Thank you for choosin’ TheJayGravesReport! There are so many options out there for you to get your daily sports fix and you’ve chosen to ride with Ya Boy! I don’t take that for granted either. The reason that I started this joint was because there wasn’t anybody out here giving us the REAL stories and addressin’ the REAL human issues surroundin’ sports.

People were only givin’ the news and their superficial opinions of it. I felt like no one was givin’ the sports fan a look into how the news became the news in the first place. What are the underlyin’ issues that created the situation that is before us? Also, there were guys in the media makin’ unfair assessments of the actions of athletes, especially African American athletes, that simply don’t understand the circumstances by which these players show up to college campuses and eventually into the professional ranks with. In the hood we call it baggage and in order to understand the story you’ve got to understand the baggage playboy.

Nobody was keepin’ it REAL! In my opinion, people don’t want fluff they want real conversations about real issues and that’s what I’ll give you daily with my editorials that I like to call “Hot Joints!” I’m a strong believer that if you don’t have an understandin’ of who the athlete is, you’ll never understand why he or she made the decisions that they’ve made. Therefore, I write TheJayGravesReport because I know that it is necessary for the fan to understand what the athlete was thinkin’ in order to tell the story about him or her, good or bad. So if that’s my callin’ I accept it pimpin’.

Since so many fans are clueless as to what’s really goin’ on from a socioeconomic stand point when it comes to college athletes, I believe that it is my job to explain to the reader WHY a kid did what he did first in order to bring clarity to the story. That way, by havin’ the background information the fan can make a better assessment of the situation and not just follow some sports analyst or writer that has a biased opinion of a particular athlete or situation. In my favorite vocabulary, “Some dun that doesn’t know a thing about the hood is tryin’ to tell you about what some cat from the hood was thinkin’.” You can’t talk about something that you don’t know anything about playa.

Let me put something on your mind playa! Mark, Luke and John all wrote about the crucifixion in the New Testament but why was it so important for God to allow all three books to be included the bible? If they all wrote about the same thing wouldn’t that be redundant? Not if they all wrote from different perspectives! Sports should be the same way playboy. We all are lookin’ at the same thing but our paradigms are different so therefore the voices tellin’ the stories have to be different.

Keep in mind bruh, 92 percent of all sports writers are white and grew up in either rural or suburban America. However, more than 70 percent of football and basketball players at both the college and professional ranks at black and most of them grew up in the hood. Now if the person giving you their opinion of what a black athlete was thinkin’ when they decided to do something or in Colin Kaepernick’s case protest. How can they accurately tell you what he’s thinking or why if they’ve never experienced what he’s experienced as a black man? Wouldn’t it make sense to get the perspective of the cat that can actually give you insight? It’s cool to hear from the guy that thinks like you but if you always listen to people that think like you. You’ll never learn anything.  If you’re willin’ to open your mind to new perspectives you begin to grow bruh.

So again, I’m thankful that you’ve chosen to hang out with “Ya Boy” to get your daily sports fix. I hope that you continue to enjoy my humor, candor and seriousness of givin’ you the best in common sense sports commentary! I’m gonna always keep it real or all the way 100, whichever comes 1st.

We’re all family here so I’m gonna keep givin’ it to you straight with no chaser. I just hope you can handle it. If you enjoy the “Hot Joints” please go to my Facebook page and hit Ya Boy up! I Praise God for his grace and mercy and for allowing me to find something that I enjoy doin to share with you. If you keep readin’, I’ll keep writin’ and stop me when I start lyin!

Holla At Ya Boy!