Hopefuls from the UK, Germany, Japan and across the world have a shot at glory via the International Player PathwayDoing shuttle sprints in the north London drizzle might seem a long way from the razzamatazz of the NFL, but maybe that’s the point. For the 50 athletes competing at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium for the chance of a golden ticket to the world’s most lucrative sports league, this was just one more step on a long journey.Adedayo Odeleye’s story is a case in point. One of the dozens of tall, variously muscular individuals who had flown in from all over the world to take part in the day-long trial known as the “NFL combine”, the 23-year-old has a clear-eyed sense...
Statements barely addressing an unarmed black man’s death are closer to obligation than any commitment to social justiceOn Saturday, five days after the killing of George Floyd by police in Minnesota, the NFL spoke out. It released a short statement by its commissioner, Roger Goodell, offering his condolences to the Floyd family, stating the “urgent need for action” without identifying what that action might be, addressing “systemic issues” without specifying what those issues were. The words “police”, “black” and “racism” were not mentioned. It was a word salad, reading like the cryptic statement of a surly 61-year-old teenager, fed through the yoghurt pot of a corporate communications department, and spat out on to the internet in a shareable meme format.The...
Offering draft pick incentives for hiring minority coaches won’t solve the NFL’s diversity problem any more than the Rooney Rule when both fail to address the root causeWhen the NFL first was made to formally address the embarrassing lack of diversity in its coaching and front-office ranks back in the early aughts, a scant three of the league’s 32 teams were helmed by minority head coaches. Seventeen years since the introduction of the Rooney Rule, which requires all clubs to interview at least one minority candidate for its openings at head coach and general manager, the grand total entering the 2020 season has inched upward to four: the Dolphins’ Brian Flores, the Chargers’ Anthony Lynn and the Steelers’ Mike Tomlin,...
The two codes need to show greater leadership and ask why so many of its number are suffering from brain injuriesYou may not have heard of the former professional baseball player Pete Frates but you may just be familiar with his work. Five years ago, a Facebook video in which Frates upended a bucket of ice-cold water over his head in order to raise money for motor neurone disease – or ALS, as it is known in the United States – swiftly went viral. Within weeks, something that became known as the Ice Bucket Challenge was on the way to becoming a global sensation, raising almost £100m in that initial summer alone.A couple of weeks ago, Frates died peacefully at...
Also featuring a Nicola Adams tribute, Emily Scarrat being brilliant at rugby and FA Vase scenes1) The yin and yang of goal celebrations: none more modern than this one, from Brazil, in which the Santos forward Marinho mimics a VAR check after scoring but, far away from the world of contentious technology, check out what this last-minute FA Vase equaliser means for Falmouth Town’s players and fans. The visitors, Longlevens, had been 2-0 up going into second-half stoppage time. Falmouth eventually won 3-2 after extra-time.2-1 down in injury time. Your #FAVase hopes are fading away into oblivion. You have one more chance left to try and nick a goal and take it to extra time.And this happens.ABSOLUTE. SCENES.@Falmouth_Town @swpleague @NonLeagueCrowd...