Kap

There I was, in my dark place of solitude like Billie Holiday sings in her song doing my fantasy football research, when I got caught up in a discussion on my TCN. TCN is my personal acronym for Tribal Communication Network. These are simply communications from my boyz that fly around my superhighway (either by text or e-mail) about, well, possibly anything.




This particular topic was about 49er quarterback Colin Kaepernick's refusal to stand during the playing of our country's national anthem. I didn't really get involved in the conversation directly in part because we don't use Messenger for direct conversation so I generally don't know who said what when, but also (like I said) I was researching for three fantasy football drafts that I have on the same day. Regular readers of my blog know what that means for me.




But then, I got a direct shout-out from one of our more respected members of my crew. It was even more impactful with me because we have a kinship on a career related level. Long story short, when he asked me directly for my opinion, I have to come out of my cave.




When I first heard of this, I was kind of thrown off. After all, according to news accounts, he has not stood for any of the preseason games this season. A very quick cursory review of his Twitter feed indicates a somewhat sincere sensitivity toward "people of color". In fact, he has a personal affection to a organization called Camp Taylor, a camp for children with heart disease.



When you talk about symbols that are representative of our entire nation, they mean so many different things to so many different people. For example, to our military, it is a very important symbol to them, including my boyz that have served. As one of them said, "...you have to give respect to get respect.' This is also sensitive to me because I have two brothers who served. For other various movements, who I will not get into, the flag means things both positive and negative.




There are various other (and more effective) ways that Kaepernick could address his concerns. He could always join the thousands of organizations that have a much louder voice. He even could create his own organization to exactly address his concerns. He could work in conjunction with people who he thinks could help him towards his vision.




I just think that it is pretty ironic that Kaepernick is being called out for simply exercising his rights that are actually offending some people that give him the opportunity to exercise that same right. You can bet that he wouldn't be able to do the same thing in Russia or China. Now while I don't agree with what he did, I don't have a problem with him exercising his (and any other American's) right to do it.


After all, this is America...land of the free and home of the brave.

What if...?

With Jeff Henderson's win in this year's men's Olympic long jump, America continued it's dominance in this event. In the last 28 Olympiads, The US has won it 22 times. Multiple winners in this event include Carl Lewis who won four gold medals and Ralph Boston, who won one of each (gold, silver and bronze) on his way to be the first to break the 27 foot barrier. These two guys alone would be great stories of their own to blog about. But I wanted to go back to where all began.


DeHart Hubbard first caught the eye of a University of Michigan alum who saw his stats in both the long jump as well as the 100yd dash in the local newspaper. Within a few months, the Cincinnati native got an opportunity to take his talents to Ann Arbor.


For the haters, excuse the LeBron reference. Just wanted to maintain your interest.


While he couldn't run (and jump) with the varsity his freshman year, he still managed to tie the University’s indoor 50-yard-dash record and long-jumped more than 24 feet. Within two years, he won the Big Ten championship in both events (setting a record in the dash), earning a spot on the 1924 Olympic team and a trip to Paris, France.


While there, he could have competed in multiple events, but was prevented by the International Olympic Committee. Won't get into the Mary Jane Blige drama as to why.


Long story short, with a jump of 24 feet, 5 1/2 inches, Hubbard became the first Black Olympian to win the gold medal in an individual event. Funny thing...this is kind of like only the beginning.


When he got back, he set it off both on the left and on the right like Strafe. Within the next year, he won the NCAA championship in both the long jump and 100 yard dash, either tying or setting the record in both. During his career at Michigan, he won seven conference championships. He had the Big Ten record in the long jump until some guy named Owens broke it.


He went on to graduate from Michigan (he was one of only eight Blacks to graduate from his class of 1,456) and continued his athletic pursuits to careers in baseball and bowling. He is a member of Michigan's Hall of Honor and the school has a scholarship in his name that is jointly endowed by the school and his fraternity (Omega Psi Phi).   


Just wondering...what if the IOC had let Hubbard participate in all of the events he could have?


 

Crowning

Before I totally got caught up the wave that is the Olympics, I had planned to do a blog about head coach Dennis Green, who recently passed at the age of 67. Part of the reason wanted to do it was that I didn't want him to be mainly remembered for a post game rant.

While I don't think he wanted to be remembered as a trailblazer, he left his mark on the game of football on various leagues in various countries. After playing in the CFL for a year, he started his coaching career at the University of Iowa as a graduate assistant. By 1981 he was the head coach at Northwestern University, the second Black coach at the Division I-AA level. While there he won Big Ten Coach of the Year honors.

He then joined the coaching tree of Bill Walsh at Stanford University. After taking over for Walsh when he left for San Francisco, he ended his career there with the school's best record since 1986, including an upset of #1 ranked Notre Dame.

While on Walsh's coaching staff in San Francisco as a wide receivers coach, he was on the staff that won Super Bowl XXIII.

In 1992, he became the second Black head coach in the NFL when he was selected to coach the Minnesota Vikings. While there he won three out of every five games, won four division titles and made the playoffs eight times in his ten year career at Minnesota.

I believe he has also earned the right to have his own coaching tree. Assistant coaches under him included Brian Billick and Tony Dungy, coaches who won Super Bowls of their own as head coaches.

In researching him, he wasn't who I thought he was. He was much more.

USA!!...USA!!..USA!!

While there is a lot that this country can improve on, there is also plenty that is right with this country. The main ingredient (not the group) is the people.


Ellis Hill, a Uber driver, picked up Liz Willock to take her to the airport. On the way, they struck up a conversation about family, politics and (wait for it) sports. Mr. Hill talked about how his son, Darrell made the U.S. Olympic team as a shot putter. For the novice, basically this event involves taking a 16 pound ball and seeing how far you can throw it. This was my event in a previous life as a athlete both in high school and college.


Mr. Hill talked about how he wished he could see his son compete in Brazil. Ms. Willock offered him the opportunity to do just that. While she was not a rich well to do socialite, she was hope. Within days, she set up a GoFundMe page (a website in which you can directly contribute money for various reasons). In less than two days, she raised more than $7,500 dollars for Mr. Hill to make the trip.


I'm sorry negative people...while I'm fighting to keep from saying that it's stories like this that make this country the country that it is, it is stories like this that show the power of the human spirit. It's also the reason that I keep my glass half full.