Jan. 26 – Feb. 8, 2025
Welcome to issue four hundred and fifty-eight of the Sports Doing Good newsletter. This week’s 10 stories include:

1. Why Did ‘Woj’ Take a 99% Pay Cut? To Save the Team He Loves. (New York Times)
2. Sacramento Kings forward DeMar DeRozan is ‘what a pro is all about’ (Andscape)
3. This Norwegian soccer team, representing a town of 55,000 people inside the Arctic Circle, has Champions League aspirations (CNN)
4. High School Sports Hit Historic 8 Million Participant Milestone in 2023-24 (YSBR)
5. Naoya Inoue, the world’s best boxer fans rarely get to see fight (ESPN)
6. Brooklyn classroom uses pro wrestling as a teaching vehicle (ESPN)
7. Weston McKennie, Mr. ‘Do Everything,’ is back from Juventus brink and starring once again (Yahoo! Sports)
8. Girls are falling in love with wrestling, the nation’s fastest-growing high school sport (AP/Yahoo!)
9. How a PSG-Marseille game became a springboard for more sustainable sporting events (SportsPro)
10. Premiership Women’s Rugby launches ‘I’m Powered Differently’ Campaign (SIG)


10+
The Guiding Star – Celebrating 25 Years of Laureus (Laureus)
https://www.laureus.com/news/the-guiding-star-celebrating-25-years-of-laureus
Let’s harness the power of sport to #KeepMoving towards a thriving and inclusive Africa (Sport and Dev)
https://www.sportanddev.org/latest/news/let%E2%80%99s-harness-power-sport-keepmoving-towards-thriving-and-inclusive-africa
Ten Pounds (by Ella Toone) (The Players’ Tribune)
https://www.theplayerstribune.com/ella-toone-manchester-united-soccer-england
HOW WE DRIVE PROGRESS: Project Play through 2030 (Aspen Institute)
https://projectplay.org/theory-of-change
New York State Governor Announces ‘Unplug & Play’ Kids Wellness Campaign (Beyond Sport)
https://beyondsport.org/2025/01/31/new-york-governor-announces-unplug-play-kids-wellness-campaign/


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. And now we add podcasts!

Blind aspiring sportscaster providing color commentary at basketball game (CBS Evening News)
https://www.facebook.com/share/v/14qHGyctUA/?mibextid=wwXIfr
The High School Hero Who Saved His Rival’s Life (CNN 5 Good Things)
https://www.cnn.com/audio/podcasts/5-good-things/episodes/ab7b52c2-2fdf-11ef-89ae-e3cf9dade4d6
Meet the 2024 SportsKids of the Year! Arden Pala (Sports Illustrated)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7EMdvxzyOwM
More Than Play: How Law, Policy, and Politics Shape American Youth Sport (book) (University of California Press)
https://www.ucpress.edu/books/more-than-play/paper


Introduction
I am starting off with the promotion of an event I am excited for taking place in London on Wednesday, February 26. Hosted by Remedy (founders Rahul Bissoonauth and Luke Southall), the first annual Sport Fundraising Summit brings together a tremendous group of practitioners in the field to discuss timely issues in light of changing circumstances. Tickets are still available so I hope you will be able to join me in London on the 26th.*

*I have recently relocated to Geneva, Switzerland. I am excited to connect with the amazing community of sports industry practitioners in that city and country. Please feel free to reach out if you are there and/or can make referrals. (sab@sportsdoinggood.com)

This week I wanted to take some time to personalize athletes, who are the subject of so many of the stories at Sports Doing Good. Yes, many of these athletes make millions of dollars, but not all, especially those part of the great class of emerging leagues. And these athletes, though terrific at what they do, are not always successful. And their individual failings are at times out there for millions of us to see.

There is a new trend that was started, or at least popularized, by the fans of the Buffalo Bills to donate to the charity of a player from the other team, who may have made a crucial mistake, penalty, or turnover. A few weeks ago, we saw that with a player from the Baltimore Ravens, who lost to the Bills in a key NFL playoff game. In “Ravens tight end speaks out after Bills fans donate over $100K to charity,” by Yahoo!, we learn about Mark Andrews and his reaction to his misplays in the playoff game. https://www.yahoo.com/news/buffalo-bills-fans-unite-raise-170100212.html

“”It’s impossible to adequately express how I feel. I’m absolutely gutted by what happened on Sunday. I’m devastated for my teammates, my coaches and Ravens fans.””

“To counter the outrage following the Ravens’ loss on Sunday, a Bills fan started a GoFundMe to raise money for Breakthrough T1D, a diabetes-focused nonprofit organization that Andrews, who has Type 1 diabetes, has long supported. The fundraiser has since snowballed, prompting Bills fans and Ravens fans alike to come together to show their collective support.”
The fundraising goal was $5,000 but in just three days, the total has surpassed $100,000.

In a somewhat cruel turn of events, the following week the Bills themselves lost due to a dropped pass by a tight end. Dalton Kincaid’s failure to secure a fourth down pass in effect ended the Bills effort to beat the Kansas City Chiefs. But just like the week before, fans stepped up. A GoFundMe campaign had raised more than $25,000 for the Summit Center, a provider of behavioral health and autism services in western New York that Kincaid has supported since he was drafted in 2023.

Charity and philanthropy are wonderful things. And more times than not, donations come from a place of pain, whether our own or that of a family member or friend, or just someone we feel something for. Pro athletes, actually all athletes, are people and have ups and downs. Throughout one’s career and life, we are given opportunities for reflection, reevaluation, and recovery. Respecting the process that someone is going through – in this case, two pro football players – makes us better people and helps that person grow and find some peace with that happened. That is definitely sports doing good.

Please continue to send along your stories. You are both our audience and the best source of stories. Our Twitter handle is @sportsdoinggood, and you can find us at www.facebook.com/sportsdoinggood and on Instagram.

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.

Why Did ‘Woj’ Take a 99% Pay Cut? To Save the Team He Loves. (New York Times)
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/22/magazine/adrian-wojnarowski-college-basketball.html

Sacramento Kings forward DeMar DeRozan is ‘what a pro is all about’ (Andscape)
https://andscape.com/features/sacramento-kings-forward-demar-derozan-is-what-is-a-pro-is-all-about/

This Norwegian soccer team, representing a town of 55,000 people inside the Arctic Circle, has Champions League aspirations (CNN)
https://edition.cnn.com/2025/01/30/sport/bodo-glimt-football-europa-league-spt-intl/index.html

High School Sports Hit Historic 8 Million Participant Milestone in 2023-24 (YSBR)
https://youthsportsbusinessreport.com/high-school-sports-hit-historic-8-million-participant-milestone-in-2023-24/

Naoya Inoue, the world’s best boxer fans rarely get to see fight (ESPN)
https://www.espn.com/boxing/story/_/id/43508544/meet-naoya-inoue-world-best-boxer-fans-rarely-get-see-fight

Brooklyn classroom uses pro wrestling as a teaching vehicle (ESPN)
https://www.espn.com/professional-wrestling/story/_/id/43584536/the-wrestling-club-wwe-aew-wrestlers-brooklyn-kipp-amp

Weston McKennie, Mr. ‘Do Everything,’ is back from Juventus brink and starring once again (Yahoo! Sports)
https://sports.yahoo.com/weston-mckennie-mr-do-everything-is-back-from-juventus-brink-and-starring-once-again-212149995.html

Girls are falling in love with wrestling, the nation’s fastest-growing high school sport (AP/Yahoo!)
https://www.yahoo.com/news/girls-falling-love-wrestling-nations-141227820.html

How a PSG-Marseille game became a springboard for more sustainable sporting events (SportsPro)
https://www.sportspro.com/insights/analysis/psg-marseille-stadium-sos-campaign-enedis-paris-2024-sustainability-major-events/

Premiership Women’s Rugby launches ‘I’m Powered Differently’ Campaign (SIG)
https://www.sportindustry.biz/news-categories/features/premiership-womens-rugby-launches-im-powered-differently-campaign/

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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.

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