That is the playing field that awaits Jason Wright and the Washington Football Team this season.
Wright, who was hired as the team's president this summer to help lead it out of multiple crises — becoming the first Black president of an NFL team in the process — told Cheddar in an interview on Tuesday that his first priority is to fix an office culture so that "all colleagues, especially women, feel comfortable bringing their full selves to work."
"That's not just a moral imperative," Wright said. "It's a business imperative."
"The data says if you have more than one woman engaged on a decision, the collective intelligence of that team is higher than it would be otherwise."
Wright's focus on data-based analysis should not come as a surprise. After he retired from the NFL in 2011, the former running back enrolled in the prestigious Booth School of Business at the University of Chicago, where he received his MBA. Wright then became a partner at the uber-selective management consulting firm McKinsey before taking the NFL gig. It's a pedigree that should help him as he deals with an entirely different crisis in the form of the coronavirus (at last, one not of the team's making).
"I think the NFL is doing everything it can" when it comes to preparing to start a season in the midst of a pandemic, Wright said. "And at the same time, I'm still very concerned."
Not for a lack of preparation or execution, but because of how "unpredictable" and "tricky at every turn" it has been to control the virus. Wright noted that the data is always shifting, and that will in turn force the NFL and the team front offices to have to adapt to a changing landscape — much in the way a quarterback sometimes has to change plays on the fly.
Because of the size of NFL rosters and the physical space required to play, Wright said a "bubble" format is just not possible. He's focusing on a "behavioral bubble" that stresses the importance of individual behavior to players and staff, and how "one weak link" can send a season off the rails. (see: Marlins, Miami; Cardinals, St. Louis).
And then there's the ongoing search for a new name and logo after the team jettisoned its 87-year-old mascot this summer, acknowledging its racist past in the midst of sweeping social and racial justice protests.
Asked by Cheddar if Wright could divulge any hints about the new name, he demurred.
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.
