LOS ANGELES: With a criminal career that takes in cocaine trafficking, rolling with Los Angeles gangs, weapons charges and a murder trial, he may be an unlikely role model.
But Snoop Dogg, infamous for violent, misogynous lyrics and a lifelong love of marijuana, is shaking off his bad boy image to reveal his softer side — as avuncular little league football trainer “Coach Snoop.”
The 44-year-old founded the Snoop Youth Football League more than a decade ago and has been quietly teaching thousands of inner city children teamwork, discipline and self-respect through sport.
Now his little-known community work is to be made public in “Coach Snoop,” a reality show chronicling the rise of his Diamond Valley Steelers from a rag-tag bunch of 12-year-olds from the mean streets of LA to one of the top youth teams in the United States.
“The experiences I give these kids, it’s nothing to me but it means the world to them and I’m just privileged to be able to take my Snoop Dogg power and use it to sprinkle all this love to these kids,” said Snoop.
Sporting spectacles and his dreads tied back in a ponytail, Snoop comes across as an enlightened, urbane father figure, imparting wisdom to his proteges, many of whom come from single-parent families in tough neighborhoods.
But Snoop Dogg, infamous for violent, misogynous lyrics and a lifelong love of marijuana, is shaking off his bad boy image to reveal his softer side — as avuncular little league football trainer “Coach Snoop.”
The 44-year-old founded the Snoop Youth Football League more than a decade ago and has been quietly teaching thousands of inner city children teamwork, discipline and self-respect through sport.
Now his little-known community work is to be made public in “Coach Snoop,” a reality show chronicling the rise of his Diamond Valley Steelers from a rag-tag bunch of 12-year-olds from the mean streets of LA to one of the top youth teams in the United States.
“The experiences I give these kids, it’s nothing to me but it means the world to them and I’m just privileged to be able to take my Snoop Dogg power and use it to sprinkle all this love to these kids,” said Snoop.
Sporting spectacles and his dreads tied back in a ponytail, Snoop comes across as an enlightened, urbane father figure, imparting wisdom to his proteges, many of whom come from single-parent families in tough neighborhoods.
