CLEVELAND — Beau Hill strode through the hallway of the Salvation Army of Greater Cleveland’s Harbor Light Complex near downtown.
Hill, executive director of the Salvation Army of Greater Cleveland, was preparing to show a visitor a new facility built to take care of the victims of human trafficking. Asked what this 12-bed center meant to him, Hill was quick to respond: “It’s huuuuge.”
When Hill entered the facility, signs of recent work were evident. He stepped around scaffolding and through rooms that recently had wallboards and spackling compounds added. He pointed to a living room, walked down the hall past a mini-kitchen and around a corner to three bedrooms where up to 12 women who are survivors of human trafficking could sleep.
The Hue Jackson Respite Services for Recovered Survivors of Human Trafficking will have its ribbon-cutting ceremony/grand opening July 17. Housed in the Harbor Light Complex, it is largely funded by the Hue Jackson Foundation, which the Cleveland Browns coach established with his wife, Michelle, a year ago.
“Michelle and I are very excited about the opportunity to assist survivors of human trafficking by helping to provide a place of respite,” Jackson said in a statement released through his foundation. “This ribbon cutting ceremony is more than a formality. It is a signal to the community we hope to help that there is a safe place to go and there are people who care.”
Kimberly Diemert, the foundation’s executive director, said the space will allow the women a chance to “go through their rebirth.”
“The goal is to give the women the control they need to regain their life and their sense of independence and self-worth,” Diemert said.
Hue Jackson says he and his wife, Michelle, have seen the problems and effects of human trafficking “firsthand.” Tony Dejak/AP Photo
“This is the first step in a journey, a journey in making a difference in the life of the survivors of human trafficking,” said Major Thomas Applin, divisional secretary of the Salvation Army of Greater Cleveland.
The remodeled space will include a refreshment area, an activity area and a living room — all designed to give a sense of home. Services within the Harbor Light Complex include counseling and 24-hour nursing care as well as medically supervised drug and alcohol detoxification and outpatient therapy.
Planning for the space emphasized safety and security for residents while giving women the freedom that was taken from them, in a place they can call home for as long as they need to.
Jackson said he and Michelle chose human trafficking as the foundation’s focus because they have seen the problem and its effects “firsthand.”
No requirements will be placed on residents, in part to allow them to regain control of their lives. Hill said most victims are referred through law enforcement or rape crisis centers.
In 2016, Ohio ranked fourth in the nation in human trafficking, Hill said. However, that number barely touches the scope of the issue because many women fear coming forward and many victims have not been identified. Diemert said in Ohio’s Cuyahoga County, 89 victims have come forward to law enforcement this year, but that figure barely accounts for the total number of survivors and victims.
Hill said the respite center is “absolutely critical” for the women’s ability to continue their recovery.
Operational costs are provided by local donations, and Diemert said Jackson’s foundation has pledged its continued support. Future foundation efforts could involve community outreach or education about trafficking, as well as raising funds to help the Salvation Army and other agencies working in human trafficking.
Because the respite center is staffed 24 hours day, those costs could be as much $400,000 to $500,000 annually, Hill said. In 2017, the Harbor Light Complex provided 147,472 nights of service to the needy (homeless, those dealing with substance abuse) and served 421,638 meals.
“Numbers are important to the community,” Applin said. “They want to know how many people you’re serving. But the reality is it’s one by one. One person is important.
“One person is worth doing the program if you’re going to save their life.”
The NFL Players Association filed a non-injury grievance Tuesday challenging the legitimacy of the NFL’s new national anthem policy on several grounds.
“The union’s claim is that this new policy, imposed by the NFL’s governing body without consultation with the NFLPA, is inconsistent with the collective bargaining agreement and infringes on player rights,” the NFLPA said in a statement.
The NFLPA, which was not consulted about the anthem policy change, argues in its grievance that peaceful demonstration during the anthem does not qualify as “conduct detrimental to the integrity of and public confidence in the National Football League.”
The league will need to rely on the broad powers afforded the commissioner through the personal conduct policy, including applying the phrase “conduct detrimental,” to decide whether to fine teams whose players demonstrate on-field during the anthem. NFL fans are accustomed to hearing that phrase as justification for penalizing players accused of illegal or unethical behaviors.
The NFLPA argues that kneeling during the anthem does not qualify as detrimental conduct, evidenced by the fact that the league has said players have the right to use their platform to elevate issues important to them. The players’ assocation believes that allowing peaceful demonstrations to be grounds for detrimental conduct discipline would set a terrible precedent, which teams could use to penalize players for other peaceful demonstrations, including prayer.
The NFL did not immediately comment about the union’s filing.
At NFL owners meetings in May, the league voted to approve a policy that requires players and team personnel on the sideline to stand during the national anthem. Players have the option to stay in the locker room while the anthem is played. The NFL wrote and ratified the policy without input from the players, as the game operations manual is not part of the collective bargaining agreement.
Commissioner Roger Goodell said the NFL wants to “treat this moment in a respectful fashion.” Should the league determine that a player is in violation of the new policy, the team will be fined. Teams can choose to fine players.
Under Article 43 of the CBA, franchises have the right to implement “reasonable club rules.” These rules normally include fines for objectively provable violations, such as missing a meeting or skipping a workout. The NFLPA will also seek an arbitrator’s judgment on the reasonableness of team-by-team anthem rules, given the fact that no player has been previously disciplined for such demonstrations.
The NFL will have 10 days to respond in writing to the accusations set forth in the grievance. If the issue is not resolved at that point, the NFLPA can appeal to the notice arbitrator. The grievance will be heard by one of four mutually accepted arbitrators.
The hearing likely will take place within 30 days, but grievances of this nature can take months to resolve; Colin Kaepernick’s collusion grievance has been unresolved since its filing in October. The NFL and NFLPA have already agreed to meet later this month to start discussions aimed at a resolution to the anthem issue.
The union has not ruled out the potential of challenging the legality of NFL’s anthem policy through cities or states, where statutes could prohibit employers from instituting rules like the anthem policy.
ALAMEDA, Calif. — You could say these are bright times for Bruce Irvin, who has had his share of dark days in his life.
Since the end of last season, he has earned a degree, becoming the first member of his family to graduate from college, made a much-desired position switch from outside linebacker to defensive end and maybe, just maybe, found a kindred spirit in returning Oakland Raiders coach Jon Gruden.
“He talks s— like I talk s—, so we get along,” Irvin said.
Irvin came to Oakland as a free agent in 2016 after four star-crossed seasons with the Seattle Seahawks, which included an eight-sack rookie season, a Super Bowl championship and another trip to the Super Bowl.
Initially an edge-rusher, Irvin made the switch to outside linebacker despite his concerns that he was not “smart enough” to play in coverages. Ken Norton Jr., then his position coach in Seattle and later his defensive coordinator in Oakland, admonished his pupil, telling him to never admit such a thing.
Besides, Norton told Irvin, he was capable of playing linebacker.
The Raiders were obviously impressed enough to sign Irvin to a four-year deal worth a max of $37 million and $12.5 million fully guaranteed to make him a bookend pass-rusher with All-Pro Khalil Mack.
Irvin’s presence helped Mack become the NFL’s Defensive Player of the Year in 2016 as Oakland went 12-4 and appeared in the postseason for the first time since the 2002 season.
The team regressed badly under Jack Del Rio in 2017, going 6-10 before Del Rio was shown the door. Gruden agreed to return to Oakland with an eye on Irvin and his skill set.
Enter new defensive coordinator Paul Guenther, who worked Irvin out at West Virginia and wanted the Cincinnati Bengals to draft him before the Seahawks struck at No. 15 overall in 2012.
“I knew he was a really gifted rusher,” Guenther said. “… Just coming here, I thought his best assets for us was to go forward rather than go backwards. He’s done a good job with what we’re asking him to do in the base fronts.
“Obviously, we know what he can do as a pass-rusher. Hopefully, we can get him over a double-digit [sack] mark this year. That’s the goal for him.”
The 6-feet-3, 260-pound Irvin had seven sacks his first year in Oakland, including a memorable strip sack of New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees in the season opener. He followed that up with eight sacks in 2017.
Per Pro Football Focus data, Irvin was just a “part-time” rusher last season, and his 40 total pressures still ranked 14th among all NFL linebackers.
And as an edge defender, Irvin ranked 15th with 33 defensive stops, per PFF data.
The Raiders are now looking for even more production from a more comfortable Irvin, and he is looking forward to producing — both in the football game and in the trash-talking game.
“You can ask anybody in the locker room, they’ll tell you I talk smack; it’s what I do,” Irvin said. “There’s no hard feelings, but you’re going to hear me.”
That’s where the ultra-intense Gruden comes in.
“We’ve got a great relationship. He speaks his mind, I speak my mind. I come to work, he comes to work,” Irvin said. “You couldn’t ask to work with a [better] person like that. A guy who is football, football, football. That’s all it’s about — winning and football. That’s the type of coach you want in the building.”
Still …
No matter how many accolades and atta-boys Irvin might garner on the field, nothing will compare to that sociology degree he just received from West Virginia.
And Gruden agrees.
“That’s a great success story, and it just goes to show you you can’t judge a man’s character just because he’s made a mistake when he’s 21 or 22 years old,” Gruden said. “You have to try to create an environment where people can flourish. Young people can develop and mature and become great. Bruce Irvin is a great example of that. He was surrounded with greatness in Seattle. He was put in a channel of success and he took advantage of it. Hopefully, we can provide that for some people down the road.”
Irvin received his degree in sociology in the offseason. West Virginia University/Brian Persinger via AP
For Irvin, who came from troubled childhood in which he had a short stint in jail as a teenager for burglarizing a house, was kicked out of his own home and lived in a drug house, then had to serve a four-game suspension for violating the NFL’s policy on performance-enhancing drugs, it all makes for a cautionary tale. He is more than happy to share his testimony. West Virginia has credited his community work. Irvin was the Raiders’ nominee for the Walter Payton Man of the Year Award last season.
“Being the situation I came from, since I dropped out and got my GED, the odds were stacked up against me to get my bachelor’s degree,” he said. “It was a surreal moment. I kind of put it up there with the Super Bowl, neck and neck.”
Irvin wanted to let his now-5-year-old son, Brayden, know his father is more than a professional athlete.
“When kids come up to him, they can say that his dad was a good football player, and he can stop them and say, ‘He was a good football player, but he also got his associate’s degree, got his bachelor’s degree. He wasn’t only a football player. He put education up there right along with his job.’
“It was bigger than me. It was for my son and his kids and generations after me.”
Irvin insists the dark days are behind him, when his alter ego, “B.J.,” ran his life. Now, he says, he is just Bruce. And Bruce is another veteran whom Gruden can count on.
“Like I said, guys can learn from me, it’s never too late,” Irvin said. “You can mess up, but just get the right people around you, surround yourself with the right people, and it’ll take care of itself.”
Just before 5:30 a.m., Tampa Bay Buccaneers defensive back Joshua Robinson is readying himself for duty. He pushes in the hard, pullout hospital sofa that has become his makeshift bed and wipes the sleep from his eyes. With a bottle in his hand and a warm blanket, he reaches for the oldest of two tiny babies, gently cradling him in his arms.
He takes off his shirt because the skin-to-skin contact helps them bond. After 30 minutes, he’ll do the same with the baby’s twin brother, Joshua’s other son (the boys’ names and location are being withheld to protect their privacy).
The twins are 4 weeks old.
“[We’re] in milliliters right now,” Joshua said. “The oldest [who weighs 5 pounds, 12 ounces] is getting about 30 milliliters and the youngest [who weighs 4 pounds, 10 ounces] is getting about 24. We’re slowly trying to get the food intake up at each feeding so that they can eventually be discharged.”
They have to be fed every three hours. Though a nurse takes over at times, Joshua is up throughout the night holding them and rewrapping them in blankets.
“I’m spending the rest of my offseason here,” said Joshua, overjoyed and undaunted despite having to juggle NFL training sessions between sleepless nights and being separated from the rest of his family by more than 1,000 miles. “I’ve been telling people lately that I’ve been living a dream.”
Back home in Tampa, his wife, Julianna, is getting the kids’ nursery ready. She is with their two biological children, who anxiously await the day they can meet their baby brothers. Jesse, 4, and Judah, 2, have been carrying around baby dolls for practice for two weeks. Jesse also has a working theory, according to Julianna. “Babies come from airports,” she said.
‘Do you have room for one more?’
This all started in December 2017 at the NFL’s My Cause, My Cleats game in Week 13, when players can showcase a charity of their choosing on their cleats. A little boy from Joshua and Julianna’s church was adopted with the help of Sacred Selections, a nonprofit organization that was started in 2006 to provide Christian couples the financial resources to adopt.
“Sacred Selections families, especially, are open to adopting children that are typically unwanted — when you start getting into a disability that people are uncomfortable with, a low birth weight, a preemie — some people when they adopt, they want their picture-perfect family,” Julianna said. “The families [they] are working with are typically focused on a Godly mission of loving the unloved.”
The cleats Joshua wore on Dec. 3, designed by Tampa artist Jason Hulfish, had the names of the first 200 children who had been adopted through the program. Joshua set up a You Caring page and pledged $2 for every $1 donated, up to $10,000. He raised $27,500, which immediately went to two families.
Throughout the fundraiser, the Robinsons got to know several families who had adopted. That’s when a revelation came. They met a 17-year-old girl who had been adopted, and she was asked what she would say to families who were considering this decision. “Do you have room at your table for one more?” she asked.
“To me, it was so profound, to see a little heart thinking, ‘I don’t need much. If you have room,'” Joshua said.
“It can be that simple,” Julianna said. “It was touching to hear her speak on adoption in that way, in just such a simple way — ‘Do you have room at your table for one more?’ And a lot of people do. We live in a world of such excess, especially here in the United States.”
Joshua had just turned 27 and finished his sixth season in the NFL and second in Tampa Bay, where he’d become a captain on special teams and one of the Bucs’ most versatile defensive backs, playing cornerback, nickelback and safety. He and Julianna, 29, had been married since 2013. Their home was stable.
“We figured that better than sharing an opinion [about adoption] would be just to show the right thing to do, for there to be action and not just words,” Julianna said.
When it came time to present the organization with a check at an event in Tampa in February of this year, the couple announced their intention to adopt.
“That was the first time we shared it with anyone,” Julianna said. “I think we said it publicly so we couldn’t back out.”
‘You’ve just kinda gotta jump sometimes’
This wasn’t an easy decision, and it was something they’d been wrestling with for months.
“I had always wanted to adopt. I wasn’t sure about it until we got involved. But for Julianna, it was a whole different mission,” Joshua said.
“I didn’t want to,” Julianna admitted. “And since we decided, a lot of people have said, ‘You’re such great people. You’ve done such a good thing.’ And it’s a bit awkward for me, because I don’t feel like I’m doing anything great or outstanding — and especially because I know my heart and I really fought this. I did not want to do this. I was so scared of the whole thing. I fought that a lot because I was so scared. Adoption is scary. There are a lot of question marks and variables. I had so many fears. … My big fear was, ‘How could I love this child the way I love my biological children?'”
Then the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School happened Feb. 14 in Parkland, Florida, about 25 miles from Joshua’s hometown in Fort Lauderdale.
“The shooter was adopted. The media focused on that part of his story so much,” Julianna said. “But I realized that most problems have solutions if you’re honest and not afraid of hard work, and getting children the support that they need. That’s something that, little by little, I was able to get over that hurdle. Because you know what? People who are not adopted also do awful things.”
Ultimately, it was the couple’s faith that won.
“Once you see the kids, you’re like, ‘Man, this is the right thing to do,'” Julianna said. “You’ve just kinda gotta jump sometimes.”
Most of Joshua’s teammates know about the adoption and have been supportive. Some have even expressed interest in doing it themselves, which is a demographic — young people — the Robinsons hope to reach.
“The focus should not be on what we’re getting, but on what we’re being able to give to a child or children,” Julianna said. “And it shouldn’t be like a last-ditch effort — ‘We can’t have kids so we might as well look at adoption.’ We’re trying to show that adoption should be considered because there is a need out there. And people are caring. I think people do want to make a difference and help.”
‘A roller-coaster ride’
Adopting can be a long and difficult process, and it was challenging for the Robinsons. It can also be expensive. The cost of private agency adoptions ranges from $20,000 to $45,000, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
“Honestly, it was a roller-coaster ride, and there was no other way to describe it. A roller coaster,” Joshua said.
The Robinsons started off by getting approved through a home study — when a social worker visits to determine if the home is suitable for children. The couple then went through Sacred Selections and a private agency to increase their chances of finding a match.
There were multiple instances when they thought they’d be getting a child, only to have things fall through.
“You instantly get attached to these little kids, whether they’re inside their moms still, or are newborn,” Joshua said.
When a birth mother has been matched with a family but ultimately decides not to place her child up for adoption, it is referred to as a “false start.” According to a survey from the website Adoptive Families, 38 percent of all U.S. newborn respondents experienced one or more false starts.
Also complicating the process are the adoption laws that vary by state, including revocation of consent, in some cases even months after the fact. So even after Joshua and Julianna walked off a plane to meet the boys at the hospital after they were first born, Joshua said, “We weren’t sure if they were gonna be ours. It was kind of a ‘hold-your-breath’ type feeling.”
“I almost started crying,” said Julianna. “We were in the NICU as visitors, not as parents. … We had to kind of remind ourselves that we were looking at this mother’s babies, not ours.”
‘You have a dad’
After the Robinsons first saw the boys, they had to fly home to Tampa and wait for the birth mother to formally make her decision. She signed the adoption papers the next day, legally granting them adoption of the two children.
They flew back, and that plane ride was much different from the first. Their anxiety was replaced by joy. And they couldn’t stop smiling thinking of the little boys waiting on them, bundled up in blankets stamped with tiny pink and blue footprints. They were already leaving an indelible mark on their new family’s hearts.
“When we finally walked into that room to hold them for the first time, my first [words] were, ‘You have a dad,'” Joshua said. “I wanted them to know, ‘I’m gonna be your dad. I’m going to be there for you for the rest of your life. I’m going to love you for the rest of your life.’
“To hold those two boys, it was like a dream come true. I told Julianna, ‘I’ve probably cried more times with these boys than I have with my own.'”
Joshua has been affected greatly by his relationship with his own father, Johnny. Before just about every home game, Johnny can be found on the field, near the tunnel, wearing a “Robinson” Bucs jersey. He always makes sure to give Joshua a hug after pregame warm-ups. He and Joshua’s mother, Shirley, have seldom missed a high school, college or NFL game.
“He’s been so instrumental in my life,” Joshua said. “The more I’ve grown, the more I’ve appreciated him. I used to tell people, it’s crazy, because I’ve had grown men come up to me in the NFL, saying, ‘To see your dad at every one of your games — I wish my dad was around.’ I’ve had NFL players tell me that.”
‘They are worth it’
The terms of every adoption are different, but Joshua and Julianna want the boys to have a relationship with their biological mother.
“We want our boys to know that their mother loved them enough to one, have them, and two, to choose great parents to take care of them,” said Joshua.
In addition to the adoption agency’s thorough screening process, the boys’ biological mother wanted to Skype with the Robinsons and meet face-to-face prior to the babies’ birth.
“She still loves and cares about these boys,” Joshua said. “That’s something we want to instill in them.”
They’ve arranged it so she can see them at least once a year, something agreed on prior to the adoption.
“I feel like we owe it to these boys, we owe it to their birth mom, we owe it to our fellow Christians, to these Sacred Selections families who are looking at us and saying, ‘Great job,'” Julianna said. “We owe it to everyone, but to God most of all, to raise these children the right way, to love them with everything we have.”
The Robinsons still don’t know when they’ll be able to bring the boys home. The twins have to be discharged from the hospital first. Then they have to be formally approved to leave their birth state through the Interstate Compact on the Placement of Children (ICPC). The last step in the adoption process is a finalization hearing in court.
“It’s been really hard,” said Julianna, who visits Joshua and the babies when she can. “You want to bond with them, because you know how important it is to have them bonding with their parents at this early stage, and then at the same time, you have this huge hole in your heart because your two bigger boys, you know they miss you terribly, and you’re not there, so you’re being pulled in two different directions.”
Then there’s Bucs training camp, which kicks off July 25, then preseason and the start of the NFL regular season, which means Joshua won’t be around as much to help. Julianna’s mother, Frances, who works as a school principal, will be staying with them. They’ve also arranged to have a babysitter watch the kids on game days.
“The workload here is going to increase now … quite a bit,” Julianna said. “And I’m sure we’re gonna have moments where we feel stretched pretty thin, but it’s worth it. They are worth it. That’s kind of been a motto for me — they are worth it.”
