Culture
Why the Chiefs love Steve Spagnuolo: Exotic blitzes, tough love and home cooking
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Before dawn on a fall Friday, Steve Spagnuolo enters the Kansas City Chiefs facility with a large aluminum pan. The defensive coordinator finds a place for it in the defensive line meeting room, returns to his car and comes back with another pan, this one for the linebackers room. Then he does it again, delivering the final pan to the defensive backs room.
In each pan, there are 15 generous portions of banana pudding. Chiefs defenders will find the pans waiting for them when they come off the field after a light practice. They will have to move quickly to get their highly coveted treat lest invasive offensive linemen move in.
Four days earlier, Steve’s wife, Maria, bought eggs, butter and other ingredients. Then she went on a banana hunt. She needed 25, starting at Aldi and taking only the ones that met her requirements for size and ripeness. She found more at Price Chopper and the rest at Cosentino’s Market. Some were a bit too green, but she put them in the oven or in plastic bags to expedite ripening. Freshness matters, so Maria waited until Wednesday to start the two-day cooking process.
Steve delivers Maria’s desserts every week during the NFL season. Of course, he’s more famous for devising blitzes so bold that no other coach would dare imagine them and coverages so complex they leave quarterbacks cross-eyed. Coaches and commentators testify about his insidious game plans that lure opponents into his web and praise his ever-evolving scheme.
But that’s only part of the story. The rest? It’s in those aluminum pans.
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Sports were the center of Spagnuolo’s universe during his childhood in Grafton, Mass., but were less important to his father, who worked long hours as an accountant and spent his free time listening to music, reading and writing. When Spagnuolo was 12, his parents split up, and his dad wasn’t around much in the years that followed.
Richard Egsegian, geometry teacher, guidance counselor and football coach at Grafton High School, took an earnest interest in every child in his sphere and a special interest in Spagnuolo, who happened to be his quarterback. Egsesian may not have been a wizard of a strategist, but his coaching touched the heart. “He was,” Spagnuolo says, “a man of character.”
Egsegian and Spagnuolo had long talks on bleacher benches after practices. Egsegian once loaded up a few of his players in his Volkswagen Beetle and drove them to the University of Massachusetts to watch one of his former players practice. He treated Spagnuolo to a day at Patriots training camp.
Egsegian set Spagnuolo on a path to being a coach. After playing wide receiver at Springfield College, Spagnuolo hopscotched like young coaches do, working for six colleges and two World League teams. Then, in 1999, new Eagles coach Andy Reid hired Spagnuolo as a defensive assistant. He worked with Reid in Philadelphia for eight seasons, eventually coaching defensive backs and linebackers.
Those years had an indelible effect on him. In Reid, he found a mentor and someone who always had his back. Defensive coordinator Jim Johnson helped Spagnuolo develop his defensive mentality. Spagnoulo sensed a certain peace in fellow assistant coach Les Frazier, who brought him to church.
Then he met Maria. The first time they were alone together, he looked at her as if he was about to say something romantic. Instead, he said, “You must be a hard worker. Your hands are very strong.” Regardless, she decided to stick with him.
He was the Giants’ defensive coordinator in 2007 when the team started 0-2 and gave up 80 points in the first two games. Defensive end Michael Strahan recalls Spagnuolo telling his players he believed in every one of them and wouldn’t trade them for anyone else. And then he pushed them to where they did not know they could go.
“He challenged guys to be better, but he did it in a way that didn’t demean anyone,” Strahan says. “It was like, ‘I know there’s more there. And I believe in you.’”
In the subsequent Super Bowl, Spagnuolo’s Giants prevailed over Tom Brady and the Patriots — “He’s been the bane of my existence,” Brady said on a recent Fox broadcast.
The victory propelled Spagnuolo to the St. Louis Rams’ head coaching job in 2009. With the Rams, he admittedly didn’t lean on the people around him enough. Given a precious opportunity he knew might never come again, he found it difficult to trust.
“Sometimes when you get that job for the first time, you either think you have all the answers or you’re kind of eager to do things the way you thought they should be done,” he says. “And you learn that it’s best to use as many resources and ask other people as many different questions as you can.”
Current Los Angeles Rams president Kevin Demoff, who had a hand in Spagnuolo’s firing after three seasons, posted about it earlier this year on X. “The team & organization he inherited in STL was a mess, nobody could have had success,” Demoff wrote. “Yet he changed the culture/staff & players believed. An amazing human deserving of the real shot we couldn’t give him.”
Time has been good for Spagnuolo. A conversation with him always made you feel like you sipped warm brandy, but now the finish is smoother.
“There’s more of a gentleness with people now,” says Maria, who has likewise been good for him. “I’ve seen him have a really tender heart towards some of his players, like a father’s heart.”
Like Egsesian, Spagnuolo never had biological children. He and Maria married when he was 45 and she was 40. Her stepchildren Jeffrey and Crissy and their families make up the extended Spagnuolo family, but many others are considered adopted members.
When safety Quintin Mikell was a rookie defensive back with the Eagles, Spagnoulo asked him how he was settling in. Mikell said he missed home cooking, soul food specifically. Not long after, he found an aluminum pan in his locker with fried chicken, collard greens, black-eyed peas and sweet potato pie.
Maria can cook anything, learning from her paternal grandmother, Angelina Damiani, during her childhood in West Philly. The most important thing she learned from her grandmother: cooking was about more than just cooking.
“The first thing Jesus did was feed people, and then he showed them kindness and love,” Maria says. “Steve loves the fellas and likes to show them.”
They bring Greek food to Chiefs defensive end George Karlaftis, a native of Athens. His favorite is Giovetsi. “It takes me back home whenever she makes it,” Karlaftis says.
For former Chiefs cornerback L’Jarius Sneed, it’s the banana pudding. “She even cooks better than my grandma, and I don’t put no one above my granny,” says Sneed.
They recently gifted defensive lineman Chris Jones with a bottle of Maria’s homemade Limoncello, which he couldn’t help but sample during a workday. “Oh my God, it’s serious,” says Jones, who had dinner at the Spagnuolos’ home before the season with safety Justin Reid and linebacker Nick Bolton. Each player left with a doggy bag too large to carry on an airplane.
Jones has called Spagnuolo a father figure, as have Reid, Sneed and others. Spagnuolo particularly resonates with players whose relationships with their fathers are strained or nonexistent.
“I lost my father when I was 13, so I look up to him as a father figure,” Karlaftis says.
Sneed, who was traded to the Titans in the offseason, still texts Spagnuolo weekly and tells him he loves him. Chiefs safety Bryan Cook calls him one of the top five or 10 people he’s ever met. Reid had T-shirts printed in January that read, “In Spags We Trust.”
“He completely changed my life on the field and off the field and post-career,” says Strahan, who became a Pro Football Hall of Fame inductee and host of “Good Morning America” and “Fox NFL Sunday.” “Winning that Super Bowl gave me a life after football that I don’t think I ever would have had if not for him. And I attribute that win to him and his incredible game plan.”
Before their first meeting of the week, Chiefs defenders usually see a Bible verse or a statement about gratitude or another value displayed on the screen. Spagnuolo often begins the meeting by reflecting on the sentiment. Jones, who sits behind Spagnuolo at chapel every Saturday night, calls him his “spiritual muse.”
In December 2021, Sneed’s older brother was stabbed to death. When Sneed found out, his first call was to Spagnuolo.
“I called him crying,” Sneed says. “He said, ‘What’s wrong? What’s wrong?’ I couldn’t get my words out. ‘Speak to me, LJ, speak to me.’ I said, ‘My brother passed.’ Then he started crying as well.”
In the aftermath, Spagnuolo reached out daily. Spagnuolo still texts Sneed scripture from time to time, and the cornerback finds comfort in knowing Maria prays for him every morning. “He’s someone I call on when I need help, when I’m in danger, whether it’s on the football field or not,” Sneed says.
Early in Cook’s rookie season, he felt lost. He was trying to find his place and needed reassurance that he was on the right path. Spagnuolo had noticed some growth in Cook, and he wanted Cook to see it, too. In his office, Spagnuolo showed Cook a video of his combine interview earlier that year. The player who sat in Spagnuolo’s office looked and carried himself differently.
As he watched, Cook broke down.
“I don’t remember that guy,” he told Spagnuolo. “I’m a different guy now.”
Cook says it was a major pivot in his life. “I was going through a lot of personal things as well as things with the team,” Cook says. “It reminded me of how far I came, and it inspired me.”
Despite his velvet touch, Spagnuolo does not coach meekly. His tenacity helped develop Sneed into one of the game’s premier cornerbacks.
“I was kind of lackadaisical when I came into the league,” Sneed says. “He showed me how to practice and run after the ball. He’ll come on the field yelling, ‘Run to the ball!’ He’s going to be on your tail like white on rice.”
Jones, who jokingly calls Spagnuolo a dictator, says they butted heads initially. “I spend a lot of one-on-one time with him,” Jones says. “And it’s not all good times. Sometimes, it’s a cursing out.”
This season, Spagnuolo is leading a Kansas City defense that ranks in the top 10 in points allowed for the fifth time in six years. He won his fourth Super Bowl ring earlier this year — the most of any coordinator in NFL history. Yet he has not had a legitimate interview for a head coaching job in 16 years (not including a token interview after serving as interim coach of the Giants for four games at the end of the 2017 season).
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The legacy of his 10-38 record with the Rams explained things for a while. It didn’t help that Spagnuolo followed that up with a dumpster fire of a season with the Saints — with Sean Payton suspended for Bountygate, Spagnuolo’s defense gave up the most yards in NFL history.
Reconnecting with Reid in 2019 made those memories fade. But now, three championship parades later, Spagnuolo is 64 years old. His cholesterol is a little high. One of his hips wore out and needed to be replaced, but he still can sprint down the sideline to call a timeout, even if he isn’t supposed to.
Will he ever get another chance?
“You’d like to think you’re evaluated not by a number,” Spagnuolo says. “And I think somewhere along the way, somebody may do that. But if they don’t, I’m OK with it. It’s in God’s hands.”
The failure he experienced has led to a profound appreciation for all he has. With the Chiefs, he provides the yin to the yang of Patrick Mahomes, rides shotgun to the masterful Andy Reid and builds bridges with banana pudding.
This, he knows, is not a bad life.
Inspired by comedian Tony Baker, Steve and Maria instituted a “Cram Award” for the defender with the best hit in a Chiefs victory (Baker posts videos of rams ramming, which he calls “crams”). Saturdays after a win, Spagnuolo plays a video of highlights mixed with Baker’s posts, then a drum roll precedes the announcement.
The winner is presented with an Italian dinner from Maria in an aluminum pan. Recently, it was homemade gemelli in a blush sauce and chicken parmesan in gravy.
“Getting a game ball, I don’t really care about,” Jones says. “But the Cram Award, I mean, you get a dish from Maria.”
After a recent Chiefs victory, Spagnuolo received texts from Jones and defensive tackle Tershawn Wharton, who had been given Cram awards the previous Saturday. They sent messages of gratitude along with photos of the pans that had contained their dinners.
The pans were empty. Hearts were full.
(Illustration: Dan Goldfarb / The Athletic; photo: Kevin C. Cox / Getty Images)
Culture
Ray Lewis wants FAU head-coaching job, but Charlie Weis Jr. still the frontrunner: Sources
FAU football, which rose to national relevance under Lane Kiffin, has backslid over the last five seasons under Willie Taggart and the recently fired Tom Herman. The Owls’ new coaching search, though, might be the most interesting one of this year’s coaching carousel.
And it got a little more interesting this week, as Miami great Ray Lewis has made it known that he really wants to be the Owls’ next coach, a source briefed on Lewis’ thinking said Wednesday.
The 49-year-old Lewis, a 13-time Pro Bowl linebacker, has observed the model of what Deion Sanders has done transforming Colorado football in the past two years and is expected to present a plan to the Owls’ leadership in the next week for how he’d do something similar at FAU.
Lewis’ old buddy, fellow Pro Football Hall of Famer Cris Carter, is the Owls’ executive director of player engagement and is expected to be a good resource for Lewis. A big hurdle for Lewis is, unlike Sanders, he doesn’t have any previous college coaching experience.
“Ray wants it bad,” the source briefed on Lewis’ thinking said. Lewis lives five minutes from the FAU campus. “He really wants it.”
Lewis, however, is not considered a serious candidate at this point, according to a source involved in the coaching search.
The frontrunner for the FAU vacancy, according to multiple sources involved in the search, is Ole Miss offensive coordinator Charlie Weis Jr. The 31-year-old son of former Notre Dame coach Charlie Weis, who lives a half-hour from Boca Raton, is the play caller at a hot Rebels program and runs the nation’s No. 2 offense, putting up 7.58 yards per play.
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The younger Weis was Kiffin’s former offensive coordinator at FAU and knows the program well. He has a lot of support from some key FAU people, according to sources involved in the search. Kiffin has strong influence back at FAU and will push Weis for the job, those sources said. Financially, Weis — who makes $1.65 million at Ole Miss — might have to take a pay cut to go back to FAU but a source briefed on the matter said he doubted that would stop Weis from wanting this job.
Other expected candidates for the FAU job
Georgia Tech offensive coordinator Buster Faulkner might make more sense for the Owls. The 43-year-old helped turn Tech from the ACC’s No. 11 offense to No. 3 last year. In 2022, the year before he was hired in Atlanta, Georgia Tech ranked last in the ACC in red zone offense. His offense is No. 2 in the ACC in red zone TD percentage.
Penn State assistant head coach/co-OC Ja’Juan Seider is a well-regarded coach with deep local ties and is expected to get some consideration. The 47-year-old Belle Glade, Fla., product was a star quarterback at Florida A&M and is well-connected around South Florida. Players really respond to him. He also has been a key assistant in Happy Valley, at Marshall and West Virginia.
UCF offensive coordinator Tim Harris Jr. has spent his whole coaching career in the state. He was a four-time NCAA All-American in track at Miami and then spent five years as a successful high school coach in South Florida at Miami’s Booker T. Washington High before spending seven seasons at FIU. Since then, he’s coached at Miami and UCF, where he has produced the Big 12’s most prolific offense at 6.76 yards per play.
UNLV offensive coordinator Brennan Marion, a former Miami Dolphins wideout who lived in Boynton Beach, not far from the Owls’ campus, might be an intriguing option. He has proven to be a terrific offensive coordinator in two stops at the FCS level before an excellent two-season run of transforming the Rebels into a winning program. Last year he led the Rebels to No. 6 in the country in third down offense and No. 8 in red zone offense despite his starting QB going down early and having to turn to an unproven freshman in Jayden Maiava, who went on to win Mountain West Freshman of the Year honors. This year, the Rebels, with Maiava having left for USC, are No. 6 in the nation in scoring at 39.9 points per game.
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FSU defensive backs coach Pat Surtain could be in play at his alma mater Southern Miss, but he also has strong ties here. He played a decade in the NFL before becoming a top high school coach in South Florida. The 48-year-old spent one season with the Miami Dolphins as an NFL assistant before joining FSU’s staff in 2023.
Georgia assistant head coach Todd Hartley, 39, spent three years coaching in South Florida on the Canes’ staff. He is someone Kirby Smart has leaned on in elevating the program since Hartley’s return to Athens in 2019. Southern Miss also has a lot of interest in Hartley for its head coaching vacancy.
Duke defensive coordinator Jonathan Patke, a Manny Diaz protege who was on the staff at Miami, is a rising star at defensive coordinator. He’s had a strong debut season in Durham and also could be in play.
Miami defensive ends coach Jason Taylor. The Pro Football Hall of Famer, who had been a high school assistant for five seasons at powerhouse St. Thomas Aquinas, is a legendary figure around South Florida. In 2007, Taylor won the NFL’s prestigious Walter Payton Man of the Year honors and has been an excellent addition to the Canes staff the past two seasons.
— Chris Vannini contributed to this report
Required reading
(Photo: Rob Carr / Getty Images)
Culture
Will NBA expansion bring the SuperSonics back to Seattle? ‘There’s just too much karma’
SEATTLE — When the SuperSonics left here in 2008, Brent Barry felt it in his gut. There was an emptiness, a sadness so pronounced that he was moved to put pen to paper.
At the time, Barry was preparing for training camp with the San Antonio Spurs, but part of his heart was still in Seattle, a bond forged through his five seasons as a wing with the Sonics. Now the team was no more thanks to an abrupt transaction that uprooted the franchise to Oklahoma City.
Barry’s mind was numbed with a blur of memories he captured in his poem, “When It Rains.”
“… and here I sit in my office space and think of my career
And what to say to my two sons, did the team just disappear?
I played in KeyArena, I live on Queen Anne Hill
I played pinball at Shorty’s after games, and ate burgers at both Red Mills
I would have some chowder down at Dukes, and watch Sea Planes take their flight
And find myself in Fremont if I needed a beer that night
I saw Star Wars at Cinerama, tossed a pitch at Safeco Field,
Drove all the way to Bellingham to see Pearl Jam and Yield …”
Sixteen years later, a collection of Sonics jerseys extends wall-to-wall inside the Simply Seattle store downtown. From Detlef Schrempf to Gary Payton to Ray Allen to Kevin Durant, the jerseys of Sonics legends are still a hot commodity.
“We get people from New Zealand, London, from all over,” store manager Kate Wansley said. “The Sonics are a big thing, and now everyone is excited about what could happen.”
What could happen has many in this Northwest metropolis tense with anticipation. In September, NBA commissioner Adam Silver said the league would address NBA expansion at some point this season, which prompted an already simmering movement in Seattle to bubble over.
Since 2008, Seattle has been waiting, expecting a franchise to return. And now, with overtures of the NBA’s first expansion since 2004, there is an overriding sentiment that Seattle is due.
“There’s just too much karma that says put a team back in Seattle,” says George Karl, who coached the Sonics from 1992-98, leading them to an NBA Finals appearance in 1996. “I don’t know more than anybody else, but my feeling is … that it can happen. It should happen.”
Karl is sipping iced tea and soaking in a picturesque view of Seattle’s Elliott Bay on a sun-splashed Thursday. He lives in Denver but is in town to help promote, support and encourage Seattle’s candidacy should Silver and the NBA Board of Governors decide to proceed with expansion.
As the Seahawks played host to the San Francisco 49ers at Lumen Field, Karl and former Sonics players Dale Ellis and Rashard Lewis attended a social event on the 75th floor of the Columbia Tower that included Seattle mayor Bruce Harrell, Seattle Sports Commission president and CEO Beth Knox and several business leaders.
“It’s a lot of anticipation; I feel like we are hanging on the edge of our seats, waiting,” Knox said. “We are ready.”
The event was important enough for Harrell that he postponed plans for his 66th birthday (he was quick to note he shared his birthday with Sonics legend Gus Williams) so he could spread what he calls “the buzz” about Seattle’s viability for expansion.
“We need to make sure the decision-makers — the NBA commissioner, the administration and co-owners — realize this is a very attractive market, and we have the fan base,” Harrell said. “They sort of know it, but this was 2008 when we lost the team, and we have a whole new generation of people in town, so we need to assure them we have that kind of spirit.”
In September, Silver tempered expectations when he said the league “is not quite ready” to discuss expansion before adding that eventually it will be broached. “What we’ve told interested parties is: ‘Thank you for your interest, we will get back to you,’ ” Silver said. “That’s certainly the case in Seattle.”
Still, hopes haven’t been this high here since 2013, when a bid to relocate the Sacramento Kings to Seattle reached a vote of NBA governors but was turned down 22-8 after Sacramento came up with new ownership.
Ellis, who played for seven NBA teams, said the city’s diversity, food and fan base kept him in Seattle for 20 years after his career ended. The 41-year history of the franchise, which includes the 1979 NBA title, is why he believes so passionately that the league should return. It’s why he flew to Seattle to support Thursday’s movement, a movement that he says stands more than a chance of landing a return of the Sonics.
“Chance? No, it’s going to happen. It’s going to happen,” Ellis said. “They just haven’t made the announcement yet. There will be two franchises, one here in Seattle, and one in Las Vegas.”
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Like so many former Sonics players and coaches, Barry felt he didn’t just play in Seattle, he felt he was part of Seattle. So losing the Sonics felt like losing part of himself.
It is that player-community connection that has made this movement to revive the Sonics unique. Other cities have lost NBA franchises — Vancouver, San Diego, Kansas City — but none have had former players and coaches campaigning for a return like Seattle.
Lewis, who played his first nine NBA seasons with the Sonics, flew into Seattle from Houston motivated by two factors: the history and the fans.
“Seattle has a part of me; I became a man here,” Lewis said. “And the fans … I still remember Big Lo (super fan Lorin Sandretzky), and fans pulling up to the airport when we arrived. There’s history, so much history here, and that’s why they have to have a team here.”
The 1990s in particular were a magical time for Seattle. Microsoft was booming. Bands from Seattle — Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Alice In Chains, Soundgarden — were leading the grunge explosion. “Singles” and “Sleepless in Seattle” hit movie screens. Ken Griffey Jr. was a superstar. And Payton, Kemp and the fiery Karl were headlining SportsCenter highlights.
“It all had this mystical essence to it,” Barry said. “Because nobody wanted to go to the Pacific Northwest. It was so far away, the weather was bad … but there was a lot of cool stuff happening in and around that place. So it had this mystical quality to it.”
Added Karl: “The city was blossoming, the music was blossoming, the city was growing, the Mariners were good … everything was just in rhythm. There was a rhythm that Seattle was cool. Pearl Jam, Starbucks, (Microsoft’s Steve) Ballmer … and (the Sonics) were good.
“Unfortunately, Michael (Jordan) was in the league.”
The electricity between the Sonics and the Seattle scene made for lasting bonds. For fans and the players.
“Spilling out from KeyArena after a game meant that you were in the bloodstream of the city,” said Barry, now an assistant coach with Phoenix. “You got out of the arena and you could walk across the street to Lazy J’s (Jalisco’s) and do karaoke with a bunch of fans who were just at the game. You could go to First Street and hop into a steakhouse and have a meal with fans who just left the game.
“To lose all that … it was a gut punch to a city that loved basketball, loved its team and had a relationship with the team that was unique.”
Portland Trail Blazers play-by-play announcer Kevin Calabro, who announced Sonics games for 22 years, said fans still ask him regularly if and when the Sonics will return, which is attributed to the connection formed during those memorable years in the 1990s.
“You had this great amalgam of cutting-edge technology with the internet coming to life and this great music scene and the Sonics bursting at the seams,” Calabro said. “And it all came together on winter nights at The Barn, as we used to call KeyArena. Jeff Ament (Pearl Jam bassist) was down in the baseline seats all the time, Eddie Vedder (Pearl Jam singer) was around, Screaming Trees … all these bands would show up.
“And when George Karl took over, it just lit a fire. There were so many great characters … and they were all involved with the community. You could feel them, touch them, see them at the clubs, hang with them. It was special.”
Wansley, the store manager who hangs the Sonics jerseys from wall to wall, is a lifelong Seattle resident. She said her deepest bonds are with the Sonics because she experienced them in everyday life. She saw Nate McMillan and Sam Perkins at Bellevue Square, Kemp and Gary in the store, Dana Barros here, Schrempf there.
“It was something that just connects you to them,” Wansley said. “You would go to the game, then see them out … and I don’t know how it is in other cities, but they were just out in the community so much. It would be like, ‘Hey, I just saw you play …’ ”
Seattle has been down this road of anticipation before. The 2013 bid to relocate the Kings to Seattle was so close to happening — and so ugly in its particulars — that its downfall left some scars.
But the overall sentiment today is that Seattle is well positioned, if not a leader when expansion becomes a reality. Much of the optimism stems from Climate Pledge Arena, the refurbished KeyArena, which now houses the NHL’s Seattle Kraken.
“There literally hasn’t been a week where I haven’t been asked about the Sonics or the NBA or how we got screwed,” said Bob Whitsitt, who was president and general manager of the Sonics from 1986-94. “And for years, I said to them — right or wrong — that Seattle was not in a position to even be considered for a team until they have an NBA-ready facility.
“And that giant hurdle has now been cleared with Climate Pledge Arena. As a city, we know we have a facility that works. That doesn’t guarantee you a team, but you can be guaranteed not to get a team by not having a facility. So, the biggest thing has been taken off the board.”
Whitsitt still lives in Seattle and said he is encouraged by a potential ownership group led by Kraken owners David Bonderman and his daughter, Samantha Holloway. Bonderman also is a minority owner of the Boston Celtics.
“My support is behind them,” Whitsitt said. “They are the right ones. They are the perfect people to lead the thing. And the Seattle market is not only great, it is ready.”
Last month, more than 18,000 sold out the LA Clippers and Trail Blazers exhibition game at Climate Pledge Arena, which more than caught the eye of coaches Chauncey Billups of the Blazers and Tyronn Lue of the Clippers.
“I mean, everybody talks about it,” Billups said. “This is obviously a desired city, a market that people love … it makes the most sense. It’s already been very successful, the market has, so it makes a lot of sense. We just have to wait on it.”
Added Lue: “It’s a great environment, a great place to play … they’ve done a great job with this arena.”
Brian Robinson, a Seattle real estate investor, heads Seattle NBA Fans, the group that hosted the event with Karl, Lewis, Ellis and the mayor. He has 250 community leaders and 50 CEOs behind his movement. He also headed a 2010 group that tried to find an arena solution to lure the Sonics back. He said then, it was difficult to get business leaders and companies behind him.
“Now, no one ever says no,” said Robinson, 51. “People see the change in tone from the commissioner and they see a path. Everyone wants to be a part of it. I just feel like the people of Seattle are over the negativity and they are ready to have this journey be something meaningful.”
Mayor Harrell and Knox, the CEO of the Seattle Sports Commission, are envisioning a future where Sonics players become role models and inspire youth to not only participate in basketball, but dream. Seattle has a long history of producing NBA talent, including Brandon Roy, Jason Terry, Jamal Crawford, Paolo Banchero and Dejounte Murray. Barry thinks the Sonics can help inspire others.
“How do you dream bigger if you don’t see it in front of you?” Barry asked. “I was thinking if I never went to Golden State games as a kid to watch Chris Mullin, Tim Hardaway and Mitch Richmond, how much of my devotion and love of the game would have been depleted by not having the touch, the autograph, the memories? The impact can’t be overstated.
“There’s almost 20 years of kids in Seattle who never saw one game in their city of LeBron James, one of the greatest players who ever played. Twenty years of kids, and parents for that matter, who haven’t had that community, that environment, that experience. It hurts.”
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Last month, Barry thought back to the day when he penned the “When It Rains” poem. He rifled through his files and found it.
“Even reading it again, I was like, ‘Man, I still feel this way. It sucks,” Barry said. “I was sad. Legitimately sad. But right now, I don’t think there has ever been more sentiment or momentum than right now. And I hope it’s not another carrot in front of the rabbit situation. I hope this momentum is true and honest and there is potential for the green and gold to be back there.”
It was the same thought he had 16 years ago, in San Antonio as he closed his poem.
“… A chapter left unwritten, a generation with a gap,
Forty-one years of NBA action and now no one can clap
But here is a silver lining … above every cloud’s a sun
And the possibility is something we hold on to even if slim to none
For faith and hope and love are tenants
Of the days as one grows old
And for all at stake, those clouds will break
And we will see the green and gold.”
(Illustration: Meech Robinson / The Athletic; photos: Steph Chambers, Tim DeFrisco, Otto Greule Jr, Andy Hayt, Jeff Reinking, Terrence Vaccaro / Getty Images)
Culture
NHL player poll: As sports betting increases, so do harassing messages — and Venmo requests
There doesn’t have to be a milestone moment or viral play for an NHL player’s phone to be flooded with notifications in the wake of a game. Maybe there’s a text from a parent, a reminder from a partner, a few messages of congratulations or condolences. Not to mention the usual spate of emails and push alerts that inevitably pile up when you’ve been away from your phone for a few hours.
But these days, as sports betting becomes more and more prevalent in the hockey world, there’s a new app jockeying for space atop players’ home screens.
“I’ve been sent Venmo requests before,” one NHL player surveyed in The Athletic’s player poll said. “Like, ‘Hey, I bet on you guys to win and you blew it. So give me back my 50 bucks.’”
That player said he found it “comical.”
“I think I paid one guy back once,” he said with a laugh. “Sent him like 20 bucks.”
Of course, the Internet being what it is, it’s not always terribly funny. Almost one-third of the 161 players polled said they’ve been getting more harassing messages from fans since sports betting has become legal in more states.
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“Oh, almost every day,” one goaltender said. “Honestly, I’d say 75 percent of them are them being mad about something. ‘How did you let in that late goal? I had the under. Thanks a lot. You f—ing suck.’ Things like that constantly. I feel like, as a goalie, we’re a little bit more exposed to it, too.”
“Together with a couple death threats and a few other things,” another player added.
Perhaps the biggest revelation from The Athletic’s anonymous player poll was how common the Venmo requests are.
“They’re demands, not requests,” one player clarified. “’You owe me $200 because you were on the ice when …’ and it’s insane. It’s really bad when you play against Toronto because it seems like everybody is betting on Leafs games. But that’s Toronto for you.”
Apparently, NHL players need to do a better job of masking their identities on cash apps.
“Yeah, that’s real,” another player said. “When you ruin a guy’s parlay or something? Hundred percent, that’s real. I got one last game where some guy bet on my number of shots or something and then he’s DM’ing me: ‘You f—ed my parlay!’ Pardon my language, but that’s what he said.”
“Yeah, 100 percent,” said another player. “I’ve gotten plenty of them show up in my inbox before. Like I kept them from hitting some parlay or something or, ‘Here’s my Venmo. Send me $100.’”
“Oh, yeah,” one player said. “People on social media are way crazier now because they have more skin in the game. I think that’s for all sports.”
“I get messages all the time, and these are people probably betting $1.50,” said another.
Some such requests are obvious gags. But other messages carry a more sinister tone.
“Not here, but to be honest, mostly in Russia,” one player said. “Like it’s getting crazy. You’re up 2-0 and lose, you get messages, like, ‘You f—ing asshole, I’m gonna f—ing kill you.’”
One player said he gets at least one or two such messages every day from gamblers. But two-thirds of the players who responded said they don’t get any. It could depend on how high-profile a player is. Not a lot of fans are betting on fourth-liners and third-pairing defensemen. As one player joked, “I don’t think I’m the betting favorite.”
Unsurprisingly, many players have done their best to unplug entirely. That also could explain the two-thirds who said they don’t get such messages.
“I used to know that I got harassing messages,” one player said. “Now I don’t know. Who would read these f—ing idiots? I don’t anymore.”
“That’s why I turned everything off,” another said. “You get some scary messages out there.”
Another: “Good thing I’m not on social media.”
Another: “No one can find me, so I don’t know.”
Death threats and profanity-laced tirades aside, sometimes the players feel the bettors’ pain.
“Sometimes they bet on me to score and I don’t and they want me to give them money,” one player said. “I’m like, ‘I want to score, too!’”
(Graphic: Meech Robinson / The Athletic, with photos from Gary A. Vasquez, Katherine Gawlik and Andre Ringuette / Getty Images)
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