Happy Birthday, Al Davis: A New Beginning at 80

I would not have known that July 4th is Al Davis’s birthday.  I read a B/R article and I saw a few connections.

Al’s birthday is also a day that North Korea displayed its capability. It sent out a signal.  Will there be peace in the valley?

Al’s birthday symbolizes a new beginning. There is a lesson, sometimes taught in Hebrew classes, that tells us that 8 and 80 symbolize new beginnings.

One thing is certain in the life of Moses. He led Israel out of bondage, away from Egypt, at the age of 80. Al could be the “Moses” of the Oakland Raiders.

Since math teaches us to decode and decipher information, I conjecture that Al’s career is getting a new start, a new hope, and a new beginning.

Some folks belittle him, while others see his genius. Let’s look at some patterns, connections and trends.

1. America is getting a new beginning by the new character of its leadership. Barack Obama symbolizes the people’s choice to attempt a new beginning of the American Dream for a very diverse population.

2. A generation is awakening because of the death of one of its icons. Michael Jackson’s death has shaken so many people around the world. Lessons are to be learned. Things are shifting, changing and causing people to re-think their situation.

3. Another NFL player’s death was announced today, July 4, 2009. It is a sign that the character and conduct of some NFL players need to be transformed and changed.

4. The economy is causing things to change. New beginnings are becoming evident as people are without jobs, losing their homes, and losing their sense of security and well-being.

Al Davis is still around.  He is a symbol of persistence. He anticipates change, an upswing, for an improved NFL team.

Al Davis may represent a “Moses” of the Oakland Raiders. He may be the man to lead them forward into their NFL “promise land.” He may see the promise. He may wonder how long he can dwell in the manifestation of that vision or promise.

As a leader and visionary for so many years, he has arrived at the age of 80. This may have a deep meaning for him. His focus is now. He wants to get to the top of the mountain, so to speak.

After all, Al Davis has been a commissioner, a coach, and an owner. He has made tough choices and he has had a spectacular team. He has a steel-like attitude of doing it his way.

Al Davis is enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. He is represented numerous times in the NFL history and galleries.

He has been at the top. He is determined to spiral up to the top, again.

At 80, the year of new beginning, Al Davis has a reasonable expectation.

Believe it, and achieve it, Al Davis.  Happy Birthday.

Fritz Pollard, an NFL Pioneer

Fritz Pollard made history in 1916, but it took many years before he was enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. 

In fact, if you do the arithmetic you will see that it took 89 years to officially celebrate (nationally) the accomplishments of a great pioneer in professional football. His enshrinement occurred about nineteen years after his death.

Pollard earned about $1500 per game in his heyday, according to a booklet titled African American Pioneers in Pro Football, published by the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Pollard was named for Frederick Douglas, the scholar and civil rights leader, and he should have been in classroom history books across the United States.  If so, perhaps I would have read about him before my visit to Canton in 2009.

Pollard joined the American Professional Football Association in 1920.  It was later named the National Football League. 

He was a team member of the Akron (OH) Pros.  He helped win the league’s first crown, with an 8-0-3.

In 1928, Pollard formed the Chicago Black Hawks which played white teams in the Chicago area.

Pollard is noted as the first African American coach in the NFL. 

He was a two-time All-American and reportedly coached as many as four different NFL teams. 

One source says:

“Pollard experienced racial discrimination during his career in professional football. He routinely could not eat in the same restaurants or stay in the same hotels as his teammates. Players on opposing teams commonly tried to harm him by piling onto him after a play was over.

“To prevent this from occurring, Pollard usually rolled over onto his back and put his shoes’ cleats into the air. Beginning in 1934, the National Football League permitted an unofficial ban on African-American players. Between 1934 and 1946, no black athletes played in the league.”

Pollard’s life after football was successful.  Pollard’s father was one of about 17,000 African American barbers in the United States.  After a career in sports, Fritz Pollard established businesses and was successful.  He died in 1986.

Nineteen years later, he was enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.  Fritz Pollard III and another person delivered his Induction Speech in 2005.

We salute the accomplishments of Fritz Pollard.  We realize that we stand on the foundation his generation provided.

 

 

Fritz Pollard’s Induction Speech

Transcript of Fritz Pollard’s Induction Speech

 

Tony Dungy at Pro Football Hall of Fame

You can call it being in the right place at the right time; I call it something more.

I arrived at the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, OH at about 1:05 PM on June 5, 2009. As I entered the door, Jerry Csaki was walking towards me. That was my first sign that I am doing the right thing.

Csaki is with the education component of the Hall of Fame (HOF). 

His timing was perfect. He greeted me warmly and started walking me through the galleries.

Csaki gave me a first-class tour of the HOF. I was like a sponge, absorbing the history and eager to pick up any handout or booklet to give me more information.

Then Csaki told me and a group of students from Ohio that there are about 20 million artifacts and archival records in the HOF.

I knew then that I would be making several visits, camping out in the museum just like graduate students do when they are writing their dissertations.

The tour included a visit to the division where files were organized on move-able bookshelves, almost as tall as the ceiling. 

There were first issues of sports publications, hundreds of shoes of NFL players, autographed helmets, microfiche files, books, copies of articles or documents related to legal matters, and so much more.

I could go on and on about the richness of the content in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

All I can say is that it will take a series of articles to tip the iceberg of information shelved in that wonderful place in Canton, OH.

What was the icing on the cake today? 

Believe it or not, I was at the Hall of Fame at just the right time to see Tony Dungy, the author of at least three books, one of which is for children.

I could have clicked my shoes like Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz. My guests and I immediately got two tickets and purchased six books. We stood in line to get the great coach and former football player’s autograph.

I wrote in an earlier article on June 5, 2009 that I was headed to the HOF to do more research, but I never thought I would get the treat of meeting Tony Dungy.

Let’s just say that I am lucky or, if you believe in more than luck, shout out that I have experienced a “Hamesh Hand.”  According to my research it means; the hamesh hand, or hamsa hand, is a symbol of blessing and protection within the Jewish tradition.

If that definition is too heavy for you just consider that I am beginning to experience being “in the right place at the right time.”

Conclusion: Something good is happening.

Photo by Damali: Tony Dungy shaking the hand of a three-year-old whose mother purchased “You can do it.” 

Note: On Saturday, June 6, Dungy hosts the second annual Pro Football Hall of Fame Father and Kids Experience for a day of football fun, and father and child bonding on Pro Football Hall of Fame Field at Fawcett Stadium at 9:00 AM. Also included is lunch and admission to the museum.  Tony Dungy event

NFL Players Look at Mirror or Mirage of Opportunity

Texas Governor Rick Perry visited a Fifth Ward church, in Houston, Texas several years ago.  After that meeting, I was asked to write a response.

I wrote an article entitled: Freedom From Slavery (of all kinds).  It was five years ago, and I realized that bondage can be defined so many different ways.

Some of the concepts can be applied to the experiences of retired NFL players.

Whenever the renumeration for a service rendered is not commensurate with the benefit to the employer, there are inequities.

Also, if there is a “risk” involved in the delivery of the service, then there ought to be a compensation factor for the NFL player who incurs the damage or risk.

If an NFL player expends his intellectual or physical property to help an industry earn mega-bucks, then that NFL player ought to benefit. 

So many companies have risk managers or risk control experts.  No doubt these experts need to begin to help the retired NFL players. 

Actually, the active players need more guidance to insure that their life after NFL football is more lucrative than many of the retired players in 2009.

A conference is coming up next week, May 28-31, 2009, in Las Vegas, Nevada.  The issues will be discussed. Strategies will be devised.

The NFLPA is fifty years old.  It seems it has existed long enough to be a senior citizen of advocacy groups.  Thus, the vision to discern what will guarantee better benefits for active and retired players ought to be in place. 

I have seen some retired players who can barely walk.  Others have from slight to severe addictions. 

Many have not made a smooth transition to an ordinary lifestyle.  In fact, if the young players do not respond to a rude awakening, they, too, can become a type of Bill Bojangles Robinson of this century.

One slip, either legally or morally, can cause an economic tumble.

I remember NFL players who met a “Potiphar’s wife,” and catapulted downward into emotional and legal difficulties because of the allegations which tainted their images and truncated their careers.

Fame and fortune can behave like a parabola, or football:  rise up, peak at a maximum, and plummet downward until it hits “rock bottom.”

Look at this quote:

“Despite earning more than $2 million during his lifetime, Robinson died penniless in New York City in 1949 at the age of 71 from heart failure. His funeral, which was arranged by longtime friend and television host Ed Sullivan, was held at the 369th Infantry Regiment Armory near Harlem and attended by 32,000 people. Adam Clayton Powell, Sr. gave the eulogy which was broadcast over the radio.”

The lesson to be learned:  A football player’s opportunity to have a career in the NFL can either be a mirror of true economic opportunity or a inversion, showing a shadow of a distorted reality, turning personal and financial situations upside down.

Can you see clearly?  Is what you see an accurate mirror reflection of opportunity or is it an illusion?

In conclusion, a young NFL player must be honest with himself.

He must realize that he may be ill-prepared to deal with the issues that will arise during his retirement years.

The core of this lesson:  Hunker down, right now, and prepare for your future!

NFL Redeeming Moments

It was June 2008.  Several big guys who looked like potential NFL players were in my math class.  I always give pep talks on the first day of class, so I told a little story on the first day in 2008.

I told them about a game I attended in 1970.  It was cold and wet at Shea Stadium in New York City.  The team of my choice seemed to be losing the game.  I almost gave up, but I hung in there.

In the fourth quarter when the clock showed eight seconds, something spectacular or even miraculous happened. 

According to an article written by Joseph Durso, it had happened before in Oakland Raiders history.

Men with a certain knack were able to turn the outcome of the game around, in the direction of a Raiders win.  George Blanda “had a hand or foot in Oakland’s earlier miracles” says a 1970 article.

On December 6, 1970, however, Blanda was on the sideline watching.  Lamonica threw a 33-yard pass, and a man whose hands seem to clasp a football better than most, caught the ball.

Earlie Thomas was one of the men in the crowd of players, trying to catch the pass intended for a Raider. 

W. K. Hicks and Gus Holloman were in the crowd, trying to get the ball in the hands of the Jets.

Something unusual happened, Thomas said: “I thought the ball was dropping into my hands,” he continued, “but the wind carried it and he (Warren Wells) lunged for it.”

Wells added in the article: “It (the ball) sort of floated in the wind.  I thought I’d get a clear shot at it but he tipped it and I tripped over his leg as we went up.”

Thomas then added: “Somebody knocked it out of my hand.”

Holloman said: “I was coming in behind either Earlie or W. K., and Wells happened to be facing the right way.”

It just doesn’t make any sense, Holloman added.

The moment was one of the most exciting in football history. 

Too few professional sports writers recall this spectacular play, which may have been one of the final miraculous plays of Warren Wells’ career.

When this B/R writer looks back at this historical moment, a realization of a benchmark is established. 

First, let’s take a good look at the results during the 12th week of the 1970 season:

• Baltimore Colts 29, Philadelphia Eagles 10
• Cincinnati Bengals 17, San Diego Chargers 14
• Cleveland Browns 21, Houston Oilers 10
• Dallas Cowboys 34, Washington Redskins 0
• Detroit Lions 16, St. Louis Cardinals 3
• Green Bay Packers 20, Pittsburgh Steelers 12
• Kansas City Chiefs 16, Denver Broncos 0
• Los Angeles Rams 34, New Orleans Saints 16
• Miami Dolphins 37, Boston Patriots 20
• Minnesota Vikings 16, Chicago Bears 13
• New York Giants 20, Buffalo Bills 6
• Oakland Raiders 14, New York Jets 13
• San Francisco 49ers 24, Atlanta Falcons 20

Notice that the tightest game in the list is the Raiders/Jets game on December 6.  The Raiders won the game and there was only one point difference in the score.  All of the other wins had a larger difference.

The 1970 Oakland Raiders record read 4 L, 2 T, and 8 W. 

So putting that game in its historical context in the 1970 season, you have to admit that something spectacular or even miraculous happened. 

Wells’ catch tied the game; Blanda’s kick put the Raiders over the top.

Now back to the classroom.  I told this story to the class, but one young football player was really impressed.  His name is Lloyd Ford.  He is a wide receiver for Prairie View University in Texas.

I saw Lloyd’s eyes light up.  I gave him a picture of a historical NFL wide receiver.  On the back of the picture, I wrote the receiver’s career average, 23.1.  I wrote the NFL receiver’s name and wrote 94 yards which was one of the longest catches in NFL history back in those days.

I said to Lloyd: “Go on and prepare to play for the NFL and just do one thing for me…Do a better job than the players of my generation.”

Lloyd took the picture.  He kept it until Sunday, May 3, 2009.

Then, on Monday, May 4, 2009, I was unlocking my college classroom door to start a math class.  A young lady said,:”Professor, look at this picture.”

I asked: “Where did you get it?”  She said: “From my brother, Lloyd.”

The lesson to be learned:

1.  It was a miracle that Warren Wells caught that ball in 1970 in the last eight seconds of the game.

2.  It is a miracle that a picture I gave a young man in June 2008, made a full circle back into my hands on May 4, 2009 by way of a sister who I am currently teaching.

The redeeming message of this true story is that just as the game was won in the last eight seconds in 1970, no doubt there has been a redeeming process over these last 39 years of the game of life.

It is a process moving toward victory for those of us who witnessed the great NFL play. It is a redeeming process, no doubt, for those who partook in the accomplishment of the great Raider victory on December 6, 1970.

Perhaps all of this is a foreshadow of a comeback of the greatness of the Raiders in the coming football season. Al Davis and the Oakland Raiders can say: “Let’s do it again.”

Let’s wait and see!

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