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BIG 12 CONFERENCE FOOTBALL MEDIA DAYSJuly 18, 2017Matthew SignDallas, Texas THE MODERATOR: We're now joined at the podium by Matthew Sign, the National Football Foundation Chief Operating Officer. Matthew's going to make some comments. He's not going to take any questions. MATTHEW SIGN: Thank you, Peter. Great job as always, Peter, and great job by the entire Big 12 conference staff. This has been a terrific event here at The Star. A great job by Bob and Joni, Ken, anyone else involved, very well done. Great job as always by Walt Anderson. I bet you didn't know Walt Anderson was an academic All-American at Sam Houston State, a good player in his own right. On behalf of our chairman, Archie Manning, our president and CEO Steve Hatchell, our Board of Directors and the over 12,000 members of the National Football Foundation and College Hall of Fame, it is an honor and privilege to be here with you today. Let me start by thanking NFF board member and Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby, his staff, and certainly the ten schools of the Big 12 conference for their staunch support of our programs and initiatives. I would also like to recognize Steve Richardson and the Football Writers Association of America. If you are not a member of the FWAA, you owe it to yourself and your profession to join. So if you have any questions, find Tiger, find Jimmy Burch, find any of those members, and they'll be glad to help you out. I would also be remiss, being here in The Star, congratulating another NFF board member, Dallas Cowboys owner, GM, and president, Jerry Jones, on his induction into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. 2017 is a year of memories for the National Football Foundation, and we're certainly excited that last month it was announced that the leadership of college football would be celebrating the 150th anniversary of intercollegiate football. Leading that charge will be former Big 12 commissioner Kevin Weiberg, and what makes this more exciting is he will make his home in the offices of the National Football Foundation in Las Colinas, which by the way we are across the highway from the Big 12 and down the street from the college football playoffs. So we encourage all of you to stop by and see all of us. We're certainly looking forward to working with Kevin and his team and the entire leadership to really showcase what the game has meant to our country and all those who have played, coached, supported, and watched it. 2017 also marks an anniversary for the National Football Foundation, and it's our 70th anniversary. So since 1947, the National Football Foundation has strived to protect the game, to be the voice of the game, and to be a great storyteller of the game. And we're able to do this by preserving the past, promoting the present, preparing the future, and protecting the game and the opportunities that it provides, and we do this all through our programs and initiatives. One of those programs has another anniversary. This year will be the 60th anniversary of our annual awards dinner in New York City, traditionally held the Tuesday after the conference championship games. It is the place to connect for the college community. It is there that we recognize the scholar-athlete class. We announce the recipient of the William V. Campbell Trophy, presented by Fidelity Investments, to college football's top scholar-athlete, which by the way, the Big 12 has won on three different occasions. And we'll also induct the College Football Hall of Fame class, which this year includes Bob McKay, an offensive lineman from the University of Texas, who will be the first member of the 1969 National Championship team to be inducted into the college football Hall of Fame. He will join nine others, including Peyton Manning, and three coaches, led by Steve Spurrier. The annual awards dinner will take place on Tuesday, December the 5th, at the New York Hilton Midtown, our new home while the Waldorf Astoria goes under renovation. And finally, if not most importantly, the National Football Foundation will continue to expand its Football Matters campaign. This initiative is central to promoting all that's good in the game and will allow us to continue to preserve, promote, prepare, and protect. The centerpieces of the campaign have been our public service announcements: I'm a football player, and I'm a football mom. The central message has been this is what the game can do for you and what it continues to do for young men. We will continue our outreach to moms across the country and make sure they have as much information as possible, as much of the right information as possible, to make informed decisions about their sons. We will also place special focus on the high school football coach. We will work to provide them with a voice, let them know the game is fully behind them and supports the work they do on a daily basis across the country in cities large and small, schools large and small. We can do this because the National Football Foundation is uniquely positioned within the game because of our partnerships and our friendships and our longstanding ability to promote all that's good in the game. Keep in mind, we work with 777 colleges and universities that play football. By the way, that is an all-time record high. We work with the conferences. We work at the associations across the country that support the game, whether it be the officials, the Bowls, the awards, the national associations. We have a nationwide chapter system. We have 121 chapters in 47 states with 12,000 members that reach over 5,000 high schools and over 600,000 high school football players. We, of course, have our members of the College Football Hall of Fame, our former national scholar-athletes, and, of course, all the men who have played college football and have gone on to success in varied fields, not necessarily athletics. These supporters and these friends will allow us and help us continue to expand our Football Matters initiative and to expand in the fact of more people, more often, with greater influence than ever before. In closing, please know how appreciative we are on behalf of the game that every one of you has been here the last two days because, just by being here, you are supporting the game and what it means to communities across the country, and by doing that, we can make the game better. So thank you for what you do. Thank you again to the Big 12 conference, and thank you on behalf of the game of football. Thank you very much. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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