Champions crowned in Kendall Hammocks Optimist NFL Flag Football
Indianapolis Colts Cut Former Alabama Defensive Back Again
The Indianapolis Colts switched Ronnie Harrison's position last year and cut him at the end of the preseason. The Colts switched Harrison's position again this year and, on Sunday, cut him at the end of the preseason.
On Sunday, five NFL teams announced their first reductions to move from the preseason total of 90 players to the regular-season limit of 53 men on the active roster. Each NFL team must be down to 53 by 3 p.M. CDT Tuesday, and 41 players were waived and 17 were released on Sunday, according to the NFL's daily transactions report.
While Indianapolis released Harrison, a former Alabama standout, the Jacksonville Jaguars waived wide receiver Seth Williams (Paul Bryant, Auburn) and the New York Giants waived linebacker Trey Kiser (South Alabama) on Sunday.
After 67 regular-season games as an NFL strong safety, Harrison was out of football last year until the Colts signed him halfway through training camp – to play linebacker.
While Harrison was released at the end of the 2023 preseason, Indianapolis brought him back as a member of its practice squad, and he joined the Colts' active roster on Nov. 21. He played in seven games, made 20 tackles, recorded one sack and intercepted two passes, including one he returned 36 yards for a touchdown against the Cincinnati Bengals on Dec. 10.
On March 14, Harrison re-signed with Indianapolis, and he worked during training camp at free safety. During the Colts' three preseason games, Harrison was on the field for 68 defensive snaps and 35 special-teams plays, and he recorded five tackles on defense, three tackles on special teams, one tackle for loss and one quarterback hit.
A seventh-round draft choice of Denver in 2021, Williams played in two games for the Broncos as a rookie before spending the past two seasons on Jacksonville's practice squad. Williams had three receptions for 15 yards this month in the Jaguars' preseason games.
Kiser signed with Jacksonville as an undrafted rookie on May 10, but the Jaguars waived him on July 30. With injuries affecting the linebacker position, the Giants signed Kiser on Monday, and he played eight defensive snaps and 11 special-teams plays and made one tackle in a 10-6 loss to the New York Jets in the preseason finale on Saturday.
FOR MORE OF AL.COM'S COVERAGE OF THE NFL, GO TO OUR NFL PAGE
Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at @AMarkG1.
If you purchase a product or register for an account through a link on our site, we may receive compensation. By using this site, you consent to our User Agreement and agree that your clicks, interactions, and personal information may be collected, recorded, and/or stored by us and social media and other third-party partners in accordance with our Privacy Policy.
Colts' Quenton Nelson On Bernhard Raimann: 'That's My Left Tackle'
Indianapolis Colts guard Quenton Nelson loves to run the damn ball. That only works, though, if your fellow offensive linemen love to run the damn ball, too.
Thankfully for Big Q, his teammates share that same passion. The Colts' star lineman spoke on the brotherhood of the group on Zaire Franklin's "The Trenches" podcast and shared a story on left tackle Bernhard Raimann that highlights his grit.
With Bernhard... He's only been playing O-Line for a few years now. For him to be doing what he's doing, playing as a top-five tackle. There were some downs... Also some injuries, which, he didn't even f***ing flinch. The trainer was like, 'You have a grade 2 high ankle sprain and it's two minutes left and we're down 20 points, do you want to come out of the game?' and he's like, "F*** no!"... That's when I knew, that's my left tackle.
- Quenton Nelson, Colts GWhat happens next for the Colts? Don't miss out on any news and analysis! Take a second and sign up for our free newsletter and get breaking Colts news delivered to your inbox daily!
Raimann, 26, is entering his third year in the league. Indy's left tackle was born in Vienna, Austria, and grew up there until committing to Central Michigan University to play tight end. After two seasons, Raimann switched to left tackle and earned the Offensive Player of the Year award for the Mid-American Conference from Pro Football Focus.
The Colts took a chance on him in the third round of the 2022 NFL Draft and played him from day one. Now, two years later, Raimann will play his third consecutive season next to an All-Pro quality lineman in Nelson.
Protecting the blindside of second-year quarterback Anthony Richardson is one of the more important jobs on the field. Raimann's pass blocking ability is near the top of the league, making a comfortable pocket for Richardson.
If the Colts keep a healthy group of linemen, the offense could explode with good protection and blocking. Indy opens with a divisional game against the Houston Texans, the perfect stage for this year's group to showcase their improvement.
Want more Colts content? Check out the latest episode of the Horseshoe Huddle Podcast!
Follow Horseshoe Huddle on Facebook and X; subscribe on YouTube for multiple Colts live-stream podcasts per week.
CASEY: 1961 Victory Stadium Protest Preceded Sweeping Civil Rights Changes In Pro Football
The regular NFL season kicks off next week at Arrowhead Stadium in Missouri, when the Kansas City Chiefs host the Baltimore Ravens for a Thursday night game.
That makes now a decent time to reflect back a little more than 60 years, to an NFL preseason matchup right here in the Star City along the banks of the Roanoke River.
Aug. 12, 1961, marked the NFL's second preseason game in Victory Stadium. (The first, in 1949, was a big money-loser.) It featured the Baltimore Colts against the Pittsburgh Steelers. The Steelers won 24-20. But the score was almost a footnote compared to a maelstrom of headlines in the months leading up to the game.
Those focused more on America's growing Civil Rights Movement than football. And that was because of a then-Virginia law that mandated racially segregated seating among fans at entertainment events.
People are also reading…
In Victory Stadium, that statute played out like this: White fans could buy tickets to reserved seats between the field's dual 20-yard-lines. Black fans were relegated mostly to the end zones, usually the worst seats in the house.
But that year, spurred by a Roanoke civil rights leader, Black players on both pro teams threatened to boycott the game if the city of Roanoke enforced segregated seating. Ultimately, Roanoke officials backed down and the game went on as scheduled, with black and white players taking the field, watched by a racially integrated crowd.
A law professor and scholar from the University of Tennessee brought this to my attention in an email last week. His name is Alex Long and he teaches at the university's College of Law in Knoxville.
A graduate of both Cave Spring High and James Madison University, Long earned his legal degree from the College of William and Mary in 1998. He practiced law for a spell, then began teaching it full time, first in West Virginia, then in Oklahoma and now in Tennessee.
He's authored scores of law-journal articles and a number of books. The most recent, published in May, is "Professional Wrestling and the Law: Legal Battles from the Ring to the Courtroom."
While researching that, Long stumbled across news articles about the seating controversy surrounding the 1961 preseason game in Roanoke. Long believes those events, considered in their historical context, constitute an overlooked and possibly seminal moment in America's Civil Rights Movement.
Only two months after that game, "Bill Russell and a couple other members of the Boston Celtics refused to play in a preseason NBA game due to the racism they encountered on the road before the game," Long wrote in an email.
"That event is recognized as the first boycott by professional athletes involving the Civil Rights Movement. I guess that characterization is accurate insofar as Russell and his teammates actually didn't play the game.
"But I'm pretty sure the incident in Roanoke is the first time players actually organized to boycott a game in connection with the Civil Rights Movement. And it was almost certainly the first time such a boycott actually produced a tangible result."
Enter Reuben Lawson, NAACP
Wilkinson
Wilkinson
Dan CaseyOne person key to events surrounding that controversy was the Rev. R.R. Wilkinson, founder of Roanoke's NAACP branch and then-pastor at High Street Baptist Church.
Another was pioneering civil rights attorney Reuben Lawson, who had also led a courtroom battle to desegregate schools in Southwest Virginia. (An effort is now underway in Congress to rename Roanoke's federal courthouse after him.)
Lawson
Lawson
THE ROANOKE TIMES, FileAlso playing roles were C.E. Cuddy, then Roanoke's commonwealth's attorney, and Ran Whittle, then the Roanoke city attorney.
Long wrote a 2,000-word essay on the subject that he said probably will be a basis for his next book, or at least a chapter in it. And he shared that with yours truly.
"The Steelers were led by quarterback Bobby Layne, a future Hall of Famer who was on the downside of his career by this point," Long wrote the essay. "The Colts were led by running back Lenny Moore, who had led the NFL in rushing three seasons in a row and had helped lead the Colts to the 1958 NFL Championship."
Moore, a Black athlete, lived in Baltimore, which was also segregated, Long noted. That meant "the Colts' star player, was sometimes unable to enter certain restaurants and theaters around (Baltimore) despite being a hero on the gridiron," Long noted.
For months preceding the game, the Roanoke Chamber of Commerce had been actively promoting the sale of tickets, which cost $4 (a little more than $40 today, accounting for inflation).
The segregated-seating issue first cropped up months before the game day. The previous April, The Roanoke Times had (somewhat weakly) editorialized against it.
"If spectators are willing to pay to see white and [Black] professionals contesting on the playing field, they can hardly object with any degree of consistency to removing the color line in the spectators' stands," that editorial read. But city officials hardly saw it that way.
"Roanoke Commonwealth's Attorney C.E. Cuddy advised that he 'would prosecute any violation of the law brought into court,'" Long wrote. "So, while Black football fans were welcome to attend the Steelers-Colts game at Victory Stadium, they would have to sit in the end zones or the less desirable seats … or else potentially face criminal prosecution."
Embarrassing for Roanoke, NFL
A few days after publication of that editorial, Reuben Lawson appeared before the Roanoke City Council and asked its members to permit mixed-race seating for the NFL game in Victory Stadium.
"But City Attorney Ran G. Whittle advised the Council that … would amount to a violation of state law, and he saw 'no reason whatsoever why (the Council) should be expected to adopt an ordinance' providing for desegregated seating at the stadium,'" Long wrote, quoting newspaper articles of the day.
Two weeks later, the city council formally rejected Lawson's request. So in June, representing three Black Roanokers, the attorney sued the city and Roanoke Chamber of Commerce in Roanoke Circuit Court.
"Judge Fred L. Hoback dismissed the claim on July 13, concluding that the harm alleged by Lawson's clients was merely speculative," Long wrote, because they had not actually bought game tickets.
"Following Hoback's ruling, Lawson's clients purchased tickets for the game in the 'whites only' section of Victory Stadium," Long added. "Lawson then filed an amended action in Circuit Court on July 13, asserting that a genuine controversy existed since his clients' use of the tickets would subject them 'to the pain and penalty of fine or imprisonment.'
"Given the fact that the defendants had 21 days to file an answer, however, it increasingly looked like the law might not provide a remedy for Lawson and his clients," by game day on Aug. 12.
From the Roanoke World-News, Aug. 8, 1961. The writer, Charles Cox, was the father of longtime former Roanoke Times sports writer Ray Cox.
SCREEN CAPTURE Newspapers.ComEnter the Rev. R.R. Wilkinson, who by then had successfully led a protest to desegregate the lunch counter at Woolworths on Kirk Avenue downtown. Time was short, so the civil rights leader employed one of the most advanced communications technologies of the day — Western Union.
"Wilkinson sent a telegram to several of the Black players on the Colts and Steelers teams asking them to refuse to play in the game," Long wrote in the essay. And the gambit worked.
"Colts star Lenny Moore publicly stated that his fellow Black teammates were '100 percent' against playing before a segregated crowd and were 'trying to work out something,'" Long wrote. "In Pittsburgh, the Black players reportedly informed Coach Buddy Parker that they 'would not cross an NAACP picket line to play in a segregated stadium."
Between the two teams, 19 players threatened to sit out the Aug. 12 game. And that became big news in Baltimore, Pittsburgh, Roanoke and across the nation.
"The situation was embarrassing not only for Roanoke but for the NFL," Long wrote. And it prompted NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle to get involved.
'Most well-behaved bunch'
Just a few days before the kickoff, "representatives from the Colts and Steelers met with members of the Roanoke Chamber of Commerce and NAACP at the Patrick Henry Hotel," Long wrote.
"It's not entirely clear what transpired or what promises were made during the meeting," Long noted in the essay. "But somehow the threat of criminal prosecution for Black attendees sitting in 'whites only' sections seems to have evaporated.
"Longtime Roanoke Times sportswriter Bill Brill quoted Roanoke's director of Parks and Recreation following the meeting as saying that (the city's) Black sandlot football program would be resumed after a two-year layoff. Chamber of Commerce officials stressed that profits from the game would go toward sandlot football.
By Aug. 10, 1961, the NAACP and NFL officials had worked out a deal for the preseason game in Victory Stadium. The teams' 19 Black players agreed to take the field, and Black fans were allowed to sit with white fans, without fear of arrest.
Dan Casey"Rozelle issued a statement, noting that while Rev. Wilkinson was not completely satisfied, 'because of the charities involved, there will be a real benefit to the children of all races.' The game would go on, Rozelle said."
Victory in hand, Wilkinson wryly told reporters that he would "be there rootin' on the 40 yard line" (in what would have been in the 'whites only' section of the stadium)," Long noted.
Fearing a mixed-raced crowd could end as mayhem, city officials beefed up security at the stadium with extra police and members of the National Guard. Fire engines "with hoses were present to disperse unruly crowds if need be," Long wrote.
"But there turned out to be no need for any of it," Long added. "While some Black attendees sat in the end zone, somewhere between 100 and 300 sat in the traditionally whites-only seating without incident. Over 13,000 people attended the game," Long noted.
A newspaper article afterward quoted one fan who described the crowd as "the most orderly, the most well-behaved bunch I ever saw at a game."
And the spinoff effects lasted for years, Long noted.
The day of that game, the NAACP branch in Norfolk called for a boycott of another exhibition game between the Washington Redskins and the Colts, Long noted. By then, Washington was the NFL's only all-white team. (Later that season, Washington integrated by obtaining future Hall of Famer Bobby Mitchell, who was black, in a trade with the Cleveland Browns.)
And four years later, in 1965, Black players in the American Football League emulated the Roanoke protest by threatening to boycott the AFL All-Star game in New Orleans, setting off a firestorm of negative publicity.
"The AFL quickly relocated the game to Houston to avoid further problems," Long wrote.
Long noted that the history of American civil rights depended on "a mixture of attorneys willing to risk public scorn by challenging segregation in the courts and individuals on the ground who were willing to risk their own careers and potentially their lives in pursuit of the cause."
And he added: "Unfortunately, Reuben Lawson didn't live long enough to see this successful boycott of the AFL All-Star Game in 1965. But he and Rev. Raymond Wilkinson deserve credit for having played an important role in the civil rights movement as it related to professional football."
Meanwhile, Long added, "Roanoke can lay claim to having been involved in the first ever successful boycott of an NFL game."
Dive into hometown historyWith a weekly newsletter looking back at local history.
Comments
Post a Comment