NEW DELHI — The scavengers wait patiently for a dump truck to tip the trash on the summit of the landfill outside New Delhi. Armed with plastic bags, they plunge their bare hands into the garbage and start sorting it.

Every day, more than 2,300 tons of garbage is dumped at the landfill at Bhalswa that covers an area bigger than 50 football fields, with a pile taller than a 17-story building. And every day, thousands of these informal workers climb the precarious slopes to pick through what can be salvaged.

They are among the estimated 20 million people around the world — in rich nations and poor — who are pivotal in keeping cities clean, alongside paid sanitation employees. But unlike those municipal workers, they usually are not eligible for the coronavirus vaccine and are finding it hard to get the shots.

The pandemic has amplified the risks that these informal workers face. Few have their own protective gear or even clean water to wash their hands, said Chitra Mukherjee of Chintan, a nonprofit environmental research group in New Delhi.

“If they are not vaccinated, then the cities will suffer,” Mukherjee said.

Manuwara Begum, 46, lives in a cardboard hut behind a five-star hotel in the heart of New Delhi and feels the inequity keenly. Chintan estimates that each year, those like her save the local government over $50 million and eliminate over 900,000 tons of carbon dioxide by diverting waste away from landfills.

Still, they are they not considered “essential workers” and thus are ineligible for vaccinations.

Begum has started an online petition pleading for vaccines and asking, “Are we not human?”

Sanitation workers employed by local governments in South Africa and Zimbabwe are likely to be in line for the COVID-19 vaccine after health workers, unlike those who sort through the trash. At the Dandora landfill in Kenya’s capital of Nairobi, some of the scavengers who are not eligible for a shot wear medical gear discarded by hospitals and health clinics, saying it especially protects them from the weather during the rainy season.

There is no doubt that these people provide an essential service, says Louise Guibrunet, a researcher at National Autonomous University of Mexico who has studied the issue.

In Mexico, scavengers help municipal workers on garbage trucks and often collect trash from neighborhoods not served by authorities. The work is dangerous, and injuries are common, so governments have an incentive to not recognize them or provide benefits like health care, she said.

They often are already poor, moving to unfamiliar cities to eke out a living by sorting garbage, says Robin Jeffrey, a professor at the Institute of South Asian Studies at the National University of Singapore. That many of these workers in India belong to poor Muslim or Dalit communities, who once were known as “untouchables” at the bottom of the country’s caste system, adds a layer of prejudice.

“The vaccine is just another, and very dramatic, example of an exclusion that has prevailed before COVID-19 came on the horizon,” said Jeffrey, who co-authored a book on waste in India in 2018.

India said it will give vaccines to everyone over 45 starting April 1. At private hospitals, each shot is sold for $3.45, but they are free at government hospitals.

In New Delhi, a pound of plastic bottles sells for the equivalent of 11 U.S. cents, half of what it brought before the pandemic. Sahra Bano, 37, who lives near the Bhalswa landfill and sells what she can scavenge, says she used to earn about $5 per day. Now, getting even half that is difficult.

Toxic runoff from the landfill infiltrates the groundwater, so she must spend 40 rupees (5 cents) per day on bottled water; the rest of what she earns goes for food. To earn enough to get one shot of the vaccine, she said she would have to collect and sell an additional 31 pounds of plastic bottles.

“We are struggling to feed our family. How can we buy vaccines?” she asks.

To get the free vaccine from an overburdened public hospital, she would have to wait there for days, and each day away from work is one without food on the table. Moreover, the stigma associated with waste workers in India means they are often turned away from such facilities.

“They don’t treat us well,” Bano says.

Any illness means visiting a drugstore, not a doctor, for medicine.

If they’re lucky, the person recovers, she says, adding: “If not, what can we do?”

—

Associated Press writers Tom Odula in Nairobi; Farai Mutsaka in Harare, Zimbabwe, and Mogomotsi Magome in Johannesburg contributed to this report.

Read More

MINNEAPOLIS — The teenager who shot the harrowing video of George Floyd under the knee of the Minneapolis police officer now charged in his death testified Tuesday that she began recording because “it wasn’t right, he was suffering, he was in pain.”

Darnella Frazier, 18, said she was walking to a convenience store with her younger cousin when she came upon the officers, and sent the girl into the store because she didn’t want her to see “a man terrified, scared, begging for his life.”

Frazier grew emotional at times, breathing heavily and crying as she viewed pictures of officer Derek Chauvin kneeling on Floyd last May.

Floyd’s death and the video touched off sometimes-violent protests around the world and a reckoning over racism and police brutality in the U.S.

Earlier Tuesday, a man who was among the onlookers shouting at Chauvin to get off Floyd testified that he called 911 after paramedics took Floyd away, “because I believed I witnessed a murder.”

Donald Williams, a former wrestler who said he was trained in mixed martial arts, including chokeholds, returned to the witness stand a day after describing seeing Floyd struggle for air and his eyes roll back into his head. He said he watched Floyd “slowly fade away … like a fish in a bag.”

On Tuesday, prosecutor Matthew Frank played back Williams’ 911 call, on which he is heard identifying Chauvin by his badge number and telling the dispatcher that Chauvin had been keeping his knee on Floyd’s neck despite warnings that Floyd’s life was in danger. She offers to switch him to a sergeant.

As he is being switched, Williams can he heard yelling at the officers, “Y’all is murderers, bro!”

During cross-examination, Chauvin attorney Eric Nelson sought to show that Chauvin and his fellow officers found themselves in an increasingly tense and distracting situation, with the crowd of onlookers getting agitated over Floyd’s treatment.

Nelson pointed out that Williams seemed to grow increasingly angry at police on the scene, swearing at and taunting Chauvin with “tough guy,” “bum” and other names, then calling Chauvin expletives, which the defense attorney repeated in court..

Williams initially admitted he was getting angrier, but then backtracked and said he was controlled and professional and was pleading for Floyd’s life but wasn’t being heard.

Williams said he was stepping on and off the curb, and at one point, Officer Tou Thao, who was controlling the crowd, put his hand on Williams’ chest. Williams admitted under questioning that he told Thao he would beat the officers if Thao touched him again.

Williams was among the first witnesses as Chauvin, 45, went on trial on charges of murder and manslaughter in Floyd’s death.

Prosecutors led off their case by playing part of the bystander video of Floyd’s arrest. Chauvin and three other officers were fired soon after the footage became public.

Prosecutor Jerry Blackwell showed the jurors the video after telling them that the number to remember was 9 minutes, 29 seconds — the amount of time Chauvin had Floyd pinned to the pavement “until the very life was squeezed out of him.”

Nelson countered by arguing: “Derek Chauvin did exactly what he had been trained to do over his 19-year career.”

The defense attorney also disputed that Chauvin was to blame for Floyd’s death, as prosecutors contend.

Floyd, 46, had none of the telltale signs of asphyxiation and had fentanyl and methamphetamine in his system, Nelson said. He said Floyd’s drug use, combined with his heart disease, high blood pressure and the adrenaline flowing through his body, caused a heart rhythm disturbance that killed him.

Read More

What happens inside a warehouse in Bessemer, Alabama, could have major implications not just for the country’s second-largest employer but the labor movement at large.

Organizers are pushing for some 6,000 Amazon workers there to join the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union on the promise it will lead to better working conditions, better pay and more respect. Amazon is pushing back, arguing that it already offers more than twice the minimum wage in Alabama and workers get such benefits as health care, vision and dental insurance without paying union dues.

The two sides are fully aware that it’s not just the Bessemer warehouse on the line. Organizers hope what happens there will inspire thousands of workers nationwide — and not just at Amazon — to consider unionizing and revive a labor movement that has been waning for decades.

“This is lighting a fuse, which I believe is going to spark an explosion of union organizing across the country, regardless of the results,” says RWDSU president Stuart Appelbaum.

The union push could spread to other parts of Amazon and threaten the company’s profits, which soared 84% last year to $21 billion. At a time when many companies were cutting jobs, Amazon was one of the few still hiring, bringing on board 500,000 people last year alone to keep up with a surge of online orders.

Bessemer workers finished casting their votes on Monday. The counting begins on Tuesday, which could take days or longer depending on how many votes are received and how much time it takes for each side to review. The process is being overseen by the National Labor Relations Board and a majority of the votes will decide the final outcome.

What that outcome will be is anyone’s guess. Appelbaum thinks workers who voted early likely rejected the union because Amazon’s messaging got to them first. He says momentum changed in March as organizers talked to more workers and heard from basketball players and high-profile elected officials, including President Joe Biden.

For Amazon, which employs more than 950,000 full- and part-time workers in the U.S. and nearly 1.3 million worldwide, a union could lead to higher wages that would eat into its profits. Higher wages would also mean higher costs to get packages to shoppers’ doorsteps, which may prompt Amazon to raise prices, says Erik Gordon, a professor at the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business.

Any push to unionize is considered a long shot, since labor laws tend to favor employers. Alabama itself is a “right-to-work” state, which allows workers in unionized shops to opt out of paying union dues even as they retain the benefits and job protection negotiated by the union.

Kent Wong, the director of the UCLA Labor Center, says companies in the past have closed stores, warehouses or plants after workers have voted to unionize.

“There’s a history of companies going to great lengths to avoid recognizing the union,” he says.

Walmart, the nation’s largest retailer and biggest private employer, has successfully fought off organizing efforts over the years. In 2000, it got rid of butchers in 180 of its stores after they voted to form a union. Walmart said it cut the jobs because people preferred pre-packaged meat. Five years later, it closed a store in Canada where some 200 workers were close to winning a union contract. At the time, Walmart said demands from union negotiators made it impossible for the store to sustain itself.

The only other time Amazon came up against a union vote was in 2014, when the majority of the 30 workers at a Delaware warehouse turned it down.

This time around, Amazon has been hanging anti-union signs throughout the Bessemer warehouse, including inside bathroom stalls, and holding mandatory meetings to convince workers why the union is a bad idea, according to one worker who recently testified at a Senate hearing. It has also created a website for employees that tells them they’ll have to pay $500 in union dues a month, taking away money that could go to dinners and school supplies.

Amazon’s hardball tactics extend beyond squashing union efforts. Last year, it fired a worker who organized a walkout at a New York warehouse to demand greater protection against coronavirus, saying the employee himself flouted distancing rules. When Seattle, the home of its headquarters, passed a new tax on big companies in 2018, Amazon protested by stopping construction of a new high-rise building in the city; the tax was repealed four weeks later. And in 2019, Amazon ditched plans to build a $2.5 billion headquarters for 25,000 workers in New York after pushback from progressive politicians and unions.

Beyond Amazon is an anti-union culture that dominates the South. And unions have lost ground nationally for decades since their peak in the decades following World War II. In 1970, almost a third of the U.S. workforce belonged to a union. In 2020, that figure was 10.8%, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Private sector workers now account for less than half of the 14.3 million union members across the country.

Advocates say a victory would signal a shift in the narrative about unions, helping refute the typical arguments from companies, including Amazon, that workers can win adequate compensation and conditions by dealing with management directly.

“It is because of unions that we have a five-day work week. It is because of unions that we have safer conditions in our places of work. It is because of unions that we have benefits,” says Rep. Terri Sewell, whose congressional district includes the Amazon facility. “Workers should have the right to choose whether they organize or not.”

Union leaders are circumspect about specific organizing plans after the Bessemer vote, and Appelbaum says he doesn’t want to tip off Amazon to any future efforts. But there is broad consensus that a win would spur workers at some of the 230 other Amazon warehouses to mount a similar union campaign.

It’s less clear whether any ripple effects would reach other prime targets like Walmart and the expansive auto industry that has burgeoned across the South in recent decades. Both have largely succeeded at keeping unions at bay.

The auto workers union has had some of the largest union pushes of the last decade, but their most intense and publicized efforts ended in failure. In 2017, a years-long campaign to unionize a Nissan plant in Canton, Mississippi, ended with a decisive 2,244-1,307 rejection of the union — the kind of margin that would be devastating in Bessemer. Two years later, however, Volkswagen workers in Tennessee had a much more evenly split vote, with 776 workers supporting unionization and 833 voting against it.

Besides the number of Amazon workers involved, the Alabama campaign has stood out because of how explicitly many advocates have linked the effort to the civil rights movement of the 20th century. The RWDSU estimates that more than 80% of the warehouse workers in Bessemer are Black.

Robert Korstad, a Duke Emeritus professor and labor history expert, says those dynamics could help in Bessemer.

“The history of the Black struggle in Alabama is pretty deeply entrenched in the social, political and religious institutions there,” he says. “We’re starting to see people rise up again. So this Amazon struggle is part of a larger struggle that’s gone on a long time.”

The question, Korstad says, is whether a win in Bessemer truly becomes a “ripple effect” that inspires workers across racial and ethnic lines elsewhere.

Read More

Construction began Tuesday on O’Hare Airport’s lower-level road that services several arrival terminals.

Half of the curbside in front of Terminals 1, 2 and 3 of the lower level pick-up area will be closed for construction, according to the Chicago Department of Aviation.

Some adjacent crosswalks will also be closed. And the ramp to the recirculation road from the lower level arrivals lane at the terminals will also be closed, with an alternate route in place.

Also, the commercial lane will be closed and lane changes will be in place at the end of Terminal 3, with an alternate route in effect, officials said.

The construction is part of the Terminal Area Fire Main and Lower Level Utility and Pavement Replacement project, which will include the installation of a new water main, more fire hydrants and a new electrical duct bank system as part of the larger O’Hare 21 capital improvement program.

The work, which will be done in phases to ease traffic impacts, was expected to be completed in 2022.

Passengers arriving at Terminals 1, 2 or 3 were advised to seek other transport modes.

Read More

SILVER SPRING, Md. — Canadian blockchain technology company Dapper Labs has secured $305 million in private funding — some of it from current and former NBA players, including Michael Jordan — to scale up its virtual NBA trading card site, the company said Tuesday.

Vancouver, British Columbia-based Dapper says NBA Top Shot has rung up $500 million in sales and registered more than 800,000 accounts since its public beta testing phase began in October.

The virtual cards come in the form of a floating digital cube that includes a video highlight of an NBA player and come with a non-fungible token, backed by blockchain technology, certifying its authenticity and scarcity. A LeBron James dunk highlight sold for $210,000 recently but more common cards can often be had for less than $10.

Besides the NBA, Dapper partners include Warner Music Group, Ubisoft, and UFC. The company says the new round of funding will help it expand its NFT and blockchain products to a wide range of businesses.

“We want to bring the same magic to other sports leagues as well as help other entertainment studios and independent creators find their own approaches in exploring open platforms,” said Dapper Labs CEO Roham Gharegozlou.

The most recent round of funding was led by New York-based private equity firm Coatue Management and brings Dapper’s total capital raised to $357 million.

Current players listed as investors in Dapper include Kevin Durant, Kyle Lowry, Spencer Dinwiddie and Klay Thompson. The company also says some current and former NFL and MLB players have put money in, as well as the rapper 2 Chainz.

Read More

WASHINGTON — A Supreme Court case being argued this week amid March Madness could erode the difference between elite college athletes and professional sports stars.

If the former college athletes who brought the case win, colleges could end up competing for talented student-athletes by offering over-the-top education benefits worth tens of thousands of dollars. And that could change the nature of college sports.

At least that’s the fear of the NCAA. But the former athletes who sued say most college athletes will never play professional sports and that the NCAA’s rules capping education benefits deprive them of the ability to be rewarded for their athletic talents and hard work. They say the NCAA’s rules are not just unfair but illegal, and they want schools to be able to offer any education benefits they see fit.

“This is letting the schools provide encouragement to be better students and better educated … in return for what amounts to full-time jobs for the school. What could possibly be wrong with that?” said lawyer Jeffrey L. Kessler in an interview ahead of arguments in the case, which are scheduled for Wednesday.

The former players have so far won every round of the case. Lower courts agreed that NCAA rules capping the education-related benefits schools can offer Division I men’s and women’s basketball players and football players violate a federal antitrust law. The narrow ruling still keeps schools from directly paying athletes, but the NCAA says it is a step in that direction.

In an interview, the NCAA’s chief legal officer Donald Remy defended the association’s rules. He said the Supreme Court has previously found preserving the amateur nature of college sports to be an “appropriate, pro-competitive justification for the restrictions that exist in the system of college athletics.”

The NCAA wasn’t happy with the outcome the last time its rules were before the Supreme Court. In 1984, the high court rejected NCAA rules restricting the broadcast of college football. The justices’ ruling transformed college sports, helping it become the multi-billion dollar business it is today.

This time, the justices will hear arguments by phone as they have been doing for almost a year because of the coronavirus pandemic. And the public can listen live. The justices will almost certainly issue a decision in the case before they leave for their summer break at the end of June.

A ruling for the former players doesn’t necessarily mean an immediate infusion of cash to current college athletes. Currently, athletic scholarships can cover the cost of college athletes’ attendance at college. That includes tuition, housing and books, plus a stipend determined by each school meant to cover things like travel expenses and other incidentals. What a ruling for the students means is that the NCAA can’t bar schools from sweetening their offers to Division I basketball and football athletes with additional education-related benefits.

Individual athletic conferences could still set limits. But Kessler said he believes that if his clients win, “very many schools” will ultimately offer additional benefits.

That would mean that to compete for the best players, colleges might offer things like postgraduate scholarships, tutoring, study abroad opportunities, vocational school payments, computer equipment and internships, among other things. And there’s a fear some schools might try to disguise other, improper benefits as permissible education spending.

The former college athletes have some big-time supporters. The players associations of the NFL, NBA and WNBA along with a group of former NCAA executives are all urging the justices to side with the former athletes, as is the Biden administration.

Whatever happens at the high court, how college athletes are compensated is already likely changing. The NCAA is in the process of trying to amend its longstanding rules to allow athletes to profit from their names, images and likenesses. That would allow them to earn money for things like sponsorship deals, online endorsement and personal appearances.

Those efforts have stalled, however. For their part, players at this month’s March Madness tournament have been pushing for reform with the hashtag #NotNCAAProperty on social media. Even if the NCAA changes its rules, however, any money college athletes might make from endorsement deals would be over and above the educational benefits schools might offer as incentives.

As for the justices, they’re not necessarily just watching from the sidelines. The majority are also avid sports fans. Justices Samuel Alito, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan love baseball. Justice Neil Gorsuch is a Denver Broncos fan, while Clarence Thomas is devoted to the University of Nebraska. Amy Coney Barrett, who was a professor at Notre Dame, has said her football Saturdays were spent tailgating. Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote simply to lawmakers considering his 2018 nomination: “I am a huge sports fan.”

Read More

MINNEAPOLIS — A man who was among the onlookers shouting at a Minneapolis police officer to get off George Floyd last May testified Tuesday that he called 911 after paramedics took Floyd away, “because I believed I witnessed a murder.”

Donald Williams, a former wrestler who said he was trained in mixed martial arts, including chokeholds, returned to the witness stand a day after describing seeing Floyd struggle for air and his eyes roll back into his head. He said he watched Floyd “slowly fade away … like a fish in a bag.”

Prosecutor Matthew Frank played back Williams’ 911 call, on which he is heard identifying officer Derek Chauvin by his badge number and telling the dispatcher that Chauvin had been keeping his knee on Floyd’s neck despite warnings that Floyd’s life was in danger. She offers to switch him to a sergeant.

As he is being switched, Williams can he heard yelling at the officers, “Y’all is murderers, bro!”

On Monday, Williams said he thought Chauvin used a shimmying motion several times to increase the pressure on Floyd. He said he yelled to the officer that he was cutting off Floyd’s blood supply. Williams recalled that Floyd’s voice grew thicker as his breathing became more labored, and he eventually stopped moving.

Williams was among the first prosecution witnesses as Chauvin, 45, went on trial on charges of murder and manslaughter in Floyd’s death. The death of the Black man after he was held down by the white officer touched off sometimes-violent protests around the world and a reckoning over racism and police brutality.

Prosecutors led off their case by playing part of the harrowing bystander video of Floyd’s arrest. Chauvin and three other officers were fired soon after the footage became public.

Prosecutor Jerry Blackwell showed the jurors the video after telling them that the number to remember was 9 minutes, 29 seconds — the amount of time Chauvin had Floyd pinned to the pavement “until the very life was squeezed out of him.”

Chauvin attorney Eric Nelson countered by arguing: “Derek Chauvin did exactly what he had been trained to do over his 19-year career.”

Floyd was fighting efforts to put him in a squad car as the crowd of onlookers around Chauvin and his fellow officers grew and became increasingly hostile, Nelson said.

The defense attorney also disputed that Chauvin was to blame for Floyd’s death.

Floyd, 46, had none of the telltale signs of asphyxiation and had fentanyl and methamphetamine in his system, Nelson said. He said Floyd’s drug use, combined with his heart disease, high blood pressure and the adrenaline flowing through his body, caused a heart rhythm disturbance that killed him.

“The evidence is far greater than 9 minutes and 29 seconds,” Nelson said.

Blackwell, however, rejected the argument that Floyd’s drug use or any underlying health conditions were to blame, saying it was the officer’s knee that killed him.

Read More

There are talks that the Chicago Loop Alliance wants to close down State Street in the Loop to traffic for 12 Sundays this summer. The move would be in an effort to draw Chicagoans to the heart of downtown, more specifically, to draw foot traffic to the once-popular retail corridor that was heavily impacted by COVID-19.

If you did not know the Chicago Loop Alliance was a thing, don’t fret. Here’s your quick lesson: it was founded in 2005 after a merger between the Central Michigan Avenue Association (yes, a thing) and the Greater State Street Council (yes, also a thing). Both of these were founded in the ’20s and the two consisted of local merchants wishing to promote economic prosperity during the Great Depression. Now, according to their website, their mission is, “Chicago Loop Alliance creates, manages, and promotes positive and inclusive programs that attract people to the Loop and accelerate economic recovery.”

The plan, titled ‘Sundays on State’, outlines the Alliance’s wish to shut down the neck of State Street from Lake to Madison on Sundays. Specifics are still being ironed out, however, the primary goals are to “highlight local art and culture…and also to encourage our retailers to start bringing merchandise onto the street or offer tours of theaters that might not yet be open…” per Chicago Loop Alliance CEO Michael Edwards.

Many neighborhoods throughout Chicago have shut down blocks in order to accommodate bars and restaurants moving onto the street to comply with COVID dining regulations. Division St., Lincoln Ave, and Randolph in West Loop are among the most popular and successful. It sounds as though the CLA’s outlines for ‘Sundays on State’ are more comprehensive and interactive, designed for Chicagoans of all ages to enjoy from June to September.

During the group’s yearly meeting, much of the discussion was on making the Loop a more inclusive place. For much of 2020, State Street and surrounding city blocks became the epicenter of major demonstrations for racial and social justice; the group’s plan is centered around taking these grounds and bringing back shoppers, visitors, and workers to highlight everything from art, to business, to cuisine, and more.

Per WTTW Chicago, “CLA is also launching a self-guided mural walk that will take people past 22 pieces of public art in the Loop, including well-known works and some lesser-known offerings. The group is also planning some art pop-ups in vacant spaces, similar to a successful program after the Great Recession.”

As the city continues to distribute vaccines, there is an anticipation that more Loop-based businesses will return to in-person office hours this summer as well. The CLA’s plans to piggy back off that organic foot traffic feels like a potential home run, especially because it is foot traffic that is the true driver of retail and restaurant spending. This news also comes as the city announced that the Taste of Chicago and Lollapalooza could both return in some fashion this summer depending on how the city progresses into the spring months with COVID positivity rates and number of citizen that are fully vaccinated.

Come back to UrbanMatter Chicago for more information on the city’s summer plans as more news releases in the coming weeks!

Featured Image Credit: Wikimedia

Read More

Prairie State Pigskin

• About
• Archive
• Subscribe by Email

Moving the Chains with … Eastern Illinois super back Jay Vallie

Leave a comment

Tweet

By Barry Bottino,
today at 5:34 am

Growing up, Jay Vallie played backyard football and pretended to be Detroit Lions wide receiver Calvin Johnson.

During high school, he was pretty sure his future was as a college basketball player.

Now, as a graduate transfer at Eastern Illinois, his football days are spent playing the unique super back position, a hybrid tight end who lines up all over the field.

Vallie, who spent four years at fellow FCS program Dayton, played there with current New Orleans Saints tight end Adam Trautman and soon discovered a connection between EIU and the Saints when he arrived in Charleston.

In the fall, Vallie will experience some “bittersweet” emotions when the Panthers play a non-conference game at Dayton.

In our weekly Moving the Chains Q&A feature, he discusses the addition of a beard this fall, which is a no-no at Dayton, along with Cincinnati’s unique style of chili, the most beautiful places in his home state of Michigan and another NFL team he is connected to by his birthday.

Learn more about Vallie:

When you talk to friends and family, how do you explain the super back position?

I try to relate it to a tight end, because that’s the closest position that it’s like. Sometimes, we’ll be in line. Sometimes we’ll be in the wing, or we call it the ‘sniffer.’ We can be flexed out like a receiver. I know in past years, they’ve been lined up in the fullback or the tailback positions. It’s very versatile what they can do with us. They can put us anywhere and align us to perform based on what the job is.

Who is the most famous person from your hometown of Grand Blanc, Mich.?

I went to school in the town next to Grand Blanc, which is Goodrich. Football wise, Kyler Elsworth was a pretty good family friend of ours. He walked on at Michigan State University (as a linebacker). In the (2014) Rose Bowl when they played against Stanford, there was a fourth-down stop that won the game (for MSU). He was the one that jumped over the line and got that stop. That was pretty cool.

Current New Orleans Saints tight end Adam Trautman was a teammate of yours at Dayton. Among NFL tight ends, who is your favorite?

Well, after Adam Trautman (laughs), I really love George Kittle (of San Francisco). He embodies what the tight end should be with his mindset, the way he attacks the run and pass games. He’s just always the enforcer. He’s dominant in whatever aspect he’s in.

Next fall, EIU plays a game at Dayton, your former school. Do you plan to be in the stands or in uniform for the Panthers?

I will be in uniform for that game. It will be exciting, and a little bittersweet. It will be fun running around with the guys I’ve been running around with for the past five years. When I talked to my coach (at Dayton about leaving as a grad transfer), he just didn’t want me to go anywhere in the old conference. I said, ‘Don’t worry. I don’t want to go anywhere that we play.’ Of course, after I got here, I found out we actually will be playing. Those guys are still my family. I talk to a good portion of them almost every day still. On the other hand, I’m excited to play them. It’s almost like the family Thanksgiving game. Just going out and having fun with your family.

Dayton’s neighbor, Cincinnati, is famous for its own unique type of chili dish, which is served over spaghetti. Would you give Cincinnati chili a thumbs up or thumbs down?

I’m going to have to give it a thumbs down. It was good, but it’s not as good as it’s always hyped up to be. I was satisfied, but not thrilled.

Growing up in Michigan, who was your favorite pro athlete and pro sports teams?

With the Lions, I loved Megatron – (wide receiver) Calvin Johnson. When we’d play football in the backyard, he’d be the guy we would try to emulate. As far as teams, I was born on the day of Super Bowl XXXII in 1998, when the Broncos won (31-24 against Green Bay). I have a little commemorative football for them with the score and everything. So I’ve always been kind of a Broncos fan. I like to see them do well.

Fans are now being allowed into pro sports stadiums again. The next time you go to a sporting event as a fan, what’s the one food you have to eat?

I love popcorn. Whether I’m going to a movie or going to a game, the one thing I’m always getting is a big bowl of popcorn. The smell of stadium popcorn always draws me in.

Being a native of Michigan, have you ever held up your hand like a mitten to show people where your hometown is?

Every time. (Laughs) That’s the only way for me to explain to people who aren’t familiar with the area where I’m located. It’s the easiest way.

Michigan has plenty of resort towns. What are three can’t-miss places in your home state?

Definitely Grand Haven, which is out west. Up north in Mackinac Island. And then, I spent some time last summer in Marquette, which is way up in the (Upper Peninsula) near Lake Superior. Those three areas are beautiful. The U.P. itself is like a totally different world. The nature is amazing.

Is catching a touchdown or making a big block a better feeling?

I would say a big block definitely feels better. It feels way more awesome putting a guy into the ground than catching a touchdown. There are so many guys on the team that can catch a touchdown, but if you block a guy and that leads to a touchdown, that feels just as good as scoring if not better.

Tell us about your family.

My mother, Lonnie Rae, is a retired educator. My dad, David, is a financial advisor for Merrill Lynch. I have one brother (Mitchel), who works with my father at Merrill Lynch. He’s six years old than me. My sister-in-law, Stephanie, is currently halfway done with nursing school. She’s going to be a nurse anesthetist. My brother and sister-in-law have a black lab named Ace that they’ve trained to be a bird dog, a hunting dog. He’s very obedient. Whenever I come home, I get to wrestle with him a little bit.

You earned a mechanical engineering degree at Dayton, and you’re in the MBA program at EIU. What’s your dream job?

Once I hang up the cleats, I have been drawn to technical sales or consulting, or some type of technical management, which is why I’m going for the MBA. I have the technical thinking that engineers have, and with my dad being a financial advisor, I thought that technical management is a good in between to apply both those areas that I’ve had in my life.

One thing you’ve added at EIU that you never had at Dayton is a beard. Why?

At Dayton, there’s a no facial hair rule. During the football season, they like the clean-cut look. I always had to shave it for football season. This year, I asked my coach, ‘Hey, do I need to shave?’ He said, ‘No, why would you need to?’ I said, ‘Oh, just wondering.’ So I get to let it go.

Who’s a famous person from EIU that you weren’t aware of until you got to campus?

I actually didn’t know that (New Orleans Saints head coach) Sean Payton was here. I thought that was really cool. As soon as I found out, I actually Snapchatted a picture of his jersey that’s in Lantz Arena to my buddy Adam Trautman. I said, ‘Hey, look who it is.’ He thought it was really cool.

If you’re hungry after practice, do you head to a drive-thru or straight home to cook for yourself?

I have a pretty strict diet. Before practice, I usually have a bowl of oatmeal with some peanut butter and protein powder. After practice, I come home and cook myself an omelet, a bagel and have a bowl of cereal.

The Summer Olympics begin in a few months. Which Olympic sport would you like to compete in?

Basketball would definitely be my sport. Growing up, basketball was one of my biggest sports. For a while, until the end of high school, I thought I was going to be playing college basketball. Luckily, things worked out the way they are and I’m here now. I wouldn’t change anything.

If you could travel anywhere in the U.S. and anywhere overseas, where would you go?

Colorado is definitely one place I really want to go. I really want to see what it’s like. My parents have gone multiple times on vacation. They’d send me pictures, and it’s amazing. I’d definitely like to try snowboarding and skiing. I’d also like to go over to Italy. There are cities like Rome and Venice … with lots of history and monuments that are there to explain the stories of the world. Italy would be a really cool place to spend some time.

Who is a person in your life that inspires you?

I’d say my older brother. Growing up, he’d be out playing basketball or football with his friends. I’d run out and play with them. They would just kick my butt. They would run me into the ground every time. I took that as motivation. No matter how many times I’d play my brother (in basketball), he’d beat me 21-2. If he beat me 21-7, I’d say, ‘OK, I’m going to get him next time.’ I’d try again, and I kept doing that a lot. When I started getting older, I’d talk to him a lot about college sports and everything in life. He’s been very helpful and has given me a lot of insight.

There are three players from Michigan on the EIU roster. When you all get together, are you more likely to talk about the Lions, Tigers or Pistons?

Right now, the Lions. I’m thrilled with their new (head coach) hire, Dan Campbell. I think there’s a lot of good moves going on in Detroit right now.

Filed under:
Uncategorized

Tags:
Eastern Illinois University, EIU Panthers, Ohio Valley Conference

Tweet

• Advertisement:

• Advertisement:

• 
  

  Welcome to ChicagoNow.

  Meet
  our bloggers,
  
  post comments, or
  
  pitch your blog idea.

  Sign in
  Pitch your idea
  Play games

• Meet The Blogger

  

  Dan Verdun

  Blog co-authors Barry Bottino and Dan Verdun bring years of experience covering collegiate athletics. Barry has covered college athletes for more than two decades in his “On Campus” column, which is published weekly by Shaw Media. Dan has written four books about the state’s football programs–“NIU Huskies Football” (released in 2013), “EIU Panthers Football (2014), “ISU Redbirds” (2016) and “SIU Salukis Football” (2017).

• Subscribe by Email

Completely spam free, opt out any time.

Tweets by @danverdunauthor

Tweets by @barryoncampus

Facebook

Latest on ChicagoNow

• Moving the Chains with … Eastern Illinois super back Jay Vallie

  from Prairie State Pigskin by Barry Bottino
  posted today at 5:34 am

• Brewer Preview: Rhinegeist

  from The Beeronaut by Mark McDermott
  posted Monday at 11:25 pm

• Everyone’s looking forward to “getting back to normal” but me

  from Mom, I Think I’m Poignant! by Bonnie McGrath
  posted Monday at 4:54 pm

• Watch Berkowitz w/GOP GOV Candidate, Rabine, Part 2, making IL a jobs, safe streets, fiscally sound & destination state again. Tonight in Chicago, rest of week elsewhere, Cable & Web

  from Public Affairs with Jeff Berkowitz by Jeff Berkowitz
  posted Monday at 3:18 pm

• A Coincidental Conversation about Codependency (and more) with Ross Rosenberg

  from Where Are We Going So Fast? by James Warda
  posted Monday at 2:46 pm

Posts from related blogs

• 

  The Big Ten Blog

  Most recent post: Let’s Give Them Nothing to Talk About : Big Ten Football Week 12 Review

• 

  NUF Said: A Northwestern Football Blog

  Most recent post: The Conundrum Of Passing On Sports Loyalties

• 

  Rambler Hoops

  Most recent post: Breaking down Loyola Chicago’s 77-71 victory over Missouri State

More from Sports: Colleges

Read these ChicagoNow blogs

• 

  Cubs Den

  Chicago Cubs news and comprehensive blog, featuring old school baseball writing combined with the latest statistical trends
  • Where Will All the Cubs Shortstop Prospects Go?
• 

  Pets in need of homes

  Pets available for adoption in the Chicago area
  • Migaloo — Petraits Rescue
• 

  Hammervision

  It’s like the couch potato version of Mr. and Mrs. Smith.
  • Movie Review: Nomadland

Read these ChicagoNow Bloggers

• 

  Candace Jordan

  from Candid Candace:
  We got our first Covid-19 shot and this is what happened
• 

  Dennis Byrne

  from The Barbershop: Dennis Byrne, Proprietor:
  Should cultural cancelers get cancelled?
• 

  LeaGrover

  from Becoming SuperMommy:
  Grieving Love with Intention

Advertisement:

ChicagoNOW

• About ChicagoNow
• •
• FAQs
• •
• Advertise
• •
• Recent posts RSS
• •
• Privacy policy (Updated)
• •
• Comment policy
• •
• Terms of service
• •
• Chicago Tribune Archives
• •
• Do not sell my personal info

©2021 CTMG – A Chicago Tribune website –
Crafted by the News Apps team

Read More

Latest

New vaccination site will be dedicated to essential union workers

Pat Nabong/Sun-Times

Mayor Lori Lightfoot on Monday announced a new vaccination site in partnership with the Chicago Federation of Labor that will help get doses of COVID-19 vaccine into the arms of essential union workers.

Lightfoot said the site will be able to handle about 1,200 vaccinations weekly at first and can grow to 6,000 weekly as vaccine supply increases.

The announcement comes as the city expands eligibility requirements to what’s called Phase 1C. That expansion includes residents ages 16 to 64 with underlying medical conditions, such as chronic kidney disease or cancer.

It also will allow vaccination for those working in construction, retail, restaurants and all other essential workers who had not previously been eligible.

“You all know this, but it bears repeating. Chicago is 100% a union town,” the mayor said in making the announcement at the vaccination site, the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 399, 2260 S. Grove St.

“It’s our union workers who make up the backbone of this city.”

Those wishing to be vaccinated at Local 399 must live or work in Chicago, hold a current union card or be a union retiree, and qualify under the city’s current eligibility criteria.

Read the full story from Manny Ramos here.

News

9:32 a.m. Mayor’s plan for $1.8 billion in federal relief won’t go to City Council until May or June

Last month, a divided City Council authorized another round of federal coronavirus relief despite the political furor triggered by Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s decision to use $281.5 million from earlier funds to cover police payroll costs.

It looks like aldermen must wait a while for Round 2 of what is certain to be a battle royal over the $1.8 billion avalanche of federal money on its way to Chicago.

“I would expect that we probably won’t be taking a package to City Council [until] at the earliest, May, and it may not be ’til June,” the mayor said Monday.

Lightfoot’s timetable did not sit well with downtown Ald. Brian Hopkins (2nd).

“We need to have more involvement in the preparation of that package. Nobody wants a done deal dropped in our laps at the last minute and then say, ‘Take it or leave it. Vote it up or down,'” Hopkins said.

“All the aldermen I’ve talked to about this have expressed an interest in being involved in the prioritization of it. … There’s gonna be a healthy disagreement among the various caucuses within the City Council about what a top priority should be. But we should be a part of that debate.”

Read the full story from Fran Spielman here.

New Cases & Vaccination Numbers

• The Chicago Department of Public Health reported 438 new confirmed cases, 3 deaths and a test positivity rate of 4%.
• Another 110,211 shots went into arms on Saturday.
• Over 6.2 million vaccine doses have been sent to providers in Illinois and more than 2 million residents have now been fully vaccinated, officials said.

Read More