January 6, 2018

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Sports January 6, 2018

Saturday Sports: NFL Playoffs

NPR’s Scott Simon talks with Howard Bryant of ESPN about the NFL playoffs — which games to watch and which teams to watch out for.

SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

Talk about fire and fury. It’s time for sports.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

SIMON: Much of the country is huddled inside against the cold, but the NFL playoffs are just heating up. Howard Bryant of ESPN joins us. Howard, thanks so much for being with us.

HOWARD BRYANT: Good morning, Scott. How are you doing?

SIMON: I’m fine. Thank you, my friend. Most of the NFL talk we’ve had this this year has been about demonstrations of conscience on the field, been about the dropping ratings of the games. There are four big games this weekend. You’ve got the Tennessee Titans playing the Kansas City Chiefs and the Panthers against the New Orleans Saints. Where’d you like to start?

BRYANT: Well, actually, I’d like to start with Buffalo – and Buffalo and Jacksonville. You’ve got two teams that haven’t made the playoffs in forever. Jacksonville hadn’t made the playoffs since 2007. And they were a laughingstock for years. And the Buffalo Bills, the once proud Buffalo Bills, hadn’t made the playoffs since 1999. They play each other this weekend.

And you’re right, Scott. This has been a very difficult year, whether you’re talking about CTE and concussions, and we’re talking about the ratings and protests for and against Colin Kaepernick and against police brutality. And so this is the period now where the league needs this, where I think football fans are going to try to settle in and salvage this season. It’s go time for the players in terms of trying to win a championship.

And then, also, of course, you’re looking at the Atlanta Falcons. You’ve got a team there that had a 28-3 lead in the Super Bowl against the Patriots a year ago. And now they’re in the playoffs again one more time. And a team that lost the Super Bowl hasn’t gone back to the Super Bowl since 1993, when Buffalo did it. So maybe…

SIMON: And this was a team that was two minutes away from – or four minutes away from winning the Super Bowl.

BRYANT: From winning the Super Bowl. It goes back to what John Madden always said – I love that – that the greatest gap in sports is between the winner and loser of the Super Bowl. And it really is true.

SIMON: Yeah. Teams that had a rough regular season – can they put that all behind them when it gets to the playoffs? Do you wipe the slate clean?

BRYANT: Well, I think you have to. And I think that one of the teams that you’re really concerned about in that regard is the Kansas City Chiefs. There’s a team that – they went out on opening day, and they demolished the defending champion Patriots in Foxborough. You looked at them, and you said, here’s a team that’s really going to put it together.

And they’ve got Andy Reid back there, who’d been to the Super Bowl with the Philadelphia Eagles. And then, of course, they had their troubles during the season. And then they turned it around, and so now they’re in the playoffs. And so, this is one of the – they’re going to be one of those teams that is definitely saying, look. We’re in the tournament now, so everything that happened in the past isn’t going to matter. Let’s see if we can turn this around.

And, of course, the team that everyone’s looking out – there are two teams that everyone’s looking out for. One in the NFC is the Philadelphia Eagles – great team, 13 win team. But they lost their quarterback, Carson Wentz. So now you’re looking at the Eagles to see, can they win the Super Bowl with Nick Foles, with a backup? And then, of course, the defending champion Patriots, who are always there. And can 40-year-old Tom Brady do what no one’s ever done before, which is to win the Super Bowl at that age?

SIMON: Yeah. You didn’t ask. But I’ll say, yeah. I think he can.

BRYANT: (Laughter) I think he can too.

SIMON: And let me ask about the Australian Open because it is such a testament to the eminence of Serena Williams that she can dominate a news cycle about the Australian Open by making a personal decision – let me put it that way.

BRYANT: No question. Well, Serena Williams hasn’t played a professional match since she beat her sister in the Australian Open last year. She was eight weeks pregnant at the time and then announced that she was pregnant. And then she had her baby. And yet, for much of that time, she had told people that she was going to come back and make the Open, announced that she didn’t reach her goal and that she’s not going to play in the Open.

Serena Williams is the greatest athlete we’ve got going in the country right now. She does not, however, have an S on her chest. It was a great ask. But because it was Serena, everybody assumed that, hey, you’re not going to bet against her. But she said she’s not quite there yet. Kind of a shame but not really a surprise. You’re asking a lot even of the great Serena Williams to not play a match in a year and then come back and compete for a championship.

SIMON: Yeah. Well…

BRYANT: But she’ll be back.

SIMON: …Let me just say, no male champion’s ever come back after giving birth, has he?

BRYANT: (Laughter) Asking a lot, even of Serena.

SIMON: Howard Bryant, thanks so much for being with us.

BRYANT: Thank you.

Copyright © 2018 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by Verb8tm, Inc., an NPR contractor, and produced using a proprietary transcription process developed with NPR. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

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Business January 6, 2018

Encore: Automakers Work To Lure Generation Z

Gen Z, the generation following millennials, is making automakers nervous and forcing them to rethink some of the products they offer.

SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

There are lots of names for the generation that follows millennials – ReGen, Plurals, iGen, Gen Z. Their oldest members are just starting college. They have lots of buying power in the billions. As Youth Radio’s Natalie Bettendorf reports, this generation’s habits are different, especially when it comes to transportation and the age of ride-sharing.

NATALIE BETTENDORF, BYLINE: Sheryl Connelly has a crazy job. She’s in charge of looking into the future for Ford Motor Company. They’re trying to predict how people my age – from Generation Z – will use cars.

SHERYL CONNELLY: I have two Gen Zers at home.

BETTENDORF: She’s in Detroit.

CONNELLY: My 16-year-old daughter is thrilled, actually. Her car is ready to go.

BETTENDORF: Yeah, that’s definitely not me.

CONNELLY: Well, I think it’s context. It depends on where you live.

BETTENDORF: A couple of decades ago, you would not have heard someone from Ford saying that owning a car is about context. Things are definitely changing. I’m 18, and I don’t want a car. I’m from the Bay Area. I take buses. And when I need a car, I use Lyft. Ford’s Connelly says Gen Z is a game changer.

CONNELLY: They don’t really care about ownership. They don’t necessarily see that their vehicle is going to be a status symbol. In fact, they’re really savvy customers and quite – can be quite frugal.

BETTENDORF: Does this scare you at Ford – that we’re frugal?

CONNELLY: No, I don’t think so at all. We’re ready for you. If you want to buy a car, we got it for you. If you don’t want to buy a car, we can still help you there.

BETTENDORF: The top three automakers in the United States are Ford, Fiat Chrysler and General Motors. They say they are no longer just automakers. Every major car company is trying to make a move – whether it’s car-sharing or ride-hailing or self-driving. Even General Motors has a new app for car sharing that it’s betting billions on. It’s called Maven, and Peter Kosak is the executive director of Urban Mobility.

PETER KOSAK: We needed to create a new brand because this is really about access and not necessarily ownership.

BETTENDORF: Ownership? Well, whatever. Me and people my age are redefining what it means to travel by car. Susan Shaheen is at UC Berkeley and has been studying ride sharing since the ’90s before it was a real thing. She says this isn’t all bad news for car companies.

SUSAN SHAHEEN: They’re going to know you. If you are using their mobility services, chances are they’re going to have a lot of data about your preferences. They’re going to know a lot about where you travel and how you travel. They’re going to be in a very good position to market to you.

BETTENDORF: Even if you haven’t thought about owning a car, car companies have already kind of got you. Car-sharing apps essentially place you on the road to ownership. And using these services is essentially test driving, which is the first step in purchasing a car. I recently came to Los Angeles for college. Before I moved, I told people that I wouldn’t have a car. And they’d say, oh, good luck. But I didn’t need luck because I got here, and there’s Lyft, and there’s Uber. And right now, for people who are selling cars, I’m a problem. So is the rest of my generation. That is what is sending car companies into their own identity crisis.

For NPR News, I’m Natalie Bettendorf.

(SOUNDBITE OF LETTUCE’S “PHYLLIS”)

Copyright © 2018 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by Verb8tm, Inc., an NPR contractor, and produced using a proprietary transcription process developed with NPR. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

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