Outside the Lines will air “Content of Character” roundtable

Outside the Lines will be airing what is being called a “Content of Character” roundtable on Sunday morning at 8 AM on ESPN2 (and at 9 AM on ESPNEWS) in observance of the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The roundtable will feature the executive directors from the MLB, NBA, and NFL players unions, and will be moderated by ESPN’s Jay Harris.

The roundtable, featuring Tony Clark, Michele Roberts, and DeMaurice Smith, will “discuss diversity and race relations in sports as well as their perspectives on leadership, minority representation among the industry’s power brokers and the future for young people aspiring to become players, coaches/managers and executives.”

This sounds like it could be an interesting discussion, even though it’s getting aired at a terrible timeslot. Segments of the roundtable will be aired on Sunday’s editions of SportsCenter, and the entire discussion will be viewable on ESPN.com.

I think it’s noteworthy that ESPN has holding a roundtable on race involving three African Americans that have risen to positions of management in their respective organizations and aren’t exactly familiar faces on ESPN’s airwaves. Maybe we’ll get a little more candor as opposed to the canned responses that we usually get when the prickly topic of race comes up on national television.

[ESPN]