Kendrick Davis

Have a black child involved in sports? I encourage you to read this (Longish,) post about my exp with HS football. I am NOT anti-sports or anti-football - but if the sports org ain't about developing your WHOLE child, then in my opinion they should NOT be coaching your child:

The NFL's conduct is a continuation of exploitative behavior that starts much earlier. This is MY experience:

When I started playing. I knew very little (my teammates can attest lol) but they helped me fall in love with the game. In my senior year, I received a scholar-athlete award from Fox Sports Network was recognized as a YMCA Scholar-Athlete of the Year and received the KDKA Extra Effort Award. My name was on it, but they really belonged to us:
 
My teammates made me love the game - Adults made me hate it:

My junior year- a coach told me I WASNT going to college if I didn't learn how to play football:

I played trumpet in HS band. Plenty of suburban HS teams had members that played in band and football– but the idea of me doing it was met with damn-near hostility:
 
I had an engineering internship that overlapped partially with football summer camp – I was again told to choose. When I chose “wrong” (my internship) I was told that my place on the team was an open question🤷🏿‍♂️. I never actually got permission to come back. I just showed up because I promised one of my teammates that if he went to college 2 play football, I would see it thru with him. Two engineering degrees later, I chose right.

3 rivers Rowing Assoc. helped my HS start a crew team. and I was again pressured to choose, but this time between spring conditioning and rowing…apparently intense core work, respiratory conditioning, and miles long full body workouts on the river werent good enough.
 
I could go example by example, but the message to me was clear “play by the rules, minimize ur interest and prioritize our":

I was fortunate to have a core team of caring adults that stepped up when it was too much 4 me:

EXPOSURE WITHOUT PROTECTION IS A TRAP:

Too many Black youth feel trapped...by the time the NFL starts treating them like shit, it's already normal.