Author: The Next Tally Team

  • “You’re Not Helping”!!

    “You’re Not Helping”!!

    I’ve got a bone to pick. Being in the business of educating young men and women athletes, entertainers or just people in the business community–on how not to kill their careers by saying and doing crazy stuff, I’ve got some beef with the people who enable them.

    If I’m (Next Tally) teaching them to steer clear of certain words, people, places and things which could be detrimental to their careers, I’m wondering is it possible for me to get any help? From you. I’m seeing too many instances where a player is out enjoying themselves (albeit with their friends and family), and things take a turn when someone tries to get too cozy with the celeb or player or “role model”. A fight ensues.

    Meantime “friends and family” let it progress. In some cases, friends and family are there fanning the flames! It’s the reason that I insist on including “family time” (via zoom or some other means if we are not together in person) with the individuals I counsel. The media is no joke. But the media also isn’t the enemy. We can only report what’s there!

    It’s the enablers who make it okay for a player or celeb to act out as they please, without intervention. Case in point: I’ve seen sports types out in public, engaging in a raucous scrum with overzealous (sometimes drunk) fans. I think that is the time when a member of the players “posse” grabs him/her up, and gets them out of the building as soon as possible, no matter what. None of this, “hell naw, I have a right to enjoy myself, I’m staying and I’ll fight every MF in here if I need to…I’m so-and-so and I can do what I want. Yeah, including sit your ass in jail if the stuff hits the fan and the cops are called. Explain THAT in the morning to your team.

    Even in my capacity as a broadcaster and TV/Radio personality, anyone who is out with me (even if its a fine dining establishment or a jazz listening room) know that if ANYTHING jumps off or doesn’t sound right, they MUST alert me and get me out of the building. Not that I’m involved in the craziness. But I can’t have something to occur in an establishment, and my name pops up in the news the next day. Whether I’m involved or not, it can instantly become a stain on my name. And that is a lesson I’m trying to teach our younger up-and-coming celebs and sports figures. But YOU’RE NOT HELPING!

    These players do not have a private life. They signed up for that when they walked across the stage and accepted the team cap during draft night. Your only privacy is in your space at home. You don’t get to yell and scream and curse fans who get too close or even if they go overboard in trying to just touch you. You signed up to be touched. Not abused. But adoring fans want to be close and take pictures. Anything less is seen as ungrateful, considering these are people who pay for your merch and spend their last dollars to come to your games. There is a graceful way to say no.

    Back to family and friends–Don’t take a picture of the player out doing “compromising things” and putting it on your social media. YOU’RE NOT HELPING.

    The team, the league, fans (and endorsement/ad agencies) have social media too. And it doesn’t matter if its your private YouTube or OnlyFans (keeping it real) channel or even the players private social media pages. Again, anything outside your domain is no longer private. And also family, YOU can’t engage in anything seen as socially controversial either, lest it not come back to haunt your famous family member. There was a near media catastrophe when it was widely reported that Carl Williams, the father of Chicago Bears quarterback Caleb Williams, uttered words which didn’t go over too well with not only the Bears organization, but with the NFL in general. YOU’RE NOT HELPING!

    The older Williams was quoted as allegedly saying something to the effect, “Chicago is the place quarterbacks go to die”. I thought “I” would die. And here this kid is, trying to get a job with the Bears (and any other team who would look at him). More reports surfaced saying the Williams family allegedly considered legal options to keep the Bears from picking him in the draft. Williams was the first pick of the 2024 NFL draft, so the (then) woeful Bears got first crack at him). Private thoughts should be kept right where they are: private. As it were, Caleb Williams went on to have a pretty decent year with the Bears. But I remember sitting there watching this kid deflect all kinds of questions about his father’s comments; “Do you feel the same way about Chicago?” Do you think you’ll have a good shot in the NFL playing for the (then) worst team in the league? Do you think this is the best place to be from a player development standpoint?

    The media had a field day. So all I’m saying to family members…is that I/we need your help! One false move or one bad comment, and your hero, who has been planning all their lives for this moment, is sitting on the bench, or looked upon by fans and everyone else as less than a team player.

    But alas! That’s why Next Tally does it what it does. We try to keep you and your family from saying stupid things and doing stupid things (I keeps it real) “tonight”… so you won’t have to explain it to your coach, the team, the league and your endorsement affiliates tomorrow.

    Anything else..and YOU’RE NOT HELPING!

    NEXT!!! Unk

  • Block out the noise!!

    Block out the noise!!

    Don’t you just hate it? You’re up there at the job, trying to keep your cool. But the haters and naysayers and gossipers just keep on coming–like roaches. There’s a message printed on a Brick in Proverbs 26:20. Babies, “Put on your headphones..block out the noise”. Not the headphones like the ones I wear, doing the news on 1010WINS. I’m talking about the headphones in that scripture. Put in another way, Ignoring gossip (mean talk, boisterous shade-throwers) starves the attention it needs to spread–if you simply block it out. As they say, “Without wood, a fire goes out”. Hello? And don’t EVER resort to arguing on the job. If you’re standing there arguing with a nutcase, folks walking by won’t be able to tell who’s who! “Nuff” said, Unk.

  • Let Him Lead!

    Let Him Lead!

    Who would have thought in a million years, that a bushy-headed wide-eyed kid from the housing projects in Orlando, Florida would be talking to millions (giving the news) and “cranking out Bricks”? Wow. Just wow! Family, I didn’t always follow Christ. But when I did, I saw a huge difference in my life. So now I ask God “daily” to order my steps (It’s on a Brick in Psalms 119:133). Some of the roads I’ve traveled on this journey makes even me question, “How in the heck did I make it out of there alive”? But when I got back on the road…Are you all feeling this? I will remind you (from previous posts and testimonies) I came to New York will ill-intentions about my life. But God obviously had other plans. I’ve got a book coming out which will explain it all. SMH….Just Wow. Wow God, WOW! Unk.

  • Go For it! Phil.4:13

    Go For it! Phil.4:13

    You know, I walk through this big giant, scary mecca everyday. And I am always taken by the young people I see, and the looks on their faces– so innocent and pure. And depth of their eyes tell the story of a hunger for acceptance, “stardom” and a yearning desire for that “big break”. They come from everywhere. And they are so wide-eyed, searching for purpose. Gosh, was I this way, when I first moved here, 18 years ago? I remember all I had was a pair of Stephon Marbury $8 sneakers, two shirts and a couple pair of jeans. I wasn’t a teen, but I was a vagabond who had lost my way. But then, “God”. Lord, I wish I could take each and every one of these young people and give them a boost; a start in…”whatever”. I do my share of help and support, but I wish I could guide them all. There’s a scripture which says it all though: I can do all things in Christ who strengthens me. To them, (and everybody else) I say, You can…and You will…but only “in Christ”. Believe in yourself, but in Christ. Unk

  • It’s a “Shake-down”…

    It’s a “Shake-down”…

    You need only look at the shoulder of a parents shirt, jacket, dress (or any other apparel) to know what happened. If it has stains, you already know a baby has been there. I’ve had enough spit-up on my collar to know whatever you put in that baby, if you shake him up, it’s going to come out on your shirt. So what do you think is going to happen if you do the same thing to an impressionable teen? It’s time for us (long overdue) to go back to raising “Proverbs” children. And get to them now, while they’re truly soaking up EVERYTHING. Or the court system is going to raise him or her FOR YOU. Proverbs 22:6 says it all. Whatever you put in that kid, (or whatever negative vices they see you do, or whatever negative things THEY do and are allowed to get away with) will eventually come up and come out on your shoulder. And God forbid if they run up on a teacher, a cop or some other authority and get “shaken up”. And all the things you put in that child (good or bad) is going to come out! Trust me. As a news man, I’ve sat in enough courtroom hallways where parents are crying their eyes out, because of something that was put in their child, that has now come out and the penal system has taken over. And quite often, it’s not necessarily some bad milk that YOU put in them–but they got into somebody else’s bad milk (that’s why we need to be mindful of who and where our children spend their time). Bottom line:

    If you put “good” in them, then “good” will come out– Yes mam, Yes sir, Thank you sir. Put or allow bad in them, and your shoulders will be stained with tears, bad news etc., for a lifetime. ‘Nuff said. Unk

  • Welcome Back! All New Next Tally “Live” w/ Larry Mullins!!!

    Welcome Back! All New Next Tally “Live” w/ Larry Mullins!!!