MCCORMACK ALUMS MAKING OFF-FIELD IMPACT IN CLEVELAND

By Aadit Mehta ’23

McCormack alumni are known for being at the forefront of our industry, effecting change in business, leadership, and all aspects of sport management. One of the cities where this excellence is truly apparent is Cleveland, where several prominent graduates of the program have been driving success—both on and off the field.

The CL3 Alliance is a three-team Cleveland sports alliance that features the Cleveland Browns, Cleveland Cavaliers, and Cleveland Guardians all working together to “develop a sustainable and direct strategy to address social injustice facing the city of Cleveland.” The alliance develops programs and hosts events that support the relationship between law enforcement and citizens, encourage voting, and increase access to quality education. The CL3 alliance is made possible thanks to the involvement of key leaders at the top of each organization, including two McCormack alumni— Cavaliers General Manager Koby Altman ’09 MS and Guardians President of Baseball Operations Chris Antonetti ’98 MS—as well as Browns EVP of Football Operations & General Manager Andrew Berry.

CL3 is supported by every level of the three organizations, from employees to front office staff to executives to the players themselves. One of the key supporting members of this alliance is Browns Senior Vice President of Communications Peter John-Baptiste ’97, who spoke about the work CL3 has done, what social justice means to him, and how he hopes Cleveland’s teams can make a profound impact as well as generate a legacy beneficial to the city.

John-Baptiste explains that CL3 came about during the social justice wave following the initial surge of the

COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, as the teams in Cleveland looked for ways to empower their employees to take action and be part of social justice progress. To him, social justice is about “leveling the playing field and helping everyone, so that communities can come together for the greater good.” The three pillars of CL3—law enforcement relations, voting, and education—revolve around a mission to help Cleveland build stronger relationships within communities and drive positive change. It is a widely held perception that professional teams in the same city are intense competitors with each other as they are often looking to capture the same fans and sponsorship dollars. However, as John-Baptiste explains, fans in Cleveland who are fans of one team are universally fans of the other two, and it’s “been a great experience to collaborate with teams in the same market.”

With CL3 forming in 2020—the most recent presidential election year—a focus on voting and civic engagement was a natural fit. Players across the three teams worked to encourage people to vote and the teams used their platforms effectively as the Cavaliers converted their arena, Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse, into a polling location while the Browns focused on efforts to increase voter registration during the second home game of the season.

The murder of George Floyd in 2020 thrust the relationship between law enforcement and the communities they have a duty to serve under the microscope across the country, which became the impetus for the second pillar of CL3. John-Baptiste explains that there is a “focus on creating more empathy between the community and law enforcement.” Over the past three years, seven “Conversations for Change” have been hosted by the organization, with the goal of hosting important dialogue between community members and law enforcement.

Education is a significant component of CL3’s mission— and it is where they have adapted the most to shifting community needs. “We asked, ‘What are the barriers that keep kids out of school?’” says John-Baptiste, and the Browns found that food scarcity was one of the biggest reasons for missed attendance. The Browns have written letters to legislators urging them to unlock more funding for nutritious meals within schools, and have tackled chronic absenteeism head-on via their Stay in the Game program that provides parents and educators with resources to ensure attendance among students.

John-Baptiste is also a board member of the Cleveland Browns Foundation and the leader of Browns Social Justice. Reflecting on his current work, he credits his time at UMass Amherst for shaping his worldview and introducing him to the power of change through sport: “It’s incredibly rewarding work for me. I think about when I was a student at UMass Amherst and taking sport sociology with Todd Crossett; his class really opened up my mind and made me think about using sports to create positive change in our society.” He continues, “When I was a student at UMass, I thought the power of sports was something I wanted to be involved with for my entire life and it’s really about the impact it can make on society. I’ve been in the NFL for 26 years and it’s been a part of who I am; I love being a person who can be an influence and create meaningful change through sports. It was a no-brainer for me to link with the other teams in Cleveland to do that work.”

Looking forward, he believes that CL3 is “always going to be a part of the three professional sports teams in Cleveland because we’re already seeing the impact we can make, and how our fans understand the importance of it and how engaged we are.” He states that there are “always going to be people in communities that are disadvantaged or underserved, and we want to make an impact in those areas.” CL3 began in response to specific demonstrated needs in Cleveland communities and will continue to adapt as these needs shift and develop, with John-Baptiste acknowledging that “there might be emerging areas that we need to impact, and we’ve done some work in that space too.” At the end of the day, though, as he sums it up, the project is “about the three teams continuing to stick together for the greater good and finding ways to positively impact Cleveland.”