Sports Doing Good Newsletter, #340

June 7 – June 20, 2020
Welcome to issue three hundred and forty of the Sports Doing Good newsletter. This week’s 10 stories include:

1. How a ‘rogue’ employee forced NFL, Goodell into new Black Lives Matter stance (Yahoo! Sports)
2. Bella Alarie benefiting from home-court advantage in WNBA preparation (ESPN)
3. It’s Time to Rethink the Language of Accessibility. And to Imagine a More Equal World (Time.com)
4. The Coronavirus Patient Had a Question: Don’t You Lead a Soccer Team? (New York Times)
5. A gut feeling that this time, this movement for racial equality may endure (Orlando Sentinel)
6. Bruce Lee doc ‘Be Water’ reveals challenges, humanity that made the man behind the legend (Los Angeles Times)
7. College Athletes, Phones in Hand, Force Shift in Protest Movement (New York Times)
8. Former Georgetown runner breaks world record to motivate his team (Georgetown.edu)
9. US sports are embracing social justice. The WNBA was doing it before it was cool (The Guardian)
10. Games for Change unveils sessions on mental health, diversity, and COVID-19 (VentureBeat)


10+
Engaging university students in sport for development and peace (Sport and Dev)
https://www.sportanddev.org/en/article/news/engaging-university-students-sport-development-and-peace
The Outsiders (by Nadia Nadim) (The Player’s Tribune)
https://www.theplayerstribune.com/en-us/articles/nadia-nadim-paris-saint-germain-afghanistan-journey
Just Being “Not Racist” Is Not Good Enough (Joe Thomas) (The Players’ Tribune)
https://www.theplayerstribune.com/en-us/articles/joe-thomas-systemic-racism-nfl
Harvard’s Women’s Tennis Coach Understands The Societal Impact Of Role Models (GoodSport)
https://www.goodsport.me/harvards-womens-tennis-coach-understands-the-societal-impact-of-role-models/
“How do we make our teams and clubs more inclusive and welcoming?” (Sport and Dev)
https://www.sportanddev.org/en/article/news/lgbtq-inclusion-sports


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.

Meet the Shortest Member of the Harlem Globetrotters (Great Big Story)
https://www.greatbigstory.com/stories/jahmani-swanson-from-the-harlem-globetrotters

Introduction
First off, Happy Father’s Day to all of the dads out there. I have to admit, I am not a huge fan of these “recognition” days. I do see their value but I am more partial to the idea my mom presented to me a long time ago. That is, everyday is Father’s Day, every day is Mother’s Day, etc. We should always appreciate the people who have had a positive impact on our lives, whether they are still with us or not.

Back to Sports Doing Good. Over the past few weeks of indignation and protest, we have seen a cavalcade of calls for action. However, to begin to address such a huge problem can be intimidating. Where do I start? Can I have an impact on my own? Should I wait until others take the lead? These are all legitimate questions and no one should be blamed for pondering them. But as a society, we do need action, big and small. The first story we feature this week involves a young employee, Bryndon Minter, at the National Football League (NFL) who felt that he had to act to see some progress in this fight against explicit and implicit racism. It is a great story of challenging the status quo, being proactive, taking risks, and “moving the needle” at least a little bit on this issue. The fact that the NFL responded with such strong language, language that reflected what the players felt and believed, is a big step. But as Bryndon’s initiative highlights, such actions need to continue at every level. There is a lot of work to do.

The other stories we are happy to feature this week include: future WNBA player and recent Princeton grad, Bella Alarie; a challenge to change the way we deal with accessibility for disabled individuals; Frederico Varandas, president of Sporting Clube de Portugal, one of the country’s biggest soccer teams, who just happens to be a doctor who donned some PPE and joined the fight against coronavirus; wonderful civil rights pioneer and professor, Dr. Richard Lapchick and his take on this new civil rights push; a look at one of my favorite people ever, Bruce Lee, and the battles for change he fought for himself and others; the strength collegiate student-athletes are finding in their voices and actions for change; Dylan Sorensen, a former Georgetown track star who came up with a way, a record-breaking way, to inspire the runners he coaches at UNC; the WNBA’s league-wide efforts to achieve social justice; and Games of Change, an organization which advocates the power of video games as drivers of social impact.

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.

How a ‘rogue’ employee forced NFL, Goodell into new Black Lives Matter stance (Yahoo! Sports)
https://sports.yahoo.com/nfl-video-roger-goodell-racism-black-lives-matter-players-employees-110927703.html

Bella Alarie benefiting from home-court advantage in WNBA preparation (ESPN)
https://www.espn.com/wnba/story/_/id/29231707/bella-alarie-benefiting-home-court-advantage-wnba-preparation

It’s Time to Rethink the Language of Accessibility. And to Imagine a More Equal World (Time.com)
https://time.com/5839846/rethink-the-language-accessibility-more-equal/

The Coronavirus Patient Had a Question: Don’t You Lead a Soccer Team? (New York Times)
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/23/sports/soccer/coronavirus-soccer-portugal-return.html

A gut feeling that this time, this movement for racial equality may endure (Orlando Sentinel)
https://www.orlandosentinel.com/opinion/guest-commentary/os-op-richard-lapchick-protests-racism-hope-20200607-ksvar6dhkng7zg7inewbgrd2ni-story.html

Bruce Lee doc ‘Be Water’ reveals challenges, humanity that made the man behind the legend (Los Angeles Times)
https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/movies/story/2020-06-07/bruce-lee-be-water-documentary

College Athletes, Phones in Hand, Force Shift in Protest Movement (New York Times)
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/12/sports/ncaafootball/george-floyd-protests-college-sports.html

Former Georgetown runner breaks world record to motivate his team (Georgetown.edu)
https://alumni.georgetown.edu/news/dylan-sorensen-world-record-mile-dribbling-basketball

US sports are embracing social justice. The WNBA was doing it before it was cool (The Guardian)
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2020/jun/18/wnba-juneteenth-social-justice-protest

Games for Change unveils sessions on mental health, diversity, and COVID-19 (VentureBeat)
https://venturebeat.com/2020/06/18/games-for-change-unveils-sessions-that-tackle-issues-such-as-mental-health-diversity-and-covid-19/


Quick Links…
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More About Us
Our goal is to have Sports Doing Good be a portal housing original content and excerpts from and links to the increasing number of articles, websites, video, and other media that showcase the good in sports and society. We aim to celebrate those concepts, activities, events, and individuals by highlighting them for a wider audience. Much of the news today, whether sports- related or not, is incredibly negative and increasingly polarizing, biased, and quite annoying. We are trying to refocus some of the discussion on the good, with a focus on sports.

Our mission is to have Sport Doing Good be a consistent, and significant, contributor to the areas of sports, social responsibility and development. We look forward to partnering with other stakeholders in producing content, in creating and/or sponsoring athletic and service events, knowledge sharing, and conferences/seminars, and even having a commercial arm that could be the source of innovative social businesses.

We invite you to send in news, press releases, and guest pieces for possible publication, and email us with suggestions about the content and format of the newsletter and Sports Doing Good website.

Contact Information
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Sarbjit “Sab” Singh
sab@sportsdoinggood.com
516-287-7141
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