One of the things Dr. S enjoys most about watching an NFL game, besides all of the subtle, tasteful beer commercials, is seeing how many players from Mississippi and Mississippi schools are in the league. Monday night’s game between the Green Bay Packers and the Miami Dolphins was a great example. There were six Mississippi players in the teams’ starting lineups. The Packers had quarterback Brett Favre (Southern Miss), wide receiver Donald Driver (Alcorn State) and linebacker Nate Wayne (Ole Miss). The Dolphins had defensive tackle Tim Bowens (Ole Miss), cornerback Patrick Surtain (USM) and offensive tackle Todd Wade (Ole Miss). The Packers’ Mississippi guys made more big plays than the Dolphins homeboys, so Green Bay won 24-10. Football players, writers and Miss Americas: Nobody turns them out like Mississippi.
Mississippi native Donna Ladd and partner Todd Stauffer founded the Jackson Free Press in 2002 in the capital city. The heavily awarded local newspaper did many investigations heralded across the state and nation and served as a paper of record due to its diversity, inclusion, in-depth reporting and deep connection to readers and dedication to narrative change in and about Mississippi. In 2022, the nonprofit Mississippi Free Press, founded by Ladd and JFP Associate Publisher Kimberly Griffin in 2020, purchased the journalism assets and archives of the Jackson Free Press. A Google grant through AAN Publishers enabled Newspack's integration of the JFP archives into the Mississippi Free Press website to become part of a more searchable archive of recent Mississippi history and essential journalism.
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