The Reformed Sports Project PodcastAdam Neuman is the Chief of Staff and Special Advisor to the President for the Baltimore Ravens. A Baltimore, MD area native and licensed attorney, Neuman serves as strategic counsel and manages all administrative, operational, financial, and legal activities for the President of the organization. Prior to joining the Ravens in 2023, Neuman served as the Chief of Staff for Strategy and Operations & Deputy General Counsel for the Big Ten Conference. Adam joins Nick to discuss his sports business career path, the important life lessons you can learn from sports, and how to instill better values in youth sports.
If you can succeed in sports them. When I say succeed, they don't mean just perform thoughtfully and score a lot of points. I mean if you can succeed as a teammate and you're going to figure out how to be a good teammate in the workplace, you can succeed.
Pick somebody up when they're down.
You're going to probably succeed better as a father when you've got to pick your kid up. So you know, these lessons are really critical because I think they're really ironed out and even full display in sports.
This is the Reform Sports Project.
I'll podcast about restoring healthy balance and perspective in all areas of sports through education and advocacy. Hi, this is Nick Bonacor from the Reform Sports Podcast. Today, I'm speaking with Adam Newman, the chief of Staff and Special Advisor to the President from the Baltimore Ravens. Prior to joining the Ravens in twenty twenty three, Newman served as the chief of Staff for Strategy and Operations and Deputy council for the Big Ten Conference. Adam and I discuss his career path, the important lessons you learn from sports, and how to instill better values in youth.
That got a freaking awesome guest.
Chief of Staff, Special Advisor to the President of the Baltimore Ravens, Adam Newman. Adam Man, great to connect. Thanks for coming on, bro.
Thank you brother. It's good to be here and always great to talk to friends.
Well, I appreciate you Man, I love your energy. Hey, oh new gig. You were with the Big Ten, I mean real quick for the audience, I mean, you got this wonderful new gig. You're from Maryland, all this going on, Can you give us a background as to how the hell you ended up you know with the Ravens in the world you were in now your previous background with in the Big Ten and kind of what got you here?
Yeah, I think you know, life is about relationships, and it's about really giving it your all and doing the right thing. And that's sort of I think been the story of my career. You know, I'm a lifelong of Baltimorean at heart. My grandfather was the longest working employee ever in the history of the state of Maryland, for over sixty years working bridges, graduating at Johns Hopkins at like age twenty back when that was possible and then sort of grinded through that and just stayed in that.
Job and did great work for the state of Maryland.
And that's always been in my blood, always a lifelong MEMORIALS Ravens fan. My parents are University of Maryland, the Lums, and always felt close to that connection to that school, and sports was just really big in my family. And I certainly was not athletically gifted enough to pursue any sort of career in athletics, but I always wanted to be near athletics, and I believe that sports was a reminder that people could be bigger than themselves, and I think nowadays you really need that reminder. It's a permission to dream.
That's what sports really is.
It shows you that you can reach deeper, too, and I wanted to be around that. I wanted to touch that.
And I was.
Blessed to serve as a legal intern for the Minnesota Vikings and worked my butt off and established a close relationship with then chief operating officer Kevin Warren, who ended up becoming the commissioner of the Big Ten Conference. And at the time I was working as a lawyer at Simpson Thatcher and Capital Markets.
When you made the call to me.
And it even started prior to that. When I was at Yeshiva University as an undergrad. I was making twenty four thousand dollars a year as a fellow, and they allowed me to sit in some of the board meetings, and that's a credit to the president of the university. But that's where I met mister Mark Wilf, who owned the Vikings and connected me to mister Kevin Warren at the time, and worked really hard as a legal intern. Kind of always wanted to be that sticky note if Kevin Warren ever, moved from the Vikings and said hey, I need somebody to help, and that's sort of what happened, and he left to be the commissioner of the Big Ten, which you might remember was a surprise to a lot of folks. I think other folks with more collegiate experience, I think we're sort of the front runners. But Kevin blew them away, which is not surprising, and met with those presidents and chancellors and did incredible work at the Big Ten conference over the last four years and now finds himself as the president of the Chicago Bears. When he decided to move I kind of thought, I really want to break back into professional sports. And this opportunity came thanks to president Sashi Brown and Eric Tacosta and incredible owner Steve Bushatti, and the opportunity to return home where I had of you know, three grandparents living, including my grandfather who I mentioned, two brothers, my broth, both my brothers who I love dearly.
And their kids, six nieces and nephews, both my parents.
Tons of friends and family and of course a grade seven to eleven that I've been patronizing for for many years.
It's just an incredible opportunity to be back. Man.
I love it, dude, love your energy, and I love how you brought up the word relationships, because I mean, that's something we talk about a lot, and quite frankly, I'm always someone speaking a lot about the doors that can open as a result of sport participation. And you know, nowadays it seems like and I don't want to just say nowadays, because I mean kids dream. I love how you said that too. Sports gives you the opportunity to dream. But let's face it, not everyone can plain in the Big Ten. Certainly, not everyone can play in the NFL. Hell, not even kids can be Division three athletes like I was, you know, or you know, junior college like you know. Sports ends at the highly competitive levels for everybody at some point. The question is when the doesn't mean you can't take that experience and find a path in sports or in anything, and you leverage those relationships to help you find your passion your career in whatever space that is.
So you know, what is it about.
Your experience growing up that made you find your passion in sports and helped you propel to get to where you are now?
Yeah?
I think it's really the lessons you learn in sports, right, I mean I was always part of organized sports.
I can't.
I don't think I have a memory of childhood not doing something, whether it was a Jewish community center soccer league, or playing volleyball or newcom during Color War, if that's still a sport.
If it is a sport, I apologize. I just don't know, you.
Know, playing flag football, tackle football, basketball tennants. Again I say playing loosely. Please please don't think of me as some gazelle running down the field.
That's not what it was.
But just you learn so much playing sports. You learn how to win. What that means, you learn how to be gracious, You learn how to pick up your teammates, You learn how to control your fire and your anger and your passion.
You learn how to get better.
Right, you start saying to yourself, you know what I want to I want to start dribbling better. So next thing you know, you're watching the television at nine o'clock at night and you got two basketballs and you're just dribbling them as much as you can. So it feels like it's like on a string for a certain point. I remember when I started growing and my father wanted to change my jump shot because I was shooting from the waist and I needed to elevate that more, you know, to a more professional jump shot. And I remember the hours I spent perfecting that and getting better and you know, becoming a better three point shooter. So there's just so many pieces of life that when I look at it, I say, well, when's that time that I really remember feeling.
Out of gas or pushing a little harder than I thought I could.
Or picking up a teammate, or any of these type of examples that folks have in sports. And I think that's what makes it so powerful, and that's what made me want to be around it, and having that is the baseline for your subject matter every day. It's just a it's a huge opportunity to put a smile on your face when you wake up because you know that you're working in a where there's growth, where there's potential, where people like I said, or keep on.
Dreaming, how do we take because everything you're saying, not only do I agree with. It's one of the reasons I started the Reform Sports Project because it seems like we've lost our way. You know, I know things change with time, there's adaptation, things evolve. Sports has evolved, The industry has evolved quite frankly, Adam. It's very infrequent now where kids are playing different sports in different seasons. Every single sport is year round. It's very unique to have strong local community leagues like recreation sports. Everything is travel which is great. There's a lot of advantages and things that come with that. But as someone who is working and I mean, let's face it, the premiere, you know how many kids aspire to go play in the Big ten, right, the Big ten, the SEC, the ACC the Pack, to all these major power five quote unquote conferences. Even though there's conference realignment all the time. You know, there's a tricka down effect.
Right.
Kids want to go play at Ohio State, they want to go play at you know, whatever the hell it is, you know, at Clemson. You know, I know it's the ACC, but they want to go play Michigan. They want to go play at these big time power schools. They see kids now getting nil money and that's now happening even in high school ranks. You know, what is the impact that you think has transpired with the changes that you're seeing, particularly at the Big ten or in these major power conferences. How do you think that maybe impacting youth sports?
Right?
Because it's costing so much money, there's so much more of a chase to to go D one and play at this level, and the pressure, pressure, pressure, you know, is there anything that you've seen that as that has negatively come as a result of the big shining star that's on major college sports.
Yeah.
I think anytime the emphasis is money and something as pure as what sports should be at its fundamental piece, I think you lose something. So the more that that trickles down to even like you said, like the junior ranks and everything becomes about you know, winning and losing and growing.
I think you really you.
Lose some of the purity of the sport, and you lose some of the love of the sport, of why people seek to be great. I mean you brought up travel teams. I'll be totally frank with you. My nephew's on a travel baseball team. I love him to death. When I was growing up, he would not have been on a travel team. There's just no way in hell. Travel was reserved for almost really elite players. And I think the marketing now is so funny, like everyone's on the travel team almost because that's what's so.
Important, is winning.
And I'll be completely straight with you, I could not believe. I was at one of his games and each of the players had warm up music, like walking up to warm up music.
And I was I turned to my brother, I said, dude, this is wrong.
Man.
I'm just telling you, you're not seeing it. And I'm telling you there's something that's rubbing me the wrong way about this. Like I used to play basketball with shirts and skins, and forgive me if that's inappropriate on this podcast, but.
That's the way we played at Towson basketball camp. That's how we played at Loyo with Maryland Basketball.
Camp and my mom picked me up from camp and I was excited to be there, and I was sweating through the roof in June in Baltimore, and it just isn't that way anymore.
And I think that if you destroy act folks from the.
Beauty of the game of just playing for the sake of playing, I think it does detract from some of these lessons and what's important. So you know, to your point, you look at even at the college ranks when you think about nil and the transfer portal, allowing folks to just kind of move around as quickly as possible, and in some ways some would say, you know, avoiding certain commitments or moving around. And I'm not sure that all these rules are going to be solved in one day, and I'm not sure all the fixes and the band aids are worthwhile. So I think to your point, we have to just keep reemphasizing that sports for sports, and if that ends up being Division one in the NFL and.
All those great things, that's terrific.
But sports are for everyone, man. I mean, sports are not just for the one percent. And I mean, dude, it's really the one percent the NCAA has a great commercial that you know, ninety nine percent of student athletes do not become professional athletes. So and I like to add, and by the way of that one percent, I mean only like point zero zero zero one percent are going to the NFL and the NBA.
Some of those other folks are going, you know, two.
Different countries, and not all of those are great for their families, and not all of those provide great salaries. So and we talk about the folks that are actually making money. And then once you're in the NFL, I don't need to tell you the statistics. I mean, what's the average you're in the NFL for for a few years and then you're out. I mean, so you really need to prepare kids to say sports is a part of your life, whether it's helping you make money or not. And if we're not doing that, we're doing a real disservice.
I couldn't agree with you more, dude.
And you know, there was, you know, a recent situation that's been all over the news and it's really you know, and I've been in enough locker rooms to see situations like this, but you know what's unfortunately, you know, taking place in the media now with with Northwestern, and it's certainly not the only case where you know, hazing has taken on, you know, a life of its own, and it's really detrimental. But you know, bullying, these things are are situations where and I know we're talking about major collegiate sports. Been all over the headlines, you know with Northwestern, but that stuff happens.
At all at all ages.
And you know, you mentioned being a great teammate earlier, like, how are ways in which parents you know, or at least for instance, when you were in the Big ten or even now in the professional like, like, what are ways in which that I guess as leaders, right, as coaches, as administrators, we can go about trying to put measures in place to prevent these things from happening beforehand, Like what's a way to maybe not allow that particularly. I mean again, people hear these stories and they think it's funny, and you know, and and you know, when you're younger to make fun of kids, you know, kids are it is what it is. I have six of my own and got almighty five of them are boys, and they're all over each other all the time. Right, But there's a line and when do we know when that line is crossed?
Yeah, I think to begin, I would tell you that I think education starts in the home. You know, so much of how I think folks turn out as a result of the folks that they're surrounded with, and primarily that's their siblings and their parents, and their grandparents and their relatives. And they need to be taught what respect looks like at a very very young age, and that respect needs to be closely watched, and it has to be clear that you know, a lot of people speculate and talk about if you want to see how someone really is, like see how they're playing on the basketball court, or see how they're playing on the football field, because sometimes you'll see people who are really kind and generous, but then suddenly they're on the field and they're suddenly not violent in a good way. Of course, it's good to be violent and hit people in the proper way. But I mean, you know, like you're alluding to like being a poor teammate and you know, ranking on your fellow friend and doing things that are sort of crossing that line. And I think, you know, there's no right answer, There is no bright line rule.
So I think what you're speaking.
About, but I think again, I think it's about educating people on the way they need to behave and the way they need to comport themselves on and off the field. And that's a tall task when emotions are high and sweat is flowing and sometimes blood is flowing too.
But it's something we got.
To rise up to because, as we're talking about very clearly now, and I'm very serious about this, like sports are a metaphor for life, man.
I mean, if you.
Can succeed in sports, And when I say succeed, I don't mean just perform thoughtfully and score a lot of points. I mean if you can succeed as a teammate, and you're going to figure out how to be a good teammate in the workplace. In the workforce, if you can succeed you know, to pick somebody up when they're down, you're going to probably succeed better as a father when you got to pick your kid up. So you know, these lessons are really really critical because I think they're really ironed out and are really on full display in sports. I mean, some of my best memories I wasn't even there for they're just watching them on TV.
And I'm like, oh my god.
Like I remember there was a softball player and she I think broke her leg like running through first base, and the opposing team like picked her up, carried her and tapped her other foot on each base as she rounded.
Second, third, and home and it cost them the game. And I'm pretty sure had they not picked her up, they would have lost the game. So there were serious consequences. But you can't forget a moment like that. You almost feel like it's part of you.
When we returned, Adam and I dive into prioritizing lessons over performance when it comes.
To youth sports.
Where we left off, Adam and I were about to dive into personal responsibility and whose obligation is to instill better values in youth sports. It starts at home, right, I mean, you're talking about accountability, and at least that's what I took away from what you were saying in that very beginning, their accountability.
And it's so easy to get lost.
I love how you keep bringing it back to extract the lessons, and it's so easy to get lost in the performance. The wins, like if your kids being a clown or not being a good teammate, but yet goes four for four in the baseball game, Like, are we not going to address the fact that your kid was a bad teammate, Like that'd be the first thing that I would be correcting. I don't care how well or poor my kid performs, that doesn't matter. What matters is how they treat other people, Like rather than having a set of glasses on, that's strictly looking at youth sports from a performance person perspective, like they're in professional ranks right when we're all being fans cheering for pro sports, Like, let's let's let's separate the fact that these are professional athletes, that these are kids. They are learning and like the NCAA commercial is ninety nine percent of these kids are going to go professional in something else other than sports, Like let's remember that the things that they learn along the way or what are going to serve them through. It's really hard to keep that on the forefront. Are there things that are done, you know, in the Big Ten or even in you know, professional sports from your standpoint to help people or these athletes or even the parents, I don't know, like, is there is there education that's done to help people understand being present, putting things in perspective, and how to compartmentalize, like, you know, the athletic piece versus the lesson piece.
I think so for sure. And I think also I'll start even at the youth level.
I remember my father coached many of my baseball teams. And again, it's so funny you mentioned this because I would have never thought about this. I don't even know who this person is, but there was this award well with Little League in Baltimore called the Mitchell David Award. I'm embarrassed to said, I don't know the Mitchell David is. I'll have to look it up after this podcast. But the Mitchell David Award on our teams was more important than who won the MVP.
I mean, the Mitchell David Award was like, I.
Think, if you want the MVP, you might get like an ice cream call, and if you won the Mitchell David Award, you were like taking out the dinner.
And the Mitchell David Award was all about sportsmanship.
So that's a coach thoughtfully thinking, yeah, it matters that we went.
Of course, winning is huge, winning, winning is critically important. No one's denying that.
I'm a fierce competitor, and I firmly believe that.
But how you are off the court and.
How you're doing as a teammate and who you're helping along the way, and are you cheering on your teammates? Are you helping teammates with issues? If a new teammate joins your team, are you helping them around? You know, I'm a new employee here in Baltimore. You know, there are so many people here that are going out of their way to help me do things that are like jokes to them, like where are the thumbtachs.
I don't know where that is.
That's a big deal for someone to show you where that is. You know, that's a Mitchell David type experience. So that's on the youth level. I think what I've seen in the Big Ten and certainly at the Ravens, but I'm really new here is I think very similar things are valued by the better programs. And I'll say that even in the Big Ten, I think the best programs, the best football coaches, the best volleyball coaches, best synchronized women coaches, they find a way to show value in ways other than winning, and show you how to win on and off the field.
You know, you see the.
NFL does that obviously with the Walter Payton Man of the Year and how big a deal that is.
But I think individually with teams.
When there are certain rewards that coordinators give or you know, on the business side, if the president or other folks on the senior leadership team are awarding folks for performance bonuses, but they're not just based on how much revenue you increased for the team. It's not just how many expenditures you reduced for the team, but it's actually about other qualities, like how kind you are to people, how inclusive you are to others. There are ways to put metrics on those things, and I would encourage everybody to get in the business putting metrics and putting winning in the hands of other qualities, not just the precise way, and not to focus on just the narrow bottom line. I think the more you do that when that's the only goal, you find that those teams don't succeed as much.
So it's interesting because you know, more and more youth sports is really turning into it's the commercialization, it's the professionalization of youth sports. Like we mentioned the travel sport thing, and you know, kids are playing seventy five one hundred baseball games from a spring and summer, traveling over the country, getting anil deals really starting to mimic like a college. You know, we're getting personal trainers, We're taking our kids to private workouts. We're like I've literally had guests on that said, yeah, have parents call me and saying, you know, what's the best way to have my eight year old train like an eighteen year old? And it's like, you know, how do I wanted to get a college workout? And it's like, well, he's eight, you know, like you're not supposed to, you know, but that's like what people are chasing. So it's it's almost hard to separate, especially now as you're seeing more and more athletes compensated and you know they're still working that out right with nil, what's you know.
What's the right way to do what's the wrong way to do it? You know, how do we do so?
Like do administrators do people in charge at the collegiate ranks need to of these conferences the NC double A, Do they need to like come out and like literally say youth sports are not the same, like cut the ship part of my language, Like we can't be you know, can't be trying to mimic what we're doing with it, you know, young adults versus young children. But like, how do you get that message across to parents and coaches, particularly the youth coaches. Who are you know, who are who running these organizations?
I think it's really hard.
You're talking now about like actual values, and when I talk about values and this is just a personal piece, I'm like a big personal responsibility person.
I think that sometimes we think too much.
We ask for whether it's the government or others to dole out legislation or.
Point out certain things. I don't know that it's on the.
Nc double A or the NFL or any of those folks to really you know. I mean, yes, they can. They can be influential because they're they're big people and know they have influence on the world and on the world of sports. But I think a lot of it is again they hate to take it back, is really going to be on parents, and on communities and on churches and synagogues and other you know, youth establishments and other communal folks to get around and say, what are the values of our family?
You know what is the responsibility of our family.
I don't think we can just always rely on big organizations to kick out policy and say, well, it's up to you to really make sure that youth coaches aren't as tough or aren't expecting X, Y and Z. I think we have to personally decide that this is something that we're not going to stand for at this level.
And that's seven years old.
You know, I'm not gonna, you know, schlet my kid to some travel camp because that's the only baseball game in town. We have to figure out, you know, another place. And if that means playing on a field that doesn't have you know, perfect you know, bases everywhere or perfect lines and the grass is a neatly cut, that's okay, because that was okay twenty years ago, right, that was okay fifteen years ago. Now we're talking about how everybody in needs jerseys with their name on the back. I mean, I can't even and I know it's cheaper to print, so I mean, that was another thing I saw on my nephew's baseball game. I just couldn't believe it, Like they have names on the back of their journeys for a ten year old playing baseball.
That's shocking to me. It's just looking at it just read to me with warm up.
Music and names on the back that like, what are we really focusing on right now? Doesn't seem to me like we're focusing on those right things. But again, I'm not gonna blame the league. I'm gonna blame my brother. I'm gonna tell him, heybuddy, like I don't know why that's a thing, and I don't think that's gonna set the right example on the right message.
Dude.
I love that answer, Like, stop looking for someone to guide you, stop looking for big business or big leadership. Like it starts in the home. It starts with making a decision that is far greater than just you know, the small time frame your kids are playing a sport, and really look at it from a vantage point of how do I want to help shape my child's character? Like what values do I want to instill in him or her? And there's no greater influence than a parent than a guardian if some sort that's who's around the kid to coaches are impactful, but you know, I don't know if anyone's is impactful, certainly as as a parent or guardian so I put putting the onus on on that I think is such a valid point, you know, because people nowadays it just seems like, man, we want to find a scapego want to find a reason why things are screwed up, And hey, tell me what when sometimes we got to look in the mirror and just say, we're not gonna deal with this anymore.
We're gonna put our foot down.
We're gonna do what's in the best interests of our child in our family, because we know at our core values, you know what this is all about. And and man, I just think that's a great point that we don't we don't oftentimes do because it's.
A lot easier to blame other people.
Well tell me this, Adam, what can we expect from you going forward now with the Ravens.
What are you going to be doing now on your day to day?
Day to day is really just helping as much as I can. You know, I'm new.
When you're new in a job, I think the most important thing you can do is ask questions. I'm going around.
Meeting as many people as I can, coffees, lunches, whatever it is that takes.
Just asking people what they do and how I can help working primarily on the business side, you know, across different sectors and assisting the president and you know, all the different various industry points that are critical right now for the Ravens. And I think ultimately it's a great football team and a great football town, a great football organization, a great fan base, great pillars. If I say to myself, I've always been a Purple fan, and I think historically and incredibly consistent organization, two Super Bowl since inception, and pretty much always competitive and a very fierce, tough brand of football, and anything we can do on the business side to you know, help the team succeed, not only again as we've been speaking on the field and winning games and beating the Steelers and winning the Super Bowl, but also in addition to helping the community and giving back to the community, you know, making sure Purple Friday is special in Baltimore, and ensuring that we're speaking at local schools and ensuring that our athletes are you know, professionally speaking at different engagements and giving back to the community. I mean, that's that's what this town is all about. That's what drew me back to this town. And I'm just so excited to keep meeting more people and you know, helping any way that I can't.
And so I know you're on social media on Twitter, where else can people find connect with you and see what you're doing.
You know, I'm on Twitter at Adam J. Newman and other social media. I guess I'm on LinkedIn. Like LinkedIn, It's fun to see other people's paths. I always encourage people, and people say how to break into sports? I say, do There's a free resource. It's called LinkedIn. You literally can stalk people and see exactly what they did and get where they got, and then you can say to yourself, hey maybe I should go to law school, or hey maybe I need this master's degree, or hey maybe I need this type of experience. So I'm a big LinkedIn fan just for you know, connecting with people. So those are probably the two primary ones. But I'm always open to have a conversation. And I'm not a big sleeper. I preach it, but I don't do it. So I'm up a lot. So you know, if people shoot me at a text or you tweet or anything like that, I'm usually down to catch up and you get to know people.
Adam Newman I am freaking stoked you came on. I can't thank enough for sharing. Appreciate the insight, bro. I wish you nothing but continued success and really appreciate your chiming in here.
Thank you, brother.
I hope we get to spend more time together soon and you know, break bread and you know, just keep grinding, because that's that's.
Really what it's all about.
Like we said, this is about relationships and just appreciative of the opportunity to speak and hang.
Out a little bit tonight.
That's Adam Newman, chief of staff and Special Advisor to the President of the Baltimore Ravens. Thanks for listening to the Reform Sports Podcast. If you've enjoyed this episode, we would appreciate it if you took a moment to rate and review our podcast.
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