Raphael Stevens

In a year of franchise turmoil, Rivera will undergo treatment for carcinoma while helping to lead organizational change. More

The Kansas City Chiefs said on Thursday that the team was prohibiting fans from wearing ceremonial headdresses and Native American-style face paint at Arrowhead Stadium, becoming the latest organization to confront offensive symbols amid a nationwide discussion of racist imagery and iconography.The announcement came just over a month after Washington’s football team declared, under pressure from corporate sponsors, that it would drop its logo and the Redskins name.The Chiefs said that although the team had discouraged fans from wearing headdresses for several years, the organization had decided, after discussions with Native American leaders, to ban the headdresses, effective immediately, at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City, Mo.Fans will still be allowed to wear face paint, but any face paint “styled in a way that references or appropriates American Indian cultures and traditions will be prohibited,” the team said. Fans will be asked to remove any such face paint before passing through security checks outside the stadium, the team said.The team also said it was reviewing the “Arrowhead Chop,” a tomahawk-like arm motion usually accompanied by a made-up war cry that fans perform at games. The team said it was also exploring changes to the “Drum Deck,” an area in Arrowhead Stadium where Chiefs players and others bang a large drum to kick off games.The organization said it hoped to find another way to unify players and fans while better representing the spiritual significance of the drum in American Indian cultures. One possibility under discussion, the team said, would involve shifting the focus of the drum “to something that symbolizes the heartbeat of the stadium.”The Chiefs did not announce any changes to the team name or the name of its stadium.The Chiefs’ announcement after the decision by Washington’s football team to change its name increased pressure on the remaining professional teams with Native American mascots and logos to re-evaluate their names and monikers.In addition to the Kansas City Chiefs, the Chicago Blackhawks of the N.H.L. and the Atlanta Braves and the Cleveland Indians of Major League Baseball have long resisted changing their names and logos, though the Indians dropped the mascot Chief Wahoo last year and recently said they would review the team name.The Chiefs said the changes announced on Thursday had come after discussions that began in 2014 with a group of local leaders from diverse American Indian backgrounds as well as with a national organization that works on issues affecting American Indian people and tribes. The team did not name the organization.The Chiefs said they planned to continue several traditions intended to honor Native Americans, including a Blessing of the Four Directions, a Blessing of the Drum and an invitation that the team has extended to tribe members to attend its American Indian Heritage Month Game.“As an organization, our goal was to gain a better understanding of the issues facing American Indian communities in our region and explore opportunities to both raise awareness of American Indian cultures and celebrate the rich traditions of tribes with a historic connection to the Kansas City area,” the team said in a statement. More

Robert K. Kraft, the owner of the New England Patriots, won another decisive victory in his attempt to fight two misdemeanor charges of solicitation of prostitution, after judges issued a strong rebuke of police tactics used in the case against him.In a unanimous decision, a three-judge panel in the Florida Fourth District Court of Appeal in West Palm Beach affirmed a lower court decision that the police improperly gathered video evidence central to the case made against Kraft and two dozen other men who were recorded visiting and receiving treatment at several South Florida day spas.“We find the trial courts properly concluded that the criminal defendants had standing to challenge the video surveillance and that total suppression of the video recordings was constitutionally warranted,” the judges wrote in their decision on Wednesday.Unless state prosecutors ask the state Supreme Court to hear their appeal, the decision effectively ends the case against Kraft, who was originally charged in February 2019 with two counts of soliciting sex in Jupiter, Fla., after the police investigated the spas and massage parlors on suspicion of prostitution and human trafficking.“We are pleased that the Florida’s Fourth District Court of Appeal has ruled in our favor by affirming suppression of recordings that should never have been taken,” a spokesman for Kraft said in a statement. “This ruling protects the constitutional rights and civil liberties of all the men and women who were illegally spied on in this case. More broadly, this ruling will further protect the civil liberties of all Americans, by helping prevent future Fourth Amendment violations like those that occurred in this case.”The decision is likely to reduce the chance that the N.F.L. will penalize Kraft, 79, for conduct deemed detrimental to the league. Roger Goodell, the league’s commissioner, has broad authority to hold players, league executives and owners accountable for their actions, and penalties can include fines of up to $500,000 and suspensions, based not just on the outcome of the legal case, but also on the damage to the league’s reputation.When law enforcement officials first brought the case, they claimed they had unearthed a human trafficking ring at day spas in South Florida. But over time, the case focused more narrowly on the misdemeanor charges against Kraft and the other men.While some of the two dozen other men who were also charged in the case have paid fines and performed community service to resolve their cases, Kraft declined to take a plea deal, which would have expunged any record of the case.Instead, Kraft’s lawyers argued that video showing him and other patrons at the day spa, Orchids of Asia, was improperly obtained by undercover cameras and that the police did not sufficiently minimize the scope of their surveillance when applying for a warrant to film there. The video, they said, violated the constitutional rights of Kraft and the other customers recorded.In May 2019, a Palm Beach County court judge agreed with Kraft’s lawyers and threw out the video evidence in the case. The ruling echoed decisions made by judges in nearby counties where defendants were charged with similar misdemeanors after having been identified in surveillance investigations.The Florida attorney general, Ashley Moody, taking up the case for the state attorney in Palm Beach County who charged Kraft and the others, argued that the police in the case followed established procedures for obtaining permission to install the cameras.Lauren Cassedy, a spokeswoman for the state attorney general, said her “office is reviewing the ruling.”The three judges on the appeals panel, however, said that “while there will be situations which may warrant the use of the techniques at issue, the strict Fourth Amendment safeguards developed over the past few decades must be observed.” The judges added: “To permit otherwise would yield unbridled discretion to agents of law enforcement and the government, the antithesis of the constitutional liberty of people to be secure against unreasonable searches and seizures.” More

The Canadian Football League has become the latest casualty of the Covid-19 pandemic.On Monday, the C.F.L. canceled its 2020 season after repeated efforts to play an abbreviated schedule fell through. The league said it was now focused on returning in 2021.“Our league governors decided today that it was in the best long-term interests of the C.F.L. to concentrate on the future,” Commissioner Randy Ambrosie said after the decision was made.The decision to shut down for the year comes as some college football conferences in the United States, unable to ensure the safety of their players and coaches, have canceled their calendar of games. The N.F.L. is continuing with its plans to play this season, though many teams have said fans will not be in attendance for some or all home games.With nine teams (three of them publicly owned), the C.F.L. has far fewer resources than the N.F.L. Unlike the N.F.L., which makes most of its money from national television and sponsorship contracts, the C.F.L. is more reliant on ticket sales. The league’s finances were stretched thin when it became clear there would not be fans in the stands because of a ban on large gatherings.The league tried to find a way to play an abbreviated season starting next month with all games in Winnipeg, Manitoba, and players living in an enclosed community to reduce the risk of infection. Though the league, the players’ union and local officials were on board with the plan, the league was unable to acquire public money to help pay for the venture.“Even with additional support, our owners and community-held teams would have had to endure significant financial losses to play in 2020,” Ambrosie said.“Without it, the losses would be so large that they would really hamper our ability to bounce back strongly next year and beyond.”Amid its search for financial support, the C.F.L., which was formed in 1958 and includes many former N.F.L. players, had delayed the start of its season. Because of the longer winters in Canada, the league typically starts its season in June and finishes in late November with the Grey Cup.With the cancellation, there will be no Grey Cup winner this year for the first time since World War I.In the spring, Ambrosie told the House of Commons of Canada that the entire season might have to be canceled. He asked lawmakers for $150 million in government assistance for the C.F.L., the largest football league outside the United States.While the National Hockey League has resumed its season, playing all of its remaining games in Toronto and Edmonton, Alberta, the American Hockey League, the main minor league for the N.H.L., with teams in the U.S. and Canada, said in May that it would not finish its season.In many cases, bans on large gatherings have been stricter in Canada, where much of the country has operated under a prohibition on all large gatherings, as opposed to the United States, where many states rushed to loosen restrictions on businesses and gatherings. More

Jason Wright, a former N.F.L. running back turned business consultant, has been named the new president of the Washington Football Team, the team announced on Monday. He is the first African-American to hold such a position in league history.At 38, Wright, who played seven seasons in the N.F.L. and has worked for the past seven years at McKinsey & Company, the international consulting firm, is also the youngest team president in the league. As a consultant, he has helped reshape government agencies, industrial companies and institutions of higher learning.Wright has no experience working at an N.F.L. team, though he was his team’s union representative for two years heading into the lockout in 2011. While responsibilities can vary from team to team, club presidents typically oversee all business operations and sometimes look after the football side of the franchise, and report directly to the owner. Wright will be in charge of the team’s operations, finance, sales and marketing divisions, among others.“This organization is going through wholesale transformation on multiple fronts,” Wright said in a phone interview. “This is going to be a very challenging but exciting time.”Indeed, Wright will be joining Washington at a particularly fraught juncture, becoming the latest new hire by the team’s owner, Daniel Snyder, who is in the process of overhauling his foundering franchise. Wright replaces Bruce Allen, the longtime club president who was fired at the end of last season.After resisting pressure for more than two decades, Snyder last month abandoned the team’s longtime name, the Redskins. The club is in the process of selecting a new name and logo.The team also this summer removed references to its founding owner, George Preston Marshall, who named the team in the 1930s and was the last owner in the N.F.L. to integrate his roster.Snyder hired Ron Rivera, one of only four head coaches of color in the league, in late December. He has also brought in new front office personnel and broadcasters. He fired several top employees just before and after The Washington Post published an investigation that included accusations by 15 women of rampant sexual harassment by male co-workers in the team’s front office. Snyder hired a high-powered law firm to review the women’s claims.Wright, who as a consultant helped companies transform their corporate cultures, said he hoped to use the findings as a springboard to change the team’s internal operations.“There’s no time to waste on the culture side of it,” he said, so that the team has “a work environment that attracts the best people in sports.”Three of the team’s minority shareholders, who together own about 40 percent of the club, have also been trying to sell their stakes. Snyder has suggested in legal filings that one of those shareholders, Dwight Schar, may be involved in a scheme to defame him.Wright will have to lean on his business acumen to navigate the turmoil. Before joining McKinsey, he earned an M.B.A. from the University of Chicago. After finishing high school in Diamond Bar, Calif., about 30 miles outside Los Angeles, Wright attended Northwestern, where he majored in psychology. He played wide receiver before switching to running back. In his four college seasons, he rushed for 2,625 yards, seventh most in team history.Wright was signed as an undrafted free agent in 2004 by the San Francisco 49ers, but was cut before the end of the preseason. He spent most of the season on the Atlanta Falcons’ practice squad before joining the active roster and appearing in two games at the end of the year.He spent the next four seasons with the Cleveland Browns. His best season was in 2007, when he rushed for 277 yards and a touchdown and caught 24 passes for 233 yards. In 2009, he signed a two-year, $2 million contract with the Arizona Cardinals.In July 2011, during a four-month lockout by the N.F.L. owners, Wright retired from the league to attend business school.Wright admitted he “was not the greatest player in the world,” but that as a lesser known player, he had time to talk to team business personnel and learn about marketing, public relations, finance and other aspects of club operations.Wright said his relative youth will be an asset as team president because he has connections to young people in industry and can “bring a set of ideas that haven’t come up through the grapevine.”He is also aware that he will be blazing a trail as the first Black team president.“For any people of color, when you’re the first of anything, it’s meaningful,” he said.The N.F.L. has been repeatedly criticized for the lack of diversity in its management ranks. While about 70 percent of the players are Black, there are only two team owners of color. While the league has increased the diversity in its executive positions at its headquarters, the record of its teams has been spottier.People of color make up less than 20 percent of senior administration positions at the league’s 32 clubs.Last season, there were only two club presidents or chief executives who were people of color. Kim Pegula, co-owner of the Buffalo Bills with her husband, Terry Pegula, is also the club’s president. Paraag Marathe is the president of 49ers Enterprises and executive vice president for football operations for the 49ers.There are only two female team presidents, Pegula of the Bills and Darcie Glazer Kassewitz of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.Before leaving to run the Big Ten Conference, Kevin Warren, who was legal counsel and chief operating officer of the Minnesota Vikings, functioned as a team president but did not have the title, according to Cyrus Mehri, who has worked with the Fritz Pollard Alliance to help establish the so-called Rooney Rule. The rule obligates teams to interview at least two candidates of color for top coaching and executive openings and requires at least one woman to be interviewed for openings at the league office. More