Somehow, someway, we've made it to the end of 2021. The past two years have been as challenging as anything we've ever experienced. So many people and industries have been affected in so many ways, and we've had to adapt and roll with the punches that have come our way. During the end of this holiday season, please be sure to take a minute and pat yourself on the back for staying strong and making it out the business end of 2021, also known as year two of the Covid-19 pandemic.
As we wrap of the year, I wanted to share and repost some of my favorite pieces from the first 6 months of Straight from the Source here on Bulletin. Each preview will include a link to the full written piece and/or video interview. Hope you enjoy and please stay safe this weekend!
A conversation with Marc J. Spears
The full video interview can be found Here
The full podcast version can be found Here
Here's a portion of my chat with Marc Spears:
Marc: Early on in my journey, I got a job offer with the LA Daily News covering Angels and Dodgers baseball and Cal State Northridge football and basketball. That brought me back to the west coast to LA. When I was covering Angels games, I remember a guy working there as well. We're in the press box, and he was calling the pitches. He was like 'That's a changeup. That's a slider. That's a curveball.' and I'm like 'How you know these pitches from up here?' He says, 'I played college baseball.' And I was like, 'he's using his expertise from college baseball to cover baseball.' Now I thought about it and I was like, I'm enjoying covering Cal State Northridge basketball more than doing Major League Baseball. I played college basketball and I know the game. I need to use my basketball expertise. I need to get back into that. So I decided to leave to the LA daily news and I went back to covering college sports. I went to Louisville, Kentucky, where I was a general assignment sports reporter and I basically was a backup writer on University of Kentucky football and basketball and University of Louisville football and basketball. So at that time, this is in the late 90s...My thought was I'm just gonna want to be the best college basketball writer there is, you know? Then I got a call from a guy named Neil Scarborough. This is a 1999, Neil was the sports editor at the Denver Post and I had met him previously at the National Association of Black Journalists conventions. Shows that that its really about how much work you put in to "who you know". So Neil called me and he's like, 'How you liking the job out there? I said, 'I'm about to get promoted to the full time writer on University of Louisville. I'm liking it in Kentucky. It's better than I thought.' He just immediately asks, 'Do you want to cover the Denver Nuggets for the Denver Post?' I replied, 'When do I leave?' So, in 1999, I started covering NBA and the Nuggets for the Denver Post. Nick Van Exel and Antonio McDyess were their stars when I got there. Four years later, there was this young kid with braids named Carmelo Anthony that showed up. I covered the first four years of his career. After that I got a job at the Boston Globe, covering the Boston Celtics, when Ray Allen and Kevin Garnett showed up to play with Paul Pierce. I really wanted that job, man. I wanted it because I felt like that was gonna, you know, bring my career to the next level. People knew who I was in Denver and everything, but it was still like a mid market in terms of covering NBA. People weren't paying close attention. But as soon as I started covering the Celtics, even though I was doing the same thing I was doing in Denver, I have more eyes on me. People were paying attention. They won a championship. Got to cover an Olympics after that with the Dream Team. So those were two great years. In 2009, I got a job with Yahoo Sports, working alongside Adrian Wojnarowski, covering the NBA nationally for Yahoo. So that was a great promotion for me. It also brought me back to the Bay (Area). With Adrian being in New York, they needed somebody out west. So I moved to Oakland just so happened that the Warriors had a rookie by the name of Steph Curry that year. So that certainly helped my career as well, being close to him. Being able to cover games in Oakland and Sacramento primarily was great and i was in a good spot. In 2016 I was looking for a different challenge.
Marc: When the job with ESPN's The Undefeated came up and I realized it was right up my alley. I'd get to write a lot about race, sports and culture. Also do a lot of feature pieces on NBA athletes, predominantly African American athletes. Sign me up. And, you know, there was a lot of things going on in this world then. That is escalated now to a high level in terms of racism and social justice, police brutality, and so on. So to me, it's the most amazing job I've could've had, and I was able to get it. And now, with The Undefeated, we're five years in and it's been really gratifying. I feel like I'm doing work that makes people think and opens their eyes. I try to brings light to things that need light. Something that sticks with you more than just a box score, a milestone or a trade or something like that. It's a story that can be really, really meaningful. Be on the bottom of somebody's Wikipedia page as a reference on their life. This job is the best job of my life. I've really enjoyed it, it's been mentally stimulating, and hopefully I got a lot of more great work to go.
Stefano: That was gonna be my next question. If you listeners out there haven't read the publication, if you haven't visited The Undefeated, it's a website that just does absolutely great work surrounding sports, and as they say, at the intersection between race and sports.
Marc: You wrote for us a few times!
Stefano: I did yea. Some of the work I did for The Undefeated was some of the more meaningful stories I've done. To keep this going, do you feel this job was your calling? I mean, you've done work for the NABJ, that's the National Association of Black Journalists. You've been doing this work for The Undefeated, you've been a voice. Do you feel like this was really your calling, to be in this job and telling these kinds of stories?
Marc: Yeah, you know, it's not an easy job. I knew some reporters before that were brought up to them, and maybe they were a little uncomfortable writing about these things. I certainly dealt with a lot of racism and things throughout my life. Things that I've seen with my parents, and my family. When I was a kid, I used to go to town with my mom, and I had to kill time because I wasn't gonna sit there in her work meetings. So I used to go to the San Jose Afro American Museum. I'd go to film room and watch "Eyes on the Prize" when I was like 10 years old. If you've never seen it, it's an amazing documentary about the Civil Rights Movement. It shows everything that happened in the 60s. Like all the police brutality, all the dogs being sent out to attack blacks. The white fountain and black fountains. The different bathrooms. People getting beat up for eating in a restaurant. I'm a boy just sitting here watching this stuff, and it just hit me like, 'Wow, my people really been through a lot. So I've always, I guess you could say, been outspoken and wanted to write about these things. But in an intelligent way, not just yelling and screaming just for the sake of screaming. When I do speak, when I do write, I want people to know that it's factual. It's real. This is something that happened, this is something that, you know, we need to bring light to. Even in my first job, I worked in Tulsa, Oklahoma. That was the home of the Tulsa race riots in 1921. I didn't know anything about that man. Like, how is it such a hidden story that 100 years ago, hundreds of black people were basically, their whole neighborhood was destroyed. They were bombed on, in America! Killed because of a little silly argument. But it was mostly about jealousy about this, thriving black neighborhood they called "Black Wall Street." Learning more about black history and black struggle, black pain. And not just for blacks, for people of all colors. Races, religions, sexualities, everything. I feel like it's something that I need to talk about, speak out about, I'm passionate about, it just so happens that it intersects with sports a lot. So ever since I got the job, man, I was comfortable. Because I knew I would speak it the right way. And in a factual way, it's very important for me to, you know, have factual, deep stories that could also oftentimes be very educational, and perhaps change the way that somebody is thinking.
A conversation with Adam Amin
The full video interview can be found Here
The full podcast version can be found Here
Here's a portion of my chat with Adam Amin:
Stefano: All right, we got another episode of straight from the source on Facebook Bulletin. Our guest is a great friend and one of the premier voices in the sports that we all love. Whether it's baseball, football, basketball, softball, hell he's even called the Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest. What doesn't he do? My former coworker ESPN, he now calls the NFL and MLB for Fox Sports and he's the voice of the Chicago Bulls on NBC Sports Chicago. Adam Amin. Thanks for joining me.
Adam: Man it's so good to see your face, so good to hear your voice brother. It's a long way from eating dinner on a cold night, Minnesota during the NBA playoffs...I feel like we're a long ways away from there and from hanging out in your old home of Houston Texas, my man.
Stefano: Absolutely man. It's wild. It's wild, how different the world is since the last time we saw each other without a doubt. So basically, were you just not able to decide what sport you really wanted to dive into and just decided, 'oh what the hell, I'll just do them all?'
Adam: I appreciate that man. You know, it's funny. I think I look at the modern, I don't know if that's the right term for it, but like the current era of broadcasting. I think that is the expectation for a lot of us now. I think we're in a content driven world. Obviously, when it comes to digital media, whatever it is, whether it's anything cultural, you know, music, movies, and definitely sports, we want to feel like we're all encompassing, in a lot of ways. I don't think the days are gone, of being a one sport announcer or anything like that. But you look at everybody who's doing this at the highest levels, this has been the case for the last, you know, 20, 25, 30 years. Take Marv Albert, who was doing everything in New York back in the day. He would do the football game on radio during the day, and he would do a basketball game on the radio at night. Then he'd run to the studio and do the Sunday night local news. He was kind of the first one to do that on a high level, and I think a lot of us who have started to pick this up in the last three or four decades, and especially in the last one or two decades, I think the expectation was that you need to be versatile. You need to be able to do everything because you know, you need to show your value. But obviously you want to cover a lot of cool stuff. Like the fact that you get to cover so many cool things is probably the biggest draw. But I think part of it was just the expectation. Like in college when I was on a college radio station in Valparaiso, Indiana, I was doing everything. And that was just like, 'Alright, I guess in my next job, I'll just do whatever they asked me to do.' That helped when ESPN called and they were looking for somebody who could fill out a lot of different positions. They needed somebody who knew how to cover wrestling, which I had done during college, covering high school wrestling in the state of Iowa. They needed somebody who'd covered softball, which I'd done covering the division two, Women's College World Series. They needed somebody who did basketball and baseball, which I did a lot of high school, college and minor league baseball. I've done so many of those things that at that point, just the expectation was, 'Hey, you can do this. Do you want to do it? We need somebody who can.' I'm like, 'Nobody else is asking, so I'm happy to jump in. That's just kind of been my gig for the last 10 years. And believe it or not, it's narrowed down now...I only cover three sports now. So that's nuts. Right?
A conversation with Dianna Russini
The full video interview can be found Here
The full podcast version can be found Here
Here's a portion of my chat with Dianna Russini:
Stefano: All right another episode of straight from the source and today we got one of the most recognizable faces from ESPN. She covers the NFL you can see her NFL countdown NFL live sports center. All other ESPN studio shows as well as a publication right here on Facebook bullets and then we'll get to it we'll talk about soon my former coworker at the four letter network and now my fellow new jerseyan is how you say in New Jersey and San Diegans New Jerseyans and jerseyan works Diana received thanks for joining me, Dianna.
Dianna: Usually, if you just say you know, gym tan laundry, everybody knows it. That means that we're just from New Jersey. So that's usually how we, how we talk if you if you live in this beautiful state, easy way to put it.
Stefano: I'm obviously a little new in the state, but I love it so far. And you know, I was I was having I was having a conversation with someone else the other day, that was, uh, they were trying to explain to me how you should not have as many bagels here because you can kind of start rolling out of certain places. And I'm finding really hard to not get a bacon egg and cheese bagel almost every single morning.
Dianna: Whoever advised you is a smart person, because you can certainly gain weight pretty quickly here, the food, the food is just really good. Especially if you like Italian food. I feel like New Jersey has kind of honed in in that space. And it's probably why I'm I mean, there's a million reasons why I'm proud to be from New Jersey and it's funny over the years, it's really become part of my identity, you know, with with, with people that watch ESPN with fans of football. And it's funny because my family is originally from the Bronx. So we identify more with the Bronx because that's just, you know, we're all our roots are so New Jersey to me now has become sort of part of who I am. And I love it. I'm actually even honored that the people in New Jersey like to call me their own.
Stefano: I'll never forget, and if you haven't watched it, go look it up. Diana doing the impersonations of your mom. When you were on ESPN Radio, I think with Dan lebatard on his show. You sound just like my mother in law, which I feel like sound like everyone's mother in law here in New Jersey, but it was it's absolutely hysterical. So go look it up if you haven't seen it yet.
Stefano: So first off, congratulations on your new family. You're a new mom, a beautiful son. How much tougher is it to stay awake for those late games like a Monday Night Football game or a Thursday Night Football game. Now that you're a mom.
Dianna: So I am technically still on maternity leave right now. But when you're covering the NFL and when you're in season, to which I'll be returning soon, there's no taking off. There's no maternity leave from watching games. So while Sunday's are pretty packed because I'm trying to catch up on everything. Those late Sunday, Monday even Thursday nights have been killing me. Just because by the time the game wraps I like to watch a little bit of postgame stuff. My son is usually getting up for feeding so it works out in that sense because I'm already up right? I'm not coming out with sleep. But I know that I'm only gonna get about two more hours of sleep before he's up again. So I'm definitely trying to figure out a way to balance it all. I mean, you referenced my mom. She's helping me out tons and she doesn't truly understand that the little sleep I'm getting really doesn't have that much to do with my son. It's more football. Football is the thing that's it's crushing me right now. But virtually the games, they've been incredible, and I haven't really had a chance to be at home to watch to take in football. That probably sounds funny to people; how can you cover the NFL but you don't watch football? I do, I just get one game on Sunday. So I travel on Saturday, I pretty much consumed all day with the game I'm assigned to. And I'm doing TV, radio and writing from seven in the morning all the way through the evening and playing catch up on all the other games on my flight home or even on Tuesdays. So it's been really thrilling, really. And I've been learning a lot about the league learning even more, just by being almost like a almost like a fan right now.
Stefano: What does a regular full work week look like when you're on? You know, from Monday through Sunday?
Dianna: Yeah, so my role at ESPN is Reporter/Insider, which I feel like in 2021, you're just one you know. It's not so much a hybrid like it used to be. So, I have responsibilities during the week for television shows, like "Get Up" with Mike Greenberg, SportsCenter. And so we call those, as you remember, TV days. So I'll have TV days actually on Tuesdays and Thursdays during the season where, I start really early and I just go through the whole day, like marathon days of just basically going on every show that you see on ESPN, sharing the information I was able to gather. Whether it's injury related, or storylines that I'm following or perhaps maybe a story that I'm breaking on that day. So those are usually my days. Then Saturday morning, usually before 10 am, I'm on a flight to whichever city I've been assigned to that week to cover a game on Sunday. Very rarely can I get out on Sunday night. So I'm usually flying back on Monday and we start all over again. You know one of the things that I've explained to people about the role, because you know someone like my husband will joke and say 'Well you only work three days a week.' You may physically only see me on TV 3 days a week, but there's so much that goes into it. Because when it is your day, you need to come with as much information, and opinions even in some situations, to really a stand out and survive at ESPN, which has so many talented people. So it's constant. I'm on my phone all the time. All the time. It drives everybody in my life crazy, but it's become really the most important tool of my life. Not only are you receiving information, right from sources and from people that you talk to in the league, it's keeping up with the week. That's always the work that I think people always say people they don't get. It's the so called muscle that people don't understand that we have to constantly work out because if you don't know what's happening, you're lost and you're already behind the ball. So you better figure out a way to always stay on top of it. Which is why during maternity leave one of the best things I did, and I would suggest this to anyone really in any industry. If they have access to it, listening to podcasts while you're doing things, while you're cleaning the house. For me, I was nursing at 3 in the morning, listening to Chris Long's podcast, Albert Breer, or Mina Kimes; anyone that was breaking down the day of action, I was tuning in. I just feel that the more you know, the more information you'll be able to get, because you'll know how to ask the right questions.
Stefano: Speaking of which...How important is it to your job to really continue to maintain those relationships, even if you're not getting information at that moment, but just kind of keeping the ball rolling with certain sources and contacts that you have around the league?
Dianna: 90% of the conversations I have with sources aren't even about football anymore. They're usually about things going on, because I've formed relationships with them. We're talking about the league and sometimes we're talking about our families, friends or whatever is going on, just to keep that relationship going. So since I've been out, I've actually spent a lot of time, scheduled time actually that I kind of carve out like, 'Alright, I'm going to reach out to 10 head coaches today I'm going to hit up five players that had a bye week, this week.' Sometimes it's just 'Hey, what's up?' Sometimes it's a venting session. You know, a lot of people in this league have a lot to say, and have their own issues, and they want to get it off their chest. Sometimes you're just here, not even to report but just to hear it. I almost feel like you're on call all the time. I had a really important conversation with my boss yesterday about my return date. I had a hang up with him because a really important source called me in the middle of it. I said to my boss, 'If I don't take this, I don't know when I'll talk to him again.' Sometimes they're not accessible to you, and you're kind of at the mercy of when they call you. I have already been in a situation where I'm getting my son in the car, and a player was calling me and I didn't take it because he was in my hands and I just needed a second to get him in the car seat. By the time I got settled, about 10 minutes later, I saw on Twitter that he had a been cut from his team. So I could have had that story and I missed it. So this is gonna be a really challenging new lifestyle for me. But I love it and wouldn't have it any other way.
Officer in England assigned to combat racist abusers in soccer stadiums
In the United Kingdom, the fight against racism in football (soccer) has been elevated greatly over the past few years. The sport, after all, is the most inclusive of its kind with any game having players from a plethora of countries at any given time. Gone are some of the more vile and disrespectful chants from the supporters, and players and fans themselves are stepping up and calling this sort of behavior out.
The West Midlands Police in England has taken it a step further. They've formed the West Midlands Police Football Unit, where most deal primarily with football fan disorder. But they've appointed Police Constable Stuart Ward to deal solely with racist abuse and behavior at the stadiums and online.
PC Stuart Ward of the West Midlands Police Football Unit
In an exclusive access piece with Sky Sports News in the UK, Ward spoke of his responsibility and how his role came about.
"The football unit realized they wanted a specialist officer to deal with hate crime offenses. Whether that be racism, homophobia, gender discrimination or religious discrimination." said Ward.
"It's taking that initial report, collating evidence," he explained. "Taking statements, working with the players and clubs, identifying offenders. Then it's working with the Crown Prosecution Service and looking to take matters to court, and bring people to justice.
PC Ward on duty at a West Bromwich Albion home match
While it is something the whole force is primed to look out for, any reports of discriminatory abuse at West Midlands football matches, or towards players themselves online, will be investigated by PC Ward.
But just how does the process work? Ward explained further.
"We break it up into two phases. We start by doing a walk around through the local pubs hours before kickoff, chat to supporters to see if any of them are known to us. Phase 1 is really important, because it's about that visibility and getting out there to be a preventative tool."
Phase 2 begins once all the officers have entered the stadium. Once inside, each has their stated responsibility. Some are assigned as spotters with cameras in hand. Others monitor the in-stadium racist abuse text message line in which other fans report the acts of unruly fans.
HOME - How the loss of a great friend has altered the meaning of the word "Home"
For ten straight years, I'd worked an NBA game on opening night. I wanted to make that happen this year, even though I wouldn't be assigned a game by my company, as I had grown accustomed to. So I planned to be at Madison Square Garden last week, for the season opener between the Knicks and the Boston Celtics. My angle, was to cover New York City native, and NBA All-Star Kemba Walker's first game as a member of his hometown Knicks.
This has been a trend among NBA Stars, choosing to go back home to play their sport. Close to the people who saw them grew up, the people who said they would never make it, and the culture that shaped them.
This got me thinking a lot about that word; Home.
In 2021, after the insanity of the last 2 years, is home still a city or place? Or is it a feeling that you create with the people around you, wherever your journey takes you?
When I was going to write this piece on Walker, I would've said, "Home is still a place. The city that shaped you is the only place one can call home."
Well, a lot happened since my original plan to cover that NBA game.
A night before the game, I received the news that a great friend of mine had passed away. He was sick with Covid, and fought in the hospital for over two months. We've been following his progress throughout that time, with plenty of ups and down. His wife, Angelica, is carrying their unborn child. Heartbreaking is an understatement.
Edward Ramcharran was someone who lit up the room, someone who always enjoyed life and made everyone feel welcome, feel like family, feel like home.
This entire situation made me reevaluate that word again; Home.
I flew back to my original home of Miami, Florida to lay our friend to rest. Due to the pandemic and a host of other reasons, I had not visited my hometown in over a year.
Despite the incredible and indescribable pain and suffering, I did witness something beautiful.
Friends flew in from all corners of the country. We held ceremonies, and had a massive dinner in celebration of our fallen friend. There were many tears, many open wounds, and plenty of pain. Nothing was more gut-wrenching than hearing Angelica's eulogy, but it also set off a sense of responsibility among many of us to help and protect her and her future child as much as possible. That is what brotherhood is about.
