In Black America; Jarrett Bell and the NFL

From the University of Texas at Austin, K-U-T Radio, this is In Black America. When I got there Bill Walsh at left and George C for what's the cause, but if he looked at the assistance that he had, I got to know some really good coaches, and it helped when I went to the next level at U.S. at today. And I'm talking about Mike Shanahan was there, Jeff Fisher was there, Mike Hongram was there, Ray Roach was there, Denny Green flowed through there, Ray Sherman flowed through there, and I'm probably missing a few others. I mean there were some other coaches, but that was pretty good to get to learn from those guys in addition to just being around that team that was like in the hunt for the Super Bowl. So that was a great experience. And then U.S.A. today called. Here's how I got hired at U.S.A. today. The paper that I worked for in San Francisco

was the Marin Independent Journal, and it was owned by Gneth, which owns U.S.A. today. So everything that I wrote about the 49ers, and especially, like I said, it was a hot team, everything went on the Gneth News Service wire. Jared Bell, NFL columnist for U.S.A. today's sports, and ESPN's NFL Insiders. Bell has covered the National Football League for more than three decades. First as a reporter for the Marin Independent Journal, covering the San Francisco 49ers and the Dallas Cowboys for the Dallas Cowboys weekly, and now as the NFL columnist for U.S.A. today's sports. Also for 17 years, he has been a member of the pro football hall of fame selection committee. And recently, he has added NFL Insiders on ESPN to his resume. On the past six months, Bell has covered the NFL's owner's meeting, the NFL Concussion Litigation, the NFL Draft, and the Washington Redskins name controversy. He has also written about the two different

standards for personal conduct, in regards to owner management and players, and the number of underclassmen that entered the NFL Draft this year. I'm Johnny Ohansson Jr., and welcome to another edition of In Black America. On this week's program, the National Football League with Jared Bell, NFL Columnist for U.S.A. today's sports, and NFL Insiders in Black America. Yeah, it has been. So you had 98 underclassmen declared for the draft. And if you go back the year before, it was 70 something. And if you go back five years, it's double, okay? So it is a trend. And I think it's a trend that's going to stay for a couple of reasons. One, you know, the money in football is just too much of a draw for these guys that want to make that a career. And I think there's, and you know, I talked to Buffalo Bill's coach Doug Morone about this a few weeks ago to see what he thought about the numbers. And the reason why I wanted to talk to Morone

John was because he had coached on the NFL level, went to the college level, then came back to the NFL level. So I wanted to get his perspective on it. And it was interesting what he said. He said, you know, there's so much pressure on these kids, not only from agents and stuff, from the family members and anybody else that's connected to them, that they are ready to jump, you know, as soon as they can. In the 2014 NFL draft, 98 underclassmen were granted special eligibility for the draft. That's up from 73 last year, 65 in 2012 and 56 in 2011, all of which were records. The total rises to 102 when including four players who informed the NFL they graduated. Players who use up their college eligibility can apply for the draft if they are at least three years removed from their high school graduating class and similar written application. The National Football League is composed of 32 teams divided equally between the National Football Conference

and the American Football Conference. The NFL was formed on August 20 of 1920 as the American Professional Football Conference. After two name changes, it became the NFL on June 24, 1922. Morning rags in Detroit, Michigan, Jared Bale has been covering the National Football League for more than three decades. After spending his teen years hanging out at Olympia, staging with the Detroit regreings played back in the day, he decided sports was the area in which he wanted to make a living. Recently, Bale was in Dallas, Texas on a Dallas Cowboys assignment. You know what the really cool thing was about covering the 49ers, especially like after covering the Cowboys and Tom Landry and Jimmy Johnson and all his people and getting to know that group. The 49ers coaches, man. You know, when I got there, Bill Walsh had left and George Seifer was the coach but if he looked at the assistance that he had, I got to know some really good coaches

and it helped when I went to the next level at USA Today and I'm talking about Mike Shanahan was there, Jeff Fisher was there, Mike Hongram was there, Ray Rose was there, Danny Green flowed through there, Ray Sherman flowed through there and I'm probably missing a few others. I mean, there were some other coaches but that was pretty good to get to learn from those guys in addition to just being around that team that was like in the hunt for the Super Bowl. So that was a great experience and then USA Today called. You know, here's how I got hired at USA Today. USA The paper that I worked for in San Francisco was the Marin Independent Journal and it was owned by Gnett which owns USA Today. So everything that I wrote about the 49ers and especially, you know, like I said, it was a hot team. Everything went on the Gnett news service wire and so it was available to all the Gnett papers that wanted it really but you know, primarily San Bernardino,

Stockton, Reno, those papers out West, they wanted the 49ers stuff every day just like I was a regular beat writer for them which is cool. One week I had, well actually about a three or four day period, I had the three biggest stories on the beat. The 49ers had just acquired Tim Harris from the Green Bay Packers in the trade and before Harris played in his first game, he landed in jail and he'd had problems in Green Bay. That was why the Packers wanted to trade him and he ends up in jail and I get to school. One of the 49ers security guards casually told me, oh yeah, I had to go get Tim Harris out of jail. What? Okay, so got that school. Then two days later, the 49ers played the Falcons and they lost and in all hell was about to break loose, right? They were two and four, they just lost two the Falcons, right, who weren't very good at that time and so instead of going

to Jersey for his press conference, I went straight to the locker room after the game when they opened because they would open up the locker room when the coach started his press conference which was in another room down the hall. So I went in the locker room and there was only one other reporter there and I look across the room and he's getting the same reaction I'm getting. None of the players were talk. You go up to him, even the money players that always were nice and were talk to you, you know, Jamie Williams. Oh yeah, nothing to say. Steve Young. Oh Jerry Rice. Everybody's lips were zipped. So I go over to the corner and I see Eddie DeBartolo, the team owner in the corner and I didn't find out till later what had happened and why everybody was so quiet because DeBartolo had just went off and reamed the team. So when I caught him with the other reporter on the other side of the room, he went off and it was all on the record, you know, and he was cussing and

talking about people's heads was going to roll and all of this. And so I had this great story, Eddie DeBartolo blows up, okay, rips the 49ers, rips C for, you know, and it was all on the record, right? And then about three, five minutes later, three to five minutes later, the other reporter's coming to the locker room after C for fitness, his press conference and they see Eddie DeBartolo and they catch Eddie DeBartolo and he and they ask him for his reaction and he says, well, at times like this, it's, you know, we have to stick together as a team and he was a so positive, it's a total different guy than what I got. So the next day everybody else had DeBartolo saying, you know, be cool and calm and I had DeBartolo blows up. And he actually had a press conference at next day and they said he had never done that before. We actually had a conference call. He had a conference call the next day and the first thing he said was, hey, Jared was right, you know, y'all just caught me. Y'all just caught me after I had cooled down but there was nothing

inaccurate about what he reported. I was like, yes, Eddie. So I had that school. And then the next day after that, I had the school that Joe Montana was having his elbow surgery the next day. And that had been an ongoing story about what Montana was going to do. He wasn't planning at the time. Obviously, he was trying to heal this elbow injury without having surgery. He kept having set back. So this went on for several weeks. Finally, he decided to have surgery. I got the scoop. Nobody else had it. And then like the next day, the USA Day call. It said, we think we want you to come and check us out. And that's kind of how I got what it is. That's how I got hired by USA Today. So there was never like an interview process or anything like that. They just kind of like said, you come in here. You were already working for good net anyway. Basically, yeah. But so what I did after the football season, I went and worked for them for like three months. And they had what they called a loaner program with good net. And then I

went back to cover the 49ers for one more year before I went full time with USA Today. As we speak, Chuck Knull, long time, long 10-year, 23 years, 10-year coach for the Pittsburgh receivers passed away, not knowing him personally or recovered. What impact did he as a coach and in the city of Pittsburgh did he have on the lead? Yeah. You know, Chuck Knull was the glue for those great Steelers teams of the 70s. And you know, the record speaks for itself. He's the first only coach to win four Super Balls. Okay. But looking beyond that, think about, and a lot of people don't know unless you're old enough to know how bad the Steelers were before Chuck Knull. He got there in 1969. And they had had 13 coaches in the previous 30s, something years of the franchise's existence. So Chuck Knull stabilized all that, built through the draft. And you know,

that was a time when you can keep teams together, but you had to still have a team worth while to keep together. And so that was the legacy that he really just kind of turned the whole fortunes of the franchise around. But as you listen to the former Steelers talk about him, and even some of the other writers who covered him during the 70s and the 80s, and they told you that he was just a swell guy who was super intelligent without a big ego. I mean, he never wrote a book. Okay. You know, I went in all those Super Balls and stuff. And the Steelers players, and like I said, even the writers will tell you what they learned from Chuck Knull so many things. He was a well-rounded guy, and you know, respect it ultimately. I think bottom line, John, he probably doesn't get as much credit as being one of the greatest coaches of our time. And maybe that's because of his personality. Even his era, you think Landry Shula. And then, you know, before that,

you know, Lombardi, Par-Brown, what Chuck Knull really deserves to be in the conversation with those other coaches as one of the greatest ever. Let's talk about this most recent NFL draft. Everyone's talking about, you know, Johnny Football. But let's talk about the number of underclassmen who made themselves eligible. Is that something that's going to be a trend going forth? Yeah, it has been. So you had 98 underclassmen declared for the draft. And if you go back the year before, it was 70 something. And if you go back five years, it's double. Okay. So it is a trend. And I think it's a trend that's going to stay for a couple of reasons. One, you know, the money in football is just too much of a draw for these guys that want to make that a career. And I think there's, and you know, I talked to Buffalo Bill's coach Doug Morone about this a few

weeks ago to see what he thought about the numbers. And the reason why I wanted to talk to Morone John was because he had coached on the NFL level, went to the college level, then came back to the NFL level. So I wanted to get his perspective on it. And it was interesting what he said. He said, you know, there's just so much pressure on these kids, not only from agents and stuff, from the family members and anybody else that's connected to them that they are ready to jump, you know, as soon as they can. And so I know the league is really trying to get its hands around it and working with the colleges to try to curb those numbers. But I think it's going to be difficult when a player thinks he's good enough to play, even though he might be a better prospect a year later. I mean, Judeveon Clowney, number one pick in the draft, you can't fault him for coming out, right? A really supreme, and even Johnny Mansell, a supremely talented guy. But you had about half these guys that declared that did not get drafted. And I think that's what the real

problem is because guys could better prepare themselves by staying in school and they could, by the way, get an education that can help them if they don't make it in football. And I think too many guys look at the opportunity of the NFL as a, you know, as a male ticket, which it could be. And so the temptations there is a, hey, let me go and start early. And then when I get to that second contract, I've got less wear and tear on my body. I think that's kind of part of the thought process. I can't say I totally blame him. I understand it because they're getting used up by the colleges, right? So I understand that. But I think it's a, it's a real fine line because not everybody is going to be Cam Newton. Not everybody's going to go into the NFL and become JJ White. Not everybody is going to go into the NFL and be a smashing success. And I think if, if guys can really take stock of that as they move forward, it might help some make some better

decisions. Because like I said, about half the guys did not get drafted. That doesn't mean they won't have a chance at a career, but it kind of tells you where they're starting from. And that's not a good place. Recently, well, most, almost recently, four owners have recently passed away. Obviously, there's a change in the garden ownership. Are these particular franchises remaining in the family? Are there going to be new people coming on board? It's, it's kind of a mixed bag. The, what, let's, let's say this, most of them are staying in the family. So the Detroit Lions lose William Clay Ford. And that's going to stay in the Ford family. Malcolm Glazer with the box that's staying in the Glazer family. Now Ralph Wilson passing with the Buffalo Bills, his wife Mary is in the process of selling the franchise. And the big question there, John, is whether the team will stay in Buffalo. That's, that's kind of what they want to do. But until these deals are done, sometimes you don't know. Three signs running the team on a day they made on the bills. No, no, no,

that's the glazers. Yeah, no, on the glazers have the sons that are that are in trance. And that's a, that's a good point to make because there are some franchises just like the Cowboys and Jerry Jones where the families are intimately involved in a day-to-day basis. So Jerry's got, you know, two sons and a daughter who have been executives for many years along the way with him. So in situations like that with the Glazers, you don't expect much will change in terms of the philosophy of the franchise. But with Buffalo, now Ralph Wilson pretty much had other people empowered to run the operation. And now they're going to sell the team. And so you don't know what the ramifications are going to be for those top-level people once they sell a team. But again, you know, Ralph Wilson wanted the team to stay in Buffalo. And that's kind of one of the preconditions of a potential sale. But sometimes if you can't get a buyer to agree to that, that the type

at the level you want, then you may have to have another alternative as well. A couple of controversies they met me controversies to you watching Redskins. Oh, big time. Are the Redskins going to be one remaining Washington? Are they always going to be mascoted as the Redskins? No, I don't think. I think the time has come that I think the clock is ticking basically. You know, the time has come to change. Probably the time was there a long ago to change it. But the momentum is different. And if you go back to history, John, this is not this is not an entirely new issue. You can go back to the 80s, the 90s, the 70s. And you had opposition. But it's different now because we're in a different time. And so the pressure now seems to be more intense and it's mounting almost by the day. I mean, you just have

50 senators signed a declaration saying that the team should change its nickname. Now, Dance Knighter has been very stubborn and saying that he will never change the name. But right now, there's a trademark case pending with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office that could essentially strip the Redskins of trademark protection for that name. And so it cannot force him to change the name. But what it could do is prevent him from suing you, John, if you wanted to go print Washington Redskins paraphernalia and sell it. Right now, if you were to do that, you could get sued. Or if you did that for the Dallas Cowboys or, you know, the Pittsburgh Steelers, you could be sued for that. If this trademark case goes against the Redskins, it still could take many years

when you consider the appeals, et cetera. But if it ultimately becomes the case where they have no protection, that's going to be a factor. That still may not be enough to make them change the name of the team. I think it's going to have to be public pressure or really NFL league pressure. And I think a couple of things have happened. Number one, the O-Nighted Nation is really empowered economically to carry this fight to the finish, really. Because they have done an enormous job of keeping the issue alive in so many different ways. And they've connected with so many other civil rights organizations and other entities to really to keep applying the pressure. It's not going to happen overnight, but I think even if you look at the numbers of the people when they are pulled on this, it has shifted. It has shifted incrementally

over the years in terms of how many people accept the name. And it goes back to our American history and what's acceptable now in a progressive society. So I've been very outspoken and written a number of columns denouncing the team for that and Snyder and hadn't changed his mind yet. But I think there are a lot. And you can look at so many different organizations. Sports Illustrated and Peter King, the San Francisco Chronicle, other media outlets have decided not to even use the term. With the few minutes that we have left, are we having a double standing with the personal conduct policy that the NFL has? One set of rules for the owners, another set of rules for the players and management? Yeah, that question has come up a few times with Jimmy Erse being arrested and having a case pending. I think a couple of things, it's a fair question. But the last, let's see how to put this,

the method that Roger Godell has used in this case is really more similar to what he has done with players since bounty gate. That was kind of the defining line. And so it's easy to say, hey, he's not slamming Erse like he did the players. And just bottom line, Godell expects that there's going to be some discipline for Erse. We know he's already damaged the NFL's reputation. Yes, owners should be, there should be a double standard. They should be held in a higher standard. And so Godell has said he will get around to doing that once all of the facts of his case are resolved. So that's assuming they go through the legal situation in Indiana and whatever charges stick, then he can discipline him accordingly. Now, he's doing the same thing

now with NFL players. So you have Alden Smith, who's got a case pending with the 49ers linebacker. Ray Rice has had a situation, a domestic situation that is close to being resolved. And at least it seems to be resolved on one level. But before bounty gate, Roger Godell would slam people right off the bat before they would have their day in court. I mean, it happened with Ben Rathasberger was never formally charged for his situation with the female, but formally convicted, I'm sorry. And so he still got a suspension. Pac-Man Jones had a number of issues that did not result in him serving any jail time, but he still got suspended by the NFL for like a year. And so there were so many cases like that. And then when the

bounty case came up with the New Orleans Saints, you know, Godell threw the book at them. And I think the fact that there were so many holes in the NFL's case with the Saints changed how Godell operated moving forward. And so now that's what we're seeing. So it's almost like it's two different eras, the pre-bounty gate and the post-bounty gate. So when people say, well, there's a double standard Erse in the players, yeah, it's a double standard if you want to compare Erse to the pre-bounty gate discipline that Godell handed out and how quickly he handed it out. But since bounty gate, no, he's been very deliberate because he's gotten a lot of criticism, frankly, yeah, from the players union. And you can't blame the players union for really trying to pursue it in that manner because as you saw in the Saints case, the lead kind of did jump to God. Good set way. NFLPA, executive director position vote coming up next year.

Yeah, DeMora Smith, you know, he got re-elected a couple of years ago. I think it might be tough for now. The CVA will just get you. Oh, no, it's the labor deal still. And you know, the players union people will tell you that this deal was not a bad deal for the players. But you talk to some of the veteran guys who've had some trouble getting jobs and they will tell you otherwise, the player union will also tell you that it's a 10-year labor deal, which is the longest that they've ever had. And it's going to reflect more favorably as the deal goes, yeah, as it goes forward. But I think there's been enough, there's been enough consternation on a few fronts that if a legitimate challenger comes forward, then DeMora Smith could be in trouble. I'm not

going to say that he's going to not be a re-elected because I don't know if there's a formidable challenger right now. Sean Gilbert, the former defensive tackle who has become a critic has launched the campaign. It hasn't really been very public at this point, but he's given all the indications and has declared that he's going to try to take DeMora Smith's job. And I'm hearing that there's some other people who could enter the fray before next spring. So DeMora Smith may have a challenge, but I think the thing that he's got going for him is the fact that they've kind of moved forward and he's a different type of union leader than they had in Jane Upshaw. In fact, he will fight the NFS of you like that. I think that was kind of one of the keys to him getting elected in the first place. He came with an outside voice and outside perspective. And he's done

some really good things in terms of, you know, really pushing the players issues and things like workers comp. Jared Bell, NFL columnist for USA Today Sports and ESPN's NFL Insiders. If you have questions, comments or suggestions asked your future in Black America programs, email us at jhansonatkut.org. 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. You can hear previous programs online at kut.org. Until we have the opportunity again for Technical Producer Day with Alvarez, I'm Johnny O'Hanston, Jr. Thank you for joining us today. Please join us again next week. CD copies of this program are available and may be purchased by writing in Black America CDs. KUT Radio, 300 West Dean Keaton Boulevard, Austin, Texas, 78712. That's in Black America CDs, KUT Radio, 300 West Dean Keaton Boulevard,

Austin, Texas, 78712. This has been a production of KUT Radio.