Three-time Pro Bowl safety Malcolm Jenkins spent his bye week building his portfolio.
Jenkins, a two-time Super Bowl champion with the Saints and Eagles, became a minority investor in the Premier League’s Burnley Football Club this week after touring historic Turf Moor stadium in England and watching the Clarets play Manchester City last Saturday.
“We’re really excited, especially because the Burnley Football Club has a long history of being a blue-collar, tough, well-run organization, and it has a great manager and a new leadership,” Jenkins said on the AP Pro Football Podcast. “And (Burnley chairman) Alan Pace is coming in and ALK Capital, and they are really conscious about not only just what’s happening on the pitch, but also what’s happening in society. Their team captains have been very vocal, their players taking a knee before every match,and they’ve made it a point to be inclusive. And to have the opportunity to join a club with that kind of history, that kind of pedigree, was something that was exciting for me and my team.”
Jenkins’ investment comes through his holding company, Malcolm Inc, and the new Disrupt Sports Partners, which focuses on business ventures in sports and leagues. Jenkins joins Patrick Mahomes, LeBron James and Kevin Durant as active players who’ve invested in soccer teams.
“One of my purposes in doing this investment is I want athletes to see that we don’t have to just be athletes and laborers,” Jenkins said. “We can actually be in the ownership seat and we need to begin to think of ourselves in that mindset. … The more we see that, then the people, the kids who look up to us because we’re athletes and what we can do can also look at us as examples of being in ownership and being business people and doing investments outside of our sport. I think that’s important for us not only as athletes but role models to show those examples that you don’t have to just be on the field in order to engage in sports, that we can have a stake in ownership and what we’re doing.”
Jenkins is also helping young people learn how to invest through his foundation. This year, his foundation has adopted high schools in Philadelphia and Newark, New Jersey so far, providing them with savings accounts with $40 to start, and a financial literacy app through Goalsetter, which provides games to learn the basics of investing, debt and stocks, among other resources.
“The lessons that I’m learning, I’m sharing with my peers, other athletes and entertainers to be able to join me or to learn how to do it themselves and build their own generational wealth. But then also you have to build up the next generation,” Jenkins said.
RESPECT FROM RICE
Hall of Fame wide receiver Jerry Rice said Green Bay’s Davante Adams, Arizona’s DeAndre Hopkins and Cleveland’s Odell Beckham Jr. are some of his favorite wideouts to watch. He also singled out San Francisco’s Deebo Samuel.
“He shows that he’s not afraid to go across the middle, make those difficult catches and try to look for someone to run over,” Rice said of Samuel. “I used to always try to do the opposite. I used to try to run away because I was not as big.”
Rice has partnered with fellow Hall of Famer Jerome Bettis and Drew Brees to join Quaker’s “Feeding America” campaign. Quaker has committed to donating $125,000 and is asking others to join them through the Quaker Good Call Challenge. They’re asking people to fill empty canisters with loose change, go to a local Coinstar kiosk and select “Feeding America” for the donation. The campaign runs through Dec. 31.
“I just feel everyone should have a healthy meal and no one should go hungry,” Rice said on the AP Pro Football Podcast.
LEGENDARY NFL POSTERS NOW DIGITAL ART
Award-winning pop culture artist John Costacos, considered a creator of the genre of sports art with his sports personality posters, has unveiled a blockchain-based digital collectibles company, the Costacos Collection. The initiative will team with charitable foundations of players such as Hall of Famers Troy Aikman and Warren Moon.
Costacos’ previous collections sold more than 30,000,000 posters from 1986-96. The new format utilizes the blockchain medium to allow great athletes to capture their most significant moments, tell their most meaningful stories, and create new digital experiences, including new digital art as NFTs. A percentage of the sales of the NFTs will go a charity that each athlete will earmark in advance. Moon for example, runs the Crescent Moon Foundation, providing scholarships every year to underprivileged children who might otherwise find attending college impossible.
“My relationship with every athlete came from listening to their creative process and thinking of what we, as fans, would want to see, and that process has never really changed over the years,” Costacos says. “The growth of digital technology gives us an exciting chance not just to offer pieces in digital form, but to take them and retell the story with the athlete’s input now, 20 years later, with additional custom content.”
The collection also will draw from the Topps Company’s vast content of historical archives and working with Costacos to create new content with Topps’ current athletes.
One of the earliest posters Costacos created was of Bears quarterback Jim McMahon. The “Mad Mac” is among the most iconic items in the series.
“Our Bears teams exuded brashness in pop culture, and the Costacos work was the pinnacle of being recognized well beyond football,” McMahon says. “To be a part of John’s digital art launch is a great next step in reintroducing this brash and disruptive art to a world that loves brashness, and wants it in a new form. Bears Nation and beyond will love this, as will all the athletes past and present who will be riding this new wave with him and his team.”
SPIELMAN HONORED BY LIONS
The Detroit Lions are honoring former linebacker Chris Spielman by displaying his name at Ford Field along with the franchise’s all-time greats.
The 1991 All-Pro and four-time Pro Bowl linebacker will be inducted into the Pride of the Lions at halftime of Detroit’s game on Oct. 31 against the Philadelphia Eagles.
Detroit has honored 18 other players, including Hall of Famers Barry Sanders, Joe Schmidt, Lem Barney and Dick “Night Train” Lane.
Nearly a year ago, the Lions hired Spielman to be a special assistant to team owner Sheila Ford Hamp and president Rod Wood.
Spielman is the franchise’s career leader in tackles and helped the Lions to the NFC title game on Jan. 12, 1992, the closest they’ve come to a Super Bowl. After Spielman’s playing career, he was an NFL television analyst.
“Anytime you are recognized for an individual award, as a part of a team-oriented pursuit, your immediate thoughts go to your family, teammates, coaches and all of the people in the organization,” Spielman. “My time as a player was defined by these great relationships I forged, and I realize that they are the biggest reason for any success I may have had. It truly was an honor to represent Lions fans around the world, the city of Detroit and every Lions player past, present and future for eight great seasons.”
HYGENIC SPORT
Now that fans are attending games throughout the NFL once again, best-in-class hygiene practices are critical to keeping people healthy. To do so, the Green Bay Packers and Tork, a leader in professional hygiene from Essity, partnered to raise awareness at games, and in the community with the “Tackle Hygiene with Every Catch” campaign.
With 112 receptions by Packers players in the first five weeks of the season, nearly $30,000 in donations in hygiene products such as hand sanitizer, paper towels, and toilet paper have resulted.
For every catch the Packers made during the campaign, a donation has gone to local organizations, including NEWCAP, Inc.; Golden House; Milwaukee Homeless Veterans Initiative; and Pathfinders. The campaign also includes helpful reminders of the effective, easy-to-use hygiene products used throughout the stadium on game days and every day.
“The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted how critical hand hygiene is in preventing illness and keeping fans, players, and the community healthy,” says Chad Watson, director of sales and business development for the Packers. “We’re proud to partner with Tork to promote hygiene in the Green Bay and Milwaukee communities through donations of Tork sustainable hygiene products.”
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AP Pro Football Writers Barry Wilner and Rob Maaddi and Sports Writer Larry Lage contributed.
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