NBC SPORTS brings the NBA back to NBC after two decades. MJ will give NBA basketball balance sports reporting for the first time in decades. Watch how quiet the experts will get with the return of MJ. Especially, those he kicked under the bus.

Michael Jordan is joining NBC Sports as a special contributor for its NBA coverage, for the 2025 season. His role will include appearing in a series called “Insight into Excellence,” features will include interviews with host Mike Tirico. Jordan will provide commentary during the network’s broadcasts of NBA games.  

Oscar Robertson’s “All-Time NBA Team” included Wilt Chamberlain, Michael Jordan, Elgin Baylor, Jerry West, and Stephen Curry (he was being diplomatic). My official team consists of Wilt, MJ, Elgin, West, and Oscar. They are my All-Time “GOATES” of the NBA. MJ and Oscar are the only two living GOATES!

My second team would be comprised of Bill Russell, Kareem Abdul Jabbar, Gus Johnson, Magic Johnson, and, Earl ‘The Pear’ Monroe (He revolutionized guard play). Pistol Pete Mavarich was great, but he followed Earl’s dazzling act of now you see me and now you don’t! My coach, Red Auerbach.

Red, and I discuss the NBA with Earl Lloyd, Pop Gates and Bighouse Gaines via telephone.

I watched ‘Showtime’ originate in Baltimore in the late 60s, with Wes Unsel, Gus, and Earl, leading the fast break. ‘Dancing’ Harry moved to his own beat on the sidelines. In 1971, the Bullets traded Earl Monroe to the New York Knicks after they refused his salary demands.

My media credential became official in 1972, when I debuted with my pioneering “Inside Sports” talk show in Washington, DC on W-O-O-K Radio.

Earl would lead the Knicks to an NBA championship in 1973. The Washington Bullets/Wizards would not win their first and only NBA Championship until 1978. With the present day charade taking place in DC , it is possible the Wizards won’t see another NBA title until 2078.

WHUR Radio talk show host Ron Sutton, and I share a laugh at the segregated Washington Bullets press table before they moved to Washington, DC. They dropped the Bullets and became the Washington Wizards.

In 1984, when MJ made his rookie debut, he wowed the league. He averaged 28 points a game, and his best was yet to come. He would become a household name, winning 6 NBA Championships.

In 2010, MJ became the first NBA player to own a team, the Charlotte Hornets. He brought the team from the first black majority owner, Bob Johnson. In 2023, he sold his stake in the team.

MJ is joining NBC Sports, just in time for the NBA 2025-26 season. He will be part of the network’s coverage which is returning to NBC after a long absence. While the specifics of his role haven’t been fully detailed, it’s been described as a “special contributor” role. 

He is definitely the NEW SHERIFF in the NBA broadcasting booth. He will shut down all talk of GOAT pretenders, and the hollering of screaming of ESPN’s biggest frauds, Stephen A. Smith and Michael Wilbon.

Remember John Feinstein, Wilbon’s colleague at the Washington Post said, “Michael Wilbon is the biggest ass kisser in sports media.” Wilbon, is the author of two books written on the NBA journey of NBA Hall of Fame player, Charles Barkley. Despite Wilbon’s kissing up , MJ kept his distant.

This isn’t the first time Wilbon has been called out for “sucking up” to athletes (he has written books with Charles Barkley and Michael Jordan). Michael Leahy of the Post beautifully deconstructed Jordan in When Nothing Else Matters: Michael Jordan’s Last Comeback, and in the process took a shot at Wilbon.

“All along, I thought that Wilbon’s treatment of Jordan highlighted the basic danger in getting too cozy with a subject,” Mr. Leahy writes. The access that Mr. Wilbon prized, Mr. Leahy argues, came at the cost of never being able to write something critical about his celebrity subject.

What they don’t do well is take criticism from colleagues. They’ll definitely make the thin-skinned sports media member list (This paragraph is an understatement). The best objective way to describe Wilbon and Korhisner, “They have no balls or integrity!”

I missed the initial viewing of ESPN’s Out Side the Lines aired on Sunday February 23rd. The show hosted by Bob Levy examined the use of the N word. I heard from several different sources that Michael Wilbon lost a lot of credibility when he justified his use of the N word as a term of endearment.

Since I had not seen or heard the show, I held back judgment and waited until it re-aired on Sunday March 2nd.

It is rather ironic that Wilbon, and I had a recent conversation about the use of the N word. The conversation took place in the pressroom before a Wizard’s game at the Verizon Center. He told me ESPN wanted to have a conversation on the use of the N word on Outside the Lines.

The show would be hosted by Bob Levy. Wilbon said, “I am not comfortable doing the show with Levy.” Wilbon cited that he had no problem with Levy as a journalist but he had “No horse in the race” and he refused to participate.” I agreed with Wilbon, why would ESPN assign Levy to host a sensitive topic like using the N word to white guy? Those words out of Wilbon’s mouth got my undivided attention.

I have questioned Wilbon’s mindset on different topics on several occasions as I have questioned others in media. It has never been anything personal it is a price we all pay for writing or voicing our opinions in public forums.

He said folks had asked him about our relationship, and he said “I told them everything is cool with me and Harold Bell we have talked.” It is difficult to believe anything that Wilbon and James Brown say out of their mouths. The two are pathetic liars! What Feinstein said about Wilbon sounded real personal.

Feinstein, died March 13, 2025. Wilbon, said all the right things about their relationship, “What a great friend he was, how much they loved each other, and junior could be tough sometimes.”

Stephen A, and Wilbon never played in the NBA. To a man, NBA players claim neither one of the ESPN experts, could not play ‘Dead.’

In a 2007 tribute to our Winston-Salem State University basketball coach, the legendary Clarence ‘Bighouse Gaines, in Chicago, those were his exact same words when asked about Stephen A’s basketball ability on the Winston-Salem State University basketball team, “He Could Not Play Dead.”

In 2007, in a tribute to Bighouse, I received the first Clarence ‘Bighouse’ Gaines Community Service Award.

Congratulations to Bighouse induction into the College Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Mass.

I am No. 54 on the 1962 Rams basketball team

In an interview with Bobby Burkard on his Outkick Podcast, Wilbon was quoted saying, he and PTI partner, Tony Korhisner were responsible for the success of ESPN programing. He claimed the shows copied off of he and Korhisner’s PTI programing! He forgot, he came through Harold Bell and Inside Sports. My talk format is copied by every radio and television sports talk show in America.

Wilbon and I share a laugh during a tribute Gary Mays aka One Arm Bandit at Bens Chili Bowl in DC.

Stephan A. has the University on a monthly stipend to keep his college sports history hush-hush. The “Real Deal”, he has no college sports history to talk about! I don’t blame the university for taking his money.

There is on-going bad blood between MJ and Charles Barkley. Barkley claims, MJ was like a brother before he publicly discussed MJ’s poor performance as owner of the Charlotte Bobcats. According to MJ, too much information!

Stephen A. Smith and his 100 million dollar ESPN salary will be muted when it comes to all things NBA. There will be two NBA Hall of Fame Players that despise him, one is a millionaire and the other is a billionaire.

Charles Barkley will be in the ESPN studio and the NEW SHERIFF in town will be in the studios of NBC-let the games begin!

A NOTE TO COMMISSIONER ADAM SILVER–NBA OUT OF BOUNDS:

Hi Adam, the small town of Kerrville in Texas lost hundreds of lives in the early morning hours on the 4th of July weekend due to a horrific flood. Without warning, many of the town’s children were in camps on the river banks of the Guadalupe when the flood erupted their sleep without warning.

As of July 9th across six counties in Kerrville, Texas, 120 lives have been lost and at last count 170 are missing.

The three Texas NBA teams — the Dallas Mavericks, Houston Rockets, and San Antonio Spurs — along with the NBA and the NBA Players Association, issued a joint statement on Instagram announcing that they had donated $2 million to relief efforts. How CHEAP can you get?

The NBA is made up of 30 BILLIONAIRE OWNERS and 450 millionaire players on 30 teams, the average salary of each player is five-million dollars+, and that includes the 10 players sitting on the bench. Combine with the Mavericks, Rockets and San Antonio, they could only raise two-million dollars? There are 27 players earning 40 million dollars annually. I find it difficult to believe, THE NBA CARES!

There are a group of players in the NBA who bet millions of dollars on NBA, MLB, NHL games and pro tennis matches. The money that they bet during the NFL season is off the charts.

Adam, you have 30 BILLIONAIRE OWNERS and 450 plus players and hundreds of front office employees under lock and key, and you embarrass yourself and the league donating a measly 2 million dollars to Kerrville-a National Disaster!

If I was the Commissioner and the President of the NBA Players Association, I would be ashamed to let anyone know I was a part of the rallying cry of, THE NBA CARES!

If NBA Players Cared about our children, they would have followed the lead of NBA 2025 first team All-Pro Donovan Mitchell of the Cleveland Cavaliers. When he was a member of the Utah Jazz in 2020, he pledged a $12 million donation to Greenwich Country Day School in Connecticut.  It is the middle school, his sister and he attended, and where his mother was a teacher.

The donation supports student scholarships, the construction of a new athletic center, and a faculty recognition program. This gift is the largest single donation in the school’s history.  It is also, the largest single donation ever given by an NBA player to a non-profit organization in one lump sum.

Hopefully, there are other pro athletes donating to the Kerrville disaster. The donation by NBA Commissioner and President of the NBA Players Association could best be described as pennies on a dollar donation pledged to people in the city of Kerrville.

Families have lost their homes along with their children and friends, this is a national disaster. The lost children will not get the opportunity to grow up to be healthy, wealthy and wise. What about the children left behind?

NEW NBA SLOGAN: THE NBA CARES–SHOULD BE CHANGED TO “THE NBA COULD CARELESS?”

(NBA) DAVE BING-RED AUERBACH-SAM JONES-JIM ‘BAD NEWS’ BARNES-KC JONES-LEE JONES-JIM BROWN-WILLIE WOOD-JOHNNY SAMPLE-LENNY MOORE-LARRY BROWN-HAROLD McLINTON-AND DOUG WILLIAMS (SANTA CLAUS).

Bing and Wood, are native Washingtonians. In 1967, Bing was “The Rookie of the Year”, with the NBA Detroit Pistons, and Willie Wood was a veteran All-Pro Safety and Punt Returner for the NFL Super Bowl Champions, Green Bay Packers.

In the 60s and 70s they were the first pro athletes to reach back into the community to enhance the lives of inner city youth under the umbrella of my non-profit organization, Kids In Trouble, Inc. The NBA, NFL, MLB, and the NHL all followed my lead.

The 1967 NBA All-Star Game was being played in Baltimore when shots were fired after a basketball game at Spingarn High School in Washington, DC our alma mater. A McKinley Tech High School student shot a Spingarn student during an augment after the hotly contested game won by McKinley Tech.

I was working as a Roving Leader (Youth Gang Task Force) for the DC Department of Recreation & Parks.

It was a Friday evening, and I was headed home to NE DC, when I received a pager/beeper signal from my Director, Stan Anderson. He requested that I stop by Spingarn on the way home to see if I could be of some assistance.

I parked my car on 24th & Benning Road and walked across the street to the school. The school was crawling with cops, and there were students hanging out in front of the building. I did not see any familiar faces. There was a loud mouth in the crowd yelling, “Revenge!” to anyone who would listen.

The young man who suffered the gun shot wound was going to survive. I let the cops deal with the loud mouth. I walked back to Sport’s a carry out across the street and ordered a hot dog and RC Cola.

I sat out in front of Sports’ at the bus stop enjoying my hot dog. A couple of young brothers waiting for the bus, mentioned that the NBA All-Star Game was being played in Baltimore on Sunday.

A light bulb appeared in my head–Dave Bing. He was playing in his first All-Star Game in Baltimore. The next morning, I drove to the Baltimore Civic Center where the game would be played.

I arrived around 11 am, and discovered from a friendly security guard the entry of the players. It was 12 noon when Dave arrived with his Detroit teammate, BIG Bob Lanier. He was surprised to see me, his first words, “Harold Bell, what in the hell are you doing over here!”

We both laughed, and he introduced me to Bob as his mentor in the hood. I explained, I needed a minute. He told Bob to go in and he would be right behind him.

I told him about the shooting of a Spingarn student on Friday evening, and there was talk of revenge. I would verify the talk only as gossip, but I would rather be safe than sorry. He agreed to come to the school on Monday after the game. I called our Coach William Roundtree, and told him to alert the Principal, Dr. Purvis Williams.

When Dave walked into the Spingarn Auditorium on Monday morning, thanks to the All-Star Game on National Television, the students gave him a standing ovation. I don’t know how he felt, but I felt like a proud ‘Big Brother!’ He squashed the talks of revenge, with a few words about The Game Called Life!

Dave, was named the Rookie of the Year, he was the first point guard to lead the NBA in scoring, honored as one the 50 Greatest NBA Players, inducted into the NBA Hall of Fame, and last, but not lease a forgettable tenure as the Mayor of Detroit.

I look on as NFL HOF player and Green Bay Packer great, Willie Wood honors DC legendary sportswriter, Dick Heller with the Kids In Trouble Community Service Award.

NBA COACH CHAUNCEY BILLUPS CAUGHT IN GAMBLING STING!

REACH OUT AND TOUCH SOMEONE-WHEN YOU HELP OTHERS YOU HELP YOURSELF/ ALI

For verification type this link on youtube MICHAEL WILBON BLASTS STEPHEN A. SMITH IN INTERVIEW via BOBBY BURACK’S OUTKICK PODCAST. This interview confirms what his late colleague and friend, John Feistein said, “Michael Wilbon is the biggest ass kisser in sports media.”

I am convinced that Michael Wilbon never cared whether Jayson Whitlock made public his complaints on his behalf regarding his thoughts on Stephen A. Smith and his bosses at ESPN. Whitlock was summarizing Wilbon’s interview with Bobby Burack on his OUTKICK PODCAST.

Regardless, it is an interview full of holes and B. S. from Michael Wilbon and this blog will help clear the record on ‘The Real Michael Wilbon’. Wilbon, thanks for the opportunity.

THE FRAUDS OF ESPN: STEPHEN A. SMITH & MIKE WILBON

Michael, I have known you, up close and personal from your first days at the Washington Post in 1978 but since your 15 minutes of fame, you are now talking out of both sides of your mouth when it suits you.

I ran into your father-in-law Ben Watkins at the Langston Golf Course in NE DC one weekend in 1995. I knew him from hanging out at the in-crowd Faces’ Restaurant on Georgia Avenue NW in DC.

He proudly told me you had married his daughter, Sheryl, and I said, “Good luck” and kept it moving. That was not nice, and I liked Ben, but you had turned into a piece of do-do. Your word has meant absolutely nothing.

You seem to have forgotten I knew you when you were just an intern at the Washington Post in the late 70s. You arrived when Catherine Graham and her son Donald decided to take my radio tag INSIDE SPORTS to New York City and make it their very own. That was an unforgivable moment for me!

Your PTI partner, Tony Corhisner was a part of the writing crew on the midnight train to New York City to publish, INSIDE SPORTS MAGAZINE.

You were hired in 1980 out of Northwestern University. I was introduced to you by the czar of the sports department, George Solomon. You followed his lead, and became a regular on INSIDE SPORTS.

In 1980, I was named Washingtonian of the Year, for what ever that was worth!  I did not get stuck on stupid, and kept moving.  What goes around comes around!

I became, “The Spook Who Sat By The Door” when I visited the Washington Post. First, I knew the owner, Donald Graham. We met when he was a DC rookie cop on the streets, and I was working as a Roving Leader (Youth Gang Task Force) for the now DC Department of Recreation & Parks.

We would sit and eat 10 cents hamburgers at the Little Tavern on H Street NE, and we talk about our being native Washingtonians and our work on the streets of DC. He was an officer and a gentleman.

I had no idea he was the son of Catherine Graham owner of the Washington Post until he was gone from the neighborhood. I was told his mother had demanded, he turn in his gun and badge for a suit and tie.

Columnist Bill Raspberry (Pulitzer Prize), Petey Greene (Emmy Award), and I use to hangout together for lunch at Faces’ Restaurant for the great fish on Fridays.

The Mayor of U Street, John Snipes, Petey Greene, and Bill Raspberry participate in a Community Day at the Kids In Trouble Hillcrest Children’s Center Saturday Program in NW DC.

I would visit the Washington Post newsroom as a guest of Raspberry. I would work my way around to the sports department on the same floor. There I would meet writers, Byron Rosen, Donald Huff, Tom Callahan, Dave Dupree, the legendary, Shirley Povich and sports editor, George Solomon.

One day, I encountered Donald Graham getting off the elevator on the 5th floor. I was talking to Raspberry as we waited for the elevator. He surprised me, when he greeted me with “Hello Harold Bell, what are you doing here”? I introduced him to Raspberry whom he already knew.

He gave me his business card and told me to call him the next time I was in the building. Raspberry, seem to be in shock that I knew Donald. He asked me where did I know him from, I told him we use to double date. I never revealed to anyone at the newspaper how Donald and I met.

I called him several weeks later inquiring about a job at the paper for one of my young men. He hired him at the front entrance as a greeter for signed in visitors.

I worked my way into the confidence of George Solomon and became a freelanced writer in the sports department. George helped me to write my first column, “Racism and the Boston Celtics”. The column helped give Inside Sports big exposure in the DMV.

Sports writer Donald Huff, would later write a lionizing column titled, “Bell Gets His Ratings Off The Streets”.

In 1989 the paper highlighted the shortcomings and lack of black sports broadcasters as anchors on local television. I was the leading voice for the story titled, “Local Anchors: A Shutout”.

In 2004 Editorial Columnist, Coby King, allowed me to write a column on the Editorial Page spotlighting my community involvement, ‘Close To Home’ titled, “Breaking The Faith-Betrayed by our Preachers & Politicians” (Glen Ivey & Granger Browning).

When the Washington Post established their first ever television sports talk show on Comcast Television, George Solomon would have me act as a host when he could not be there for showtime.

Donald Graham/George Solomon, deserve a thank you for their support for putting a spotlight on my trailblazing, but difficult media journey. The support, never erased the memory of the Midnight Train to New York City in 1976.

Wilbon, it was George Solomon who asked me to introduce you to the high school coaches in the city. I became your mentor. I kept you out of harm’s way.

There were several high school coaches who were making bogus claims of making children first. They were just going through the motions and taking the money and running.

When you became a columnist, I let you hang out with my NFL and NBA friends that included Roy Jefferson and Sam Jones. I remember one evening, we were the guest on the Kojo Nnamdi TV Show on the Howard University campus (FRAUD). We were sitting in the Green Room waiting to go on the show.

You pulled me out of the room and confessed with tears in your eyes (aka Sugar Ray), you were having problems with sports editor George Solomon. You claimed, George was looking over your shoulder and changing your stories.

You were under the impression that being a columnist you were free to write your own columns without interference from Solomon-it was welcome to ‘George’s World’.

I suggested, “How would you like to try being a columnist at the Afro-American or Chicago Defender newspapers”? You were easily intimidated, but you got my drift, and thankfully made the adjustment!

Unaware, you gave me the opportunity for my first national television exposure. You were invited to be a guest panelist on the Geraldo Rivera television show.

When I got your telephone call, you were talking so fast, you sounded scare. I thought someone was chasing you.

The next thing out of your mouth was, “Harold can you be on a television show for me tonight. Geraldo Rivera is doing a show on boxing promoter Don King, and you know him better than I do”. The topic, “Only in America: The Life and Crimes of Don King”! That was enough to scare you.

I said, “No problem”, what television station and what time? You said, ‘Channel 9, the show airs at 7:00 pm”. You gave me the contact person and the rest was my national television sports debut.

It was three against one, the host, Geraldo Rivera, boxing historian, Bert Sugar, and author Jack Newfield of “Only in America: The Life and Crimes of Don King”.

I still have the video in my archives, it was one of my finest hours on national television with the one exception, in a dumb effort to support ‘A so-called brother’. I defended King’s right to steal from his fighters!!

You, left the Washington Post in 2010 after 30 years and became one of the biggest frauds in sports media, running a close second to Tony Corhisner. He was lucky, Donald Graham had his back-no talent.

You wrote two books on NBA legend Charles Barkley. Your first book was titled, “I may Be Wrong, But I Doubt It”.

I remember, I was going in the Washington Post building one evening, and you were leaving. I was late for a meeting with columnist, the late Bill Raspberry, you stopped me in my tracks.

You had a copy of your first book, and you could not wait to show it to me. I congratulated you, and you promised to get me a copy, and leave it with George Solomon. I watched you skip down the street. It was like you just had your first child. I was happy for you.

I never received the book. It was your first lie, and you have been lying to me ever since. You are second only to James Brown.

Your, esteem Washington Post colleague and close friend, the late John Feinstein said,  “Michael Wilbon is the biggest ass kisser in sports media”.  I really don’t think that is all your fault.

It has a lot to do with the egos you surround yourself with. For example, the egos of Charles Barkley, Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods and Stephen A. Smith are different from the egos of Muhammad Ali, Red Auerbach, Jim Brown, Dick Gregory and Richard Nixon. I was not required to kiss their ring or ass when I entered their space.

Dave McKenna of the City Paper wrote a column in 2000 titled, ‘Black History Mouth’, This is One DC Sports Legend That Will Not Kiss Your Ass”! He learned the hard way. I would jump over 100 Michael Wilbons to get to ONE Dave McKenna. Wilbon, has no integrity!

MY FRIENDS TO THE END-FOUR OF THE BIGGEST EGOS KNOWN TO MAN!

Whitlock claims that you are mad with your partner in crime, Stephen A. Smith. The problem, he is making 100 million annually, only because he was able to kiss more asses and rings than you-am I missing something?

Stephen A is now the face of the ESPN the WORLD WIDE LEADER in sports, and you want to know if that makes you “Chop Liver”?   No, it makes you a Player-Hater, a common trait among media personalities in America.

No Michael, you are not Chop Liver, but you, and your no-talented partner, Tony Corhisner, the host of Pardon The Interruption are COPYCATS with the rest of the sports talk media in America and beyond. 

You are using my INSIDE SPORTS radio talk show format, that your former bosses at the Washington Post kidnapped in the late 70s. I was in the studio interviewing, Byron Rosen, Dave Dupree, Tom Callahan, David Aldridge, Leonard Shapiro, and sports editor George Solomon. We were talking sports and politics. The INSIDE SPORTS format was one of a kind in the 70s, it was unheard of.

Corhisner was a part of a group of thieves/writers that Catherine and son Donald Graham boarded a midnight train to New York City in 1976 to publish, INSIDE SPORTS MAGAZINE. 

Washington Post INSIDE SPORTS MAGAZINE Flipped & Flopped in NY City

Washington Post owner Donald Graham’s conscious was not his guild when he and his mother decided to hijack my INSIDE SPORTS tag to New York City. After the fact he sends me a check and asked for ANONYMITY!

The INSIDE SPORTS MAGAZINE failed, because Cornheiser and the rest of the Washington Post merry men, had no clue how to transfer my successful talk show into print media.

In the meantime, after losing several million dollars, Catherine Graham, ordered everyone back to DC.  She stayed in New York long enough to COPYRIGHT my tag “INSIDE SPORTS”, now owned by NEWSWEEK (Washington Post).  

Bill Rasmussen and his son, watched the Washington Post charade from the sidelines in Connecticut. They came up with the bright idea of taking the INSIDE SPORTS talk format and making it a television talk format.  ESPN was found in 1979. The program hit the ground running and never looked back.

ESPN copied my format, but could never duplicate it. I was the first sports talk show host with a format that dared to talk sports and politics. ESPN tried but could not stand the heat coming from the Capitol Hill politicians. The political topics threaten their bottom-line, the ESPN boss said, “No Mas”.

In March 2018, the Washington Post published a Page One story in the sports section with the new President James Pitra of ESPN asking, “Can ESPN Just Stick To Sports.” Stephen A thought there was Freedom of Speech in the work place, he left the building looking for a Podcast.

In 1995, James Brown before NFL/FOX, he teamed up with retired television morning news anchor Byrant Gumble and they discovered “REAL SPORTS/INSIDE SPORTS”. This was much like when Christopher Columbus discovering America. The Native Americans already occupied the land.

Thanks to James Brown, Byrant Gumble, REAL SPORTS won 33 Emmys and a Life Time Achievement Award for sports journalism using the INSIDE SPORTS format-another big fraud and liar!

Sports journalism and the internet are overrun with frauds and liars. The Shirley Povichs, Wendell Smiths, Byron Rosens, and the Sam Laceys are no longer among us. Dave Aldridge is exceptional!

Wilbon and I enjoy a laugh during a tribute to ‘The One Arm Bandit’ Gary Mays at Bens Chili Bowl

It is often said, curiosity killed the cat, meet Harold Bell. Thanks to my cell phone where “BIG BROTHER” has a pipeline to our every conversation, I asked Sirius several important questions regarding Wilbon.

One of those questions, “Did Wilbon ever write a book on Michael Jordan”? Sirius could never give me a straight answer. I revisited Wilbon’s friend and colleague John Fiestien saying, Wilbon was one of the biggest ass kisser’s in sports media. I thought for sure Wilbon had kissed MJ’s ass for a book deal!

I lost Wilbon’s cell number years ago, I could no longer call him directly. It has long been said, “Harold Bell is too confrontational”. I found it better than talking behind the person’s back!

I badgered Sirius enough, she contacted Wilbon, and posed the MJ question. It was about an hour later, I noticed a text on my phone asking, “Who is this, and no I did not”. Lord behold, it was Michael Wilbon.

You would have thought I had just won the Pulitzer Prize. I could not believe, ‘Mr. Wonderful’ had responded to my inquiry!

I have never been fishing, but evidently, I had used the right bait to get you to bite. My next text to you read, “Did you give the go ahead for Jayson Whitlock to call out Stephen A, Smith and ESPN on your behalf”? In Whitlock’s summary you claimed PTI’s impact is responsible for the success of ESPN’s affiliates and their talk shows aired on the network”. If you said those words in the OUTKICK interview, you are delusional.

“You, for one are aware that you and Corhisner copied the talk format of your mentor, Harold Bell and Inside Sports.

During your tenure at the Washington Post you were a regular on INSIDE SPORTS and my media roundtable with George Solomon, Bill Rhoden (NY Times), Larry Fitzgerald Sr. (Minnesota Spokesman), Kevin Blackistone (Dallas Morning News) and Ron Sutton (WHUR Radio). They were all contributors in the 1970s.

There were discussions regarding sports and politics. Your successful reign at the newspaper was due to your association with a man you once called your mentor, Harold Bell. You leaned on me for advice.” If this is a lie you can reach me at 240-304-1000. I never expected you to call-too much heat.

Your response to my text, “I don’t talk to Whitlock, haven’t in many years and I don’t get involved in back and forth b. s. over who said what when the shit may not be accurate anyway…and that’s that…”

In response to your “I don’t get involved in back and forth b. s. over who said what when the shit may not be accurate anyway…and that’s that…”

You never responded to my contribution to your career success. You are pretending that you and Tony Corhisner created the format that is use by every radio and television sports talk show in America and beyond, the format was created by HAROLD BELL and INSIDE SPORTS in Washington, DC in 1972.

When James Brown was quoted saying, “Harold has always been a voice for people who did not have a voice. He has always called it as he saw it. He has been an inspiration and motivation for me and a lot of other black broadcasters”. Michael Wilbon, even though James was talking out of both sides of his mouth, he was talking about you and the rest of the frauds in sports media.

Dr. Harry Edwards got it right when he said,

Harold,

CONGRATULATIONS!  Your archives are valuable and should be given the broadest exposure. Have you thought about offering discs of your programs to the new Smithsonian Institution NATL MUSEUM OF AFRICAN AMERICAN HISTORY AND CULTURE (NMAAHC). A wing of the NMAAHC WILL BE DEDICATED TO THE STRUGGLE IN SPORTS AND WILL BE TITLED “LEVELING THE PLAYING FIELD”,  Your work was a major force over the years in leveling the playing field, especially, in terms of the struggle to define and project “our truth”.

I will send you a contact involved in putting the NMAAHC together.

Great job over the years,  great timing in reprising that legacy now.

The best wishes of me and my family to your wife-she is in our thoughts and prayers.

Dr. Harry Edwards

Sent from my iPhone

On Jan 30, 2014 at 3:05 PM

Wilbon, you have become such a pathetic liar, you are beginning to believe your own lies. You can run but you cannot hide.

Wilbon, your son will be 18 years old next year, and he will read this blog one day or one of his friends will confront him and asked, “Why did Harold Bell write all these bad things about your father”? I would love to be a fly on the wall when you have to respond to him–I am sure, it be another lie!

It is often said, “If you want to hide an important message from Black folks, put it in a book”. Today, if you want to hide the continued struggles of Black America, your response to Kendrick would be, “I did not understand a word you said.” We are still looking for love in all the wrong places!

His message is so important, the NFL has barred me from showing you the link that explains Kendrick Lamar’s half-time show at the Super Bowl. His message is that important to black, brown people and our youth. The NFL is requiring you go to YouTube so they can get paid for the views.

It is important that you check out his message, and I promise you will come away a “WOKE” person. See the link description below on YouTube, where his 13-minute message is explained in 17 minutes. He beat the NFL at its own game! ‘Kendrick Lamar’s Super Bowl Performance Explained: Hidden Messages and Cultural Commentary‘.

The response reminded me of how African Villages communicated and stayed a step ahead of white slave hunters via the drum. Slaves brought to America communicated via gospel hymns. It took them decades to understand the messages sent by the drum and gospel hymns.

Kendrick Lamar is selling out NFL and MLB stadiums on his American tour. Someone must understand what he is saying!

During his performance at NW Stadium, I discovered Kendrick had taken rap to another level.

His 2017 album Damn won five Grammys, including Best Rap Album, and became the first non-classical or jazz work to win the Pulitzer Prize for Music. He’s won 37 BET Hip Hop Awards, 11 MTV Video Music Awards, and a Primetime Emmy Award.

“Not Like Us” exposes the on-going Crabs in the Barrel, Player Haters, envy and jealous mentally that keeps us in the back of the bus. Common sense is no longer common in our community.

His storytelling throughout his performances portrays the complexities of modern Black American life.

His half-time Super Bowl performance was the most viewed in NFL history. The show was seen by 133 million viewers, surpassing Michael Jackson and Prince’s performances. I attended his concert at NW Stadium in Prince George’s County, Maryland, home of the NFL Commanders.

He is without a doubt the GREATEST RAPPER in the World. The 1% has tried to impose Critical Race Theory (CRT) in our education system, barring Black History from being taught in our schools.

If you listened closely, you would learn Kendrick’s messages are delivered in his choreography and lyrics. He has borrowed from the ‘Original Rappers’ Oscar Brown, Jr, Curtis Mayfield, Gil Scott-Heron, The Last Poets, Marvin Gaye, Muhammad Ali, Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes (Wake Up Every Body).

Kendrick Lamar has taken the teaching of Black History to another level, via rap music, lyrics and choreography on stage and in social media.

Too many black adults are caught up in the profanity and his ongoing feud with rival rapper Drake, it is nothing new. All of that is a camouflage for his REAL message.

Kendrick explains, the charade of promises never kept, “Forty-Acres and a Mule. The context of the phrase in the performance was part of a larger commentary on social justice and racial inequality in America”. 

Kendrick’s performance at NW Stadium included other symbolic elements, such as a distorted American flag, a prison yard set design, and references to gaming and mass incarceration. His lyrics and choreography reinforced the theme of systemic oppression and the fight for liberation. 

If you thought the NFL owners and Roger Goodell had a clue to his 13 minute presentation, he would have never got in the stadium. I think Jay Z has booked his last half-time show for the NFL.

Kendrick is saying, “You can run, but you cannot hide from the TRUTH”!

The best example: The Black Farmer has been cheated and bamboozled out of his promised of 40 Acres and a Mule since 1865. Those promises were made and never kept.

The baton was passed on to the modern-day slave owner, Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack. He was appointed by Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden to sit at the door and block the Black Farmers’ progress. Millions of dollars designated by Biden to help rescue the black farmers never reached them.

The funds for them went directly to the white farmer. The Black Farmer was required to fill out an application of 40 pages, plus 10 to qualify. The white farmer’s funds went directly to his bank.

The Congressional Black Caucus sat on the sidelines and gave the Black Farmer a “HEAD FAKE LEFT” while they went to the RIGHT for a, “Party Over Here and Party Over There”, during Caucus week ends.

Today’s exceptions: There are ‘NEW’ sheriffs on The Hill, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), llhan Omar (D-Minn), Jasmine Crockett (D-Tex) and the only man with balls to say “No Mas”, Al Green (D-Tex).

One sheriff, Jasmine Crockett, threw her hat in the ring to replace the late Rep. Gerry Connolly of Virginia as ranking member on the House Oversight Committee. She withdrew her candidacy after receiving only 6 votes within the Democratic party. She needed 150 votes to secure a decisive victory.

Crockett summarized her withdrawal, saying, “It was clear by the numbers that my style of leadership is not exactly what they were looking for, and so I did not think it was fair for me to push forward.”

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) was thrown under the bus by Adam Schiff (D-Cali) for suggesting impeachment for President Trump after he bombed Iran without getting approval from Congress.

This is political player-hating at its best. She refused to play the game, smile, bow down, and kiss every jackass she encountered. In the meantime, black and brown people are treated like criminals and carted off to jail, and little children’s blood flows in our streets. This is no time to be young, gifted, and black in America.

In 2009, U. S. Attorney Eric Holder, as a cabinet member of the Obama Administration, addressed a Black History Month forum at the Department of Justice. He dropped a bomb as it related to racism in America.

He declared, “Americans wrongly consider the United States a melting pot. In things racial, we have always been and I believe continue to be, in too many ways, essentially a nation of cowards and bullies.”

It took a whole lot of balls to make that statement as a black man and politician, but it was the whole truth and nothing but the truth. In 2025, Donald Trump made him a prophet.

We have a bunch of clowns in social media with podcasts; they don’t have a clue. The biggest fraud and con artist is Stephen A. Smith. He is the hollering and screaming clown you can find on ESPN’s “First Take.”

I played football and basketball for the legendary basketball coach, Clarence ‘Bighouse’ Gaines at Winston-Salem State in Winston-Salem, NC. In 2007, the Alumni Association paid tribute to Bighouse in Chicago. I was awarded the first ever, Bighouse Gaines Community Service Award.

Big Man on campus, Clarence ‘BigHouse’ Gaines & HB in Chicago.

After the tribute, we were sitting around in the lobby reminiscing about days gone by. My teammate and roommate, Barney Hood, brought up the name of Stephen A. He asked Bighouse what kind of player he was, Bighouse didn’t miss a beat, his response, “He could not play dead”! NBA players seem to think along those same lines. Stephen A. and his 1.5 college basketball average are laughing all the way to the bank.

Podcast talk show host Roland Martin, and Black Farmer supporter Corey Lea had different opinions on how to support Black Farmers.

The breakdown in communications with Martin and Lea seems to be personal. Martin refused to interview Black Farmers in the field, trying to save their farms, or to Lea, who was in and out of courtrooms around the country, trying to get the funds Vilsack refused to make available.

John Boyd, who seems to be living in the lap of luxury, was Martin’s mouthpiece on the Roland Martin Podcast, with head cheerleader and wannabe, Scott Bolden, another fraud.

Whoever said, “Black Don’t Crack” has not visited ‘The Hill’ lately. There are three women, who are our warriors and risk takers. They don’t sit on the fence and wait to see which lane is safe to travel. They travel in the Right Lane above the speed limit.

When Ocasio-Cortez was disrespected on the Capitol steps by a white Congressman, she called a meeting of her colleagues to discuss the matter. Al Green was the only Black MAN to show up!

In the meantime, too many Black Farmers have lost their lands and lives waiting for Black Leadership to lead! The leadership that has become null and void.

My friend and Spingarn High School football teammate, Lawrence Lucas, has been on the front lines in this struggle for almost 30 years. He joined John Boyd and Corey Lea in the 1990s. He has been the leading voice for the ‘Black Farmers for Justice’.

1957, the teammates are still in the struggle. Lucas No. 55 standing on the back row, left, and HB on the back row with a helmet under my arm.

After college Lucas worked abroad in Addis Ababa, the Capitol of Ethiopia for the Mapping and Geography Institute from 1965-1970. After that assignment, he returned home and became a speech writer with the administration of President Jimmy Carter.

Lucas, has worked closely on behalf of the Black farmer with Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass), Bernie Sanders (D-Vermont), and Corey Booker (D-NJ). Many black farmers today feel that black leadership failed them. There is little or no togetherness, their eyes are not on the prize–EQUALITY.

Kendrick is 38 years old and hails from Compton, California. I was introduced to his rap choreography and lyrics by musician King Shaza in 2019. Shaza is known as the Godson of Rap. In the 60s and 70s when the legendary Gil Scott-Heron went on the road for live concerts, King was his opening act.

I find it amusing that Black folks are still trying to interpret Kendrick’s message (especially black adults). More than likely, they are waiting for Ken Burns ‘The Keeper’ of Black History on PBS to produce a documentary on rap music. He would then interpret Kendrick’s message to them for them!

Muhammad Ali-Harold Bell-Gil Scott-Heron & Kendrick Lamar, saw something and said something!

Email from Dr. Harry Edwards (2014), Dr. Edwards was leader of the 1968 boycott of the Summer Olympic Games in Mexico City.

H,

CONGRATULATIONS!  Your archives are valuable and should be given the broadest exposure. Have you thought about offering discs of your programs to the new Smithsonian Institution NATL MUSEUM OF AFRICAN AMERICAN HISTORY AND CULTURE (NMAAHC). A wing of the NMAAHC WILL BE DEDICATED TO THE STRUGGLE IN SPORTS AND WILL BE TITLED “LEVELING THE PLAYING FIELD”,  Your work was a major force over the years in leveling the playing field, especially, in terms of the struggle to define and “PROJECT OUR TRUTH”.

I will send you a contact involved in putting the NMAAHC together.

Great job over the years,  great timing in reprising that legacy now.

The best wishes of me and my family to your wife-she is in our thoughts and prayers.

Dr. Harry Edwards Sent from my iPhone

On Jan 30, 2014 at 3:05 PM

Meet the press: H Rap Brown-Tommie Smith-Dr. Harry Edwards & Stokely Carmichael in DC 1969.

THE DEFINITION OF COURAGE: WHEN A PICTURE IS WORTH A THOUSAND WORDS!

NOTEWORTHY: Meet Zohran Mamdani, Keeping Hope Alive on the Breakfast Club. This is the kind of politician who will give all Americans hope. We must stop rewarding and honoring crooks and thieves. And those who go along to get along. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9mb_i6o50oU

WHAT IS IN YOUR WALLET?

The Players in the U Street Corridor in 1968: Thurston McLain-Gene Byrd-Alfred Harvey-Johnny Jones-Co-Captain Bernard Hillary–Co-Captain Lloyd ‘Preacher’ Jones-Sidney Williams-Co-Captain Gene Ward-Johnny Taylor-Butch Harvey-Dynamite-Nat ‘June Bug’ Bruce-Ronald ‘Blue’ Hamilton-Billy ‘Buck’ Johnson, and Wade.

ALL THE USUAL SUSPECTS–HARRISON ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 1968 GRADUATING CLASS

I was home celebrating my birthday on May 21st, and the forecasters had predicted rain for the next three days. My wife Hattie and I decided to stay home and have a quiet dinner. In the meantime, the NBA Playoffs had started.

Despite the disappointment of my cousin Donovan Mitchell and the Cleveland Cavaliers early and unexpected exit by the Indiana Pacers, there was still some great basketball to be played.

Donovan had three straight 40 points plus games playing with an injury to his ankle, but he got no help from his teammates. The Boston Celtics followed the Cavaliers and lost unexpectedly to the New York Knicks. Despite that lost, I still felt there was still great basketball to be played, and there was my birthday to celebrate.

Later that evening I received a call from Ricky Williams one of my young men from my Roving Leader Days with the DC Department of Recreation & Parks. The phone had been ringing off and on all day with birthday wishes, and I am thinking that since it was Ricky, it was another birthday wish. Instead of ‘Happy Birthday’, his first words were, “We have lost another one, Preacher, Lloyd Jones.”

The next calls were from Billy ‘Buck’ Johnson, Raymond Hawkins and I received a text and photo from Danny Lewis with me, Preacher, and some of ‘The Usual Suspects.’

BOYS NO LONGER IN THE HOOD: MIKE ‘EARDRUM’ COKER-HB-TIM BEST-LL0YD ‘PREACHER’ JONES-MIKE WILLIAMS & VERN BEST

Suddenly, the memories started to rush back to where it all started with Preacher, Ricky, Billy Buck, Ray-Ray and Danny Lewis.

In 1965, Petey Greene talked the United Planning Organization CEO Mr. James Banks into giving me my first Job out of college (Winston-Salem State University). I was hired as a Neighborhood Worker.

I grew up in NE DC, but I spent the weekends hanging uptown in the neighborhood of the Howard Theater and Bannecker field to watch football under the lights. We would venture down to Turners Arena to find what was so special about the building (It was fight night). I saw my mother, aunts, Uncle Billy, and their New York friends in front of the arena. I never ventured to 13th and W Street again. Uncle Billy did not play.

The New York and DC crew are ready to venture to Jimmy McPhail’s Ball Room nightclub on Bladensburg Road in NE, Black Broadway on the U Street corridor in NW, and parts unknown on the weekend. Cousin Lewis and Uncle Billy (in glasses) are sitting on the right. They were dressed to The Nines.’

The United Planning Organization was a self-help organization located on the Black Broadway-U Street corridor of NW DC. This stretch of landscape was the home of everything black in the Nation’s Capitol.

I met the Harrison Playground and Harrison Elementary School crew in 1967. My domains were the playgrounds and DC Public Schools in the area. Garnett Patterson Jr. High and Cardozo High Schools were where I would find the knuckleheads (it takes one to know one), and Bruce, Garrison, and Harrison Elementary Schools were where I thought I would find the ones eager to learn, and were worth saving.

L-R: H. Rap Brown, Tommie Smith, Dr. Harry Edwards and Stokely Carmichael during a press conference. I was just an observer!

This press conference was held across from W-U-S-T Radio, on the corner of 9th and W Streets, NW. “The Mayor For Life”, Marion Barry arrived in DC around the same time as H Rap, Tommie, Harry and Stokely.

They were The Original Blues Brothers. The four were meeting in DC after the 1968 April 4th murder of Dr. Martin Luther King and the 1968 Mexico City Summer Olympic Games. The discussion centered around, “Where Do We Go From Here?”

It was in the Olympics that Tommie Smith and John Carlos raised their Black Fisted Gloves above their heads, protesting racism in America. Their raised hands were seen and heard around the World. They would pay the price. The white brother on the podium who supported them was ostracized in his native land of Australia. Peter Norman died at the age of 64 in 2006.

Depression and alcohol were cited as the cause of his early demise. Tommie Smith and John Carlos would travel to Australia to be pallbearers at his funeral.

Tommie Smith and John Carlos, the Black fist salute.

Tommie and John carried Peter Norman to his resting place and sadly went their separate ways. They did not wait until “Death Do Us Part.”

1968 Mexico City Olympic medal winners, John Carlos and Mel Pender are having a sit-down chat with me in Atlanta. John won the Bronze Medal for his third-place finish in the 200-meter dash, and Mel won the Gold Medal in the 4×100-meter hurdle relay. No love lost, and they have gone their separate ways. They are great friends, and I will not analyze them. I wish both peace and happiness.

The 1968 Olympic boycott was the Brainchild of Dr. Harry Edwards. Harry was a regular on Inside Sports during the 70s and 80s. Read what he wrote regarding the history-making Inside Sports talk show format:

Re: INSIDE SPORTS

From: Harry Edwards

Subject: Re: INSIDE SPORTS

To: hkbell82@comcast.net

H-

CONGRATULATIONS!! Your archives are valuable and should be given the broadest possible exposure.  Have you thought about offering disc of your programs to the new Smithsonian Institution NATL MUSEUM OF AFRICAN HISTORY AND CULTURE (NMAAHC)  a wing of the NMAAHC WILL BE DEDICATED TO THE STRUGGLE IN SPORTS AND WILL BE TITLED “LEVELING THE PLAYING FIELD”,  Your work was a major force over the years in leveling the playing field, especially in terms of the struggle to define and project “our truth”.

I will sent you a contact involved in putting the NMAAHC together.

Great job over the years, great timing in reprising that legacy now.

The best wishes of me and my family to your wife-she is in our thoughts and prayers.

Harry

Sent from my iPhone

On JAN 30, 2014 at 3:05 PM 

It was after the press conference in DC, I introduced Rap to Petey, and Petey introduced him to Mr. Banks. H. Rap was hired as a Neighborhood Worker for UPO, U Street, and Black Broadway history. Petey, H Rap, and I were together for a year before Rap was named the Chairman of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee in DC, replacing Stokely Carmichael.

In 1967 my next job would be with the DC Department of Recreation & Parks, Roving Leader Program (Youth Gang Task Force). Petey would stay with UPO and Mr. Banks.

1967 was a good year. I met Muhammad Ali on the Howard University campus. The meeting was life-changing, and we became great friends, so great that I was the only one he allowed to interview him after the Rumble in the Jungle. 50+ years later, those in sports media still cannot figure out–why me!

April 4, 1968, was not a good day. I remember exactly where I was, I was standing on the corner of 9th and U Streets with my co-worker, NFL and Green Bay Packer great, Willie Wood. We just had lunch at the Che Maurice Club, the hangout of the in-crowd. We were just standing on the corner enjoying a bright sunny spring day.

Suddenly, a car drove by with my friend Harvey Cooper hanging out of the window, screaming, “They just shot Dr. King in Memphis!” Willie and I looked at each other, wondering what Harvey had just said. We got our answer when the lunch crowd came out of Che Maurice, looking confused as we were.

Yes, Dr. King had been shot, but his condition was unknown. Willie suggested we call the office to check our status. As we started to walk down the U Street corridor, U. S. Marshall in Charge, Luke Moore, joined us. Luke was the first black U. S. Marshal in Charge since the appointment of abolitionist Frederick Douglass by President Benjamin Harrison in 1889.

When we arrived across the street from Ben’s Chili Bowl, there was Ben, John Snipes and several other men standing in front of the restaurant. Luke went over to see what was going on, minutes later he came back to tell us that Ben had orders to shut down his restaurant. I discovered later that Luke had called President Lyndon Johnson at the White House, and had the shutdown order rescinded.

I called my boss Stan Anderson at the DC Recreation Department and I was told to report to the 13th Precinct to Assistant Chief Timon O’Bryant. He was the highest-ranking black cop on the DC Police Department. To my surprise, I was on loan to the department during the riots.

O’Bryant swore me in, and gave me a badge and no gun to get me through police and military barriers. It was four nights and four days before the riots ended. I was shocked to learn, 13 people had lost their lives. I could not turn in my badge fast enough! The riots almost destroyed the city.

Out of the ashes, my wife Hattie and I found Kids In Trouble, Inc., and the Hillcrest Saturday Program. The program would combine Harrison Elementary, Harrison Playground, and Hillcrest Children’s Center.

Our toy parties and community endeavors for elementary school children thrived from 1968 to 2013 without grants or loans. Thanks to my Virginia Sailor football teammates and Hattie’s co-workers at Cardozo High School, they helped to put us on the right path for success.

Harold McLinton shares some kind words with a child. He proves that No One Was Too Tall To Stoop to Help A Child.

Native Washingtonians, Willie Wood (NFL), and Dave Bing (NBA), would be the first pro athletes to reach back and help Kids In Trouble to enhance the lives of inner-city children.

https://youtu.be/Fkafk63frbg / There Goes the Judge Thurgood Marshall  

Mr. Personality and my mentor, Luke Moore would bring his co-workers from the DC Superior Court, Judges Harry T. Alexander, Ted Newman, Gene Hamilton, and Henry Kennedy, Jr., for support.

My Virginia Sailor teammate, LB George Kelly was my first Santa Claus. NFL LB Harold McLinton, WR Roy Jefferson, RB Larry Brown, and DB Ted Vactor would follow as Santa’s Helpers. NFL MVP QB Doug Williams would follow their lead to the Saturday Program during the 70s and 80s.

Harrison Elementary School Principal, Mr. Cousins, and I became great friends. He was having problems with a couple of knuckleheads (It takes one to know one), relating to absenteeism and disrupting class whenever they felt the urge. He granted me all access to classrooms if there was a need. I met with the teachers and got their approval.

My major was elementary education at Winston-Salem State, but I never wanted to be a classroom teacher. I remembered I was a knucklehead.

The Harrison knuckleheads, I would see after school at the Harrison Playground directly across the street. I discovered some of them were outstanding athletes. It did not matter what sport they excelled in any and everything if there was a ball involved.

Several of them heard I was playing minor league football on the weekends and would show off for me in the evenings on the playground. Gene Ward, Bernard Hillary, Arthur House, and Dynamite were among the gifted ones. I needed to find a way to harness their anti-social behavior in school.

I spoke with Mr. Cousins in reference to having tryouts for touch football games against schools in the area. There were several other elementary schools, I had spoken to about the program. The games would be played after school. He gave me his okay!

The first thing I had to do was to lay-out some ground rules for eligibility to participate. The Rules: Regular School Attendance-Maintain a C average-No profanity in school or on the field. The rules were simple, but difficult to keep for several of my super-star athletes.

Enter Kirby Burkes, a no-nonsense and respected W Street parent, to share coaching duties with me. It was a “Good Cop-Bad Cop” environment, and the tough love we handed out got the winning results we hoped for.

We appointed young men, Lloyd ‘Preacher’ Jones, Bernard Hillary and Gene Ward in leadership roles and it led to winning ways on and off the field of play.

When boxing great Sugar Ray Leonard returned from the 1978 Olympic Games after winning a Gold Medal, he expected a ticker-tape parade, instead, he was met with a media onslaught for having a child out of wedlock. He lost his self-esteem and refused to leave his home for days.

His “Brain-Trust” had no clue what to do; they found me on the tennis courts in Anacostia and asked me to see if I could talk him out of hiding. The next day, I went to his hideout (home) in Palmer Park, and knocked on the door. He greeted me with tears in his eyes. After I got his attention, I suggested he put on a suit and his Gold Medal and follow me.

On the way to see Ray, I called Mr. Cousins at Harrison Elementary and explained to him that I was bringing Sugar Ray Leonard to the school. I needed him to have a class there so they could ask him about his Olympic experience. I thought the little children would help him to regain his self-esteem. It worked!

He was all smiles as we left the school. He was a brand-new man. He was so confident, he asked to be on my talk show, Inside Sports, the next day. He wanted to discuss his Olympic experience further. All I could do was smile, mission accomplished.

Sugar Ray was in his element talking with the young guest on Inside Sports after his guest appearance.

HB, Ricky Dargan, and Kirby Burkes, meet with Officer Friendly, Charles Robinson of the 13th Police Precinct stopping in the neighborhood to chit-chat. Robinson and my friend and former high school teammate, Officer Andrew Johnson, were great communicators.

Larry Brown bruising style of running made him the No. 1 rusher in the NFL in 1973

Roland ‘Fatty’ Taylor (NBA)-Larry Brown (NFL) and Petey Green, hanging out with me during a Saturday Program Community Day.

NFL Films capture Larry Brown and Harold McLinton teaching water safety to Hillcrest Saturday Program children.

Harold McLinton with Hillcrest Saturday Program Legend Michael Gee and Bruce on his left.

Petey would later win two Emmy Awards for his TV show, “Petey Greene’s Washington.” He gave 5 minutes every Sunday to talk sports, leading to my trail-blazing “Inside Sports” talk show.

On any given Saturday, visitors to the Saturday Program, pro athletes, media personalities, DC Superior Court Judges, and Police Chief Burtell Jefferson, were all in the building.

Petey Greene and Dave Bing return to the ghetto to honor the Hillcrest Saturday Program All-Stars.

White high school students on a yellow school bus would travel from Takoma Park, a suburb in Maryland, to mentor and tutor our elementary school students. They would arrive every Saturday at 12 noon.

The students can be seen teaching, reading, writing and arithmetic. These students were responsible for high school students nation-wide receiving college credits for volunteering in the community (Afro-American Newspaper).

The success stories keep coming; Billy ‘Buck’ Johnson after a rocky encounter with not-so Officer Friendly cops helped him get his act together. He has been a staff member at the DC Central Kitchen headed by CEO Mike Curtain for 10 years.

The history makers and benefactors who were a part of the Kids In Trouble and Inside Sports success reads like a Who’s Who.

Petey Green won two Emmy Awards, Larry Brown was the NFL rushing leader in 1973, Doug Williams was the MVP of the Super Bowl, and the first Black QB to win a Super Bowl in 1988. John Thompson was the first Black Coach to win a Division One Basketball title. Dave Bing was the first NBA guard to win a scoring title. He was named one of the 50 Greatest NBA Players of All-Time. William Raspberry columnist for the Washington Post, won the first-ever Pulitzer Prize for community-related journalism. His coverage of the Kids In Trouble community endeavors made it possible for him to win. Jim Brown was voted the Greatest athlete in the history of the NFL. Sugar Ray Leonard was the first pro boxer to win one hundred million dollars. CBS/NFL James Brown, ESPN, Mike Wilbon, ESPN/TNT Dave Aldridge, Radio & TV One Cathy Hughes, NBA/ESPN Adrian Branch, NBA Adrian Dantley, Red Auerbach is the Greatest NBA Coach of all time. His Boston Celtics led the civil rights movement in the NBA. The Celtics were the first to draft a black player, the first to put five black players on the floor at the same time, the first to hire a black coach and General Manager. Congressman John Lewis (D-GA) campaigned with Kids In Trouble, Red Auerbach and Washington Time’s sports columnist Dick Heller to get blackballed NBA pioneer Earl Lloyd inducted into the NBA Hall of Fame in 2003.

Last but certainly not least, James Dudley (Mentor) lived directly across the street from the Hillcrest Children’s Center Saturday Program. In the 50s-60s, Turner’s Arena sat where once sat Hillcrest Children’s Center (Children’s Hospital). Turner’s Arena was the first home of the World Wrestling & Entertainment (WWE) and founder Vincent McMaHon, Sr.

Mr. Dudley drove a limo for Vincent McMahon when he was in DC or Baltimore. The two men became great friends. As the WWE and Entertainment business grew, McMahon needed someone he could trust, he had to look no further than James Dudley.

The General Manager position made James Dudley, the first black GM in the history of sports arenas in America.

Vince McMahon, Sr. died May 1984 and Vince McHahon, Jr. as a favor to his father’s dying wish, he asked his son to lookout for James Dudley.

Vince Jr. put Mr. Dudley back on the payroll at age 74. He made sure Mr. Dudley had two paychecks every month, and a brand new Lincoln Town car to drive every two years. He personally inducted Mr. Dudley into the WWE Hall of Fame in 1994, making him the first black honored. McHahon Jr. made it clear, “There would be no WWE if it were not for James Dudley.”

Mr. Dudley is hanging out with me at Sam K’s Records on 7th & T Streets, NW. Induction into the WWE Hall of Fame in 1994. He was honored during an Inside Sports Legends tribute at the Hyatt Regency in downtown DC.

My friend and mentor, Mr. James Dudley. He was a trailblazer and superstar in ‘The Game Called Life!’ It was said, he ran a 10 flat in the 100-meter dash regularly, tried out for the Olympic team, and played in the Negro Leagues as a catcher. His grandson William ‘Poochie’ Butler and great-grandson Prince are building on his legacy. Poochie grew up in the ‘Hood’ in the U Street corridor of NW DC. He was a benefactor of the Hillcrest Saturday Program. Prince is a recent graduate of Alabama University, where he was a member of the football team. He will return to Alabama to work on his Master’s Degree in Business and will finish out his football eligibility for the Crimson Tide. Prince is pictured with his proud mom, Nel, and father after the graduation ceremony on the Alabama campus.

I would see Lonnie Taylor in a chance encounter at a Heritage Foundation luncheon on Capitol Hill. He and brother Leroy were once neighborhood kids who enjoyed the Saturday Program during their early years. We exchanged greetings and business cards.

Several weeks later I received a letter from Lonnie saying, “Dear Mr. Bell, It was good seeing you at Secretary Jack Kemp’s Heritage Foundation luncheon. As I stated then, as a former resident of the 14th and W Streets area. I owe you many thanks for the things you did on behalf of the city’s youth. Believe me, Hillcrest Saturday Program brings back fond memories. You should take pride your example of selflessness continues in many of us. Thanks for all you have done and all you do. Sincerely, Lonnie Taylor, Chief of Staff Jack Beuchner, Member of Congress.

The letter from Lonnie was much more than a Thank You to me. His letter head read from the Congress of the United States House of Representatives. This is an American History First, that can never again be duplicated. When Lonnie signed on to become Congressman Jack Beuchner’s Chief of Staff, he became the first ever Black Chief of Staff for a white Congressman in the history of Capitol Hill. Too many of us never got the message.

Lonnie grew up in the shadows of Turner’s Arena and the crime ridden corridor of 14 Streets, NW, and despite his surroundings, he managed to rise above the noise. He has since gone home to be with the Lord, much too soon.

Thirty-six years later, his letter and words still inspire me to never give up or give in to the noise, the fake prophets, and hustlers in our community.

Lloyd ‘Preacher’ Jones was a part of this great Hillcrest Saturday Program’s history along with Johnny Robinson, Gene Ward, Michael Gee, Bernard Hillary, Blue Byrd, Blue, Arthur House, Raymond ‘Sweet Tooth’, Kirby Burkes, Robert Richards, Horsy, and Carroll ‘Honeycomb’ Mathews.

My work with at-risk children and youth gangs carried me all over the DMV and beyond, Barry Farms, Potomac Gardens, Simple City, Parkside-Mayfair, Langston Terrace, Mt. Pleasant, Homer Avenue in Suitland, Maryland, Charles Houston Rec Center in Alexandria, Virginia, Philadelphia, and Atlanta, Ga.

I always found my way back to my “Safe Havens”: the U Street corridor, Harrison Elementary, Harrison Rec Center, and Hillcrest Children’s Center Saturday Program.

Preacher, Ricky, Billy Buck, Ray-Ray, Horsy, and the Usual Suspects never had to look far for me; I was always just a telephone call away. Thanks for the memories.

MY BOY

A careful man, I always wanted to be, because a little fellow followed me. I dared not go astray for fear he would go the same self way. I could not once escape his eyes, what he saw me do he tried. He thought that I was good and fine, and believed in every word of mine. The bad in me he could not see. This little fellow who followed me. I had to remember as I go, thru summer’s sun and winter’s snow, I was building for the years to be, for that little fellow who followed me.

AMAZON BOOKS “5 STARS”

Lloyd married his childhood sweetheart, Debra Mathews, and it has been a love affair for the ages. He leaves behind two beautiful daughters and friends we will never be able to count

Preacher’s legacy is in good hands with India, Debra, and Kandi.

THOUGHT PROVOKING:

ESPN sports talk show host Pat McAfee recently discussed the state of America. He said, “We are surrounded by cowards.” His statement made me think about the young men I have coached and counseled over the years; none came to mind as being a coward. Some became two-faced as they grew older, but no cowards! Pat McAfee may be on to something when it comes to American leadership.

Miracle Theater 2919 / The Butler Family-Poochie-Nel-HB and Prince. Prince was college-bound.

Poochie-and Prince join Hattie T in wishing Aunt Elaine a happy 100th birthday in 2019. Aunt Elaine is the Angel in Red. Miracle Theater tribute to Muhammad Ali.

Prince Butler enrolled at the University of Alabama via football scholarship in 2019. In 2025, he graduated with a degree in business-next stop “GRAD SCHOOL.”

William ‘Poochie’ Butler, and his wife, Nel are the real heroes in The Game Called Life! They packed their bags and moved from Northern Virginia to Florida so they could be close to drive to all of Prince’s home games and some away games.

I was a mentor to Poochie when I found Kids In Trouble, Inc. in the U Street corridor in the 60s and 70s.  He was one of my knuckleheads in the community.  It takes one to know one.

When Prince became an All-Star athlete in the Northern Virginia school system, he and Nel asked me and Hattie to come to Virginia and check him out. 

Prince was already a star when we arrived.  He was all over the field on defense.  I had trouble figuring out what position he played. 

There were some plays, he was a linebacker, a defensive end, and then a safety.  There was one thing you could count on, when the ball was snapped, he was going to be around the ball.

This was Prince’s senior year and they wanted us to help them make the right college selection.  He was an Honor Roll Student his entire high school life-grades would not be the problem.

We were already family. Poochie’s grandfather, a legendary athlete, entertainer, and sports promoter, James Dudley, was my mentor.  Mr. Dudley lived directly across the street from The Hillcrest Children’s Center Saturday Program on 14th & W Streets, NW. The center was my domain, under the watchful eyes of Mr. Dudley. He had children in the program.

Hattie and I found the program in 1969, after the riots almost destroyed DC.  The program was designed to provide indoor recreation (swimming and indoor basketball) and mentor programs for neighborhood elementary school children.

Hillcrest Chilren’s Center Saturday Program, NFL Films capture NFL players RB Larry Brown and LB Harold McLinton teaching water safety to neighborhood children. This was a first ever promo (1971).

The building was once Turner’s Arena, the home of great jazz, and R & B music.  On weekends, you could often find, great wrestling and boxing matches in the arena.

The man in charge was James Dudley.  The arena was owned by WWE founder Vince McMahon, Sr.  The business grew so fast, Mr. McMahon asked Mr. Dudley to take over. His role made him the first Black General Manager of a major sports arena in America. 

Mr. Dudley was inducted into the WWE HOF in 1994, making him the first black inducted. CEO Vince McMahon, Jr. reminded all in attendance, there would be no WWE without James Dudley.

The Inside Sports and Kids In Trouble legacy continues in 2025 NBA style.  Monica McNutt is the latest NBA analyst for ESPN with local ties.  She joins Christy Winters Scott from The Round Ball Report, a local TV program focused on local basketball. The show was produced in Prince George’s County, Maryland, by Andrew Dyer.

However, the show had problems getting press credentials for reporters to attend Washington Wizards home games. The show needed to provide a professional basketball presence, and the Wizards fit the bill.

Monica McNutt & Christy Winters Scott on the Round Ball Report 

Monica McNutt, ESPN NBA analyst & Donovan Mitchell

The problem, the Wizard’s PR team was playing ‘The Race Card’;  and refused to cooperate. It was nothing new with the organization; old habits die hard.  In 1976, press table racism followed the Bullets from Landover, Maryland, to 7th Street NW in Washington, DC. 

The organization changed its name to the Washington Wizards but found it difficult to make the press table racism disappear despite their new name. 

In 1972, during halftime, my white friend, sports writer Frank Pastor, and I went upstairs in the Capitol Arena Landover and walked the concourse to see who we could see. Before we knew it, half-time was over, and we were still upstairs on the concourse.

We had to wait there until the action on the court was halted after a foul call or a timeout out stopping action on the court; only then could we return to our seats.

While standing upstairs I noticed for the first time, that Frank and the white media were seated on the left side of the half court line and blacks were seated on the right of the half court line.

In a split decision, Frank and I decided to switch seats; I would sit on the left side in his seat, and he would sit on the right side in my seat.  It was quietly done without a harsh word or a sign with ‘BOYCOTT’ written on it.  Our message was loud and clear, ‘NO MAS.’ 

The late Ron Sutton, talk show host for WHUR Radio in DC. We share a laugh at a Washington Bullets’ game in Landover, Maryland.

In the photo above you can clearly see whites seated on my left and blacks on the right of Ron and me.  The TV monitors marked the half-court line. It was truly a separate but not equal opportunity mentality.

This was the calm before the storm.  I was later labeled a “Trouble Maker.’  Like Congressman John Lewis said, “Make Good Trouble.”  Sounds like Kids In Trouble and Inside Sports were making good trouble back in the day.

Years later, the Round Ball Report and its reporters would be the beneficiaries, credentials would be issued for them to attend Washington Wizards’ home games and NBA All-Star Games.

This was thanks to Brian McIntye (retired NBA VP PR) and ‘Trouble Maker’, Harold Bell, after I made a phone call to his office.

NBA pioneer, Earl Lloyd, was also a benefactor. He was the first Black to play in a game in 1950, and a starter on the NBA Champion Syracuse Nationals in 1955. Lloyd was also the first Black assistant coach for the NBA Detroit Pistons, for some reason, he was ‘Blackballed’ from the NBA Hall of Fame.

The HOF plaque presented to him read “CONTRIBUTOR?” What kind of back-door designation was that?

Lloyd made the right decision when he called Harold Bell and not ‘Ghostbusters’ I had organized a similar campaign for my friend, the all-time great NFL defensive back and DC native, Willie Wood of the Green Bay Packers.

Wood’s credentials were undeniable. His crime, he saw something and said something. He was an assistant coach for the San Diego Chargers. The something he saw was drug use among the players.

After the Washington Times sports columnist Dick Heller had written several lionizing columns and I had been on every radio and television talk show beating the drum for Willie. He was inducted into the NFL Hall of Fame in 1989.

Lloyd was inducted into the NBA Hall of Fame in 2003, thanks to the team of, Red Auerbach, Sports Columnist, Dick Heller, Congressman John Lewis and ‘Trouble Maker’, Harold Bell!

Willie never forgot to say “Thank You” to Dick and me for our successful campaign on his behalf.

Rev. Dr. William Roundtree was my Spingarn High School Coach in the DC Public School system. He also coached NBA Hall of Fame player and Mayor of Detroit, Dave Bing.

Spingarn High School is the only public high school in America with two NBA Hall of Famers, and both were named two of the 50 best players in the NBA. Meet Elgin Baylor and Dave Bing. The school no longer exists (CRT).

My senior year, I thought I was the straw that stirred the drink. I had just been named to the DC Public High School All-Star football team. My next move was to join the basketball team for my senior year.

I decided to become a shooter instead of the designated defensive stopper Coach Roundtree had assigned me to be the previous year. And Elgin Baylor, I was not, or even a Dave Bing. I became a distraction. Coach Roundtree, kicked me to the curb. He decided to win or lose without me. This became my DNA in high school.

Baseball Coach Leo Hill kicked me to the curb for similar behavior, and my football coach, Dave Brown, locked me on the school bus at halftime for a bad attitude. He heard me demanding my Quarterback to “Throw me the dam ball, I was open.”

Only an apology to my teammates saved me to play another day. My problem, I wanted the ball when the game was on the line. There was no doubt I could shoot the ball, and little doubt I could catch any football in my airspace, steal any base, catch any fly ball hit in my direction.

There were harsh lessons I was taught, no one was indispensable, and the ME helped to spell the word TEAM!

Coaches, Brown, Roundtree, and Hill taught me well. When all was said and done, they became my heroes in this Game Called Life.

In today’s dog-eat-dog mentality, I have been getting mixed messages regarding The Game Called Life:

For Example:

“No one is indispensable, but there are some people more necessary than others,

Harold Bell is one of those people.”     Washington Star Newspaper Editorial Board (1980)

Harold,

“You helped prepare me for the NBA.” Dave Bing (1967)

Hey Harold,

 “Continue being who you are, you are appreciated more than you know!!” Dave Bing (2022)

Sent from my iPhone

FIRST STUDENT/ATHLETES TO HONOR PRINCIPAL-TEACHERS & STAFF (MAY 1976)

L-R Coach William Roundtree–Officer Ray Dixon-HBell-Dave Bing and Principal Purvis Williams (Not in photo-coordinators Andrew Johnson and the late Bill Lindsey)

Best Quote heard on the Pat McAfee show ESPN 5/7/25

“We are surrounded by cowards. Meeting behind closed doors, scared to take risks!”

BIG GEORGE THE KNOCKOUT MACHINE. HE WAS FEARED BY ALL INCLUDING MUHAMMAD ALI. HE DIED MARCH 22, 2025.

I met Muhammad Ali in 1967 in Washington, DC on the campus of Howard University. He was touring the country visiting college campuses, and talking to black and white students about racism in America. He explained why he refused to join the United States Army to fight in a war against the Viet Cong. Ali made it clear, he had nothing against the Viet Cong, they had never called him a nigger!

TOMMIE SMITH AND JOHN CARLOS 1968 MEXICO CITY

In 1968, there were medal winners who were unhappy with Big George Foreman walking around the ring waving an American flag after winning a Gold Medal. This was especially true after Tommie Smith and John Carlos, America’s track and field athletes were sent home after famously raising their black-gloved fists at the Summer Olympics during the playing of the National Anthem and medal ceremony in Mexico City.

This was a powerful act of protest against racial discrimination and in support of the Civil Rights Movement in America.  The protest was comparable to Ali saying, “Hell No, I Won’t Go” to the U. S. Army.

Big George walked around the ring celebrating with a USA shirt and waving an American flag. The act did not set well with John Carlos and Spencer Heywood (basketball). They were just two of several medal winners who were not “Happy Campers.” This was Big George doing it his way.

I met George Foreman in Washington, DC in 1969, shortly after he just turned pro. My attorney Harry Barnett was representing him. Harry called me one evening and asked me to meet him at his office there was someone he wanted me to meet. It was Big George.

He celebrated his first professional win with a three-round knockout in New York City. I joined Harry, Bob Wayne, Mo Taylor, and several other friends at ‘The In Crowd’ Duke Zeiberts’ Restaurant on Connecticut Avenue in NW DC. We celebrated, Big George’s successful boxing debut.

DC became his second home. He worked out at Billy Edwards’ Gym at 9th & S Streets, just a few blocks off of Black Broadway (U Street corridor) in NW DC, landmarks: Howard Theater, Bohemian Caverns, Ben’s Chili Bowl, etc.

I hung out at the gym with a few regulars like Petey Greene (Emmy Award winner, radio and TV), and boxing legend, Calvin Woodland. I was working as a Roving Leader for the DC Parks & Recreation Department with youth gangs and at-risk children. Some days after school I would take a couple of kids to the gym to let them watch Big George and other fighters work out.

George would always say to me, “I used to be a knucklehead like those kids you are working with!”

I did not realize how big a knucklehead he must have been until I took him to Harrison Elementary School one day to meet Mr. Cuzzins, the Principal. The school was directly across the street from the old Children’s Hospital at 13th & V Streets, NW. He told Mr. Cuzzins, and the kids his life story.

Harrison Elementary was the school I took Sugar Ray Leonard to when he had lost his way!

We were walking back to the gym, and I asked him about his celebration in the ring in 1968. He looked at me, smiled, and said, “Man did you hear where I came from? I was in Mexico City participating in the 1968 Olympic Games, and I won the Gold Medal. I could have been in jail or dead. I was proud of Tommie and John, my celebration had nothing to do with disrespect.”

I understood George’s celebration. I was invited to the White House in 1969 to meet with President Richard M. Nixon. We met at the Burning Tree Golf Course in 1957; I caddied for him from 1957 until 1958. The golf course relationship changed my life forever. I look back to 2025, and I am still honored by that invitation and the thousands of young people I have touched in this Game Called Life!

Comedian/TV host Bill Maher has been one of the loudest critics of President Donald Trump, he was invited to the White House by Trump for a one-on-one sit-down.

Maher’s said, “It is the White House and he is the President of the United States. I am honored.”

I went from a one-room shack and an outhouse on Douglas Street in NE DC to a White House in NW DC. I understood George’s celebration in Mexico City. How many of us can pick ourselves up by our bootstraps (no boots), win a Gold Medal, or be invited to the White House by the President of the United States. I was honored!

President Richard Nixon and Harold Bell hanging out in the Oval Office

“Harold Bell may be the only black guy living who ever grew up in a ghetto, in real poverty, but still never learned to Play the Game, that great American past time. Everybody plays the game to some degree. That’s what success is all about. Playing the Game. Being alternately malleable and assertive with the right people at the right time. Bell never learned. If he had, given his drive and single-mindness of purpose, Bell would have probably been dangerous.” J. D. Bethea/Washington Star News (1974)

Big George and Bell hanging out at the Job Corps Center in SW DC

It would be 1972 when Harry Barnett, and Washington News sports columnist J. D. Bethea would let me hitchhike to Cleveland, Ohio with them for a charity boxing exhibition. Muhammad Ali was the headliner. I was in the car before they could say, “OK!” This would be the ride where Ali would open doors for me, I never thought possible.

When we arrived in Cleveland, at the hotel, Ali was surrounded by media, Harry, J. D., and I tried to walk around the noise when Ali yelled, “Harold Bell what are you doing this far away from DC?”

I was stunned, that Ali remembered me. It had been five years since we first met in DC. All eyes were on me, I waved and kept walking. The first thing that crossed my mind was, “I have got to get him on Inside Sports.” I never dreamed it would be Inside Sports and a one-of-a-kind exclusive interview after The Rumble in the Jungle.

PIONEER AND TRAILBLAZER: INSIDE SPORTS

Ali’s shoutout introduced me to all of ‘The Usual Suspects’, his brother, Rahman (my favorite person), Lloyd Price, Howard Bingham, Don King, Gene Kilroy, and others.

In the meantime, Big George was moving up the ladder to boxing immortality. He was knocking out everyone who had nerve enough to get in the ring with him. He and Ali were on a collision course.

THE FOREMAN BROTHERS IN THE GOOD OLD DAYS

In the meantime, brother Roy and I became great friends after my trip to Cleveland we would cross paths in Las Vegas, New York City, Philadelphia, Atlantic City, and other fight towns.

In 1974 I bypassed Ali’s invitation to Zaire, I was scared to fly over the ocean. It was my best decision yet.

After retiring from boxing in 1977, after his devastating defeat to Ali in Zaire, Africa difficult times followed. He experienced financial hardships. Life became a boxing ring again, but everytime he was knocked down, he found a way to get up.

That’s when George realized there was only one way to get the money he needed. He had to get back in the ring.

George set out to comeback and become the world heavyweight champion once again, but it was not just for him, it was for all those kids who depended on him at the youth center he built and his own children and their future. Fighting for them gave him the strength and the motivation he needed to come back and make it.

It would be 20 years later, in November 1994, that Roy and I were at the fight in Atlantic City. Big George made boxing history. He was in the right place at the right time: Atlantic City, N.J.

Against all odds, George shocked the boxing world with a stunning 10-round knockout of Michael Moorer. He knocked out Moorer in the 10th round to become the oldest heavyweight champion in boxing history. He never looked back after that.

It was a tough night for another friend, Prentis Byrd (Kronk Gym), who was rooting big-time for Moorer. It looked to me like Moorer had the fight won. He was ahead on all three judges’ cards into the 10th round. I still have no clue, who advised him to stand with Big George and slug it out.

Unlike most, George never forgot. He was a regular on Inside Sports and recorded promos for my talk shows.

ENTER THE GEORGE FOREMAN GRILL

The George Foreman Grill, was not the brainchild of George Foreman. An inventor by the name of Michael Boehm designed the grill with a floating hinge and slanted grilling surface to accommodate various food thicknesses that drain fat.

Big George became the face of the grill through a successful endorsement deal, making it a household name.  It is estimated, he sold 100 million grills with his newfound personality and smile.

THE THREE KINGS

Nothing should ever surprise us what comes out of a boxer’s mouth, but I was surprised to hear Mike Tyson say, “I can never forgive George Foreman for the way he treated Muhammad Ali.” I was waiting to hear him call the name of, the notorious Don King.

My message to Mike; “George sold 100 million grills and Don King stole $100 million from you. You are hating on the wrong one!”

Mike, is there a look of hate in this photo–these two brothers loved and respected each other!

In his early days, George was just an arrogant young big-mouth athlete still on training wheels learning how to become an adult.

Ali and I met in Washington, DC in the summer of 1975. He was named “The Athlete of the Century” by the DC Chamber of Commerce. We sat in his room for over an hour talking about the people he wanted to apologize to for saying terrible things about them during his career, Sonny Liston, Malcolm X, Joe Frazier, and George Foreman were all in his top 10.

Ali was always full of surprises, it was a sold-out Sheraton-Park Hotel Ballroom with 5,000 standing-room-only crowd. He asked me to stand up and introduced me as his friend to DC Mayor Walter Washington.

His definition of a ‘Friend’, was “Someone who was always helping others and never expecting anything in return.”

I would love to be a fly on an Angel’s Wing when Joe Frazier, George Foreman, Muhammad Ali, Eddie Futch, Angelo Dundee, and Emanuel Steward meet to break bread and talk about ‘The Game Called Life.’ They all did it their way, and I was an eyewitness!

KENDRICK LAMAR-PULITZER PRIZE AND GRAMMY AWARD WINNER!

Kendrick Lamar, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), and Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas) are three leaders walking in Muhammad Ali’s footsteps. They are leaders without fear or boundaries. America and our children need them like never before. The measures to suppress our history and the lies being told are like I have never witnessed or heard (Critical Race Theory).

Kendrick Lamar Duckworth was born in Compton, California in 1987.  He’s considered one of the greatest rappers of all time, and the first non-classical or jazz musician to win a Pulitzer Prize for Music in 2018.

The award recognized his 2017 album DAMN., which was critically acclaimed and helped bring mainstream recognition to hip-hop’s artistic depth. Lamar was also the first hip-hop artist to solo headline the Super Bowl halftime. His 13-minute performance will go down in history as, the greatest half-time performance of all time. The Super Bowl Hidden Messages for Black America  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ajnW0k0dM0

He was born Kendrick Lamar Duckworth on June 17, 1987, an American rapper, songwriter, and record producer. Kendrick is also known as K.Dot, Kung Fu Kenny, Petty Pendergrass Dot, and The Boogeyman.  He is regarded as one of the greatest rappers of all time.  

Kendrick has received various accolades, including 22 Grammy Awards (the third-most won by a rapper), a Primetime Emmy Award, a Brit Award, 4 American Music Awards, 7 Billboard Music Awards, 11 MTV Video Music Awards (including 2 Video of the Year wins), and a record 37 BET Hip Hop Awards.

Time Magazine listed Kendrick Lamar as one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2016. Kendrick is also the first non-Jazz or Classical artist to be awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Music for his 3rd album “DAMN” in 2018. Lamar is known for his thought-provoking lyrics, unique storytelling, and innovative musical style.

He is the Muhammad Ali, Gil Scott Heron of this generation, a voice and leadership that cannot be bought and sold. I was honored when King Shaza, “The Godfather of Go-Go” who opened for Gil Scott Heron on his European tour added my photo to his poster titled, “The Four Kings–They Never Played The Game.” They heard and saw something and said something.”

Muhammad Ali-Harold Bell-Gil Scott Heron and Kendrick Lamar.

I have had poems written about my exploits in the community and an appearance in King Shaza’s “Traditions” video, this poster was truly an honor. Definitely, voices that have called them as they have seen them!

I was introduced to Gil by our mutual friend, Norris ‘Brute’ Little. Gil made DC his second home. Brute was an outstanding football player at Cardozo High School in DC. It was there he got the nickname, Brute. He was a hard-running bruising fullback.

I remember the Virginia Sailors a minor league affiliate for the Washington Redskins were holding tryouts. I looked up at one of our practices and there was Brute, and H Rap Brown trying out for a spot on the team. I was not surprised that H Rap was there, I had invited him. Brute was a walk-on.

H Rap and I worked for the United Planning Organization (A self-help organization) as Neighborhood Workers in the Cardozo/Shaw Community, along with the legendary, Petey Greene. One day we were hanging out at Harrison Playground at 13th and V Streets NW watching several youngsters play catch with a football.

Rap walked up to the youth and started to show one of them how to drop back and throw the ball accurately. Petey, then urged me to run a couple of pass patterns with Rap throwing the ball. It was difficult trying to run a pass pattern in tennis shoes, but I could tell he knew what he was doing. He had a strong, and a shotgun arm.

I discovered he had played QB at Southern University. He was cut for disciplinary reasons. Rap had football in his DNA. I invited him to try out for the Sailors.

His tryout was amazing, in the passing drills his balls were on the one. The coaches were impressed but wary of his attire during warmup. Rap wore a black Tam and sunglasses, they did not invite him back for the next day’s tryout.

I am not sure how Brute and Gil met, but he would show up to watch our practices in Anacostia Park in SE DC.

This is a photo of players from DC trying out for the Virginia Sailors. Norris ‘Brute’ Little No. 25 standing on the right and I am standing next to him No. 82.

Gil penned several rap songs about DC this is my favorite “It’s The Nation’s Capitol-Washington, DC.”

LYRICS

Symbols of democracy, pinned up against the coast
Outhouse of bureaucracy, surrounded by a moat
Citizens of poverty are barely out of sight
The overlords escape in the evening with people of the night
Morning brings the tourists, peering eyes and rubber necks
To catch a glimpse of Reagan making the world a nervous wreck
It’s a mass of irony for all the world to see
It’s the nation’s capital, it’s Washington D.C.

In 2025 the black community is surrounded by racism, especially in social media. Instead of having our own NBC-ABC-CBS-FOX News-CNN, we depend on social media, Facebook-X-Twitter, Tic Tok, to read and distribute our news. It is there, that 1% control the narrative. Everyone who has followed us into this country owns something but us.

We think we are free on Facebook, X, Tic Tok, and other social media platforms. My hashtag for decades has been, “WAKE UP EVERYBODY” but this self-hate, jealousy, and envy continues to divide.

I was in FACEBOOK jail and I could not wait to get on Tic Tok only to discover the Chinese are just as racist as Facebook, X, and Twitter. For example; I tried to post the poster, “We Never Played The Game” with the soundtrack “Traditions” by King Shaza, the Godfather of GO-GO! Tic Tok refused to post it.

It got worse when Forestville, Maryland, trainer/coach Ty Barnett tried to post his 6-year-old student’s inspirational poem, “I am Malcolm X” on Tic Tok. He received the same denial message as I did.

The DENIAL READ: ORDER DETAILS-NOT DELIVERING

Your video was rejected because it didn’t meet our eligibility standards for promote. We maintane content eligibility standards for the For You (FYF) that prioritize safety and are informed by the diversity of our community and culture norms. We make ineligible for the FYF certain content that may not be appropriate for a broad audience related to: (1) Behavioral Health, (2) Sensitive and Mature Themes, (3) integrity and Authenticity, and (4) Regulated Goods. Content that is ineligible for the FYF can still be discovered ways, such as through search tools or by following an account. SEE COMMUNITY GUIDELINES. Contact us for questions feedback. Go to Profile-Settings and Privacy-Report a problem.

“MUHAMMAD ALI, HAROLD BELL, GIL SCOTT-HERON, KENDRICK LAMAR

Harold K. Bell’s Video-Order ID 1826144443072517 / Order time-March 9, 2025 15:04

These are the positive messages and thoughts Ty Barnett tried to post from a six-year-old.

“As-Salama alaykum, my sisters and brothers, I am Malcolm X. I am a Muslim Minister and human rights and community activist. I believe we must be forceful in demanding to be treated equally. We must declare our rights on this earth as human beings in this society, by any means necessary- We want freedom by any means necessary. We want justice by any means necessary. We want equality by any means necessary.

The Chinese are being led by the 1% rules and regulations to keep a strangle hold on minorities, and making sure there will never be an “Even Playing Field.” Forty Acres and Mule-never to be!

The Chinese are going to have to shut down and accept Trump’s buyout offer or walk away with nothing but a platform. If they take Trump’s offer, Musk, and Trump will become partners on Tic Tok.

The voices that are speaking the loudest for Black children and our community are Kendrick Lamar, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), and Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas). When Cortez arrived on The Hill in 2019 she was on fire and the fire still burns bright. Young Americans, black and white, love her nose-to-nose combated style. Colleagues are suggesting she run for Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s seat and I concur. Schumer’s decision to support the Trump Spending Bill has him on the hot seat with his colleagues.

Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas), followed Cortez to DC, and she ain’t just talking the talk, she is walking the walk. There will be no sitting on the fence waiting to see if the issues of our children and community are safe for her to attack (GOOGLE Ocasio-Cortez and Jasmine Crockett).

Congressman Al Greene (D-Texas) was recently escorted from the State of the Union address, for standing during Trump’s speech and yelling, “You have no mandate.” Greene was called back to the House to be officially censored by Republican House Speaker, Mike Johnson. While he was being censored by Johnson, a handful of Democrats stood around Green singing “We Shall Overcome” too little too late.

“We Shall Overcome” has been our theme song for almost sixty years, we need a fresh version, the 1% are laughing at us. Maybe Kendrick Lamar can come up with a rap version!

Johnson appeared on Fox News, ‘The Home Court’ for everything Republican, and said, “This was really a sad day for our institution.” Moments before the vote, he told ABC News, I took no pleasure in making history like this. and I hope Green will acknowledge his mistake.”

The more I hear Johnson speak, he sounds like a recipient of “White Privilege.” He added, “Green chose to deliberately violate House rules in a manner that we think is probably unprecedented in history. He interrupted a message by the president of the United States, who was an honored guest.“

Evidently, the Republicans have selected memories, have they forgotten a member of their party Joe Wilson stood up, yelled during a State of the Union address, and called Obama a lie? And then there is Majorie Taylor Green at a State of the Union address, she yelled to Biden, “Call her name.” There was no censor!

Crossing the aisle and making a difference, no one did it better!

Everyone wants to make Trump the bad guy. Trump’s first time in the White House, he showed us who he was, a poor businessman who declared bankruptcy six times, a slum landlord, now a convicted felon (34 counts), meet the President of the United States of America. Who zoomed who!

The problem in the black community is self-hate, who can we trust, we own nothing we can leave our children (generational wealth) and our WORD means absolutely nothing. While we are pointing fingers we need to look in the mirror.

The Democrats are in total disarray, ten of them voted with the Republicans to censor Al Green. The latest bombshell, Democratic Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer supported the Republican back funding bill keeping the government open for six more months. Some Democrats are calling for him to step down. There is a suggestion that Cortez run for his seat in the next election, and I concur.

Kendrick Lamar, Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, and Jasmine Crockett will need a little help. God help us all!

UPDATED LYRICS–GIL SCOTT HERON

Symbols of democracy, pinned up against the coast
Outhouse of bureaucracy, surrounded by a moat
Residents of poverty are barely out of sight
The overlords escape in the evening with the ladies of the night
Morning brings the tourists, peering eyes and rubber necks
To catch a glimpse of Trump making the world a nervous wreck
It’s a mass of irony for all the world to see
It’s the nation’s capital, it’s Washington D.C.

ALI-HAROLD BELL & KENDRICK LAMAR. WE SAW SOMETHING AND SAID SOMETHING!

Kendrick Lamar’s Super Bowl Performance Explained: Hidden Messages and Cultural Commentary / He hits the nail on the head!

AMAZON March 2024

In 1969 President Richard Nixon made me a Presidential Appointee. He changed my life forever. It was in 1957 that we met at the Burning Tree Golf Course in Bethesda, Maryland. It was there I became his caddy and friend. In 1969 we reconnected, he was on a tour of the 7th Street Corridor in NW DC after the 1968 riots and the rest is American History.

I was an all-around athlete at Spingarn High School in NE DC. I was trying to go to hell in a hurry until my Parkside Housing Project neighbor, Jody Waugh invited me to ride to the golf course one weekend to become a caddy. The Buring Tree Golf Course was another world compared to where I lived. All the caddies were Black and everyone seemed to be comfortable in their skin. It was a tight fraternity.

Today in most upscale golf courses in America, the Black caddy does not exist. They were kicked to the curb much like like Black jockeys. Isacc Murphy was the No. 1 jockey in the 1800s, he won several Kentucky Derbies, no one was even close. When it became mandatory to pay the caddy 10% of the player’s purse when they won a tournament, the players decided to make their sons, daughters, wives, and next-door neighbors became their caddies.

For example, if a player won a tournament purse of $100,000, his caddy would take home $10,000. Tiger Woods was no exception. He was never accused of being color-blind by Black caddies.

When Muhammad Ali shocked the world in Zaire, Africa in 1974 with a stunning 8th-round knockout of the undefeated and undisputed Heavyweight Champion George Foreman, there were hundreds of media waiting around the world to interview him. 

He chose Harold Bell, an unknown sports radio talk show host in Washington, DC. It was his first and last exclusive interview.  Fifty years later, the haters and fake news media still have not gotten over the Ali snub. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HY5qVuUrDQY/

Ali’s Business Manager and confidant, Gene Kilroy once said, “Harold if you had been white you would be a millionaire and we would have been calling Howard Cosell, the Black Harold Bell.”

Dale Hansen, Dallas sportscaster voted the No. 1 sportscaster in America said, “Harold everything you have done makes my little bit look like the peeling off of the cover of ‘White Privilege’ and seemed rather insignificant.”

Nixon and Ali were two of the most controversial personalities in American history and they made Harold Bell “The Chosen One.”  There was never, he says, she says, they were up close and personal–it is Black American History whether the haters and media like it or not.

Congressman John Lewis was a “TEAM PLAYER”

THE HONORABLE LUKE C. MOORE: “HERE COMES THE JUDGE”  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fkafk63frbg/Judge

BLACK AMERICAN HISTORY SHOUTOUTS:

RECIPIENT OF “THE 2020 PIONEER AWARD” THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF BLACK JOURNALIST

2021 MARYLAND PUBLIC TELEVISION GUEST PANELIST: PBS KEN BURNS’ “ALI DOCUMENTARY”

2022 A BOXING VOICE FOR SHOWTIME’S “THE 4 KINGS” LEONARD-HEARNS-DURAN & HAGLER

PROCLAMATIONS 2024: PG COUNTY EXECUTIVE ANGELA ALSOBROOKS (SENATOR ALSOBROOKS) AND CONGRESSMAN STENY HOYER (D-MD 5th DISTRICT)

Judge Luke C. Moore

Robin ‘Sugar’ Williams sings “My Hero” to Judge Moore on his birthday

Judge Moore and his homie, Chief Judge Eugene Hamilton

Judge Hamilton hanging out with Larry Brown and Harold McLinton at Bolling Boys Base

Judges, Ted Newman and Hamilton presenting Larry Brown with “KIT Man of the Year Award.”

Judge Alex Williams

Judge Williams at W-U-S-T Radio (Inside Sports)

Judge Henry Kenney (KIT Youth Forum)

Judge Harry T. Alexander-Santa’s Helper KIT toy party.

Judge Henry Kennedy brings his racket to Inside Sports Celebrity Tennis Tournament.

Judge Moore thanks Santa’s Helpers, Roy Jefferson (NFL), and Judges Newman and Kennedy for coming out to support the Kids In Trouble Annual toy drive for elementary school children at the Foxtrappe.

The DC Superior Court once set the standard for fairness, thanks to men like Chief Judge Harold Greene, Judges, Harry Alexander, Luke Moore, Eugene Hamilton, Ted Newman, and Henry Kennedy, Jr. 

In Washington, DC in 1968 I was up close and personal during the riots as a Roving Leader for the DC Department of Recreation & Parks’ Youth Gang Task Force.  The riots in Ferguson, Missouri brought back bad memories.  I was in the middle of the chaos in the U Street NW corridor.  My co-worker and former Green Bay Packer great Willie Wood and I teamed up with the late U. S. Marshall, Luke C. Moore, and undercover FBI agent Wayne Davis.  We tried to bring peace back to the streets in DC.  

 Luke was the first black modern-day U. S. Marshall in charge in 1967.  He was appointed by President Lyndon B. Johnson and later President Richard Nixon appointed him to the DC Superior Court in 1969.  Abolitionist Frederick Douglas was the first black U. S. Marshall appointed in 1877, he was appointed by President Rutherford Hayes. 

The White House ordered all businesses to shut down during the riots, but Luke had a street corner meeting in front of Ben’s Chili Bowl with owner Ben Ali.  He then called The White House and asked to reconsider and allow Ben’s Chili Bowl to remain open for first respondents, including police, fire departments, doctors/nurses, and youth advocates like myself.  

The request was granted, when the dust, tear gas, and military personnel had cleared the streets, Lee’s Flower Shop, Industrial Bank, and Ben’s Chili Bowl on the U Street corridor were the only remaining black businesses.

Luke, Willie, and I had walked arm and arm through the tear gas streets of NW DC trying to save lives.  Luke would later become a DC Superior Court judge and Willie Wood would be inducted into the NFL Hall of Fame in 1989.  

Out of the riot ashes Kids In Trouble, Inc. was born. Luke Moore’s contributions to Kids In Trouble and Inside Sports can never be measured in time or money. 

He helped me get the Bolling Boys Base for juvenile delinquents off the ground on Bolling Air Force Base in SE DC.  After I got the go-ahead from the Pentagon, Luke went directly to DC Mayor Walter Washington and the Department of Human Resources Director, Joe Yeldell, and all said “Let’s do it!”

It was the first ever juvenile facility on a military installation in the United States.  Bolling Air Force Base was located in SE DC, The home of “Mayor for Life” Marion Barry (Ward 8). 

The District facilities were badly overcrowded and added housing was needed. The success of Bolling Boys Base and the Kids In Trouble Christmas Toy Party (1968-2013) can be directly attributed to Judge Luke C. Moore.

It was Luke who encouraged other judges to get involved including, Chief Judge Harold Greene.  He and Luke were in attendance for the grand opening of Bolling Boys Base.  The athletes, politicians, radio & television personalities would all follow Luke’s lead when it came to community involvement.

  We had a great staff of judges from the DC Superior Court, and the perquisites for fairness could be found in their courtrooms.  They included “The One of a Kind”, Harry T. Alexander, Eugene Hamilton, Ted Newman, Henry Kennedy Jr, and Luke Moore.  They put the community and children First and they led by example.

Kids In Trouble, Inc. kept my wife Hattie and me in and out of the DC Superior Court with troubled kids and their parents.  The courthouse became our home away from home.  I watched people of color and the poor get fair trials and respect.

Judge Alexander demanded all attorneys, police officers, and prosecutors to address all defendants as Mr and Mrs in his courtroom.  This was unheard of in any court of law anywhere in the country. 

I was in Judge Alexander’s courtroom one morning when he warned a white cop to address the defendants as Mr and Mrs.   The cop kept calling the defendant a boy.   Judge Alexander warned him again.  The next time was the last.  time.  The judge banged his gravel on his courtroom desk and yelled, “Case dismissed, Mistaken Idenity.”  Everyone in the courtroom stood up and applauded.

Yes, there was a time when there was, Justice for all and not Just-Us in the courtrooms of the DC Superior Court and I was an eyewitness.

Judge Luke Moore and I talked about what was ahead for minorities and people of color in our courtrooms after the passing of Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall.  Tough times ahead!

Judge Moore made my day when we were closing the show, I thanked him for being on Inside Sports, and I was honored to be his friend.  Judge Moore was one of the most respected judges to wear a robe in a DC Courtroom, bar none.  He said, “I am always ready to join your program anytime.  You have always done something in this community.  You have been our voice in the media, and we love you for it.”

 THE GAME PLAN FOR MAKING OUR CHILDREN & COMMUNITY GREAT AND SAFE AGAIN!

AVOID: Politicians and preachers with a history of lying, cheating, stealing, and when their WORDS have meant little or nothing when you needed them.  Beware, especially of those who will cry,  “I have made mistakes, and I have changed.” If they were a snake in another life, their bite will be poison in this life!

My second book titled, “For Whom The Bells Toll” I will rate the judges accordingly, The Good-Bad & Ugly (AMAZON June 2025).

QB Lamar Jackson of the Baltimore Ravens was seconds away from taking the game into OT against the Buffalo Bills, when tight end Mark Andrews usually sure-handed dropped the ball with 93 second left on the clock, losing a chance to secure a two-point conversion and tie the score. The 27-25 loss ended the Ravens’ season.

Jackson also lost the opportunity to lock up his third NFL MVP award. Despite, out playing QB Joe Burrows in every offensive statistic in the league, passing yards, rushing yards, 41 touchdown passes, and only 4 interceptions. Evidently, the voters thought the two-point win in Buffalo was reason enought to give Burrows the MVP Award.

To understand why I am saying the 2024, NFL season is the year of the Black QB, in 2024 in a league of 32 teams, fifteen had black starting QBs.

Never in the history of the league, have they had that many blacks starting at the QB position. The NFL is 70% black, but the QB position was the last to open the door for the black QB.

In 2017 the New York Giants benched Eli Manning and started Geno Smith, when the season ended every NFL team had started a black QB at least once.

We who followed the NFL knew the loss would cost Lamar his third MVP Award. Burrows was named the MVP of the 2024 NFL season during NFL Awards Night in New Orleans, the site of the LIX Super Bowl.

The loss to Buffalo cost Lamar a piece of NFL Black America History. He would have been one of four Black QBs to start and play in the playoffs. There would be Jaylen Hurst (Eagles), Patrick McHolmes (Chiefs), Jayden Daniels (Commanders), and Lamar Jackson (Ravens).

Since this is Black/American History Month, black athletes will be showcased in the Super Bowl in New Orleans and the NBA All-Star Game in San Francisco, has anyone asked the question where did this history of the Black Quarterback begin?

Fritz Pollard was born and raised in Illinois in a predominantly white neighborhood. He was an eyewitness to racism up close and personal. He escaped by becoming a great all-around athlete in high school. He was headed to Dartmouth College to continue his education by train. The train stopped in Providence, RI, and there he fell in love with Brown University.

The GREAT Fritz Pollard

During the 1915 and 1916 Brown football seasons, Pollard, achieved legendary status, compiling “firsts” as frequently as he gained first downs. He was the first black to play in the Rose Bowl (1916), Fritz was also named to Walter Camp’s All-Americaa Team, and was the first African American named to Camp’s backfield. Nicknamed “the human torpedo,” Pollard had almost single-handedly defeated Yale and Harvard (Brown’s first win over the Crimson) in 1916. The Bruins were the first college team to defeat, both Ivy League powerhouses in the same season. His exploits at Brown earned him election to the National College Football Hall of Fame in 1954 — the first African American ever chosen.

As a professional player, Pollard continued to garner “firsts” despite the overt racism of the period. He was among the first African-Americans in the APFL and NFL leagues and, along with Jim Thorpe, was the major gate attraction. A Black man playing football in a predominantly white environment was a novelty in the 1920s. Fritz Pollard was the first African American to play on a championship undefeated team (1920), as well as the first Black quarterback (1923) and coach (1919).

In 1978 Doug Williams of HBCU Grambling College became the first black college QB to be drafted in the first round of the NFL (17th). His road to the Super Bowl would take 10 years, his journey was not a bed of roses.

Being a pioneer in America (being first) especially in pro sports, the scrunity can be unbearable for the black athlete. The black athletes who have been kicked to the curb and never received a fair shake are too many to count. There is and never will be an “Even Playing Field” as long as there is ‘White Privilege’ standing in front of the door.

Black QBs have come and gone in the NFL since Doug Williams became the first Black to start and win a Super Bowl and MVP in 1988. There was one man and coach who was determined that Doug Williams was not going to fail as a player in the NFL-Joe Gibbs!

In 1988 the pride of DC was Washington Redskin coach Joe Gibbs and winning Super Bowl QB and MVP Doug Williams. Williams was the first black quarterback to start and play in a Super Bowl, Gibbs made it happen. Gibbs was color-blind and saw Doug as a human being, not a piece of cattle.

1988 would be Doug’s last year as a starting QB in the NFL. He lost his starting job to QB Mark Ripken. In 1990. He was due one million dollars if he made the team, he was waived and the Redskins signed Philadelphia Eagle QB Jeff Rutledge as the backup QB at a discount. No team claimed Doug after he was waived. He became an angry black man and cried “Racism.” The more things change, the more they remain the same in America and the NFL.

He had forgotten in 1977 Gibbs was the only NFL Coach to visit him at Grambling when all others cared less. Doug led the NCAA in total yards from scrimmage (3, 249), passing yards (3,286), touchdown passes (38), and yards per play (8.6). He finished 4th in the Heisman Trophy voting.

Again, it was Joe Gibbs who thought it was important to travel to Grambling to interview Doug Williams, the black QB. This was 1977 instead of 1877! Joe Gibbs made it happen!

In 1978 Doug was the only black starting QB in the NFL. Still, he encountered racism from the fans and a member of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ coaching staff. The QB coach Bill Nelsen thought it was okay, to talk down to the No. 1 draft choice and starting QB.

When Nelsen began talking down and berating Doug in practice, Gibbs the Offensive Coach heard the exchange on the opposite end of the field. He sprinted to Nelsen and confronted him.

He threw his clipboard down, pointed his finger in Nelsen’s face, and said, “Don’t you ever talk to him like that again, is that clear?” According to Doug, Nelsen never confronted him in that manner again. Joe Gibbs was there.

In each successful phase of Doug Williams’ pro career, his ‘Guardian Angel’ was his color-blind coach, Joe Gibbs. Fritz Pollard and Colin Kaepernick never had a Joe Gibbs to lean on.

During his time with the Buccuneers, Doug was paid $120,000 a year, the lowest salary among starting QBs and less than the salary of 12 backup QBs in the league. After the 1982 season Doug asked for a $600,000 contract. Bucs owner Hugh Culverhouse bucked and said, “My offer of $400,000 stands.” Head Coach John McKay agreed that Doug should be given a raise to $600,000. Culverhouse refuse to budge.

Doug’s next move took courage, he gambled and sat out the 1983 season. That year, the Bucs went 2-14 and did not make the playoffs again until the 1997 season, this was 14 years after Doug said, “No Mas!”

Talking about cutting off your nose despite your face meet NFL owner Hugh Culverhouse and today’s NFL owners who still refused to allow a Black American to join their “Good Old Boys” ownership club.

Doug’s gamble paid off, guess who came to the dinner table in pro football in 1984, the upstart United States Football League. Guess who was ready to sit down at the dinner and eat-Doug Williams.

He signed with the Oklahoma Outlaws and they brought in NFL Hall of Fame coach and QB guru, Sid Gilman out of retirement as director of football operations. Gilman made Doug his highest-profile player to sign a contract. Doug signed a 3 million dollar for three years, with a 1 million dollar signing bonus. making him easily one of the highest-paid players in all of pro football.

Years later, Doug recalled, he was won over when Outlaws’ owners William Tatham Sr. and Bill Tatham Jr. “Treated me as a human, rather than a piece of cattle in a stockyard.” How soon he forgot!

Doug had moderate success in the USFL, the league folded in 1986. Guess who was there to scoop him up and sign him with the Washington Redskins, Joe Gibbs, his former offensive coordinator with the Buccaneers, and the rest is pro football history.

Washington, DC, is known for eating black athletes up and spitting them out. Doug’s friend and confidante, Bob Piper, was an alumnus of Grambling.

Piper was an outstanding high school basketball coach in the DC Public School system at Western High School High School in the 80s. He won a city championship. Piper was a frequent guest on Inside Sports and supported my non-profit Kids In Trouble.

Piper advised Doug to connect with me to help him avoid the naysayers. We connected, and I was introduced to other Grambling alumni. Coach Eddie Robinson was an Officer and a Gentle-Man.

GRAMBLING LEGENDARY COACH EDDIE ROBINSON-TRULY AN OFFICER AND A GENTLE-MAN.

While I watched the NFL Awards show, I reminisced about the NFL players who were a part of community outreach long before the NFL, and the Walter Payton ‘Iron Man Awards.’

There were Washington Redskin players, Harold McLinton (LB), Roy Jefferson (WR), Larry Brown (RB), and Ted Vactor (DB). Lenny Moore (RB/WR), Johnny Sample (DB), Lydell Mitchell (RB), Joe Washington (RB), Freddie Scott (WR), Sanders Chivers (LB), and Doug Nettles (DB) from the Baltimore Colts joined the Kids In Trouble team. They were the original “Iron Men of the NFL.” in the 70s and 80s.

Bob Piper, introduces and welcomes Doug to DC. L-R Senator Decatur Trotter-HBell and Sam Jones (NBA) during a luncheon for Kids In Trouble.

Doug Williams is Santa’s Helper with HBell and Jim ‘Bad News’ Barnes (NBA) at W-U-S-T Radio Hall in DC.

In the 70s, the late Washington Redskin’s LB Harold McLinton was Santa’s Helper (The Original Iron Man) for Kids In Trouble elementary school children at the Hillcrest Saturday Program in DC.

Harold proves, “NO ONE IS TOO TALL TO STOOP TO HELP A CHILD!”

NFL Films videotape the first-ever National Television promo for the league in 1972. The Hillcrest Children’s Center and Kids In Trouble Saturday Program in DC were the benefactors. Larry Brown (RB), MVP of the NFL, and Harold McLinton teach water safety to inner-city kids.

Roy Jefferson No. 1 draft choice of the Pittsburg Steelers, All-Pro WR for Super Bowl Champions Baltimore Colts, and Washington Redskin All-Pro WR is a Santa’s Helper during an annual Kids In Trouble Toy Party in DC. He looks to be in shock!

THE LATE NFL LEGEND JIM BROWN WAS A ADVOCATE FOR KIDS IN TROUBLE, AND FREQUENT CONTRIBUTOR TO INSIDE SPORTS.

Jim Brown is a co-host for a Kids In Trouble Police/Youth forum in DC with Congressman Tom Davis (R-Va)

THE ORIGINAL NFL IRON MEN: ROY JEFFERSON, WILLIE WOOD, AND JOHHNY SAMPLE.

Thousands will attend the Super Bowl in New Orleans and millions will watch the game around the World. I hope QBs, Doug Williams, Jalen Hurst, Patrick Mahomes, and Colin Kaepernick remember, Fritz Pollard, and THE ORIGINAL IRON MEN of the NFL. Hopefully, they will know a change is coming, but it won’t be at Super Bowl LIX.