by video teleconference. A hearing on the motion is scheduled for Oct. 30, Surry County Circuit Court administrator Sally Neblett said Tuesday.
The court papers note that allowing Vick to appear on two-way video would save the government the considerable expense of transporting him from prison in Leavenworth, Kan., to Surry County. His guilty plea would also allow him to pursue a halfway house program.
Under federal rules, Vick is ineligible to be released to a Residential Re-entry Center in the federal system until any pending charges against him are resolved.
In a statement, Vick attorneys Billy Martin and Lawrence Woodward said their client “is committed to taking responsibility for his actions [...]
Your Black Sports: Vince Young And The NFL’s Depression Denial
Vince Young and the NFL’s Depression Denial
By: Dave Zirin
Your sports page may have recently induced an unpleasant sense of déjà vu. A pro football star, by all accounts, seemed caught in a spiral of depression. Friends and advisers were worried enough about suicide to call the police. After an ensuing public-relations fracas, the player and the team assured us that it was all a grand misunderstanding.
Two years ago, this was the story of Dallas Cowboys star receiver Terrell Owens. Less than 24 hours after Owens had sleeping pills pried out of his mouth, his PR flack said that the police report was a fabrication and “Terrell has 25 million reasons to be alive” – an ugly reference to the dollars he was due in his contract.
This month it was Vince Young, quarterback of the Tennessee Titans. During a Sept. 7 victory over Jacksonville, Young threw two interceptions, sparking a chorus of boos from the home crowd. Then he seemed to be refusing to re-enter the game – and was injured shortly after he did return. The following night, when he didn’t return calls to his cell phone, the police were sent to find him. He had apparently uttered the word “suicide” to his manager, and perhaps a team therapist, and made clear that he was in possession of a gun.
But now Young and the team say that this is a whole lot of noise about nothing…
Read Full Article At Your Black Sports
Your Black World Headlines: 10/01/2008
Black & Brown Communities Overwhelmingly Opposed Bailout
4 Students At George Fox Univ. Confess To Obama Effigy
Feds Settle Discrimination Case With Predatory Alabama Bank
Shot NFL Player Richard Collier Paralyzed Below Waist, One Leg Amputated
Janet Jackson Released From Hospital — Will Resume Tour Saturday
Oprah Winfrey’s Mom Countersues Store For Its $156K Bill — Claims Ignorance
Your Black Sports: Dr Boyce Watkins Speaks On NCAA Racism
FYI: We have a coalition of activists, scholars, athletes, students, coaches, attorneys and parents who are working to address the NCAA and what some perceive to be an exploitation of the Black community due to the fact that the families of college athletes are not being compensated. Revenues for college sports are in the billions, many coaches sign contracts worth $2 – $4M dollars per year, and the NCAA is in direct competition with the NFL, NBA and other professional sports leagues. All the while, half of all Black basketball and football players come from families in dire poverty, and the NCAA has been allowed to implement Draconian legislation to control the options of these players to keep their families from having access to the revenue pool. I’ve seen players earn $20 million for their school by carrying the team to the Final Four, while simultaneously watching their mother get evicted, or a sibling get murdered in a housing project.
As educators, many of you are aware of the fact that these students do not always receive the education they deserve. Many academic institutions make the educational mission secondary to the primary objective of getting players on the court/field so they can make money for the campus. Myles Brand, the NCAA President, understands this hypocrisy, which is why he has never responded when CNN and other media have asked him to publicly debate myself or anyone else on this issue…
Your Black Sports: Vince Young’s Episode Documents Pressure On Black Athletes
Last September, Donovan McNabb, the Philadelphia Eagles‘ veteran quarterback, ruffled feathers during an interview on HBO when he said that African-American quarterbacks were held to a different standard than their white colleagues.
“There’s not that many African-American quarterbacks, so we have to do a little bit extra,” he said. “Because the percentage of us playing this position, which people didn’t want us to play, is low, so we do a little extra.”
Then he added in reference to Peyton Manning and Carson Palmer: “Let me start by saying I love those guys. But they don’t get criticized as much as we do. They don’t.”
Shortly after McNabb made his comments, Vince Young, the Tennessee Titans‘ quarterback, was asked for his reaction.
“That is his opinion,” Young said. “I really feel like myself, black or white quarterbacks, we all go through something because that is the life of a quarterback. You have to be able to handle all the pressure, and you have to be able to handle the losses, and you have to be able to handle the media saying this about you. If you can’t handle it, then you have to get off that position and go play something else.”
In light of Young’s bizarre behavior last week, he may want to revisit McNabb’s comments. He’s not handling the pressure so well…
Your Black Education: Book Review of “Reggie Wakes Up”
Book Review of “Reggie Wakes Up”
By: Tolu Olorunda
Staff Writer – YourBlackWorld.com
With the recent victory of President-Elect Obama, many have speculated a change of attitude in young black men, vis-à-vis the thirst for educational prowess. Whilst this prediction does seem, by all measures, accurately reflective of the lingering emotion within Black circles, some have suggested the need for a handbook of sorts, as necessary in guiding Black students, male and female, toward a more promising future. Of such is Zekita Tucker, a St. Louis author and publisher, whose advocacy for Black students builds on the legacies established by W.E.B. Du Bois, Carter G. Woodson, Janice Hale, etc. Zekita Tucker, of fame “Don’t Call Me Nigga
,” has a new book out titled, “Reggie Wakes Up 
.”
Reggie Wakes Up is a blueprint for teachers and students alike – with an emphasis on public schools. [...]
Meant for ages 8 and up, Reggie Wakes Up takes a hard look into the public school system, and its effects on the psyche of Black students [...]
More At Your Black Education