Super Bowl. Today and Past Articles.

Today's the Super Bowl game. I'm rooting for Philadelphia, since that's where my dad was born and where I have many family members.  For the first time in 50 years I won't be watching the game on TV. I don't want to see images of the current President and his billionaire friends plastered on the TV throughout the game.  I'll listen on the radio.

I started this blog in 2005. The first time I wrote about the Super Bowl game was in January 2007.

Here's some of what I wrote: 

"As I watched this game, I saw men who would be great spokespersons for tutoring/mentoring. For many years I've wanted to get sports groups involved with the Tutor/Mentor Connection. Many athletes come out of poverty neighborhoods, and most have befitted from having many mentors and coaches in their lives.

While many athletes have foundations and do great things to help their communities, there's no strategy that I know of that enlists athletes and coaches in an effort to use their celebrity visibility to draw attention to a social cause, and to draw volunteers and donors to specific neighborhoods throughout a city.

For instance, on the Super Bowl broadcast Terry Bradshaw, a former star quarterback, and current TV broadcaster, made an appeal for viewers to stay involved in helping survivors of Hurricane Katrina. The TV footage focused at New Orleans and the Lower 9th Ward, but I heard him end a phrase with "and the other areas".

If someone created a map of the area that had been destroyed by the Hurricane, it would be possible to enlist athletes from many sports to adopt different communities, or zip codes, in the entire area. Then, whenever that athlete were to have a TV opportunity, he/she could draw attention to his zip code, as part of an effort to keep attention on the entire area of destruction. As the season moves from Basketball to baseball to football and back to hockey and basketball, different stars, in different cities, would have many opportunities to focus attention, and draw resources to the various parts of the entire geographic area where volunteers, donors, and all sorts of help will be needed for many years.

In the same way, I want to enlist athletes to focus attention on the high poverty neighborhoods of big cities. Instead of just talking about the Boys and Girls Clubs, or Big Brothers, Big Sisters, or other highly visible charities, we need to focus attention regularly on every neighborhood where kids need help, and the organizations in those neighborhoods who are providing help.

This is a strategy I hope athletes will adopt. If you read this, and you know a Bear, or a Bull, or a college coach, or even a high school coach, who might want to be a champion of this idea, please pass this on.

This is a team game too, just like football. We'll get to the Super Bowl of life if we can get more people to help us."

I've been using the graphic of a team on a football field in many of my Super Bowl and sports-related articles since then.  I encourage you to browse posts at this link and see what I've been writing.

Imagine seeing professional and college athletes standing in front of a map showing high poverty areas in the city where they play, or where they grew up, calling on people from business, philanthropy, faith groups and other sectors to help comprehensive, long-term, volunteer-based tutor, mentor and learning programs grow in dozens of places.

I think many could be creating their own versions of my graphics and articles, and communicating the ideas better.  Because of their visibility as a celebrity, I'm sure more people will take time to look at what they share.

If you think this is a good idea, please share it with your network.  Connect with me on BlueSky, LinkedIn and other on-line spaces (see links here) and share your own strategies.  

And, if you like what I'm sharing, please visit this page and make a contribution to help me pay the bills. 

Thank you!   Go Eagles!