Football’s Pioneering Duo, Documentary by CMS Productions

This project is yet another one by CMS Productions, a documentary that revolves around the success of two individuals that managed to secure high-ranking positions in the Canadian football league.

In 1999, Roy Shivers became the general manager of the Saskatchewan Roughriders. Shivers hired Danny Barrett as the head coach. The Roughriders made football history by being the first professional team with a Black general manager and head coach.

Sports have unarguably become an integralaspect of our society. Millions of people tune in on a daily basis to support their team or at least follow their favorite players; games are being given primetime spots on numerous popular networks.Sports related news can regularly be seen on evening news.Even numerous colleges all over the country are known better for progress in sports rather than their academics.

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The list goes on,but the one problem with sports being so popular is that everyone in our society is always watching. Everything is skeptic; no action goes unnoticed especially if it’s in the negative sense. Incidents of either discrimination or racism against players are always big news, and the whole country witnesses it.

Kids growing up select their role models and look up to them for things like how to act in certain situations. Kids in Canada too,love to practice and follow sports, so naturally they will have role models that are professional athletes. When teenagers witness their role models doing something that’s racist in nature or even an act of discrimination against someone; they would automatically assume that such a thing is something that is acceptable in the society.

Children don’t know any better and would blindly follow the actions of whom they consider to be their role models. This is perhaps the major reason why racism and discrimination needs to be wiped of the map. But regardless of these issues that are prevalent to this day. Racism is such a thing that once ingrained in a young mind, can be very difficult to remove.In fact, it can pose to be a significant challenge for the society as a whole.

Should racism be completely removed from professional sports, we would actively be changing the world through the generation of kids that are growing up witnessing the exemplary attitude of sports stars. All we need is a single generation to grow up understanding that issues like racism shouldn’t be an issue at all; we are all human beings that should be provided equal opportunity to progress in life.

The documentary "Football’s Pioneering Duo" explores the issues of race and sports as they relate to the Canadian Football League and the hiring of General Manager Roy Shivers and Coach Danny Barrett.

Chris Spence is an educator with a strong record of community service.