Nine seasons, three Super Bowls, three rings. Rob Gronkowski was an exhilarating player and a lively character on the field, bringing pride to all Patriots fans. He wants to show how once a Patriot, always a Patriot. Gronk signed a one-day contract with the Patriots on November 12, 2025. He […]
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The first episode of this new season serves as an introduction to the current online sports betting landscape and the debate around legalization, responsible gaming initiatives, funding for addiction treatment, and criticisms of the industry by public health advocates. The season will delve into the history of sports betting, integrity, […]
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Watch Dr. Jeremy Piasecki and Chase Griffin, Quarterback for UCLA Football discuss trust, opportunities, positive leadership, accountability, respect, struggle, food insecurity, self-care, wellness, burnout, perfection, 365 days of winning, role models, and impacting the world, and learn about his journey through sports and the importance of leadership and organizational culture […]
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Listen to Dr. Jeremy Piasecki speak with Chase Griffin, Quarterback for UCLA Football about trust, opportunities, positive leadership, accountability, respect, struggle, food insecurity, self-care, wellness, burnout, perfection, 365 days of winning, role models, and impacting the world, and learn about his journey through sports and the importance of leadership and […]
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The first Super Bowl with two African American starting quarterbacks,sent me thinking back to two pioneers, who inspired me as a fat white kid growing up in Upstate New York and destined to put my hand on the dirt as a lineman, but who grew up loving the quarterback position. […]
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It was a game with no outcome that will be the one that we will all remember. On Monday night January 2, 2023, the largest viewing audience of the then-17 week old 2022 football season, some 23 million plus Americans, gathered to watch a game between the AFC East leading […]
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There are athletes who are touched by destiny or maybe they grab destiny in their hands before it falls to the ground unused. Franco Harris, who died overnight on December 21, was one of those athletes. His passing comes just two days shy of the 50th anniversary of his Immaculate […]
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NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell boldly declared back in 2010 that the league, which had earned a bit more than $8 billion in annual revenue the prior year, would generate $25 billion annually by 2027. The league seems on pace to hit that goal, even after Covid slowed growth a tiny […]
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When a player is removed from a squad through a cut (whether they are released or waived) or trade, it is typical for them to bring up dirty laundry in talks about their former club, especially more so if the split was not done amicably. Su’a Cravens, a former NFL […]
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This is graduation season. College and high school graduations are winding down. The spring is a season of transitions and as athletes, coaches, and lovers of sport we are among the most highly motivated by attaining the next level, whether that is making the jump from high school to college, […]
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Kyle Thomas is the guest of the part two episode of the Culture in Sports podcast on mentorship. Champion Illinois footballer, Thomas is a great advocate for the benefits of mentorship for the young athlete, not just in sports but also for life. He champions having the mindfulness and awareness […]
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Too often have we seen (and not seen) how player-coach dynamics fall through, inevitably causing mental or physical suffering to one or both parties. The end result is seen time and time again. Players are on the receiving end of the stick, and coaches usually just continue doing their thing. […]
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The saga of Urban Meyer and the Jacksonville Jaguars continues, even four months after he was fired. This is now my third article at Culture in Sports where I specifically discuss Urban Meyer’s toxic and abusive behavior, his unwillingness to change, and why he still believes that his downfall was […]
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This past NFL season was more entertaining than ever. A couple of weeks ago, the Rams beat the Bengals in Super Bowl XLI. It was a good game, at the end of a historic postseason where every game was close. There was more parity than ever before throughout the season, […]
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As our culture in sports starts to refine itself we gradually begin to fade away from traditional standards and start introducing new and fresh ideas. When a coach comes in a new setting and isn’t willing to adapt the specific culture of the team, organization, or sport we see a […]
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This week is a celebration. The Greatest of All Time, the GOAT, has decided to retire from professional football. After winning 243 NFL games, including seven Super Bowls, and passing for 84,520 yards and 624 touchdowns in his 22-year career, Tom Brady will focus his time and energy on other […]
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The San Francisco 49ers are on a roll. They are piling up wins with the greatest of ease, just like the man on the flying Trapeze. This month, they have been traveling from town to town in pursuit of reaching the Super Bowl. From Los Angeles to Dallas to Green […]
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There is little job security for NFL head coaches. It has been said NFL stands for Not For Long, rather than National Football League. But the league which has struggled to promote African American and other minority coaches to head coaching positions, despite having put forward and expanded its Rooney […]
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On Martin Luther King Day, the Minnesota Vikings interviewed Catherine Raiche for their vacant general manager position. A cheeky sportswriter described it as the current Philadelphia Eagles executive “chatting” with Vikings executives. Other media accounts heralded the historic nature of Raiche’s candidacy. One particularly earnest reporter remembered the groundbreaking path […]
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When it comes to team sports, it’s common knowledge that athletes have to fight for the team and support their teammates at all times, even if situations may be dire (losing by double digits, losing seasons, being in a personal slump, etc.). However, what do you do when there are […]
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Something strange and unique happened while I was watching NFL Red Zone last Sunday. I couldn’t tell exactly what it was because it wasn’t clear. Something was going down, and everybody needed to stop and look. Scott Hanson had broken away from the Chiefs-Bengals game to show us at a […]
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The week between Christmas and New Years Day is a time of quiet reflection on the past year. It’s a time where the world seems to slow down after the buildup to the holiday and takes a few days off before starting all over again in January. As I reviewed […]
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I recently wrote an article about When Coaches Are Unwilling to Adapt or Change. In that article I discussed that “Coaching strategies that may have worked at one level may not work at another” and used the recent example of Urban Meyer and the Jacksonville Jaguars. Since then, much has […]
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As the NFL season winds down, its league-wide social responsibility initiative “Inspire Change” will be on display in stadiums around the country. Yet it’s easy to imagine a familiar scene on Super Bowl Sunday, a day described former commissioner Paul Tagliabue as “Winter’s Fourth of July.” As confetti swirls around […]
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A couple days ago some shocking news was delivered to us by the NFL. Las Vegas wide receiver Henry Ruggs III had been traveling 156 mph near a residential area where he hit and killed Tina Tintor and her dog. The Raiders were quick to drop Ruggs, but Tina’s life […]
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The Los Angeles Rams were trying to offload their quarterback, Jared Goff, earlier this year. And when the opportunity arose, they made a trade. The trade looked like a great opportunity for both organizations and both teams seemed to be good fits for the newly traded quarterbacks. Even Matthew Stafford, […]
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College student-athletes recently got a boon after the NCAA (National Collegiate Athletic Association) allowed them to sell the rights to their names, images, and likenesses from July 1st, 2021 and onward, so now players can be making money without having to go pro. This will be very helpful for athletes […]
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Soon after the Twin Towers fell on September 11th, 2001, I received a phone call from Los Angeles. The voice of the Fox Sport Net assignment desk editor was hurried and bit tentative. “It is all hands on deck. Fox News is asking all our reporters in New York to […]
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A few months ago, I wrote an article about Bill Cowher, a former coach for the Pittsburgh Steelers, saying that “It’s only cheating if you get caught” and discussed taking competitive advantages into the grey area, or worse into illegal territory. It was recently revealed that the Denver Broncos cheated […]
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I didn’t realize I’d been away for a month, at least from writing here, in my favorite space at Culture in Sports. Having predicted the return of sports since the beginning of this Summer, it appears despite Covid-related concerns in many states, sports are returning in full force. In fact, […]
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Last week a video surfaced of a high school coach screaming and shoving one of his players on the sideline during the game. It was a horrible coaching moment that luckily did not get worse as the kid kept on trying to walk away. This coach made multiple terrible decisions: […]
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The United States Supreme Court ruled unanimously last Monday not to allow the NCAA to prohibit its student-athletes from receiving benefits related to their education. This decision opens the way to ending the current practice of making huge profits without sharing the proceeds with the players who earned them. There’s […]
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It’s been three months now, and nobody seems to know what to do about the Deshaun Watson situation. What’s becoming clear is that the culture of the National Football League does not align with its core values. At least when it concerns incidents of sexual or domestic violence. Values are […]
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I recently heard a podcast from two former NFL players discussing Tim Tebow’s return to the NFL, nearly a decade later. Their comments summarized were that Tebow only got the job because 1. Who he knew and 2. He is just a great human. They also referenced his stint in […]
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Getting drafted in the first round of the NFL draft is an incredible accomplishment. Not only do you have to be a great player who has demonstrated the ability to play at the highest level, but you also have to convince teams that you can make the transition to the […]
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After actively representing NFL players as a certified contract advisor- more commonly known as an agent- for a decade, almost every question I am asked, even today, about my time as an agent centers around the NFL Draft, which starts on Thursday night. There is something about this non-sporting, sports […]
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With the month of March being celebrated as Women’s History Month in the United States, what could be a more appropriate topic of discussion than the disparity in professional sports between male and female pro athletes? You would be hard pressed to find someone who is not familiar with any […]
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In week 17 of the 2020 NFL season the Seattle Seahawks beat the San Francisco 49ers, in fact they had already clinched the win in their final possession of the game. Most quarterbacks would take a knee and let the clock play out. Instead, Russell Wilson through a pass to […]
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