What can you get from someone’s voice?

This is an actual screenshot from my voice mailbox. What it doesn't show is
my inbox is full.

My sister detests voice mail. She is honest about her disdain, so much so that her inbox warns you that if you are not one of her parents don’t bother leaving a message because she will not check it. My stance is not nearly as defiant as hers. As much as I abhor voice messages, I do occasionally check them — if for no other reason than to rid myself of the notification at the top corner of the screen.

That will take a few minutes, a few hours or a few days depending upon who left the voice mail.

I didn’t realize my inbox was full until my editor sent an email Thursday afternoon inquiring about something trivial. He called my phone, but since we were eating Thanksgiving dinner I didn’t answer. The last sentence of the six he sent read “Also, your voice mailbox is full.”

Initially, I didn’t think it was possible that all 20 nodes on my cell phone were occupied. I knew I have saved a series of stupid, somber and/or sophomoric messages over the years, but I didn’t realize it didn’t allow for anyone else to follow suit.

Voice messages are among the things I hold onto for far too long. Since they didn’t erode too much, they have carried over from one phone to another.

There is the one from 2010 where my dad asks me to give him a call once I “hit the States.” Another from my friend Brian, who devoted more than two minutes of his life encouraging me to write about his devotion to sports. Two more were from people who were really, really touched by my work. Then there is the triumvirate of wisdom from a former editor of my college newspaper and very dear friend.

A Google search reveals I’m not alone. If anything, my sister may have been onto something with her abstention from answering her voice messages.

No matter how many tweets, texts or chats we have with those closest to us, few things usurp the intimacy of hearing someone’s voice. The inflection, tone, and syntax are all great conveyors of information.

It’s within those fine margins where I do my best work, where I have my deepest conversations and how I understand others. So no matter how much I hate checking my voice message, I will, because it’s still a great place to filter out the white noise of life.

 Laughs and liveliness,

-Wb

What happens when an outfielder and a heckler meet in right field?

The Jacksonville Suns opened the 2014 Southern League season with
a 3-1 victory over Huntsville. (Photo by Will Brown)

By Will Brown

Few things elicit more optimism than Opening Day. A player’s slate is wiped clean, a fan’s hope has yet to be extinguished and the jokesters among us have spent all winter waiting to unleash their best.

That was all on display Thursday night when the Jacksonville Suns opened the 2014 season against Huntsville.

The Suns went on to win the game 3-1 after starting pitcher, and top Miami Marlins prospect, Anthony DeSclafani allowed one run on two hits in six innings.

As fascinating as the action may have been on the field, one person’s one-sided conversations with Huntsville outfielder Mitchell Haniger may have been just as captivating.

Mitch Haniger
(Courtesy Huntsville Stars)

Haniger is the No. 3 prospect in the Milwaukee Brewers organization. He’s a 23-year-old right-handed outfielder from California who spent Thursday night adjusting to life in AA baseball. 

More than 7,500 people came to Bragan Field Thursday night, which is probably bigger than anything Haniger saw while playing for the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers and Brevard County Manatees in A ball the last two years.

Nonetheless, this fanatic, in particular, was in midseason form. He was a stationed in the first row of the bleachers in right field, bearded, appeared to be in his 20s and wore a gray and black Suns hat like so many others — myself included — on Opening Night.

The fan made it his mission to heckle Haniger every time he took his station in right field. From the warm up tosses before the second inning to his anticipation for a delivered pitch, the fan rode Haniger as though the season depended on it.  

The Huntsville outfielder made the first of his two putouts in the second inning. Two innings later the Californian showed why some scouts say he has the best outfield arm in his organization.

DeSclafani hit a liner to right field for what he thought was his fourth career single in 22 career minor league at-bats in the home fourth. Haniger fielded the ball, took a crow hop and fired a dart to first base to beat DeSclafani, earn oooohs from the crowd and quiet his heckler…momentarily.

When Haniger fired, a group of us wondered what one local sportscaster would say when he heard a player was thrown out at first base on a ball hit well into the outfield. While we kibitzed, the in-form fan was keeping his verbal volleying in reserve for the later innings.

Jacksonville took a 2-1 lead into the bottom of the eighth inning. Our fan, recovered from the sting of watching Haniger show off his howitzer, to razz him unmercifully. There was whistling, noisemaking and trash talk. The grief-giving rose in volume when the Suns pushed across an insurance run.

When the Suns grounded out to short to end the home eighth, Haniger sprinted toward the dugout faster than any other frame all night. We joked it was because he wanted nothing more with our heckler. In truth, it was because he led off the ninth inning.

Haniger flew out to center to finish 0-for-3 on the night. The heckler, feeling he did his job, kept quiet for the final two batters and the Suns won their home opener for the third straight year.

Afterward, Haniger and his teammates trudged back to the visitor’s dugout, undoubtedly understanding that while hope may spring eternal, it’s not as everlasting as the jabs from the cheap seats.

Laughs and liveliness,
-Wb

At what price do we watch football?

The Dallas Cowboys have hosted a football game on Thanksgiving Day every year since 1966.
This is a photo fromthe Cowboys' 20-19 victory over Miami in 2011. (Photo By Will Brown)

By Will Brown

A lot of people watch football and eat on Thanksgiving. What made this particular Thanksgiving surreal was that the football game was witnessed in person and the meal was with one of the gladiators who put their body on the line that afternoon.

On the drive back from the game someone in the car asked a hypothetical question about how large the gladiator’s next contract should be.

The four mortals in the car had varying answers. Since, I was the person who worked in sports my response, which was nothing more than platitudes and probabilities, was believed to carry the most weight.

Then the gladiator mentioned his price. We all agreed to keep that figure in the car.

Four months later, I was sitting at my desk writing and researching when a colleague swung around to tell me how much money was being thrown at the gladiator. The contract on the table far surpassed the years and dollars discussed on our post game drive.

Thirteen months later the athlete in question was out of football. Repeated injuries made him replaceable.

The game extracted its pound of flesh and he decided the punishment was not worth a lifetime of limitations.

This spring dozens of football players will have seven or eight figures thrown at them to play a child’s game. A writer for Grantland.com estimated more than $1 billion has been doled out by NFL teams since the free agency period opened on March 11.

Most of us will look at the monopoly money being thrown at mostly twentysomthings and wonder why on earth anyone would complain about that lifestyle.

Here’s why. Less than 40 percent of the money thrown around this week in NFL contracts is “guaranteed. “Our gladiator said it’s rare that a player fulfills his entire contract in the NFL. Even the so-called “guaranteed” money is far from that as there is language in most contracts that prevents it from being guaranteed.

Think about this.

NFL franchises are worth more than other North American sports franchises. Its annual television revenue ($3 billion) is greater than the combined television revenue of the NBA, Major League Baseball and National Hockey League.

Football players make less on average than their professional counterparts, have the lowest minimum salary and it’s the only sport where the contracts are not completely guaranteed.

By the way, professional football is the most violent sport of the bunch. The NFL’s own website stated there were 57 anterior cruciate ligament injuries, 133 medial collateral ligament injuries and 228 diagnosed concussions during the 2013 season.

If you think this month’s spending spree in the NFL does not have a thing to do with you, think again.

If you have ESPN $13.68 of your cable bill goes directly to the National Football League every year. If you live in a city with one of the 32 franchises chances are your local tax dollars have funded stadium improvements, whether you like it or not. If you have other interests, they are frequently dismissed in water cooler conversations because football is omnipotent in American culture.

Those who own the 32 teams continue to mint money. Meanwhile, published reports found that those, who give their bodies, brains and sometimes more, find themselves paupers within years of graduating from a child’s game to men with less glamorous lives.

Football’s zeitgeist will focus on those who cashed in. But the fleeting dollars of free agency always require an older, broken-down body to be sacrificed so a younger, healthier replacement can call the Brink’s truck and a Realtor.

Our gladiator did not suffer that fate. He was too smart for that. He was wise enough to understand football was a means to an end, not endless means.

He traded the debasement, decadence and destruction of the game for doting on his daughter. The armor he once wore and the prizes he once won are tucked away. He is someone who used football’s relentless arms race to transition from a gladiator to just another guy.

Laughs and liveliness,

-Wb

Is North Carolina Central the best basketball team in MEAC history?

By Will Brown

North Carolina Central won the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference for the first time in school history Saturday evening in Norfolk, Va.

The school’s 71-62 win over Morgan State was its 20th straight and the most wins of any team in the MEAC. Considering the streak, and the way the Eagles breezed through the conference this year, it’s worth asking whether this team is the best in the 43-year history of the MEAC.

North Carolina Central (28-5) went 15-1 in conference play. This was the 19th season that a team has lost one or fewer games in MEAC play — including the 2013 Eagles. Of those 19 teams, only 10 won the conference’s regular season and tournament title. (Only two of those occurrences have happened in the last 20 years.)

Florida, Wichita State, Harvard and Stephen F. Austin of the Southland Conference are the only schools that went through conference regular season and tournament play with one or fewer losses.

Saturday, the Eagles were tied with Morgan State at halftime, but used its patented defense to asphyxiate the Bears tournament hopes.

Morgan State made three field goals over a seven minute stretch in the second half and the Eagles took advantage of that spell to take a lead they would never relinquish. Morgan State made just 37.9 percent of its shots. Outside of the 26 points 7-foot-2-inch center Ian Chiles provided, the Bears shot 31.1 percent (14-for-45) from the field.

Central’s defense may what separates it from some of the other elite teams — the ’93 and ’94 Coppin State teams, the 2001 Hampton team that won a tournament game, the 2002 Hampton team that was even better and the 1988 North Carolina A&T team — that ran through regular season and tournament without worry.

The Eagles have the No. 8 scoring defense… in America (58.8 points) and the No. 2 field goal percentage defense (37.2 percent). Virginia, Arizona and San Diego State are the only other teams in the country that are in the Top 10 in both categories—and all three teams have been ranked in the Top 10 in the major polls.

The last great MEAC school that was among the national leaders in one of the major categories was the 1974 Maryland Eastern-Shore Hawks.

That Hawks team, which finished 27-2, led the nation in scoring at 97.6 points per game and ranked No. 20 in the Associated Poll at one point.

Maryland Eastern Shore was the first Historically Black College to accept a bid to the National Invitational Tournament, where they won a game and lost to Jacksonville in the quarterfinals.

The Hawks put three players, Talvin Skinner, Rubin Collins and Joe Pace on the All-MEAC team. Collins was the No. 18 selection in the 1974 NBA draft and Skinner was a third round draft pick of the Seattle Supersonics. (By comparison, only one Central player, Jeremy Ingram, made the First Team All-MEAC team this year.)

Ingram and the Eagles will not be playing in the NIT this year.

No, Central is on its way to San Antonio to play in the Division I tournament for the first time. Their opponent will bring a style that is the antithesis of the Eagles elixir for success. Iowa State led the deepest conference in America in scoring and assists en route to winning the Big XII conference tournament. The Cyclones (26-7) have the second best assist to turnover ratio in the country (1.76) and have been held to fewer than 70 points just once this season.

LeVelle Moton’s team will be heavy underdogs, partially because MEAC schools have won just five games in a combined 32 appearances. Then again, one of those wins was against — Iowa State.

If North Carolina Central can beat the Cyclones, it would be their 29th of the season, which would set a school record. A win would definitively make this the best season of any in MEAC basketball history.

An underreported “charm offensive”

By Will Brown

By now we are all aware of the political tension and protests that have taken place in Kiev and all across the Ukraine. Yet, with all the division in the Ukraine, and specifically the Crimea region, soccer is something that has united that country.

Sunday, while one Illinois senator was dubbing the recently completed Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia a “charm offensive” by Russian President Vladimir Putin on CNN, fans of Shakhtar Donetsk and Dynamo Kiev were playing a friendly soccer match over the weekend because the league game between the two teams was postponed. 

Ultras from Shakhtar Donetsk and Dynamo Kiev, the two most
successful club teams in Ukraine, met for a friendly over the
weekend after political unrest postponed the league
match between the two teams.
(Photo taken from Dynamo Kiev website.)

Keep in mind Shakhtar and Dynamo are rivals, the two most successful teams clubs in the country and separated by a nine-hour drive. The match was played in Kiev. Fans of both teams, as well as players made appearances. The final was 1-1.

American media jumped on Sen. Dick Durbin’s “charm offensive” comments about the Sochi games, but largely ignored the impact sports had on bringing Ukrainians together.

Whether Putin used a global sporting event to facilitate good press about his country is for others to debate and decide — even if he did he would not be the first to do so as the 1936 Summer Olympics, 1978 World Cup and 2008 Beijing Olympics attempted the same.

What has been debated and decided upon is that sports can be unifying, uplifting and even charming. Ukraine has proven that over the past four days, the most recent example was Wednesday’s match between its national team and the United States.

Ukraine was ranked No. 18 in the latest FIFA world rankings, which makes them the best team to not play in this summer’s World Cup. ESPN reported that all 11 of the Ukrainian starters are fluent in Russian and six of them played club soccer for the archrivals Shakhtar and Dynamo.

Despite all of that, when the Ukrainian national anthem was played, all 11 locked arms and sung the national anthem. Captain Anatoliy Tymoschuk and longtime goalkeeper Andriy Pyatov were singing loud enough during the anthem that the audio on the broadcast was clearly able hear their voices.

A cynic would say that half the United States starters did not make the trip to Cyprus because they were preparing for the upcoming Major League Soccer season, which would be true. But, it’s also worth noting that the only seven of the men who played for the Ukraine in its last competitive match in November were on the field Wednesday night.

Throw in the instability in their homeland, and it’s fair to say that the Ukraine had plenty of built-in excuses to not show up. Not only did the 2006 World Cup quarterfinalists show up, but their 2-0 win was certainly deserved.

Prior to the match, ESPN dubbed Wednesday’s match “a 90-minute window into a nation in crisis.” If that were indeed the case, the match was the “charm offensive” American media should discuss.

What Fulham’s failures mean for Shad Khan and the Jaguars

Shad Khan's Fulham (white) lost to English Premier League leaders Chelsea 3-1 on Saturday
to remain in last place and in threat of relegation. (Photo Courtesy of FulhamFC.com)

By Will Brown

English media has lamented the increase in foreign ownership of its soccer clubs for years. However, commentaries will not staunch the influx of overseas ownership in that country.

Friday, Richard Williams of The Guardian, wrote a commentary that once again wondered aloud about the impact of foreign ownership in English soccer. He used Fulham Football club as an example of a club that may have done it right.

The problem is Williams was referencing previous owner Mohamed Al Fayed.

Fulham has a 6-3-19 record, or 21 points, which is good enough for dead last in the English Premier League. Saturday’s 3-1 loss against league leaders Chelsea underscores how dire the situation is for Shad Khan’s other football team. Not only does Fulham have the worst record in the EPL, but they have the worst goal difference of the 20 teams in the league, and their 62 goals allowed is more than any top-flight team in the top five European leagues.

“Would they be in this demoralising position had Fayed stayed on? At least, unlike his successor, he was not one of those absentee owners who resemble the rich folk currently purchasing London mansions and penthouse flats as investments and leaving them empty,” Williams wrote. “Khan attends the occasional match at the Cottage — which is more than can be said for Sheikh Mansour of Abu Dhabi, the owner of Manchester City — but his physical commitment, like his knowledge of football, is at best semi-detached.”

Williams admitted Fayed had his quirks. Fans will tolerate eccentricities so long as their team is productive. The problem with Fulham under Khan’s leadership is they are not.

Fulham has 10 games to save its season. Unlike the Jaguars, Khan’s other investment will not be rewarded with an opportunity to sign some of the best talent around because of failures in previous seasons. If Fulham doesn’t win games, the more the better, the club will be relegated to a lower league.

So what you say?

Well, far smarter people have estimated that relegation from the English Premier League will cost a team more than $30 million in television revenue. That doesn’t even include reduced income from gate receipts, sponsor dollars and selling players at cut-rate prices.

Khan spent a reported £200 million to buy the club last summer. Anyone who spends that type of money on anything would not be thrilled if their investment substantially depreciated within a year.

The appointment of Felix Magath to be Fulham’s manager may be the latest ploy to save the season and secure top-flight status.

Magath has won a league championship in Germany with two different clubs. He has also fallen out with just about every club he’s managed in the last 15 years — occasionally with disastrous results preceding his exit.

“It wasn't lost on me that introducing a third manager in a season would appear, let's say, unconventional or unpopular — or both," Khan wrote in the program for Saturday's match against Chelsea according to the Associated Press. "I expected the scrutiny and know there will be more ahead. I accept this and welcome the responsibility, because the alternative was risking a non-stop slide in the table in the hope that better results would occur in time to save our season."

Khan, as well as other Jaguars officials, has repeatedly stated the two clubs will have strategic synergies. The New York Times devoted an entire feature about just that back in October when the Jags were in London to play San Francisco.

Fulham had just as many games televised nationally in the United States this season as the Jaguars did — yet another perk of playing in the English Premier League. If the club is to be self-sustaining in the near future, as Khan told the Times he prefers, second-tier soccer will not be satisfactory.

In order to avoid that fate, Fulham must have a late-season resurgence, like the Jags did in 2013. Otherwise, the consequences of relegation would reverberate across the Atlantic.

Why the USMNT coming to Jacksonville is a big deal

The U.S. men's soccer team is 6-6-2 all time against African teams. One of those wins
was a 1-0 victory over Algeria during the 2010 World Cup. (Photo by Will Brown)

By Will Brown

The North American and African champions will meet for an international soccer game… in Jacksonville. If that is not is not enough to pique one’s interest in the world’s game, there is not much that will.

The BBC was the first to report that the U.S. men’s soccer team will host Nigeria June 7 at EverBank Field.

Nigeria may be ranked No. 47 in the latest FIFA World Rankings, but they are not a team to be taken lightly. The Super Eagles will likely bring players who have suited up in the Premier League, Champions League and some of Europe’s elite leagues this season.

Historically, the United States’ record has been spotty against African teams with a 6-6-2 record. However, it’s one thing to get results so-so teams like Algeria (2-1 at the 2010 World Cup), South Africa (1-0 in 2010) Tunisia (1-1 in 2000) and another to beat one of the continent’s giants like Ghana, Nigeria or Cote d’ Ivoire. 

Playing a fellow World Cup participant, especially one from Africa, in the humidity will may be a psychological aide to the US when it plays Ghana June 16 in its first game of the 2014 World Cup.

This will be the fifth World Cup the United States has participated in what some have dubbed a “Sendoff Series”, but the first time one of those matches will be held in Florida. The USMNT is 7-3-2 in these exhibition games.

Clint Dempsey will lead the U.S. men's national team out onto
the field June 7 against Nigeria as part of the squad's
Sendoff Series for the 2014 FIFA World Cup.
(Photo By Will Brown)

Wins against Uruguay in 2002 and Australia four years ago, both of whom were World Cup teams that year and this year, preceded the Americans getting out of the group stage. A scoreless draw against Scotland in 1998, a World Cup participant that year, was the precursor to a tournament where the Americans lost all three games.

A win this June over Nigeria may mean two things: firstly, the World Cup may be a good one and secondly the city’s record for hosting men’s national team matches would remain undefeated.

The U.S. men’s national team is undefeated in Jacksonville with a 3-0-1 record. The last of those contests was a 2012 friendly against a Scotland that drew 44,438 fans.

Are soccer crowds like this in Jacksonville's future?
(Photo By Will Brown)

Should Jacksonville draw a similar crowd this June — and there is no reason to assume it won’t considering U.S. men’s national team match held here drew a larger crowd than the previous one — it would be bigger than 10 of the 11 World Cup tune-up games played on American soil.

Columbus, Ohio; Carson, Calif. and Washington D.C. are all cities the U.S. men’s national team has frequently visited because of the combination of big crowds and great results. Jacksonville may eventually join that group if the Stars and Stripes can produce a victory over Nigeria on the road to Brazil.

Why should we have children?

The Jacksonville Sheriffs Office had four marked vehicles patrolling the gas station where
Jordan Davis was killed in the aftermath of a highly publicized case where the unarmed 17-year-old
was killed after an November 2012 argument with Satellite Beach resident Michael Dunn. (Photo by Will Brown)

By Will Brown

Every month my wife and I share a laugh and a high five when we know parenthood is once again postponed.  

We are aware raising a child, especially a black child, will be a rewarding challenge. Recent events in our native Florida have highlighted how difficult our task will be.

Whenever our child arrives he or she will enter a world where it will be perceived by some as a second-class citizen. Our daughters will be objectified. Our sons will be vilified. Meanwhile, we will be petrified at the possibilities of what may happen when they are not in our sight.

Travon Martin and Jordan Davis were perceived as threats, despite the fact neither of them weighed 160 pounds when they were killed. Genetics say it will highly improbable our child will be that slight when they are 17 years old.

If being mouthy and picking a fight can get Davis, Martin and too many others murdered, one can see why we would be concerned to bring a child into this world that will be tall, dark and opinionated.

That cold truth was splashed across our faces at a family dinner Saturday night when six of us went to a restaurant in a Jacksonville suburb.

Behind us was a family of five. To our left was a family of four. The first family had a husband, wife, two young sons and a daughter. The second featured a husband, wife and two young sons. All four boys appeared to be under 10 years old.

As we discussed Michael Dunn’s conviction on attempted murder and shooting into an occupied vehicle — but not of killing Davis — we realized the two boys at the table behind us will be perceived far differently than the two boys at the second table five years from now in part because they are black.

The perception of young black men was all the more apparent Sunday afternoon when I visited the gas station at the corner of Southside Boulevard and Baymeadows Road.

As I walked inside a uniformed officer with the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office stood 50 feet away profiling me. The dread, anger and impulsivity that washed over me during the 15 seconds the officer was assessing whether I was a threat were all too familiar.

I have endured similar looks from law enforcement, store owners, potential employers and others during my lifetime to know when I’m being profiled. Having been previously profiled, I knew it was prudent to take off my sunglasses, tilt my hat higher so more of my face could be seen and wait patiently with my arms in plain sight Sunday afternoon while I waited on a friend to return from the bathroom.

Two other young black men walked into the gas station while I was inside. Both were sized up by officers as well in the time they walked from their cars.

Four police cruisers and at least that many uniformed officers were at that gas station Sunday because that was where Davis was killed. 

It’s not as though the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office did not have anything to do.

Since Saturday’s verdict eight people — yes, eight — have been shot in two separate nightclub incidents in Jacksonville. The identities of the victims, or the suspects, have not been released. Regardless, it’s a tragedy.

What is also sad is the realization that no matter how smart, gregarious and courteous our child may be there is a significantly higher chance he or she will be the victim of homicide than any other racial or ethnic subset in America.

The FBI reported there were 12,765 homicides in this country in 2012 with 6,454 or 50.5 percent, of those deaths being blacks.

If such statistics do not sound intimidating that is because it was not your son, daughter, mother, father, spouse or friend who was eulogized.

The FBI statistics indicate that strangers are much less likely to commit homicide than one’s family, friends and acquaintances. However, when strangers, like Dunn and George Zimmerman are allowed to accost, shoot and not face consequences for their quick triggers and tempers it is a reminder of why some still subscribe to Richard Pryor’s observation about American prisons: “you go down there looking for justice, that's what you find: just us.”

When Eric Holder, the Attorney General of the United States, publically admitted last summer that he spoke with his teenage son about how to act when interacting with the police and strangers, it was enough of a jolt to make me question whether it is worth it to have children.

At the time Holder stated this is a sad reality in a nation that is changing for the better in so many ways. So long as that is a reality, I am just as fearful for my child as America is of my child.

Laughs and liveliness,

-Wb

Are we ready to admit Florida is a soccer state?

More than 5,000 people watched the New York Red Bulls play the Philadelphia Union
in a MLS preseason match in Jacksonville. (Photo by Will Brown)

By Will Brown

Thirty minutes before kickoff three teenagers were standing in the drizzle egotistically trying to see how hard they can kick a soccer ball.

More than 70 people participated in a contest sponsored by @JaxNASL to see who could kick the hardest at #MLSinJax pic.twitter.com/pKozuvZrMB
— Will Brown (@wwbrown19) February 12, 2014

Northeast Florida has numerous elite soccer programs, but the boys did not play on one of them, which made it all the more impressive that the  goalkeeper, midfielder and forward made their way to EverBank Field to watch a preseason game between two Major League Soccer teams.

The boys, members of the Raines High School boys soccer team, were among the 5,656 people who watched the New York Red Bulls and Philadelphia Union prepare for the 2014 season on a rainy night far removed from either clubs supporters.

“I think it was good for us. It was the preseason game, so we had some minutes to show the coach (what we can do),” said Red Bulls defender Roy Miller, a Costa Rican international who entered the match in the second half. “Now, I think from today’s game we can take very positive things. It’s one more game. I think we’re doing well and I’m happy with the work we put in today.”

Miller and the Red Bulls had the best regular season record in MLS last year. Philadelphia finished 13 points behind their opponents from Wednesday night. Thomas Marks, one of the three Raines players who braved the rain, said he wanted to watch the teams play so he can get better in his final two years.

If Marks was taking his cues from No. 14 in white, then he certainly learned a few things.

Thierry Henry is a legend who has won silverware in England, Spain, France and the United States. He’s a World Cup and Champions League winner who was marketed as the star of Wednesday’s game by event organizers Sunshine Sports Group.

This Wednesday watch #MLS Soccer at Everbank! Get your tickets here: http://t.co/olV7i3ReLi pic.twitter.com/rMntrTY4dl
— JAX Chamber (@JAXChamber) February 10, 2014

I think I just witnessed Thierry Henry nutmeg Philadelphia's Cristian Maidana in the most casual way imaginable. #NYRB 1- #PhilaUnion 0, '16
— Will Brown (@wwbrown19) February 12, 2014

Henry certainly delivered in the 45 minutes he was on the pitch. In the 16^th the former Arsenal forward nutmeged a Union midfielder, juggled the ball seven times while fending off a challenge seven minutes later and scored a goal in the 36^th minute.

The goal wound up being the game-winner as New York won 2-1.

FINAL: #RBNY 2, #DOOP 1. Henry and Sam first half goals help give NY first win of 2014 #MLS preseason.
— New York Red Bulls (@NewYorkRedBulls) February 13, 2014

Afterward, there was not much time for Henry, Australian international Tim Cahill, or Philadelphia’s Andre Blake, the No. 1 overall draft pick in the 2014 MLS SuperDraft, to speak with the local media. The two teams were in a rush to make it to Jacksonville International Airport for a charter flight for Newark, N.J. before returning to their respective mid-Atlantic homes.

Dave Rowan, the Union’s Executive Vice President and Chief Revenue Officer, said chartered flights are an anomaly in Major League Soccer. All 19 teams fly commercial, and all the players fly coach.

“The players understand that’s part of it and they have no issue,” Rowan said. “It’s what you get used to and that’s what you have. I look forward to coming back next year and having dry weather and an exciting game.”

Afterward, Mark Frisch, the owner of the North American Soccer League franchise that is slated to start play in Jacksonville next year tweeted that he would love to see the Union play his club in the 2015 preseason.

It remains to be seen whether Frisch’s hope will become reality next year. However, what is undeniable is that Jacksonville, and the rest of Florida, are quickly embracing the soccer culture.

Its 46' and raining, my 1st @mls game, watching #RBNY @tim_cahill. Perfect evening for #thebeautifulgame pic.twitter.com/qGCG55LXGU
— Simon Muldoon (@EssexSi79) February 12, 2014

Marks, the Raines forward, was introduced to the sport by his friends. His teammate DeAngelo Denson joked he was peer pressured into playing soccer, adding: “I just got into it in high school. I’ve been playing since middle school, but found it more interesting the better I get.”

There are 108,000 youth soccer players in Florida and another 30,000 who play varsity soccer. There are professional clubs in Tampa and Fort Lauderdale, while Orlando and Miami will have MLS teams by the end of the decade. 

We'll cap off this soccer night in Jax with a reminder; Tuesday you learn the name of your new NASL team! http://t.co/IdRRjCbKpg

— JaxNASL (@JaxNASL) February 13, 2014

“By Orlando City being granted the 21^st team, it is great testament to the state,” Rowan said. “I think you’ll see, MLS grow in the Southeast because of the family affinity to the sport.”

Who would eat at your table?

No one in this picture made my top five, but the conversations that
are held when we all get together are priceless.

By Will Brown

As we all know the Super Bowl was a rout from the opening seconds of the game. Since the football was not as compelling as we all assumed, the conversation meandered in many directions during the course of the game.

It’s so much more fun to watch FOX when it’s someone else being blitzed & sacked! #SuperBowl
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) February 3, 2014

Sometime during the second half, after discussions about Hillary Clinton, Bruno Mars and the lackluster commercials, someone asked: If you could have dinner with five people, living or dead, who would they be?

I chose Christ, Nelson Mandela, Diego Maradona and then gave up on the exercise. The game was back on and our collective attention returned to the Broncos getting bucked off the pedestal they were placed on.

For whatever reason, I was reminded of that conversation earlier this week, decided to finish out my quintet 

and chose to wonder who would make the cut for those closest to me.

Christ took what most of us would consider lunch for two and fed 5,000; Mandela was imprisoned for 27 years and was not bitter and Maradona was the cocaine-snorting, binge-eating, soccer savant whose life may be the inspiration for the Dos Equis commercials.

After Argentina was humbled by a 1-0 loss to Cameroon in first game of the 1990 World Cup, the miniature maestro quipped: "I cured the Italians of racism, didn't I? The whole stadium was shouting for Cameroon. Wasn't that nice?”

If he could conjure a comment like that after the embarrassment of losing to a team that was a 500-1 underdog, just imagine what he would say at a dinner conversation.

If there was more time, I would have considered Barack Obama, Alexander the Great, Beethoven, Ed Bradley, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Thomas DeSaille Tucker, Thurgood Marshall, Stephen F. Austin and Chief Osceola for the final two positions.

 

Thomas DeSaile Tucker,
Courtesy: State Archives of Florida.

Bradley, Austin and Beethoven.

Obama, Marshall and Bradley were trailblazers with undeniable impacts on American politics, law and journalism. Fitzgerald was the writer whose work inspired me to keep writing, Tucker founded the university that has been central to so many good memories and friendships, Austin and Osceola were historical figures from the two states I’ve resided in and 

Beethoven is someone who was unable to enjoy his own genius later in life.

Of course it’s a hypothetical exercise that is little more than conversation filler. Nonetheless, it is a porthole into the psyche.

Dinner is the most intimate meal of the day. Who we share it with says something about us, as well as the company we keep.

Laughs and liveliness,

-Wb

How dangerous can a narrative be?

Photo shot by Ross D. Franklin of the Associated Press on Oct. 13, 2013.

By Will Brown

One man prefers to stay in his lane and let his actions speak for him. The other speaks and then backs up his bravado with performance. Both men are highly successful, relatively well compensated, college educated men from California communities where stories of such success are underreported.

Yet, if you watched or listened to the narrative that is being formed about Marshawn Lynch and Richard Sherman one might think these two Seattle Seahawks teammates spent more time in San Quentin than honing their craft at universities on separate sides of San Francisco Bay.

Lynch is the Seahawks running back who was fined $50,000 by the National Football League earlier this month for not speaking with the media. The Oakland-bred former Cal-Berkley running back, who was undoubtedly pressured to speak at Tuesday’s Super Bowl media day, spoke for six minutes before saying the scene wasn’t for him and left.

His departure was not well received.

Marshawn Lynch's media fiasco was an embarrassment to everyone there. Column - http://t.co/Q8KQynQFZd
— Gregg Doyel (@GreggDoyelCBS) January 28, 2014

USA Today said Lynch “ditched media day, then swore on live television”, NFL.com dubbed it “Marshawn Lynch’s Media Day misadventure”, ESPN.com said “Lynch snubs Super Bowl media.” The Denver Post didn’t mention Lynch, while the Seattle Times simply posted a link to Lynch’s two-minute interview later Tuesday with Deion Sanders.

Why should the dearth of words from a 27-year-old football player be scrutinized with such fervor? Because less than a fortnight ago Lynch’s 25-year-old teammate, Sherman, was vilified for speaking with passion and emotion after the biggest achievement of his professional life.

If you are a black man and uber successful it’s only a matter of time before someone believes it’s their right to remind you what happened to Icarus when he flew too close to the sun.

Men like Michael Vick, Ray Lewis and Kobe Bryant are among those who brought the downfall on themselves through their actions. Conversely, there are men like Sherman and Lynch who are more complex than what is characterized by the sports media.

It’s not solely professionals that receive such characterizations.

DeBray Bonner was a high school running back in rural South Texas. He spent two years at a small-school power, got in trouble, transferred to a high school 40 miles away, didn’t fit in there and wound up at Woodsboro High School. He parlayed a very good senior season into a scholarship offer from Minot State, a Division II program in North Dakota.

On the day Bonner signed a National Letter of Intent to play for the Beavers, last February, the man responsible for editing the story written about Bonner called him a “thug.” The supervisor of this editor also called Bonner a “thug” despite the fact neither man had ever met the running back or his family.

Bonner, nor his family, ever found out that the local newspaper thought so little of him.

He did not make it to Minot State, instead enrolling at Allan Hancock College in Santa Maria, Calif. to play football and earn a two-year degree. If you have ever seen Woodsboro, Texas, you would know just how much of an accomplishment that is.

But, let’s return to Lynch.

If one paid closer attention to what Lynch said in the interview with Sanders instead of what was said about him, they would find a man who prefers to let his actions speak for him.

Sanders: You camera-shy? You just don't want to talk, really.

Lynch: I'm just about that action, boss.

Sanders: You about to go get it. You just like to do.

Lynch: That's what it is. I ain't never seen no talking winning nothing. Been like that since I was little. I was raised like that.

Oakland and Compton are two California cities that have produced their fair share of criminals, thugs and scoundrels. Lynch and Sherman are not among them.

. @Skittles is auctioning off “Seattle Mix” packs to benefit my charity @fam1stfam starting tonight at 10 PM CT. http://t.co/MBwwDFbool #ad

— Shawn Lynch (@MoneyLynch) January 29, 2014

For more than a week, a segment of the sporting world grumbled how Sherman, could be so arrogant and classless in the immediate aftermath of victory. Yet, when Lynch chooses to let his actions speak louder than his words, he’s mischaracterized as a miscreant.

“Race played a major part in how my behavior was received, but I think it went beyond that,” Sherman wrote on SportsIllustrated.com this week.  “Would the reaction have been the same if I was clean-cut, without the dreadlocks? Maybe if I looked more acceptable in conservative circles, my rant would have been understood as passion. These prejudices still play a factor in our views because it’s human nature to quickly stereotype and label someone. We all have that.”

Lynch and Sherman are the newest characters in a narrative that has not changed in the 15 years since Stephen Balkaran wrote an essay on Mass Media and Racism in the October 1999 edition of Yale Political Quarterly.

“One of the main reasons for the inadequate coverage of the underlying causes of racial stereotypes in the U.S. is that the condition of blacks itself is not a matter of high interest to the white majority. Their interest in black America is focused upon situations in which their imagined fear becomes a real problem.”

Laughs and liveliness,

-Wb