The NFL has awarded two new grants and renewed seven others through its social justice platform Inspire Change.

The new honorees are Council on Legal Education Opportunity (CLEO, Inc.) and Success For All. Both organizations will use the funding for educational advancement.

CLEO, Inc., focuses on inspiring, motivating, and preparing students from underrepresented communities to succeed in law school and beyond. More than 25,000 students from all 50 states have been touched by CLEO to include judges, academicians, public service and private practitioners. It is receiving $50,000 from the league’s Player-Owner Social Justice Working Group, an amount that will allow CLEO to expand its virtual programming to more than 500 college, pre-law and current law school students.

“On behalf of the students we serve, our board of directors, advisory council, alumni, staff, and other stakeholders, the Council on Legal Education Opportunity, Inc. wishes to express its sincere appreciation to the National Football League for this generous grant to assist in our programming and operations,” said Cassandra Sneed Ogden, the chief executive officer of CLEO, Inc.

“This grant will help us continue our imperative work, which is more important today than it was when we were founded in 1968.”

Success For All ’s grant of $250,000 will support programs to improve education for at-risk students through The Getting Along Together Program, and will provide professional development support for 12 schools in Nashville, Tennessee, serving approximately 6,000 students.

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Success for All was developed in 1987 at Johns Hopkins University and became an independent non-profit foundation in 1999. It has helped nearly 3 million children nationwide and currently is working with 125 school districts in 38 states, as well as in Canada and the United Kingdom.

BROWNS: The head coach of the Browns is finally based in Northeast Ohio.

Kevin Stefanski revealed late Monday night on ESPN’s SportsCenter with Scott Van Pelt he and his family moved to the Cleveland area on Friday.

The Browns hired Stefanski on Jan. 12. But the relocation of Stefanski, his wife, Michelle, and their three young children from Edina, Minn., to a suburb on Cleveland’s West Side had been delayed for months because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The family is using temporary housing before settling in its new home.

“If I could turn this phone around, you’d see boxes everywhere,” Stefanski said. “But we did an 11-hour drive on Friday and powered through that. I was proud of myself. It was interesting. The license plate game is hard right now because there’s not a lot of cars on the road. But the kids were pretty good. Thank God for the iPads, and now happy to be in Cleveland.”

NFL team facilities have been shut down due to coronavirus concerns since mid-March. But Commissioner Roger Goodell sent a memo to teams last week instructing them to have protocols in place by Friday in anticipation of being advised when club facilities will formally reopen.

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The Browns began their voluntary virtual offseason program under Stefanski on April 20. That’s when the league permitted Stefanski and his coaching staff to begin installing their schemes through online classroom instruction.

CARDINALS: Arizona re-signed cornerback Kevin Peterson to a one-year contract.

The 26-year-old Peterson played in 14 games last season and started three after being pushed into a bigger role because of Patrick Peterson’s six-game suspension and Robert Alford’s season-ending injury.

He had 16 tackles, two passes defended and six special teams tackles after joining the team off waivers from the Rams in September.

The 5-foot-11, 185-pound Peterson came into the league as an undrafted rookie free agent in 2016.

The Cardinals also announced that they released cornerback Andre Chachere. He spent two different stints with Arizona on the practice squad last season.


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