Author: drussell

Hello All!

Steve Ballmer here; as the majority owner of the Las Vegas 7’s, I would like to take this opportunity to address our fans, fellow Las Vegas residents, local media, and NFL community. Simply put, I’d like to say thank you! Both our team and city have been through an arduous process over the last two years as we’ve put our team together, and we’ve relied on your tremendous support throughout.

Since stepping down as CEO of Microsoft, I’ve enjoyed a wild ride through my ‘retirement’, so to speak. After succeeding Donald Sterling as the majority owner of the Los Angeles Clippers, I spent the last couple of years working with both the NFL and Las Vegas leadership in my efforts of finally bringing a major professional sports team to this storied city. Between constructing a stadium, working with an incomplete front-office staff, hiring a coaching staff, adding/drafting players, and most importantly building relationships with our local fan-base, it’s been one heck of a journey to get to this point.

And what a point to be at! I’m proud to say that with seven (7!!!) games played through our inaugural season, we have fought to a 4-3 record with potential for further success down the road. More importantly, we have sold at least 60,000 seats at MGM Grand Arena for each of our first three home games, and expect our attendance figures to rise as the year goes on.

But most importantly, we as an organization have done our part to improve the city of Las Vegas both from a sporting and non-sporting perspective. With team events such as our Del Frisco’s Grille Celebrity Cook-Off and charitable contributions of players like Jamaal Charles, we continue to step forward in our efforts to develop this community and country as a whole.

While all of these successes have been important, my greatest point of pride lies behind the 7’s support of Colin Kaepernick and other players across the NFL in their efforts to fight racial inequality. This cause particularly resonates with me as I stepped into the Clippers organization in the wake of a racially based scandal, a scandal that was effectively dealt with by the NBA. Unlike this situation in Los Angeles, the issue of macro level racial inequality will take time to address, but rest assured that the 7’s will do everything that they can along the way.

On a more lighthearted note, it’s been an honor and a pleasure to bring the NFL to Las Vegas. The city has been outstanding in welcoming our team, and despite the tremendous success thus far, our best has yet to come! As our inaugural season’s second half looms ahead, we at the 7’s will further our efforts in developing the best organization in the entire NFL, both on the field and off. We look forward to this journey with eager anticipation, and can’t wait to have you along for the ride.

Thank you and Roll 7’s!

Steve

Davis Russell

Las Vegas 7’s

October 17, 2016

From The Special Olympics to the NFL: The Childhood of Jamaal Charles

As representatives of one of the most popular entities on earth, NFL players experience widespread exposure everywhere they go. As one of the NFL’s most popular players, Jamaal Charles has certainly enjoyed his share of the spoils.

Since his freshman season with the Texas Longhorns in 2005, Charles has won a plethora of awards and honors; including three All-Pro honors (2x first team: 2010, 2013), two Pro Bowl appearances, two All-Big 12 honors, and several others (NFL.com). Most notably, Charles possesses the NFL’s all-time lead in career yards per carry amongst running backs, with an average of five and a half yards.

But despite his innumerable successes, Jamaal Charles relishes in his struggles, citing their assistance in forming the man that stands before us today. Before he showed potential as a world-class sprinter at Texas, went on to lead the Chiefs in career rushing yards, and earned himself over $30 million and counting, Charles had to get through childhood just like everyone else.

As a kid in Port Arthur, Texas, Charles grew up without a father in one of the most poverty stricken communities in all of Texas. Those who grew up with him were quoted in saying that in the ways he moved, thought, or spoke aloud, Charles was always in a hurry. Grant Lapoint, one of Charles’s childhood mentors, said Charles always seemed to always be on the run from something; whether that was his community’s state of perpetual and severe poverty, or his own struggles with anxiety and various learning disabilities.

Charles grew up as the runt of his family with four older brothers and thirty-two older cousins, which led him to gravitate towards the maternal figures in his life for support, and drew constant teasing from his peers. This cycle of self-doubt further manifested itself in school, where Charles struggled with reading and public speaking. One of his teachers went on to say that he was afraid to even raise his hand to speak, knowing that people would tease him. It got even worse when Charles was sent into what he calls “certain classes”.

Ironically enough, it was one of these classes that led Charles into the man he is today. Where many of Charles’s classmates enjoyed field trips at amusement parks and aquariums, Charles and the fellow special needs students went somewhere else entirely: The Special Olympics. On his first day of competition, Charles won the 100 and 200-meter dashes, the hurdles, and the long jump. He later said, “People made fun of me. They said I would never go anywhere. But on that day, I learned I could fly…When I competed in The Special Olympics, I found out just how fast I was…and when I found out just how fast I was, I was blessed with a new confidence. That confidence turned to courage, the courage to be the best that I can be every day”.

That combination of confidence and athletic prowess led Charles to new heights on the gridiron and track. After enjoying a high school career in which he earned first-team all-state honors in both football and track, Charles was ready to take on collegiate athletics at Texas. While he initially struggled in football because of his propensity for fumbles, Charles was unstoppable on the track; winning the 100-meter sprint at the Big-12 conference championship and placing inside the top five in multiple NCAA championship events.

He eventually decided to drop track in the interest of putting on weight for football, a decision that clearly worked out for him. The rest as they say, is history. Charles rushed for over 1,400 yards in his 2007 junior season by utilizing his tremendous speed and open-field elusiveness. He chose to forgo his senior season to enter the 2008 NFL Draft, where he was picked in the third round by the Kansas City Chiefs to kick start a spectacular NFL career.

Fortunately, Charles still remembers his early struggles, and hopes to assist others who deal with the same issues. He has started the Jamaal Charles “Youth Matters” Family Foundation, an organization that is run by both Charles and the mentors from his troubled childhood. He also spoke at the Special Olympics World Games in 2015 in an attempt to give back to the organization that gave him everything (video below).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XlDsGH5nKFo

Ultimately, the world will remember Jamaal Charles for his accomplishments as a football player, but his friends, family, and dedicated fans will appreciate his other legacy: the constant care and assistance dedicated to the disabled children all across America.

 

Davis Russell

Las Vegas 7’s

October 17, 2016

Las Vegas 7’s Choose to Support Player Protests

On August 14^th, the San Francisco 49ers took the field for their first preseason game of the 2016 season. While the game itself was soon forgotten, Colin Kaepernick and his national anthem protest shall hold its place in history for years to come.

In choosing to kneel during the national anthem, Kaepernick seeks awareness for what he calls wrongdoings against African Americans and other minorities in the United States (Wyche, 2016)⁵. Colin’s protest has drawn differing reactions from across the country, and players from multiple NFL teams have joined his campaign.

In choosing to protest, the players address a nationwide trend in which a black American is 2.5 times as likely as a white American to be shot and killed by police officers (Lowery, 2016)² (Bandler, 2016)¹.

The Las Vegas 7’s are proud to represent the city of Las Vegas: a city with a minority population of roughly 240,000 (United States Dept. of Commerce)⁴. With this in mind, the organization chooses to stand with these players in the hopes of a more peaceful relationship between the police force and citizenship of the USA, regardless of race.

While he has not chosen to kneel during the anthem himself, 7’s wide receiver Brandon Marshall maintains his association with the Black Lives Matter movement and encourages all NFL players to use their platforms as professional athletes. When asked if the protest could distract players from their jobs, Marshall said that, “We as a league are confronting something that is more important than football.”, a sentiment shared by many players across the NFL.

Despite the aforementioned importance of this issue, team leadership within the Las Vegas 7‘s still values the organization’s on-field product; so players within the team must obey a set of rules laid out by their peers. These rules will allow the players to voice their opinions while maintaining their focus as professionals, and are as follows.

1. Protests must be conducted in a respectful manner. The NFL maintains a strong relationship with the U.S. military, and the team intends to respect the sacrifices of its servicemen and women.
2. Protests shall be forbidden between the opening kickoff and conclusion of the game.
3. Before the game, players cannot answer any questions regarding their protest, in order to allow their full focus on the game.

NFL commissioner Roger Goodell has vocalized his support of the protests in saying that, “We want to respect our flag and our country, and our players understand that. So I think where they’re moving and how they’re moving there is very productive, and we’re going to encourage that” (Pelissero, 2016)³. The Las Vegas 7’s are now working with Goodell to set up meetings between protesting athletes and local police leadership, hoping that clear channels of communication will lead to mutual respect between the parties. Furthermore, the team has chosen to conduct player-led community meetings throughout the year, where members of the Las Vegas community may come to speak their minds regarding community relations with the police force and the team’s decision to protest.

Ultimately, the Las Vegas 7’s organization and NFL as a whole hope to move from protest to progress regarding racial relations in America. In protesting, the team merely intends to do its part; all while working to provide Las Vegas residents with the best football that the NFL has to offer.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Works Cited

¹Bandler, A. (2016, July 07). 5 Statistics You Need To Know About Cops Killing Blacks. Retrieved October 16, 2016, from http://www.dailywire.com/news/7264/5-statistics-you-need-know-about-cops-killing-aaron-bandler#modal

²Lowery, W. (2016, July 11). Aren’t more white people than black people killed by police? Yes, but no. Retrieved October 17, 2016, from https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2016/07/11/arent-more-white-people-than-black-people-killed-by-police-yes-but-no/?utm_term=.5c503818e0cd

³Pelissero, T. (2016, September 19). Roger Goodell praises player demonstrations for going from ‘protests to progress’ Retrieved October 16, 2016, from http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nfl/2016/09/18/roger-goodell-commissioner-national-anthem-protests/90633952/

⁴United States Department of Commerce, United States. (2015). QuickFacts: Las Vegas, Nevada. Las Vegas, NV: US Census Bureau.

⁵Wyche, S. (2016, August 27). Colin Kaepernick explains why he sat during national anthem. Retrieved October 17, 2016, from http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap3000000691077/article/colin-kaepernick-explains-why-he-sat-during-national-ant

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

 

 

Contact: Dr. Brianna Newland

bnewland@udel.edu

Davis Russell

302-299-2297

drussell@udel.edu

 Andrew Luck Improving After an Injury-Plagued 2015 Season

The Fifth-Year Quarterback Continues to Grow in the Las Vegas Attack

            2015 was a year to forget for Andrew Luck, who missed nine of Indianapolis’s sixteen games throughout the season due to injuries. Between an early season shoulder injury and season ending kidney and abdominal surgery, Luck managed to start only seven games before the Colts placed him on their season-ending injured reserve list. Over the offseason, the Las Vegas 7’s acquired Luck via trade, and he has rewarded them with strong play through the team’s first five games of their inaugural season.

During the 2015 season, Andrew Luck put in career lows in every major statistical category during his seven starts; they included a 55.3 completion percentage and a glaring 1.7 interceptions per game. Through his first five games this season, Luck has compiled a career high 95.4 passer rating with nearly 1,500 passing yards and an outstanding 3.33:1 touchdown to interception ratio. When asked about his play, Luck said that, “My goal is to be the best quarterback I can be for the 7’s, and hope that it’s good enough to win games for us”.