April 17, 2001. No smart phones. No social media. You went to Blockbuster to rent a video. 9/11 hadn’t happened. An 18-year-old voter, who can fight for our country, wasn’t even born. It was a totally differently world 6,994 days ago.
The post Marshall Ramsey: April 17, 2001 appeared first on Mississippi Today.
Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith leads Mike Espy 49-41 in new poll by Public Policy Polling.
A new poll shows incumbent Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith leading 49-41 over Democratic challenger Mike Espy in November’s U.S. Senate race that is a rematch from their 2018 special election battle.
While the poll, conducted by North Carolina-based Public Policy Polling, appears to place Hyde-Smith in a commanding position, the Espy campaign views the poll results as a positive for their underdog campaign.
Joe O’Hern, campaign manager for Espy, said Hyde-Smith has been trying “to ride it out” to the November general election, depending on her incumbency and the built-in electoral advantage the Republican Party has in the state to win the election with limited campaigning.
“If this poll is any indication before paid media has started, she is not going to just ride it out,” said O’Hern.
Justin Brassell, a spokesperson for Hyde-Smith, said the campaign had not seen the PPP poll, but said the polling it has seen has placed the incumbent in an even more commanding position.
But Brassell said Hyde-Smith intends to start campaigning more in the coming weeks.
“We are gearing up the campaign now that the state has reopened” from COVID-19 closures, he said. “She has already held some telephone town halls, and we will be opening campaign field offices in the near future.”
Espy, whose campaigning also has been limited by the coronavirus, has done multiple virtual town halls, has handed out boxes of food during the pandemic, and was among the estimated 3,000 people participating in the Black Lives Matter protest this past weekend in Jackson.
The poll of 871 Mississippians on land lines and by text messages was conducted in late May and has a margin of error of 3.3 percent. The poll results were released by the Espy campaign. PPP, which conducted the poll, is a national polling company and has the rating of a B from Five Thirty Eight, a well respected online site that analyzes statistics and data.
Hyde-Smith, who was appointed to the post in April 2018 by then-Gov. Phil Bryant to replace long-time Sen. Thad Cochran who stepped down for health reasons, defeated Espy in a November 2018 special election. They are in engaged in a rematch for a full six-year term.
Hyde-Smith, the first woman elected to Congress from Mississippi, has a favorability rating of 44 percent approval and 31 percent disapproval. Espy is at 38 percent approval to 36 percent disapproval.
But among African American voters, according to the poll, Hyde-Smith is at 19 percent approval and 54 percent disapproval. Espy, who in 1986 because the first black elected to the U.S. House from Mississippi in the modern era, is at 64 percent approval and 17 percent disapproval among African Americans.
“Espy has potential for growth where Hyde-Smith performs poorly, especially among African American voters and women,” the PPP poll analysis concluded.
Among women Espy actually outperforms Hyde-Smith in the poll – 46 percent to 42 percent.
African Americans, who make up nearly 38 percent of the state’s population, encompass 35 percent of the poll’s respondents. When Espy announced his candidacy this past November, he said his goal was to have 35 percent of the electorate in November be African American. He said research conducted by groups affiliated with his campaign found that about 32 percent of the electorate was African American in 2018, when Hyde-Smith won 54 percent-46 percent.
Brassell said poll results the Hyde-Smith campaign has seen place the race closer to the findings of an Impact Management Group poll that had Hyde-Smith at 58 percent compared to 31 percent for Espy.
The PPP poll also found the approval rating for President Donald Trump at 52 percent. The poll respondents said they voted for Trump over Hillary Clinton in 2016 by a 55 percent to 39 percent margin with 6 percent not sure how they voted.
Perhaps the most surprising findings of the poll was the margin of support for expanding Medicaid: 57 percent to 22 percent. Many Republican elected officials in the state oppose expanding Medicaid by drawing down additional federal funds to provide health care coverage for as many as 300,000 low income Mississippians.
Espy has been campaigning on the issue of improving health care access in the state, including expanding Medicaid. An overwhelming number of Democratic respondents supported expanding Medicaid while it was supported by independents by a 47 percent to 22 percent margin, but opposed by Republican respondents 38 percent to 31 percent.
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Eric J. Shelton/Mississippi Today
Chiquikta Fountain, executive director of Delta Hands for Hope, left, and volunteers help pack bags of food in Shaw, Miss., Friday, May 27, 2020.
When schools first closed because of the pandemic, the most pressing issue for many districts wasn’t figuring out how to continue education.
“It wasn’t, ‘Oh my gosh how are we going to teach these kids?’ It was, ‘Oh my gosh these kids are going to starve without these meals,’” said Sunny Baker, co-director of the Mississippi Farm to School Network.
Before coronavirus, schools were a dependable place for thousands of children to receive a free and nutritious breakfast and lunch. The pandemic made this service even more crucial, as school buildings closed this spring and the virus wreaked havoc on the state and the nation’s economy, putting many parents’ jobs and economic futures in peril.
In Mississippi, 75 percent of children qualify for free or reduced meals, which means they live in households with income levels between 130 and 185 percent of the poverty line. Because of this, the majority of children are dependent on the free breakfast and lunch they get at school everyday. When schools abruptly closed, so did that food supply.
“We just have such a large population in Mississippi of students who depend on those meals,” said Scott Clements, state director of child nutrition at the Mississippi Department of Education. “That breakfast and that lunch is the most nutritious meal they’ll get and in some cases, the only meal they’ll get during the course of the day.”
Gov. Tate Reeves made the decision to close school buildings and switch to distance learning on March 19, which means most school districts sprung into action immediately upon their return from spring break.
In the weeks since, school nutrition departments have had to pivot to alternative methods to ensure students receive food, whether it be a grab-and-go format, school bus door stop delivery, or drive-up exchanges.
More than 4.65 million meals have been served from mid-March through April (May figures are not available yet), Clements said. On any given day during the academic year, more than 100 school districts offered grab-and-go meals at more than 350 sites, not counting the 14 nonprofits that served meals at an additional 53 sites. Schools are still serving during the summer; the number of districts and sites change daily, as schools are constantly making decisions about which locations and days of the week to continue serving while also keeping workers and families safe.
“We say that all the time during the course of the school year, we really love to see a child eat breakfast in the morning because they’re better prepared to learn that day,” Clements said. “We like to see them eat lunch because they’re not going to be hungry and distracted in the afternoon. The same goes for right now — we’re trying to do distance learning and I think it’s important to make sure the nutrition is right so that they are healthy and even though (learning) shifted to home, they’re still able to learn.”
In some cases, local school districts have stopped serving meals because of the coronavirus. The West Bolivar School District, for example, paused delivery for about a month for this reason. They were delivering meals to students along the bus route in an effort to reach kids in the most rural areas of the county. But when one of the food service staff contracted the coronavirus, the meal provisions had to stop immediately, said Jackie Lloyd, school board president.
Small towns that West Bolivar School District served like Shaw — where the only sources of food are one restaurant, two gas stations, and a Dollar General — were suddenly left to figure out how to bridge the gap of keeping kids fed.
“You go to [Dollar General] one day, the shelves are just bare. It’s a whole community of people trying to get the small amount that’s available. So it’s very hard for them, especially our elderly, to be able to survive and get adequate nutrition that they need during this time,” said Cora Jackson, who was born and raised in Shaw.
In Shaw’s case, the nonprofit Delta Hands for Hope stepped in.
Eric J. Shelton/Mississippi Today
Trinity McDaniel, left, and Chiquikta Fountain, executive director of Delta Hands for Hope, gives food to a Shaw resident outside of Delta Hands for Hope in Shaw, Miss., Friday, May 27, 2020.
“Delta Hands for Hope has been a pillar in Shaw for the past five to six years. Because our focus is on youth, there’s no way that I could not do something for these children,” said Chiquikta Fountain, executive director and sole employee of Delta Hands for Hope.
From Day One volunteers like Jackson, her husband, and a group of students showed up to assemble meals. Donors contributed money and meal boxes toward the effort. Delta Hands for Hope, which before the pandemic provided children with educational resources after school, now serves lunch to around 65 kids three days a week. Even with these efforts, they’re still not able to reach all of the children in Shaw who are enrolled in West Bolivar School District.
While the need for a reliable, nutritious food source has become a glaring issue during the time of this pandemic, the problem of food insecurity is not new.
“Food pantries are an emergency solution to a huge problem here. They’re a Band-Aid. All of this hunger talk and hunger work to me is going to be for naught if we’re not talking about changing the system in which hunger exists,” Baker, the co-director of Mississippi Farm to School Network, said.
That system in which hunger exists hinges on long-held economic policies that don’t promote the buying and selling of locally grown produce.
Mississippi’s agricultural “focus on export commodities appears to have led state officials, and educational institutions, to overlook the potential for creating new economic activity — and farm and food business ownership — through local foods,” states a report produced for the Mississippi Food Policy Council.
The same report estimates that Mississippi imports nearly 90 percent of its food, while exporting on a large scale commodity crops that have to be processed, like soybeans.
“We have this incredibly rich soil. The Mississippi Delta is the richest soil in the country. And we’re not growing food there. We’re growing commodity crops — stuff that people can’t eat,” Baker said. “We’re not supporting small scale farmers. In fact, there are many policies and legislation that prevent small farmers from doing what they need to do.”
This is just one of the factors contributing to what is commonly referred to as hunger in Mississippi. In this sense, hunger doesn’t necessarily mean starving to death. It means not knowing where the next meal will come from or not being able to access healthy, affordable food.
Eric J. Shelton/Mississippi Today
Food is prepared at Delta Hands for Hope in Shaw, Miss., Friday, May 27, 2020.
“There are people here who may not be starving like we see on TV where you have children who are malnourished. Starvation looks a different way. Having access to food looks totally different than what you think it does … There’s food, but it’s processed food. You may even have cooked food (from a gas station or restaurant), but you don’t know where that came from,” Fountain said.
Eddye Johnson, food service director in the Coahoma County School District, is also well aware of this problem. She knew it would be hard for students to get a nutritious meal — her concerns stemmed from the lack of healthy meals students eat rather than access to the food itself.
“A lot of these children can’t go in there and cook, so they might be hungry or eating (Ramen) noodles up until their parents come home. Every now and then I think about that. I try to do my best to make sure I do all I can to make sure each child gets a decent meal and something nutritious,” Johnson said.
On a statewide level, the department of education worked with the Mississippi Department of Human Services to secure additional funding for families. The Pandemic EBT Program (P-EBT) was passed by the federal government in March as part of the Families First Coronavirus Response Act, and gives the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture the authority to approve statewide plans for temporary assistance to ensure that “children continue to have access to nutritious meals despite this national emergency.”
To date, 41 states have been approved, Mississippi included. The program serves 340,980 students to the tune of $90 million, or about $5.40 per student per day. The funding is retroactive, meaning it would cover the time from the date schools closed due to the pandemic (March 19) through the end of the school year (May 22).
The pandemic has also changed the way food is distributed. Ensuring the safety of employees and the greater communities they serve has led some districts to go from five days a week to one or two.
Cartons of milk for each child in some cases are now gallons, so families don’t have to come back repeatedly and increase contact and exposure. Before the virus, districts may have ordered large tins of canned peaches or strawberries; now they’re distributed in single-serve cups, Clements said.
Eric J. Shelton/Mississippi Today
One of the boxes of food that is distributed at the Tutwiler Community Center.
“It’s a very different process from having 800 kids come through a serving line where you’re constantly being backfilled from the kitchen,” Clements, the state nutrition director, said. “Even though the numbers may be smaller, it’s tough to feed say, 400 kids in a serving line when you’ve got to bag up everything individually, have everything ready, keep it hot or cold as the case may be, outside of the kitchen.”
In the Jackson Public School District, meals were served at 12 sites across the city on Mondays and Wednesdays during the school year. Initially the district was serving Monday through Friday, but department officials decided it was best to stick to two days for the safety of everyone involved.
“Of course maintaining safety is always a concern,” said Marc Rowe, school nutrition director at the district. “It’s always a challenge to make sure that we’re all practicing social distancing and wearing all of our protective equipment.”
JPS is using a drive-up method, where parents pull up to the sites and workers hand them the bagged meals — two on Mondays and three on Wednesdays, so families have food for the week but don’t have to come by daily.
The state’s second largest school district typically serves about 19,000 lunches and 10,000 breakfasts a day during the school year.
“We know that because of those numbers, there is a major need for students to eat breakfast and lunch even though they’re not in a traditional school setting,” Rowe said.
Since mid-March when the governor closed schools to mid-May, Rowe said the district served roughly 125,000 meals. The district returned to Monday through Friday service on June 1 until June 10 for its summer feeding program.
The Coahoma County School District, which serves almost 1,200 students, delivered 1,200 breakfast and 1,200 lunches every day on Monday through Friday. The district ended their delivery meal services two weeks ago to prepare for their summer feeding program on June 1.
Maintaining employee safety is a challenge for all districts, but for some, trying to reach as many students as possible has been the biggest barrier of all.
Wilma McIntosh, food service director in the Clarksdale Municipal School District, said the stigma of the virus and rural areas the district serves are making it difficult to reach as many students.
“Even though the advertisement is out there and we’re encouraging everyone to come, some still don’t come. They may not have transportation and some they just may be fearful with coming out,” McIntosh said.
Clarksdale Municipal schools, Coahoma’s neighboring district, served grab-and-go meals — including breakfast and lunch — for five days a week. Across three sites, over 500 students received meals daily, McIntosh said.
But, this doesn’t equate to nearly half of the 3,000 students in the district. The district usually serves 525,000 meals per year.
As a way to reach more kids, the district implemented “Wildcat on Wheels,” bussing meals to students across the town. This one-day operation ended quickly for fear of the “safety for the community and employees,” McIntosh said.
Unlike schools, the issue for the Olive Branch Food Pantry, comprising more than 20 churches and organizations, wasn’t transportation. Michele McCrory, director, said their initial issue was finding volunteers. Their usual volunteers consisted of older people. Despite social distancing measures, they felt unsafe being around others, she said. As a result, the pantry closed in April.
“It was a hard decision for us. Many pantries opened during the COVID-19 scare. We have a couple of board members who are older or take care of elderly people, so they couldn’t get around people,” McCrory said.
The pantry secured younger volunteers and reopened in May operating as a drive through. They serve about 60 boxes every week to families.
In addition to food pantries, nonprofits and community organizations helped carry the load by giving monetary relief and helping hands for meal distribution.
In Tallahatchie County, The Tutwiler Community Education Center stepped in when the local school district couldn’t provide meals. Before the coronavirus, the organization’s role has always been to support the community in times of need.
“When the storm hit (earlier this year) and people lights were out and lost food, we were able to get a donation to get 10,000 gift cards for food to support that need and fortunately, we were able to partner with organizations,” Melanie Powell, executive director of the center, said.
Eric J. Shelton/Mississippi Today
Melanie Powell, executive director of the Tutwiler Community Education Center.
This time is no different except for the increasing demand of food, she said. They are now doling out more than 250 food boxes per week. At this rate, Powell says the center “will be a food bank.”
Through it’s FEED fund, the Community Foundation of Northwest Mississippi received over $150,000 to provide meals and food boxes to food pantries, church and community organizations, and food pantries. The Maddox Foundation of Hernando and the Walton Family Foundation gave over $100,000 to assist the foundation in its efforts.
While the pandemic has undoubtedly hindered people’s ability to access basic sustenance, it doesn’t mean that it has inflamed an overwhelming sense of despair in all.
“I don’t want to keep portraying our community like we don’t still have people who have pride in this place just because of something like this,” Fountain said. “People are resilient. They find ways to bounce back. Even in this time of confusion, I encounter people who have smiles on their faces, who are happy about life. They’re grateful to be here, even in the midst of all this stuff that’s going on.”
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The Legislature passed a key deadline Tuesday – the deadline for bills to pass out of committee in the chamber where they did not originate.
On Wednesday, the full House and Senate will begin taking up those bills on the floor and soon final work will begin on passing a budget for the new fiscal year, which starts July 1.
The hurdle for legislation is on June 17, the deadline to take up bills in the full chamber where they did not originate.
Mississippi Today highlighted many bills and where they stand in this process:
The post Dead or alive: What bills are still alive at the Capitol? appeared first on Mississippi Today.
Eric J. Shelton, Mississippi Today/Report For America
Toni Coleman, Center Hill High School economics teacher, helps her 12th grade class with one of their final class projects in Olive Branch Tuesday, May 7, 2019.
Before the coronavirus pandemic, statewide elected officials promised and the Mississippi Legislature moved quickly on a bill that would provide annual pay raises for public school teachers. Now, as lawmakers worry about the state budget during the pandemic, it’s dead.
Senate Bill 2001, which would have raised teacher pay in the state with one of the lowest average teacher salaries, died in House committee on Tuesday’s legislative deadline.
Early in the session, the Senate passed a bill that would give a $1,110 raise to teachers in their first three years of teaching, and $1,000 for all other teachers thereafter. For assistant teachers, their salaries would increase to $15,000; a brand new teacher with a bachelor’s degree would earn $37,000.
The bill died in the House Education committee on Tuesday after lawmakers failed to take it up. When asked why the bill would not move forward in the legislative process, House Education Committee chairman Rep. Richard Bennett, R-Long Beach, told Mississippi Today: “Look at the budget.”
While teachers did receive a $1,500 pay increase in the 2019 legislative session, many criticized it as nothing but a symbolic gesture, given that teachers in the state are still some of the lowest paid in the country. In the 2018-19 school year the average salary for a teacher was $45,105.
In January lawmakers described the teacher pay bill as a “first step” to increase teachers’ salaries to an adequate level, but the Legislature was forced to put the session on pause in March as a coronavirus precaution. During that break businesses closed, people lost their jobs, and the economy suffered.
Every state agency is facing cuts as the coronavirus pandemic has affected state revenue collections. Last month, Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann said that revenue could be $400 million below the estimate used to construct the current budget, and down as much as $800 million for the next fiscal year, beginning July 1. This means legislators may have to make double digit cuts to all state agencies.
“People are hurting, people are unemployed and we can’t do that to the taxpayers at this time,” Bennett said. “We’re just trying to maintain the services as best we can, so we can’t be adding to the budget at this point.”
Erica Jones, president of the Mississippi Association of Educators, said her organization was not surprised to see the bill die. While disappointed, …”the reality is that it’s not just educators experiencing financial hardship right now.”
The pay raise bill is dead, but if circumstances did change lawmakers could attempt to revive the pay raise later in the session in another piece of legislation that’s relevant and still alive, although this is unlikely.
“A pay raise bill is never about lining our educators’ pockets,” Jones said. “None of us entered this profession to get rich. A meaningful teacher pay raise is about recruiting and retaining teachers, helping address the teacher shortage crisis, and making sure that every student in Mississippi has access to a highly qualified educator in their classroom.”
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Mississippi Today is pleased to announce award-winning reporter Geoff Pender as the newest addition to the Mississippi Today team.
Pender will serve as Senior Political Reporter, working closely with Mississippi Today leadership on editorial strategy and investigations.
“I’ve long admired Geoff’s work, and I couldn’t be prouder to work with him again,” said Adam Ganucheau, Mississippi Today Editor-in-Chief. “His deep understanding of Mississippi politics, along with the respect he’s earned over the years on both sides of the aisle, boosts our mission of providing our readers with the most informed political coverage in the state.”
Pender brings 30 years of political and government reporting experience to Mississippi Today. He most recently served as Politics and Investigative Editor at The Clarion Ledger, where he also penned a popular political column. While at The Clarion Ledger, Pender helped lead digital transformation for the legacy publication, while overseeing watchdog news teams and government reporting.
Over his 16 years with the Sun Herald, Pender’s investigations on the city and county level led to reform, prosecution and conviction. He went on to lead the capitol bureau as Political and Investigative Editor, and was a member of the Pulitzer Prize-winning team for Hurricane Katrina coverage.
“I am excited about this opportunity to join the talented news team at Mississippi Today,” said Pender. “I love my native Mississippi, and Mississippi Today has made and continues to make it a better place with its impactful journalism. I am honored to be a part of this team and contribute to Mississippi Today’s important mission.”
Originally from Florence, Miss., Pender is a journalism graduate of the University of Southern Mississippi. He has received numerous awards throughout his career, including multiple Mississippi Press Association and other regional and national awards for his reporting, columns and his freedom of information efforts.
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Eric J. Shelton/Mississippi Today
Protesters wave the Mississippi state flag at a “Reopen Mississippi” protest on Saturday, April 25, 2020.
A bipartisan group of Mississippi lawmakers, with the blessing of Speaker of the House Philip Gunn, began whipping votes and drafting a resolution on Monday to change the state flag, which was adopted in 1894 and is the last in the nation containing the Confederate battle emblem.
The conversation behind closed doors this week marks one of the first earnest legislative discussions about changing the state flag since the 2001 referendum in which Mississippians voted nearly 2-to-1 to keep the current flag. It also comes as tens of thousands of black Mississippians and their multi-racial allies march the streets to protest racial inequalities in government.
About a dozen Republicans and Democrats in the House met privately on Monday afternoon to discuss changing the flag. Later in the afternoon, representatives of that bipartisan group met with Gunn to gauge his interest in helping their efforts, according to several sources with direct knowledge of the meeting.
Eric J. Shelton/Mississippi Today
A protester holds a Stennis Flag, which is the proposed design of the new Mississippi state flag, during the Black Lives Matter protest in downtown Jackson, Miss., Saturday, June 6, 2020.
Gunn, who has publicly advocated for changing the flag in years past, told the lawmakers he would support a suspension resolution that would adopt a new state flag. The resolution, which House attorneys began drafting Monday afternoon, would replace the current state flag with the Stennis Flag, a design that has blossomed in popularity across the state in recent years.
Suspending the rules to consider the change would require a two-thirds of the current House members (80 out of 120 current members). Gunn told the lawmakers he would ensure the resolution passed through House committee if the lawmakers could secure verbal support from around 30 Republican members this week.
Adding the potential Republican commitments to the 45 votes of the Democratic caucus, the House would be within eyeshot of solidifying a two-thirds, veto-proof majority to change the flag.
After the meeting with Gunn, several lawmakers began calling their colleagues and whipping votes on Monday afternoon, though some expressed doubt they could find 30 solid commitments from Republicans.
In 2015, Gunn publicly advocated for changing the flag, though no House bill to change the flag has passed through committee during his nine years as speaker. Dozens of bills are filed each year in both the House and Senate to change the state flag, but all of them have died in committee.
Mississippi lawmakers could change the state flag today if they wanted. Here’s how.
If the House were to pass the resolution to change the flag, it would move to the Senate for consideration. Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann, who presides over the Senate, said during his campaign last year that voters, not the Legislature, should decide the fate of the state flag.
But several state senators told Mississippi Today this week that they believe Hosemann, a moderate who has maintained close working relationships with leaders of the Legislative Black Caucus, could be open to the idea of legislative action, particularly during this moment of protest across Mississippi and America.
If the bill were to pass both chambers, it would move to the desk of Gov. Tate Reeves. On Monday, Reeves sidestepped several questions about his personal views on the state flag during a press conference. Reeves did say, however, that he believes Mississippians, not lawmakers, should decide the issue at the ballot.
“There are a lot of people who have been vocal about this issue for a long time,” Reeves said. “My position has not changed. I spent much of 2019 telling the people of this state what I believe is there is going to come a time at some point I’m sure, when the people of Mississippi are going to want to change the flag. My position is, when they want to do that, it should be the people that make that decision, not some backroom deal by a bunch of politicians in Jackson.”
Sources close to Monday’s discussions said Gunn told lawmakers he would like to keep the state flag from reaching the ballot, where it would almost certainly incite a bitter, months-long campaign that would paint Mississippi in a negative light.
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Jim Biever, AP
Chicago Bears Hall of Fame running back Walter Payton (34) runs upfield during an NFL game against the Washington Redskins in Chicago, on Sept. 29, 1985.
Our task today? We’re going to put together Team Mississippi, an All-Time, All-Pro football team of native Mississippians. We are going kick rear ends and take names. We’ll mess with Texas and anyone else who wants to try us.
Rick Cleveland
Before we get started, I’ll emphasize: These will be native Mississippians and will not include imports from other states who played college ball here. That leaves out Pro Football Hall of Famers such as Gene Hickerson and Ray Guy, not to mention future Hall of Famer Patrick Willis. Today’s team will be Mississippi born and bred.
We’ll start with the offense. And why don’t we start at quarterback where we’ll go with Brett Favre (Kiln), a three-time league MVP who retired as the NFL’s all-time leading passer and now ranks fourth. Not bad for starters. We’ve got Steve McNair (Mount Olive), Charlie Conerly (Clarksdale) and Archie Manning (Drew) if Favre needs a break, which, famously, he never did. He started 321 consecutive games, a pro football record.
With arms like that we’ll need lots of wide receivers. Not to worry. We’ll split Jerry Rice (Crawford), the NFL’s all-time leading receiver and scorer wide to the left. We’ll flank seven-time Pro Bowler and Hall of Famer Lance Alworth (Brookhaven), Bambi himself, wide to the right. In the slot? Take your pick: Harold Jackson (Hattiesburg), Eric Moulds (Lucedale), Willie Richardson (Greenville), Ray Perkins (Petal) and we could go on and on. This is fun, no?
When we run, we’ll give it to Sweetness, Walter Payton, No. 34 on his uniform, No. 2 on the all-time pro football rushing list. He’s only the best football player these eyes have ever seen. The quarterbacks will appreciate his blitz blocking, too. Ready in reserve will be Wilbert Montgomery (Greenville) and Deuce McAllister (Ludlow).
Jimmie Giles (Greenville), the first offensive player chosen for Tampa Bay’s Ring of Honor, is one tight end and Wesley Walls (Pontotoc), Carolina Panthers Wall of Honor, is the other. Between them, they caught 95 touchdowns. Both ought to be in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Buffalo Bills
Kent Hull was “the heartbeat” of the Buffalo Bills.
The old saying is that it’s what’s up front that counts. Kent Hull, a Buffalo Bills Wall of Famer and three-time Pro Bowler from Greenwood will snap it, flanked on either side by Pro Football Hall of Fame guard Billy Shaw (Vicksburg) and Gabe Jackson (Liberty). For offensive tackles, we’ll trot out maybe the best ever Jackie Slater (Jackson) on the left side and Walt Suggs (Hattiesburg) on the right. Tom Goode (West Point), who famously snapped for Jim O’Brien’s winning field goal in Super Bowl V, will handle long snapping.
And now for the defense. We’ll be nasty on this side of the ball with L.C. Greenwood (Canton) at one end and Ben McGee (Durant) on the other. Both were Steelers and both were splendid. At defensive tackle, we’ll go with the great Bruiser Kinard (Pelahatchie), another Pro Football Hall of Famer and Fletcher Cox (Yazoo City), presently one of the best in the business and surely a future Hall of Famer. Have you noticed how many small-town guys make this team? Amazing.
New York Jets
Ole Miss great Larry Grantham is part of the New York Jets Ring of Honor.
We’ve got linebackers galore. The only problem is deciding whom to start. Hugh Green (Natchez) gets one nod. Run away from him, and you’ll find Larry Grantham (Crystal Springs) on the other side. In the middle, I’m going with tackling machine Johnie Cooks (Leland). And then there are present day stars K.J. Wright (Olive Branch) and Jamie Collins (McCall Creek), both All-Pros.
youtube.com
With NFL Films camera zooming in, Willie Brown rambled into NFL history in the 1977 Super Bowl.
No state, anywhere or any size, can match us at cornerback. Yazoo City’s Willie Brown and Gulfport’s Lem Barney are two more Pro Football Hall of Famers. If they aren’t the best two ever to play the position, they are in the first sentence of any conversation about it.
For safeties, we’ll go with Jimmy Patton (Greenville), a five-time Pro Bowler for the New York Giants and Jim Marsalis (Pascagoula).
On special teams, Stephen “Beaver” Gostkowski (Madison) ranks as one of the most accurate placekickers in pro football history and is money when the game is on the line. Most will assume that Ray Guy, who kicked at USM and lives in Purvis, is the punter. He would be except that USM recruited him out of Thomson, Georgia. Jerrell Wilson? Born in New Orleans. Not to worry, Chunkin’ Charlie Conerly could punt it just fine. So could Sweetness Payton for that matter. So could Julian Fagan of Laurel and Jim Miller, the barefoot wonder from Ripley.
But keep in mind, with our offense, who really needs a punter?
The post This Mississippi All-Time, All-Pro team will mess with Texas or any state, for that matter appeared first on Mississippi Today.
A cold front moved through overnight that will give us a slight chance of showers through the morning commute. Otherwise, it will be mostly cloudy through mid morning, then gradual clearing, with a high near 85 this afternoon! South southwest wind 10 to 15 mph. Tonight will be mostly clear, with a low around 61. Expect lower humidity, cooler mornings and sunny, warm afternoons through early next week
The first ever Virtual Elvis Pet Parade, sponsored by Dilworth Small Animal Hospital,
was held Saturday, June 6 as part of the Virtual Tupelo Elvis Festival. “We were happy
to be a part of this event to support the Tupelo-Lee Humane Society,” stated Dr. Laurie
Dilworth, owner and medical director of Dilworth Small Animal Hospital.
“Virtual participation allowed owners to photograph or video their pets and upload the
images to a Facebook event page so everyone could view all the contestants” Dilworth
noted.
The judging was held on Sunday, June 7 and the following winners were
announced:
Fan Favorite Winner • “Paisley” the Pony
Owner: Jessica Criddle
Paisley is a 15 year old Pony
Elvis Look-A-Like Winner • Lil’ Elvis
Owner: Pam Hussey
Lil’ Elvis is a 17 year old Rescue
Best Costume Winner • Jace
Owner: Tiffany Moss
Jace is a 5 year old Yorkie
Pet/Owner Look-A-Like Winner • Abilene
Owner: April Hood
Abilene is a 4 month old Cotralian (Mini Australian Shepherd/Cocker Spaniel)
Elvis World Tour Winner • Bennie Bear
Owner: Tiffany Moss
Bennie Bear is a 4 year old Toy Poddle
Best in Show – Overall Winner • Luna
Owner: Erica Underwood Burkle
Luna is a 4 year old Great Pyrenees Rescue
Honorable Mention • Jedi and Matlock
Owner: Melissa King
Jedi is a 12 year old Maltipoo
Matlock is a 10 year old Bichon Frise
