Marc Morial

and a serious makeover.

Generationally, it had become proud and aging.

Very proud, but we had a lot of, you know, the organization to some extent was operating in, almost in the past tense, right?

And sometimes what happens when you're operating in the past tense, you don't know it on the inside, but everybody on the outside knows it.

Unless you can confront that as opposed to fighting it,

I had someone who worked for the league the first month I was there said, well, you know, you want us to brag about our accomplishments.

He said, you don't understand.

That's just not our way.

I said, that used to be your way.

I said, I believe in advocacy.

I believe in promotions.

I believe in hype.

I do not believe in, you know, let's just do it and don't tell anybody about it.

And so we led, you know, a significant remake of the organization.

I mean, the predecessors, the people who served before me, they were ripe for those times.

When I took over, I was in my mid 40s and they wanted a younger person and they wanted someone with political chops.

And and some management ability.

And and I mean, the rest is history.

You know, we created.

So now, you know, 20 years later, the organization's five times as large as it was back then.