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Sunday, February 4, 2018

Knocked Off Their High Horse!

From USA Today -

Eagles dethrone Tom Brady, Patriots for first Super Bowl title in stunner
By Lindsay H. Jones

MINNEAPOLIS – The Philadelphia Eagles won Super Bowl LII over the New England Patriots 41-33 Sunday night at U.S. Bank Stadium. Here’s how it happened:

Key drive: After the Patriots took their first lead of the game, at 33-32 with 9:22 remaining, the Eagles could have wilted. But quarterback Nick Foles led the Eagles on a 14-play, 75 yard touchdown drive to retake the lead with 2:21 remaining on an 11-yard pass from Foles to tight end Zach Ertz. The drive included a fourth-down conversion near midfield, also on a pass from Foles to Ertz.


Key play: The Eagles defense, who struggled to pressure on Tom Brady throughout the game, finally got to Brady as the Patriots’ quarterback was trying to lead yet another game-winning drive. But defensive end Brandon Graham pushed his way into the pocket and knocked the ball from Brady’s hand, and teammate Derek Barnett recovered the fumble with 2:16 remaining. It was the first turnover of the game for the Patriots. The Eagles again held firm against Brady and the Patriots on the final drive.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nfl/super/2018/02/04/super-bowl-2018-score-philadelphia-eagles-new-england-patriots/305840002/?csp=

Redemption: Lost, Found & Lost Again

Too good to cherry pick.

From The Times-Picayune

The search for Jackie Wallace
Story and Pictures by Ted Jackson

http://www.nola.com/living/index.ssf/2018/02/jackie_wallace_ted_jackson.html#incart_most-read_#incart_m-rpt-2

Meet the Man Bringing Hip-Hop to the Deaf

Touchdown Celebrations to Come | NFL | Super Bowl LII Commercial

Weekend Update on the Nunes Memo - SNL

Amazing Art -Toothpick Sculpture - COOLEST THING I'VE EVER MADE: EP4

Remembering Tulsa's "Black Wall Street" Massacre

An excerpt from OZY -

HISTORY HANGS HEAVILY OVER TULSA’S LONE BLACK COUNCILWOMAN
By Nick Fouriezos

To engage with Vanessa Hall-Harper is to grapple with the tragic history of race relations in Tulsa. Reckoning is the only option when sitting down with the 46-year-old, who, within minutes, is digging into what was — and what could have been.

They called the city councilor’s North Tulsa district “Black Wall Street” in the early 20th century, when African-American aristocrats paraded their automobiles down roads lined with more than 200 Black-owned businesses. But on May 31, 1921, everything changed. Resentment over Black wealth erupted, with white vigilantes taking to the streets, killing at least 300 of their neighbors of color and firebombing their businesses in what would be dubbed a “race riot” by the history books — and then promptly forgotten.

Too often, the past becomes destiny. It’s a thought internalized by Hall-Harper, a history lover since she studied political science and organized sit-ins at the historically Black Jackson State University in Mississippi. “It’s a slap in the face to call it a riot,” she says. But now, the native daughter of a Tulsa structural mechanic can start righting the wrongs of the past. Elected to the city council last year after defeating 12-year incumbent Jack Henderson, she has crafted a constituency around grassroots activism, expanding access to food in her district and reviving traditions that speak to the area’s once thriving African-American community. She has elevated the concerns of those who had forgotten their power, says Chief Amusen, a Black organizer and guidance counselor in Tulsa. “Instead of her being the voice, she became the messenger for the community’s needs. Whether it’s police matters, social justice, mental health, you name it, she’s been a part of it.”

http://www.ozy.com/politics-and-power/history-hangs-heavily-over-tulsas-lone-black-councilwoman/82011


Where the Millionaires Live

Scroll down tot he map.

From VisualCapitalist -

http://www.visualcapitalist.com/global-millionaire-population/

Why do taxpayers pay billions for football stadiums?

John Mellencamp Performs 'Easy Target'

Panda wants a hug from nanny, but nanny is working

Why Italians are saying 'No' to takeaway coffee - BBC News

Budweiser 2018 Super Bowl Commercial | “Stand By You”

Friday, February 2, 2018

Paid in Full - Kaep's Million Dollar Pledge

An excerpt from CNN -

While you were arguing about the anthem, Colin Kaepernick just finished donating $1 million
By AJ Willingham, CNN

CNN)People like to talk about Colin Kaepernick. But while everyone was busy arguing over the on-field protests he spearheaded two years ago, the free agent NFL quarterback was putting his money where his mouth is.

On Wednesday, Kaepernick completed a pledge he made in September 2016: To donate $1 million to organizations working in, what he called, oppressed communities.
The donations spanned the country and touched on a wealth of social issues: Homelessness, at-risk families, education, community-police relations, prison reform, inmates' right, reproductive rights, hunger and more.

http://www.cnn.com/2018/01/31/sport/colin-kaepernick-million-dollar-donation-pledge-anthem-nfl-trnd/index.html

The Blackest Season

An excerpt from the Huffington Post -

The Blackest Season In NFL History
By Jamil Smith, Columnist

In 1933, the National Football League suddenly became monochromatic. The “gentleman’s agreement” to ban black players was reportedly set in motion, poetically enough, by the owner of the Washington franchise that still uses a racial slur as its team name. Baseball, then the national pastime, was conspicuously a white-only affair. Professional football was still a niche sport at the time, and thus could practice its discrimination more discreetly. Even the breaking of its color line in 1946 ― with two signings each by the Los Angeles Rams and Cleveland Browns ― seems all but forgotten in the context of Jackie Robinson’s debut the following year.

Things are different now, and they are not. The NFL’s 32 franchises are still owned almost universally by white people, but the percentage of black players hovers just above 70 percent. Those athletes play mostly for the pleasure of a majority-white fan base. Still, it was tough to describe the NFL before this season as unmistakably black, despite the epidermal clarity. The league’s own mechanisms for generating fan interest have aided in the distillation of the players’ humanity to injury reports and fantasy points. The race of its players only seemed to come up in maudlin pre-game feature segments about the rough neighborhoods from which their NFL fortunes delivered them. African American life, through the lens of pro sports, has largely been something to escape, and the playing field or the court is both the means of deliverance and the promised land.

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/opinion-smith-superbowl-kaepernick_us_5a711e2de4b0a6aa4874562c

Racial Profiling is Real

An excerpt from the AP -

Only on AP: For NFL players, racial profiling often personal
By ERRIN HAINES WHACK and FRED GOODALL

A son who saw a police officer hold a gun to his father’s head. A husband whose wife was pulled over driving a Bentley.

These unsettling scenes are among the stories from some of the NFL’s marquee players, multimillionaires sharing tales of racial profiling by law enforcement. It is a troubling concern for people of color that has been at the center of the protests begun in August 2016 by former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick.

The protests have waned, but the ongoing issue for players — and the black communities they come from — has not.

The Associated Press surveyed 56 of the 59 black players at last weekend’s Pro Bowl game as part of its look at how African-American athletes have long used their sports platforms to effect social and political change. The AP asked the players whether they or someone they knew have ever experienced racial profiling.

All said yes.

https://apnews.com/986f72af56b44b9f9ec9efc824a33cbb