In Black America; Super Bowl XXXI with Reggie Roberts

From the Longhorn Radio Network, the University of Texas of Austin, this is in Black America. We're in the locker room of halftime. We felt as though we couldn't break a return on it. They had pretty good coverage, but we saw things that we felt as though we can exploit coming out into the second half. We didn't get the return that we won on the first one after halftime, but the second one, we felt as though we can really break a big one. As I was running through the middle, I just basically followed Don BB, you know, I've been saying all along that the guys on my special team or a return team, though we didn't get the pro-bowl acknowledgment, we knew that we were the best return team in the league

and I have full confidence in them at all times. I think a lot of people focused on the punt return aspect of it, but we also have a good kickoff return team too, and I guess people forgot about that because Don BB scored so early in the season on the kickoff return that people didn't really pay much attention to it. Those guys did an excellent job, I mean the wedge blocked their assignments correctly, the hole was there. I just tried to hit the hole at full tilt and make the kicker miss. After that, you know, we pretty much knew it was a touchdown. Desmond Howard, MVP of Super Bowl 31. On Sunday, January 26th, a National Football League held his championship game between the NFC Green Bay Packers and the AFC New England Patriots. The Green Bay Packers, the cell phone on the team, to be defeated the Patriots 35-21 and Super Bowl 31, they claimed their first NFL title in some 29 years. Desmond Howard was picked up off the NFL scrap heap, a so-called first round Heisman Trophy

bust. He was dropped by Washington and Jacksonville after four subpar seasons, returned to kickoff 99 yards for a touchdown, the longest in Super Bowl history. Earlier, his long punt returns set up Green Bay's first touchdown and a field goal and earned him the Pete Rosale Trophy as the game's most valuable player, the first for a special team's member. I'm John L. Hanson Jr. and welcome to another edition of In Black America. On this week's program, Super Bowl 31 in Black America. It's really surprising simply because we have so much talent on this team. Obviously, this isn't something that just happened today, it hasn't happened throughout the course of the year. I've been the best attorney in the league throughout the course of this year, but we have so much talent on this team.

We have Reggie White, we have Brett Farber, and Brett is like basically my MVP. I have a lot of respect for Brett because he went through the whole rehab thing and as opposed to being commended for realizing he had a problem and taking care of it, it seemed like he was unfairly scrutinized and criticized for it. But Brett, he's such a good parent, he said, okay, well that's what you guys want to approach it. And he came out here and had a hell of a season and he's a world champ and to me that's what it's all about. When the Green Bay Packers met the New England Patriots in New Orleans on January 26, it marked the eighth time the NFL Championship game had been played in New Orleans. Only Miami comes close to that record. The NFL's fondness for the Crescent City has been clear since almost the beginning of Super Bowl history. New Orleans made a successful pitch for a Super Bowl 4, which was such a hit that the championship game returned two years later. Those were followed by Super Bowl 9, 12, 15, 20, 24, and now 31. Having the world's mega vending machine has tremendous economic benefits.

The Super Bowl this year brought some $250 million to the New Orleans area for basically a four day event. To put that into perspective, New Orleans jazz and heritage festival bringing some $200 million over 10 days. Of course with the Super Bowl there's an indirect benefit to the city that it's perhaps just as valuable, free publicity. At this year's Super Bowl some 3,000 journalists were following ports on the week long festivities. But who coordinates all those events? In Black America found who that person was. His name is Reggie Roberts, NFC director of information. Mr. Roberts has been with the National Football League for seven years. He is a former sports reporter with the Austin American Statement. We caught up with Mr. Roberts the Monday after Super Bowl 31. My department in New York, our department has 20 people in it and without question with the hardest working department that we've worked during the season, you know, 12, 13, 14

hour days. During the postseason we've worked 15, 16 hour days, you know, during the season it's stuff and it's a grind. There's a lot that goes into feeding the thing that we call the NFL Public Relations Monster. How Davis wants commented that if President Nixon had the NFL Public Relations machine, he'd still be in office and it's probably right because there's a reason why our game is the number one game in America. There's a reason for it. One, we got great athletes and two, we publicized it very well and, you know, that ended up itself making mistakes when we were number one. You've got the idea of the type of information on the flyman information that's disseminated, say on a daily or weekly basis. During the regular season, we may put out anywhere from 15 to 30 releases a week based on everything that's going on from a league perspective.

We do the weekly capsules, which are matchups of the weekly games. We do the players of the week release, depending on what time of the month it is, player of the month release. We do educational initiatives that feature our players in the NFL teacher of the year and the NFL teacher of the month, NFL extra effort, which is the release we do, which highlights the showcase of players who are doing our standing work to the community. We do a thing that I write, Paul R. NFL Minority releases, which are basically our profile pieces that profile African-American athletes, trainers, team doctors, assistant coaches, people who are players, fun, obviously, win our league, but specifically Taylor to black publications, black news, favorite, black media in the country. We basically write profile pieces and send out these profile pieces with a 8 by 10 black

and white picture, a photograph of the subject. We found that these pictures and these stories are run verbatim in black publications. We do this thing called NFL update, which is basically updates our sponsors and fans about various things that are happening in the league with, for example, Desmond Howe. Desmond Howe is going to be an NFL update in the United States, he was super on MVP and all the information that goes with that. In a given week during the regular season, we'll probably turn out anywhere from 25 to 30 releases a week during the regular season. In our season, it kind of slacks back a little bit because it's not as intense. The teams aren't playing and they're all players have gone. But we basically redo everything we do. We have to do for the two prepare for the 1997. We were updated record and fact book. We update the black book.

We work on this final statistical book. We prepare for the draft, which is one of my projects. We're going to the NFL Scouting Combine, we're going to the NFL Public Relations. The marketing meeting, I mean, it sits full with year-round full deal on the 1993 off season. The league hired, I think there were, we hired 28 people of color in either mid-management or upper-management positions. Which was amazing. I don't think that had been done at the National Football and Prior to Paul Tignover's Commission, where several, in the recent years, he's added several Black Sabbaths, Gene Washington, former 49er players, now on the key Advocacy Commission, technically serves as Director of Football Operations. In Gene's role, he sits on the Competition Committee, he helps him on the policy. He has his hand and his finger on the pulse of what's going on with our players as far as on the field, what cosmetic changes and what on field changes we need to make in that he sits on the Competition Committee.

Commission also hired Dr. Lim Burnham, who is a PhD, has done some work with the Philadelphia Eagles and with the Baltimore Orioles. He is a psychologist, and he works with a more sort of an effort of the NFL, called NFL Player Programs, which helps players with career internships, community financial planning. And at that aspect of the business, it helps players make the transition from life and football. So, you know, he's done his part as far as bringing more African-American people of color and women to the NFL Football Office. We have the conclusion of Super Bowl Week, it's Monday, the day after the Super Bowl. What does it take for the NFL to put on the spectacular event, year in and year out? You know, it's an interesting question. The preparation, you probably won't believe this, but we have people now in two weeks who will be in San Diego, working on Super Bowl 32.

We, during the course of the year, our people of Mexico starts on preliminary meetings, going to San Diego, meeting with the members of the host committee, meeting with members of the hotel, going to the hotel to kind of put together math out, the media work, the center of the media lounge, hotel that will have our transportation people going in, working out routes. We'll have our special events people looking for part places to have parties. We'll have our special people, events people going to some of the concert shows around that see who's hot, what actually can bring Super Bowl. I mean, it's a year-long process, you know, obviously the crunch time where it starts once we know who the teams are, where we're going to be. But our special various departments of the NFL are in motion now, you know, the day after the Super Bowl.

It's like we've already had meetings with San Diego with the officials of San Diego to bring about that Super Bowl. So it's already starting. Because you give us an idea of the number of volunteers, staffers that it takes to facilitate basically everything it needs to get done here at Super Bowl. It's about, just a minute from the media relations part alone, which is what I'm involved in. There's probably, you know, we probably had anywhere from, you know, three to four hundred volunteers. We belong with runners, people at the stadium, game day personnel, staff runners, Aaron runners. Listen, it's an enormous thing. I've been to the NBA final, I've been to the World Series. I've been in the NBA also, in basketball and baseball, determined this job, marketing and promoting their game. But the World Series and the NBA finals are nowhere close to the attention and the media attention that the Super Bowl gets on the fourth time in January every year.

So you know, we're close. And I was at Yankee Stadium, the 19th Yankee's won game six, the World Series, when they beat Atlanta. And it just wasn't, it wasn't your four or three, but it wasn't the same. I mean, it wasn't the same energy and it wasn't the same hoop club, the same buildup. And the person who gets credit for that is Pete Roselle as far as building a Super Bowl into a two week height event that it is. It involves millions of people. One thing the Commission tagged about this year when he was thinking of volunteers, he made sure that we included a lot of African-American participation in this year's Super Bowl. And a lot, I don't know if you notice, but there were a lot of African-American businesses involved getting the piece of the Super Bowl, all the money that's generated in the Super Bowl City. We built them. We built a million dollar youth center. Like, as we do every year in a Super Bowl City, we built a million dollar youth center. We used to call youth education town, which is a center that's going to have internet

kiosks. It's going to have $75,000 worth of weight training equipment, $400,000 worth of computer equipment and internet stuff. So, you know, this is the kind of ideas that are coming from the Commission tagging and that you'll see. Some other things that we're going to announce in the devolves. New Orleans has hosted, as of yet to the eight Super Bowl, what makes the relationship between the National Football League and New Orleans such a happy marriage? There are two things, one, logistics. You're in a situation where you've got a very, very large hotel walking business from the Super Bowl, which makes it ideal to have our headquarters. I can't tell you how much of a convenience it is for us to, especially as much as I've spent at the stadium during the last two weeks as far as from the end of the day in press

obligation. It's kind of nice that I have to get in a car and drive on a highway and go 15, 20 miles to the stadium wing. All you've got to do is get out of a meeting, walk down stairs, and five minutes to the stadium. So, I think that's one thing. The physical part is a big factor as to why we play here. Second thing is New Orleans is such a historic city, it's known for its night life, it's known for hoopla, it's known for its great food. All the things that we want the Super Bowl and the NFL to be known for. So, when you mix the world's greatest sporting event with one of the world's greatest cities, we get playing the Super Bowl in New Orleans eight times, and we'll be back here. The people here that listen to it better and better every year, we, for all the indications we've had, we had a Super Bowl, it's a great experience for everybody, the host committee

without standing, there were no major problems this week that we were aware of, so we'll be back. We'll be back here. Can a young African American dream of becoming a Reggie Roberts, say I want to work for the National Football League? You know what? Absolutely. You know, I was very fortunate in that I got a break when I was 24 years old when I was working in Austin. The goal was to, and I almost got there, the year, the summer that I left, I wanted to be carrying the University of Texas football team, and that's that spring aspect of the entire spring covering the football team. My last story was I covered the Orange and White game, and I had a real big, I think I did a 50 inch piece on McWilliams, and he was there on guard as way out, and I got the call to go to New York, and I did that. But the reason I got that calls was I was prepared, I have to be prepared.

You know, I spend a lot of time now going to schools and Harlem, going to schools and the Bronx. People I met in New York who have asked me to come speak to their class, and the one thing that I'm finding that a lot of kids, you know, a lot of our children, a lot of our African-American children, they're just unaware of the opportunities that are out there for them. I mean, the style is the limit as far as what you want and what you can achieve, but just, you got to know where to go and how to get there, and the key thing is you have to be prepared. And what I mean by that, if you're aspiring to be a public relations person, if you're aspiring to be a German, if you're aspiring to be a math, I don't care what it is, you have to be able to communicate, you have to be able to write well. People aren't going to look at you, I mean, wherever it is, whether it be, whether it is, if you want to teach at MIT, or if you want to, whatever, you know, you got to be able to put some sentences together, without that, at all, the whole process breaks down.

You got to get out and network, you got to get out and meet people, you got to get out and get your name out there. I mean, a lot of kids who are fresh out of school, they tell me things like, well, you know, yeah, I graduated, but I didn't, you know, I told them, did you work anywhere, did you do any interest? No, but I had a high GPA, well, you know, you have to do something that sets you apart from the other 32,000 college graduates in journalism every year. And by that, I mean, you got to do an internship at a newsroom, you got to work for free, go work for a nonprofit, volunteer to write somebody's press releases for them and get their stuff in the paper. All these, the more experiences you have, I'll set you apart from two people and three people. You know, all it does is increase your chances of getting employed, getting hired and getting to the big time. So, yeah, you know, another thing that I try to do is, I always try to identify and develop young black populations people, the two gentlemen who were here this weekend, who I know one

guy who works at Grammar University and another gentleman who is in grad school in Southern, and they want to be NFL public relations people. Well, there aren't very many African-American NFL public relations people and what I was trying, what I'm, what my, what one of my goals is, is to increase that number and increase that number. You got to bring those people around here where all the PR records from the 30 NFL teams to see these young kids, see them in action, get the norm, you know, and when they have an opening. So, yeah, I met this guy, Super Bowl, he was sharp, and I'll remember it all, and maybe a ring of bell and get somebody in job. Are the other African-Americans such as yourself and the other five sports? Oh, yeah. The public learning started from the San Francisco 49ers, Rodney Knox, he's an African-American, PR director for the New England Patriots, John Lowry's an African-American. That is Rob Bullware, who is the PR director for the Pittsburgh Steelers. Over the other sports, Terry, Terry, Terry Washington is a media relations manager for the National

Basketball Association. She's an African-American, Ricky Clemen, executive director of the Public Relations for the National League, a major league baseball, good and dear friend of mine, he is an African-American. The numbers aren't as close to the number of ball players playing on the field or other African-Americans in the front office, but, you know, it's growing, I mean, five years ago, well, seven years ago, there weren't any. So, you know, it's a slow process, it's a process that needs to be looked at, needs to be addressed, but there's some progress being made. How does Reggie handle the number of requests? Things didn't work out with their potential application, and this ticket wasn't in my envelope. I want to go to the commissioner's party. You know, it's, I try to take care of many people as I can, because I'm a good guy, and I try to do that.

But it's tough. I mean, there were 3800 media people, and everybody needs something different than the next one guy may need, one guy may need to do a stand-up, one guy may need to do something in the locker room. You know, you try to be as accommodating as you can within the parameters and framework of what our policy is, but you can't please everybody, and you do the best you can, and you go from that. This year was the first year, and probably I'm going to decade when Dallas and San Francisco were not a part of the Super Bowl. When those new teams come to the Super Bowl, it's good for the league, I think, overall. You know what, we had a tremendous experience with both the Patriots and the Packers. Spending the last three weeks with the Packers, I can tell you that I was excited about when I, when I, when I, when they, when they'd be Carolina for the championship games. For two, it's one that got a lot of really good people in their organization, and a lot of really good people on that team, and I knew, you know, we weren't going to have any

problems with their players before giving their players to do interviews, be quiet with the media. Because it was so new to them. The second thing is it comes from the top. Ron Wolf assured me last week or two weeks ago in Green Bay that whatever we needed as far as public relations was, whatever we needed, we, we have a policy that I sort of set in place, something that I do every year after the, after the conference championship, conference champions are crowned, is that I have a meeting with the head coach and the public relations staff to basically outline what their responsibilities will be for Super Bowl. We meet in the coaches office, I have a, we have a, a list of guidelines and we go over it day by day, you know, it outlines and lays out where they need to be on Sunday, where they need to be on Monday, where they need to be on Tuesday, the entire week. So everybody's clear as to what we need to do.

I'm happy to report in the, in the seven years that the other, the seven years that I've had discovered and the, I'm sorry, seven years or an eight, two of those at the NFC's one, you know, none of my players have missed. You have a couple of guys late. I mean, people don't be late, but none of my guys have missed. They're on time. They're there. And it's important if you can, if you can establish early with the head coach and the coach is important, it's important to leave, it's important for the game, it's important for our players and to express them how important this is, these whole media relations thing. If the coach understands it, you got to really get coached by home and really understands it. But you really understand, no matter what fact, he put on the itinerary the Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday meetings of the romantic tour. If it's coming from him, you know, you got a chance of making it work, which, and I've been blessed. I've had some really good coach Jerry Jones, who made no introduction, has told me when the cowboys were in the street, but whatever you need, whatever you need, my guys, they'll

be cropping. They have been. The 49ers were unbelievably cropping. The Redskins, the 91ers, were tremendous at cropping, so I've been blessed with a lot of really good PR guests, really good coaches who understand and appreciate the important media relations. If memory serving is correctly, death and how it is the only one or one of a few MVP played on special teams. The only one. He's the only one. He's just an amazing story. I mean, a guy who, you know, 1991 Heisman Trophy winner basically, you know, he struggled in Washington. After being a top pick, goes to Jacksonville for a year or two as part of the expansion draft, struggles in Jacksonville, winds up being cut or put on the expansion, a free agent action. It might have been a pretty free agent. And Ron will take the chance on it. Now, when Ron will take the chance on him, the guy go got, leads the lead in public

tournament, sets an NFL record, 835 yards in a season, sets the record, and scores three touchdowns, scores one in the divisional playoff game that helped the Packers beat the 49ers. And then basically, source to touchdown that basically broke New England yesterday. I mean, it's an outstanding story of a guy who hung in there, worked hard, continued and believed in himself and got it done, and you know, that's a lesson that African-American kids can take, you know, and take and apply to their own lives as a situation. No matter where you are or what your situation is financially economically, if you hang in there and you believe and you trust your ability and trust in God, you can make it happen. You can make it all happen. And Dustin, Dustin doesn't even test him at today. I mean, everybody wrote the guy off and look at him. I mean, you know, he was part of a dream they'd seen, had 16 plays this season of 50 yards somewhere.

And then it's all record. It's amazing. I mean, they would just, you know, yesterday, and yesterday, and you were at the game, you saw that when Curtis Martin scored that touchdown for a quarter, you know, you just feel the momentum kind of shifting back, shifting back to New England. And then, you know, like that, it takes the ball, and after 30 yards, he was gone. I mean, he was, he was early. It was early. So, you know, special team, special team, you know, are so special and they're so important to this success of that football team. And Dustin Howard played a big role in helping this team win the football, bringing the championship back to Greenland. Did you plan as an individual and also a member of the National Football League? You know, I'm at a spot now where I'm really enjoying my job. I like what I do, and my father always says, if you enjoy what you do, you know, why change it?

You know, why alter it? Living in New York is a little different than living in Austin. I love Austin because I miss it a lot. But you know, New Yorkers, when my job is, it's a job that's very challenging. It's changing. I'm getting, every year, I'm getting more and more responsibility. At some point, maybe I may look to go to one of the teams in Ramon, probably I can show it one of the teams being a vice president of probably one of the teams. I'm looking to do that. So, we'll see. You know, but right now, I'm going to, you know, kick back and kind of take a few days off and quit working these 16-hour days and hang on my fiancee and we'll see what happens. Reggie Roberts, NFC Director of Information, the National Football League. If you have a question or comment or suggestions asked your future in Black America programs, write us. Also let us know what radio station you heard us over. The views and opinions expressed on this program are not necessarily those of this station

or of the University of Texas at Austin. Until we have the opportunity again for IBA technical producer Cliff Hargrove, I'm John L. Hanson, Jr. Thank you for joining us today and please join us again next week. Cassette copies of this program are available and may be purchased by writing in Black America cassettes, Communication Building B, UT Austin, Austin, Texas, 78712. From the University of Texas at Austin, this is the Longhorn Radio Network. I'm John L. Hanson, Jr. Join me this week on in Black America. I totally keep counting down for so long and to get the opportunity to do things I've

done this year, and I never would imagine that I would have won MVP at a Super Bowl. Super Bowl 31, this week on in Black America.