* By Jill Wagner*
As Colin Kaepernick’s new Nike ad continues to divide the country, one former NFL player says, in the end, sports will help reunite it.
Randal "Thrill" Hill played for the Miami Dolphins, the Phoenix / Arizona Cardinals, and the New Orleans Saints long before Kaepernick and other players started kneeling during the National Anthem to protest racial inequality.
So, is he worried that the Anthem controversy will permanently damage the league? Just the opposite.
Hill told Cheddar Big News, "When things go wrong in this country, the NFL and sports usually brings the country back together.”
Hill points to the days after the attacks on September 11th. Professional baseball was put on hold for six days. When the season resumed, the Mets played their archrival the Braves for the first major sporting event in New York after the attacks. Mets players wore NYPD and FDNY hats, Mike Piazza hit a home run, and for many people, it felt like things would actually be okay.
Then the Yankees made it to the World Series, and President Bush threw out the first pitch.
Hill also talked about the Miami riots during the 1980s, and how football helped bring the city together during those troubling times.
“The NFL usually brings ー and even Major League Baseball ー bring citizens of the United States together to cheer and have fun and to go out just have a great time watching a good event.”
It’s still not clear how history will judge Nike's new “Just Do It” ad, which aired during Thursday night’s NFL season opener. Former 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick voices the commercial, telling the audience to "Believe in something. Even if it means sacrificing everything."
The company’s stock price has dropped since Nike first revealed the new campaign and some critics have burned their sneakers. President Trump weighed in, tweeting, "Just like the NFL, whose ratings have gone WAY DOWN, Nike is getting absolutely killed with anger and boycotts.”
At the same time, many fans and professional athletes are showing their support, with the hashtag #JustDoIt trending on Twitter.
Following a 2018 Supreme Court ruling year that cleared the way for sports gambling, fans in seven states can bet on the upcoming Super Bowl for the first time ー and leaders in the budding industry are anticipating the Big Game will deliver their biggest day yet. “We expect the Super Bowl to be our single biggest day in the company’s history,” Mike Raffensperger, the chief marketing officer for betting platform FanDuel, told Cheddar.
FightCamp is a new fitness company that streams boxing classes from top instructors direct to consumers. The classes can be tailored to the needs of boxers at all levels of expertise ー from newbies to punching pros said co-founder Tommy Duquette.
These are the headlines you Need 2 Know for Friday, Jan. 25, 2019.
The New York Knicks and its jersey sponsor, the website-building platform Squarespace, are doling out assists to four local businesses as part of the second annual "Make It Awards." "Partnering with Squarespace to help those entrepreneurs get their businesses to the next level was something we were very interested in doing and it's been a major hit," said MSG Sports' senior vice president of business operations, Kristin Bernert, in an interview on Cheddar.
The Delaware Blue Coats will make their debut Wednesday night at the brand new Philadelphia 76ers Fieldhouse in Wilmington, Del., and the team will share the spotlight with an arena that boasts five stories, can seat 2,500 fans, and includes three NBA-regulation basketball courts. The flashy new arena was designed to promote youth sports in the state of Delaware and the greater Philadelphia region. "It's all geared towards youth," Chris Heck, the president of the Philadelphia 76ers, told Cheddar.
The NBA is transparent about its approval of legalized, regulated sports betting ー but the league is also clearly communicating that it wants a fair share of the money wagered on its games. "It's our view that if state governments are going to be authorizing private entities, in most cases casinos, to generate significant revenue ー billions of dollars of revenue ー off of the NBA competitions, that the NBA participate in some way," said the NBA's head of fantasy and gaming Scott Kaufman-Ross.
Former Green Bay Packer Ahman Green is a four time Pro Bowler, but he's also an avid gamer. When it comes to Halo he's just another fan that looks up to professionals like Proximitty and LethuL for help with his improving his skills.
These are the headlines you Need 2 Know for Wednesday Jan. 23, 2019.
If there's one person aside from the 800,000 unpaid federal workers who is hoping the government shutdown ends soon, it's Keisha Lance Bottoms. The mayor of Atlanta is less than two weeks away from hosting Super Bowl LIII, which is a logistical and security nightmare even when the city's airport *isn't* being slowed down by mass TSA sick-outs. "I'm extremely concerned," Bottoms said of the possibility that the shutdown may continue through Super Bowl weekend.
Cloud9 has been dubbed the most valuable esports company in the world by Forbes Magazine ー a title that is thanks, at least in part, to the organization's powerhouse VP of marketing, Eunice Chen. Chen is an esports vet who has worked for industry stalwart Riot Games and even runs her own tournament production company, Heroeshype. In an interview with Cheddar Sports, she said, "there are always different ways we can break into new markets in esports and beyond."
