Sports career a means to an end; Steelers to win; Concordia women are winners

So many of us hoped that participation in sports would result in a lifetime of fun, recognition, adulation, money and a retirement with financial security. Each and all of these are reasons worthy of diligent pursuit. That is, if these great means are followed by an intelligent and persistent search of ways to advance one’s newfound security, stability and quest for the freedom and liberation of Afrikan peoples, including those of us who find ourselves as inhabitants of this place called the United States of America.
It is not a wonder that athletes’ wealth does little to advance us with our more than 400 years of slavery, unemployment, underemployment, little entrepreneurship, scant material acquisition and thousands of examples of lack of self-respect.
Even with the many  bi- and millionaires that are of Afrikan descent, we still find ourselves exploiting the rank and file of the Afrikan diaspora, including ourselves. We are ignorant of how this, the American brand of Capitalism, daily drives us further into lives of dependency.
Much of this phenomenon has more to do with our own ignorance, selfishness, lack of reality and above all lack of self-confidence, lack of positive-ness and, most of all, a lack of self-love.
I cannot go deep enough in this column to really explain what I’ve said, am saying here, and what I honestly believe. Perhaps I’ll ask my good friend Wise Owl to lay it out for you. He actually understands it better than I do. Again, a sports career is, at best, a means to an end not to be confused with the end itself.
You, by now, might be asking, “What does he mean, ‘the end itself’”? Again, I will ask Wize Owl to go further into the subject at a later date.

Steelers will reign victorious
Coach MIKE TOMLIN will have his Pittsburgh Steelers ready for the Green Bay Packers. His Steelers will win 35-24.

Concordia women on the move
Concordia women, under the deft coaching of Paul Fessler, are in the midst of an eight-game winning streak and have moved to ninth in the region polls. JINEEN WILLIAMS was named the Northern Sun Conference’s Player of the Week by leading the Golden Bears to fourth place in the conference. She averaged a double-double over the weekend. Also showing good skills was sophomore MANDY POKE, who had a career high of 13 points and nine rebounds, just missing her first double-double. ZORAA QUOIE also registered a double-double over the weekend.

Kwame McDonald welcomes reader responses to kmcdonald@spokesman-recorder.com or by phone at 651-398-5278.