While the University of Maryland's football season is likely to be scoreless following the Big Ten's decision to suspend gameplay amid the coronavirus pandemic, head coach Mike Locksley is still putting in work off the field in an initiative to bring more minority coaches to the next level in their careers.
Locksley, one of just 13 minority head coaches in the NCAA's top 65 football programs, started the National Coalition of Minority Football Coaches that aims to help elevate qualified coaches on all levels, including youth programs.
"We have so many qualified minority candidates that have trained their entire careers for these opportunities and what the coalition wants to do is, the three pillars of it is: to prepare, promote, and produce the next level of coaches, or head coaches," Locksley told Cheddar.
The NCMFC's board of directors, according to Locksley, is made of football professionals, including executives and both former and current coaches. Some notable members of the coalition include the University of Alabama's Nick Saban and Pittsburgh Steelers head coach, Mike Tomlin.
Among the obstacles that minority coaches face in leveling up their careers, Locksley said, is that they are not afforded the same opportunities as their counterparts.
"When we formed the coalition, our goal was to try to create [opportunities] and remove some of the roadblocks that we haven't been able to overcome with just being able to have the opportunity to get these jobs," he noted.
The idea behind the coalition is to provide a "viable list of candidates" to leagues that, with the backing of the coalition and its connections, are inclined to be interviewed and assessed.
While the NFL has established the Rooney Rule, a mandate that requires each team to interview minority candidates, the NCAA does not have a similar guideline in place.
For Locksley, the grind of preparing for battle on the gridiron translates to his fight for success in helping elevate more minority coaches. Slow and steady wins the race, according to the coach.
"There's a process that goes into winning and for me, that's what the coalition's job to do is: to focus on the process of one, removing roadblocks, two, creating the awareness that we do have qualified individuals that are minorities that can do the job," he stated.
Cheddar gets a look at Curiosity Stream's 'Beyond the Spotlight,' a biography series about the intriguing people who capture our attention, fill our social feeds, and shape pop culture.
"Anything Is Possible," a documentary about NBA superstar Kevin Garnett recounting his career from being drafted out of high school to a championship with the Boston Celtics, is set to premiere on Showtime. Executive producer Marc Levin and co-directors Daniel Levin and Eric Newman joined Cheddar to provide some background on the project and discuss Garnett's legacy. With KG considered a pioneer for modern NBA draftees straight out of high school (the fifth pick in 1995), the filmmakers also discussed the possibility of the league reversing course on its current rule that requires a player to be at least 19-years-old and a year removed from high school to play.
Professional sports is facing a reckoning right now over several stories painting an ugly picture of a toxic work environment, encompassing multiple teams in multiple leagues and dealing with different issues.
This week, the NHL's Chicago Blackhawks ousted their general manager and senior director of hockey operations after an investigation confirmed former player Kyle Beach's claims that the team's former video coach Brad Aldrich sexual assaulted him back in 2010, with upper management ignoring his claims until after the team won the Stanley Cup that season. Last night, Joel Quenneville, now the coach of the Florida Panthers but Chicago's coach that season, stepped down from his post.
This comes just a few weeks after the NFL was rocked by leaked emails showing now-former Las Vegas Raiders Head Coach Jon Gruden using racist, sexist and homophobic language. He resigned soon after the emails came to light. We can't forget, though, that those emails come from a much broader investigation of the toxic work environment in the offices of the Washington Football Team. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said this week the league wouldn't publicly release anything from its investigation of the team, but lawyers for many of the women interviewed in the case say they want a public report.
And last January, just one month after hiring him, the New York Mets had to fire then-General manager Jared Porter, who admitted to sending explicit, unsolicited texts and images to a female reporter in 2016 when he worked for the Chicago Cubs. ESPN had been in possession of the texts since 2017, but the woman in question asked the network not to run the story out of fear her career would be harmed. She only reached back out to ESPN after she left the field of journalism altogether. Porter has been banned from the sport through next season.
If you believe in the phrase "where there's smoke, there's fire," professional sports is a five-alarm blaze.
Julie DiCaro, senior writer and editor at Deadspin, joins None of the Above to discuss.
Jill and Carlo discuss the scenes of joy at American airports as borders reopen, another tool in the Covid toolbox, the latest in the Astroworld crowd crush tragedy and more.
Gaming technology studio Mythical Games recently raised $150 million in a round led by Andreesen Horowitz, bringing Mythical's valuation to above unicorn status at $1.2 billion. Mythical Games' mission is to create a new generation of gaming with play-to-earn games that allow players to play to win actual cryptocurrency. Now the company is taking it to another level with NFT technology, allowing players to play with characters they can truly own. Mythical Games CEO John Linden joined Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss.
Evan Vandenberg, the founder and CEO of Dibbs, a sports card trading platform, joined Cheddar to break down how his company allows sports fans to buy and sell fractions of sports cards. The physical trading cards are typically held in a vault while fans are provided with a digital representation of that card that they can go on to sell or even buy more fractions of the item. Vanderberg also talked about the company's $13 million Series A funding round and investments from major sports figures like the NBA's Chris Paul and NFL's DeAndre Hopkins.
A Freitag pod with Carlo and Baker, talking about the upcoming federal vax-or-test deadline, the most shocking upset of this week's elections, an incredible story of selflessness and Love, Hate, Ate.
