Publisher Description
Former collegiate star, sports agent, and NFL Executive Michael Huyghue recounts his journey in professional sports and shows how race and racism operate among the rich and the white and extend way beyond the NFL and the world of sports executives.
With a deep, abiding love for sports, Huyghue chronicles his journey from childhood athletics to one of the highest-ranking black executives in the NFL. Huyghue reveals a bird’s eye view of the inner workings of the exclusive inner sanctum of the NFL owners, players and management. The author’s journey as an athlete and lawyer provides a behind-the-scenes glimpse of what goes on behind closed doors in the world of professional sports and collegiate athletic programs.
His story as a pioneer and a change agent is one of hope, triumph, setback and sheer perseverance that will resonate with any sports fan. It is a blueprint-marked by wry humor and without bitterness–to successfully navigate the journey that remains for minorities to succeed as front office executives in the multibillion-dollar sports industry. It is also a not often told chronicle of growing up black and male in white suburban America.
While black athletes are ubiquitous on the playing field and front pages of tabloids, the challenge remains to gain true power in the multibillion-dollar sports industry. Huyghue details that struggle play by play.
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“Michael signed me to an NFL contract with the Jacksonville Jaguars during their inaugural 1995 season. He was among the first black executives in charge of football operations in the League. He paved the way for other black executives and I was proud to see him in that leadership role.”His book is an inspirational journey of facing the intersection of race and culture in professional sports and specifically the NFL.”This is a must-read for anyone who ever wanted to be a fly on the wall to see, fully comprehend and appreciate the many challenges and obstacles that are unique to minorities in the workplace.
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Desmond Howard, Former Heisman Trophy Winner and ESPN College Football AnalystÂ
