It was a busy week spending a few days in Washington, D.C. with members of the Sports Philanthropy Network and attending the Aspen Institute’s Future of Sports event.

Aspen Institute—The Aspen Institute held another forum in their series entitled “The Future of Sports.”  You can read my full write titled “NCAA Under Attack” which goes into a lot more detail.  Bottom line, changes are coming.  The only remaining question is how quickly the process will move and what the final result will be.  As you will see in my earlier article, the choice is either a level playing field or a completely open market. Stopping some place in the middle will not work well and attempts to do so will only create more problems by virtue of the additional regulations that would be required.

Washington, DC Holiday Party—We had such overwhelming interest for the Sports Philanthropy Network’s DC holiday party, that the Washington, DC, market is likely to be one of the initial Chapters the Sports Philanthropy Network will launch in 2020.  Despite many conflicts, even the people who were not able to attend last week reached out and specifically asked how to get involved with the network and were especially interested in our Membership Levels.

Chicago Holiday Party—We hosted this event in the Top Golf Swing Suites in 900 N. Michigan (Bloomingdales).  It is a terrific venue and a fun place to eat, drink and network.  I love getting the opportunity to meet people who are just learning about the Sports Philanthropy Network and telling us how they would like to get involved and joining as members of our network.

Meeting Great People and Organizations—One of the best parts of launching the Sports Philanthropy Network 11 months ago, has been the opportunity to meet and engage with so many people who are finding innovative ways to use sports to create stronger, healthier and more inclusive communities.  The caliber of people and their efforts is truly amazing.  I feel fortunate to be a part of this process, learn as much as I can about their work and hopefully be a part of the solution.  As there people join the Sports Philanthropy Network through our Membership Program, we learn more about their needs and their abilities. Thank you to everyone who has taken the time to speak to me, meet with me, record a podcast, speak at the Sports Philanthropy World Conference and participate in any of our other events.  We accomplished so much in 2019.  We have set our sights even higher for 2020.  Thank you for your support and encouragement.

Chanukah Party—Earlier today Kayla and I hosted a Chanukah Open House and it was fantastic to celebrate with Julia, Brett and many friends.  I am appreciative to have these people in my life and enjoy having the time and ability to host people to share these special occasions.

Holiday Time—As we head into the final 10 days of the year, I am thankful for the great people in my life. I am very fortunate to have two living parents who have been incredibly supportive to me during difficult times.  My sister, Sharon, is an amazing bundle of energy who has taught me many things despite her disabilities.  Julia had a great first semester at college in Madison and Brett is doing well in his Junior year at Stevenson HS.  Kayla has been an incredible addition to my world these last 17 months and I cannot imagine life without her.  While life gets hectic and we rush around a lot.  I feel fortunate to have a great network of friends, a warm home, plenty of food and clothes.  Perhaps most importantly, I have my health, something which I do not take for granted as I see so many other struggling.  I also recognize that many people are alone during this holiday period.  I encourage you to reach out and include them.  Having company is much more important than the food, drink or venue. They will appreciate your kindness!

If you didn’t have a chance to see some of the other things I have been involved with or written recently, take a look here:

• Sports Philanthropy Newsstand, December 20, 2019
• NCAA Under Full Attack at Aspen Institute’s “Future of Sports”
• Sports Philanthropy Newsstand, December 13, 2019
• PODCAST: Fred Mitchell, Chicago Blackhawks
• Sports Philanthropy Newsstand, December 6, 2019
• Roy’s Ramble, December 1, 2019
• PODCAST: Tony Giarla, AVP First
• Why an 8 Team Playoff Will Save College Football
• FIRE SABAN!! Be Careful What You Wish For ‘Bama Fans
• Why Second Guessing Playcalling is Like Second Guessing Rock, Paper, Scissors
• 25 Life Lessons that I learned from Sharon

HUMOR FOR THE WEEK

MOTIVATION FOR THE WEEK

Wishing all of my loyal readers a Happy Chanukah, Merry Christmas and positive vibes for 2020.

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SUPPORT BLESSINGS IN A BACKPACK, A NATIONAL NON-PROFIT ORGANIZATION THAT FEEDS SCHOOL CHILDREN IN THE UNITED STATES.

TOP STORIES THAT I WAS WATCHING THIS WEEK

NCAA statement on compensation for Name, Image and Likeness–The NCAA came out this week and said that they were going to start to examine how to allow athletes to receive compensation for their Name, Image and Likeness.  However, if you read the NCAA’s actual statement about the situation, you will see that it is truly full of gaping holes.  Take a read here as I outline some of the problems with the way that NCAA is going about this process.

LEVEL FIELD OR FREE MARKET—After you read the article above, take a read through this analysis about the only two options that are really left for college sports: 1) A level playing field; or 2) A free market system.  Are you ready for these changes? Well, it doesn’t matter because you will have to choose a side! You will see the arguments for each side and then we would love to see you vote which side you would take.

ARENA FOOTBALL—The news that the Arena Football League was going out of business indicates the second professional football league to fold this year, after the AAFL.  The trouble is that the minor league sports are a very difficult business model and if they cannot get secure financial backing as well as solid TV contracts, they are going struggle.  The XFL is picking up momentum as it heads towards its kickoff and it is getting more coverage in the mainstream media and talk radio circuits.

IHSA REFUSAL TO ALLOW CPS SCHOOLS TO PARTICIPATE IN STATE PLAYOFFS—The lengthy Chicago Public Schools teachers strike had many unintended consequences, not the least of which was the fact that the Illinois High School Association decided that it would not allow the CPS schools to compete in state playoffs for the fall sports.  I am still really not clear what the rationale was for that position, but it seems to me that the kids who have worked so hard in their sports all season long should not be forced to miss the playoffs.  I am not weighing in on the right decision regarding the now settled strike, but punishing the kids seems to be in nobody’s best interest.  Kudos the judge that finally allowed the students to compete.

WORLD SERIES—Truly an amazing series. It is unbelievable that the road team won all 7 games.   The Nationals managed to pull it out and won an amazing number of games with clutch hits.  Brewers fans are probably still lamenting the one game playoff they lost when they appeared to have the game in hand and the Nationals rallied with clutch hits.  To me, one of the most disturbing calls was the interference at first base, but thankfully it was made little difference in the game so it can just be relegated to a footnote.

AXIOS—They hosted an event on Wednesday related to criminal justice reform.  A star-studded lineup came through including governor JB Pritzker.  A lot of interesting issues were addressed and you can read more of the details here.  The criminal justice reform issues continue to lag and the slow pace of change is detrimentally impacting a lot of families.

Chicago Sports Commission—Billed at “Telling Chicago’s Story”, the panel included longtime Chicago media members Dave Revsine (Big Ten Network), Peggy Kusinski, Dave Eanet (Northwestern Sports) and Lou Canellis. The panel was moderated Tarah Cooper Wright who is currently in the role of CEO and Partner of the Rise Strategy Group.  She put some very interesting questions and each panelist got the opportunity to tell some of their favorite stories.

AXELSON—The Axelson Center for Non-Profit Management put together a nice event on Tuesday.  They host periodic events around the Chicago area aimed at improving the work of non-profit organizations.  Take a full read here for more details about Tuesday’s event.

JEFFREY EPSTEIN–The story coming out this week about Jeffrey Epstein’s death potentially not being suicide could be the least surprising story of the year.  With all of the information that he had about a lot of powerful people, someone getting to him was a virtual guarantee. The complaints of the Federal Bureau of Prisons aside, you have to wonder how much help someone had to get to him.

ENTREPRENEURS—One of the things I really enjoy is sitting down with entrepreneurs and non-profits and seeing how I can help them improve their operations or take a new product/service to market. I had a chance to sit down with some very interesting organizations and companies this past week and look forward to sharing more details with you over the coming month.

UPCOMING EVENTS

• AMERICAN ISRAEL CHAMBER OF COMMERCE—LEADERSHIP AWARD DINNER, MONDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 2019.   Here is a link to the full information. I hope you can join us.  If you are interested in coming as my guest, please send me an email ASAP so that we can get you on the list.  This great organization builds relationships between businesses in Israel and the United States.
• PROJECT PLAY, WESTERN NEW YORK—I have been honored to be invited to present to a group of non-profits that are funding by Project Play of Western New York on November 16, 2019.  These organizations do a lot of interesting work in their respective communities and I am excited to share with them a variety of ways to help them build capacity and sustainability in their operations.

HUMOR FOR THE WEEK

MOTIVATION FOR THE WEEK

JT Foxx held his MegaSpeaker series in Chicago this week. 

JT Foxx bills himself as the World’s #1 Wealth Coach. 

I first went to one of his events about 15 months ago.  At the outset he can come across as arrogant and condescending.  After you have a chance to listen to him for several hours and hear the way he engages with participants and hear from those that have attended multiple events, you realize how much depth there is to his systems. 

He has built a terrific team led by Francie Baldwin and by Brent Turley.  Brent always opens for him, much in the way that Joseph McClendon frequently opens for Tony Robbins.  He bills his presentations as a way to help people get speaking opportunities, but the reality is that the events are so much more.  He helps them focus on getting a mentor, branding and being decisive in their decision making as a way to get better results in their business. 

If you have a chance to attend one of his events, you can feel the energy and passion he has.  Despite his critics, he is an extremely hard worker and travels around the world speaking and putting on events.  Typically over 320 days per year!! His upcoming MegaSpeaker event has 2000-3000 people in Anaheim and attracts high level entrepreneurs from across the globe.  If you can handle a bit of the schtick, you might get a lot of benefit out of it.

Here are just a few of the highlights. If you want more details, please let me know and I am happy to share more information with you.

• Make Quick Decisions. One of JT’s ongoing themes, is the importance of making quick decisions.  Brent Turley focused on the speed of the decision and making sure you satisfy one the 3 reasons people buy: 1) to make their life easier; 2) make life more convenient; or 3) a need.  When you are trying to make a decision, you should write down:
  • Best case scenario
  • Worst case scenario
  • Most realistic scenario (usually somewhere in between)
  • Then most importantly, make a decision within 5 seconds, otherwise you over-rationalize the decision.
• Keep your word. To me, one of the most interest facts in the entire presentation, was the fact that 1531 people signed up for the free one day event.  Of those, only 112 people showed up.  This speaks to a few facts: 1) not charging makes it very difficult to determine how any people will come;  2) people really do not live up to their commitments.
• 5 Steps to Success
  • Step 1—Maximize Your Strengths
  • Step 2—Turn Your Weaknesses into Strengths
  • Step 3—Mental Toughness which is the ability to tune out liefes bs and go out there and do your thing
  • Step 4—Learn from your failures, be bothered by them and most important never repeat them
  • Step 5—Replace Yourself and Stop Working in Your Business but Work On. Build an organization
    • Recognize if it is just you, you can never effectively increase your prices.
• The importance of note-taking.  He has never seen a successful person that does not take notes. Very few people can remember everything. He also finds it disrespectful if you are not listening to what is going on.  The other occurrence  is that people who don’t take notes often say they didn’t learn anything
• Big 5 traits.
  • Persistance
  • Work Ethic
  • Commitment
  • Loyalty
  • Attitude
• Making Everybody Happy.
  • 25% of the people like you
  • 25% are looking for a way not to like you
  • 25% don’t like you but are looking for a way to like you
  • 25% will never like you no matter what
• Objections
  • Bring them up early. If you know people will find some objection to you or your service, bring it up early and overcome it.  This takes the air out of the objection and allows you to position yourself as having been up front.
• SELLING THE VISION
  • Pitch the WHY
  • Sell the WHAT
  • Close the HOW
  • Use the “imagine” close

• Packers-Lions Controversy—This really is not a Packers/Lions issue.  It is an issue that is occurring on a weekly basis in the NFL.  There is a lot of difficulty officiating games properly when every single play is examined with a microscope and the benefit of slow motion replay, high definition television and thousands of “experts” weighing in on Twitter.  The NFL probably made things worse instead of better in the wake of the blatant miss in last year’s NFC Championship Game between the Saints and the Rams.  Trying to re-adjudicate judgment calls to the microsecond are going to bring us to the same point that we have been at with the catch rule, where for a few years even a minute movement of the ball would cause a pass to be ruled incomplete.  If you focused the cameras on any play and zoomed in on the offense and defense lines, you would likely see holding or a hand in a facemask on every play.  It is hard to see where the NFL is going to be able to clean this up. But at minimum, there were some very funny memes to come out of the game.

• Chicago Ideas Week.      One of my favorite weeks of the year is Chicago Ideas Week.   A week-long program focused on larger societal issues and a series of presentations that are like mini Ted Talks, CIW annually turns out some provocative sessions.  The ones that I was able to attend this week included:
  • What Will The World Look Like in 2050
  • Does Activism Make a Difference
  • It’s time to kick Your Addiction to Algorithms
  • Do We Have All the Answers
  • Who Draws the Line Between Right and Wrong?
  • Entrepreneurs can Change the World
  • Who Do Your Kids Trust More:  You or YouTube?
  • Leaders Aren’t Born, They’re Made

• JT Foxx                 His MegaSpeaker series was held in Chicago this week.  JT Foxx bills himself as the World’s #1 Wealth Coach.  I first went to one of his events about 15 months ago.  At the outset he can come across as arrogant and condescending.  After you have a chance to listen to him for several hours and hear the way he engages with participants and hear from those that have attended multiple events, you realize how much depth there is to his systems.  He has built a terrific team led by Francie Baldwin and by Brent Turley.  Brent always opens for him, much in the way that Joseph McClendon frequently opens for Tony Robbins.  He bills his presentations as a way to help people get speaking opportunities, but the reality is that the events are so much more.  He helps them focus on getting a mentor, branding and being decisive in their decision making as a way to get better results in their business.  If you have a chance to attend one of his events, you can feel the energy and passion he has.  Despite his critics, he is an extremely hard worker and travels around the world speaking and putting on events.  Typically over 320 days per year!! His upcoming MegaSpeaker event has 2000-3000 people in Anaheim and attracts high level entrepreneurs from across the globe.  If you can handle a bit of the schtick, you might get a lot of benefit out of it.

• Airwick VIP Pre-Poop Toilet Spray.   So I usually don’t question the powers that be and their marketing strategies, but after having to endure this ad for the last month on the sports talk radio morning shows, I can no longer remain silent.  Let’s put aside for a moment that it plays about 4-6 times per hour (and sometimes more) during the 6 a.m. to 10 a.m. timeslot.  Let’s also put aside the fact that it seems to be targeted at women (or maybe I am misunderstanding that.  But what troubles me the most with this commercial, it that it seems to be giving women, young ladies, and girls the feeling that they need to “hide” their bodily functions from their boyfriend or spouse.  The mom on the commercial literally tells her daughter that her father did not think she pooped for three years.  Really?  I doubt he is that dumb.  But the commercial might be.  The only redeeming performance in the commercial is the (presumably) teenage daughter giving her mom the typical teenage attitude when spoken to about her “body changing”, “needing protection” and the mom’s other inane comments.

HUMOR FOR THE WEEK

MOTIVATION FOR THE WEEK

As every week goes by, there are a variety of new issues that hit the sports landscape.  Some merit detailed examination and others get only short-term focus from the mainstream media.   What I find interesting is how some of the most significant issues get only quick sound-bytes and almost no properly follow up.  Here are a few of the items that I found interesting from this week.

• Baker Mayfield—his alleged refusal to shake hands with Richard Sherman became a headline item for 2 days until people pulled up the actual footage and showed Sherman that Baker had in fact greeted him before the toss, though Baker is clearly seen running off immediately after the toss.  To his credit, Sherman acknowledged that the reality was his degree of “hurt” was overblown, but it shows us once again the danger of making immediate reactions and judgments when a player (or eye-witness or victim) provide their initial impressions.  No matter how certain or how loud they are, there is likely to be some discrepancy between the video footage and the “reality” that was initially blasted across the screens.  In the sports world it is easy for us to laugh and brush it off.  In the world of the criminal justice system, those initial soundbytes can dramatically alter a person’s life and devastate their future.

• Increased Risk of CTE—Yet another study was released by Boston University that found an increased risk of CTE for those who have played years of football and found that there was a strong correlation between the number of years played and the the degree of risk..  It is clear that we still are not taking the risks of repetitive hits seriously enough and that there is sufficient data to confirm the importance of reducing the number of head impacts our children receive in ANY sport.  Soccer is eliminating headers at early ages, hockey is eliminating checking at young ages and football is attempting to convert the game to flag football at the youngest levels.  All of these efforts deserve applause, and yet we have to question why so much of the process is still being mis-managed at even the highest levels.  The study of 266 deceased athletes found a 30% increased risk for each year played, meaning that the risk of CTE more than doubled for every 3 years of football. Scary stuff.

• Improper use of subjects in concussion studies and ADHD diagnoses—Once again we see some suspect actions out of the University of North Carolina.  The Athletic found that there was a mysterious absence of critical data in UNCs renowned concussion research. (If you don’t have a subscription to Athletic, here are a couple other links to articles summarizing the coverage: 1) BusinessNC: Years of UNC Concussion Research Led by Guskiewicz May Be Unreliable; 2) The Key Play: OT: Investigation into UNC Concussion Research. Having been through the academic cheating scandals and more, the latest hit comes out as it appears that the athletic department has been diagnosing players with ADHD when they enter college at rates far above what would be expected for kids that had never received that diagnosis.  To make matters worse, the UNC students were then also included in some of the concussion research studies performed at UNC without properly disclosing the ADHD diagnosis.  The troubling aspect arises as people reviewing that study and relying on it for future purposes are potentially basing their new research studies on defective data. 

• High School Baseball—at a business event I happened to meet a mother who relayed the story to me from a local high school baseball team.  Her son loved baseball and played for many years and was the sole kid cut from this particular high school.  Despite having notified the school in advance that this child was coming over from a special program and despite having spoken to some of the coaches in advance to discuss potential accomodations, this particular coach took a hard line attitude.  I cannot imagine the justification for cutting one single kid from any sport (if you are only cutting one kid, then you could clearly keep them and allow them to practice and be part of the team).  But when you combine this issue with the special needs issue, this coach is likely in violation of an IEP, the ADA and many other regulations.  A stubborn attitude and refusal to have a proper conversation about it hardly seems like the type of role model that we want for our children.  Hopefully I will be able to intervene and will have some more positive information to report in the coming weeks.

• Dreadlocks—The letter to Penn State Football player Jonathan Sutherland was truly outrageous.  Calling him out for dreadlocks, tattoos and more, the letter reprimanded him for not holding up the Penn State image.  Leaving aside the simple idiocy of the comments in today’s society, the fact that the letter was so tone deaf to the racial issues in this country is astounding.  I commend Penn State for its prompt reaction to the letter and the fact that it quickly distanced itself from the lunacy.

HUMOR FOR THE WEEK

MOTIVATION FOR THE WEEK

• California Name Image and Likeness Law.            While almost all of us agree that college athletes are exploited in many respects. However, you have to question whether the “solution” is the proposed Name, Image and Likeness law that was passed in California and is now being proposed in many other states.  You can see a more detailed look that I wrote in this article which takes a peek at some of the difficulties which would be involved with enforcing this law. Well intentioned–absolutely. But it is a going to be an enormous change in college sports, and not in the way that people are expecting!

• Targeting, Helmet-to-helmet and Vontez Burfict.              Targeting is bad.  Taking cheap shots at players heads is bad.  Failing to control your aggression and causing potentially life-changing injuries is something both the NCAA and NFL need to prevent.  But the trouble comes about when they penalize a result or a repeat offender way beyond the actual offense.   You will be hard pressed to find someone to defend Vontez Burfict’s typical behavior and on-field aggression.  He has served multiple suspensions and most of them are well deserved. Suspending him for the remainder of the year for a hit that occurred within the scope of the play seems excessive even given the escaxlating punishments. But his reputation has a major impact here.  Here is a link to Burfict’s hit.   For comparison, take a look at this hit on Green Bay Packer Running Back Jamaal Williams by Eagles’ Derek Barnett.  The hit on Williams was FAR later in the play and completely unnecessary to bring Williams down.  It is hard to understand how the NFL can look at that play and not believe he should have been tossed from the game and suspended. To my eyes, the hit on Williams was much more of the hit you are trying to eliminate, especially since it is not really in the scope of the play.

• Inadvertent Side-effect of NCAA Redshirting Rule.           People rarely feel that the NCAA has an athlete’s best interests in mind. Yet, when the 4 game participation rule was passed last year for football, it seemed like a good way to balance the interests of the players and the universities by allowing athletes to get a bit of experience without losing an entire year of eligibility.  Unfortunately, from what you are seeing this year, the inadvertent side effects appear to be reaching epidemic proportions.  In the past few weeks, we have had players at Houston and players at Rutgers decide to sit out starting in the middle of the season.  Players are deciding after a “poor” start to the season, a mid-season coaching change or a potential coaching change, that they should “stop” playing until the following year so as not to “waste” a year of eligibility.  This leaves the team and interim coaches in a really difficult situation where players they were relying on now have the ability to decide not to be part of the team.  I am sure that this problem will only grow and ultimately coaches and universities will have to figure out a reasonable (and legal) way to prevent this from happening in the future.  UPDATE OCTOBER 8, 2019: NOW EVEN SPORTS ILLUSTRATED IS COVERING THIS SAME ISSUE!!

HUMOR FOR THE WEEK

MOTIVATION FOR THE WEEK

• The Aspen Institute Project Play Summit in Detroit.  Supported by the Ralph Wilson, Jr. Foundation, the Summit brought together community organizations from around the country to look at some of the major issues in youth sports.  Some of the most interesting points are listed below.   I have noted a few points here but there is so much more substance that goes into these issues and I will be writing more coverage over the next few weeks.

• Tim Shriver from Special Olympics had one of the best analogies of the conference.  He talked about the fact that sports is virtually the only subject where we discourage participation at a very early age if someone does not show immediate proficiency.  Many athletes are “retiring” or quitting at increasingly earlier ages because they are not selected for elite travel sports teams or because they feel they will not be successful at higher levels of that sport.   Shriver emphasized that we do not stop teaching kids math or English after 2^nd grade, just because they do not demonstrate proficiency at an early age. We continue to educate them and improve their skills.  Yet a lot of kids do not keep playing sports after 10 or 12 years old.  The problem arises in that they do not continue to develop a love for the sport which prevents them from getting the needed amount of activity, decreases the likelihood they will become passionate fans about sports and increases the likelihood that they will fail to develop all of the positive things which come out of participation sports such as a healthier lifestyle, decreased obesity and abilities to collaborate, lead and problem solve.

• Age of boys retiring, age of girls retiring.  These early retirement ages impact all of the issues listed above and have an enormous downstream cost through education, health care, obesity and criminal justice issues.  The challenges continue to overlap because as we see from this whole process, the lack of participation in sports has a detrimental impact on so many other parts of their lives.  The increased opportunities for leadership, improved self-image, healthier eating habits, life-long increases in activity levels and much more demonstrate how crucial it is that we keep kids engaged and active.  Some communities struggle not only to “keep” them involved in sports, but to get them involved in the first place.  It is challenging to see an easy path to increase these levels of engagement without substantial investment in the organizations that have their roots in the community and receive support from the community.

• The recommended level of activity for kids is no less than 60 minutes per day.  You have probably seen the NFL “Play 60” Commercials.   Unfortunately, in the USA, despite all of our resources, 75% of kids do not get that recommended level of activity.  As schools eliminate recess, gym classes and many intramural sports, many metro areas see that level of inactivity rises to over 85%.  What is hidden in these numbers, is the fact that the downstream costs to the community are enormous.  Estimates from the Buffalo and Detroit markets are that reducing the inactivity level “only” to the 75% level would save over $1 Billion.  Yes, billion with a capital “B”.  So if you break that number down it is approximately $100 Million per percentage point.  So the investment in activity and youth sports is clearly something that has benefits beyond those that most people observe solely in the competitive sports sphere.

HUMOR FOR THE WEEK

MOTIVATION FOR THE WEEK