Quarantine Randomness: LL COOL J’s influence and a soccer coach making history

I like to jab with millennials and Generation Zers to stop stealing from my childhood. My students and youth that I mentor have heard a million times that “all your generation does is consume updated versions of what my generation created. Where is your ingenuity?” I’m just talking trash. Some inter-generational banter as I brag about my era. But, real talk, the amazingness of the ’80s and ’90s shouldn’t be lost. I understand why my father wouldn’t let me grow up without knowing about Motown and the classics of his day.

It’s also why this week’s column is leading with 11 Questions, because it’s not every day you get to interview a legend.

First off, you’ve got to check out LL COOL J’s RockTheBells.com. If you grew up in the ’80s or ’90s, it’s like a trip through your childhood. Prepare to get lost in the old school videos. The point of the Rock The Bells website is the same as Rock the Bells Radio on SiriusXM — to give classic hip-hop its just reverence and honor. Hip-hop has gotten so enormous, so global and so mainstream, it is easy to forget about the pioneers and the essence. LL is bent on making sure that doesn’t happen and is looking to prop up the likes of Big Daddy Kane and Slick Rick as legends to never be forgotten. And doing my due diligence, getting lost in the site, I definitely got drunk on the nostalgia.

My favorite LL COOL J song is “Around the Way Girl.” I was 13, finally one of the older kids at school, an eighth-grader at Claremont Middle School, and all we cared about was hoop and girls. At the time, I didn’t fully comprehend the depth of the song and its messaging. See, in my corner of the world, hardcore rap was popular, especially as drugs took over our neighborhoods and violence picked up. And some dudes were all hardcore — that meant Too Short, that meant Ice Cube and Eazy-E, that meant Scarface. On the other end of the spectrum were the dancers and lovers. MC Hammer. Kwamé. Boyz II Men. But there grew a safe space in between, which LL popularized, first with “I Need Love” and then his super hit, “Around the Way Girl.” We started seeing hardcore rappers have a softer side, and we started seeing R&B talents get harder such as Jodeci and Wreckx-n-Effect. I needed that middle space, because I was far from the hardest and had no interest in making that my life. But I certainly wasn’t feeling the shimmering, begging and vulnerable vibe. There was a time and place for it, for sure. But you had to chase them Al B. Sure! vibes with some DJ Quik.

But when I started dating, and especially when I met my wife-to-be, “Around The Way Girl” was that classic R&B/hip-hop fusion that articulated what I was starting to understand. The declaration of the song is valuing girls from our neighborhood, from our culture. There may be fancier girls, more articulate girls, more commercially acceptable girls. But he wanted the girl from around the way, up the block, around the corner. He wanted a girl who could really understand him, where he was from and how he was shaped, and have it be reciprocal. He was saying the grass isn’t always greener on the other side. That is some profound messaging when you’re 17, 18 years old and figuring out what you value in a partner and a spouse. It helped me understand at a young age exactly what I had in my girlfriend even while we were still just growing up and trying to figure out life and who we were.

Anyway, that’s what Rock The Bells did for me, seeing those videos and looking at the retro gear, it revived the meanings and its significance in shaping a generation. It was good to talk to LL COOL J about such matters for my coming piece in The Athletic’s Sports and Music series. The series kicks off on Monday with my Instagram Live Q&A with the legend himself. And since I had him on the phone, it only made sense to run him through the 11 Questions gauntlet.

1. What pair of sneakers are the most sentimental for you?

Ah man, that would have to be the Jordan 1s. The very first Jordans because they were on my album cover. I did the photoshoot, put his sneakers on. I didn’t know who he was going to become. I just liked his sneakers and liked him as a rookie coming out of North Carolina. So, yeah, the Jordan 1s without a doubt the most sentimental.

2. What was the last thing to make you cry?

Probably when Kobe passed, you know. And I definitely cried — I didn’t cry quite as much, but I did shed a little bit of a tear — when I saw the response to that Black Lives Matter freestyle, you know what I mean? Because it touched so many people in a special way. I didn’t know that it was going to touch millions and millions of people.

3. What death of a TV or movie character made you the most upset?

It’s so funny you say that. I know this is going to sound crazy, but this is a random one: Idris (Elba) from “The Wire.” I was tight about that. When Stringer Bell got killed, I was affected by that. I didn’t love that. I’ll give you two. It was Stringer Bell and, more recently, it was the dude from “Peaky Blinders,” man. I didn’t even see the season yet but I read an article that (Arthur Shelby) got killed off and I was tight because the show is so gangsta.

4. What is one sports defeat that still stings for you to this day?

Ah man. Buster Douglas beating Mike Tyson. Gutted me like a fish. I was in the studio. I was devastated, bro. Because I lean boxing as a fan in my sports thing. That defeat right there was crazy for me, you know what I mean? That one was crazy.

5. When you are 65 years old, what do you want to be doing with your life?

Something I love — how about that? I wanna be doing something I love. That leaves me room, because I don’t know what my mindset is going to be at 65. Something that’s attractive to me right now, I may not even be remotely interested in it at 65. So, God willing, I just want to be doing something I love and feel great about it.

6. What is the single greatest moment of your life?

Shit, being born. There can’t be a greater moment than being born, bro. That’s easy.

7. If you were driving from the Bay Area to Los Angeles and you could only listen to one album the entire drive, what would it be? Why that album?

One album? And I gotta play it all the way, right? I don’t know. Because there’s three albums that I’m thinking about. I’m thinking about “Reasonable Doubt.” I’m thinking about “Raising Hell.” And I’m thinking about “The Chronic.” It’s one of them three. Since I’m on the West, I’m going with “The Chronic,” man. I’m going with “The Chronic.”

7b. So you wouldn’t listen to one of your own albums?

Nah. Hell no. I’d be bored out of my mind. Hell no. Listen to myself? Oh my God. That would be like torture. Somebody else would listen to my stuff. But I would probably go with “The Chronic.” You know what it is? I want the music to take my mind off of things. When I listen to my music now I’m like. “Oh, I could’ve said that differently.” Or, “I could’ve flipped that.”

8. What made you fall in love with sports?

Just growing up in Long Island and Queens, and playing tackle football in the street. We used to play tackle in the streets when I was in Queens. And on Long Island we used to play two-hand touch from pole to pole. And I played Pop Warner football as well. I’ve always leaned towards — I like basketball a lot. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a super fan — but I always personally leaned towards football because in basketball people talk and you can’t really go at ’em the way you can in football. In football, you learn humility really quickly. You can talk a lot more in basketball. But sports was always just an escape, and my mother was always big on sports. It just has always been a part of my life. Something that I‘ve always loved. The competition. The excellence that it takes. The test of speed. The test of endurance. The mental toughness it requires. I mean sports is a metaphor for life. I just love everything that sports represents.

9. What’s a team you are not a fan of but you love their gear?

That’s a no brainer. That would have to be the Raiders. And the Steelers. I like the Raiders’ gear and I like the Steelers’ gear. I actually like Penn State’s uniforms too because they’re real simple and plain.

10. What’s the meal you eat when you are down and just want to feel better?

Ice cream. Either apple pie or some ice cream. If I want to feel better, I’m going with ice cream.

11. What do you consider to be the greatest sports injustice of all time?

The greatest sports injustice would’ve had to have been (Muhammad) Ali. Because the government literally took his title from him. That was crazy. He wasn’t treated justly. He was a conscientious objector and they banned him. Cost him years of his prime. Crazy. That has to be the greatest injustice.

Courtesy of Tracy Hamm

In October 2019, UEFA — Union of European Football Associations — launched a mentor program for up-and-coming women coaches. According to Frank Ludolph, UEFA’s head of football education services, only 3 percent of the 190,000 UEFA-licensed coaches in Europe are women. That’s about 5,700. So the organization created an 18-month program to groom some of the up-and-coming coaches holding UEFA’s highest licenses to get more women in the head coaching roles.

This should help you understand the uniqueness of Tracy Hamm.

There is a movie out about her — “Coach” — and her journey to make a bit of history. The former Campolindo High School star, who took her talents to Cal where she flourished, decided to become a soccer coach. Oddly enough, women’s soccer is not as rife with women coaches. She wanted to get a USSF A license to pad her resume and create more opportunities for her coaching aspirations.  But U.S. Soccer required three years of professional experience to skip the lower-tier licenses. Hamm only played two years, in part because there wasn’t a professional team when she finished her college soccer career in 2006. The Women’s Professional Soccer league didn’t get started until 2009. She was drafted in the inaugural season and played two years. She was not given an exemption nearly a decade later when she sought her licenses, despite the lack of women coaches.

Spurned by U.S. Soccer, Hamm took the harder route. She went to Europe. Of course she did.

(Side note: I covered Hamm when she was in high school and I was a preps reporter. She was one of my favorites back then because she was super feisty and a great quote, even in high school.)

She accomplished the rare task of being an American woman striving for the UEFA A license (she got her UEFA B license in 2016). She is now one of very few women coaches in America with an A license, which she earned in 2018. After four winning seasons with San Francisco State, she was hired as the head coach at UC Davis in 2019.

Volleyball is back. But I don’t get to see it.

My daughter’s AAU team is practicing again. But parents are not allowed inside the gym. They are social distancing and limiting people in the building. So I can’t watch, and I didn’t know how much it was going to mean to me to watch my daughter play volleyball. She goes into the gym, all excited, and she comes out, all excited. The energy you get from watching your children happy and playing, I realized I need that when I was bored walking around Whole Foods trying to kill the time.

From her report, her bump is better. And her serve is better. I’m going to take her word for it since we worked on it and she was getting after it. But mostly, she was just happy to see her friends. Even if in a mask. And I missed it. That positive energy is needed.

It’s been reported by ESPN’s Bobby Marks that the NBA players stand to lose $1.2 billion if they don’t play. That made me look into the status of Black wealth in America. It’s ugly.

Black wealth, including homeownership, has been on the decline since the financial crisis of 2008. The impacts of the pandemic aren’t fully known, but the Black wallet is taking a hit — just like African Americans are suffering from COVID-19 at a disproportionate rate.

According to the U.S. Labor Department, Black unemployment rose to 16.8 percent in May. In the same span, White unemployment dropped to 12.4 percent. In the 12 weeks between March 18 and June 11, the combined wealth of all U.S. billionaires increased by more than $637 billion. Meanwhile, 44 million Americans applied for unemployment insurance. African Americans and Latinx people are being hit the hardest.

Only 12 percent of Black and Brown business owners, polled between April 30 and May 12, received the funding they had requested.

As one who is waiting for a purchased house to finish being built, I must say it is a scary-looking world out there financially.

(Top photo courtesy of Rock The Bells)