Black athletes are pushing boundaries beyond sports in their evolving broadcast careers
In February for Black History Month, Paste BN Sports is publishing the series 28 Black Stories in 28 Days. We examine the issues, challenges and opportunities Black athletes and sports officials continue to face after the nation’s reckoning on race two years ago.
When was the last time you a saw 5-foot-7 inch, barely 175-pound receiver on your television screen on any NFL weekend?
Andrew Hawkins wouldn’t have believed it if it wasn’t him doing it.
Now, Hawkins is among many other Black men and women using their previous athletic careers as fuel to enter the media world.
Former athletes, especially Black athletes, parlaying playing careers into sports analyst or sports broadcaster roles has been happening for decades. The difference now is that these former athletes turned media stars are going far beyond the sports world, becoming news hosts and podcasters.
Former New York Giant Tiki Barber’s stint with NBC ended nearly 15 years ago. That was followed by Barber’s teammate Michael Strahan doing double-duty at Fox Sports and ABC, where he co-hosts "Good Morning America." More recently, Nate Burleson is making the rounds at CBS. He became a co-host for "CBS Mornings" last September and remains an NFL analyst for "The NFL Today" on CBS. Younger viewers can occasionally find Burleson on Nickelodeon.
For people like Hawkins, former NFL player Emmanuel Acho and ex-Duke basketball star Jay Williams, their new broadcast careers don't have boundaries.
Destroying stereotypes
One question stands out: Why are there more voices of color, particularly former athlete voices of color, in the news media now?
Dr. Sherri Williams, assistant professor of race, media and communication at American University, said network executives are essentially tapping into the relatability of former professional athletes. She added that hiring them to do things other than sports is fine at face value, but their hiring has been both proactive and reactive.
"What is important is the representation and visibility they bring to the table cannot be understated," Williams said. "Especially for those former athletes who are newscasters, that’s a position that has been normally held by white men who are perceived as the ultimate trusted voice of authority to share news to the nation."
Williams noted that the representation of what viewers see on television is important, and she is pleased to see Black former athletes blast longtime stereotypes.
"These are not only analysts and commentators, but also their intellect and context about their chosen field makes them stand apart," she said. "The stereotype that people hold about Black men being less intelligent, being violent and dangerous, lazy ... or a threat to white womanhood is absurd, and I am glad you are seeing these young men start to destroy that notion."
A life-altering event
Jay Williams has been a national player of the year and won a national championship with Duke. He was the second pick of the 2002 NBA draft by the Chicago Bulls, but then a motorcycle crash derailed a promising career and almost ended his life. All of this happened before he was 22.
While commentating on ESPN has given him visibility and a platform to discuss the biggest sports topics of the day, Williams’ thoughts on entertainment, business and politics piqued the interest of NPR.
His weekly podcast, "The Limits with Jay Williams" premiered last month on NPR and will examine how some of the world’s most influential people built their empires.
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Williams, 40, who co-hosts the ESPN radio show "Keyshawn, JWill & Max," is perfectly suited to have multi-dimensional conversations.
"My parents, first off, did a hell of a job by providing me a foundation. My life was never just basketball. I was part of a chess team," Williams told Paste BN Sports. "I was part of the Asia Society. Don't ask me how I got in. I was into Black history. I played soccer. I played tennis."
Williams is open about his past, and as mental health has become an increasingly important topic for athletes, he doesn’t shy away from that. The motorcycle accident tore multiple ligaments in his knee, fractured his pelvis and led to nerve damage in one leg. He'd later suffer from an addiction to pain medication and twice attempted suicide.
"I have been through a life-altering event ... (so) I don’t need to validate who I am through hearing other people’s thoughts about what I say," he said.
'It starts with my parents'
Hawkins' road to success didn’t come as easily as Williams'. Still, if you can’t find Hawkins somewhere on TV, you aren’t looking very hard.
After a six-year playing career, Hawkins started at ESPN, becoming a founding anchor of SportsCenter on Snapchat. He can also be seen on NFL Network, Discovery, Roku, Uninterrupted and Amazon Studios and also served as the executive producer of "Hair Love," which won the 2020 Academy Award for Best Animated Short.
Hawkins played wide receiver and defensive back at Toledo, went undrafted in 2008, then played two seasons with the CFL’s Montreal Alouettes, winning two Grey Cup titles. He eventually caught on with the Cincinnati Bengals and Cleveland Browns before leaving football in 2017.
Hawkins wrote letters, took meetings with business people and studied for a master’s degree while he was still an active NFL player.
"It would always end the same way. People would say, 'You’re pretty intelligent,' as if it was a surprise," he said. "I wasn’t going to wait until after I stopped playing to get a degree. I was going to try to get into the best university I can, get the best grades, and then I won’t have to have conversations with people about where my level of intelligence is."
Hawkins earned his master’s in sports management at Columbia in 2017.
"It starts with my parents, who told me I could do anything. And so once other people started telling me what I was and wasn’t capable of, I was immune to it," the 35-year-old Hawkins said. "Once I started knocking down those obstacles, the only opinion that mattered was mine."
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'I had to learn'
As for Acho, who had a successful stint at Texas and a brief NFL career with the Browns and Philadelphia Eagles, he enjoyed football but wanted more.
"I think one of my greatest abilities is that I am self-aware. I know what I am bad at," Acho said. "I knew I wasn’t going to be a Hall of Famer, probably wasn’t going to be a Pro Bowler, so I was like, 'Acho, what are you playing for?' But I knew I was pretty talented at television. I knew I had bigger ambitions."
Acho retired after the 2015 season and quickly found work as an analyst for the Longhorn Network. Then it was on to ESPN before landing with Fox Sports, where he co-hosts "Speak for Yourself" every weekday afternoon.
In addition to becoming a New York Times bestselling author with "Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man," Acho launched a video series of the same name for a virtual conversation with white America about race relations and societal inequalities. He also earned two Emmy Awards: one for "Uncomfortable Conversations" and a sports Emmy for best emerging on-air talent.
His next book, "ILLOGICAL, A Life Without Limits" lands March 22.
"I knew it would happen," Acho says of his success, "but I didn’t think it would happen this fast. A lot of people work hard, not everybody works smart and I make sure my team understands that too."
Acho said he realizes that with more visibility, he must own everything that comes out of his mouth.
Last July, he said that "legalizing weed in track and field competition is terribly dangerous if you throw the javelin," while discussing the suspension of Olympic track star Sha’Carri Richardson.
"I had to learn. Criticism is the cost of praise. And with love comes hate," Acho said. "And the sooner you realize that, the easier it will be to do your job. The criticism means I have already won.
"In my mind, in football, you can hide behind team failures. I can’t hide behind team," he said. "My take is my take. If I give an awful opinion, that’s on me. If I have an awful show, that’s on me. If I did 'The Bachelor' and plummeted, that’s on me."
Williams saw this as well after he got into a Twitter argument with Brooklyn Nets star Kevin Durant concerning comparison to NBA Finals MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo.
"It comes with the business," Williams says of criticism. "I do believe there is a world where we can have disagreement and still have conversation. And I think that is a lost art right now. Right now, it's about I'm right, you're wrong or get off my couch. If there is a middle ground and you're willing to meet me somewhere in between, I'll be more apt to hear them out."
The Future
At 31, Acho wants to be viewed as one of the most creative people in the industry. One of his goals is to create scripted and unscripted television shows.
"Maybe even write a song," he said.
Williams and Hawkins are also looking to the future. Hawkins is co-founder and president of Status Pro, a venture capital-backed sports technology and gaming company which combines data with augmented and virtual reality. It hopes its training and gaming products provide a new way for consumers to enjoy sports.
"This is the way I think people will consume content in five years," he said.
Williams has one big goal in particular.
"I want to own my own network one day," he says.