Pictures and links come from the Detroit Free Press article written by Scott Talley on 1-10-2023
When the late Calvin Peete (right), a native of Detroit, was inducted into the Michigan Sports Hall of Fame in 2005, Leland Stein III was there to interview the Hall of Fame golfer. Stein’s work has been published in the Michigan Chronicle, New York Amsterdam News, Pittsburgh Courier, Chicago Defender, Los Angeles Sentinel, Black Voice News and other publications and outlets served by the National Newspaper Publishers Association.
Click on the below Detroit Free Press pictorial link on some of Stein’s memorable Detroit sporting moments:
After graduating from Michigan State in 1978, Leland Stein III moved to Los Angeles where he lived for 25 years. In L.A., Stein connected with another MSU Spartan, Magic Johnson, and was a coach at Magic’s Basketball Camp for 7 years. At the camp, Stein also met the late Brad Pye Jr. of the Los Angeles Sentinel, who was referred to by some as the “Jackie Robinson of sports writing.” With encouragement from Pye, Stein began a journey which led to him becoming a sportswriter.
Click on the below Detroit Free Press link to the article:
The below excerpts are from the Detroit Free Press:
Following are some of Stein’s favorite memories of covering Detroit athletes and events through the years.
* As a member of the Michigan Sports Hall of Fame selection committee, I was able to bring an alternative voice and advocate for my former coaches, Sam Washington (2008 inductee) and Ron Thompson (2011). I also had the honor of giving Coach (Ron) Thompson’s acceptance speech.
* At the NFL Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio, I covered the induction of two of my favorite people: Detroit Mackenzie’s own Jerome Bettis (2015) and Barry Sanders (2004).
* My Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity brother, King High coach, James Reynolds, piloted his team to the Public School League’s first Michigan High School Athletic Association football state title at Ford Field in 2007. A triumph for anyone who played in the PSL.
* My beloved Pistons waxed a team I covered for 10 years prior, the Los Angeles Lakers featuring Kobe Bryant, Shaquille O’Neal and Phil Jackson to claim the NBA championship at The Palace of Auburn Hills in 2004.
* Annually, the National Watkins Awards honors the top five Black high school scholar-athletes. Over 30 years, only three metro Detroit scholar-athletes have been finalists: Cass Tech’s Joseph Barksdale in 2007, Inkster High’s Devin Gardner, 2010 and Cass Tech’s Donovan Peoples-Jones, 2017.
* Jerome Bettis (Mackenzie) & Larry Foote (Pershing), two Detroit PSL athletes, led Pittsburgh to Super Bowl glory at Ford Field in 2006. That was one of my most memorable out of 29 Super Bowls covered.
* Magglio Ordóñez hit a three-run homer in Game 4 of the ALCS to punch the Detroit Tigers’ ticket to the 2006 World Series. It was hard keeping my Detroit cool in the press box that day.
* Due to a scheduling conflict at The Palace in 2007, the Detroit Shock’s decisive WNBA Game 5 was played on the banks of the Detroit River at Joe Louis Arena before 19,671. Led by Deanna Nolan, Swin Cash, Cheryl Ford and Katie Smith, the Detroit Ladies won its second WNBA title.
*In 2006 and 2009 I walked under the ropes all 18 holes with Tiger Woods at the Buick Open held at Warwick Hills Golf and Country Club in Grand Blanc, Michigan. Woods won three Buick Opens during the early 2000’s. I can never forget the rowdy 17th hole walking the long fairway close to the ropes parallel to Woods, and watching him almost laugh at the catcalls and sounds coming from the gallery.
Kansas City celebrates the franchise’s third Super Bowl. LS3 – photos
Magic Mahomes’ heroics thrust Kansas City to a 38-35 victory
(Article published 2-14-23 via NNPA news wire services)
By Leland Stein III
GLENDALE, Ariz. – Super Bowl LVII, played before 67,827 in State Farm Stadium, was indeed memorable for me – and I’m sure many others too – for a multitude of reasons.
Surely, this fantastically competed contest was one for the ages, with the Kansas City Chiefs coming back in the second half to down the Philadelphia Eagles 38-35 on a Harrison Butker 27-yard field goal with 8 seconds left in the game.
The Chiefs won their second NFL title in four years and two-time NFL regular season MVP, Patrick Mahomes, earned his second Super Bowl MVP award.
“I thought guys just embraced the moment,” Mahomes said about rallying from a 10-point halftime deficit. “In that first half, we were playing and doing some good stuff, but I felt like the guys were getting consumed by everything around us.”
Mahomes and Jalen Hurts excelled in the first Super Bowl matchup featuring two Black starting quarterbacks, but Mahomes turned it up in the second half after reaggravating a sprained right ankle just before the end of the first half.
Mahomes breaks free on a 26-yard scramble that set up the game-winning field goal.
Of the 30 Super Bowls I’ve covered . . . this one was especially noteworthy and competitive because of its close and controversial conclusion; however, the storylines leading up to, and, during the game were equally compelling.
Firstly, how sweet is it as a parent to have two sons — Jason (Eagles) and Travis (Chiefs) Kelce — play in the same Super Bowl? The brothers are the first siblings to be on opposite sides at a Super Bowl.
“There’s nothing you can really say to a loved one in a situation like that,” explained Travis, who was both happy and sad. “You joke around all the time and say you want to beat your brother on the biggest stage, but it’s a weird feeling. That team had great leadership, great coaches and it came down to the end. There’s nothing I can say to him other than I love him and he played a hell of a year, a hell of a season.”
Said Travis’ older-brother, Jason: “They’ve earned it. I’ve got a lot of respect for everybody in that organization (Chiefs). There’s a lot of people in that organization that gave me my start in this league, including the head coach Andy Reid, so obviously would have liked to win but I’m happy for Trav for sure.”
Even more importantly for me, this was the first Super Bowl where black quarterbacks – Mahomes and Hurts — were starting on opposite teams since the inception of this landmark American sporting event in 1967 at the Los Angeles Coliseum, and also, Hurts and Mahomes combined age made them the youngest opposing quarterbacks in the Big Game’s 57-year history.
AJ Brown corrals a Jalen Hurts pass for a touchdown.
“I’ve thought about it a lot,’ Mahomes, 27, said. “The quarterbacks that came before me — Shack Harris, Doug Williams – that laid the foundation for me to be in this position. It goes across all sports. If you think about Jackie Robinson and the people who broke the color barrier in baseball, I wouldn’t be standing here today if it wasn’t for them.”
Continued Mahomes: “To be lucky enough to be in this position — and play against another great guy like Jalen — it was special. I’m glad we’re here today, but how can we keep moving forward? How can we motivate kids who are younger, who want to follow their dreams to be a quarterback?”
Added Hurts: “I think it’s something that’s worthy of being noted, and it is history. I think it’s only been seven African American quarterbacks to play in the Super Bowl, so to be in that company in an event this big is pretty cool.”
For the record, Doug Williams (in 1988 at Super Bowl XXII) and Russell Wilson (in 2014 at Super Bowl XLVIII) each won the NFL’s biggest prize, but were not able to duplicate their feat.
Mahomes earned his second Super Bowl win — his first came in Miami in 2020 – to became the first black quarterback to win more than one of the NFL’s treasured Vince Lombardi Trophies.
Unfortunately for Hurts and Philly fans, had he and the Eagles come out victorious, he would have become the fourth black quarterback – joining Williams, Wilson and Mahomes — to win the Big Game.
Said Mahomes in the post-game press conference about Hurts: “The way he stepped on this stage, ran, threw the ball, whatever it took for his team to win I mean, that was a special performance. I don’t want it to get lost in the loss that they just had. Whenever we got the momentum, we went up eight points in the fourth quarter and for him to respond and move his team down the football field and run it in himself in a two-point conversion, it was a special performance.”
Travis Kelce came up big for KC, catching six balls and one touchdown.
“You either win, or you learn,” Hurts said. “I’m big on self-reflection and reflecting on the things I could have done better, so I think I’m going to challenge everyone to look at yourself in the mirror and be able to learn from everything.
“It is a very tough feeling to come up short. But I know that the only direction is to rise. And that’ll be the M.O. going forward. That is the mentality.”
After the Kelce brothers, and, the Hurts vs. Mahomes epic battle, it’s hard to single out what were the most memorable game moments from my 30th Super Bowl, because there simply were too many to recall.
After leading the NFL in sacks during the regular season, the Eagles didn’t get to Mahomes once – not once. What about the pivotal holding call on Philadelphia defensive back James Bradbury at the end of the game?
The late-game Bradbury penalty sent Eagle fans and social media into a frenzy, lamenting the referees. I, also hated to see this intense on-field battle being decide by a controversial call, yet here it was.
“It’s never about one play,” said Philadelphia head coach, Nick Sirianni. “I’m not here to debate whether it’s the right call or the wrong call, but of course I don’t like it. I understand that they’ve got to make that call in a split-second decision, but still . . . it never comes down to one play, even though at times it perceives to.”
What about the slip and slide conditions of the State Farm field and its impact on the game? Or Mahomes crazy good scramble on an injured ankle – his longest run all year — to help setup the game winning field goal? Or KC’s scoop and score by linebacker, Nick Bolton, following a Hurts’ fumble that tied the game at 14-14?
Chiefs’ running back, Isiah Pacheco, takes to the air for extra yards.
“I think my left hand might have hit the ball when I was wrapping him up,” exclaimed an obviously elated Bolton, “or he could’ve bobbled it as well. I was really praying for a good bounce and I got one, it popped up right in my hands and I was able to grab it and go.
“I actually had a dream about scooping and scoring in the Super Bowl two nights ago. For it to happen is surreal.”
Or just maybe the Kadarius Toney punt return for the Chiefs was the game’s most important moment. After all, both teams were playing tic-for-tac, exciting football, and, clearly at that point with 10 minutes left in the contest, the game’s outcome was anyone’s to win.
But at 10:33 of the fourth quarter, Toney corralled a Philadelphia punt on his own 38, eight seconds later he had skillfully negotiated the ball 65 yards along an emerging Kansas City picket fence to the Eagles 5-yard line. Toney’s effort produced the longest punt return in Super Bowl history.
“Yeah, I’m proud of those guys,” exclaimed Chiefs head coach, Reid, about his team’s needed contributions from new players. “Heck, we have all these rookies and new players on offense and defense. Each kept getting better every week they brought great energy and they’ve done that all year. Then here comes KT (Toney) coming into this thing late from the Giants and he has a couple of the biggest plays of the game. It’s been like that.”
Toney’s big play ate up 65 crucial yards and drastically changed field position, setting Kansas City up for an easy score.
“It was the right return,” said Toney, “but his punt flew left, so I just had to go out there and make a play. I was just making a play.”
Three plays later, Mahomes connected on short pass to a wide-open Skyy Moore for a 4-yard score that gave the Chiefs a seemingly commanding eight-point advantage at 35-27 and only five minutes left in the game.
Sadly during my long week in the desert it wasn’t very hot at all, but the long-awaited match up of the Chiefs and the Eagles started out hot as a firecracker, and, never cooled.
I have to ask, “Was this a Eagles’ collapse or noteworthy Chiefs’ comeback?”
I say when Magic Mahomes dragged himself off the turf after re-injuring his sprained ankle, it showed grit, and, from there his brilliance just won this game.
Still, Hurts could have, maybe should have joined Dallas’ Hall of Fame linebacker, Chuck Howley, as the second player from a losing team to win the Super Bowl MVP, I wouldn’t have been surprised, because he produced a special performance in the loss.
In closing, I couldn’t be happier for Reid, who has endured some serious family issues, couldn’t win the big game in Philadelphia, but beat his former team to earn his second ring with Mahomes and the Chiefs.
“We wanted to get this so bad for him,” Travis Kelce said. “His legacy in Philly lives on forever. … There’s a lot of pride in knowing that he’s had success in two different organizations, but this was the better one.”
Leland can be reached at lelstein3@aol.com or Twitter @LelandSteinIII
Leland Stein III is a nationally syndicated columnist who has written for the Los Angeles Sentinel, Black Voice News, Chicago Defender, New York Amsterdam News and Michigan Chronicle, just to name a few. He has also been published or is still writing for the following: Michigan Sports Hall of Fame ... Continue reading →
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