February 29, 2024 • 27 mins
Clifton Brown interviews Ravens President Sashi Brown about his life and career, including making history in the business of football and beyond.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
When your last name is Brown, you're always running into
people with the same last name. One year, when I
played Little league baseball, there were two other Browns on
my team. I was a little annoyed that we had
all had Brown stenciled on the back of our jerseys
because I wanted to stand out. I came home and
asked my dad, don't you wish we had a more
(00:21):
unique last name. He looked at me and said, Jim
Brown was pretty unique at football. I think he's the
best running backero ever lived. James Brown's a pretty unique entertainer.
They call him the Godfather of soul. I think he's
doing okay. It's not the name, Son, it's the person
behind it. If you do good things, people will remember
(00:44):
your name. Welcome to Black in the NFL. I'm your host,
Clifton Brown. Today's episode is Presidential Poise, and my guest
is Sashi Brown, president of the Baltimore Ravens. As we
sell a great Black History Month, why not hear from
someone who's making history, a person named Brown who has
(01:06):
definitely made a name for himself. Sash Brown was appointed
president of the Baltimore Ravens in twenty twenty two, becoming
only the second black team president in NFL history. Sassei
has a diverse and impressive background as an attorney and
sports executive. He began his career as an attorney at
the Washington, DC based law firm Wilmer Hale and in
(01:28):
twenty fifteen was named to the Sports Business Journal's forty
under forty list. Prior to joining the Baltimore Ravens, Sasi
worked for Monumental Sports and Entertainment, serving as president of
Monumental Basketball and as a special advisor to the Chief
executive Officer. Sassi has previously been executive vice president of
(01:48):
football Operations for the Cleveland Browns and spent eight years
with the Jacksonville Jaguars as senior vice president and general counsel. Clearly,
Sashi is a heavy hit, but in a much different
way than Rokwan Smith or Ray Lewis. He's making his
mark as an NFL executive leading an organization committed to
(02:09):
making its mark both on the field and in the community.
Let's hear it from sasse about his life and career
as it pertains the black history. Thank you here. We're
here with Sassy Brown, President of the Baltimore Ravens on
this edition to black NFL sas thanks for doing this.
Really appreciated one of the fans to hear from you
(02:31):
Black History Month. Obviously, you know, being president of Ravens
or a trailblazer, wanted to give people a chance to
get to know you a little bit. So thanks for being.
Speaker 2 (02:40):
Here, Thanks for having me. Good to be with you all.
So let's start with this.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
Can you share some figures in Black history who have
been inspirational to you and why?
Speaker 2 (02:51):
Yeah, you know, there are probably too many to name,
but certainly, you know, I think folks that were probably
closer to me a little less known, but I really
don't have to go outside my family to understand kind
of their lineage. I think, more so than historical luminaries,
(03:12):
I always looked and learned from the everyday experiences. You know,
my dad grew up in an interesting time. You know,
I'm the first generation outside Jim Crow or segregation in
my family's lineage. So you know, his buddies growing up
were guys that were the first to go to some
of integrate some of the colleges, institutions or companies, and
(03:36):
so I always took a lot from their lessons and
understood like a challenges as I thought my days were
not even close.
Speaker 1 (03:45):
Yeah, then, can you give us your father's name? And
was he a college professor? Give me a little background.
Speaker 2 (03:52):
My mom and father were both college professors. My mom
was a college professor at Weelock College and Austin. My
father was at Northeastern University. She was a professor of education,
so she taught teachers wonderful, wonderful. And my father was
a music professor ethnic music collegey said the world Music's
(04:14):
and a jazz musician. And you know, as you can imagine,
the house was full of homework assignments.
Speaker 1 (04:21):
We're not negotiable, right, Well, you've learned the importance of
education right in the house.
Speaker 2 (04:27):
That's right, that's right, that's excellent.
Speaker 1 (04:29):
Now, you attended an HBCU Hampton University before you attended
Harvard Law School, so obviously the product of HBCU. Curious
what attracted you to go to Hampston Hampton University.
Speaker 2 (04:42):
It was just great school right period, regardless of whether
it's a p w I or HBCU. But it's also
got a family legacy for me. I don't know if
folks are familiar with Hampton, it sits and is probably
one of the most beautiful campuses of any in the country.
But you know what really attracted me was I wanted
(05:04):
to at the time be on air as an ESPN broadcaster,
and Hampton had a great student run radio program and
television broadcast program. So if I went to a Syracuse,
a Northwestern of Rutgers, some of the premier you know programs,
those were all slots for grad students. Hampton actually as
(05:25):
undergrad they would allow select number of students to actually
be on air and get some of that experience. And
I had that experience there. I wasn't very good at it,
but I had the experience nonetheless. So Hampton was just
a great school. I roned a scholarship there. But my
family also had spent some time at various HPCs. My
grandfather was a college professor at Kentucky State as chemistry professor,
(05:48):
had an uncle, great uncle that went to Hampton himself,
so a lot of it was just in our family lenags.
My dad went to Howard and Kentucky State as well,
so you know that's in the genes.
Speaker 1 (06:00):
Now, how do you think going to an HBCU shaped
you in what ways? You know, not just educationally, but
I guess your view as a young man getting ready
to go out into the world.
Speaker 2 (06:11):
You know, a lot of different ways. College is just
such a transformational time in young folks lives. It's your
first time independent. You're forming your own views about the
world as an independent adult and making you know, really
important decisions about you know, who you hang around, what
you really want to be about your work ethic, what
(06:34):
you want to aim towards in an academic and professional career.
So all those things are happening at the same time.
You know, at a historically black college like Hampton, you know,
there were I think a focus and a commitment to
educating young black students that was unique. So for instance,
the woman who ran the honors college at Hampton, who
(06:55):
was very inspirational to me and really got my button gear,
so to speak, was almost like a great aunt, was
a woman named Freddie Davey, And her legacy was she
was one of the very young teachers who was recruited
to train the Little Rock nine when they went into
the first integrated school in Arkansas post segregation. And so
(07:19):
you can imagine she's had a lifetime of educating excellence
in academics and so you know, those types of experiences
and people on some of these campuses Howard Morehouse A
and T have that focus and commitment to bringing along
young African Americans, but just young students generally. It's something
(07:39):
that's unique to those spaces in those campuses.
Speaker 1 (07:42):
Right now. Born in Boston, I know you spent time
of you was in Middletown, Connecticut. Can you just tell
me about I guess how growing up there? How was
it culturally? You know, the racial dynamics and some things
that you can look back in your life that kind
of shaped your vision of, you know, being inclusive and
(08:04):
just the way that shaped you as some of your
thoughts on having an inclusive workplace and also inclusive society.
Speaker 2 (08:12):
Yeah, you know, my folks were very intentional about exposing
us to the world right and a lot of diversity,
whether it was the food we ate, but you know,
we had friends from all kinds of ethnic religious background,
spoke all kinds of different languages, and I think they
(08:33):
were pretty intentional about that. And so one of the
things that I'm most proud of and I think is
a great reflection and I try to impart upon my kids,
is our closest friends. What we consider family come from
all walks of life, okay, socioeconomically, ethnically, religiously, and you know,
(08:54):
it's really about acceptance. And I grew up in a
part of the world and a part of this country
that had a lot of that diversity. Middletown was very
small town on the river in Connecticut, huge Italian and
Sicilian immigrant population, so grew up with that and have
some of the unique phraseology that some of my young
(09:16):
friends would teach me inappropriately in school. But I remember
with growing up with kids from Vietnam and Cambodia and
you know, all over the place, and likewise, you know
that that's what I try to make sure that we
try to have the same experience for our kids and
expose them so that they can really be I think
(09:38):
acclimated to the fact that goodness, fun, friends, value comes
in all types of different shapes and sizes, And certainly,
when you know, we think about leadership, our fan base.
One of the things I love walking around in our
stateium and I do it every single game. I get
in early check on coach touch base with E and
(10:00):
then I'm out and about with the fans and one
of the things I love about the Ravens is it
is the unifying force in our community to bring our
people together. And I mean everybody in Baltimore is at
a Ravens game, right, people from all walks of life.
And that's just a beautiful thing to experience. And it's
a nice thing to be able to do that, you know,
(10:22):
on Sundays, which you know, I think have been referred
to sometimes the most segregated times in the US. I
actually think our games are the most integrated times that
you that you can see in the United States. So,
you know, reverse that and put that on its head
a little bit. But yeah, that's what it was like
growing up in the Northeast and Boston, in a very
diverse city in Connecticut.
Speaker 1 (10:42):
Likewise, Yeah, I know that you, as a graduate of Hampton,
you know, asked to come back there and you and
you talk to students and they have a lot of questions,
you know, how do I get to be a saucy Brown,
how do I get to work for an NFL team?
And in the midst of pursuing their dreams, you know,
I know a lot of young people, especially young black people,
(11:02):
think that they're facing some unspoken barriers maybe after they
get a job that maybe they're you know, not of
sending the way that they feel that they should because
they're black. What kind of advice do you give the
young people who feel that they may be facing some
barriers just because that they're black, and how do they
get past that one?
Speaker 2 (11:23):
I think, being realistic, they're probably right about some of that.
But there's all kinds of barriers that all kinds of
people face as well. There's no easy path to, you know,
some of these premier positions out there, and so you
have a choice to make. You can get hung up
and focus on that, or you can keep moving and
(11:46):
you know, so, I think my advice to people is,
no matter what you do, what color you are, what
gender you are, what God you pray to, there's going
to be somebody out there that just doesn't feel like
you are as good as you are. And you can
either adhere to that and get caught up in that
and wrestle with that for a while and get distracted
by that, or you can use that as motivation to
(12:08):
move on and listen. I've had plenty of examples in
my life where I've run into things that could distract
me but I think consistently, what I've tried to do
is make the decision to have the confidence of myself,
have the faith of myself, and keep on moving, pushing on.
Good Man.
Speaker 1 (12:24):
When you became the Area's president in twenty twenty two,
you and Jason Wright and the Commanders are the only
black team presidents in the NFL. Since then, three more
black team president have joined the ranks, Kevin Moore and
the Bears, Demani Leads to the Broncos, and sandsra Douglas
Morgan of the Raiders, who is the first black female
team president in NFL history. What's your reaction to this
(12:48):
trend and what are some keys to unlocking some more
opportunities for black people who are looking to assend to
the executive level in sports.
Speaker 2 (12:57):
Yeah, so at first I'd say, you know, my my
good friend Kevin Warman was probably realistically the first, he
might not have had the title, but okay, in substance,
you know, I think you know, what he was doing
at the vikings and what he was doing there was was,
you know, I think, really something that that caught a
lot of people's attention, and you know, so we always
(13:18):
give him credit when the five or six of us
get together. Excellent, We laugh with him, but nonetheless, I mean,
I think it's about you know, Jason, you know, appointment
at the Commanders was a watershed moment because it did
come with the title and acknowledgment that he was, you know,
put in charge of that that organization and run it.
(13:38):
And I think he's done his best in a pretty
challenging circumstance, I should say, very challenging circumstance to try
to steady that ship, you know. To your question about
what can we do to provide more opportunities, I think
the League's done a heck of a job. Roger Goodell,
(14:00):
Dashah Smith, others. Jonathan Jones up at the League put
a lot of emphasis on this in terms of making
sure that there are pools of candidates and people are
are aware. I think the League has really opened its
mind up to what it means to be a great
leader of an organization, and you know, increasingly so. The
(14:24):
realities is just just a lot of talent out there
in all shapes and sizes, and organizations in the NFL
and elsewhere really have challenged themselves and need to continue
to challenge themselves. Are we finding the best people if
we are historically in over decades, homogeneous, you know, we
(14:45):
look the same, it's the same male, same color. Can
we possibly you know, be thinking that the best candidate
is always comes in the same shape or form. And
so we've had a lot of those conversations over the
numerous places I've been in a pretty male dominated sports
(15:05):
world that that really challenges that. And what you find
is there's a ton of challenge. There's a ton of
talent out there rather that comes from folks of color
and women in particular. But I think the NFL's record
is to be commended in terms of some of the
recent hires. At the same time, you know, from Asian, Hispanic,
(15:30):
Pacific Islander mindset, Native and even female to large extent,
there's still a huge gap, and even African American, I
think there's huge gaps. So still work to be done,
and I do think the count right conversations are being had,
and so I think we'll continue to see more progress.
But I know there's a lot of folks out there
(15:51):
that are right for that change that happens sooner rather
than later. It's been too long.
Speaker 1 (15:55):
Right right now, you and your wife Page have four
wonderful children. You guys decided to name your children after
influential black figures, So I wanted to ask you why
you guys made that decision and what their names are
and who they're named after.
Speaker 2 (16:14):
We wanted to put as much pressure on them as
we no, I tease. We love and we've got four beautiful,
beautiful children. Nanda's the baby. She's actually the one that's
not named after Okay, Ananda, she's named after. We ran
out of kids and we were trying to get all
the the aunts and uncles you know, in and so
(16:35):
Ananda is named after my brother and my sister in law.
And then Zora is named after Zord Hurston. That's our
daughter who's seven. Her middle name is Lynn, named after
his shares a middle name with my sister. So now
we have all the siblings taken care of. And then
we go to Ellison A Nico. Ellison is named after
(16:56):
Ralph Ellison. And then Robison Kai, who is named after Paul,
who was you know, one of my great heroes.
Speaker 1 (17:02):
Okay, now I guess how what was your thought process
in there, and how much do you guys talk about
you know that connects you talked about jokingly putting pressure
on them, but there obviously was something in your mind
that you wanted to instill in them. That that is,
I guess people who they who you admired, who you
(17:25):
wanted them to know about. So I just I guess
if you could talk a little bit deeper about why
you thought, even from the beginning, you wanted to instill
that in them.
Speaker 2 (17:33):
Yet, first, we liked the names. We thought all the
names were cool, and so so we we had both
Paige and I. We never found out whether we had
a boy or girl, so we have girl's name, boy's
name for each or for each kid. And we went
back and forth. But we thought the historical significance of
(17:53):
those human beings was important for them to understand. And
uh and and not to put pressure on them, I joke,
but really for them to understand. And too often, as
we're finding, I think in our political moments now, we
forget our history very quickly, and it's important for us
not to. So we thought this is a great way
(18:14):
to let them live with that, and we don't beat
them over the head with it, but they understand who
those figures are, not because those individuals are so important.
But I think the consciousness that something came before you
and that others sacrificed a great deal for you to
be here. We live in, you know, one of the
greatest countries in the world and in history and come
(18:38):
from a people that have a really interesting and beautiful history.
Challenge as it may be, but a tremendous amount of
triumph in that and that if that puts pressure on
and that's probably a good thing, because we all be
accountable to those that sacrifice so much for us to.
Speaker 1 (18:55):
Be here, Right, you kind of alluded to it, But
that kind of leads me to my next question about
you know, you read a lot of black history. Your
parents encourage you to read black history when you were
growing up. How important is it, you know, we're talking
about trying to educate our young people and have them
know about their history. Is it for them to read
(19:15):
about things in the past to kind of not only
to talk about the past, but have that be a
guide to our future, whether it's something that we want
to repeat, don't want to repeat, or some looking for
some guidance in our history to lead us moving forward.
Speaker 2 (19:34):
Yeah. I think history is a great place for you
to learn and to reflect and it's not just Black history.
That we try to ensure that our kids are conscientious
about all types of history throughout the world. And we
have a lot of conversations over the dinner table, so
(19:55):
you know, I know right now curriculums are under assault
across the world, and I don't want to become too
political with stuff, but I think it's vital that we
as a country, as a world, understand and honest reflection
of kind of what our history is, and it makes
us better. I think there's so much to learn, and
(20:15):
you know, we emphasize that to our kids. And luckily
we've got three and Nan is not reading yet at
too yet, but three voracious readers in the house, and
we have a lot of good conversations and they challenge
us with a lot, so it's surprising what they pick up.
Speaker 1 (20:29):
Right now. You mentioned being a music lover, and you
kind of alluded to, you know, what you wanted to
be in collge. I thought you wanted to be a
play by play person doing you did I had a
radio show, a music radio show, I guess tell me
about that first of all, this show, what was it like,
how much you enjoyed doing it? And is there any
(20:50):
part of you that miss is that Now.
Speaker 2 (20:54):
I just love music, so anything that gets me around
music is great. Music and sports have toes. Until I
met my beautiful wife Page, she became my passion. But no,
I think you know that that was something that was
just near and dear to my heart. When I was
in school and at seventeen, sixteen seventeen, growing up in Connecticut,
(21:17):
not probably twenty minutes down the road from Bristol, I
saw ESPN grow up. Like the first time I saw
ESPN it was on a regional cable network in Connecticut,
and it grew up into this global, you know platform
that it's become today, bought by Disney eventually after ABC.
(21:39):
But because I was so passionate about sports and sports
and television media were merging. As soon as I realized
my jump shot wasn't gonna be good enough, I quickly
transitioned to thinking about how else I could get around
and really make sports part of my day to day.
And then when I got to school, and although I
(21:59):
wanted to do sports journalist sports broadcast journalism, it was
great for me to be able to round that out.
And the way that you got chance to do sports
is you had to get on air first, so well, yeah,
I could do the afternoon jazz program. So I did
an afternoon jazz program, I think it was Thursdays, and
every once in a while I would do the Quiet
Storm at night when they would call me up, which
was the slow jams. We'll talk about that another time.
Speaker 1 (22:23):
I kind of wanted to at least ask you, as
a jazz officionado and out now obviously an R and
B aficianado, if you had to name some of your
time your all time favorite, whether jazz, give me a
few jazz, R and B that like, Hey, I've had
a rough day, a stressful day at the office. I'm
gonna kick back and turn on something to make me
feel good.
Speaker 2 (22:44):
There's so much I'll probably I'm gonna kick a playlist
over to you and then you can share some of that.
But you know, Mike die always that I just think
is like a walk in Beethoven that we just don't appreciate.
So enough is Stevie Wonder. But there's so many artists
out there, but Stevee in particular, I think when you
go back and look at his book of music and
then what he stood for in the eloquence of his
(23:06):
composition and arrangement. And I was reading something the other
day about how he wrote one of Michael Jackson's first
songs and gave it to him for Off the Wall,
and just, you know, some of these things that you
just don't realize just how great he is and certainly
was as I grew up. He was always playing in
the house. He was the go between between my dad,
who was avant garde jazz way okay, and my mom,
(23:28):
who is more r and B. So Stevie Steven was
a nice compromise for us, and we grew up with
a lot of music wuarium in the house and singing
do I do right?
Speaker 1 (23:37):
Right? Oh? Yeah, Well that whole song, that Key of life. Man,
you could just play that all day every day.
Speaker 2 (23:42):
That's it.
Speaker 1 (23:42):
Here's the last question, is I mean, you know, you've
obviously had a lot of people who have inspired you,
and now you're in a unique position. I know you're
a minest guy, but do you how much you think about,
you know, the example you're setting to other people who
can look at you in your position as someone that
they may want to emulate. And in a city like Baltimore,
(24:06):
being a well known figure of a tremendously popular franchise.
I guess your role in kind of shaping that you
might be shaking, shaping a legacy for other black people
to follow, you know, for years to come.
Speaker 2 (24:22):
Yeah, you know, I've thought about this a bit. I
think in time, I look forward to this being less significant,
right and already, like I was a second, but there's
five black Christie's the second, she's female down at female
president down at Carolina. So I applawed the NFL for
the progress that may hopefully this spills over to them,
(24:43):
will be hopefully it spills alter the NHL NBA where
you know, some progresses made w n B A So,
so I hope that becomes less of a thing and
it's less notable because because it's more of the norm.
But I'm also realistic when you look across corporate America
(25:04):
global corporate landscape, that it is unique to find folks
of African American descent and leadership positions. We have this
really unique relationship with M and T Bank, and one
of the fun things about M and T and then
we've got to I think a growing relationship with the
company here excellent. So there's only like seven or eight
(25:27):
black CEOs of fortune five hundred companies. Two of them
are our partners, Renee Jones over M and T. Calvin
Butler over at Excellent. So again, you know, finding that
this is going to increasingly become the norm is my hope.
And I see it. I can see so much talent
and I see some so much openness out there. I
know there's a lot of talk for Musk and others
(25:50):
out there on deis nonsense and there's a backlash against it,
but I see it. I mean, I see the talent
that's coming from schools and young folks that are just
so far ahead of where I was at the time.
I've got a lot of faith that in time it
will it will change. In the meantime, yeah, I'm very
aware that the job that I want to do, the
(26:12):
pressure I put on myself, the decisions we make, will
be judged and looked at with a little bit different lens.
I don't let that preoccupy me, but I take it
very serious. I mean, everywhere we go, we want to
do a great job. Not just a good job, but
a great job. And that's what the raven says stood
for one of the reasons that I was so attracted
to coming here and working for with Steve Bushati is
(26:34):
that he set a value of excellence on everything that
we want to do, and that's something I very much
believe in. It's probably because I'm too damn competitive, but
that's okay if there was ever a space for us
to be that. And that doesn't just go on the field,
it's just when our fans show up M and T
Bank Stadium on Sunday. We want to be the best
experience in the NFL. So it allows me to get
(26:55):
some of that competitive juice out. And we've got a
great team of people here at the Raven that I've
joined in the leadership position that will help us deliver
on that both.
Speaker 1 (27:05):
Saji, appreciate the passion and presence that you bring to
your job. Appreciate you being here and thank you so
much for coming on the special edition of Black and NFL.
Thank you so much now.
Speaker 2 (27:16):
I appreciate being here, always appreciate everything you all do
for us.
Speaker 1 (27:25):
My thanks to Saji Brown for taking part in the
special edition of Black in the NFL. Take care and
be blessed.
When your last name is Brown, you're always running into
people with the same last name. One year, when I
played Little league baseball, there were two other Browns on
my team. I was a little annoyed that we had
all had Brown stenciled on the back of our jerseys
because I wanted to stand out. I came home and
asked my dad, don't you wish we had a more
(00:21):
unique last name. He looked at me and said, Jim
Brown was pretty unique at football. I think he's the
best running backero ever lived. James Brown's a pretty unique entertainer.
They call him the Godfather of soul. I think he's
doing okay. It's not the name, Son, it's the person
behind it. If you do good things, people will remember
(00:44):
your name. Welcome to Black in the NFL. I'm your host,
Clifton Brown. Today's episode is Presidential Poise, and my guest
is Sashi Brown, president of the Baltimore Ravens. As we
sell a great Black History Month, why not hear from
someone who's making history, a person named Brown who has
(01:06):
definitely made a name for himself. Sash Brown was appointed
president of the Baltimore Ravens in twenty twenty two, becoming
only the second black team president in NFL history. Sassei
has a diverse and impressive background as an attorney and
sports executive. He began his career as an attorney at
the Washington, DC based law firm Wilmer Hale and in
(01:28):
twenty fifteen was named to the Sports Business Journal's forty
under forty list. Prior to joining the Baltimore Ravens, Sasi
worked for Monumental Sports and Entertainment, serving as president of
Monumental Basketball and as a special advisor to the Chief
executive Officer. Sassi has previously been executive vice president of
(01:48):
football Operations for the Cleveland Browns and spent eight years
with the Jacksonville Jaguars as senior vice president and general counsel. Clearly,
Sashi is a heavy hit, but in a much different
way than Rokwan Smith or Ray Lewis. He's making his
mark as an NFL executive leading an organization committed to
(02:09):
making its mark both on the field and in the community.
Let's hear it from sasse about his life and career
as it pertains the black history. Thank you here. We're
here with Sassy Brown, President of the Baltimore Ravens on
this edition to black NFL sas thanks for doing this.
Really appreciated one of the fans to hear from you
(02:31):
Black History Month. Obviously, you know, being president of Ravens
or a trailblazer, wanted to give people a chance to
get to know you a little bit. So thanks for being.
Speaker 2 (02:40):
Here, Thanks for having me. Good to be with you all.
So let's start with this.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
Can you share some figures in Black history who have
been inspirational to you and why?
Speaker 2 (02:51):
Yeah, you know, there are probably too many to name,
but certainly, you know, I think folks that were probably
closer to me a little less known, but I really
don't have to go outside my family to understand kind
of their lineage. I think, more so than historical luminaries,
(03:12):
I always looked and learned from the everyday experiences. You know,
my dad grew up in an interesting time. You know,
I'm the first generation outside Jim Crow or segregation in
my family's lineage. So you know, his buddies growing up
were guys that were the first to go to some
of integrate some of the colleges, institutions or companies, and
(03:36):
so I always took a lot from their lessons and
understood like a challenges as I thought my days were
not even close.
Speaker 1 (03:45):
Yeah, then, can you give us your father's name? And
was he a college professor? Give me a little background.
Speaker 2 (03:52):
My mom and father were both college professors. My mom
was a college professor at Weelock College and Austin. My
father was at Northeastern University. She was a professor of education,
so she taught teachers wonderful, wonderful. And my father was
a music professor ethnic music collegey said the world Music's
(04:14):
and a jazz musician. And you know, as you can imagine,
the house was full of homework assignments.
Speaker 1 (04:21):
We're not negotiable, right, Well, you've learned the importance of
education right in the house.
Speaker 2 (04:27):
That's right, that's right, that's excellent.
Speaker 1 (04:29):
Now, you attended an HBCU Hampton University before you attended
Harvard Law School, so obviously the product of HBCU. Curious
what attracted you to go to Hampston Hampton University.
Speaker 2 (04:42):
It was just great school right period, regardless of whether
it's a p w I or HBCU. But it's also
got a family legacy for me. I don't know if
folks are familiar with Hampton, it sits and is probably
one of the most beautiful campuses of any in the country.
But you know what really attracted me was I wanted
(05:04):
to at the time be on air as an ESPN broadcaster,
and Hampton had a great student run radio program and
television broadcast program. So if I went to a Syracuse,
a Northwestern of Rutgers, some of the premier you know programs,
those were all slots for grad students. Hampton actually as
(05:25):
undergrad they would allow select number of students to actually
be on air and get some of that experience. And
I had that experience there. I wasn't very good at it,
but I had the experience nonetheless. So Hampton was just
a great school. I roned a scholarship there. But my
family also had spent some time at various HPCs. My
grandfather was a college professor at Kentucky State as chemistry professor,
(05:48):
had an uncle, great uncle that went to Hampton himself,
so a lot of it was just in our family lenags.
My dad went to Howard and Kentucky State as well,
so you know that's in the genes.
Speaker 1 (06:00):
Now, how do you think going to an HBCU shaped
you in what ways? You know, not just educationally, but
I guess your view as a young man getting ready
to go out into the world.
Speaker 2 (06:11):
You know, a lot of different ways. College is just
such a transformational time in young folks lives. It's your
first time independent. You're forming your own views about the
world as an independent adult and making you know, really
important decisions about you know, who you hang around, what
you really want to be about your work ethic, what
(06:34):
you want to aim towards in an academic and professional career.
So all those things are happening at the same time.
You know, at a historically black college like Hampton, you know,
there were I think a focus and a commitment to
educating young black students that was unique. So for instance,
the woman who ran the honors college at Hampton, who
(06:55):
was very inspirational to me and really got my button gear,
so to speak, was almost like a great aunt, was
a woman named Freddie Davey, And her legacy was she
was one of the very young teachers who was recruited
to train the Little Rock nine when they went into
the first integrated school in Arkansas post segregation. And so
(07:19):
you can imagine she's had a lifetime of educating excellence
in academics and so you know, those types of experiences
and people on some of these campuses Howard Morehouse A
and T have that focus and commitment to bringing along
young African Americans, but just young students generally. It's something
(07:39):
that's unique to those spaces in those campuses.
Speaker 1 (07:42):
Right now. Born in Boston, I know you spent time
of you was in Middletown, Connecticut. Can you just tell
me about I guess how growing up there? How was
it culturally? You know, the racial dynamics and some things
that you can look back in your life that kind
of shaped your vision of, you know, being inclusive and
(08:04):
just the way that shaped you as some of your
thoughts on having an inclusive workplace and also inclusive society.
Speaker 2 (08:12):
Yeah, you know, my folks were very intentional about exposing
us to the world right and a lot of diversity,
whether it was the food we ate, but you know,
we had friends from all kinds of ethnic religious background,
spoke all kinds of different languages, and I think they
(08:33):
were pretty intentional about that. And so one of the
things that I'm most proud of and I think is
a great reflection and I try to impart upon my kids,
is our closest friends. What we consider family come from
all walks of life, okay, socioeconomically, ethnically, religiously, and you know,
(08:54):
it's really about acceptance. And I grew up in a
part of the world and a part of this country
that had a lot of that diversity. Middletown was very
small town on the river in Connecticut, huge Italian and
Sicilian immigrant population, so grew up with that and have
some of the unique phraseology that some of my young
(09:16):
friends would teach me inappropriately in school. But I remember
with growing up with kids from Vietnam and Cambodia and
you know, all over the place, and likewise, you know
that that's what I try to make sure that we
try to have the same experience for our kids and
expose them so that they can really be I think
(09:38):
acclimated to the fact that goodness, fun, friends, value comes
in all types of different shapes and sizes, And certainly,
when you know, we think about leadership, our fan base.
One of the things I love walking around in our
stateium and I do it every single game. I get
in early check on coach touch base with E and
(10:00):
then I'm out and about with the fans and one
of the things I love about the Ravens is it
is the unifying force in our community to bring our
people together. And I mean everybody in Baltimore is at
a Ravens game, right, people from all walks of life.
And that's just a beautiful thing to experience. And it's
a nice thing to be able to do that, you know,
(10:22):
on Sundays, which you know, I think have been referred
to sometimes the most segregated times in the US. I
actually think our games are the most integrated times that
you that you can see in the United States. So,
you know, reverse that and put that on its head
a little bit. But yeah, that's what it was like
growing up in the Northeast and Boston, in a very
diverse city in Connecticut.
Speaker 1 (10:42):
Likewise, Yeah, I know that you, as a graduate of Hampton,
you know, asked to come back there and you and
you talk to students and they have a lot of questions,
you know, how do I get to be a saucy Brown,
how do I get to work for an NFL team?
And in the midst of pursuing their dreams, you know,
I know a lot of young people, especially young black people,
(11:02):
think that they're facing some unspoken barriers maybe after they
get a job that maybe they're you know, not of
sending the way that they feel that they should because
they're black. What kind of advice do you give the
young people who feel that they may be facing some
barriers just because that they're black, and how do they
get past that one?
Speaker 2 (11:23):
I think, being realistic, they're probably right about some of that.
But there's all kinds of barriers that all kinds of
people face as well. There's no easy path to, you know,
some of these premier positions out there, and so you
have a choice to make. You can get hung up
and focus on that, or you can keep moving and
(11:46):
you know, so, I think my advice to people is,
no matter what you do, what color you are, what
gender you are, what God you pray to, there's going
to be somebody out there that just doesn't feel like
you are as good as you are. And you can
either adhere to that and get caught up in that
and wrestle with that for a while and get distracted
by that, or you can use that as motivation to
(12:08):
move on and listen. I've had plenty of examples in
my life where I've run into things that could distract
me but I think consistently, what I've tried to do
is make the decision to have the confidence of myself,
have the faith of myself, and keep on moving, pushing on.
Good Man.
Speaker 1 (12:24):
When you became the Area's president in twenty twenty two,
you and Jason Wright and the Commanders are the only
black team presidents in the NFL. Since then, three more
black team president have joined the ranks, Kevin Moore and
the Bears, Demani Leads to the Broncos, and sandsra Douglas
Morgan of the Raiders, who is the first black female
team president in NFL history. What's your reaction to this
(12:48):
trend and what are some keys to unlocking some more
opportunities for black people who are looking to assend to
the executive level in sports.
Speaker 2 (12:57):
Yeah, so at first I'd say, you know, my my
good friend Kevin Warman was probably realistically the first, he
might not have had the title, but okay, in substance,
you know, I think you know, what he was doing
at the vikings and what he was doing there was was,
you know, I think, really something that that caught a
lot of people's attention, and you know, so we always
(13:18):
give him credit when the five or six of us
get together. Excellent, We laugh with him, but nonetheless, I mean,
I think it's about you know, Jason, you know, appointment
at the Commanders was a watershed moment because it did
come with the title and acknowledgment that he was, you know,
put in charge of that that organization and run it.
(13:38):
And I think he's done his best in a pretty
challenging circumstance, I should say, very challenging circumstance to try
to steady that ship, you know. To your question about
what can we do to provide more opportunities, I think
the League's done a heck of a job. Roger Goodell,
(14:00):
Dashah Smith, others. Jonathan Jones up at the League put
a lot of emphasis on this in terms of making
sure that there are pools of candidates and people are
are aware. I think the League has really opened its
mind up to what it means to be a great
leader of an organization, and you know, increasingly so. The
(14:24):
realities is just just a lot of talent out there
in all shapes and sizes, and organizations in the NFL
and elsewhere really have challenged themselves and need to continue
to challenge themselves. Are we finding the best people if
we are historically in over decades, homogeneous, you know, we
(14:45):
look the same, it's the same male, same color. Can
we possibly you know, be thinking that the best candidate
is always comes in the same shape or form. And
so we've had a lot of those conversations over the
numerous places I've been in a pretty male dominated sports
(15:05):
world that that really challenges that. And what you find
is there's a ton of challenge. There's a ton of
talent out there rather that comes from folks of color
and women in particular. But I think the NFL's record
is to be commended in terms of some of the
recent hires. At the same time, you know, from Asian, Hispanic,
(15:30):
Pacific Islander mindset, Native and even female to large extent,
there's still a huge gap, and even African American, I
think there's huge gaps. So still work to be done,
and I do think the count right conversations are being had,
and so I think we'll continue to see more progress.
But I know there's a lot of folks out there
(15:51):
that are right for that change that happens sooner rather
than later. It's been too long.
Speaker 1 (15:55):
Right right now, you and your wife Page have four
wonderful children. You guys decided to name your children after
influential black figures, So I wanted to ask you why
you guys made that decision and what their names are
and who they're named after.
Speaker 2 (16:14):
We wanted to put as much pressure on them as
we no, I tease. We love and we've got four beautiful,
beautiful children. Nanda's the baby. She's actually the one that's
not named after Okay, Ananda, she's named after. We ran
out of kids and we were trying to get all
the the aunts and uncles you know, in and so
(16:35):
Ananda is named after my brother and my sister in law.
And then Zora is named after Zord Hurston. That's our
daughter who's seven. Her middle name is Lynn, named after
his shares a middle name with my sister. So now
we have all the siblings taken care of. And then
we go to Ellison A Nico. Ellison is named after
(16:56):
Ralph Ellison. And then Robison Kai, who is named after Paul,
who was you know, one of my great heroes.
Speaker 1 (17:02):
Okay, now I guess how what was your thought process
in there, and how much do you guys talk about
you know that connects you talked about jokingly putting pressure
on them, but there obviously was something in your mind
that you wanted to instill in them. That that is,
I guess people who they who you admired, who you
(17:25):
wanted them to know about. So I just I guess
if you could talk a little bit deeper about why
you thought, even from the beginning, you wanted to instill
that in them.
Speaker 2 (17:33):
Yet, first, we liked the names. We thought all the
names were cool, and so so we we had both
Paige and I. We never found out whether we had
a boy or girl, so we have girl's name, boy's
name for each or for each kid. And we went
back and forth. But we thought the historical significance of
(17:53):
those human beings was important for them to understand. And
uh and and not to put pressure on them, I joke,
but really for them to understand. And too often, as
we're finding, I think in our political moments now, we
forget our history very quickly, and it's important for us
not to. So we thought this is a great way
(18:14):
to let them live with that, and we don't beat
them over the head with it, but they understand who
those figures are, not because those individuals are so important.
But I think the consciousness that something came before you
and that others sacrificed a great deal for you to
be here. We live in, you know, one of the
greatest countries in the world and in history and come
(18:38):
from a people that have a really interesting and beautiful history.
Challenge as it may be, but a tremendous amount of
triumph in that and that if that puts pressure on
and that's probably a good thing, because we all be
accountable to those that sacrifice so much for us to.
Speaker 1 (18:55):
Be here, Right, you kind of alluded to it, But
that kind of leads me to my next question about
you know, you read a lot of black history. Your
parents encourage you to read black history when you were
growing up. How important is it, you know, we're talking
about trying to educate our young people and have them
know about their history. Is it for them to read
(19:15):
about things in the past to kind of not only
to talk about the past, but have that be a
guide to our future, whether it's something that we want
to repeat, don't want to repeat, or some looking for
some guidance in our history to lead us moving forward.
Speaker 2 (19:34):
Yeah. I think history is a great place for you
to learn and to reflect and it's not just Black history.
That we try to ensure that our kids are conscientious
about all types of history throughout the world. And we
have a lot of conversations over the dinner table, so
(19:55):
you know, I know right now curriculums are under assault
across the world, and I don't want to become too
political with stuff, but I think it's vital that we
as a country, as a world, understand and honest reflection
of kind of what our history is, and it makes
us better. I think there's so much to learn, and
(20:15):
you know, we emphasize that to our kids. And luckily
we've got three and Nan is not reading yet at
too yet, but three voracious readers in the house, and
we have a lot of good conversations and they challenge
us with a lot, so it's surprising what they pick up.
Speaker 1 (20:29):
Right now. You mentioned being a music lover, and you
kind of alluded to, you know, what you wanted to
be in collge. I thought you wanted to be a
play by play person doing you did I had a
radio show, a music radio show, I guess tell me
about that first of all, this show, what was it like,
how much you enjoyed doing it? And is there any
(20:50):
part of you that miss is that Now.
Speaker 2 (20:54):
I just love music, so anything that gets me around
music is great. Music and sports have toes. Until I
met my beautiful wife Page, she became my passion. But no,
I think you know that that was something that was
just near and dear to my heart. When I was
in school and at seventeen, sixteen seventeen, growing up in Connecticut,
(21:17):
not probably twenty minutes down the road from Bristol, I
saw ESPN grow up. Like the first time I saw
ESPN it was on a regional cable network in Connecticut,
and it grew up into this global, you know platform
that it's become today, bought by Disney eventually after ABC.
(21:39):
But because I was so passionate about sports and sports
and television media were merging. As soon as I realized
my jump shot wasn't gonna be good enough, I quickly
transitioned to thinking about how else I could get around
and really make sports part of my day to day.
And then when I got to school, and although I
(21:59):
wanted to do sports journalist sports broadcast journalism, it was
great for me to be able to round that out.
And the way that you got chance to do sports
is you had to get on air first, so well, yeah,
I could do the afternoon jazz program. So I did
an afternoon jazz program, I think it was Thursdays, and
every once in a while I would do the Quiet
Storm at night when they would call me up, which
was the slow jams. We'll talk about that another time.
Speaker 1 (22:23):
I kind of wanted to at least ask you, as
a jazz officionado and out now obviously an R and
B aficianado, if you had to name some of your
time your all time favorite, whether jazz, give me a
few jazz, R and B that like, Hey, I've had
a rough day, a stressful day at the office. I'm
gonna kick back and turn on something to make me
feel good.
Speaker 2 (22:44):
There's so much I'll probably I'm gonna kick a playlist
over to you and then you can share some of that.
But you know, Mike die always that I just think
is like a walk in Beethoven that we just don't appreciate.
So enough is Stevie Wonder. But there's so many artists
out there, but Stevee in particular, I think when you
go back and look at his book of music and
then what he stood for in the eloquence of his
(23:06):
composition and arrangement. And I was reading something the other
day about how he wrote one of Michael Jackson's first
songs and gave it to him for Off the Wall,
and just, you know, some of these things that you
just don't realize just how great he is and certainly
was as I grew up. He was always playing in
the house. He was the go between between my dad,
who was avant garde jazz way okay, and my mom,
(23:28):
who is more r and B. So Stevie Steven was
a nice compromise for us, and we grew up with
a lot of music wuarium in the house and singing
do I do right?
Speaker 1 (23:37):
Right? Oh? Yeah, Well that whole song, that Key of life. Man,
you could just play that all day every day.
Speaker 2 (23:42):
That's it.
Speaker 1 (23:42):
Here's the last question, is I mean, you know, you've
obviously had a lot of people who have inspired you,
and now you're in a unique position. I know you're
a minest guy, but do you how much you think about,
you know, the example you're setting to other people who
can look at you in your position as someone that
they may want to emulate. And in a city like Baltimore,
(24:06):
being a well known figure of a tremendously popular franchise.
I guess your role in kind of shaping that you
might be shaking, shaping a legacy for other black people
to follow, you know, for years to come.
Speaker 2 (24:22):
Yeah, you know, I've thought about this a bit. I
think in time, I look forward to this being less significant,
right and already, like I was a second, but there's
five black Christie's the second, she's female down at female
president down at Carolina. So I applawed the NFL for
the progress that may hopefully this spills over to them,
(24:43):
will be hopefully it spills alter the NHL NBA where
you know, some progresses made w n B A So,
so I hope that becomes less of a thing and
it's less notable because because it's more of the norm.
But I'm also realistic when you look across corporate America
(25:04):
global corporate landscape, that it is unique to find folks
of African American descent and leadership positions. We have this
really unique relationship with M and T Bank, and one
of the fun things about M and T and then
we've got to I think a growing relationship with the
company here excellent. So there's only like seven or eight
(25:27):
black CEOs of fortune five hundred companies. Two of them
are our partners, Renee Jones over M and T. Calvin
Butler over at Excellent. So again, you know, finding that
this is going to increasingly become the norm is my hope.
And I see it. I can see so much talent
and I see some so much openness out there. I
know there's a lot of talk for Musk and others
(25:50):
out there on deis nonsense and there's a backlash against it,
but I see it. I mean, I see the talent
that's coming from schools and young folks that are just
so far ahead of where I was at the time.
I've got a lot of faith that in time it
will it will change. In the meantime, yeah, I'm very
aware that the job that I want to do, the
(26:12):
pressure I put on myself, the decisions we make, will
be judged and looked at with a little bit different lens.
I don't let that preoccupy me, but I take it
very serious. I mean, everywhere we go, we want to
do a great job. Not just a good job, but
a great job. And that's what the raven says stood
for one of the reasons that I was so attracted
to coming here and working for with Steve Bushati is
(26:34):
that he set a value of excellence on everything that
we want to do, and that's something I very much
believe in. It's probably because I'm too damn competitive, but
that's okay if there was ever a space for us
to be that. And that doesn't just go on the field,
it's just when our fans show up M and T
Bank Stadium on Sunday. We want to be the best
experience in the NFL. So it allows me to get
(26:55):
some of that competitive juice out. And we've got a
great team of people here at the Raven that I've
joined in the leadership position that will help us deliver
on that both.
Speaker 1 (27:05):
Saji, appreciate the passion and presence that you bring to
your job. Appreciate you being here and thank you so
much for coming on the special edition of Black and NFL.
Thank you so much now.
Speaker 2 (27:16):
I appreciate being here, always appreciate everything you all do
for us.
Speaker 1 (27:25):
My thanks to Saji Brown for taking part in the
special edition of Black in the NFL. Take care and
be blessed.
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