Before becoming an Associate Professor of Religious Studies at USU and an expert on conflict resolution and analysis, Chad Ford cocreated an NFL central news website with his friend Jason Peery to help make money in college. But what they ended up doing would break the system of sports reporting.
“The bigger problem that we had was that websites back in the mid-90s operated like newspapers. They essentially updated once a day with a new edition every day, which is kind of a waste on the internet, right?
Disappointed with the lack of information, Ford and Peery used the drudge report as inspiration for their one-stop shop for sports news, NLFtalk.com, which they updated multiple times a day.
“We were going to get up early in the morning, find every link to the Chiefs and the 49ers— but then we did it for the entire NFL—that was written about them that day and put them all in one place, and that was simply it.”
The site took off, and with the 1999 NFL draft approaching, Peery received a tip from an insider that the Indianapolis Colts would not be drafting their initial choice, Ricky Williams. The duo took a gamble and reported the tip.
“I know it sounds crazy,” Peery said, "But we post this headline, 'NFL talk exclusive', must credit NFL talk, Colts to pick Edgerrin James, not Ricky Williams, and it just blew up all over the message board. It was everywhere.”
It was a huge risk to make a predraft call like that, but it paid off. The Colts picked James, and the fledgling website, which started in their basements, became a credible hit and grew a cult like following.
“At this point, we started with the NBA, and Chad took off and did NBA,” Peery said. “That's when we got the domain name, sportsTALK.com and I was still doing NFL, he was doing NBA, and this thing was now at 500,000 people a day.”
SportsTALK reached a high when Time Magazine published a feature about the site. It helped draw serious attention as ESPN and Mark Cuban both looked to acquire the site.
In 2001 the site was sold to ESPN and renamed The Insider. It was not an instant success.
“We were costing ESPN money,” Ford said. “They were not making money off us.”
To keep The Insider afloat, staff was reduced. Ford went from editor to writer to keep up with the content. Eventually, the subscriptions piled up, and with it came new opportunities for Ford to work as a sports analyst for the NBA and the NBA Draft.
“ESPN started transitioning me away from the editorial role to doing more writing, showing up at games, and to appearing on SportsCenter because they found something that they could hang their subscription model on.”
At an NBA All-Star game, he met Brendon and Sean Tuhoy, founders of the Peace Players, a nonprofit looking to unite children from Israel and Palestine through basketball. Ford was immediately interested, and ESPN allowed him to write a piece about the project.
“It doesn't really matter where they come from, what race they are, what religion they are. There's ways that sports levels the playing field, and the only question you ask then is, can you contribute to the team?”
Ford largely stepped away from ESPN in 2005 to pursue his passion for conflict resolution and analysis by helping the Peace Players with their program. Co-Executive Director Jamie Asante Asare says Ford’s impact was massive.
“He has driven the creation of a lot of our curriculum,” Asare said.
Asare met Ford when she started with the Peace Players 12 years ago. She said Ford helps leave the staff and everything around him better than the way he found it.
“He's one of the people that kept me here, or just made me care about this organization so much, seeing someone who was like, so intelligent, so caring, with so many skill sets, just be so dedicated to this organization. He can bring people together in a way that I've not seen anyone else do.”
After the Oct. 7 attacks, the Peace Players had to halt their program for the safety of the children they were supporting. But after a few months, the parents of the children who participated were concerned the progress they had made would be lost.
“I started getting calls from folks in the Middle East saying we're not sure what to do,” Ford said. “The parents of these kids were lobbying us really strongly to start the program up again. Seeing it come from the grassroots up, it wasn't the organization that was pushing for people to get together, it was the kids and the parents. To me, that was one of the biggest miracles that I could ever imagine.”
Asare added the Peace Players have helped change the way the participants view one another in a positive way.
“The program has such a major impact on their lives,” Asare said. “You see the difference between them and their peers, the people who are not in the program.”
Ford said that a couple weeks after restarting the project, around 80% of participants had returned, and even with the continued tension between Israel and Palestine, he believes it could be the perfect time for change to occur.
“I know it sounds crazy and optimistic, but I believe that a lot of times in conflict, we have to hit rock bottom before we decide we've go to do it differently.”
Ford’s next book, '70 x 7: Jesus’ Path to Transforming Conflict at Home and in the World' will be available in Spring of 2025.
