I Huddled Up with Houston Texans linebacker Bradie James to talk about something very personal—losing his mother to breast cancer.

You’ve seen the NFL embrace Breast Cancer Awareness Month, but this has been real to Bradie since his mother died from the disease when he was in college at LSU.

He went on to establish Foundation 56, which has helped countless women living with breast cancer. You can read more about it on his website.

Here is my conversation with Bradie from my 3pm HLN newscast. (I did a bit of directing off the top)

I love my Houston Texans, but I’m not wearing a big ol’ clunky jersey with someone else’s name on my back. Well, if (when) we make it to Super Bowl, I might. I think you get my point though.  Most fan gear is designed with men in mind-their taste, their size, their proportions.

The daughter of two-time Super Bowl Champ Carl Banks told him told he was missing a huge opportunity-design fan gear for women.  Dad listened, and the rest is history.

Carl and I huddled up today to talk business and football!

This month marks the 25th anniversary of Domestic Violence Awareness Month.

The executive director of Men Stopping Violence, the board I serve on, stopped by HLN, for a very important conversation about how this crime is still claiming the lives of women everyday.

Please watch to see how YOU can make a difference.

For more information about the 30th anniversary dinner of Men Stopping Violence, this year honoring civil rights legend Congressman John Lewis, click here or here.  Your interest and generosity are so appreciated!

Katie Hnida‘s name is in the record books.  She is the first woman to play big time college football, both at the University of Colorado and the University of New Mexico.

It was at times a brutal path. Katie says she was sexually harassed and assaulted early in her college career.

At other times it was exhilarating. She says her teammates at the University of New Mexico were like brothers who helped make her history making that kick happen.

Katie, though, is STILL KICKING.

She joined me this week for my Huddle Up segment on HLNTV, where I talk women and football.

AND get this!  Katie thinks her Broncos will beat my Texans. Check out my response to that.

RELATED: Huddle Up With Richelle: Richelle and Jemele on Football

RELATED: Huddle Up With Richelle: ESPN’s Lisa Salters

ESPN reporter Lisa Salters joined me for my new regular “Huddle Up With Richelle” segment on HLNTV to about to talk about her coveted gig on the sideline for Monday Night Football.

We also tackled the topic of the growing popularity of football with women and what to look out for in the upcoming MNF match-up between the Falcons and Broncos.

RELATED Huddle Up With Richelle:RICHELLE AND JEMELE ON FOOTBALL

 Hot Shots

Crème Magazine: Tell us a little about yourself and your background.

Richelle Carey:  I’m a proud Texan, born and raised in Houston. I’m an only child, the product of an all girls catholic school, a graduate of Baylor University. Being a broadcast journalist is an exciting job, but it doesn’t define me. I’m an advocate for woman and girls.

I value my work with Men Stopping Violence and the Girl Scouts. I’m a huge sports fan, particularly football. My Texans WILL be in the Super Bowl this year!

 

Crème Magazine:  Talk to us a little about your show on HLN?

 

Richelle Carey: I occasionally fill in on CNN, but I anchor weekdays on CNN Network HLN (formerly CNN Headline news)It’s a fast paced newscast focused on the people behind the stories, and how the news of the day impacts them.

 

Crème Magazine:  What story or event have you covered that had the most impact on you and how?

 

Richelle Carey: I would have to say whenever I cover stories of women who are abused and are powerless, they have a profound impact on me. It reminds me why advocacy journalism is so critical to our national dialogue. When a little girl is gang raped in Texas and some of the dialogue is “well she acts” grown….It reminds me how far we have to go in social justice as it pertains to women and girls.

 

Crème Magazine: You currently serve on the Board of Directors for Men Stopping Violence and The Girl Scouts of Greater Atlanta. Why did you choose to get involved with these organizations?

 

Richelle Carey:  I emceed events for MSV for years, but became a board member and active advocate after the public reaction to Chris Brown’s assault on Rihanna. I was deeply troubled by so many people saying it was “just a fight” or “what did she do to make him so mad.” I felt I was in a position to help change the dialogue, end the cycle of abuse and maybe even save lives. While Men Stopping Violence is about challenging men to end the violence, to stop it before starts….Girl Scouts is about empowering young women. I feel the two missions compliment each other. Healthy young men and women=healthy relationships.

Read the rest HERE

The makeup of the NFL fan-base, once dominated by men, is changing.

More and more women are just as FANatical about football.

My friend ESPN’s Jemele Hill and I tackle that topic. Hill also names her Super Bowl picks!! (GO TEXANS!!!)

Related: Huddle Up With Richelle: ESPN’s Lisa Salters

UPDATE 8/13/12 : CNN’S Candy Crowley To Moderate Presidential Debate

Not since 1992, when Carole Simpson moderated a presidential debate between George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton and Ross Perot, has a woman sat in that coveted chair.

Three teenage girls from Montclair, N.J. say this is unacceptable and they are doing something about it.

16-year old Elena Tsemberis explains it to the Daily Beast this way:

  “It’s necessary that our country sees a woman in this prominent position, being visible on the political stage, asking the questions. Having a female moderator at the debate will visibly show that women are being considered in the election process.   A female moderator would be able to add a new perspective to the debates and touch on topics that are salient for women in this country, like reproductive rights, inequality in the workplace, and how the economy impacts women and their families.”

Not bad for a 16-year-old.  Heck…not bad for most adults.

What Elena, along with Emma Axelrod and Sammi Siegel,  have done is gather more than 118, 000 signatures on a petition demanding a female moderator. They’ve delivered that petition to the Commission of Presidential Debates.

 Remains to be seen if the Commission will select a woman for this election season.  Funny thing, these presidential elections come around again in four years. I’m sure Elena, Emma and Sammi will be watching then too.

From Feministing.com June 23, 2012:

Richelle Carey is an Emmy-award winning broadcast journalist. She can be found anchoring CNN HLN every weekday. Her reporting assignments range from covering Fort Hood in Texas, the largest military installation in the world, to interviewing singers like Mary J. Blige, Chaka Khan, and Janet Jackson. On top of her Emmy award for consumer features reporting, she was awarded the “Women Changing the World” award from Texas College.

What she’s most passionate about, however, is women and girls. She is vice president of the board of Men Stopping Violence, an organization dedicated to ending men’s violence against women. She also launched a new website in the hopes of sparking genuine dialogue on the issues that affect women and girls. She writes about racism in television casting, the politics of hair for African-American women, and domestic violence. Carey’s advocacy work both on and off air is an inspiration. It’s encouraging to know that there are journalists out there like her who are passionate and brave enough to speak up about these vital women’s issues.

And now, without further ado, the Feministing Five, with Richelle Carey.

Anna Sterling: What makes you so passionate about empowering women and girls?

RC: You would think it would be a combination of going to an all-girls school and going to Smith. But it really wasn’t. I feel like I’m a late bloomer [to these issues]. Some of the stories that I report started to sink in for me. I started to realize the kinds of choices my mother made that allowed me to have the kind of life that I have. I realized how difficult it was for her as a black woman growing up when she did. After some of the stories I reported, I realized what other people had to go through for my life to be as cushy as it is. I had to look outside of myself and give back–not just ride on someone else’s coattails.

The moment I got off my rear end and decided to do something was after the Chris Brown and Rihanna story. It deeply affected me because I saw the kinds of things viewers said about that story and about Rihanna. That’s when victim blaming really started to sink in for me. Also, with the Ben Roethlisberger case, I was blown away by the kinds of things people said about women.

AS: What, to you, is the biggest story you’ve covered thus far in your career?

RC: For two years, I’ve gotten to go to the Essence music festival. What I like about going to this festival is that I get to interview really strong women. That’s always really exciting to me. I’ve gotten to interview Janet Jackson, Mary J. Blige, and Chaka Khan. Those three women are so amazing to me, because they’re very honest about how they’ve grown as women and about mistakes they’ve made. One of the questions I asked Mary J. Blige was, “When did you feel like you owned yourself?” She said: “Last year.” This would have been when she was 40. She talked about life being a journey and getting wiser and wiser every year. I asked Chaka Khan what was one of the worst mistakes she ever made and what she said to me was: selling herself for cheap. Sometimes it just takes growing up to understand your worth. I love having conversations with women about what it means to grow into being a woman.

AS: How has your race or gender played into your journalism career?

RC: People have said to my face: “I’m not going to get the job because they only want minorities now. They’re not hiring white people anymore.” Hmmm, really? You could look at the racial makeup of a newsroom and they have a formula. You can see if there’s already someone of color there, I need not apply because they already have my slot filled. So it works both ways. Having said that, I do think we have gotten a little bit away from that formula in a good way. There was a time that that’s exactly how newsrooms worked. They had this box, this box, and this box and if your box was already filled, there was no reason for you to apply. We’ve gotten a little bit away from that, but I do think we could use a lot more diversity behind the scenes. When you have discussions about how to pick the news of the day, that’s where the power is and you need as diverse a newsroom as possible. Images are powerful so, yes, you need diversity on air but you need diversity behind the scenes as well in picking stories. That’s what I think I bring to the table. I try to contribute something to the newsroom that I think is representative–I don’t speak for the entire black community, but I do bring my life experiences to the newsroom. I have a responsibility to do that. I’ve heard people say things in the newsroom where I’m like, let me help you, that is so awful. They don’t mean any harm, they just don’t know.

[In terms of gender,] I remember it used to be women were expected to wear suits. The thinking was, don’t draw attention to yourself. Sit there and look as much like a man as possible. Female anchors will now wear dresses and be as feminine as they want to be. I realized you don’t have to downplay who you are. We don’t have to downplay who we are as women to have this job. That’s somebody else’s problem. That’s not our problem.

AS: How do you combine your advocacy work with your career as a broadcast journalist?

RC: What I’ve been able to work out with my boss is a certain space where I’m allowed to be an advocate on certain stories and that’s women’s and girls’ issues. Viewers will understand I have a certain perspective on those stories because I owe it to viewers to be transparent on that. Other stories, it’s up to me to be as neutral as possible. A journalist has to tread very lightly when choosing to do opinion. For the most part, you don’t want journalists to do opinion, but if you’re going to venture into advocacy journalism, you have to be very specific about what that area is. You’re not going to see me on television saying whether or not I think Casey Anthony is guilty. I practice advocacy journalism as it pertains to women and girls and that’s it. For example, there’s the Marissa Alexander case, the woman in Florida who was sentenced to 20 years for firing a gun into the air even though her husband said in his deposition “I put hands on all my women,” she’s the one who went to jail. I immediately went to my executive producer and said, “Let’s get on this now.”

AS: Who is your favorite fictional heroine, and who are your heroines in real life?

Click HERE to read the rest.

They say the body never lies.  If you believe that, what did the killer of  Trayvon Martin reveal in his first television interview?

George Zimmerman, along with his attorney Mark O’Mara, sat down to speak with Fox News.  Zimmerman was asked a range of questions, including whether he has any regrets.

Body language expert, Patti Wood, joined me on HLN today with her assessment of what Zimmerman said and what his body showed he really means.