February 16, 2019

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Sports February 16, 2019

Saturday Sports: Colin Kaepernick And Kareem Hunt

Colin Kaepernick has reached a settlement with the NFL after alleging collusion to deprive him employment. Meanwhile, the league is keeping Kareem Hunt in its ranks.



SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

I wait every week to say it’s time for sports.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

SIMON: The NFL and Colin Kaepernick and Eric Reid have reached an agreement – nondisclosure agreement. But we’ll talk about it. Also, the debate in Cleveland over signing a player who shoved and kicked a woman in a hotel hallway. NPR’s Tom Goldman joins us. Tom, thanks so much for being with us.

TOM GOLDMAN, BYLINE: Good to be with you, Scott.

SIMON: Colin Kaepernick’s lawyer put out a statement on Twitter saying they had, quote, “resolved pending grievances.” Is that agent talk for they threw money at my client?

GOLDMAN: Well, we think so. But we don’t know. Kaepernick and Eric Reid sued the NFL, claiming the league conspired to not hire them after their protests during the national anthem, as you remember – started by Kaepernick in 2016 to protest police brutality and racial injustice. Now, Yahoo Sports said it was told previously the players would only settle if a lucrative financial agreement was reached. But we don’t know for sure because a confidentiality agreement, as you pointed out, is sealing everyone’s lips.

SIMON: Well, let me ask. Why didn’t the NFL want the case to go to trial?

GOLDMAN: It’s a big, powerful business. It doesn’t like its inner workings exposed. So it makes sense the league didn’t want this to go the distance. Last August, an arbitrator rejected the NFL request to dismiss the case. A hearing was coming up. And there would have been potentially sensitive NFL material revealed. There was also the chance that even though collusion is hard to prove, Kaepernick and Reid might have had enough to win. And that would have been a huge PR hit for the NFL.

SIMON: Does this necessarily mean Colin Kaepernick’s going to be signed by any team?

GOLDMAN: We don’t know. We really don’t know at this point. It means, perhaps, that that he got a lot of money. But we just don’t know at this point.

SIMON: Moving on. Kareem Hunt has signed with Cleveland Browns two months after he was cut by the Kansas City Chiefs when video surfaced of him shoving and kicking a woman. The NFL always says they won’t tolerate players who commit domestic violence. But Kareem Hunt is just the latest link to domestic violence to be signed to get another chance.

GOLDMAN: Yeah. That’s right. There is Joe Mixon in Cincinnati, Tyreek Hill in Kansas City. The NFL does have a – shall we call it – a difficult history with this issue. In Hunt’s case, though, Scott, this isn’t simply a green light and you’re back. He can’t play until the NFL finishes investigating and decides on punishment. He’s still facing multiple game suspension. And the Browns say they will have zero tolerance for any other incidents involving Hunt.

SIMON: A great Cleveland sportswriter, Mary Kay Cabot, wrote what – you and I both read it – a very provocative column…

GOLDMAN: Right.

SIMON: …This week in which she said – I’m going to paraphrase – look, Kareem Hunt grew up in a violent neighborhood near Cleveland. Many of his immediate family members, including his father and uncles were in prison and are now – so is his mother. He needs help. He’s getting it. He has a chance to turn this around. It could be a victory for victims of violence for everyone he helps in the future.

GOLDMAN: Yeah. It was revealing and significant, as you say, that it was written by a woman. It’s tricky because the NFL has this difficult history that we’ve talked about when it comes to domestic violence cases. And let’s be clear, Scott, this isn’t just altruism. The Browns are getting a great running back. He led the NFL in rushing as a rookie in 2017. But Hunt is getting another chance to move beyond this toxic…

SIMON: We should explain he wasn’t charged.

GOLDMAN: Right. Right. He wasn’t charged. And he’s getting this second chance to move beyond this toxic world you talk about. Cleveland general manager John Dorsey reportedly is a religious man who believes strongly in Hunt’s character and believes in that chance that the team’s giving him.

SIMON: Tom Goldman, thanks so much.

GOLDMAN: You’re welcome.

Copyright © 2019 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 February 16, 2019

If The U.S. And China Don't Reach A Trade Deal, Consumers Will Soon Feel The Impact

So far, the U.S. trade war with China hasn’t affected consumers much. But without a deal soon, tariffs on thousands of products will more than double.



SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

If the United States and China fail to reach an agreement on trade this month, tariffs may soon reach directly into consumers’ pockets. Farmers and manufacturers have been affected for months. This latest round of talks puts more at stake for more people. Grant Gerlock of NET News in Nebraska reports.

GRANT GERLOCK, BYLINE: In September, the Trump administration launched its biggest round of tariffs yet – a 10 percent tax on thousands of Chinese products, including a lot of everyday stuff. At this dollar store, I found a pair of pliers, some wall screws, eyeliner, a bath mat – all on the tariff list. But that doesn’t mean the price on the tag is 10 percent higher.

UCHE JARRETT: I can’t stress to you how much companies care about maintaining that stability.

GERLOCK: That’s Uche Jarrett, who teaches international economics at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

JARRETT: It drives their profit margins. It drives their estimates for the future. Whenever there is a change, there’s a lot of uncertainty that follows.

GERLOCK: Jarrett says so far, suppliers and retailers are shielding consumers from price hikes. They’d rather ding profits than lose customers. But soon consumers might have to pay up. The administration’s tariffs are aimed at narrowing the trade deficit with China. If there’s no deal by March 1, that 10 percent tariff will jump to 25 percent.

Irv Blumkin is CEO of the home furnishings chain Nebraska Furniture Mart. He says a 25 percent tariff would lead to higher prices at his store for everything from carpet to patio furniture.

IRV BLUMKIN: At 10 percent, you can come to a very minimal change. At 25 percent, it becomes a different deal.

GERLOCK: Blumkin is concerned a higher tariff will scare away his shoppers.

BLUMKIN: You know, they hear the news every day. And they see some of the uncertainties that are going on. And I think that impacts how people think.

GERLOCK: Irv Blumkin says some manufacturers are moving their production to countries like Vietnam, Malaysia or Mexico. While importers are scrambling, you might think that American manufacturers are benefiting from the tariffs. But maybe not. Take Bison, a company in Lincoln, Neb., that makes sports hardware.

I met CEO Nick Cusick at a local YMCA, where some office workers were playing a round of pickup basketball. The rims, the backboards and the wall pads were all made by Bison. Almost all the parts and pieces were manufactured in the U.S., too.

NICK CUSICK: Since we do compete against a fair number of companies who buy offshore, you would think generally speaking that we would benefit from…

GERLOCK: Yeah, aren’t you supposed to be the winners in this thing?

CUSICK: We’re supposed to be the winners.

GERLOCK: But Cusick says there’s a problem. When the U.S. raised taxes on imported steel, the price for American steel skyrocketed by as much as 50 percent. Bison had to raise its prices this year to cover costs.

CUSICK: But the end users – the schools, the consumers on our residential basketball side of our business – they’re the ones that are getting hit. So it’s kind of counterproductive.

GERLOCK: Unless the U.S. reaches a deal with China in the next few weeks, more businesses will be raising prices. And that’s when more consumers will begin to realize that trade wars come with a cost that they’ll be feeling in their wallets.

For NPR News, I’m Grant Gerlock.

SIMON: That story comes to us from Harvest Public Media, a reporting collaboration that focuses on agriculture and rural issues.

Copyright © 2019 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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