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Misdirection May Fool Some, But Not Me

Miami Athletics announced Friday it has designated current Senior Associate Athletic Director for Administration Renae Myles Payne as the department's Chief Diversity Officer. 

I grew up in the 60s and 70s as a simple boy who happened to speak English and have white skin in Miami's "Little Havana" area near the famous "Calle Ocho" (8th Street) area. Born into an average American family, I never felt that I had "white privilege" when I was growing up in a large Catholic family with five children and only one working parent.

I had one pair of shoes that I wore until they wore out. Then I got one more pair of shoes. Of course, that was way before $100 Nikes or Addidas sneakers even existed. We had no idea of that luxury back in the day.

I wore "hand-me-down" old clothes from my older brothers most of the time. While we were never hungry (because you ate what was on your plate even if it was liver and onions) but we were never rich or priviliged or spoiled by any means. Neither were my friends I played with.

I also never felt prejudice towards anyone nor felt discriminated against at any time. I learned to speak a foreign language (Spanish) at age 7 because I had to. Did I protest? No, I loved itI Did I ever feel offended? Never. Did I always feel accpeted? Absolutely. I never felt negelected or left out.

My Spanish speaking friends were just my friends. In general we didn't divide into groups like male or female, whites, blacks, hispanics, latinos, or by sexual orientaion. They were just my friends. Nothing more or less.

And the Latin culture I learned to love. The food, the music, the culture and the people were hard working and life loving. Later I married a woman who born in Cuba, who moved to Puerto Rico at an early age, and only came to the U.S. later on as a teenager.

I didn't need a "Chief Diversity Officer" to enforce any rules. I followed the "Golden Rule" and the rest is history. We have been married for 30 years and it is the greatest acheivement of my life so far.

"We remain committed to strengthening our efforts in the areas of diversity and inclusion," Director of Athletics Blake James said. "Renae has been involved with this work for a number of years at several institutions and on a national level in college athletics. She is more than qualified to lead us in this area and she has already made a significant impact in her expanded role."

In all of my 30 years attending games at the Orange Bowl and 10 years attending games at the FSHAA playoffs in Orlando I never once felt strange, uncomfortable or offended at any game at any time. My friends (seen below) from Miami Central High School can attest to that. They welcomed me in and I never hesitated. What has happened over the last 10 years?

The department's immediate plan is to conduct a nine-week educational process focused on the origins of race. Dr. Myles Payne and Dr. Felecia Theune, a UM sociology professor and academics learning specialist in the athletic department, will facilitate courageous conversations with small groups.

There is no need to do this. Most of us (90%) are all reasonable people, we are the same, we all love one another. Please stop dividing us into groups that THINK they hate each other. We simply don't. We never did, and we never will. Unless it is the college campuses that are in the business of selling and promoting hate then that could be an issue, you think?

"As a large department, it is better to have uncomfortable conversations in intimate groups," Myles Payne said. "Race is one of the most uncomfortable subjects in the world, but since the killing of George Floyd, it has become the subject matter of conversations everywhere."
 

Senior Associate Athletic Director for Student-Athlete Development Shirelle Jackson has been leading the diversity and inclusion efforts for Miami student-athletes since 2012. 

I met one time by chance (wearing a ST#26 t-shirt I had designed and had screen printed) with Allen Bailey and Drew Rosenhaus at the Hecht Center where we had a friendly chat, took a photo, never noticing or mentioning who was white or black, who was older or younger, or had the most money and why any of that may be of any importance.

I am absolutely certain that they both had way more money than I will ever have but I was not angry or envious of this fact. I was very appreciative and most respectful of the friendly interaction.

On the safe, calm and beautiful campus of the University of Miami, where I studied from 1981 and graduated in 1986, and worked from 1986 to 2002, I never once felt intimidated or threatened. Now before you jump to conclusions, I was only able to attend UM on significantly reduced tuition costs because both of my parents were smart enough to work at UM. 

Reduced cost education via "Tuition Remission" was available to all children of UM employees whether white, black, hispanic, haitian, asian or otherwise. Of which there were many that were equally blessed.

I was always happy and positive in this dynamic educational environment. The students were friendly, the opportunities were many, the football team was winning and the girls all looked really pretty. 

"It's great to have parallel paths in this space for student-athletes and now staff," Jackson said. "I'm happy to partner with Renae on this journey for the entire department."

The professors I had at UM were fair and balanced, they graded according to tests not political leanings. Life was as normal as you would expect it to be. In short, the times were really good in Coral Gables.

I ask you to think if Lamar Thomas (LT#36) and I went into this photo op (seen below) with him thinking "Hey, I am a black dude and this guy is a white dude, I can't take a photo with him!" Seriously, if you even thought this, then your view is whack. This never even entered our thought process.

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The overall diversity and inclusion plan will also include customized sessions on specific topics, partnering with University offices and organizations, implicit bias testing, emotional intelligence testing, review of hiring practices and policies, and a book club. 

Seriously? Just look at the photo below to know what you need to increase "inclusiveness". You do not need to start a book club. Just gather regular, normal people doing what they have always done all along: Cheer for The U, have a beer and just GET ALONG! It is not that complicated, trust me.
 

"When we hired Renae, diversity and inclusion was written into the job description," Deputy Athletic Director/Chief Operating Officer Jennifer Strawley said. "I was convinced we needed someone who could move us forward in this area as well as other administrative areas. Renae is helping us do that daily."

That sounds pretty promising and sweet, but don't sugar coat the bullshit, because when you bite into it, most definitely it will still taste like cow manure. Stop the lies and accept the truth. Here are the simple terms:

• STOP the hate
• STOP the violence
• We do not ALL hate each other
• In fact MOST of us love one another
• Bring back faith and religion into our culture
• Bring back family values and communication
• Accept one another and differing points of view
• Be able to share ideas and debate facts and positions

This nonsense that some people are selling just has to stop. The division that is tearing apart our Country is fake and needs to end. The love that we have for each other needs to rise up and conquer evil. And it needs to happen now.

And until this happens we will never reach our potential and realize our goals as a Country of unity, safety and prosperity.

I am proud to say that I cheer for "The U" and I pray for the USA!

Respect Is Alive And Well

Three University of Miami football legends have their names on the 2021 ballot for induction into the College Football Hall of Fame, the National Football Foundation (NFF) announced Tuesday.
 
Quarterback Ken Dorsey and linebacker greats Ray Lewis and Dan Morgan are among the 78 players and seven coaches from FBS included on the ballot.
 
The winningest quarterback in Miami history, Dorsey led the Hurricanes to a 38-2 record in his career as starting signal caller. Dorsey set school and BIG EAST records in several categories during his time at The U, including career touchdown passes (86) and career passing yards (9,565). A Heisman Trophy finalist in his last two seasons, Dorsey was named the 2001 Maxwell Award winner as the nation's top offensive player after leading the Hurricanes to the program's fifth national championship in 2001, when he also won BIG EAST Co-Offensive Player of the Year.
 

Lewis earned All-BIG EAST recognition in 1994 and 1995, compiling one of the most dominant careers ever by a linebacker at The U. Lewis, who ranks sixth all-time at Miami with 388 career tackles, has the two most prolific seasons in history to his name, having recorded 160 total tackles in 1995 and 152 in 1994. A two-time Super Bowl champion and 13-time NFL Pro Bowler, Lewis was drafted in the first round by Baltimore in 1995 and played all 17 seasons with the Ravens, compiling more than 2,000 career tackles.
 
Miami's leading tackler in three of his four seasons, Morgan was named 2000 BIG EAST Defensive Player of the Year and set the Miami standard with 532 career tackles over a sparkling career. Morgan became the first player in college football history to sweep the three major defensive awards (Butkus Award, Bednarik Award, Nagurski Trophy) and was a unanimous first-team All-American in his final year. He was selected in the first round of the 2001 NFL Draft by Carolina and was a 2004 Pro Bowl selection.
 
Miami has eight players and 12 overall representatives who have been selected for the College Football Hall of Fame: Bennie Blades (Class of 2006), Don Bosseler (1990), Dennis Erickson (2019), Andy Gustafson (1985), Jack Harding (1980), Ted Hendricks (1987), Jimmy Johnson (2012), Russell Maryland (2011), Ed Reed (2018), Vinny Testaverde (2013), Gino Torretta (2009) and Arnold Tucker (2008).
 

The ballot will be emailed the week of June 16 to the more than 12,000 NFF members and current Hall of Famers whose votes will be tabulated and submitted to the NFF's Honors Courts, which deliberate and select the class.
 
The announcement of the 2021 College Football Hall of Fame Class Presented by ETT will be made in early 2021, with specific details to be announced in the future. The class will be officially inducted during the 64th NFF Annual Awards Dinner Presented by ETT on Dec. 7, 2021, at the New York Hilton Midtown. The inductees will be permanently enshrined at the Chick-fil-A College Football Hall of Fame in Atlanta.
 
Of the 5.4 million individuals who have played college football since Princeton first battled Rutgers on Nov. 6, 1869, only 1,027 players have earned induction into the College Football Hall of Fame, or less than two one-hundredths of a percent (.02%) of those who have played the game during the past 150 years. From the coaching ranks, 221 individuals have achieved Hall of Fame distinction.

Raise Them Right (To Love The U)

For years, the preparation for every delivery was the same.
 
When Dr. Spencer Kellogg learned one of his patients had a connection to the University of Miami, he made sure their little one arrived into a world filled with orange and green.
 
Miami banners were put up in the delivery room. So, too, were hurricane warning flags. Plush Sebastian the Ibis mascots or football helmets were nearby.
 
And just as he delivered each new little Miami fan, Kellogg – whose white lab coat is proudly embroidered with his "Canes Doc" nickname – would nod over at the nurses in the room and cue the playing of the Hurricanes fight song.
 

"It was all matter of creating Hurricanes cyborgs with subliminal implants. It had to be excessive," joked Kellogg, a two-time Miami graduate and longtime member of the Golden Canes Society whose ties to the University run deep. "When I deliver the babies, it'd take me an hour to decorate the room if I had a member of the Hurricanes family in there. Players, coaches, staff. And I make sure the fight song is the first thing that child hears."
 
Kellogg's special efforts with the more than 500 Canes babies he delivered didn't end there. 

Each year, he'd have hospital volunteers knit special skull caps for his patients' newborns to wear in the nursery, a memento for mom and dad to cherish and a beacon that made it easy for him to quickly see which were babies he'd delivered the moment he set foot in the nursery.
 
All of it, the doctor said, was a labor of love, a way to make special moments even more memorable for his patients and to honor the alma mater that changed Kellogg's life.
 
"A lot of people wind up having a fleeting, touch-and-go, four-year experience with their college," said Kellogg, who graduated from the University in 1971 and then attended medical school at Miami. "But I had it ingrained in me again in graduate school and ingrained again during my residency. I had an extension of over 12 years of education there. It was special."
 

Kellogg's passion for the University, as one might imagine, extends beyond the delivery rooms where he's delivered generations of babies.
 
A longtime Hurricanes season ticket holder, he was at every one of Miami's five football national championship games. He owns a set of championship rings. Tailgates, first at the Orange Bowl and later at Hard Rock Stadium, are more than Saturday pastimes.
 
They've become the stuff of family lore.
 
"We brought our children, in diapers, to the Orange Bowl. Back then, they didn't even have UM diaper bags like they do now," Kellogg said. "It morphed to bringing our grandchildren, in diapers, to the Orange Bowl. It was quite an experience for three generations now watching games in that grand old lady. … It's absolutely a tradition. There are no plans made during football season. Everybody knows where they're going to be, what they're going to do. The only thing we switch around is the menu. We have a group of six trucks that get together, we all go, we get there at the opening gun and we're there all day. It's quite a tradition, rain or shine, we're there. Tents, pigs, barbecues, everyone's preparing starting on Thursday evening." 

Kellogg is adamant that tradition will continue and to help on that front, he's made sure his grandsons – 13-year-old Jake and 10-year-old Liam – are Miami fans, too.
 
When each was born, Kellogg worked with UM to ensure both had memberships in the Hurricane Club and season tickets moments after they took their first breaths.
 

The boys were when they were born, Kellogg notes proudly, the youngest Miami fans to have those distinctions and there are, of course, family photos to document those moments.
 
"Everybody says 'We bleed orange and green,' but in our family, every bodily function is orange and green," said Kellogg, who saw his first game at the Orange Bowl in 1967. "For our family, it was always there. It's always been in our blood. … It's all about being true to your school and not being the epitome of a fair weather friend. I've seen the low, low, lows of the 60s and 70s and the euphoria of the 1980s and the great win streaks at the Orange Bowl.
 
"It's been important to show my family that even in the down years, when I've had to cry after games and bite my lip, we still have to hang in there. We're going to keep going to the games and our six-hour tailgates will forever continue."

From hurricanesports.com. Go there to find more articles on UM sports!

Because U Know We Care

The first three weeks, Dr. Eric Goldstein says, were relatively quiet.
 
And then, as shelter-in-place orders were extended and the reality set in for many of Miami's student-athletes that the fight against COVID-19 was going to continue impacting their lives a bit longer than they may have expected, Goldstein found himself getting busier and busier.
 
Student-athletes were getting worried and they needed someone to talk to.
 
"If you're playing Fortnite every single day...what a blast – for three weeks. After a while, you never want to see that game or Call of Duty again," said Goldstein, a sports psychologist who joined the Hurricanes athletic department in 2018. "What started happening is, the loss of identity really started hitting around that point, too. I think for all of us – whoever we are – who we are, in our minds, is based a lot in what we do. That's probably accentuated for a high-level Division I athlete."
 
As student-athletes across Miami's athletic department have tried to come to grips with a situation few of them could have expected when the spring semester began in January, Goldstein and the rest of his colleagues in the Hurricanes' Performance, Health, and Wellness Department have tried to provide as much support as possible to those student-athletes.
 

That May happened to be Mental Health Awareness month only helped drive home the importance of their messages.
 
There have been individual phone and video chats. Online get togethers. The ability for student-athletes to communicate with Goldstein via text message and even some lighthearted programming, with Goldstein hosting an online video chat about the Netflix sensation "Tiger King" that made headlines earlier this year.
 
Even Miami's Student-Athlete Advisory Committee has gotten involved, with members reaching out to teammates and friends to make sure they are weathering the current challenges in their lives as best they can.
 
"I think the athletic department made a conscious effort to promote mental health resources while we were on campus, which I think has translated well into this time while we are away from campus, classes and sport," said Hurricanes swimmer Sydney Knapp. "We've been sent information about the continuing sports psychology availability remotely. I know through SAACH, we have been working to stay in contact with our members about communicating with one another and teammates because it's awesome to have that interaction, even if it can't happen in person. And we have been posting different mental health resources through the SAAC social media pages, which I hope people are using and engaging with."
 
Some of Goldstein's biggest allies in helping make sure student-athletes get any of the support they may need, he says, are Miami's coaches.
 
Since UM's campus closed in March after spring break, coaches across the athletic department have worked to stay connected with their players through frequent video chat and phone calls.

Women's soccer coach Sarah Barnes created regular themed chats like "Mindset Monday," "Witty Wednesday," and "Favorite-Picture Friday" to keep her players engaged.
 
And along with organizing regular team and positional meetings during the spring semester, football coach Manny Diaz has spent the better part of the last few days meeting remotely with each of his players individually.
 
The conversations have given him a chance to not only talk about football with his players, but to gauge how they and their families are doing, see their faces and hear their voices.
 
"It's important at all times for our student-athletes to have all those resources. And its significance won't go away once we all eventually get back together on campus," Diaz said of the work done by Dr. Goldstein and his colleagues. "But getting us through this time, being there for our players, that's one of the best duties we can provide them.
 
"This week, I've been in the midst of 50 one-on-one sit-downs with our players, and for sure, one of the questions I want to know is not just 'How are you?' but 'What are your feelings about when we all come back together again? What are you feelings about the first day we come back to practice? What are your feelings playing football with the virus still out there?' It's been fantastic to just see the guys, see their smiles and make that connection has been therapeutic for me. I imagine it has been for them, as well."
 
As difficult as the past two months have been, Goldstein and the rest of the members of Miami's Performance, Health and Wellness Department expect there will still be challenges the Hurricanes will face as they start moving forward and potentially return to campus.
 

Their goal, they say, is to continue to be there, providing guidance in any way they can.
 
"A lot of this really depends on what happens, but one of the things the coaches I've been hearing from are saying, is they're approaching it by saying 'Let's go with the mindset that we're going to be back. … There's hope and that affects them emotionally and physiologically," Goldstein said. "They believe, 'When I get back, I'm going to get to work out, play sports, do my thing, the thing I have not been able to do.' And there's a part of me that really believes when these athletes come back, there's going to be giddiness and happiness. But we don't know what some of these student-athletes have been through when they've been at home. … I think some kids might have a tough time with adjustment and getting prepared for a new schedule when they come back. … We're going past our second month of this. It's been a significant time.
 
"I think, in general, the kids are going to be very happy to be getting back. But we have to be aware. … We're going to have a lot of hands doing not just physical-physicals, but emotional physicals to make sure our kids are okay."

Courtesy of hurricanesports.com. Visit for more great articles on The U.