Tag: uvalde

Houston Texans wear orange to remember Uvalde, support National Gun Violence Awareness Day

“We decided to wear orange shirts ahead of “Wear Orange Day” in a couple of days in support of, first and foremost, the one-year anniversary of the Uvalde school shooting,” said coach Ryans

HOUSTON — As I made my way into the gates of the Houston Texans practice field at the Methodist Training Center on Wednesday, I noticed the back of the t-shirts being worn by Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Cal McNair and his wife Hannah, vice president of the Texans Foundation. 

The white cursive font that stood out on the bright orange shirts had only one word that will never be forgotten in the state of Texas or the nation.

Uvalde.

As I continued to look around the field, I noticed that head coach DeMeco Ryans, general manager Nick Caserio, assistant coaches, players, and staff members were also wearing the shirts in unison.

The Texans organization wore the shirts in honor of National Gun Violence Awareness Day and Wear Orange Day, observed on the first Friday in June. It originated on June 2, 2015, in honor of Hadiya Pendleton, 15, who was shot and killed on a playground in Chicago, Illinois, on January 29, 2013. 

One year ago, the nation mourned as a gunman killed 19 children and two educators at Robb Elementary in Uvalde, Texas. The Houston Texans, along with volunteers and sponsors, made their way toward the city to help the families of the victims and the city as they mourned over the tragic incident. 

They also honored the victims of the Uvalde Elementary school shooting before their season opener against the Indianapolis Colts last season. Players from the Uvalde high school football team were in attendance as the team wore “Uvalde Strong” decals on their helmets. The Texans organization and players donated $600,000 to the Robb Elementary School memorial fund.

“We decided to wear orange shirts ahead of “Wear Orange Day” in a couple of days in support of, first and foremost, the one-year anniversary of the Uvalde school shooting,” said coach Ryans when asked about the meaning of the shirts. “We want to make sure that we support that situation and just the senseless gun violence that is going on. We want to use our voice as an organization and as a team to make sure that we put an end to it.”

“It’s senseless shootings that are going on around our country that sometimes we can just grow numb to it because it happens so often. We just have to bring awareness to it and understand the severity of the situation, where a lot of kids, unfortunately, are losing their lives to something that senseless, and we just make sure we support and get out in front of it. As I told our players this morning, it’s bigger than just being great football players. I want our guys to understand that we’re more than just players. We’re also great men, great leaders in our communities, and our guys are in support of it, and I’m proud of the way they represented from last year, seeing it from afar, all the way up until now.”

Coach Ryans also has felt the effects of gun violence personally after losing family members to the senseless act as recently as last week. With the rise of school shootings in the United States, Ryans thinks about the safety of his three young children when they are in class.

“I have three young kids,” Ryans said. “So, when you send your kids off to school, and you have to even have that thought in the back of my mind that man, ‘are my kids going to be safe, am I going to see them’, it’s not the mindset you want to have when you’re dropping your kids off at school. For all of us, it’s something we shouldn’t have to worry about, it’s something we shouldn’t have to discuss, but it’s here. We want to make sure we bring awareness to it because it is a real issue that hits home for a lot of people.”

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Houston Texans donate new uniforms to Uvalde high school football team

The Houston Texans are also pitching in.

If there’s a silver lining to the horrific gun massacre in Uvalde, Texas, that occurred in May, it’s how the larger community has rallied around to help.

The Houston Texans are also pitching in.

According to Austin Nivison at CBS Sports, the Texans are donating new uniforms to the high school football team in conjunction with Nike. Linebacker Christian Kirksey told NFL Network it was an honor.

“It was just special to see the smiles on their faces… because we know that this city was impacted drastically. Being a leader and not just being a football player but being somebody that can be an extra shoulder to lean on definitely warmed something in my heart… We’re just excited to be here and honored to be here and be here with the city and let them know that we support them in every way”

After the massacre, the team donated $400,000 to the Robb School memorial fund, with half that amount coming from players.

The Texans will also wear stickers on their helmets to honor the victims for their Week 1 matchup with their AFC South rivals, the Indianapolis Colts.

More:

High School Football Top Plays of Week 1

How to Watch: Texas high school football

Rockets join Texas sports consortium for Uvalde community support

Through the “Sport for Healing Fund,” the Rockets are teaming up with the Spurs, Mavericks, and other organizations on a new investment to provide support for the Uvalde community.

The Houston Rockets have teamed up with Texas and national professional sports organizations to form the Sport for Healing Fund, created to provide long-term support for the Uvalde community.

Following the deadly elementary school shooting in Uvalde, the fund is designed to provide long-term community support in Uvalde by creating and investing in trauma and healing-centered care for youth and families. For the project, the Rockets are joining the Dallas Mavericks, Dallas Stars, San Antonio Spurs, and the NBA in providing initial funding.

Efforts will be anchored around sports and building safe places, like community outdoor play areas, where young people can play and heal through on-the-ground mental wellness and counseling resources.

Spurs Sports & Entertainment (SS&E) is managing the fund in conjunction with San Antonio Area Foundation, which will distribute investments into the Uvalde community. Fans who would like to join the sports groups by contributing to the fund are invited to donate here.

“The Uvalde community will forever be thankful for the generous partnerships established to pay tribute and remember our loved ones,” said Rob Fowler, Uvalde’s parks and recreation director.

“We are well aware that the road to mental health recovery from this traumatic event is a long journey,” Fowler added. “However, the youth of our community will heal with the support from our local and national sports community. Physical spaces for healing and resources for mental healthcare are vital to the recovery of our beloved community.”

Childhood trauma is a pervasive public health issue across the country. By providing both physical spaces for healing and free resources to children and the adults around them in the Uvalde community, the fund’s programs are designed to help reduce the stigma of mental health challenges and decrease the service gap between sport and healing.

“The Fertitta family and the Rockets organization are heartbroken from last month’s senseless loss of life,” said Gretchen Sheirr, president of business operations. “We are honored to join the Spurs, Mavericks, and Stars to help bring healing to this shattered Texas community.”

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Cowboys, Texans announce major donations to support Uvalde community

The two Texas teams will contribute a combined $800,000 to programs supporting the families and community impacted by last week’s tragedy. | From @ToddBrock24f7

The Dallas Cowboys are showing their support for the families coping with the aftermath of the tragedy in Uvalde as well as the larger community around the small Texas town.

The team, along with the NFL Foundation, has announced a $400,000 donation, with $200,000 going to the Robb School Memorial Fund and the remaining $200,000 being directed to the Uvalde Strong Fund. The funds will be directed to community recovery in the areas of mental health and trauma and will support the families of the victims, the survivors of the school shooting, and the Uvalde community.

Nineteen students and two teachers were murdered inside their elementary school by a teenage gunman last week. Funerals for the victims began Tuesday in the town located about 350 miles to the southwest of Dallas.

“Our hearts are broken for the families affected by the senseless tragedy that occurred in Uvalde, Texas on May 24th, 2022,” said Charlotte Jones, Cowboys executive vice president. “There are simply no words to describe the pain and sorrow that we feel for the Uvalde community. We hold them tight in our thoughts and continued prayers.”

The Houston Texans, who are based approximately 300 miles to the east of Uvalde, have also organized a sizable donation that was pulled together by the team’s players and then matched by owner Cal McNair. Texans head coach Lovie Smith made that announcement Wednesday.

DeMarcus Lawrence and Dak Prescott were among the Cowboys players who spoke openly about the tragedy last week.

Lawrence called on Texas governor Greg Abbott to do more to protect schoolchildren and appealed to NBA superstar LeBron James with a proposal to work together to provide better security to schools that need it.

Prescott admitted that the shooting made him fearful about the prospect of having children. He also helped lead a town hall bringing together Dallas-area youth, community groups, law enforcement officials, education leaders, and mental health experts for some much-needed, if difficult, conversations.

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Seahawks WR Tyler Lockett enjoyed this Twitter joke about Pete Carroll

If there is a saving grace for this sewer of lies it’s the dark sense of humor that many users have adopted

NFL news tends to break on Twitter first, so a lot of us spend our days scrolling the app as part of our jobs. Whether you like it or not, non-football-content tends to find its way onto your timeline. The rest of the posts on the site can usually be broken down into five main categories: news presented in a dishonest fashion, bad-faith political arguments, mean-spirited trolling, naked racism and jokes stolen from other accounts.

If there is a saving grace for this sewer of lies it’s the dark sense of humor that many users have adopted, no doubt influenced by the content there. A genuine out-loud laugh (no, typing out LOL doesn’t count) at the end of a long day of doomscrolling can do a lot of good.

Since this past week has been harder on most of us than usual, we figured we could all use a little bit of levity. This joke we found this morning about Seahawks coach Pete Carroll is pretty wholesome by Twitter’s standards.

Wide receiver and hopefully new offensive captain Tyler Lockett certainly found it funny.

The best jokes always have a ring of truth to them and this one definitely meets the criteria.

Over the years, coach Carroll has invited a wide cast of slick characters to speak at VMAC.

On the awesome side there was former Bulls sharpshooter and current head coach Steve Kerr, who has led his Warriors back to the NBA Finals without Kevin Durant after a few years’ absence. In addition to being a five-time world champion as a player, Kerr is maybe the most innovative basketball coach to come along in decades. He also understands far better than most what’s wrong with our country and isn’t afraid to speak his mind about it.

On the less attractive side of the ledger, Carroll has also invited some true morons to speak to the Seahawks – most notably the famous bigot Jordan Peterson, who recently fled Twitter with no apparent sense of irony as he complained about getting insulted on the platform.

Anyway, in case you can’t tell keeping our focus exclusively on football is pretty difficult for us right now.

Our staff here at Seahawks Wire is feeling profoundly saddened by the recent shooting tragedies in Uvalde, Texas and Buffalo, New York.

Fortunately, this is one of the slowest times of the year for NFL news. Things will pick up again soon and we hope to be in a better place to provide you with that content.

For now, it feels fundamentally wrong to try to avoid talking about the elephant in the room. Something has to change this time because we cannot allow these mass-murders to keep happening.

We understand a lot of fans want to read about football as a way to escape the world around them but to hide our heads in the sand as children are slaughtered regularly while no significant effort to stop it is underway is too much to ask.

This particular tragedy feels different because it has revealed so many of the ways that our society is fundamentally broken.

At the top of the list is the fact that the killer was allowed to legally purchase military-grade weapons at his age. Speaking as someone who was once a troubled 18-year old kid, I can’t imagine a more dangerous combination and that concern is bared out by the numbers on mass shooting incidents, which are by and large perpetrated by unstable young men.

At a minimum, this outrage has to motivate us to move the age of legally buying guns at the national level up to 21 years old or better yet 43.

The Seahawks reporter who understands this best is Gregg Bell of the News Tribune, who is an army veteran and has extensive experience with these types of firearms. Here’s what he has to say on the subject.

Whatever we do, we can no longer accept hollow statements from our elected leaders.

For better or worse, this time something has to change.

We leave you today with this biblical wisdom from former Seattle wide receiver Doug Baldwin.

We hope you have a safe holiday weekend with your loved ones. Take care of eachother.

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‘The world needs more locker rooms’: Cowboys’ Prescott gets philosophical on adversity, dealing with Uvalde tragedy

The Cowboys QB shared a unique perspective on the divisions that continue to plague our society and came to the tragic forefront this week. | From @ToddBrock24f7

The week began with the long-awaited beginning of OTAs in Frisco. By Tuesday evening, though, the business of Xs and Os seemed incredibly trivial in the grand scheme of things.

Everything took on a different pall with the unimaginable horror that played out in Uvalde, and by Wednesday, buzz about football within the Cowboys’ facility was also peppered with plenty of real-talk commentary about what’s happening in the world outside The Star.

Sports are supposed to be a respite from such things. Or maybe they were supposed to be, once upon a time. Anymore, though, society increasingly looks to their athletes and the institutions they play for, seeking some kind of perspective on to how the rest of us might handle the adversity that has crept into our own daily lives, even if only on the nightly news.

Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott was asked this week whether he and his teammates had discussed the elementary school massacre just a few hours’ drive away.

After a long pause and a heavy exhale, he gave an answer that started about the guys he happens to play football with. But it soon transcended sports.

“The locker room is a special place,” Prescott began. “And I say that because I don’t want to say those things don’t have to be talked about, but those things are dealt with day in and day out. Because this locker room’s built of so many people of different backgrounds, different everything: religions, race, you name it. And because we’re all in a common goal, we’ve worked, we’ve already hashed out some of these things that when something of this magnitude happens, it’d be wrong if we didn’t mention it- as we have in our offense and defense- but to say that we’ve got to dial in and get to know one another better, the locker room has that. And that’s why the locker room is special. I think the world needs more locker rooms.”

It’s a profound comparison, really.

Athletes — Prescott and many Cowboys, in particular — love to speak of the team as a brotherhood, a family. They talk about the bonds that are forged within the locker room’s confines, the deep personal connections that come from hours spent together, doing what defensive coordinator Dan Quinn often describes as “doing hard [expletive] with a group of people.”

Prescott says the hard stuff- necessary stuff- is coming. And he feels privileged to help lead the way.

Less than 36 hours after the Uvalde tragedy, Prescott’s Faith Fight Finish Foundation held a town hall discussion featuring youth, community groups, law enforcement officials, education leaders, and mental health experts.

The goal? Simply to start talking.

“I’m blessed, obviously, with this platform, to be able to host something with so many leaders, community leaders around the DFW area and honestly, our leaders of tomorrow- the youth- and being able to get them in the same room and create conversation, engage in these conversations that, obviously, we’re lacking.”

The quarterback was one of several Cowboys players who called for outreach in the wake of George Floyd’s death and the social unrest that followed nearly two years ago. That summer of 2020 was marked by awful violence, angry clashes between police and citizens, and loud calls for changes to the laws that govern our country.

Prescott lamented that not nearly enough has improved since then.

“We’re not close, and we’re actually going in the wrong direction,” he said.

“The lack of conversation and understanding and empathy we’re having for one another as humans, it just doesn’t make a lot of sense.”

It is cliché to use sports as an analogy for life. But when a team is dealt a setback on the field, the players will unfailingly say communication- within the framework of the team setting- is where the solution lies. It almost always involves getting together, going back to work, looking at went wrong, and making adjustments to fix the problem.

Even if it’s a hard and painful process to get there.

“It will cause uncomfortable conversations,” Prescott said, “but I know so much growth and so much positive can come from that in the negative world that we’re living in.”

Prescott, of course, is no stranger to confronting the darkness in life. From the loss of his mother to cancer and his brother to suicide to dealing with his own depression and becoming a champion of mental health awareness, the 28-year-old knows that the real progress comes from taking an unflinching approach to dealing with pain and adversity head-on.

“It’s the conversations,” he explained, “the political leaders, the law enforcement, and then out community- the ones that they are serving- getting them face-to-face, allowing them to have these open dialogues of why they feel uncomfortable or why they don’t feel protected or what this anxiety or stigma or all this is that’s bringing us apart, what it’s about. Let’s bring it to the forefront. We can have these uncomfortable conversations but we can get somewhere from them and not continue to show division like we are.”

So don’t expect Prescott to “stick to sports.” Not in times like these.

“I don’t know if anyone is that ignorant to tell me that, to be honest with you,” he said matter-of-factly.

It would be absurd to expect that a man who throws a ball for a living to have all the answers to the monumentally vexing problems that plague today’s society. Even Prescott would be the first to agree.

But what he has to say regarding teamwork, communication, and coming together openly and honestly to strive toward a common goal for the betterment of the whole?

It’s not such a far-fetched place to start.

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Falcons head coach Arthur Smith fails to understand politics in mass shooting comments

Falcons head coach Arthur Smith had well-meaning comments about the Uvalde, Texas school shooting that betrayed a misunderstanding of how politics really work.

People who work in sports are not obligated to “stick to sports,” even when you disagree with them. Falcons head coach Arthur Smith has no such obligation, though the comments he made after the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas that took the lives of 19 children and two teachers showed a nearly complete misunderstanding of modern politics and how they work… and more importantly, how they don’t work.

“I’m not going to get into some political rant,” Smith recently said, per Josh Kendall of The Athletic. “Part of me thinks our political process is broken. On both sides. It has been hijacked, in my opinion, by extremists. I think there is a lost art to compromise. I’m an independent thinker, appreciate everyone’s opinion. There’s a lost art to debate, but I’m going to stay out of the political debate because that’s now why I’m concerned. It’s more as a parent, father, husband, son, a concerned citizen. I believe in the people of this county, and I think it’s a shame the leaders, and I don’t care about your politics, that you can’t find a compromise solution to keep military grade assault weapons out of the hands of mentally ill people.”

While Smith’s idea that military-grade assault weapons should not be in the hands of mentally ill people, the current conversations regarding gun control and regulation aren’t as nuanced as Smith would like them to be. The concept of politicians reaching across the aisle to work in concert on bills and laws that protect the public? Those days are gone. You often hear that America is more polarized than it has been at any time since the Civil War, and there’s a lot to that. As to the idea that extremists on both sides have ruined any chance of compromise, it’s hard to find an “extremist” on the Democrat side of things you can point to.

West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin, a centrist Democrat who supports more common-sense gun laws but opposes rule changes to the filibuster that might actually make things happen, recently had this to say.

Manchin said that “It makes no sense why we can’t do common sense things to try to prevent some of this from happening. It’s just unbelievable how we got here as a society.”

And yet, about the filibuster: “You would think there’d be enough common sense. The filibuster is the only thing that prevents us from total insanity.”

One might argue that we’re closer to total insanity than we’re completely aware.

Republicans have a far more problematic history on this subject. Thoughts and prayers are always on schedule when these mass shootings happen; action is quite a bit more scarce.

As for Greg Abbott, the Governor of Texas… well, the history isn’t good.

Why is this so? Protection of the second amendment has long been a Republican talking point. Beyond that… sometimes, it’s as easy as following the money.

The purpose of this article is not to go down this particular rabbit hole; that’s not our job at Touchdown Wire. But when an NFL head coach points to a rot in political discourse, blaming it on extremists from “both sides,” it does beg the question: Which extremists have done so on one side, and which have not on the other? And how often does this happen regarding all potential laws?

In January, Manchin was encouraged by some prominent football names, among them Nick Saban, Paul Tagliabue, and Oliver Luck, to support the Freedom To Vote act. He eventually did, though the legislation failed when no Republicans supported it.

As mass shooting after mass shooting happens, the question becomes altogether more important. It is both sides, or one side against the other?

The Heat’s PA announcement before Wednesday’s game was an important call to action

The Heat urged people to call their senators, and told them how.

Welcome to Layup Lines, our daily NBA newsletter where we’ll prep you for a tip-off of tonight’s action, from what to watch to bets to make. Subscribe here to get it delivered to your inbox every afternoon.

What’s up y’all. This is Prince here for today’s Layup Lines, and before we get into tonight’s playoff action, I want to step away from the court for a second to talk about what the Miami Heat did before last night’s game.

Using the large platform afforded to them by the popularity of the NBA and an Eastern Conference Finals with the Boston Celtics, the Heat gave an important call to action in the wake of the tragic shooting this week at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas. After a moment of silence for the 21 victims – including 19 children – Miami’s public address announcer asked that the tens of thousands in attendance at FTX Arena and the millions more watching at home to contact their senators.

“The Heat urges you to contact your state senators by calling 202-224-3121 to leave a message demanding their support for common sense gun laws. You can also make change at the ballot box. Visit Heat.com/vote to register and let your voice be heard this fall.”

The message was simple and something people have been doing for years already. But these tragedies happen so often that it’s easy to feel helpless about them. Surely, if our political leaders cared enough, we wouldn’t still be worrying about the safety of our kids and teachers at school…or our own safety in a place of worship or a grocery store. The shooting in Uvalde was just 10 days after the racist attack in Buffalo that left 10 people dead.

Following in the footsteps of Warriors coach Steve Kerr, who made an impassioned plea for our elected officials to do something, the Heat just provided a friendly reminder that we can do the same thing, and they even told us how. Polling regularly shows that a majority of Americans support universal background checks, among other more stringent gun control measures. It’s about time the people we put in office start listening. If the Heat’s message only gets one extra person to make that call, then it was worth it.

The Tip-Off

Some NBA goodness from around the USA TODAY Sports network.

Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports

I don’t find many things to be more annoying than when former NBA players levy criticism against the state of the current game or players, especially when that former player is a legend. So when I saw that James Worthy was the latest to do so, my initial reaction was to shake my head and keep it moving.

But you know what? Worthy’s description of today’s players — however silly — doesn’t sound so bad and might’ve described one of our current legends to a T, as our guy Bryan Kalbrosky wrote.

“The three-time NBA champion thinks that all players do now is practice 3-pointers, get tattoos and tweet. That’s an outstanding lifestyle and something that is going to resonate with a lot of basketball fans!

One fan noticed that Worthy’s description of a modern hooper reminded them of Kevin Durant — and, of course, KD replied. The Brooklyn superstar noted that he had a sharp midrange game.”

OK, so maybe KD practices more than the three. But it is indeed a new day, Mr. Worthy.

One to Watch

(All odds via Tipico.)

Cary Edmondson-USA TODAY Sports

Mavericks (+230) vs. Warriors (-6.5, -120), O/U 215.5, 9 PM ET

The Mavericks are still on life support, but they’re breathing a little better now after avoiding a sweep in Game 4. Returning to Golden State with a chance to further extend this series, I don’t really love their chances. The Warriors got the obligatory loss in a closeout game out the way, and they’re undefeated at home this postseason. I think they’ll cover this spread.

Who’s in and out?

— Otto Porter (foot) is questionable

Shootaround

— Joel Embiid’s tweet about the Heat Wednesday sent Twitter into a frenzy, but it might’ve just been a troll job
— Pat Riley and Alonzo Mourning’s faces told the whole story of Celtics-Heat, and fans couldn’t stop laughing
— The Cavaliers want to retain Collin Sexton after an incredibly successful season without the young guard, HoopsHype’s Michael Scotto is reporting
— Colorado State’s David Roddy believes he brings a “very unique set of skills” as an NBA prospect

Gannett may earn revenue from Tipico for audience referrals to betting services. Tipico has no influence over nor are any such revenues in any way dependent on or linked to the newsrooms or news coverage. See Tipico.com for Terms and Conditions. 21+ only. Gambling problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER (NJ), 1-800-522-4700 (CO), 1-800-BETS-OFF (IA).