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The Washington Football Team has made a historic hire in naming its newest team president, the first Black man to hold the position for an NFL team. Jason Wright, a former player in the league, joins a team that is still attempting to correct course of its decades-old racist team name after finally discarding the nickname this year.
Wright’s came as something of a surprise Monday morning (August 17) during a segment of Good Morning America in an exclusive chat with former NFL star and host, Michael Strahan. Wright, 38, will become the league’s youngest team president along with the distinction of being the first Black president within the league.
The incoming Washington Football Team president comes with intimate knowledge of the game having played seven seasons as a running back with stints in San Francisco, Atlanta, Cleveland, and Arizona. He was a standout player for Northwestern University where he earned a psychology degree and went on to attend the University of Chicago Booth School of Business where he obtained an MBA.
Ahead of the Washington role, Wright worked for the consulting firm McKinsey and Company, becoming a partner with that outfit.
In his own words, Wright told Strahan of what he hopes to bring to the Washington front office as the season looms just ahead.
“Part of what excited me about taking this role — we had a phrase when we played that said, ‘you don’t talk about it, you be about it,’ — and I think what I’ve seen from Dan and Tonya Snyder in the hiring of coach Rivera and some of the decisions they’ve made, to have an independent investigator come in around the sexual harassment allegations, there are actual shifts in action to suggest it’s a new day, and that’s why I’m excited to take this on,” Wright shared.
With the news going wide, reactions on Twitter are still developing, of course with the requisite racist trolls doing their usual bit. We’ve got reactions from all sides below.
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Photo: Getty
Washington Football Team Names Jason Wright As 1st Black Team President was originally published on hiphopwired.com
