Crotni and Bert Emanuel are a father-daughter duo with an impressive array of accolades between the two of them. Cortni Emanuel and Bert Emanuel will be discussing their experiences in life, sports, and business.
Cortni Emanuel is a former student-athlete and graduate from the University of Georgia. Cortni’s accolades include 4x All-SEC, 4x All-Region, 3x All-American, All-SEC Honor Roll, UGA L.E.A.D member. Today, she is the Head Coach at Houston Christian High School and founder of the CE3 Performance Academy.
Bert Emanuel is a retired NFL player and serial entrepreneur. He has made a unique transition from the playing field to the boardroom. Upon retirement from the NFL, he began producing high tech base layer performance apparel, developing products for all NASA astronauts by redesigning the liquid cooling and ventilation suit (LCVS), and became the co-creator for 4 US patents of medical suits.
Cortni and Bert graciously took the time to answer the questions from the live chat in depth below:
Twig McGlynn: Did you have any special mentors?
I’ve had specific mentors along every phase in my life… from my dad to my football coaches to business professionals. It seems like God provided someone for the moment to help speak to me in a special way. I think I’ve always had my mom in those times to help guide me. My wife has been a big influence in helping me see different perspectives and I’m very grateful for her.
Thomas Grant: What more would you like to see sports institutions do to address racism and discrimination?
I think we still haven’t addressed the imbalance of minorities in management or power positions. When you look at the NFL and you have the existence of the Rooney Rule that states at least 1 minority candidate has to be interviewed for a position…. We still have a big problem that hasn’t been addressed. There are tremendous minority coaching candidates that are being passed over for whatever reason and that creates an imbalance within our sports institutions. The same can be true for collegiate and HS sports. More needs to be done to provide opportunities based on qualifications and not based on skin color. The NFL, NBA, and MLB should be industry leaders from that perspective in my opinion.
Greg Pedone: Do you have a favorite book? A favorite quote?
I love to read and read lots of different books along the way from sports to business to relationships and psychology. I really like GRIT… it somewhat explains the true ingredient behind what makes people successful and it’s one of my favorites.
In terms of favorite quotes… I think it’s something that I say a lot and really believe in… “SUCCESS IS IN THE DETAILS”. I’ve always been a hard worker but I believe that focusing on the little things, the small things will be the reason for success. So I try to be detailed oriented in everything that I do… sometimes to a gulag but understanding that it’s the little things that truly make the biggest differences.
Ryan Grady: Bert, do you think the NFL is being a trendsetter with their responses recognizing Juneteenth and other initiatives they have commenced during this time?
I believe they’ve made some strides in that area… it hasn’t always been that way though. The NBA has been much more progressive than the NFL but based on the recent events… it’s good to see the NFL adjust and embrace social injustices and platforms for positive change. Black makes up a large proportion of the team rosters and it’s important that their voices are heard especially in situations like this where those so much injustice being played out before our eyes. I do think that more can happen from the NFL’s perspective… we still don’t have a Black owner, Team President, and GMs are still less represented than players… along with Head Coaches even though this is trending upwards.
Davontae Hunt: Bert: How did you prepare to have that initial conversation with your kids after that incident in high school? How did you emotionally prepare yourself to have that conversation with your child?
Honestly, this was one of the most difficult conversations I’ve ever had to give to my kids. I found it very hard to explain more so from the perspective of the connection with it being in 2016… than even the topic of discussion. Emotionally the mere accusations that they were a part of some black militant group that never even existent was alarming and angered me more so. More so, when questioned about the group, the teacher could not give me any factual data, no factual conversations supporting this group or their participation in the group, and no substantial evidence that it even existed… she just acted upon one person's accusation and ran from there. It turned out that it was a white girl that said she didn’t want a black girl stealing her volleyball position and made up the story to get them hopefully kicked off the team that made this even more alarming. The school did nothing to punish the teacher or the other student once she admitted she made up the entire story and the teacher was given the teacher of the month certificate for her performance and interactions with the students. This became the basis of our frustration and everything was ignored from there on. I’m not sure if we handled it correctly with our kids, but we did the best we could in explaining the social injustices that existed and what they faced and reiterated that it might not be the last time they would have to defend themselves unfortunately to mischaracterizations based on the color of their skin. Needless to say… It was a very hurtful moment for our family and one that I will never forget.
Davontae Hunt: Cortni: Since your Facebook post, how has this shaped your opinion on the reality of what is happening in this country? What did you do to cope with the environmental change between your rearing and your initial experience in Georgia?
Since my Facebook post and the conversations I have had since the result of my Facebook posts validates my previous feelings. There is still racism taking place in this country, and a lot of people are choosing to listen with deaf ears instead of being open to change. I have too seen a change. I have a lot of people reaching out to me telling me they had no clue that these are things that I dealt with growing up and they stood by in this fight against racism. Again, it just goes to show that both love and evil exist throughout the country still to this day.
Moving to Georgia was rough at first because of the modern-day segregation that I witnessed. In trying to be the change I just decided to make myself vulnerable to people of all races. I allowed people to ask me hard questions and I believe this is my way of coping.