I'm not sure how to feel about Major League Baseball's decision to elevate the Negro Leagues to the same status is the major leagues with statistics and records of the Negro Leagues placed alongside their MLB counterparts in the historical record?

On one hand, it's an acknowledgment that baseball played by black people and with black people because of segregation was never inferior.

The games played with all white talent on the other, is typically arrogant.

To act is what black folks did didn't truly matter until white people said.

So I'm not inclined to hammer MLB for this because it does mean well, I'm also not gonna hammer Rob Manfred and company because this could help.

The history of the Negro Leagues remain a mainstream topic in sports.

But my colleague Howard Bryant makes a great point.

This could easily be MLB attempting to erase the Negro Leagues and everything negative that made them necessary.

Those who grew up when baseball was truly America's pastime also grew up.

Hearing about Josh Gibson, Satchel Paige, Andrew Rube Foster and others, they knew about Jackie Robinson, but also Larry Doby, who integrated the American league that's dwindling.

Now there's Jackie Robinson Day, but Robinson's ubiquity as an American hero is fading.

Just like other icons of his day, where older folks need reminders of baseball's black heroes, many young folks don't know anything about them.

Perhaps today's baseball fans will learn more when they hear about the new single season batting average record holder Josh Gibson, who had 4 41 in 1943.

But the bottom line is the Negro Leagues were always major, full of the best talent to which they had access.

It was major League baseball whose name was a misnomer, intentionally less than it could be.

It's good that MLB is acknowledging the greatness of the Negro Leagues, but never say it's validation serves anyone mawr than those who will no longer ignore what was true.

People should also know about the Negro Leagues, its traditions and unmistakable style and flair.

MLB should increase historical awareness, but not at the expense of history.

Nine months ago, when the Utah Jazz is Rudy, Go Bare merely tested positive for Cove in 19.

The entire sports world stopped last weekend when Florida forward Chianti Johnson collapsed on the floor during a game in Tallahassee and was rushed to a nearby hospital, unresponsive.

That game wasn't even shut down.

It was the scariest reminder yet of how some sports in this country have blurred and possibly even crossed lines when it comes to player health in a pandemic with some time to regroup and with Johnson reportedly showing encouraging signs of recovery, the basketball team has postponed its next few games.

It'll be a much needed breather after what must have been an unforgettably terrifying experience.

See, The Associated Press reported that Johnson was one of several Florida players who tested positive for the virus in the summer.

The school hasn't confirmed that, and we don't know what Johnson's teammates knew.

But at that moment, with Johnson on the floor and blood on his face, according to witnesses and all of the unknown still swirling around covitz long term effects those players and coaches decided to continue.

The covert element clearly amplified the fear, and Kentucky coach John Calipari said he'd like to know if it was a factor because he's had players who have tested positive.

But what if we learned Cove?

It was indeed a factor.

Are we shutting down anything again.

Doubtful.

We've already pressed this far.

Johnson's incident somehow won't be the regrettable final straw.

It'll just be another bullet.

Dodged.

Hopefully, yeah.

One man fighting cancer.

The other fought to save his own leg and then salvage his playing career.

The story of this washing football team is so much bigger than wins and losses.

It's about private battles, personal scars, the power of perseverance and a lot of prayer.

There's no need for postseason voting.

Quarterback Alex Smith is the indisputable comeback player of the year, and head coach Ron Rivera has made an impressive case for coach of the year honors with a team that could very well win the NFC East.

Just consider what these men have been through on the football field behind closed doors.

Now think back to the off season 21 stories of sexual harassment and a toxic, predatory work culture dominated the headlines.

Right now, the team you once mocked for having no name is a team that's easy to root for.

Why, because men like Rivera, Smith and team president Jason Right have shown that it's possible for wayward franchises.

Toe actually find their way as long as the right people are at the helm.

And now an organization that once seemed rudderless has the makings of the best feel good story of the 2020 NFL season.

100 years ago Friday, on the penultimate day of the NFL's first season, the Canton Bulldog shut out the Richmond Athletics, 39 0.

The Bulldogs coach and biggest star also happened to be the greatest athlete ever.

Jim Thorpe.

Eight years earlier at the Stockholm Olympics, Thorpe had smashed the competition, winning both the decathlon and pentathlon.

But a few months later, the medals were stripped after it was discovered that Thorpe had made a few dollars playing minor league baseball, which made him ineligible for amateur competition.

His goals were awarded to the men who finished in second place.

Neither wanted them.

Finally, in 1980 to 29 years after Thorpe's death, the IOC recognized Thorpe's victories and gave his family to new gold medals.

But he still wasn't the champion in those two events.

Officially, he was a co gold medalist.

Now, after decades of relentless lobbying by Thorpe supporters to write an egregious wrong that might soon change.

There's hope that in the coming days, the IOC will finally designate Thorpe as the sole champion in the 1912 decathlon and pentathlon, which is what he waas.

After Thorpe won the decathlon, King Gustav draped the gold medal around his neck and said, Sir, you are the greatest athlete in the world, Thorpe supposedly replied.

Thanks, king.

It's the most famous exchange in Olympic history and probably apocryphal.

Nevertheless, it's time.

The record book reflected the sentiment behind King Gustav's words.

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