(ThyBlackMan.com) All I am saying is simply this: that all life is interrelated. We are tied in a single garment of destiny, caught in an inescapable network of mutuality. And whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. As long as there is poverty in the world, no man can be totally rich, even if he has a billion dollars. – giving a sermon in Detroit, Michigan in 1961
For decades, one of the top journalists in the world covering the National Football League has been Jim Trotter. He has been covering the NFL since the 1990s and has contributed work and articles to high-profile companies including Sports Illustrated and ESPN. He has also been a reporter for NFL Media and an NFL beat writer and columnist for The San Diego Union-Tribune. He’s written two books, including “Junior Seau: The Life and Death of a Football Icon” and has earned one of the greatest credentials that a football journalist could have in being a longtime member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame Selection Committee. In 2017, he also served as the 28th president of the Pro Football Writers of America. Trotter, a Howard University alum, is widely regarded by his fellow sports journalists and those within the NFL for his terrific work over the years in taking strong stances and as an African/Black journalist his career has served as an influential figure. Now Trotter is taking on perhaps his greatest challenge with a racial discrimination lawsuit against the NFL that he filed last month.
Trotter’s lawsuit alleges that in 2020, Buffalo Bills owner Terry Pegula made racist comments to a fellow NFL reporter about the NFL’s social justice initiatives and Black Lives Matter. The reporter, who was not identified in the lawsuit, told Trotter and approximately 40 other NFL Media coworkers during a Zoom call that Pegula said, “If the Black players don’t like it here, they should go back to Africa and see how bad it is.” The lawsuit states that Trotter approached executives at NFL Media to investigate Pegula’s comments, which were “highly offensive and racist,” but that he was “repeatedly brushed off and told that ‘the league office is investigating it.'” It is not a surprise that Pegula himself denies the comments.
The alleged Pegula comments denigrating African/Black men by billionaire owners are far from the only ignorant, terrible actions from a billionaire sports owner. Even non-sports fans can recall Donald Sterling of the Clippers and his eventual selling of his NBA team. Former Phoenix Suns owner Robert Sarver had a litany of terrible behavior during his tenure. Former Houston Texans owner Bob McNair alienated NFL players with a terrible comparison that got out to the public. One of the most visible and famous sports owners, Jerry Jones of the Dallas Cowboys, has had his own share of missteps and now looks like he wants to do something for “minority ownership in the NFL”.
Although Jim Trotter has made a quality living for his hard work as a journalist and reporter, he is a “worker” taking on billionaire NFL owners in his lawsuit against the NFL. For many people, they will automatically side with sports teams’ owners who are billionaires because many people are indoctrinated to believe that billionaires are smarter, more talented, and more hard working than the rest of the society. However, as Dr. King and many freedom fighters before or after him have noted, there is no way for people to earn a billion dollars without the exploitation of an extraordinary amount of people or the poverty having billionaires causes. Jim Trotter is a man who also earned the 2023 Bill Nunn Jr. Award given to “a reporter who has made a long and distinguished contribution to pro football through coverage”. The award was named after a quality man and earned by Trotter, a quality man and reporter, who represents the everyday person much better than any billionaire sports owner.
Staff Writer; Mark Hines