Former Dartmouth defensive end Niko Lalos '20, is officially on the 53-man New York Football Giants active roster. As the New York Post reported last night, the 6-foot-5, 270-pound undrafted rookie was promoted yesterday after making a huge splash in the two games he appeared in after coming off (and returning to) the team's practice squad. Here's how the Post story started and you have to love the five-word lede (LINK):
This one had to happen.
The Giants on Tuesday signed defensive end Niko Lalos to the active roster. After Lalos, an undrafted rookie out of Dartmouth, embarked on his NFL career with an interception and a fumble recovery in his first two games, this was the expected course of action.
Lalos had already been elevated from the practice squad to the roster for the past two games and teams are allowed only two such moves per player. Lalos had to be signed to the roster in order to get him on the field for Sunday’s game against the Cardinals.
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Calvin Thibodeaux, who coached the defensive line at Dartmouth in 2011 and is now working with the same "room" at Oklahoma, is one of 56 nominees nationally for the Broyles Award, presented to the top assistant coach in the country. A former All-Big 12 pick for the Sooners, Thibodeaux coached at Tulsa and Kansas between stops in Hanover and Norman.
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Adam Giardino, who made a lot of friends around Dartmouth while broadcasting football and other Big Green sports between 2015 and 2018, has been named the 2020 Baseball America Minor League Executive of the Year after starting the Black Play-by-Play and Scholarship Fund last spring. From the Baseball America release (LINK):
His goal was to raise money for one $3,000 grant to help a young, Black broadcaster accept his or her first job in Minor League Baseball. It would cover an additional $500 per month of expenses for the six month season on top of whatever monthly stipend was provided by the team.
The program was officially announced on June 8. In roughly five months, it has raised $25,000. For his efforts, Giardino is Baseball America’s Minor League Executive of the Year.
Read more about the Black Play-by-Play Broadcaster Grant and Scholarship Fund HERE. From that site:
Of the 200+ television and radio play-by-play jobs in Major League Baseball and Minor League Baseball, fewer than five are currently filled by Black broadcasters. A lack of diversity exists across the play-by-play profession, and The Black Play-by-Play Broadcaster Grant & Scholarship Fund addresses many barriers-to-entry that exist for aspiring Black broadcasters. This fund will lift those who otherwise wouldn't be able to get a start in the field, while pushing the industry to more closely reflect the country as a whole.
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EXTRA POINT
Watching the news headlines out of the United Kingdom this morning as the sun was coming over Mount Moosilauke it was reassuring to know that a new day was coming, figuratively as well as literally. At the risk of bringing on a case of stuck-song syndrome, always remember in these difficult times what Annie promises:
The sun'll come out
Tomorrow
Bet your bottom dollar
That tomorrow
There'll be sun.
Just thinking about
Tomorrow
Clears away the cobwebs
And the sorrow
'Til there's none.
Have a great day!
