TUESDAY, AUGUST 20 , 2019. THE WASHINGTON POST EZ M2 D5
partnership represents progress,
and he added he didn’t respect the
rapper’s comments about the deal.
And Stills said Jay-Z could have
reached out to him or to Kaeper-
nick before announcing the part-
nership.
PACKERS: Quarterback Aar-
on Rodgers participated in prac-
tice and is expected to play in
Green Bay’s third preseason game
Thursday.
General Manager Brian
Gutekunst said the plan is for the
two-time MVP to make his debut
against Oakland in Winnipeg.
Rodgers sat out the Packers’ sec-
ond preseason game in Baltimore
and was sidelined in practice
Sunday with back tightness.
RAMS: Jim Hardy, the oldest
living University of Southern Cali-
fornia and Los Angeles Rams play-
er who was the MVP of the 1945
Rose Bowl, died at 96. The univer-
sity said Hardy, who was selected
in the first round of the 1945 draft
by the Redskins, died Aug. 16 of
natural causes at his home in La
Quinta, Calif.
— Associated Pressreinstated him from an indefinite
suspension that cost him the final
three games of the 2018 regular
season and the team’s Super Bowl
run. Commissioner Roger Goodell
said Gordon could participate in
team meetings, conditioning and
individual workouts while work-
ing himself back into shape. Gor-
don was suspended indefinitely in
December for violations of the
league’s substance abuse policy.
Also Monday, the Boston Globe
reported the team released punter
Ryan Allen, who won three Super
Bowls with New England.
DOLPHINS: Wide receiver
Kenny Stills objected to recent
comments from rapper Jay-Z
about social activism by current
and former NFL players, includ-
ing Colin Kaepernick.
Jay-Z and the league last week
announced a partnership he char-
acterized as a progressive step to
carry on the campaign that Kaep-
ernick began by kneeling during
the national anthem to bring
attention to police brutality and
racial inequality.
Stills said he isn’t so sure theing Elliott rather than replacing
him.
“If he goes out there and he
plays to that level he’s going to be
[at] for the next several weeks, he’s
going to be right in the middle of it
early,” Jones said. “That will really
complement what we’re doing
with Zeke, not replace [him]. No-
body is getting cute here — cer-
tainly be a great complement to
have a great running game where I
can picture those guys [having]
success at the same time out there,
really giving the defense some
fits.”
— Ava Wallace
PATRIOTS: Oft-suspended
wideout Josh Gordon returned to
New England’s practice without
pads and without saying when he
might be able to play again.
Gordon was seen stretching on
the field during the portion of the
team’s workout that was open to
the media. In the locker room
before practice, he declined a
request for an interview.
The Patriots placed Gordon on
the non-football injury list
Sunday, two days after the NFLinjuries to his feet reportedly
caused when he failed to wear
proper footwear during a cryo-
therapy treatment.
— Mark Maske
COWBOYS: Dallas holdout
running back Ezekiel Elliott didn’t
find anything to laugh about when
Jerry Jones joked, “Zeke who?”
after a preseason game Saturday.
The Cowboys owner made the
comment following rookie run-
ning back Tony Pollard’s impres-
sive outing in Dallas’s 14-10 victory
against the Los Angeles Rams in
Honolulu. In Cabo San Lucas,
Mexico, where Elliott is training
during his contract holdout, the
two-time Pro Bowl player appar-
ently was miffed.
“I didn’t think it was funny, and
neither did Zeke — we actually
thought it was disrespectful,”
Elliott’s agent, Rocky Arceneaux,
told ESPN.
Jones did turn to a camera after
his comment and said “we’re just
having a little fun” before clarify-
ing that Pollard, who had five car-
ries for 42 yards and a touchdown
Saturday, would be complement-and therefore was not certified by
the national governing body and
not approved for use by the NFL.
After losing the previous griev-
ance, Brown and his representa-
tives located a helmet of Brown’s
preferred model, the Schutt AiR
Advantage, made fewer than 10
years ago, believing that would
allow Brown to wear it this season.
The league then put that helmet
model through testing and deter-
mined it is not approved for use.
Brown’s grievance contends he
should be permitted to wear the
newer version of the AiR Advan-
tage because he has not been given
the one-year grace period for
wearing his nonapproved helmet
that other players were given last
season.
Brown rejoined the Raiders on
Monday after the team’s general
manager, Mike Mayock, told re-
porters Sunday it was time for the
seven-time Pro Bowl selection “to
be all-in or all-out.”
The Raiders obtained Brown in
an offseason trade with the Pitts-
burgh Steelers. He has missed
time in training camp because ofFROM NEWS SERVICES
AND STAFF REPORTSOakland Raiders wide receiver
Antonio Brown is not giving up in
his attempt to wear his preferred
helmet model.
Brown filed a second grievance
against the NFL over the matter
Monday night, according to a per-
son familiar with the case. It was
not immediately clear when it
would be heard and resolved.
Brown lost his previous griev-
ance, in which he was trying to
force the league to allow him to
wear a helmet model discontin-
ued by the manufacturer. Brown
was one of 32 NFL players in-
formed last season they would
have to switch this year to a helmet
model approved by the league and
the NFL Players Association un-
der a joint program by which hel-
mets are evaluated on their per-
formances in laboratory testing.
Brown’s helmet model was not
originally tested because it was no
longer being made by its manufac-
turer, Schutt. Brown’s particular
helmet was more than 10 years old
young person from here. With
him coming out and being
present and taking part in all of
this and giving us publicity — it’s
important. Very, very important.”
That this is happening at
Langston is just the cherry. Few
courses — not just in D.C. but
anywhere — have as rich and
strong of a history with African
American golf as the public track
off Benning Road NE. Yeah,
Congressional Country Club in
Bethesda has hosted U.S. Opens
and has both a PGA
Championship and a Ryder Cup
in its future. Sure, TPC Potomac
at Avenel Farm is a perfectly fine
PGA Tour venue. Yes, Robert
Trent Jones Golf Club in Prince
William County has hosted the
Presidents Cup. But those
facilities, they’re all “clubs” —
and any club not only requires
admission but by definition
involves exclusion.
Give me a tee time at Langston
and an egg sandwich off the
Langston grill, where there’s
breakfast all day. Steph Curry
won’t be there, and that’s just
fine, because he’s done enough.
Ray Savoy will be there,
though. And so will his kids.
Pretty soon, because of a one-
name basketball superstar, those
kids will have new role models to
look up to. That matters for the
sport’s future. But it could matter
more to those kids.
[email protected]For more by Barry Svrluga, visit
washingtonpost.com/svrluga.at as accessible. That’s why we’re
in existence. The [HBCU] in D.C.
now will have a golf team? That
could be awesome. There could
be a tie-in to those college kids
who could be mentors to our
kids.”
Sanchez’s group serves some
1,700 kids across the DMV, but
Langston, where it works
alongside Savoy’s program, is its
original site and remains its
second largest, with more than
250 kids enrolled in a year-round
program. It has produced four
kids who either are or will be
competing in golf at HBCUs,
including Lauren Artis, who will
play on a full ride at Hampton
this fall. Savoy’s program has
issued scholarships, ranging
from $500 to $2,500, every year
since 1995.
These are success stories.
There just aren’t enough of them.
So when Curry says what was
announced Monday will go “way
beyond the game of golf, way
beyond Howard,” he may be
speaking about the example his
gesture could make nationally,
reminding a broad array of
people about the values golf
helps instill: integrity,
accountability, etc. That makes
sense. Savoy, though, doesn’t
work anywhere else but
Washington. Steph Curry, NBA
superstar, could make an impact
on grass-roots golf in the District.
“Steph Curry is a winner,”
Savoy said, “and being a winner
can create a multitude of avenues
that could be opened up to aTennis can seem just as
exclusionary, yet Frances Tiafoe
and Sloane Stephens and Coco
Gauff provide young African
Americans with contemporary
role models. Golf? Golf has been
having the same discussion
around the same issue for
decades, but with a more sinister
underpinning: The sport has a
past that was at best actively
exclusionary and at worst
outright racist. Places such as
Langston and people such as
Savoy work against that every
day, but it’s there.
“The face of this game has to
change if it’s going to grow,” Pete
Bevacqua, then the president of
the PGA of America, said just last
summer. “It needs to look more
like the face of America.”
What Curry is doing with
Howard — luring Callaway to
provide equipment, getting
Under Armour to outfit the team,
forking over his own cash to
establish a coaching staff, on and
on — is impressive on its own
merits and will benefit current
and future Howard students. But
what if the kids who play golf
and attend clinics and practice at
Langston suddenly have heroes
— older, college-age heroes who
look like they do — working
alongside them?
“Golf competes with so many
sports, especially in the cities,”
said Clint Sanchez, executive
director of the First Tee of
Greater Washington, D.C. “Golf ’s
not basketball. It’s not football.
It’s still a sport that isn’t lookedSavoy is 76, a District native
who began working at Langston
30 years ago. Five years later, he
helped start the Langston Junior
Boys and Girls Golf Club. Curry’s
commitment to this new Howard
golf program was both jarring
and genuine, but he has a day job
with the Golden State Warriors
and other pursuits too numerous
to name. On the ground will be
people such as Savoy, working
daily to diversify a game that can
seem unrelentingly,
overwhelmingly and
prohibitively white.
“Our whole challenge,” Savoy
said, “is to get the kids here.”
He is saying this in 2019, but
he would have said the same
thing in 2009 or 1999. Every
prospective youth golfer today
has grown up in the era of Tiger
Woods. But 22 years after the
first of Woods’s 15 major
championships — his historic
victory at the 1997 Masters,
bookended with April’s win at
Augusta — there is but one other
African American golfer on the
PGA Tour. Can you name him?
Harold Varner III. Count
Cameron Champ, who’s biracial,
and Woods, who’s multiracial,
and you could still argue the pre-
Woods days, with black stars
such as Lee Elder and Charlie
Sifford and Calvin Peete, were at
least as diverse as the current
generation.
That’s not only not okay. It’s
unsettling.SVRLUGA FROM D1recently to spread the gospel of
golf. The Curry-produced mini-
golf show “Holey Moley” debuted
on ABC this summer, and he also
became the rare athlete to
launch a clothing line in a sport
he doesn’t play professionally,
the Range Unlimited Collection.
But it was his visit to Washington
in January that sparked his
biggest investment in golf.
Ahead of the Jan. 24 game
against the Wizards, Curry visit-
ed Howard for a screening of the
documentary “Emanuel,” pro-
duced by his media company.
There, Curry met Howard stu-
dent Otis Ferguson IV, who had
started a club team because the
school’s varsity program
disbanded decades earlier.
“The idea of re-creating How-
ard’s golf team, turning it into a
Division I golf program for men
and women, was born on that
specific night,” Curry said. “The
biggest part about it that I’m
excited about now is we’re creat-
ing scholarships and creating
opportunity for this program to
compete in the world of golf.”
As the temperature surged
into the upper 90s on Monday,
Curry readied for his round with
Frederick, Ferguson and others.
A crowd of cameras captured his
preparation, just like when he is
on the hardwood. As one of the
most-watched athletes in the
world, Curry hopes his donation
to Howard encourages others to
give back.
“There’s no secret how much
golf is a passion of mine and,
again, how much I learned about
the game,” Curry said. “I hope it
encourages people in terms of
just being authentic about what
they want to do and how they can
create opportunities to give back.
You don’t have to force it. Oppor-
tunities could come up. Follow-
ing your passions and what you
can really get behind not only
with your time and effort but
also your money as well.”
[email protected]sponsors Curry, and play with
equipment provided by Calla-
way.
Howard President Wayne A.I.
Frederick said the program will
have time to grow over the
course of six years and assess its
competitiveness in Division I.
The men will play in the Mid-
Eastern Athletic Conference, but
the women must play indepen-
dently because there are no
women’s golf programs in the
conference.
Although Howard officials de-
clined to put a number on Cur-
ry’s donation, it is expected to
reach seven figures and was
described as one of the most
generous in the university’s
152-year history.
“We haven’t had people do
that for athletics,” Frederick said
of Curry’s sponsorship. “It’s sig-
nificant. That’s the argument I’ve
been trying to make since I
assumed the presidency.... This
is one of America’s best invest-
ments. HBCUs, the return on the
investment has been incredible
for the country. [Curry] has ce-
lebrity, but I hope that what
people will get out of this story is
his integrity, his purpose, his
motivation behind doing these
things.”
Curry, covered in his own
fashionable golf collection from
head to toe, played a sweltering
round Monday afternoon at
Langston, the potential future
home for Howard’s teams. Al-
though he is known globally for
basketball, Curry said his pas-
sion for golf dates from his
childhood memories of hitting
the links with his father, former
NBA player Dell Curry.
His 1-year-old son, Canon, is
likely to become the next Curry
to fall in love with golf.
“He’s got a little cutdown put-
ter he carries around the house,”
Curry said.
Curry has been on a mission
HOWARD FROM D1
NBA star thinks big as
Howard gets set to tee off
BARRY SVRLUGACurry’s contribution could be a game-changer for golf
BILL O'LEARY/THE WASHINGTON POSTWith Stephen Curry’s support, Howard will relaunch its golf teams
for the 2020-21 season with a coach and three scholarship athletes.
BILL O'LEARY/THE WASHINGTON POST
“This is going to go way beyond the game of golf and way beyond Howard,” NBA star Stephen Curry said Monday at Langston Golf Course.NFL NOTES
Raiders’ Brown files new grievance against the league over his helmet model