Emmanuel Crawford was three years old when his parents sold him. They lived in Ghana and they were poor enough that they could not feed him. So he was sold into the fishing trade on Lake Volta, which is where a lot of Ghana's trafficked children end up. Here is what a three year old does out there. He sits in a leaky wooden canoe and bails water out of it by hand, all day, so the boat does not sink. And when the nets get caught, he goes in after them. Lake Volta is man made. They dammed a river and flooded a forest to build it, and the trees are still down there, standing dead under the water. The nets snag on the branches, and somebody small has to dive down into water you cannot see through and pull them loose. Children drown doing that. Regularly. Crawford did it for two years. He was five when a man working with a rescue organization came across his canoe out on the lake. Crawford has described it simply. "He felt a tug on his heart from the Lord, that this kid doesn't need to be here." He was taken to a home in Tema, Ghana, run by a nonprofit called Touch A Life that gets children out of the trade. And that is where a couple from Grove, Oklahoma found him. Audrey and Stan Crawford. "When I first met my mom, I jumped onto her, I just climbed her, and we were best friends from the very beginning." The adoption took months. Then Audrey got on a plane and brought a six year old home to a town of about 6,000 people in northeast Oklahoma, where he became the youngest of six kids. He remembers the first day. "I had my first hamburger that day and fries. It was heaven on Earth." Then he grew up and started playing football. As a senior at Grove High School he carried the ball 230 times for 2,304 yards. That is 10 yards every single time he touched it. He scored 36 rushing touchdowns, caught 19 passes for 546 more yards and seven more scores, and Grove went 13-1. He finished his career with 6,777 rushing yards. That is the most anyone has ever run for in Oklahoma Class 5A history. Plus 93 rushing touchdowns. They named him the 2022-23 Gatorade Oklahoma Football Player of the Year. And then he went to Arkansas as a preferred walk-on. No scholarship. The best football player in the state, walking on. He got there partly because Sam Pittman, who was the Arkansas head coach at the time, went to Grove High School himself. Crawford's high school coach texted him about the kid. "The only campus that I felt a real connection was Arkansas. On the car ride home, I was like, 'I know where I want to be.'" He redshirted in 2023 and has been stuck behind a crowded backfield ever since. Pittman got fired after last season. Crawford is still on the roster in Fayetteville. Number 21. Still waiting on his carries. He has waited for worse.

RT @GlobeBobRyan: RIP Bob Pettit. You can argue that he and Elgin Baylor were the two best forwards of the BAA/NBA’s first quarter-century.…

The Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame mourns the passing of Bob Pettit, a sleek, skilled big man who revolutionized the forward position during his career. The 11-time NBA All-Star and 2-time MVP retired as the all-time leading scorer in NBA history and left an enduring legacy. He led the St. Louis Hawks to the 1958 NBA championship over the Boston Celtics. The Basketball Hall of Fame salutes this true giant of the game.

In 1976, Joe Roth was the preseason favorite to win the Heisman Trophy. He grew up in El Cajon and ended up at Grossmont College, a junior college outside San Diego, where he led them to an undefeated season and a state championship. Cal took him in 1975. He took over at quarterback midway through that season and led the Golden Bears to a share of the Pac-8 title. Then came his senior year. Partway through it, he found out he was dying. Melanoma. It traced back to a mole that had been removed years earlier, and by the time they caught it, it was terminal. He told nobody. Not his teammates. Not the press. He finished the season, made first team All-American, and finished ninth in the Heisman voting while carrying that around by himself every Saturday. He only told people after the last game. And then he played two more. He had committed to the Hula Bowl and the Japan Bowl before the diagnosis, so he went to both. There is a story out of Japan his coach repeated for the rest of his life. After the game, Roth stood and signed autographs for children until every last kid in the line had one. Then he walked out of the building and threw up. His own words about what was happening to him. "Dying is not so tough. I'm lucky to be here as long as I was." A teammate remembered him calming a huddle with a line that reads completely differently once you know what he knew. "Everyone, relax. It's just a football play." Joe Roth died on February 19, 1977, in his apartment in Berkeley, surrounded by family and friends. He had turned down an amputation that might have bought him time. He was 21 years old. Cal retired his number 12. Forty nine years later it is still the only number the program has ever retired. They started a memorial game in his name that year and they still play it. There is a scholarship. There is an award given to the player who best shows courage, attitude and sportsmanship. The Japan Bowl named its MVP award after him. Berkeley gave him its highest honor even though he never got to graduate. This season Cal brought his uniforms back. The blue and gold from 1976, worn by kids who were not alive when he played. They also put out the first Joe Roth Collection. Three shirts. One of them has his face on it. Per SFGate, none of that money goes to melanoma research. None of it goes to the scholarship fund with his name on it. It goes to the athletic department. His brother Tom is 82. He says the school contacted him in July and he has not heard from them since. What he asked for was not complicated. "Support melanoma research, or drop it into the fund, and tell people what you've done." Cal says it is working on reconnecting with him. Fine. They can sort out the shirts. None of it touches the actual thing. A 21 year old found out he was going to die, decided his team did not need to carry it, and played out the season anyway. Then he stood in a room in Japan and signed for every kid in line while his body was failing. The number is retired. The game still gets played. Somebody wins that award every single year. They are still wearing his jersey, and no t-shirt was ever going to be the reason anybody remembered him.

No surprise @SInow legend Gary Smith wrote an exceptional obituary. More impressive, the life his wife Sally lived. obits.postandcourier.com/us/…

One of these tennis players won the career Grand Slam. The other is Bjorn Borg.

One of my favorite traditions each year is hosting our interns and President's Council members for a casual BBQ and conversation. Thanks to this outstanding group for the great questions, fresh perspectives, and engaging discussions. The future is bright!

On September 21, 1991, a professional basketball player in France stepped to the free throw line and collapsed. His name was Richard Batum. He had come from Cameroon to play in France. He died of a ruptured aneurysm. His wife was in the stands. So was his son, who was two years old. That son is Nicolas Batum, and yesterday, 35 years to the day, he retired from the NBA. He picked the date. "It's the 35th anniversary of my dad's death on a court." Here is what happened in between. Batum says the day his father died is the only memory he has of him. "I can remember when my father went down, and I can remember later, when I wake up, all of the TV stations around and my mom crying." He played anyway. Won a FIBA under 16 title at 15. MVP of the under 18s at 17. Then, ten days before the 2008 NBA Draft, a predraft workout with Toronto was stopped in the middle of a cardiac stress test. Word got out. Executives started saying the name Hank Gathers, the college star who died on the floor in 1990. Teams stopped bringing him in. Nobody wanted to be the franchise that drafted a kid whose father's heart failed on a basketball court. "It became a huge story and it was 10 days before the draft, so I didn't have a lot of time to show that I'm good." He went to San Antonio and Cleveland for more tests. They cleared him. It was too late to fix the draft. He went 25th. He then played 18 seasons and 1,205 games. Portland, Charlotte, the Clippers, Philadelphia. 877 starts. 37% from three. He played for France in two Olympics and came home with silver both times. Gold at EuroBasket. Bronze at the World Cup. He made roughly $208 million. And yesterday he sat down and made a video with his son, Ayden. "Yeah, that's it. Dad's done playing basketball. I've been playing for a long time." Then he explained why now. "I can finally start a new life, one I didn't get to have as a kid. A life like yours, with your dad." His father never got to watch him play a single game. He is not going to miss his son's.

Chris Spatola scored 1,543 points at West Point. Fifth most in the history of the academy. Then he graduated, put on the other uniform, and went to war. He served five years as an Army officer. He was a company commander. He deployed in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom, and he came home with the Joint Service Commendation Medal, awarded for what the citation called exceptional combat performance. Then he came back to basketball. In 2007, Mike Krzyzewski hired him at Duke. There is something in that worth sitting with. Krzyzewski played point guard at Army from 1966 to 1969. Captained the team as a senior. Then served in the Army and was discharged as a captain. Spatola played guard at Army from 1998 to 2002. Then served in the Army and made captain too. Two West Point guards, 33 years apart, on the same bench. Spatola was on the Duke staff from 2007 to 2012. Four ACC Tournament titles. The 2010 national championship. He was a court coach for USA Basketball, for the team that won gold in Beijing in 2008 and gold at the world championship in 2010. He also married Krzyzewski's daughter Jamie. They had three children. After coaching he went into television. He joined ESPN in 2015 and spent a decade as one of the most thoughtful voices in college basketball, because he had been a player and a coach and a soldier, and he talked like a man who had been all three. He ran a basketball camp for kids in Durham every year. Chris Spatola died unexpectedly this week. He was 47 years old. ESPN said he was thoughtful, prepared and passionate about the sport. The Krzyzewski family said they had no words to adequately express their heartbreak over the loss of "our beloved Chris Spatola," and that he "served our country, was a devoted husband and father, and was such an important part of our family." Seth Greenberg put it shortest. "Heartbreaking. Such a good soul." He leaves behind a wife and three kids.

In 1999, a high school science teacher in Big Lake, Texas made a bet with his baseball team. If they won district, he would try out for the major leagues. He was 35 years old. Jim Morris had been a first round pick once. The Milwaukee Brewers took him in 1983. Then his shoulder fell apart. Surgery after surgery. He never made it past A ball. By 1989, doctors had removed most of his deltoid muscle and told him he would never pitch again. So he went home to Texas and became a teacher. Physical science at Reagan County High School, in a town of fewer than 3,000 people. In 1999 he took over the baseball team. It had won three games in the previous three seasons. Combined. After a couple more losses, he made the deal. Win district, and he would go to a big league tryout. Reagan County won district. The first district title in school history. So Jim Morris kept his word. The Tampa Bay Devil Rays were holding an open tryout in Brownwood, Texas. A 35 year old science teacher walked up to the mound. The scout did not expect much. Then Morris threw 98 miles an hour. Then he did it again. Twelve pitches in a row at 98. The scouts double checked their radar guns. After a long talk with his family, he signed. Within a month, he was pitching in Double A. On September 18, 1999, in Arlington, Texas, he walked out of the bullpen in the eighth inning. The first batter was Royce Clayton. Four pitches. All fastballs. Strikeout. A science teacher from Big Lake just struck out a big league shortstop. He pitched parts of two seasons in the majors before his arm gave out for good. Then he became a motivational speaker and wrote two books about it. Disney made a movie about him. The Rookie, starring Dennis Quaid. It made nearly $81 million. Quaid said it simply. "The story was that good." A bad high school team. A teacher who made a promise he never thought he would have to keep. And a bunch of kids who held him to it. For more stories like this, follow us on any platform @thesportsontap

Who's ready to be ALL IN? We are just over one month away from Team IMPACT's All In 5K, and we are on track for a record-breaking amount of participants and Team IMPACT supporters this year! 🏃: teamimpact.org/allin5k #AllInAllTogether

Nobody wanted Baker Mayfield out of high school. So he walked on. Twice. Twelve days ago he signed a contract worth $165 million, and he now spends part of it paying for other walk-ons to stay in school. Start at Lake Travis High School in Austin, Texas. Mayfield went 25-2 as a starter there. He won a state championship in 2011. He threw for 6,255 yards and 67 touchdowns. And the big programs passed. So in 2013 he walked on at Texas Tech. No scholarship, no promises, no spot waiting for him. He won the starting job as a true freshman anyway and threw for 2,315 yards and 12 touchdowns. A walk-on starting at quarterback in the Big 12 as a freshman. That should have settled it. It did not. He transferred to Oklahoma. And he walked on again. Second school, second time paying his own way onto a roster, plus a full season sitting out to do it. Then in 2017 he won the Heisman Trophy with 2,398 points and posted an NCAA record passing efficiency rating of 203.76. Here is the line that matters most. Baker Mayfield is the first Heisman winner to begin his career as a walk-on since the NCAA created athletic scholarships back in the 1950s. Seventy years of that trophy. One walk-on. In 2018 the Cleveland Browns took him first overall. He came off the bench in his NFL debut and ended a 19-game winless streak for a franchise that had forgotten how to win. He threw 27 touchdown passes as a rookie, which was the NFL record. In 2020 he took Cleveland to its first playoff appearance since 2002 and its first playoff win since 1994. Their first playoff win in 26 years. Then on July 6, 2022, the Browns traded him to Carolina for a conditional fifth-round pick. A conditional fifth. What followed was nine months and four teams. Carolina did not work. He asked for his release in December and got it. The Rams claimed him off waivers on December 6, and he had been in that building for roughly 48 hours when they put him on the field. In his second game he drove them 98 yards for the winning touchdown against the Raiders and won NFC Offensive Player of the Week. He signed with Tampa Bay in March 2023. Two Pro Bowls. Two straight division titles. And on September 8, 2026, the Buccaneers gave him a three-year extension worth $165 million. Now here is the part almost nobody knows about. In 2025, Baker and his wife Emily launched something through their foundation called the BE Resilient Walk On Scholarship. It is not a general scholarship with his name stamped on it. Read who qualifies. You have to be a rostered varsity college athlete. You have to be receiving $5,000 or less in athletic aid. In other words, you have to be exactly what he was. Two awards of $10,000 a year, and they renew for up to three more years, so a kid can ride it through a degree. To apply, you write an essay about resilience. Here is what he said about why. "My experience as a walk-on student athlete shaped who I am today. Emily and I wanted to find a way to support future walk-ons to reach their goals and full potential." That is not the only thing they fund either. Their Giving Bowl, a bracket-style competition between Tampa Bay athletes raising money for local nonprofits, brought in over $300,000 across six charities this April, and the Mayfields put another $50,000 on top of it. And back in 2020, when COVID shut everything down, Baker and Emily gave $50,000 to the Greater Cleveland Food Bank. Which is worth remembering, because today he plays the Cleveland Browns. The team that drafted him first overall, won its only playoff game in a generation with him, and then decided he was worth a conditional fifth-round pick. He is on a $165 million contract now. And somewhere out there a kid with no scholarship and no guarantees is about to get $10,000 from the only walk-on who ever won the Heisman.

A couple years ago, Mikala Sposito applied for a work ethic scholarship from my foundation. She asked for $2,700.00 to help realize her dream of becoming a welder. (Actually, her first dream was to become an Olympian. As a kid, she excelled at horseback riding, dance, soccer, and track, but not quite at the Olympic level. So, Mikala adjusted her dream and focused on something within her reach. Precisely the kind of commonsense approach to making a living we try to encourage.) Toward that end, Mikala filled out the application, jumped through all the necessary hoops, and signed the S.W.E.A.T. Pledge, as all applicants must. According to our internal ranking system, which is inherently subjective and relative to each batch of new applicants, Mikala scored a 94, and was awarded $2,100.00, or roughly 80% of what she asked for. This is typical of the average percentage awarded to an excellent applicant. As a rule, we almost never award the entire amount requested. We want our recipients to have some skin in the game, and we encourage all applicants to apply for additional scholarship funds elsewhere, which Mikala did. But in this case, if I had it to do over again, I think I’d have awarded Mikala the full $2,700.00. Why? Because this woman is precisely why I award work ethic scholarships in the first place, as recent headlines prove. Headlines all over the country that identify Mikala Sposito as the sole welder to represent Team USA in the upcoming @WorldSkills Competition in Shanghai. This is a very big deal. The World Skills competition is often referred to as the Olympics of the skilled trades, so it looks like Mikala’s dream is coming true after all. And it seems to me her journey is worth a brief encapsulation. Before she applied for a scholarship from mikeroweWORKS, Mikala demonstrated an affinity for welding in SkillsUSA. As a senior at Dexter High School, she won 1st Place at the SkillsUSA Michigan high school competition and went on to place 14th nationally. Then, as a freshman at Washtenaw Community College, she repeated her success by taking 1st Place in the Michigan college division. She then advanced to nationals, where she finished 8th in the country. That earned her an invitation to the Team USA pre-trials, which whittled the nation's top 16 young welders down to three. At the final USA Weld Trials at the Robotics Technology Park in Huntsville, Alabama, each competitor was evaluated on precision, safety, technical execution, craftsmanship, and multi-process capabilities under extreme time constraints. Mikala Sposito took the Gold, officially becoming the first woman to represent the United States in welding at WorldSkills. Next week, she’ll face off against the absolute best of the best from all over the world. I should point out that Mikala would prefer it if the press didn’t make a big deal of her gender, and I completely understand. (She’s a welder – not a “weld-her.”) But today, the industry is in desperate need of proof that women can and do excel in the trades. Nationally, just 4.3% of tradespeople are female. At mikeroweWORKS, our female applicants are closer to 20%, but I assure you that percentage could be much higher. Companies are anxious to recruit talented welders of any gender, and women need to understand and believe the opportunities are real. Mikala prove that in spades, and I want to offer her my sincere congratulations, and invite all of you to do the same. Because Mikala Sposito is exactly what our country needs a lot more of. People who understand that talent is never enough to compensate for laziness. In her application, she wrote, “Hard work beats talent any day of the week, and nobody is going to outwork me. Period.” She also connected with every point of the S.W.E.A.T. Pledge but said the final tenet resonated with her the most. “Some people choose to be lazy. Some people choose to sleep in. I choose to work my butt off.” My favorite quote, however, is Mikala’s response to seasoned professionals who see her wield a torch and call her a “natural.” “I’m not a natural,” she says. Far from it. And none of this came easy. I worked and trained 60-80 hours a week for two years to get here.” Regardless of what happens in Shanghai, the job offers are already piling up, including the most recent from SpaceX. She hasn’t graduated yet, but the future looks bright, and I for one would not bet against her. PS. I never do this, but since my name is in the title of the foundation, I suppose I can. Mikala – please accept the additional $600 you requested from mikeroweWORKS two years ago. Shanghai is expensive, and since you’re representing all of us, we’d like to provide you with a little walking around money. The check is in the mail. Now…go get the gold!

Josh Allen scored the first touchdown in the Bills' new stadium tonight. Before the game, he walked in wearing a hat. Here's what it meant. The hat was designed by a child receiving care at Golisano Children's Hospital of Buffalo. It's the first of eight. Allen will wear a different one on his tunnel walk before every single home game this season, each one drawn by a different kid. The front of every cap is the same, a Bills logo Allen sketched himself that went viral a few years ago. Everything else belongs to the kid who made it. Jack built his entirely around color, because color is the thing he loves most. Mason covered his in his favorite animated characters. Charlotte picked bright, playful colors, and drew a pair of lungs on hers. A tribute to the thing she had to beat. The project exists because of Allen's grandmother. Patricia Allen died suddenly in November 2020 at 80 years old. Less than 24 hours later, Allen threw for 415 yards against Seattle, and nobody watching knew anything was wrong. Then somebody on Reddit told Bills fans to donate $17 to the children's hospital in her memory. Seventeen, for his jersey number. It didn't stop. By that December it had passed a million dollars. The hospital created the Patricia Allen Fund out of it, pointed at the pediatric critical care team. This past June, the fund crossed $17 million. More than 60,000 donors, all 50 states, ten countries. Seventeen dollars at a time, to $17 million. Nobody planned that. The hats raised another $140,230 last year. This season all eight designs are available to fans, and every purchase goes back to the same fund. So when the cameras found Josh Allen walking into that new building tonight, that wasn't a fashion statement on his head. A kid made that.

Former @unlvbaseball standout and 2008 @MWCathletics Player of the Year Xavier Scruggs is taking his talents to this season’s @TheTraitorsUS ⚔️ @NCAABaseball x @UNLVathletics

Playing for something greater than yourself. ⚽️ @SwatWSoccer's Liesel Blau shares how being a part of @GoTeamIMPACT has helped her grow and why this organization means so much to her. 💙 @NCAADIII x @SwatAthletics

In 2009, Jason Brown signed a five-year contract with the St. Louis Rams worth $37.5 million. At the time it was the richest deal ever given to a center in the NFL. Three years later, at 29 years old, in the prime of his career, he quit. Not for another team. Not for injury. He quit to become a farmer. "My agent told me, you're making the biggest mistake of your life," Brown said. "And I looked right back at him and I said, no I'm not. No I'm not." The Baltimore Ravens called and offered him a way back into the league. He turned it down. Then he bought a thousand acres of an old dairy farm in Louisburg, North Carolina, and sold his 10,000 square foot mansion in St. Louis to pay to develop it. Here's the part that makes it insane. Jason Brown had never farmed anything. Not once. He knew nothing about crops, soil, equipment, seasons, any of it. So he taught himself. On the internet. "I went to the online University of YouTube while I was still playing football," he said. "I watched hours and hours of film every single day." He named the place First Fruits Farm, because of what he intended to do with it. The plan was to give away the first harvest of every crop to local food banks and keep the rest. That plan didn't survive contact with reality. Once he saw how much hunger there actually was around him, the Browns started giving away all of it. His first sweet potato harvest was 100,000 pounds. Every pound went to food pantries. Since then, First Fruits Farm has donated more than a million pounds of fresh produce to families who needed it. Now here's why he did any of this. Jason Brown had an older brother, Lunsford Bernard Brown II. In 2003, Lunsford was killed in Iraq while serving in the Army. He was 27. Brown was in college when it happened. Years later, sitting on an enormous contract, he did the math on his own life and realized he'd already outlived his brother, and he wasn't sure he'd done anything with it that mattered. He'd been given a talent and a fortune. Lunsford had been given 27 years. "People tell me I'm crazy," Brown said. "They downright tell me that I'm stupid, to walk away from millions of dollars. Because if you have the opportunity to play in the NFL then it's supposed to be a no-brainer." He and his wife have eight children, and they all work the farm. "Seeing my children out there in the farm field, knowing that they're learning life skills to help feed them and their families for generations to come, that is the blessing of a farm." He could have played five more years. He could have bought a bigger house. He grows sweet potatoes in North Carolina and gives them away. For more stories like this, follow us on any platform @thesportsontap

"I truly cannot name all of they ways they have helped Bennett." Bennett first joined the @GopherMGolf team while going through chemotherapy - the team was able to change his mindset, which was something that only they were able to do #AllInAllTogether #ChildhoodCancerAwareness

Audrey Soape is an 11-year-old who has already endured more pain than most adults. The middle schooler lost her father suddenly and then her grandfather to lung cancer in 2021, so with the daddy-daughter dance coming up at her church, Audrey’s mom decided to organize something really special. Audrey is a huge fan of Philadelphia Eagles defensive back Anthony Harris. Audrey’s mom Holly, who is also a big fan, reached out to him on social media asking if he would take her daughter to the dance. “It’s kind of far-fetched…it’s a big ask, I just asked if he would come—if he’d be willing to come. And he said, ‘not only will I come, I want to make sure she feels like a princess.'” Not only did Anthony fly across the country to surprise Audrey, he also covered the cost of her dress, shoes, hair, and makeup. “He had a car with a driver come to the house and pick her up, He really wanted to make sure she had the best possible time.” It was clear from pictures posted on social media just how surprised Audrey was to meet her favorite player. “Every time I think he could see she was getting nervous, he would just engage in conversion with her, He kept her laughing, he kept her dancing on the dance floor.” Anthony said the family had followed him on social media offering words of encouragement and prayers throughout his career and he just wanted to take time to notice and give back. He also learned a lot from spending time with an 11-year-old who has lost so much in such a short space of time. “You gotta cherish these moments. You never know how long we have here on this Earth,” Anthony said. “So, the people that you care about, and you love, show support for them!!”

"It was eleven weeks between the time Jackie Robinson and I came into the majors. Eleven weeks. Come on. Whatever happened to him happened to me. I knew it was segregated times, but I had never seen anything like that in athletics. I was embarrassed. It was tough. I knew being accepted was going to be hard, but I knew I was involved in a situation that was going to bring opportunities to other blacks." Larry Doby. Bill White later noted that Larry Doby had to go to the Chicago White Sox clubhouse to get a first baseman’s glove for his first MLB warmup, since none of his Cleveland teammates offered him one. In 1945, Larry Doby was stationed on Ulithi, a volcanic atoll in Caroline Islands between Guam and the Philippines. Seven-time All-Star from 1949- 1955. 1st Black player in the American League. 1st Black player to hit a home run in World Series. 1st Black player to hit a home run in an All-Star game. 1st Black player in the American Basketball League (preceded NBA), when he signed a contract for the, "Patterson Crescents." 1st Black player to go directly to the majors from the Negro leagues. 1st Black player to lead either league in home runs. World Series Champion in 1948. Two-time American League home run leader in 1952 and 1954. American League's RBI leader in 1954. "I give myself five years. If I don't make it by then, I'll give up on the idea and get out of baseball...." Larry Doby. Let's make July 5, "Larry Doby Day."!!