The Mighty O’Ba Sports Report: Super Bowl Chronicles From 2017

By Pat Freeman, The Mighty O’Ba

Pat Freeman, The Mighty O’Ba

The Super Bowl is so much more than a game that the average person truly does not understand the enormous gravity attached to one of the largest events in the world.

Super Bowl week marks the end of the NFL fiscal year and the beginning of the next calendar year. Franchises must start clearing cap space if they are over the projected cap. Most franchises that have decided to hire new management must begin bringing people that fit these new philosophies.

The week celebrates how the NFL emphasizes the charitable work of its players, but also announces its new class of those selected to the hallowed Hall of Fame. Every press conference offers the media that covers this event a little bit of all these key factors.

One person who I met more than 15 years ago now is the great John Wooden. Mr. Wooden is one of the greatest men that I have ever met in my life. He loves the game and the league, but has always stood up for fairness for all. While a player, he supported the conscientious objection of Muhammad Ali with other prominent athletes of that day such as Bill Russell, Kareem Abdul Jabbar and the great Jim Brown. He, along with Attorney Cyrus Mehri and the late Johnnie Cochran, lobbied the NFL to create the Rooney Rule, which mandated franchises to include people of color in their interview process.

Though many have been critical of the rule, few can deny that it was significant in improving the fairness of opportunity for coaches and general managers that were given an opportunity because of its creation. I stay in touch with Mr. Wooden regularly because of my covering Super Bowl week. These relationships have no price tag and have opened so many doors that when the Carolina Panthers came up for sale during the Minneapolis Super Bowl in 2017, I was invited to be a part of that discussion, which almost led to having a Minority owner of color for the first time in league history. Unfortunately, that group could not pull together their offer in time to meet certain financial criteria to qualify for NFL ownership.

This is the first time that I have ever disclosed that because I covered the Super Bowl, that it allowed me an opportunity once again to be in a room discussing a transaction that was over 2.2 billion dollars. Because I assisted in bringing these parties together, I was also promised a ¼ point equity share if the transaction was consummated. These are stories that only a few people know about, but are results of covering this event more than twenty-four times as of this year.