daily blog

As I casually strolled across the dingy Boston playing field on a brisk Sunday afternoon the winds began to whip through my jacket and the words watch your step scrolled across my mind as I carefully navigated through the debris that is a part of many urban ball fields , broken glass, geese droppings, etc. Wait a minute is that human feces? I finally made it to the sideline set up my portable sports chair and got ready to watch an M2Sports flag football game between the Giants and the Eagles. The only reason I was at this game was to watch my son Tony aka “Tadow” along with the rest of his Giant teammates “H8me, Sho Nuff, Killa, Toby, Javafi,Jeebies, El Negro, Phil, Cbert and P.T compete.

Before the game started the first thing I noticed was how diverse the teams were, there were men of all racial, social, religious and economic backgrounds playing side by side or as opposition. The formation of the league was the brainchild of Mario Lopez a Latino brother who had the vision to create a format where men can be men have fun, stay in shape and release the stress of daily living at least once a week and have the freedom to unleash their alter ego’s with names like K-Dogg, Speedy, Mr. Puerto Rico etc. It was great to see such a diverse collection of men gathered together.

The game finally began and immediately there was a lot of trash talking, this was my first time attending the games, so the language assault I experienced caught me off guard, I was sure someone was going to take the comments out of context and blows would be thrown, this was definitely not a PG-13 event and don’t get it twisted just because it’s a flag football league, this sports is not for little boys, hits on the sideline are legal and people can and do get cracked, much to the delight of the crowd on run backs or blocking at the line. Both teams spent a fair amount of time and energy trading verbal air assaults from ethnic put downs to the questioning of “Manhood” for everyone to hear and laugh at on the sidelines. The contest was intense and went back and forth the Giants scored first then the Eagles and this pattern lasted over two hours, until “Tadow” scored the game winning touchdown. What happened at the conclusion of the game is what really impressed me, I just knew that after all the jarring that took place the end of the game would be the opportunity for someone to over react to something that was said and blow it out of proportion, as I watched the teams walk toward each other at midfield, the teams simply shook hands, embraced, laughed, shared water and a genuine respect for their brothers after all it was just a game they left their differences on the football field.

At that very moment I pondered the following, why can’t these same men who represent something larger than themselves come together for a common cause away from the playing field and take that same passion and energy back to the community to help tear down the walls that separate us and make a difference? What is it that keeps our neighborhoods segregated once they exit the playing surface? After the games are over, the blacks will go their way and hang out with the blacks, the Latino’s will hang with the Latino’s and so on for the white males. It’s been said that sports serves as a microcosm of the larger society in many ways, but it’s ironic that the same people who can spend hours together as teammates or engaged in healthy competition go their separate ways and live in different worlds once the games end. Imagine how powerful it would be to see these same men standing side by side leading voter registration drives, mentoring programs, policing the block to make the hood safe, visiting classrooms, and juvenile detention centers. They would be excellent role models in demonstrating to our youth that beneath the obvious differences of color and race we can get along. On the playing fields diversity is what helps a team come together, the successful teams adopt the philosophy of inclusion and appreciation of variety and they figure out how to make those differences work together for a common goal, “winning”. Yet that same approach is rarely seen in other area’s politics, education, religion and employment to name a few.

Perhaps one day we will find a way to make society a microcosm of sports, rather than the other way around.

Tony Price

A Boston Based Collegaite Athletics Administrator and Head Basketball Coach. A Hall of Fame Inductee(Worcester State College) with 20 plus years experience as an athlete, coach, and administrator.

This mysterious cat is originally from the country of Siam, now known as Thailand. Siamese cats were highly esteemed by generations of Siamese monarchs,
even to the extent that they resided in the royal palace. You wanna talk about the royalty of the cat world! They were trusted to protect the palace as well as monasteries from evil spirits and were also thought to bring good fortune.

In the year 1884, the first Siamese cats made their way to England when the current Monarch of Siam decided to gift them to a top general in the British Army. They made their way from there to America. The Siamese cat is now one of the most
recognized domestic cat breeds around. According to the Cat Fancy Association they are the single most popular shorthair cat and the 3rd most popular breed of cat overall.

Although this breed features a variety of different colors, there are some disagreements concerning what makes a true Siamese cat and what does not Still, these delightful felines are well known for bodies that are mostly light in color with darker areas called points. The darker points are generally (but not always) around the face, legs, feet and the tail.
Weighing in at between about 8 and 15 lbs, this blue eyed sensation of the cat world has 2 distinct body types.

The modern Siamese have long and elegant bodies with very refined tapering lines and wedge-shaped heads to match.

Conversely the traditional Siamese cat is a robust and round-headed creature with a muscular physique
These particular cats are as well-known for their distinct personalities as for their color points. They have a great talent for communicating with people that other cats simply do not have. If you like to come home to peace and quiet, then you may want to consider another cat altogether. These are the most social cats in existence.

Since Siamese cats believe the world revolves around them, they want lots and lots attention. They are also quite dependant on their human owners. They crave interaction and they really love their games! These cats are simply not meant to be left alone for too long.

While this cat may be high maintenance emotionally, they are generally not in any other area. For example they need only a minimum of grooming.

Because their coats are so close as to appear painted on, a gentle weekly brushing is usually enouph. Like all other types of cats, they have a few minor genetic faults, such as occasional crossed eyes and kinked tail, which are primarily cosmetic concerns.

In terms of life expectency, these cats are blessed with above-average life spans compared to other cats, generally between fiften to twenty years and sometimes longer. The reward for such a cat is well worth it as you can have a staunch supporter for a substantal amount of time.

Just imagine having a cat that can help teach your kids on the art of speech and then live long enough to see them go to college. For information on cats and cat nutrition visit Premium Cat Food from Life’s Abundance and learn more.

Ryan Joseph is a writer researcher. For more information visit http://www.dog-food-nutrition.com/

The fastest way to achieved financial freedom is to create a second stream of income that generates money for you automatically. If you can create this kind of second income, you are able to leave your 9 to 5 and create multiple stream of income, and then you are well on your way to achieved financial freedom. In this article, we focus on in creating a steady and consistent second stream of income with the use of an automated forex trading systems.

An automated forex trading system is a system that automatically generates consistent profitable trades for you. In other words, you spend a few minutes setting it up, and spend the rest of the day creating or accumulating more assets for you goal in reaching financial freedom.

There are many automated forex trading systems out there, and it is up to you to find one that makes consistent profit. While an automated forex trading system is fairly cheap, most systems out there is inconsistent and most likely a scam.

To filter out the bad ones from the good ones, we need to take advantage of their money back guarantee. Most good systems offers up to 60 day money back guarantee policy. And most of the system can be used on a demo account (fake money) to test if it makes consistent profit. What you can do is, get a system that you are interested in, use it on a demo account and see if it makes considerable amount of money before the 60 days money back guarantee are up. Worst case scenario is it does not make you thousands of dollars; you simply return it and get your money back. Best case scenario is it makes you thousands of dollars with little to no work in your part. The plan is foolproof.

In fact there are many people are currently sitting at home with their family, and enjoying their life like it should, without any worries of going back to their 9 to 5 routine. The one thing these people have in common is, they made a wise choice and more importantly took action to reach their financial goal. What about you?

For a complete review of the best and proven forex trading systems, all you need to do is click here

There are many different software being developed lately to automate trading in Forex. They are able to trade currencies without needing a person to execute trades. Automated trading is a field that began emerging not long ago.

Automated trading has number of advantages over manual trading. Such advantages for example are:

It is executed by computer. Today information technology and computer science are developed to a very high standards. Computer can perform thousand calculations while human performs only one. It work outs logical computations without error and stores memory at incredible speed.

Automatic trading takes emotions out of your trading. It will never make decisions driven by greed and fear. The software never hesitates to take a trade or close a position. All the trades are based on set rules and criteria that eliminate the human psychological errors.

Trading software can take trades day and night without weariness. It frees a trader from the necessity to be glued to his trading charts all the time. Once a successful trading system is developed and optimized into a trading robot it can be left to run independently.

On the other hand automated Forex trading robots have a major flow. They do not have the “feel” for market as a human trader does. If trading software is making profit once market conditions change it may start loosing money. That kind of change can be perceived only by a human eye. For example if behavior of the currency pair was predominantly trending and a trading robot was making profit. Once that currency pair becomes mostly ranging trading robot will lose money in such market.

Here is my personal experience with automated Forex robots. In the beginning of my trading experience with them I was constantly failing. My equity curve looked like a trajectory of falling rock. The only problem for me was that over time those programs and Expert Advisors stop making profit as they did it before.

I tried different kinds of software and Expert Advisors. Finally found what I was looking for. I have posted my trading results with this one at Forex automatic robots. I gave more detailed overview as well as trading results on Metatrader platform.

Also I highly recommend you to visit Forex-Opportunity.info to learn more about automated Forex trading. At least sign up for a newsletter to get a comprehensive trading advice

There is currently a genuine state of confusion regarding commercial loan rates. The confusion is not just restricted to borrowers, either. Brokers, lenders and professional investors are all struggling to get a handle on what is going on with commercial loan rates.

Borrowers are under the impression that we’re at historic lows. They hear about the feds lowering rates and also hear national banks quote ridiculously low rates. What these national banks aren’t advertising is that their decline rates are at historic highs. Is difficult to be able to track a statistics like this but my friends and associates that work at intuitions like Bank of America, CITI etc tell me that there decline rate are at 95% or so.

So what that means is that they are cherry picking to an incredible degree (can you blame them?). The low commercial loan rates that they are advertising are only relevant for 5% of the borrowers that apply. Think about that for a moment, for every 100 people that fill out those 6 page applications, provide their tax return, etc, 95 of them are getting declined. As a comparison the decline rates are normally more like 50%.

The confusion is not just restricted to borrowers but to professionals in the industry as well. The spreads or margin are varying from one lender to the next more than we have seen. People in the business are struggling to understand why. Normally if you were to get 10 quotes on the same deal the commercial loan rates would be within .25 -. 35% of each other. Perhaps a few would tweak the prepayments or term, etc but their rates would be close. Now we are seeing commercial loan rates on the same deal varying between 2% -3%…

Part of the problem is that some of the lenders and banks themselves are having their cost of capital increase. Some of their credit rating are being lowered, as their balance sheets are scrutinised. So despite the Feds lower their rates, the margins that the banks charge (in order to cover their costs, risk and make a profit) go up as their cost of capital go up. So as one bank is more financial healthy than the next its costs of capital varies.

So what’s the happy ending? We currently don’t have one. If you’re thinking of buying or refinancing a commercial property in the next few months we would suggest getting it done now as in maybe a while before things re-stabilize and commercial loan rates become more universal.

Jeff Rauth is President of Commercial Finance Advisors, Inc out of Birmingham, Michigan. He has a STORE for commercial loan brokers. Contracts, spreadsheets, books, etc. Products starting at $4.95! Check it out commercial mortgage broker store or commercial loan rates

As I casually strolled across the dingy Boston playing field on a brisk Sunday afternoon the winds began to whip through my jacket and the words watch your step scrolled across my mind as I carefully navigated through the debris that is a part of many urban ball fields , broken glass, geese droppings, etc. Wait a minute is that human feces? I finally made it to the sideline set up my portable sports chair and got ready to watch an M2Sports flag football game between the Giants and the Eagles. The only reason I was at this game was to watch my son Tony aka “Tadow” along with the rest of his Giant teammates “H8me, Sho Nuff, Killa, Toby, Javafi,Jeebies, El Negro, Phil, Cbert and P.T compete.

Before the game started the first thing I noticed was how diverse the teams were, there were men of all racial, social, religious and economic backgrounds playing side by side or as opposition. The formation of the league was the brainchild of Mario Lopez a Latino brother who had the vision to create a format where men can be men have fun, stay in shape and release the stress of daily living at least once a week and have the freedom to unleash their alter ego’s with names like K-Dogg, Speedy, Mr. Puerto Rico etc. It was great to see such a diverse collection of men gathered together.

The game finally began and immediately there was a lot of trash talking, this was my first time attending the games, so the language assault I experienced caught me off guard, I was sure someone was going to take the comments out of context and blows would be thrown, this was definitely not a PG-13 event and don’t get it twisted just because it’s a flag football league, this sports is not for little boys, hits on the sideline are legal and people can and do get cracked, much to the delight of the crowd on run backs or blocking at the line. Both teams spent a fair amount of time and energy trading verbal air assaults from ethnic put downs to the questioning of “Manhood” for everyone to hear and laugh at on the sidelines. The contest was intense and went back and forth the Giants scored first then the Eagles and this pattern lasted over two hours, until “Tadow” scored the game winning touchdown. What happened at the conclusion of the game is what really impressed me, I just knew that after all the jarring that took place the end of the game would be the opportunity for someone to over react to something that was said and blow it out of proportion, as I watched the teams walk toward each other at midfield, the teams simply shook hands, embraced, laughed, shared water and a genuine respect for their brothers after all it was just a game they left their differences on the football field.

At that very moment I pondered the following, why can’t these same men who represent something larger than themselves come together for a common cause away from the playing field and take that same passion and energy back to the community to help tear down the walls that separate us and make a difference? What is it that keeps our neighborhoods segregated once they exit the playing surface? After the games are over, the blacks will go their way and hang out with the blacks, the Latino’s will hang with the Latino’s and so on for the white males. It’s been said that sports serves as a microcosm of the larger society in many ways, but it’s ironic that the same people who can spend hours together as teammates or engaged in healthy competition go their separate ways and live in different worlds once the games end. Imagine how powerful it would be to see these same men standing side by side leading voter registration drives, mentoring programs, policing the block to make the hood safe, visiting classrooms, and juvenile detention centers. They would be excellent role models in demonstrating to our youth that beneath the obvious differences of color and race we can get along. On the playing fields diversity is what helps a team come together, the successful teams adopt the philosophy of inclusion and appreciation of variety and they figure out how to make those differences work together for a common goal, “winning”. Yet that same approach is rarely seen in other area’s politics, education, religion and employment to name a few.

Perhaps one day we will find a way to make society a microcosm of sports, rather than the other way around.

Tony Price

A Boston Based Collegaite Athletics Administrator and Head Basketball Coach. A Hall of Fame Inductee(Worcester State College) with 20 plus years experience as an athlete, coach, and administrator.

It time again to revisit alternative financing strategies for business owners needing money. Whether your business needs capital to grow, meet payroll, or to just simply survive, there are numerous alternatives for your company when banks so ‘NO’.

Personal loans are no longer viable options for business owners. Banks have tightened their purse strings on personal credit just as they have with business credit. This tightening typically does not have anything to do with the state of your credit or the value of your collateral. But more reflects their past indiscretions with their depositors’ money. Further, most business owners, over the last two or three years, have already encumbered all of their personal assets, leaving nothing of value to collateralize.

The following lists many alternatives that may still be available to your business. These alternatives allow business owners to capitalize on their previous hard work; be it from building relationships with suppliers and other business partners to closing sales and building a strong customer base:

Using Your Business Relationships!

Trade Credit: It never hurts to work with your suppliers. Ask for better terms; either more discounts or longer time for payment. Here you can reduce your overall costs or allow more time to collect money from your customer before payment is due to these suppliers. Now, your suppliers may baulk at this discussion as they are probably feeling the same pinch as you are. However, impress upon them that it does their business no good (short term or long-term) if you go out of business, have to cut back your standard orders, or are forced to find other suppliers who offer better terms.

In conjunction with trade credit, do all that you can to collect your receivables from your customers, as soon as possible. If your suppliers offer you discounts for early payment, offer the same to your customers (just maybe not at the same magnitude) or offer discounts for cash. This allows you to collect payments faster as well as reduce you costs by paying less for the goods you need to run your business. Just remember, in this type of economy, cash is king.

Using The Strength of Your Customers!

Receivables and/or Purchase Orders: If your business has accounts receivables sitting on its book just waiting to be collected, you maybe able to get cash for those assets NOW. There are cash advance companies (not banks) that specialize in purchasing your receivables. Companies like Bridgeport Capital Service, RTS Financial Services, or Paragon Financial Group. These companies will purchase your invoices for up to 90% of their amount. They will then work with your customers to collect these receivables (saving you both time and money on collection). When the invoices are paid, these companies will refund to you the remaining 10% of the invoice amount. This type of funding is great for struggling companies as these cash advance businesses will focus more on your customers’ credit and business strengths than your.

Many of these same companies will also finance your purchase orders. If you place an order with your suppliers and agree to pay for their goods over time, these cash advance companies will finance these agreements. This could allow your business the opportunity to take advantage of trade discounts (percentages off the purchase amount) as your company will have immediate cash to satisfy your supplier. This is very similar to having a line of credit with your bank but as an individual credit facility for each purchase.

Credit Cards: I not saying go out and get more credit cards. If your business accepts credit cards, there are companies (again, not banks) that may advance cash to your company based on your FUTURE credit card receipts. These facilities are only paid back when your business generates credit card sales. Thus, if you have a slow month, you are not stuck with a huge monthly loan payment. As your credit card sales ebb and flow, your repayment of these advances will ebb and flow in tandem.

Using Your Character!

Need just a small amount of cash to get you by? Try social lending sites like All World Private Funding!, Zopa, Prosper, or Lending Club. These sites create peer-to-peer lending in which ordinary people, who have additional cash, can review your request and contribute to the funding of your loan. The benefits of these programs include getting the money you need, possible lower rates and better terms than most banks offer, and you get to tell your story directly to the lenders.

Similarly, there is Micro-Credit companies. The largest in the US and around the world is ACCION USA. Micro-finance companies limit their total out lay to a maximum of $25,000 per loan. However, most micro-credit funders like to build relationships first with their borrowers. Thus, they may only approve smaller amounts in the beginning and increase your loan amount as you pay back each facility. These companies will also work with startup firms or those that have been turned down by traditional banks and other financial institutions.

Never forget your friends and family. These are the people who know you best and may better understand what you are trying to do with your business. There are many cons with borrowing money from those closest to you but new companies like Virgin Money will help you manage this new relationship. Companies like Virgin will help you keep everything in a business like manner.

Now, while there is a lot of focus these days on traditional banks, most communities also have Credit Unions. Credit Unions are not-for-profit organizations. Thus, they do not have to worry about Wall Street or shareholders. While the majority of Credit Unions have yet to fully adopt commercial lending departments, they should have lending programs in place that will meet your business needs.

Some of these alternative options maybe a little more expensive, overall, then having a single credit facility with a bank. But, they are a sure fire way of leading your company through our current credit drought. The key to success is to do your homework. Find the program that best fits your needs and that will provide the greatest benefit at the lowest cost to your business. Some business owners tend to panic a bit when they begin to feel the credit pinch. It is only natural as raising money for your business is time consuming, time that can hardly be spared in these trying times. But, remember to think about the long term. Don’t just settle on the first source that gets approved, find the best fore you. Be diligent!

Joseph Lizio holds A MBA in Finance and is founder and owner of http://www.businessmoneytoday.com

These trends relate to the increasing cost of retirement which in turn is linked to longer life expectancy and the effects of a massive ageing population.

Firstly, as we know, most major employers are moving away from the final-salary pension schemes of old. The promises made by employers are proving to be very expensive to keep and as such, current corporate management is trying to lower or remove this burden.

The second major trend is the devaluing of state retirement benefits. Of course, this differs from country to country, but the trend is for pensioners to receive less, not more benefits.

Whilst the masses appear to be completely unaware of this trend, the clock to retirement age is ticking and each passing month without action is one less in which preparation can be made.

Suddenly, investors need to decide whether they want to focus on alpha or beta. For the lay person, this means either trusting in the skill of an investment management to outperform the market, or, relying on the market and investing passively in an index. This is a very difficult call to make.

Should an investor stick with the more traditional unit linked funds investing on the stock exchange and bond markets, or look to more adventurous areas such as hedge funds, property and commodities? Can an investor protect themselves from the potential swings in the market by diversification?

For those that wish to avoid the complexities and rely on a managed fund, choosing a manager can be hard to do. Even the legendary Bill Miller who had beated the S&P 500 for an incredible 15 consecutive years has just had 2 poor years in a row.

In fact, the average US mutual fund investor averages much lower returns than are possible. This is in part due to the unfortunate habit of private investors to jump onto an investment bandwagon and buy into hot funds at the top of the market. Some studies suggest that this causes most investors to earn a massive five percent less each year than the S&P 500 index.

Such mistakes are primarily due to a lack of understanding. Private investors often lack economic, business, political, financial or stock exchange knowledge – and this can prove to be very expensive. This – of course – is understandable. Not everyone has the desire or capacity to become an expert in economics or geopolitics. And yet, this is what these changes essentially require. At the most extreme, this may prove to be the difference between a prosperous or a poor old age.

All these things really prove is that the private investor needs to understand the stock exchange and it’s workings more and more – and that an ever greater number of people need to become private investors. This will be a massive change in how individuals are responsible for their own affairs.

Stuart Langridge is a financial advisor and personal finance columnist. He shows people why they need to invest on the stock exchange and why we all need to Invest on the stock exchange for a more comfortable retirement.

Economic conditions changed dramatically due to problems encountered by the mortgage sector and global rising of fuel and food.

All of us are very cautious and are always on the look out for means to survive, here are some of them:

• Don’t Panic. How the stock markets behave defies laws of gravity. It goes up an hour and drops drastically in another. Experts advise though that withdrawing your investment money may do more harm than good. Cash out the money if you really need it short-term. Be reminded that through out history bad times come and go. After some time, the market will recover.

• Protect your Portfolio. When you put some eggs in the basket you make sure that they will not break. This is also the rule of thumb for investments. For example, financial experts advise that you check on your portfolios once a year and check how much the balances are. Make some adjustments so your assets are well distributed to different channels. The market volatility is an indicator that people should be diversified with their investments. Factors such as your age and risk tolerance should influence you long term. Remember that the current state of the economy is just temporary. Younger people can take more risks in terms of investing while the older generation must take lower investment risk to ensure better cash flow.

• Do not be Trapped by your Mortgage. The subprime mortgage disaster has affected the whole economy. Homeowners with adjustable rate mortgages should consider getting a long term fixed loan to avoid the voracious rate adjustments that may occur. Getting a refinancing is not that easy today. Lenders have taken measures to safeguard themselves and assets through higher interest rates and stricter qualification guidelines. If you have a good credit score take the opportunity to discuss with your lender better fixed rate loan packages that can be easier on your pocket and in the long term lead to owning that home.

• Pay Attention to your Job. Work hard during these hard times. Companies are on a wait and see situation where they have the tendency to lay off people when it becomes a necessity. Work hard so you will be a valuable asset of the company. Companies will see you as a good investment and will give you job security. If you are on a staff level, monitor how your boss and your department is performing. Knowing where you stand allow you to plan for the future.

• Handle your debt and save. It is essential to get rid of bills and save as much money as you can. In times of great need, you cannot easily rely on the value of your home which has dropped significantly because the economy is on shaky grounds. Determine if you really need something before spending that extra cash.

• Don’t spend on what you don’t need. Tough times should convince you to review your household budget. List down your expenses and strike out any thing which you think is not really essential. Necessity should be considered first before giving into the comforts of your lifestyle. Tighten the budget and put the extra money into your savings.

Blooming in very tough economic conditions involve making the right decisions at the right time. Spending less may mean survival until the economy recovers. For now, being ready for the worst is number one.

The author of this article was Benedict Yossarian. If you have taken a loan out in the UK within the past 10 years it is quite possible it could be classed as an unenforceable loan agreement if any clerical errors have been made. Consumer Credit Claims can help receive financial compensation for these incorrectly drafted loans.

As I casually strolled across the dingy Boston playing field on a brisk Sunday afternoon the winds began to whip through my jacket and the words watch your step scrolled across my mind as I carefully navigated through the debris that is a part of many urban ball fields , broken glass, geese droppings, etc. Wait a minute is that human feces? I finally made it to the sideline set up my portable sports chair and got ready to watch an M2Sports flag football game between the Giants and the Eagles. The only reason I was at this game was to watch my son Tony aka “Tadow” along with the rest of his Giant teammates “H8me, Sho Nuff, Killa, Toby, Javafi,Jeebies, El Negro, Phil, Cbert and P.T compete.

Before the game started the first thing I noticed was how diverse the teams were, there were men of all racial, social, religious and economic backgrounds playing side by side or as opposition. The formation of the league was the brainchild of Mario Lopez a Latino brother who had the vision to create a format where men can be men have fun, stay in shape and release the stress of daily living at least once a week and have the freedom to unleash their alter ego’s with names like K-Dogg, Speedy, Mr. Puerto Rico etc. It was great to see such a diverse collection of men gathered together.

The game finally began and immediately there was a lot of trash talking, this was my first time attending the games, so the language assault I experienced caught me off guard, I was sure someone was going to take the comments out of context and blows would be thrown, this was definitely not a PG-13 event and don’t get it twisted just because it’s a flag football league, this sports is not for little boys, hits on the sideline are legal and people can and do get cracked, much to the delight of the crowd on run backs or blocking at the line. Both teams spent a fair amount of time and energy trading verbal air assaults from ethnic put downs to the questioning of “Manhood” for everyone to hear and laugh at on the sidelines. The contest was intense and went back and forth the Giants scored first then the Eagles and this pattern lasted over two hours, until “Tadow” scored the game winning touchdown. What happened at the conclusion of the game is what really impressed me, I just knew that after all the jarring that took place the end of the game would be the opportunity for someone to over react to something that was said and blow it out of proportion, as I watched the teams walk toward each other at midfield, the teams simply shook hands, embraced, laughed, shared water and a genuine respect for their brothers after all it was just a game they left their differences on the football field.

At that very moment I pondered the following, why can’t these same men who represent something larger than themselves come together for a common cause away from the playing field and take that same passion and energy back to the community to help tear down the walls that separate us and make a difference? What is it that keeps our neighborhoods segregated once they exit the playing surface? After the games are over, the blacks will go their way and hang out with the blacks, the Latino’s will hang with the Latino’s and so on for the white males. It’s been said that sports serves as a microcosm of the larger society in many ways, but it’s ironic that the same people who can spend hours together as teammates or engaged in healthy competition go their separate ways and live in different worlds once the games end. Imagine how powerful it would be to see these same men standing side by side leading voter registration drives, mentoring programs, policing the block to make the hood safe, visiting classrooms, and juvenile detention centers. They would be excellent role models in demonstrating to our youth that beneath the obvious differences of color and race we can get along. On the playing fields diversity is what helps a team come together, the successful teams adopt the philosophy of inclusion and appreciation of variety and they figure out how to make those differences work together for a common goal, “winning”. Yet that same approach is rarely seen in other area’s politics, education, religion and employment to name a few.

Perhaps one day we will find a way to make society a microcosm of sports, rather than the other way around.

Tony Price

A Boston Based Collegaite Athletics Administrator and Head Basketball Coach. A Hall of Fame Inductee(Worcester State College) with 20 plus years experience as an athlete, coach, and administrator.