Exclusives

ESM EXCLUSIVE: Liberty All-Star Betnijah Laney on NYC, charity, and the future

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ESM sat down with New York Liberty All-Star Betnijah Laney, a metropolitan basketball star in more ways than one.

An All-Star’s work is never done, especially in New York. Fortunately, Betnijah Laney wouldn’t have it any other way.

Few WNBA stars have opened the 2020s on a higher note than Laney, a Rutgers alumna who’s back in the tri-state area to make an impact both on and off the court. The former endeavors have netted her the league’s Most Improved Player Award with the Atlanta Dream during the Association’s historic season in the Bradenton bubble. After going from the bubble to Brooklyn, Laney earned her first career All-Star appearance and helped push the Liberty to its first playoff appearance since 2017. She ended the year as the team’s leading scorer (16.8 points per game, 10th-best in the league) and also set a new career-best average in assists (5.2).

Laney, a Delaware native, has remained in the New York area with the WNBA offseason fully underway. She’s taken the time to further immerse herself in the Brooklyn community. Last week, Laney repped the Liberty in a battle against food insecurity, uniting with Empire BlueCross BlueShield, iHeartMedia, and Heart of America to open a custom-built food pantry at Walter Weaver Elementary School (P.S. 398).

Following the ceremony, Laney sat down with ESM to discuss her time in the city, her life on and off the court, and what lies ahead of the bearers of seafoam…

Photo by Allison Joseph/@shotsbyalliej

Q: What drew you to a project like this here, to be willing the represent the team on such an endeavor?

A: Just knowing that we, as a team, will be able to help the community, to be able to give back, to underserved communities, it just really means a lot to me. Coming up, it was something that my mother always instilled in me: to give back where I can. She’s been doing that for as long as I can remember, since before I was born, just giving back to the community. She’s always made sure that I put in the same thing, the same work and effort. So when I was afforded the opportunity to do this, I was all-in, all on board. So I’m just really happy.

Q: With the team back in the proper New York City area, having moved to Brooklyn from Westchester County, what does it mean to reconnect with the city and potentially inspire new fans in the process?

A: I think it’s just more about serving our community. Being back in Brooklyn, that makes it r really easy for us. It’s great for our new community to see us and know that we’re not just athletes, we’re not just basketball players, we’re not just here to do that. We’re here to help and to give back and make a difference, to continue to inspire people, continue to help people grow in a positive direction. I think it’s more so about that.

Q: You’ve remained in the NYC area since the Liberty’s season ended. Without the burdens of practices and games, it appears you’ve taken advantage of what the city has to offer. What are your impressions of the city and how comfortable are you with NYC as your new home both as an athlete and activist?

A: I love it. I grew up coming to Brooklyn in particular, I had a great aunt who lived here, we would come up here for the holidays and everything. Although she’s she’s not around to see me I know that she’d be really proud of me and what I’m doing.

This offseason just really presents me with the opportunity to be able to give back to this community. Without the pressure of having practice and games, there’s no time to put in that off-court work.

Q: As a league, the WNBA reach unprecedented heights in popularity and viewership this year. As one of the faces of the New York franchise, what’s going to be the key to establishing a larger Liberty footprint in a city that truly appreciates basketball?

A: I think just us continuing to grow, continuing to stay true to who we are, just taking on that Brooklyn, that New York identity, and get some wins. That’s what people want to see and that’s our goal. I think that that with this time, with a few players that are in market who are continuing to work to get better, and then the players that are overseas playing their game, I just truly believe that, when we all come back and reconvene, we’ll be a force to be reckoned with. I think that that’s what the city wants us to be.

Q: Do you have any international plans for the WNBA offseason? If not, what do you want to work on at home?

A: I don’t have an international plans. But, on the court, I just want to continue to grow, to continue to get better in every area of my game. I want to continue to increase my percentages, do different things to continue to grow, to help myself along with my team to get to that ultimate goal.

Off the court, I’d love to continue my community work. This is what I’m here for: to just continue to give back, to make an impact in the community, to just be a positive role model for people to look up to inspire others.

Q: This city is know for its diversity and its causes. Is there any particular cause or off-court endeavor that stands out to you, a place or issue where you’d like to and truly believe you can make a positive impact?

A: My passion has always been kids. Once I finish playing, maybe even while I’m playing, I’d like to apply myself and work with them, particularly those in underserved communities, because those that’s where you need the most building, the strongest foundation. Anything that’s dealing with kids, where I can help kids, continue to foster them into growing, healthy adults being that someone that they can look up to. That’s what drives me.

Q: The arrival of you, Natasha Howard, Sami Whitcomb, and others, as well as the move to Barclays Center, was meant to provide this team some stability. Yet, you overcame several obstacles, including weather and NBA playoff reschedulings to make a playoff push. What can you say about the resiliency of the 2021 Liberty?

A: I think it just shows just how strong we are, that we are capable of weathering storms, and coming out better for it. Exceeding expectations. I think that we did that this year, especially coming off the 2-20 season (in 2020). To be able to do that, and turn it around and make it to the playoffs, I don’t think a lot of people foresaw that coming. We just want to keep pushing, we want to just continue to get better. That’s our goal, and our focus going in going into these next year is to just be better than we were last year.

Photo by Allison Joseph/@shotsbyalliej

Q: You recently celebrated your 28th birthday. It was a year of change, a year of triumph. What did you learn about yourself, both as a ball player and as a human being?

A: Through everything that I’ve been through, I think that I’m stronger. Whatever I put my mind to, I can I can do. I’m just going to continue to get better, continue to want to be better in just every facet of my life.

Q: What have the conversations been like amongst the Liberty this offseason and what can fans expect on the road ahead?

A: We’re really excited. We’ve already talked about different things that we want to do for next year. We were excited seeing the results of the WNBA finals and talking about how that’s our goal, that’s where we want to be. This offseason, we have to make sure that we’re all doing everything that we can to get there.

We’ve had our players do really, really well overseas. Jocelyn (Willoughby) is coming back, she just started jogging, which is really good to see. The people that are here, still in the market are continuing to work to get better. As long as everyone’s doing their part, and we come back and we really are exhibiting everything that we’ve worked on, I think we’re in really good shape.

Geoff Magliocchetti is on Twitter @GeoffJMags

ESM EXCLUSIVE: Justin Tuck comments on the 2021 New York Giants

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The Big Blue legend spoke to ESM about the modern New York Giants’ endeavors as a showdown looms in Arlington.

As he proved over 11 NFL seasons…all but the final couple spent with the New York Giants…Justin Tuck is a man of many talents. For his next trick, Tuck hinted that he’d like to prove he’s capable of a skill many Twitter users have bestowed upon him.

Similar surnames have led some football-minded users to believe that Tuck is not only still an active NFL participant but is also making gridiron history: some have credited Justin Tucker’s league-record 66-yard field goal earned during Week 3 action to Tuck, apparently missing the final two letters attached to the Baltimore kicker.

Tuck believes he’s capable of such a triple…but he’s going to need some help.

“60-mile an hour wind behind me? Absolutely, I’d kick it,” Tuck told ESM with a smile.

Tuck returned to New Jersey this week for a charity golf tournament hosted by former New York Yankees pitcher CC Sabathia’s PitCCh In Foundation. The two-time Super Bowl champion was one of many New York legends, including former blue teammate Victor Cruz, ready to take a few swings at Alpine Country Club in Demarest, but the happenings of the current bearers of blue weren’t far from Tuck’s mind.

By the time Tuck hit the links, the Giants (1-3) were hours removed from their first win of the season, a 27-21 overtime triumph over the New Orleans Saints. Though New York has struggled in the early stages of the season, a prime opportunity to reinsert themselves into the NFL playoff conversation awaits in the later portions of this Sunday afternoon’s action in the form of a divisional showdown with the NFC East-leading Dallas Cowboys (4:25 p.m. ET, Fox).

New york Giants, Justin Tuck, Michael Strahan
 Mandatory Credit: Ed Mulholland-USA TODAY Sports

While the idea of the Giants’ win in New Orleans launching a playoff push is far-fetched to some, Tuck knows how one game can change the course of an NFL season: the 2007-08 Giants began the year with losses in their first two contests before erasing a two-possession deficit en route to victory in Washington. The Giants would wind up with 10 wins before shocking the world with their magical run to Super Bowl XLII, which yielded the first of two Super Bowl rings for Tuck.

Tuck felt it was hard to compare the modern Giants’ endeavor in the Big Easy to that fateful afternoon in Landover 14 years prior. He did, however, notice the missing ingredient on display against the Saints that allowed a struggling franchise to finally take a step forward.

“There is some measure of change that happened this week that wasn’t necessarily (there in) what happened weeks before that,” Tuck said. “The coaches and the players know what that is: that might be how they practice, that might be how they watch film, that might be just the thought process that they were going into this game with or kept throughout the game. In other games, they might have been like oh, we’re down again.”

“That mental capacity just decreased throughout the game. When they kept a level head and just said, listen, let’s just finish this in the fourth quarter you typically play well right?” Tuck continued. “I don’t know if that’s the case or not, but you know that team knows it, that coaching staff knows it, and hopefully we can find a way to recreate that weekend (in New Orleans) week in and week out.”

To Tuck’s point, the Giants trailed by as much as 11 last weekend against the Saints before ending the game with 17 unanswered points. It was the Giants’ first win after trailing by multiple possessions since September 2019.

Though Tuck won’t claim to know or understand the current mindset of the Giants’ players and coaches, he appears to have faith in what head coach Joe Judge is building. Tuck revealed that he has been in contact with Judge, who has called upon Big Blue alumni to assist in the current build.

“He wants us in the building, he wants us to be involved. He wants us to kind of continue to showcase what we did and the things that our players did, to have a successful team,” Tuck said of his relationship with Judge. “I think that’s smart on his behalf because we have a lot of knowledge. You think about the guys who’ve come before this team and the success that we had and the failures that we learn from. I think it’s important for us to kind of showcase that.”

“What you need to know about Joe Judge is that he’s a worker…He’s not going to get too high on the highs or too low on the lows. He’s going to go do his job every day and just become like that blue-collar coach that has normally had success with the Giants.”

Geoff Magliocchetti is on Twitter @GeoffJMags

ESM EXCLUSIVE: Football veteran Sean Salisbury on the modern game

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Former NFL quarterback and current analyst Sean Salisbury has been in the game for decades. He spoke with ESM about the game’s modern affairs.

(Special thanks to Pickswise for making this interview possible)

Former professional quarterback Sean Salisbury has worked alongside several renowned teammates. He was protected by future NFL Hall-o-Fame Bruce Matthews during his freshman season at the University of Southern California. He, Roger Craig, and Cris Carter were part of the Minnesota Vikings’ offense in the early 1990s.

But perhaps the most fun Salisbury has had in his career came with a more-or-less fictional teammate…Adam Sandler.

After a decade in professional football, Salisbury made a return to the national spotlight at the turn of the century through an analyst and contributors’ role on ESPN’s NFL coverage. A trip from Bristol to Hollywood later came when Sandler began production on his 2005 remake of The Longest Yard, as Salisbury was called upon to oversee the football aspects of the film. Sandler also made the transformation from comedian to professional quarterback Paul Crewe (the role popularized by Burt Reynolds in the original 1974 film) thanks to Salisbury’s tutoring. Salisbury also held a small acting role in the film, joining then-ESPN colleagues Dan Patrick, Chris Berman, and Jim Rome.

Speaking with ESM, Salisbury referred to Sandler and his group at Happy Madison Productions as “some of the best people I’ve ever met”. He remains good friends with Sandler would later appear in two further Happ Madison films (The Benchwarmers and The House Bunny) 

“I’ve been fortunate to play at a big university, in a great rivalry between Notre Dame and SC. I was fortunate to be on a network where you’re on TV and you get to do SportsCenter. You’re on the radio, or you play quarterback in an NFL playoff game,” he said in reflection. “The Sandler stuff, the Happy Madison stuff fits right in. You’re out of your element in the acting world! I gained a great appreciation for the hurry-and-wait business and why they make the money they do. A two-minute scene takes a day to film or six hours. They give you your own trailer, and I was like ‘this is really cool!’.”

Salisbury’s current endeavors have placed in Houston, over two decades after he spent a brief stretch with the city’s Oilers, where he hosts the morning drive show on KBME (790 AM). He’s also set to pursue a Masters Degree at Texas A&M University, beginning the endeavor in the upcoming spring semester.

Football continues to play a large role in his life, especially with KBME carrying rights for the gridiron programs of both Texas A&M and the University of Houston. His decade of professional exploits took him through the NFL ranks of Seattle, Minnesota, Houston, and San Diego, as well as a two-year tour of the Canadian province of Manitoba, where he helped the CFL’s Winnipeg Blue Bombers capture the 76th Grey Cup. Salisbury threw the only Bomber touchdown pass in a 22-21 victory over the BC Lions.

In his conversation with ESM, Salisbury was quick to take note of how much the game has changed since his playing days. Unlike many modern observers, Salisbury doesn’t think the quality of athlete has changed, nothing that he played with and against several world-class contenders like Deion Sanders, Troy Aikman, and John Elway (though he notably expressed fascination with current Tennessee RB Derrick Henry and Seattle WR D.K. Metcalf).

Rather, Salisbury is intrigued by the modern innovations to the “X’s and O’s” side of the game, praising coaches for changing their approach to game planning and scouting.

“I think the state of the game, when it comes to the X’s and O’s of it, I love it because people are thinking outside the box. We’re doing underhand passes, shovel passes. We’ve got the Kyle Shanahans, the Andy Reids, the Sean McVays of the world who are elevating,” Salisbury noted, also praising the work offensive coordinator Greg Roman is doing with Lamar Jackson in Baltimore.

“Old-school is good in a lot of ways,” he continued. “But, instead of saying ‘you’re going to do it my way or the highway’, they’re now looking at (a quarterback’s) skillset. They’ll say ‘oh, you did this in college’. It used to be ‘oh, we don’t do what you did in college’. Well, now you do. Andy Reid knows what Mahomes did in college and said ‘we’re going to take what you do, we’re going to take what I do, I’m going to grab something from what the Rams do, I’m going to grab something from what Bill Belichick does and we’re going to apply it. What’s wrong with being able to apply a full-on smorgasbord? The ego of that is less. Instead of saying, ‘we’re going to put you, a square peg, into a round hole, this is our system, we’re going to put our system with what you do great and you’re going to be the MVP of the league’.”

In a bit of a gridiron twist, Salisbury’s qualms with the modern game come with the advent of rules that appear to cater to his former position of quarterback. Last season, an average of 4.25 flags were thrown for roughing the passer flags per game, a league-record.

Salisbury thinks the de facto coddling, which he labels as “too protective”, may go a little far. It also causes defensive players to get “hosed” in the process.

“I understand safety, but this is tackle football,” Salisbury said. “We don’t play seven-on-seven on Sundays. We don’t play tag football on Sundays. It’s a violent game, they get paid a lot of money. There’s a lot of money on the line. That’s why we’re playing football instead of staying home for COVID, because there’s a lot of money on the line.”

Salisbury also criticizes notes that quarterback penalties seem to primarily focus on hits to the head, with not as much regard paid to lower hits. He nonetheless expressed the importance of dealing with and praised the progress of diagnosing head injuries, having lost close friend and former San Diego Chargers teammate Junior Seau to suicide after a career of such trauma.

If the radio endeavors cease for Salisbury for whatever reason, quarterback-turned-motivational speaker would be quite the second career. He believes that football can teach its participants unforgettable life lessons.

“It’s a great sport. To me, it’s the greatest parallel of life. You get your butt handed to you, and then you get back up and go get yourself some more,” he said. “In life, you get knocked in the face, kicked to the canvas, and then you have two choices: either you get up and go get yourself 70 plays a game, or somebody else does. In life, life passes you by, because you’re going to get kicked in the teeth.”

Salisbury credits the sport for giving him both a career and a “post-career” as well, as he continues to remain active in the game through KMBE.

“I think in the parallel with professional football, or college, high school football, you learn how to be a good teammate, learning how to be a good teammate, a good person, help your buddy, yet still do your job. It parallels real-life more than any sport on the planet, period. I don’t think it’s close. I love that. You can have the quarterback playing well, but, if you don’t block for him, it doesn’t work. In basketball, if a superstar is having one of those days, like Michael Jordan, the other four dudes might not be playing as well, but I’ll still win because Jordan’s that good…get up, get punched in the face more. Know you’re going to get punched in the face more. That’s life. Then when you succeed at it, it’s the greatest thing in the world. But you never stop getting better or dealing with it.”

Salisbury was willing to put aside his Texas duties to look at things from a New York perspective, eager to parlay some advice on the area’s woebegone local teams. His lone experience with metropolitan football came during the 1993-94 NFC playoffs, when he relieved Jim McMahon in the Vikings’ wild card tilt against the Giants.

Returning to the postseason any time soon might be a tall task for both squads. The Giants may have a bit of temporary hope with their 2-7 record actually positioning them well in the garish NFC East.  Their green counterparts, on the other hand, are the NFL’s only winless team at 0-9. Each may have a decision to make at their quarterback spot, where Daniel Jones and Sam Darnold are respectively fighting to maintain franchise status. Perhaps siding with his passing brethren, Salisbury was quick to note that the Giants and Jets’ modern struggles are not entirely on the men under center.

“I think both are in similar situations,” Salisbury said. “On both teams, they’re still figuring out who’s going to lead the franchise. When I talk about the Steelers, the Patriots, the 49ers, the Cowboys of old, the Chiefs, the staple franchises, what do they all have in common? The continuity in the front office.”

“Unfortunately, there just hasn’t been a lot of continuity there. In fact, that’s true about a lot of New York teams. The Knicks haven’t had any. The Yankees have some. They’re always going to be good, but with Joe Torre, they had that continuity. There’s always going to be competitive, they have players. If you have a great quarterback and a great head coach, a great leader of men, things go from there.”

In that department, Salisbury believes the Giants haven’t had the proper leader since Tom Coughlin’s departure after the 2015 season.

But, putting his GM cap on, Salisbury said that if the Jets wind up with the top overall pick…and they’re well on their way to doing so after Monday’s last-second loss to the New England Patriots…he believes that the Jets must take Trevor Lawrence, the consensus top choice out of Clemson. But if the Jets must bid Darnold farewell, he maintains hope that his fellow former Trojan can make an impact in this league, if he breaks away from the tutelage of head coach Adam Gase.

“If they get the first pick, you have to take Trevor Lawrence,” he said. “Sam Darnold is going to go somewhere when that happens, and he’s going to be a success. That city, unfortunately, hasn’t gotten to see the best of Sam Darnold because he’s a player. I’ve talked to 10 or 12 people smarter than I am…not one of them think Sam Darnold’s a bust.”

“It starts with the leadership and the coach. And I don’t think, with the Jets right now, it’s where we want it to be.”

The Sean Salisbury Show is available to listen to and download on iHeartRadio

Geoff Magliocchetti is on Twitter @GeoffJMags

ESM EXCLUSIVE: NFL Hall of Fame K Morten Andersen on the current state of football

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NFL points master Morten Andersen spoke with ESM about pro football’s current state of affairs and what needs to ensure a fall return.

(Special thanks to Bet Pennsylvania for arranging this interview) 

Morten Andersen loves football. It’s hard to dispute that after the Copenhagen native spent over two decades in the NFL (including a single-season with the New York Giants in 2001), a tenure that ended with Andersen becoming only the second placekicker elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Speaking with ESM via Zoom, Andersen looked back on an illustrious NFL career, fondly recalling how the love of football has gone international. The Michigan State alum became a source of Danish pride at the turn of the century when his 38-yard overtime field goal at the end of the 1999 NFC Championship Game in Minnesota sent the Atlanta Falcons to their first Super Bowl. When Andersen returned home sometime later, his fellow countrymen were more than happy to express their appreciation of a mini-Danish invasion of American football.

That kick not only earned Andersen a trip to the Super Bowl but also free drinks upon visiting a local cafe/bar in the city of Horsens after a speaking engagement. The Crown Prince of Denmark later invited Andersen to Amalienborg Palace after his induction into Canton.

“People knew there was a guy from Denmark playing football, but it was like ‘eh, that’s cute, that’s quirky, that’s a sport we don’t know (anything) about,” Andersen said. “But when I made that kick, the national pride swelled. ‘That’s one of ours, that’s our guy, that’s our Morten, red and white rocks, Danish dynamite!'”

The game certainly looks different than it did when Andersen, who reached the NFL’s all-decade teams twice (1980s/1990s), was in his prime. Changes go far beyond his familiar kicking territory of adjusting the positions of both kickoffs and extra points.

Each of those relatively recent updates has already become an essential part of the gridiron lexicon. Andersen is now interested where football goes on its continued path of change, one that has seen the NFL insert itself into national conversations about systemic racism and injustice.

“The overarching statement from me would be that kindness, love, and tolerance wins the day all the time,” Andersen said when discussing the NFL’s decision to play “Lift Every Voice and Sing”, commonly referred to as the “Black national anthem” prior to games this season. “I think this is a matter of everyone in the world taking a good, transparent look at themselves and where they are as human beings.”

Promoting such a message prompted Andersen to think of The Beatles, one of his favorite rock bands. A noted music fan, Andersen feels like the concepts could be flow if one saw the world through an artist’s eyes. He has some experience in the pop genre, briefly exchanging his kicking tee for a microphone in 1985 when he and fellow New Orleans Saints specialist Brian Hansen wrote and performed the single “Take It To The Top“.

“Music, to me, it’s something that crosses all races. You just don’t feel the divide, to me anyway, in the music business,” Andersen explained. “There’s no much going on across all genres, all races, all beliefs. The common denominator here is the love of music, the call of music.”

“I’m not trying to make light of what’s going on the world, I’m just talking philosophically. If you take a page from the world of music, and music-making, there’s a tremendous amount of collaboration going on. Keith Richards, for example, he had his roots in blues and jazz. He was a big fan of reggae. He lived in Jamaica for a long time, he was part of that culture. So you get your influences in music from lots of different people. People who are successful had to start somewhere. That collaboration, I think, is a really great motivator for the world right now.”

Andersen is also looking forward to what the new collective bargaining agreement has to offer. Set to turn 60 in August, Andersen admitted he was most focused on the new pension benefits for retired players. Other new innovations include a higher share of league revenue for active participants and an expanded playoff field.

Now, the question becomes whether we will actually see the 2020 season come to fruition. Andersen commented on the current health crisis by remarking that he “can’t see” fans in the stands “in the beginning” But he’s hopeful that international developments, such as European soccer, can serve as a blueprint and inspiration to carve a path to football in the fall.

Even as a kicker, a position that probably hears the most toxicity from fans no matter how little his time on the field may be, Andersen would prefer to see stands filled…on a safe, healthy basis, of course.

“I feed off that energy. I think all guys would like a full stadium. Nobody likes to play in front of an empty stadium, that’s not ideal, that’s not we’re looking for,” he said. “But that would be the sensitive thing to do initially.”

“Let’s play ball in a safe manner if we can. When the curve says we can bring people back, let’s bring people back.”

Geoff Magliocchetti is on Twitter @GeoffJMags