Tuesday, March 31, 2009

King Magazine Takes a Dive

So it has just been announced that there will not be anymore issues of KING Magazine, and the company claims that the economy is to blame for its demise. I know there are going to be a lot of men up set about this so they better cop the last issue which will hit stands April 21st. The last issue will feature Joe Buddens girlfriend Tahiry, and she has enough ass to fill at least two issues, so this should keep the men satisfied for a few months.

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Posted By LadyBaby to Your Black Gossip at 3/31/2009 08:41:00 PM

Black News: Michael Vick Thinks He Can Make a Comeback

Michael Vick’s plan to climb out of bankruptcy partly depends on the suspended star suiting up again for the NFL after he gets out of prison.

The embattled Atlanta Falcons quarterback is hoping to earn as much as $10 million a year or more, according to court filings in his bankruptcy case. Under the plan he submitted to the court, Vick would keep the first $750,000 of his annual income over the next five years. After that, a percentage would go to his creditors based on a sliding scale.

Vick, who is nearing the end of a 23-month federal prison sentence for his role in a dogfighting conspiracy, could learn the fate of his bankruptcy plan this week. Bankruptcy Judge Frank J. Santoro is set to consider whether to confirm the plan at a hearing starting Thursday in Newport News, Va. Last week, Vick left federal prison in Leavenworth, Kan., for transport to Virginia for the hearing.

In a March 4 court filing, Vick’s attorneys say he “has every reason to believe upon his release, he will be reinstated into the NFL, resume his career and be able to earn a

substantial living.”

“He is hopeful to play quarterback,” Daniel Meachum, an attorney and business manager for Vick, said in an interview. “There is no person with his talent in that position in all the league.”

Click to read.

Poll: Americans Don’t Blame Obama for Economy

U.S. President Barack Obama benefits from a broadly held perception that others bear the bulk of responsibility for state of the U.S. economy, according to a Washington Post/ABC News poll published on Tuesday.

Asked who was responsible for the economic meltdown, 80 percent in the poll blamed banks, financial institutions and corporations. Some 70 percent also blamed consumers for taking on too much debt and the former Bush administration for lax regulation. Only 26 percent said the Obama administration was not doing enough to turn the situation around.

Two-thirds of respondents approve of the way Obama is handling the presidency, and 60 percent approve of the way he is handling the economy.

Sixty-four percent said were confident Obama's policies will improve the economy, down from 72 percent just before he took office in January.

 

Click to read.

Black News: Tiger Woods Amazes the World Once More

Tiger Woods’s victory Sunday in the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill stirred memories and elicited a familiar litany of reasons to be amazed.

Was it about his clutch putting, his ability to come back from a five-stroke deficit, his late charge or his intimidating presence? Important aspects, all.

But the most significant proof that Woods is whole again was the re-emergence of his ineluctable sense of the moment and his impeccable timing. Not a minute too soon, or too late, Woods delivered a vivid reminder of what makes him special: It is not merely his unrivaled game, but his ability to create a show unlike any other at precisely the right time — and with the Masters on the horizon next week.

Certainly, there was no shortage of golf excellence on display during Woods’s nine-month absence. It came in all ages, shapes, sizes and nationalities, from the American Kenny Perry, 48; to the Irishman Rory McElroy, 19; to the Korean-American Anthony Kim, 23; to the Colombian Camilo Villegas, 25. Each had their moments.

Click to read.

Boyce Watkins: NCAA Hypocrisy Shows It’s Ugly Head….Again

www.BoyceWatkins.com

Sources says that John Calipari from U. Memphis is close to inking a 6-year, $40 Million dollar contract to sign with the University of Kentucky.  Not only does this contract steam me because Kentucky is my alma mater, but it is indescribably unethical for a professional sports league like the NCAA to spend this kind of money and then simultaneously claim that it cannot afford to share revenues with the families of basketball and football players.

I love when these deals are signed, since it reminds the public of just how hypocritical the NCAA happens to be.

There story is here.

Monday, March 30, 2009

Sunday, March 29, 2009

Black News: UPS Announces it will No Longer Advertise with Bill O’Reilly

After the national protests by YourBlackWorld.com, ThinkProgress.org and ColorofChange.org, UPS is finally getting the point.  Recently, the company sent out an email stating that they are no longer going to advertise on The O’Reilly Factor. 

Bill O’Reilly harassed Dr. Boyce Watkins last year in an effort to have him fired from Syracuse University for speaking against his racism during the Obama Campaign.  Watkins had also called for a boycott of Bill O’Reilly’s corporate sponsors.  Keith Olbermann later supported Watkins, stating that O’Reilly’s attacks were unwarranted and that everything that Watkins said was true.

Read the email below:

Thank you for sending an e-mail expressing concern about UPS advertising during the Bill O’Reilly show on FOX News. We do consider such comments as we review ad placement decisions which involve a variety of news, entertainment and sports programming. At this time, we have no plans to continue advertising during this show.

NCAA Responds to Dr. Boyce Watkins Criticism

To join the Your Black World Coalition, please click here

The NCAA Explains its Behavior 

By Dr. Boyce Watkins

www.BoyceWatkins.com

In its effort to impact public perception and in response to those across the nation who’ve critiqued the NCAA’s revenue generation at the expense of college athletes and their families, the league has put something on its website entitled: Behind the Blue Disk: Why Don't You Pay Student-Athletes?

I have provided the statement made by the NCAA, with a “between the lines” short response, explaining why athletes in revenue generating sports deserve to have the same rights the rest of us enjoy as Americans. The arguments used by the NCAA to justify its behavior are eerily similar to those used during slavery, in which the high profitability of the cotton trade led those in power to presume that it was also O.K. to strip other human beings of their labor rights.   Many years ago, some said that slaves were better off under the control of their masters, and that they were actually protecting African Americans by earning excessive profit from their hard work.  Like slavery’s Underground Railroad (which was illegal at the time), coaches and others are sometimes caught giving payments to players beneath the table so these athletes can help their families.  The arguments made by the NCAA can get a bit silly at times, since they are stuck with the difficult task of defending that which cannot be defended.  Even Walter Byers, former Executive Director of the NCAA said “the federal government should require deregulation of a monopoly business operated by not-for-profit institutions contracting together to achieve maximum financial returns.”  Translation:  the NCAA is earning a great deal of money by rigging the economic game in their favor and Congress has been allowing them to do it.  Byers, and many others are saying that the families of athletes deserve to make a living from sports, just like the coaches.

The NCAA’s statement (and my response) is below.  Enjoy!

Dr. Boyce Watkins

www.BoyceWatkins.com

This is America! Student-athletes should get paid!
Critics often cite capitalism as a reason for paying student-athletes. But not everything that looks like capitalism is capitalism.
Higher education and intercollegiate athletics generate significant revenues, but the revenues don’t go to making a profit for owners or shareholders - or campuses or college sports, for that matter. The revenues go to providing increased opportunities for all student-athletes.

Rebuttal: As I mentioned earlier, slaveholders justified taking away labor rights of slaves because they argued that they were using the revenues of slavery to feed the slaves and clothe them.  They neglected to mention that they were making many individuals wealthy in the process.  Today, the NCAA is a non-profit organization, granted.  But coaches, commentators, corporations and administrators earn millions from this non-profit organization every year.  Finally, the NCAA earns more revenue during March Madness than all the other professional sports leagues, including the NBA, NFL, NHL and MLB.  I am a Finance Professor, and I know capitalism when I see it.

Nonetheless, student-athletes are doing the work. They should get paid!
This argument falls apart right from the start because student-athletes are students first who have the opportunity to compete athletically. They are not university employees. As student-athletes, they are among the fortunate few that are able to continue their development in both the competitive arena and the classroom.
Rebuttal: I have seen this system up close for the past 15 years as a professor at 4 universities with major athletics programs.  Student athletes are NOT students first, especially those in basketball and football.  Their scholarships are taken away if they do not perform on the field, they are put in dorms away from the other students, they are expected to miss class to play in games, and their time is so taxed that they barely have a chance to do anything else.  The NCAA hardly runs a “weekend warrior” operation, since athletes bring in more money than nearly any other employee campus.

I’m not buying it. Big-time athletic programs are awash in money.
Wrong! More than 90 percent of NCAA schools consistently lose money on their athletics programs. Most are forced to rely on alternative funding to even field teams. Paying players would only make the problem worse.

Rebuttal: Any school that is not making money from college sports should not be paying its head coach more than $100,000 per year.  Instead, many schools sign deals for as much as $6.5 million per year for football and basketball coaches.  It is a bit nonsensical to attempt to argue that you are wallowing in poverty when your organization is creating millionaire television commentators, coaches, and athletic directors every year.  Additionally, schools don’t have to pay athletes at all.  They should only allow athletes to have the same labor rights as coaches and other Americans.  The athlete can then earn money from his/her own image from sources off campus.  You see?  With just a little bit of intelligence, we can assuage the NCAA’s concerns, as they argue that they are nothing more than harmless paupers barely squeezing by.

Why not eliminate the non-revenue sports and pay the football and men’s basketball players?

Nice try but there is no pot of gold at the end of this rainbow either. In Division I, only 30 percent of football and 26 percent of men’s basketball programs make money. For the pure capitalist, that means more than two out of three football teams and three out of four basketball teams would be in jeopardy because they are losing money. But let’s get beyond the economics. The NCAA is about increasing participation opportunities for all student-athletes, not diminishing them. The benefits of participating in college sports are too valuable to limit to a chosen few in two sports.

Rebuttal: Even a company that is not making a profit should have to fairly compensate its employees.  Additionally, many of the universities who claim to be broke are signing multimillion dollar deals with their coaches (the University of Kentucky just gave its basketball coach $6 million dollars to quit).  If you were to simply redistribute the revenue that the coach earns, your problem would be solved.  Finally, participation for all athletes in non-revenue sports is certainly important, and it is ridiculous to believe that other sports would not exist without the blatant violation of student athlete labor rights.  High schools operate sports programs on far less than the billions earned by the NCAA.    

OK. But aren’t student-athletes being exploited?
Absolutely not. Our ground-breaking studies show most current and former student-athletes appreciate the educational and athletics opportunities that college presents. In general, student-athletes graduate at a higher rate than the general student body. They do so while simultaneously playing the sport they love and preparing for their future as a pro in something other than sports. And let us not forget the average full-ride scholarship at a public school is worth more than $100,000, no small sum by any means. In total, Division I and II institutions cumulatively award $1.5 billion in athletics scholarships each year. Division III does not award athletics aid.

Rebuttal: I am not sure what the NCAA is referring to with their “groundbreaking study” (I hope it’s not as bad as the CBS infomercial they featured me on last year, which included several millionaire coaches and commentators - Coach K at Duke, Clark Kellogg, Billy Packer - explaining why athletes’ families should be left out of the revenue-generating pool).   I also recommend that they do a survey of athletes in revenue-generating sports to determine if they agree with the NCAA’s optimistic assessments of the student athlete experience.  The NCAA seems to work very hard to shape the playing field in their favor, as any unbiased survey would show that athletes in revenue generating sports (and their families) would much rather have their labor rights restored.  In fact, the NCAA almost never engages in public debates to defend their current system (when I spoke on this issue on CNN, the NCAA refused to put someone on the show to debate me.  I speculate that they are nervous about dealing with a Finance Professor and Educator who knows the system and has the ear of African American males).
Does Title IX play a role in this issue?
We’re pretty sure it would. This historic 1972 federal civil rights law has been interpreted to say female student-athletes are to be treated the same as male student-athletes. Although it has never been tested in court, we suspect this same interpretation would apply if colleges started paying either. The penalty for not complying is the loss of federal educational funds, something no college can survive without these days.

Rebuttal: The NCAA does not have to pay anyone.  The argument is that they and Congress should stop restricting the labor rights of college athletes.  They can do the same for female athletes as well.  Hiding behind Title IX simply doesn’t work, since there would be no violation necessary.

Documented benefits of being a student-athlete:

  • They enjoy high levels of engagement in academics, athletics, and community

Rebuttal: I’ve dealt with student athletes for the past 15 years.  Many of them are tired from practicing constantly, USA Today found that they are steered toward particular academic majors, and they are constantly in fear of disobeying their coaches, even if it is to attend class.  Many athletes do not have the sheer joy that the NCAA attempts to present to the American public.  This reminds me of pictures of happy slaves my history teacher used to show in class.

  • They have very positive feelings about their overall athletics/academic experience

Rebuttal: Again, I recommend having an independent body do a survey of former student athletes in revenue-generating sports to determine if their experience was as enjoyable as the NCAA proclaims it to be.  Just ask the family of Curtis Williams, a football player at The University of Washington, who was paralyzed in a game and died a few months later.  The NCAA initially refused to pay for his home care and then later refused to pay his death benefit, even though he was paralyzed on the football field. I would not consider this to be a positive athletic experience.

  • They attribute learning invaluable life skills to being a student-athlete
  • They are more likely to earn similar or higher wages after college than non-student-athletes

Rebuttal: I do not disagree with either of these assessments, since I enjoyed being an athlete when I was young.  However, the idea that someone benefits from something doesn’t imply that you have the right to steal their labor rights.  Those forced into slavery gained tremendous physical strength from picking cotton all day, but that doesn’t justify the master’s criminal behavior.  The bottom line is this:  The NCAA has colluded with Congress to strip fundamental rights from a select group of individuals through a nexus of rules and cartels with serious threat of punishment to those in violation of cartel policies.  This sort of behavior would be illegal in nearly any other industry in America, but it is acceptable to the rest of us because most of the players are Black.

So, as the NCAA argues that such abhorrent behavior is actually helping college athletes, we must remember that a thief who vacuums your carpet is still the guy who broke into your house.  There is no getting around accountability.

Dr. Boyce Watkins is a Finance Professor at Syracuse University and author of “What if George Bush were a Black Man?”  For more information, please visit www.BoyceWatkins.com.

Saturday, March 28, 2009

News: Black History Loses a Major Soldier

photo

John Hope Franklin, one of the most prolific and well-respected chroniclers of America’s torturous racial odyssey, died of congestive heart failure Wednesday in a Durham, N.C., hospital. He was 94.

It was more than Franklin’s voluminous writings that cemented his reputation among academics, politicians and civil rights figures as an inestimable historian. It was the reality that Franklin, a black man, had seen racial horrors up close and thus was able to give his academic work a stinging ballast. Franklin was a young boy when his family lost everything in the Tulsa race riot of 1921. The violence was precipitated by reports that a black youth assaulted a white teenage girl in a downtown elevator. In the end more than 40 people died, mostly blacks, although some reports put the death total much higher.

Franklin was among the first black scholars to earn prominent posts at America’s top — and predominantly white — universities. His research and his personal success helped pave the way both for other blacks and for the field of black studies, which began to blossom on American campuses in the 1960s.

 

Click to read.

Racism or Something Deeper? Notre Dame Doesn’t Want to Hear Obama Speak

Jimmy Carter came to Notre Dame in 1977. So did Ronald Reagan in 1981 and George W. Bush in 2001.

The University of Notre Dame has a tradition of inviting new presidents to speak at graduation. But this year's selection of President Barack Obama has been met by a barrage of criticism that has left some students fearing their commencement ceremony will turn into a circus.

Many Catholics are angered by Obama's planned appearance at the May 17 ceremony because of his decisions to provide federal funding for embryonic stem cell research and international family planning groups that provide abortions or educate about the procedure.

The consensus Thursday on the campus of the nation's most-prominent Catholic university was that any president should be welcomed at Notre Dame.

"People are definitely entitled to their outrage, but I think the main thing is to see that it's an honor to have the president of the United Statescome to speak here whether you agree with him or not," said Katie Woodward, a political science junior from Philadelphia.

Justin Mack, a senior film major from Dallas, agreed.

 

Click to read.

Your Black News: Tennessee May Apologize for Slavery

Tennessee could join the list of Southern states that have apologized for slavery and racial discrimination under a resolution introduced by a Nashville lawmaker.

The General Assembly has started debate on a resolution that would express "profound regret" for enslaving African-Americans and setting up the Jim Crow segregation system. The resolution is meant to draw attention to the legacy of racism in Tennessee.

"This is a step toward racial healing," said the measure's sponsor, Rep. Brenda Gilmore, a Nashville Democrat.

The measure passed its first vote Wednesday in a state Housesubcommittee. One representative, Chattanooga Republican Gerald McCormick, opposed the measure, saying that it would cause division within the state.

"There's no one left alive today who either had slaves or was a slave," McCormick said. "I just feel like we're opening up a wound, and I'd rather move forward rather than look backward."

Five former slave states — Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, Alabama and Florida — have passed legislation in recent years apologizing for slavery. New Jersey has also passed legislation apologizing for its role in the slave trade.

Tennessee lawmakers have tackled the issue as well. Last year, Memphis Congressman Steve Cohen sponsored a resolution in the U.S. House of Representatives apologizing for slavery, and earlier in this decade, former Democratic state Rep. Henri Brooks of Memphis tried to get the Tennessee legislature to apologize.

Click to read.

Details Released on NFL Players Who Died in Boating Accident

An agency investigating a deadly boating accident involving two NFL players and their friends in the Gulf of Mexico has concluded it was caused when the vessel was improperly anchored and the boat capsized after one of them tried to throttle forward to pry loose the anchor.

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission's investigation also cited carelessness and operator inexperience as contributing factors. The combination of errors came at the time a storm front was moving in, making conditions on the water very rough.

Oakland Raiders linebacker Marquis Cooper, free-agent NFL defensive lineman Corey Smith, and former University of South Florida players William Bleakley and Nick Schuyler departed from Clearwater Pass, Fla., early Feb. 28 to go offshore fishing for amberjack.

Schuyler, found clinging to the boat two days later, was the lone survivor. The other three men have not been found.

In an in-depth interview with the agency, Schuyler gave this account of the accident:

 

Click to read.

Friday, March 27, 2009

Lady Drama: Kobe and His Wife Getting Sued

Don't let the smiles fool you b/c apparently Kobe and his wife Vanessa aren't as nice as they seem. That's right, the couple are being sued by their former housekeeper because they treated her like sh*t, LITERALLY. Maria Jimenez claims that Vanessa verbally assaulted her several times, and as if that wasn't bad enough, she was once forced to dig in dog sh*t to get Vanessa's tag. DAMN, now that's messed up!!!

 

Diddy Doesn’t Like Dark-Skinned Women?

diddy-ad

According to a reader that I’ve been corresponding with this afternoon, she received an email for a Ciroc Vodka casting but was disappointed after reading she did not meet the requirements. As she continued to read the casting ad she became outraged and appalled as she was excluded from the job for being neither a white, hispanic or light skinned African American female. This led her to believe that Diddy does not like dark skinned African American woman.  (To his credit, he’s making babies by them…)

My Question is this: Why did it take so long for someone to call Diddy out on this? If you look up the commercials for his “Unforgivable” and “I Am King” cologne, you will notice that Diddy has rarely (if at all) used dark skinned nor African American woman in those ads.  For his Sean John ads, he employed both Cassie and Lauren London who are both light skinned women.

Check out Exhibit A,B,C,D,E & F below…

diddy-sean-johni-am-king-adi-am-king

unforgiveablesean-johnunforgiveable-2

I’m not saying that it’s right but no one has complained about it before.   Check out the reader’s complaint letter to Ciroc plus the Casting Call below:

Click to read.

Black News: Rapper TI Faces Prison Sentencing This Week

World-famous rapper T.I. will appear in a federal courtroom Friday for sentencing on weapons charges related to purchasing machine guns and silencers.

T.I., whose real name is Clifford Harris, has mentored at-risk students as part of his community service.

T.I., whose real name is Clifford Harris, has mentored at-risk students as part of his community service.

T.I., whose real name is Clifford Harris, is expected to be sentenced to one year in prison and be ordered to pay a $100,000 fine, under the terms of a plea agreement reached with authorities last year.

The agreement allowed Harris to remain out of prison for a year while he performed 1,000 hours of community service.

In that time, Harris has completed his hours by mentoring at-risk students at 58 schools, 12 Boys & Girls Clubs, nine churches and many other nonprofit organizations, according to court documents.

Meanwhile, the rapper has released his sixth CD, "Paper Trail," which has sold close to 2 million copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

Harris recently talked to CNN about learning from his mistakes.

"You shouldn't take the things that I've gone through and the negative parts of my life and admire me for that," Harris said. "If anything, admire me for how I've accepted responsibility for the part I've played in placing myself in these situations and what I've done to recover from it."

Click to read.

Thursday, March 26, 2009

Obama’s Television News Conference on the Economy

Click the image to watch President Obama’s recent economic address!

 

 

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Dr Boyce Watkins wages Campaign for NCAA Reform

Here is the schedule for coming media appearances related to the call for NCAA reform by Dr. Boyce Watkins, Finance Professor at Syracuse University.

Boyce Watkins to discuss NCAA and Black athletes on WBCP Radio, Champagne, IL - 3/27/09

Boyce Watkins to appear on Gtown Radio - 3/26/09

Dr. Boyce on NPR to discuss NCAA - 3/26/09

Dr. Watkins to appear on XM Satellite Radio - 3/27/09

Dr Boyce in the Baltimore Sun-Times - 3/25/09

Dr. Boyce discusses the NCAA at Loyola College in Maryland - 3/24/09

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Rapper Trick Daddy Has Lupus

Rapper Trick Daddy recently announced that he has been suffering from Lupus, a disease that affects the skin, for nearly 12 years. As expected Trick is not letting his illness keep him down, he is scheduled to release a autobiography and star in a film this year. So good luck to him, and keep him in your prayers.
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Posted By N. Taylor to Your Black Gossip at 3/23/2009 10:11:00 PM

Saturday, March 21, 2009

The NCAA vs. Black America

Dr. Boyce Watkins is a Professor of Finance at Syracuse University. He frequently appears on CNN, ESPN, and other news networks to discuss his innovative ideas for reforming college athletics. Bleacher Report was thrilled to have an opportunity to interview Dr. Watkins about his belief that college athletes should get paid.

1) People often say that the opportunity to receive a free education
is enough compensation for college athletes. What's wrong with that argument?

A free education is valuable, no one knows that better than a college professor.  The problem is that we can’t assume that $30,000 per year is fair compensation for any job.  If Tom Cruise stars in a blockbuster film, he is going to kick your butt if you try to pay him $30,000, even if you throw room and board in with it.  In America, you get paid what you’re worth.

I see many athletes who are literally responsible for bringing $20M per year into their campuses, yet their mothers are starving to death or homeless.  This should be a shame for us all, since I’ve never seen a D-I college coach’s mother go hungry.

2) If colleges could pay athletes, the wealthier schools would appear to have an advantage. Do you think there would need to be a salary cap or other measures put in place to ensure some parity in college sports?

I am not opposed to the idea of a salary cap, although I haven’t seen a salary cap for coaches.  My goal is not to support preferential treatment for athletes, I only endorse fairness.  I don’t see why coaches and athletes can’t have the same rules.  They are all under the same pressure to win, they are both treated as professionals and expected to produce as professionals.  This pressure doesn’t come from the fact that their campuses love sports so much, it’s because CAMPUSES WANT THE MONEY.   They are pushing these guys much harder on the court and the field than they do in the classroom, because good grades don’t pay university bills; only big wins bring in big paychecks.

But in terms of a salary cap, I would not be opposed to that.  The NCAA is lucky, since they are the only multi-billion sports league that can get away with paying their players 1/100 of what they are worth.  Players would be ecstatic to play for $150,000 per year, which is far less than the millions many of them would earn in a fair market system.  The money wouldn’t have to come from university budgets, they could start by sharing the money coaches get from shoe deals.  After all, the players are the ones we pay to see and they are the ones wearing the shoes.  But as a general rule, the Finance and free market capitalist in me doesn’t like the idea of any kind of government regulation restricting wages.  I am sure coaches wouldn’t like a cap on their wages either.

3) Do you think that recruits should be offered contracts by schools
based on the performance they showed in high school? How would one individual's contract differ from another?

I don’t think that we know all the answers to these questions, but one thing is true: The market knows ALL ANSWERS to ALL QUESTIONS.  In other words, if a player is the next Lebron James, then the schools know what he can do in terms of revenue generation.  I say let them bid it out and the highest bidder wins.  Seriously, who is to say that Rick Pitino is worth $3 million per year?  Nobody says it, there is a negotiation and the price that he gets is what he is worth.  The beauty about the free market is that when the market is fair, open, and efficient, no one gets more than what they are truly worth, since no one pays more than the value of the commodity.

What I love about the NCAA (who expends a tremendous amount of money on their propaganda machine) is that they do a good job of making it seem that paying the athletes would be excessively complicated and nearly impossible.  The problem is that they find a way to get around the complications when it’s time to bring in a coach for $4M dollars per year.  The market works out all complications, because you either get the deal done, or the game doesn’t happen.  They have a lot of PhDs working for them, and we are smart enough to help them work out the complications of their contracts.

The reality is that anyone who exploits someone else, whether it’s the NCAA or a pimp on the street, is always going to find a good excuse for keeping their money in their pocket.  I say this as a financial expert.  I am sure that when Billy Packer or Dick Vitale show up for their multi-million dollar paychecks, they wouldn’t want to hear any reasons that their money isn’t available.  For some reason, they expect athletes and their families to accept these excuses.

4) What should be done regarding sports that bring in very little revenue such as golf, tennis, and track? Would the contracts for these athletes be substantially less?

Yes, they would be.  That’s the way things work in the real world.  I am a professor, and some could argue that educating our youth is far more important than being a Hollywood actor.  However, I will always make less money than (and not be attractive enough to date) Angelina Jolie.  I accept that.

I find it most ironic that when individuals expect payment equity among young athletes, as well as gender equity, they almost never mention the necessity of such equity among the coaches.

Again, going back to a fair market, if an athlete brings revenue to the university, he/she should have the same rights of negotiation that coaches, administrators, corporate sponsors, and everyone else getting paid from his/her labor.  If you simply release the rules and let the market work, you will get the result you are looking for.

5) How would you like to reform the horrendous academic environment in college athletics?

I agree, the environment is horrific.  I’ve seen athletes admitted to college with no expectation that they are ever going to consider graduating.  Money is a drug, and a drug addiction can make any of us lower our standards.  Universities are no different, as many of them abandon their academic missions in exchange for the opportunity to earn a few million dollars off the next superstar from the ghetto.

We must remember that incentives roll downhill. A coach with high graduation rates and a low winning percentage would be fired, while a coach with low graduation rates and a high winning percentage is given a raise and promotion.  This shows blatant disregard for the value of academic success.  I see universities giving coaches blank checks for controlling every aspect of their players’ lives in order to get them ready to play, but they throw their hands up and negate their responsibility to see to it that these young men and women are getting educated.  The excuses are interesting: “We can’t make them study if they don’t want to!”  At the same time, the same coach who claims that he can’t make the athletes study miraculously finds a way to get 80 grown men awake at 6 am for intense weight lifting sessions.  They are able to motivate the athletes to do what coaches deem to be most important.

I don’t completely blame the coaches for these contradictions, I blame the campus.  Coaches understand that they are not going to be rewarded for academic achievement.  Winning, however, is key to their job security.  Campuses should take the lead in putting oversight in place that insures that academic progress is the most important part of any athletics program.  That means that if a player has practice the night before an exam, he/she misses practice.  If they have an exam during a game, they miss the game (even if it is a million dollar game on ESPN).  THAT, my friend, is the life of a student athlete. Right now, college athletes live the lives of professionals.

6) If you were named President of the NCAA, what other changes might you make other than compensating athletes?

I am hesitant to be an armchair quarterback on the NCAA, primarily because I believe that many of the administrators in the NCAA know that what they are doing is wrong.  In fact, Walter Byers, the former executive director of the NCAA has reversed his position and stated that athletes should be paid.  Honestly, anyone with common sense realizes that if you earn millions for someone else, you deserve more than a college scholarship.  I believe that Myles Brand, in spite of the propaganda exercise performed by he and CBS Sports last year (in an attempt to refute my analysis), knows that he would never allow himself or his coaches to operate under the same constraints, penalties and exploitation placed on athletes and their families (especially if his mother were getting evicted, as many of these players come from poverty).  In fact, I found it quite ironic that nearly every participant in the CBS sports special was earning at least a few hundred thousand dollars per year while simultaneously explaining to athletes and their families why they shouldn’t get any of that money.

Beyond paying the athletes, I would make a decision: either the NCAA is going to be a professional organization or an amateur one.  It’s not going to be a hybrid.  A truly amateur organization doesn’t have coaches earning as much as $4M dollars per year.  Coaches earn no more than, say, $80,000 per year.

  • An amateur organization doesn’t fire losing coaches with high graduation rates and reward winning coaches with low graduation rates—any coach hired by the NCAA is expected to not only teach at the university, he/she is expected to ensure that academic achievement is first and foremost in the life of each athlete.
  • The rules should disappear: why can’t players transfer to other schools without being penalized?  Coaches leave in the middle of the season all the time.  Why is it illegal for athletes to receive compensation from outside entities?  Coaches take money from whomever they please.   Athletes are given the same responsibilities as adults, told to behave as adults, yet we put rules in place that treat them like children.  Again, anyone who exploits another human being, whether it’s the NCAA or a corrupt warlord in a third world country, is going to place constraints on you and then guise his/her motivations by claiming that the rules are in place for your protection.  That is the consistent theme of the NCAA’s justification for controlling their student athletes.  But their desire to protect the athlete goes out the window when an athlete gets into trouble, loses his/her eligibility or loses his/her scholarship for not being able to perform on the field.
  • The NCAA needs to redefine its mission and be honest with the world.  Right now, it is an elephant with bunny ears, swearing that it’s nothing but a harmless little rabbit.  The truth is that the NCAA is exactly what it appears to be: a professional sports league.  So, rather than allowing me to become the head of the NCAA, I would rather be the head of the House Ways and Means Committee, which initiated an investigation into the NCAA and began to question its non-profit status.  A bureaucratic beast that has grown so deformed with contradictions needs to be deconstructed and rebuilt in a model of fairness.  As it stands, the NCAA exists in stark contrast to the values most of us embrace as Americans.  I’ve seen it up close over the past 15 years and it bothers the heck out of me.

Check out Dr. Watkins' website http://www.yourblackworld.com/. Your Black News. Your Black Life. Your Black World.

Friday, March 20, 2009

CHARLAMAGNE THA GOD SPEAKS OUT

You people kill me. When I say people I mean the so called new media; the bloggers and websites who have taken it upon themselves to be the so called journalists of this generation. I say so called because many of you are not journalists at all. In fact there is no journalistic integrity in 95% of the bullshit yall report. All you do is take rumors, gossip and down right lies and report them as fact. Think of all the blog rumors you have ever read. Do any of these blogs ever get proven as fact? I'm sure a few do, but when I say a few it's only about 5% because as I stated earlier 95% of what's reported is bullshit. There is no investigative journalism that goes into your stories.  If I call a blogger right now and say, "Yo, I heard such and such got beat up last night," they will say, "Word?" "Let me make a few calls." Within minutes on their blog you see there is a rumor on there that says "Such and Such got beat up last night." What investigative journalism did you do to insure that "such and such" really did get beat up last night? You didn't do any research because you don't care about journalism. You care about getting your story up before necolebitchie.com or gyantscoop.com.   You are more concerned with generating traffic to your blog or website than you are about reporting a factual story. That's the problem with the game today; if video killed the radio star then the Internet killed the journalist.

You know what our culture needs more of? We need more real journalists to write blogs.  We need more real activist and intellectual thinkers like Boyce Watkins and Michael Eric Dyson to do video blogs and talk about the issues that effect our people on a daily basis. Think of all the hits that sites like mediatakeout.com and bossip.com get. There comes a point when you have to ask yourself why there is not more positive content on these sites? Why aren't real issues being addressed? How come everyone cares about Chris Brown whipping Rihanna's ass? Is it right for a man to hit a woman? Hell no? Does it happen on a daily basis, hell yeah! I've put my foot up a female's ass a couple times (when I was younger and believe me I got bad karma for it) but what is the issue? Or you blog sites and websites reporting it because your trying to make people realize that domestic violence is and issue that needs to be addressed or is your site just reporting it because it's Chris Brown and Rihanna?

 

Click to read.

Thursday, March 19, 2009

Rapper 50 Cent Talks Big on His Business Model

In a recent video with KING magazine 50 Cent was all talk about his role as a business man. As we all know 50 is a little cocky so it is no surprise that he thinks he's one of the top business moguls out, emphasis on HE THINKS, because I don't think everyone else feels that way. For a sneak peek at what he had to say check it out below.
Who has the best model for staying relevant to fans?

Puffy has the best model for staying relevant, because [he does it] without a song. He’s been able to maintain an interest and stay in a space to executive produce television and film projects, and stay relevant to hip-hop culture. What was the last record that made you feel like, ‘Oh, my God, Puffy is on fire’? You don’t need it. That’s what makes his business model exciting to me. There are only three of us to look at: Jay, [me] and Puff. [We have] three totally different situations. We’ve just been a part of hip-hop culture. That’s the similarity. I still think they’ll be relevant. I just think they’re like the fire hydrant: You can’t move those guys out of the street. I think they’ll [still] be the guys you need to connect with [to] get a shot.
Keep on wishing 50, you aren't anywhere near Diddy and Jay Z status. After all your show got canceled after how many episodes???
--
Posted By N. Taylor to Your Black Gossip at 3/18/2009 01:47:00 PM

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

How to Set Goals and Achieve Them

by Lawrence Watkins

Kevlar is a material that is five times stronger, but is lighter and more flexible than steel on an equal weight basis. It is used in many products ranging from bulletproof vests and cables to sports and audio equipment. It has been around for over 40 years and more uses are being discovered for this “wonder” material every day. When I think about goal setting, Kevlar provides a great analogy on how individuals should structure their inherent wants and desires for maximum clarity and performance. When creating the mastermind plan for your life, you should have strong goals that challenge you, yet have enough flexibility to change your path if a great new opportunity comes your way.

As Lewis Carroll eloquently said in Alice in Wonderland:

“Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?” said Alice.
“That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,” said the Cat.
“I don’t much care where…” said Alice.
“Then it doesn’t matter which way you go,” said the Cat.

It is easy for a person to become diverted from fulfilling his/her passions and true calling. It becomes even easier if you do not have an end goal in mind, similar to the way Alice was feeling in Wonderland. I do not want you to be in Wonderland and you should not want to be! The most important thing is not for your goals and vision to be perfect. The most important thing is to aim for at least the general vicinity on where you want to be.

In the classic self-help book Psycho-Cybernetics, Dr. Maxwell Maltz talks about humans’ innate self-correcting mechanism. As humans, we have a trait that automatically guides us to self-improvement. Think about the basketball player who endlessly improves his/her jump shot or the foreigner who learns a second language well into adulthood. Each person has an end goal and they learn from their deliberate practices by correcting their mistakes when they veer from their original course. We can harness this self-correcting power to accelerate the goal achievement process. However, it all starts with knowing a general direction on where you want to go. You can relate this concept to riding a bike. Have you ever ridden a bike standing still? I haven’t. The bike only stays balanced as you are pedaling and pushing forward.

Now that we have talked about why creating a vision is important let’s get into the fundamentals of the life vision development process.

Developing your Kevlar Vision

There is a lot of debate on whether your overarching vision should be all encompassing or narrow in scope. Proponents of having a narrow vision say that this is to keep you focused on the end goal and enable you to not become distracted by items that do not line up with your plan. A simple example of this goal forming process would be to become a CEO of a Fortune 100 company whose work focuses on telecommunications. This vision is very focused and allows the goal-setter a specific task in which to focus.

Another strategy is to have your vision statement flexible and all encompassing. An example of this is Google. Their mission statement is “to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.” No part of this mission has to do with creating a great search engine or text advertisements. This structure gives Google the freedom to change with the times and not have a myopic view of what it originally set out to accomplish.

I am a strong proponent of the Google strategy over the first example which gives a very focused vision. As I previously mentioned in a prior article, my mission is “to become a tycoon politically, socially, and economically so that I can have a positive impact on my community.” I originally developed this statement my junior year of college and I strategically tweak it every year. I use this statement as a guide to make both large and small decisions in my life. When I decided to forgo corporate America to start my own business, I used my mission statement as guidance. When it came time to decide on a business school, I continued to use this statement as a guide.

Use Backward Planning To Set Your Vision

Imagine that you are about to attend one of the most important events in your life. It will be held in a room big enough to hold your friends, family, and others who are important to you. The room is conservatively decorated and at the front is a large table with candles all around. In the middle of the table is a large box. What is in this box? YOU! It was a celebration of your life and there was not a dry eye in the place. Coming from the back of the room is an old friend with a tape recorder playing your voice. You are explaining to the people close to you about your life. How would this story go? What did you want out of life? What did you value most? Who did you wish to be? Answering these questions is the first step of developing your Kevlar vision.

Backward planning is a process of starting with your end goal(s) and working backwards to create an action plan to achieve the aforementioned goal. You cannot plan any further out than your funeral! Once you truthfully answer the previously questions, you can then work backward and think about what you need to do to turn your vision into a reality. Remember, the intermediate goals do not have to be concrete, just make them like Kevlar and rely on your self-correcting mechanisms to guide your course. Life is nothing but a series of decades, years, months, weeks and days. People always look far to the future and say that they want to live an extraordinary life. But how are you going to live an extraordinary life if you wake up thinking you want to have an ordinary day? Backward planning is an important step to an extraordinary life.

Guidelines for creating powerful goals

Chicken Soup for the Soul author, Jack Canfield, defines a goal as “the ongoing pursuit of a worthy objective until accomplished.” I want to walk you through some of the attributes you may want to look for when deciding on your goals.

Your Most Important Goals Must be Yours

This sounds obvious, but many people have their life purpose created by someone else. These people may be your parents, a spouse, friends, etc. I have a friend who is a doctor at a prestigious hospital. He is making great money while helping sick patients become well. The only problem is that he is miserable. When asked why he went into medicine he states, “My grandfather was a doctor, my father is a doctor, so my parents told me I was going to be a doctor too.” You only have the chance to live life once. Do you really want to spend your life living someone else’s dreams? When you let someone else, or society, determine your definition of success, you are sabotaging your future. I do not condone lying, however, the last person you should ever lie to is yourself, especially when it comes to planning your life.

A technique that I use to make sure that my most important goals are my own is continuously asking myself one question. What do I really want out of life? The introspective process of regularly asking this question helps you to focus and organize your goals and determine what is really most important to you.

Your goals must be meaningful

The pursuit of meaningful goals will help you achieve greatness much quicker than the pursuit of non-meaningful goals. This is because meaningful goals are exciting and a person does not mind putting in the extra effort to accomplish them. This is analogous to school. Have you ever had a class that was too easy? The class was so easy that you did not offer the proper effort and instead of excelling you underperformed? Suddenly, the class that was a definite “A”, turned into a “B” or worse? I have done this numerous times. In fact, this was the story of my middle school and high school years. The classes did not challenge me enough and I did not perform anywhere near my highest potential or capability. Granted, in grade school you do not have as much control over your life compared to your adult years, however, individuals show symptoms of this problem well into their adult life.

Subsequently, total commitment to your goals is a critical ingredient if you want to be the best person you can be. This is true for both professional and personal goals. I recently finished the book Call Me Ted, which is an autobiography of the billionaire, Ted Turner. Turner’s father was a successful and wealthy billboard entrepreneur back in the 1960’s. Although successful in his career, the elder Turner was depressed and ended up committing suicide in his forties. In the book, Turner hypothesized why his father committed suicide. He is confident that the reason was that his father did not set his goals high enough, resulting in a lack of purpose for his life. Our situations may not be that dramatic, but as philosopher Jim Rohn once said,

“There are two major pains in life. One is the pain of discipline, the other is the pain of regret. Discipline weighs ounces, but regret weighs tons when you allow your life to drift unfulfilled.”

Your goals must be measurable

Although your vision statement needs to be flexible and answer questions about your life’s intents and purposes, the intermediate goals and objectives need to be firm. Management guru Peter Drucker says that “What gets measured gets managed.” This is true in business and in life. Remember, a goal without a number is just a slogan. It is easier for your brain to operate day-to-day on concrete items as opposed to the abstract. Both are important, but concrete is more important to execution.

Conclusion

I cannot stress enough the importance of developing a strong, but flexible vision for one’s life. Do not underestimate the power of the self-correcting mechanism present within each of our lives. I use this concept when initially training people who work within my company. You will be surprised by what you can accomplish by aiming even for the general vicinity of your ultimate goal. If you do not remember anything else I have written, please remember one thing . . . If you aim for the stars, you will at least hit the moon! Always aim for something!

Lawrence Watkins is the CEO of the Great Black Speakers Bureau.  For more information, please visit www.GreatBlackSpeakers.com.

Black News: Bebe Winans Charged with Assault

BeBe Winans attends a post show reception for "The Color Purple" at the Broadway Theatre, in New York.

Grammy-winning gospel singer Benjamin (BeBe) Winans has been charged with misdemeanor domestic assault after a dispute with his ex-wife in Nashville.

An arrest warrant filed Wednesday said 46-r-old Winans got into an argument with his ex-wife, Debra, aboutyea their children at her home.

"He pushed me to the ground in front of my children," Debra Winans told CNN.

 

Click to read.

 

Sunday, March 15, 2009

Stallworth, Browns Player Hits Pedestrian

Mario Reyes was a family man, a loving husband and father. He came to South Florida from Cuba as a teenager and became an overnight crane operator in Miami.

Still, his family said he couldn’t afford a car and was forced to take the bus to work. Saturday, police said he was killed when a Bentley driven by Cleveland Browns wide receiver Donte Stallworth collided with him on a causeway linking Miami and Miami Beach.

Reyes was headed to the bus stop.

“He spent all his free time with his family,” Reyes’ brother-in-law, Francisco Fajardo, told The Associated Press on Sunday. “He was on his way home.”

Reyes had worked all night at his job with the shipping company Bernuth Agencies, located just feet from the crash. The phone rang unanswered at the company on Sunday.

His family and co-workers said he had clocked out only minutes before the accident around 7 a.m.

“When the time came for him to leave, he grabbed his stuff and headed to the bus stop out front,” co-worker Renier Calana told The Miami Herald. She worked with Reyes unloading cargo containers from the Port of Miami.

 

Click to read.

Thursday, March 12, 2009

Terrence Howard Turns Down Major Paper

Last October, Terrence Howard refused an opportunity to reprise his role as Tony Stark's friend James Rhodes in the sequel to the blockbuster movie 'Iron Man.' Now thatSamuel Jackson has signed with Marvel Entertainment to do a multi-film deal as Nick Fury of S.H.I.E.L.D., there is more reason to believe that Howard's decision may have been penny wise and pound foolish.

When Howard rejected what he considered a low-ball offer from Marvel, it wasn't clear what the company was going to do with the Iron Man franchise. After the movie made $600 million last summer, a sequel was a no-brainer. But the deal with Samuel Jackson highlights a strategy of making long-term commitments to characters that may make actors more eager to sign with Marvel in the future. Jackson signed a nine-film deal where he will play the Nick Fury character across several Marvel franchises including 'Thor,' 'Captain America' and 'The Avengers,' with a movie about S.H.I.E.L.D. also a possibility. Although he too felt Marvel low-balled their initial offer to him, over several months of back-and-forth Jackson was able to negotiate a landmark deal that will guarantee him paychecks for several years to come.

Click to read.

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Black News: NBA Headed for Financial Doom?

Commissioner David Stern says the NBA and union might have to make "some adjustments" to the labor contract when it expires in two years, but he foresees no "doomsday scenario" for the league because of the current economic crisis.

Minnesota Timberwolves coach Kevin McHale said recently the NBA had entered its own "Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac era of subprime loans" because of player salaries. He added that players will need to make substantial concessions at the bargaining table.

Agent David Falk predicted to The New York Times that the next round of talks will be "very, very extreme," and owners could shut down the league for a year or two if the players don't agree to the owners' demands.

"I'd just say the 'doomsday scenario' is that the NBA is somehow going to be irretrievably damaged by some event or another," Stern said Monday at George Washington University, where Washington Wizardsowner Abe Pollin was inducted into the School of Business Sports Executives Hall of Fame. "The predictions of the demise of the NBA were frequent and profound [over the years], and they've always been wrong."

 

Click to read.

Black Sports Report – 3/11/09

Click the image to listen!

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Life For Bush after the Whitehouse?

Baltimore NAACP VP Arrested for Drugs

Baltimore City police arrested the vice president of Baltimore's NAACP on Thursday after heroin and marijuana were recovered during a search of his car.

Joe Sviatko, a spokesman for the State's Attorney's Office, said prosecutors have declined to prosecute the case because they do not believe it can be proven beyond a reasonable doubt.

Police said Ellis L. Staten Jr., 44, who is also an executive committee member of the National Association of the Advancement of Colored People Maryland Conference, was in the driver's seat of a car that had stopped near Pennsylvania Avenue and Dolphin Street.

 

Click to read.

Monday, March 9, 2009

Chris Brown is Not a Monster – CNN, Boyce Watkins

Click the image to watch the video.  In this clip, Dr. Boyce Watkins appears on CNN to say that “Chris Brown is not a monster”. 

Marc Lamont Hill on Michael Steele

by Dr. Marc Lamont Hill

Columbia University

Over the past week, the political world has been tuned into a highly 
unusual soap opera involving Republican Committee Chair Michael Steele  and conservative radio jock Rush Limbaugh. After Limbaugh was publicly  lambasted for stating that he wanted President Obama’s agenda to fail,  Democratic leaders wisely used the moment as an opportunity to anoint  the polarizing pundit as the de facto leader of the GOP. Steele, the  actual leader of the party, dismissed Limbaugh as a mere “entertainer”  whose show trades in “ugly” and “incendiary” remarks. Limbaugh soon  fired back, telling Steele to do his job and to stop acting like a  “talking head media star.”

Of course, partisan infighting is not uncommon in politics –though 
such public spats are typically the property of the Democrats.  The 
difference, however, has been the party’s response. Instead of 
rallying around its newly appointed leader Steele, GOP honchos have 
either taken the side of Rush Limbaugh or remained conspicuously 
silent. Even Steele himself caved into Limbaugh, apologizing for his 
remarks and removing any lingering doubt about who the real don is.
By allowing Michael Steele to be publicly undressed by a party 
extremist, Republicans have tacitly confirmed what many of us already  knew: they haven’t changed one bit. Despite their post-November promises to rise above bitter partisanship, the GOP decided to cosign  Limbaugh’s antipatriotic machinations. Instead of living up to their  promise to broaden their message and appeal, Republicans have instead opted to defer to the steward of its most vile, ignorant, and bigoted  constituency. Most disturbingly, they have legitimized their antidemocratic enterprise by hiring a black man,  but giving him no more political muscle than the queen of England.


To be clear, I am not trying to diss Michael Steele, who I know 
personally and like a great deal despite our political differences. My 
concern is that the seductive aroma of power and prestige have 
diverted his attention from the harsh realities of his circumstance. 
Like many prominent African Americans, Steele has climbed the heights  of white society under the false premise that he is being judged purely on merit rather than color. This couldn’t be further from the  truth. While the Republican party is willing to use Steele’s black  face to celebrate its ostensible progress, it is equally committed to  reducing him to nothing more than a paper champion. Hopefully, Brother  Steele will stop drinking the Kool-Aid long enough to recognize this  and come back home.

Saturday, March 7, 2009

NBA Great Barkley Goes to Jail

Basketball great Charles Barkley began serving a three-day sentence in Arizona's infamous Tent City on Saturday, jailed by the same sheriff whose autobiography he endorsed 12 years ago.

Charles Barkley bristled at the implication he should be wearing stripes instead of a red-and-bue sweatsuit.

Charles Barkley bristled at the implication he should be wearing stripes instead of a red-and-bue sweatsuit.

"You come here when you screw up," Barkley said at a news conference hours after he reported at the Maricopa County jail. "I don't blame anybody for this situation but myself."

Barkley, 45, pleaded guilty last month to misdemeanor drunken-driving charges stemming from a New Year's Eve arrest after he left a Scottsdale, Arizona, nightclub.

A judge sentenced him to 10 days in jail, but his sentence was reduced in exchange for Barkley's attending an alcohol-awareness course.

At the news conference, Barkley sat next to Sheriff Joe Arpaio, the self-proclaimed "Toughest Sheriff in America." Arpaio is known for giving inmates old-fashioned, black-and-white-striped uniforms, making some of them live in tents andreinstituting chain gangs, even for women.

"I'm an equal incarcerator," Arpaio said of Barkl

Click to read.

Tuesday, March 3, 2009

Jason Taylor Gets Cut from Skins

In this Oct. 12, 2008, file photo, Washington Redskins linebacker Jason Taylor sits on the bench during an NFL football game against the St. Louis Rams in Landover, Md. The Redskins have released Taylor, one year after signing the former NFL defensive player of the year.

After a year of “Dancing With the Stars” and struggling with the Washington Redskins, Jason Taylor wanted some family time.

He’s got his wish.

The former NFL defensive player of the year’s disappointing turn in the nation’s capital came to an end Monday when he was cut by the Redskins for refusing to commit to the team’s offseason workout program.

The Redskins wanted to add a workout clause to Taylor’s hefty contract, but the 34-year-old defensive end declined. The clause would have required Taylor to take part in 25 days of offseason workouts.

“He wanted to spend the offseason with his family,” said Taylor’s agent, Gary Wichard. “He just kind of chose family over going up there.”

The flap is reminiscent of last year, when Taylor clashed with the Miami Dolphins for competing in “Dancing With the Stars” rather than working out with the team in the offseason. Taylor finished second to Kristi Yamaguchi on the reality television show, then was shipped by the Dolphins to the Redskins.

That meant Taylor spent virtually the entire year apart from his wife and children in Florida.

“He had been away for four months in Los Angeles, then he got back to Miami and then he got traded,” Wichard said. “He wanted to spend time with his three kids.”

 

click to read.

Monday, March 2, 2009

Black News: Filmmaker Tyler Perry to Buy an Island

Tyler Perry Plans Private Island Purchase for His 40th

Tyler Perry can soon add yet another feat to his list of accomplishments: island owner!
When the movie mogul turns the big 4-0 this September, he plans to join the ranks of David Copperfield and Mel Gibson with the purchase of the ultimate getaway.
"I'm a loner by nature, so when I'm out there on these islands, I just feel like the only person in the world," says Perry, whose latest film, Madea Goes to Jail, grossed a whopping $41 million its opening weekend.
After recently spending a week vacationing on a private island in the Great Exumas in the Bahamas, he admits it's not all relaxation: "Renting an island is the best place for me to work uninterrupted."

 

Click to read.