Deion Sanders Says He Worries about Dez Bryant

From ESPN.com

Deion Sanders, who stopped mentoring Dez Bryant months ago, strongly criticized theDallas Cowboys receiver in reaction to the criminal trespass warning given to Bryant over the weekend at a Dallas mall.

"I'm upset but not surprised whatsoever," Sanders said on The Ben & Skin Show on ESPN 103.3 FM in Dallas.

Sanders described Bryant's behavior at NorthPark Center on Saturday as "ignorant."

The 2010 first-round pick was issued the warning after an off-duty police officer requested that Bryant and his friends pull up their pants because their underwear was showing and Bryant responded with repeated profanity, according to the police report.

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Dr. Boyce: Dwayne Wade’s Custody Fight Defies the Stereotype of Irresponsible Black Male Fathers

by Dr. Boyce Watkins, Syracuse University – Scholarship in Action 

This week, a judge in Chicago gave NBA star Dwayne Wade sole custody of his two sons. The decision was made after a prolonged legal battle between Wade and his ex-wife, Siohvaughn. The boys are currently 8 and 3 years old. Wade has argued that his ex-wife has become violent toward him and falsely accused him of abusing his sons. A court-appointed representative for the boys made the recommendation that Wade be given full custody and that his ex-wife receive a mental evaluation.

I happened to be in Chicago when I heard about Wade's custody decision (which took place in a Chicago courtroom). What's even more ironic is that I heard about the decision shortly after having an opportunity to watch an episode of the television show, "Basketball Wives." During the show, I thought about the "interesting" custody battle between another baller, Dwight Howard and his ex-girlfriend Royce Reed, who is a member of the show's cast.

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The Fab Five Documentary Details All That’s Wrong with the NCAA

by Dr. Boyce Watkins, Syracuse University – Scholarship in Action 

I lived through the Fab Five era within college basketball, literally breathing the same air and vicariously identifying with the brothers who brought power and style to the sport. I was approximately the same age as the five freshmen who took their team to the NCAA championship, and I even wore black socks on the court (yes, I am ashamed to admit that). An ESPN special recently took my mind back down memory lane by replaying the experience of the Fab Five and how they changed college basketball forever. To this day, there has been nothing like them, and I wouldn't be surprised if their feat is never replicated again.
The most intriguing aspect of the Fab Five special on ESPN was not their exploits on the basketball court (which were amazing), it was the conversation about money. When these five young men stepped onto the court for the University of Michigan, they instantly became cash cows for their universities. Sales of University of Michigan merchandise went from $1.5 million per year to over $10 million per year shortly after their first season. Jalen Rose, one of the members of the Fab Five, mentioned seeing that Nike had released a sneaker named after the group, and they regularly found their academic schedules being interrupted with trips around the world to promote a brand that was making everyone rich except for their own families.

 

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March Madness and the NCAA Plantation: Why Black People Must Demand Reform

by Dr. Boyce Watkins, Syracuse University – Scholarship in Action 

I wrote about a new book regarding the NCAA’s alleged exploitation of black athletes, written by University of Georgia Professor Billy Hawkins. In his recently-released book, “The New Plantation,” Hawkins goes out of his way to help us understand that the method by which the NCAA does business is not much different from the mindset of plantation owners of the old south.

The analogies used by Professor Hawkins are thought-provoking and appear to be alarmist at first glance. After all, citizens are commonly comparing nearly every modern-day injustice to slavery in order to make a dramatic point. But in this case, the analogies are appropriate, in large part because slavery is not a dichotomy. Instead, it is actually a continuum, with complete freedom on one end and total servitude on the other. One could even argue that slaves themselves were not completely devoid of freedom, since they could have always chosen to run away, buy their freedom, maim themselves or even commit suicide as a way to escape their condition. The point of this very grim example is not to say that slavery was not entirely horrific; rather, it is to say that something does not have to be entirely horrific to be compared to slavery.

 

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Academics Over Athletics: Why the Change Must Take Place NOW

by Dr. Boyce Watkins, Syracuse University – Scholarship in Action 

Today I took my afternoon nap thinking about the days when I was captain of my high school track team in the 12th grade.  I wasn’t the star of the team and I also wasn’t an academic star (my grades were terrible).  Like many other black boys across America, I’d come to identify myself as an athletic commodity rather than an intellectual one. 

I remember that one of the fastest boys on our team was also like a lot of other black males:  He was in special education and had horrible grades.  On his report card, he’d gotten two Fs, three Ds and a C.  My coach was concerned about his grades, but not because he cared about the young man.  He was only worried about his grades because he thought that the kid might not be eligible for the big track meet we had coming up.

 

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Dr. Boyce: Should Parents Encourage Their Kids to Play Football? The Rocky Clark Story

by Dr. Boyce Watkins, Syracuse University – Scholarship in Action 

When I read about the case of Rocky Clark, the former high school football player who is now paralyzed from the neck down, part of me cries on the inside.  His accident makes me think about my own uncle (who was like an older brother and very close to me), who was paralyzed after a car accident two years ago.  I also think about the countless young men who hit the football field every year, rolling the dice in hopes that they don’t end up like Rocky.

 

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Dr. Boyce Watkins: How NFL Players Can Avoid Going Broke During the Lockout

by Dr. Boyce Watkins, Syracuse University – Scholarship in Action 

The pending lockout of NFL players is expected by some to be a matter of history repeating itself. Team owners, hungry to earn an even larger profit from their business ventures, are going to keep the players off the field until they get what they want. Some might naively believe that the NFL Players Association has the bulk of the negotiating power in this battle of egos. After all, they represent our favorite athletes and the famous guys that we all want to see on Sundays, right? Sorry, that's just not the case.

The truth is that the players are going to take a financial beating unlike any other. Team owners can go years without income, so although they stand to lose money when the league shuts down, they are not sitting around wondering how they will pay their car notes. Players, on the other hand, are notoriously under-educated and horrifically bad at managing their money (some of us have been misled into believing that athletic success is a replacement for academic achievement). If history tells us anything about how the lockout is going to go, I expect players will give in after about three weeks.

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ESPN Writer Howard Bryant Says Domestic Assault Arrest was Racially-Motivated

by Dr. Boyce Watkins, Syracuse University – Scholarship in Action 

ESPN baseball writer Howard Bryant's arrest has now taken a very interesting turn. Buz Eisenberg, the attorney for Bryant, claims that race was a factor in his arrest.
''Mr. Bryant was the victim of excessive force,'' Eisenberg said, according to Recorder.com. ''Police responded to the scene and rather than do an investigation they made an arrest of a black man with a white wife."

Bryant, who is 42-years old, was charged with domestic assault and battery, as well as battery on a police officer. Five witnesses claim that they saw the writer choke his wife and force her into a car. He was freed on $5,000 bail on the same day.
Since the arrest, some things have changed. Bryant's wife, Veronique Bryant, is now claiming that Mr. Bryant never assaulted her. Thus far, ESPN has declined to comment.

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