Jan. 27 – Feb. 9, 2019

Welcome to issue three hundred and five of the Sports Doing Good newsletter. This week’s 10 stories include:

1. Super Bowl or Soapbox? Big Game Advertisers Risk All by Trading Silly for Serious (Variety)
2. The legend of Boban Marjanovic (ESPN)
3. The Reynas’ Story of Loss and Legacy (Sports Illustrated)
4. Why Tony Romo Is a Genius at Football Commentary (New Yorker)
5. UNICEF Kid Power and WWE to Empower Youth With New Partnership (Comicbook)
6. Inside Giants rookie Grant Haley’s surreal football journey that might just save his mother’s life (NJ.com)
7. Athletes and activism: The long, defiant history of sports protests (The Undefeated)
8. Behind the Nets’ Success Is a Carefully Crafted Culture and, Finally, a Clue (New York Times)
9. In Argentina, 1 woman is challenging soccer’s status quo (USA Today)
10. NFL Player Teaches Kids to Be Superheroes and Save the Planet (Good News Network)

10+
New Fund to Support Women in Coaching and Scouting Roles (Beyond Sport)
http://www.beyondsport.org/articles/new-fund-to-support-women-in-coaching-roles/
More than an athlete: How NBA players are building careers beyond basketball (Game Change)
https://www.thescore.com/nba/news/1670402
Bridging the divide (Sport and Dev)
https://www.sportanddev.org/en/article/news/bridging-divide
Clean and Healthy Competition: Why It Matters (True Sport)
https://learn.truesport.org/clean-healthy-competition-why-it-matters/
To Whom Much Is Given, Much Will Be Required (Jaren Jackson, Jr.) (The Players Tribune)
https://www.theplayerstribune.com/en-us/articles/jaren-jackson-jr-girls-and-women-in-sports-day

We present again our “Featured Video” offering(s). With the explosion of video content out there highlighting the good in sport, we want to showcase such content for your enjoyment and learning. This will be an ongoing effort.

We typically feature one video each newsletter but with the Super Bowl last week, one of our favorite websites, Great Big Story, had a bunch of football-related videos. We couldn’t pick just one! So here are four for your enjoyment.

The Hail Mary Pass Started With a Prayer
https://www.greatbigstory.com/stories/the-hail-mary-pass-started-with-a-prayer
How the NFL Prepared Me to Be a Nasa Astronaut
https://www.greatbigstory.com/stories/20151204_nflspace_sb_pkgwb-mov
From Football Safety to Neurosurgeon
https://www.greatbigstory.com/stories/from-football-safety-to-neurosurgeon
Rudy Goes Robotic: Engineering a New Age of Football
https://www.greatbigstory.com/stories/nbc-sports-intramural-football

Introduction
One type of story we really love has to do with an athlete making a go of it in a new place, that place often being the United States. This “fish out of water” scenario happens at every level, including with professional athletes. It may seem easy for a pro basketball player or baseball player to come and just “play the game.” However, the game is but a few hours in a day and for the rest of the time the athlete is no longer an athlete but a regular person trying to fit in, physically, culturally and otherwise. I think of my parents, who came to the U.S. from India in 1968 and marveled at spaghetti and snow in equal measure. This reality is true for the millions of immigrants who have come to the U.S. in the intervening 50 years. A story featuring NBA player Boban Marjanovic takes us into the world of such an immigrant (who by the way has to get used to a new place this week as he was traded from Los Angeles to Philadelphia.)

The other stories we are happy to feature include: the trend of Super Bowl ads coming at us with substance and not just style; a story of loss and legacy for the first family of soccer in the U.S., the Reynas; the emergence of former NFL quarterback Tony Romo as football analyst extraordinaire; a ‘power’ful partnership between UNICEF and the WWE; the New York Giants rookie Grant Haley’s surreal football journey and the impact on his mom; the long and ongoing history of varied athlete activism in the U.S.; the awesome turnaround for the NBA’s Brooklyn Nets; in Argentina, Macarena Sanchez’s challenge of soccer’s status quo; and former NFL player Ovie Mughelli’s mission to make education fun, engaging and accessible.

Finally, if you think others would like to receive the newsletter, please feel free to forward it on or have them contact us directly at sab@sportsdoinggood.com. (If you do not want to receive the newsletter anymore you can use the Unsubscribe button at the end of the email)

So, enjoy. And have a good week.

Super Bowl or Soapbox? Big Game Advertisers Risk All by Trading Silly for Serious (Variety)
https://variety.com/2019/tv/news/super-bowl-commercials-2019-humor-politics-advertising-preview-1203119883/

The legend of Boban Marjanovic (ESPN)
http://www.espn.com/espn/feature/story/_/id/25833685/the-legend-boban-marjanovic

The Reynas’ Story of Loss and Legacy (Sports Illustrated)
https://www.si.com/soccer/2018/12/12/claudio-reyna-family-jack-death-giovanni-dortmund

Why Tony Romo Is a Genius at Football Commentary (New Yorker)
https://www.newyorker.com/sports/sporting-scene/why-tony-romo-is-a-genius-at-football-commentary

UNICEF Kid Power and WWE to Empower Youth With New Partnership (Comicbook)
https://comicbook.com/wwe/2019/01/30/wwe-unicef-kid-power-partnership-to-empower-youth/
(video, https://youtu.be/43kTZZNal_Y)

Inside Giants rookie Grant Haley’s surreal football journey that might just save his mother’s life (NJ.com)
https://www.nj.com/expo/sports/g66l-2019/01/cb58c3f0e35092/inside-giants-rookie-grant-haleys-surreal-football-journey-that-might-just-save-his-mothers-life.html

Athletes and activism: The long, defiant history of sports protests (The Undefeated)
https://theundefeated.com/features/athletes-and-activism-the-long-defiant-history-of-sports-protests/

Behind the Nets’ Success Is a Carefully Crafted Culture and, Finally, a Clue (New York Times)
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/06/sports/nets-sean-marks.html

In Argentina, 1 woman is challenging soccer’s status quo (USA Today)
https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/soccer/2019/02/07/in-argentina-1-woman-is-challenging-soccers-status-quo/39020371/

NFL Player Teaches Kids to Be Superheroes and Save the Planet (Good News Network)
https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/nfl-ovie-eco-foundation-project/