Sports

Sports May 4, 2016

Major Chains Sports Authority, Sport Chalet Close Hundreds Of Stores

Two large sporting goods chains, Sports Authority and Sport Chalet, are in the process of closing hundreds of stores nationwide. NPR’s Robert Siegel talks with Jim Peltz, who has been covering this story for the Los Angeles Times.

Transcript

ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST:

Sports are competitive. The sporting goods industry is competitive, too. So much so that two major chains are closing up shop. Sports Authority and the West Coast retailer Sports Chalet have more than 500 stores between them, and nearly 200 are already shutting down.

Jim Peltz has been writing about this for the LA Times and joins us now. And tell us first what’s going on with these two chains? Why are they struggling?

JIM PELTZ: Well, there’s a lot of reasons, Robert. The problem with Sport Chalet and Sports Authority is that they sort of had all of these competitive pressures hitting them from all different sorts of directions. They were up against much more prosperous and larger rivals such as Dick’s Sporting Goods. They were up against the mass merchandisers such as Target and Wal-Mart. They were up against the enormous power of Amazon.com and the online sector, and then they had a few of their own problems. Mainly, they were heavily in debt.

SIEGEL: You mentioned Dick’s Sporting Goods. They’re doing all right, so is REI. What are those stores doing differently than Sports Authority and Sport Chalet?

PELTZ: Well, let’s take each one of them. Dick’s Sporting Goods is sort of considered the leader in the sporting goods business now. It’s up to about 650 stores. They have tremendous selection. They have competitive prices. Its size, its scale, as they like to say in business circles, is really important with regard to suppliers. If you’re a large, prosperous chain, you’re going to cut better deals with your suppliers, which means in turn that you’ll have competitive pricing compared to a much smaller, less prosperous company. So that’s one of the key reasons.

SIEGEL: And REI?

PELTZ: REI, which is Recreational Equipment Inc., is well-known for its hiking and its mountain climbing and things like that. They bring a very well-versed staff. When you go into one of their stores, not only do you have help that really knows what they’re talking about, they also have all of those cool indoor rock climbing things where you can try out some of their equipment, try out their apparel and so forth. And they’ve clearly created a special niche there and they’re well-known for it.

SIEGEL: Has the sporting goods business generally – apart from the competitive pressures from Amazon or Target or other mass merchants – has the actual business changed a lot over the past few years?

PELTZ: It’s changed tremendously, Robert. And it used to be – if you think back in the day – if you just needed your basic sporting goods – say, a little leaguer needed a new glove or you wanted the new tennis racket or a set of golf clubs, you just went into a basic sporting goods store and that was that.

Nowadays when people think of, like, going into a sporting goods store, they may very well be thinking of real particular new products such as an activity tracker that comes from Fitbit or maybe they want to buy yoga pants or something like that that come from an outfit like Lululemon. So really the scope and the breadth of what a sporting goods retailer is all about has widened tremendously in the last 10 years.

SIEGEL: Sports Authority is headquartered in a suburb of Denver. It’s actually – Sports Authority’s name is on the stadium where the Denver Broncos play.

PELTZ: Correct.

SIEGEL: What’s going to happen there, chapter 11 stadium?

PELTZ: Well, it may be chapter seven because they’re actually going to liquidate.

SIEGEL: I see.

PELTZ: But all kidding aside, the speculation is pretty widespread that that name won’t be on Mile High Stadium, as it used to be known. When the start of the NFL season comes in September, the Denver Post is among those that have reported that they expect the naming rights to go elsewhere.

SIEGEL: Jim Peltz, thanks for talking with us.

PELTZ: My pleasure. Thank you, Robert.

SIEGEL: Jim Peltz, business reporter for the Los Angeles Times.

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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Sports May 3, 2016

'Little Messi' And His Family Say Threats Forced Them To Flee Afghanistan

Five-year-old Murtaza Ahmadi, an avid Lionel Messi fan from Afghanistan, poses in a signed jersey from the Argentinian soccer great on Feb. 26. The boy’s father says the media coverage led to threats toward the family. Rahmat Gul/AP hide caption

toggle caption Rahmat Gul/AP

Five-year-old Murtaza Ahmadi became a worldwide sensation in January when a photo of him wearing a homemade Lionel Messi jersey made from a blue-striped plastic bag went viral.

Thanks to the power of the Internet, Murtaza’s story soon reached Messi himself, and through UNICEF, the Argentinian soccer great sent Murtaza his very own autographed No. 10 national team jersey, as the Two-Way reported. The resulting photo of Murtaza wearing the jersey, arms outstretched as if celebrating a goal, made triumphant rounds on social media.

But now the feel-good story seems to have taken a darker turn. Murtaza’s father says his son’s minor fame attracted unwanted attention.

“Life became a misery for us,” Mohammad Arif Ahmadi told The Associated Press over the telephone from the Pakistani city of Quetta.

Ahmadi told the AP that the family received telephone threats he said were from the Taliban and a menacing letter he believed was also from the militant group. The news service reports:

“Ahmadi said that at first he was not sure who was behind all the phone calls, and that he thought it might be criminal gangs seeking to extort money and falsely thinking the family might have made lots of cash amid the boy’s international popularity,” the news service reports.

“But he said he realized it was the Taliban after he received a call from a local driver in the area who told him he was bringing him a letter.”

As the threats became more intense, Ahmadi says he decided to leave the country.

“I sold all my belongings and brought my family out of Afghanistan to save my son’s life as well as the lives of the rest of the family,” he said, according to the AP.

When the original image of Murtaza beaming in his makeshift plastic jersey caught fire, UNICEF took the opportunity to comment on the importance of helping children “trapped in emergencies.” The aid group said: “Like so many other children, he has the same right to thrive, play, and practice sports.”

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Sports May 2, 2016

Longshot Leicester City Wins English Premier League Title

Leicester City players who had gathered at Jamie Vardy’s house to watch title rival Tottenham play Chelsea celebrate after clinching the trophy. Plumb Images/Getty Images hide caption

toggle caption Plumb Images/Getty Images

In what’s being hailed as a “miracle” and the “best story in sports,” Leicester City, a small club from central England that started the season at 5,000-1 odds of winning the prestigious English Premier League title, has clinched the trophy.

On Monday, with two games still left in the season, the league-leading Foxes secured their place in history when second place Tottenham failed to beat Chelsea.

It’s the first top-tier title for Leicester in the club’s 132-year history. The club is only the sixth since 1992 to win the title. It had only a fraction of the money commanded by top clubs and its leading scorer, Jamie Vardy, was playing in England’s lower divisions while working at a factory. Having spent most of last season languishing near the bottom of the league rankings, the club’s meteoric rise to the top is breathtaking.

Leicester had the chance to secure the title on Sunday with a win over Manchester United. But it played to a disappointing 1-1 draw, leaving the door open for second-place Tottenham in the title race.

For the beginning of Monday’s game, it looked as if Leicester’s fairy-tale ending had been delayed again.

Tottenham took a 2-0 lead in the first half thanks to goals from the league’s top scorer, Harry Kane, and midfielder Son Heung-Min. But Chelsea defender Gary Cahill managed to slot home a goal in the 58th minute and Eden Hazard tied the game with a rocket to the upper-right corner in the 83rd.

The game was physical and emotions ran high as scuffles flared repeatedly on the pitch. A total of 12 yellow cards were handed out, nine of which went to Tottenham. The Hotspurs had a few promising chances near the end of the game, but Chelsea held on, sealing the deal for Leicester.

The crowd at Chelsea’s home field, Stamford Bridge, chanted “Leicester, Leicester,” as the final whistle drew near.

Leicester manager Claudio Ranieri made headlines when he said he might not be watching the crucial game because he would be having lunch with his 96-year-old mother. The Leicester players, though, watched at Vardy’s house. Here’s the video of the moment they won the trophy, tweeted by Leicester defender Christian Fuchs.

CHAMPIONS!!!! pic.twitter.com/pFtvo5XUNx

— Christian Fuchs (@FuchsOfficial) May 2, 2016

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Sports May 1, 2016

Leicester City: From Last Place To England's Likely Soccer Champion

Fans gather at the home stadium of the Leicester City Football Club.

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Fans gather at the home stadium of the Leicester City Football Club.

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Ashley Watson, 26, has a tattoo on his forearm in support of his local soccer team Leicester City Football Club.

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Shop and restaurant windows in Leicester’s city center are adorned with “Backing the Blues” posters in support of the hometown soccer team Leicester City.

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Fans gather at the home stadium of the Leicester City Football Club. Sunday’s game was an away game in Manchester, but thousands of fans gathered at the home stadium to watch the game on huge screens inside.

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Last August, Karishma Kapoor, 20, bet 2 GBP (about $3) that her local soccer team, Leicester City, would beat 5,000-to-1 odds and win England’s Premier League. Kapoor now stands to win nearly $15,000 USD from her bet.

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Karishma Kapoor, 20, is a business student, a football fan (football as in soccer, how the game is known outside the U.S.) — and a betting woman. One day last August, she was at her grandmother’s house.

“We just all sat ’round just talking, and then football came up. And we thought, ‘Why not?'” Kapoor recalls. “It’s only a pound, so we put 2 pounds on, at 5,000-to-one odds.”

She placed her bet (about $3) online — with those 5,000-to-one odds — that her hometown soccer team, Leicester City, would win the title of England’s Premier League — the richest and most-watched soccer league in the world. At the time, Leicester was in last place. Now Kapoor stands to win some $14,600.

And her team stands to make U.K. sports history.

Leicester City had a chance to clinch the league title Sunday, but the team tied 1-1 versus Manchester United. That leaves its fate hanging on a Tottenham-Chelsea game Monday afternoon (10 a.m. EDT). If Tottenham ties or loses, the championship is Leicester’s.

Ashley Watson, 26, has a tattoo on his forearm in support of his local soccer team, Leicester City Football Club. Lauren Frayer/Lauren Frayer hide caption

toggle caption Lauren Frayer/Lauren Frayer

“It hasn’t sunk in. No one in this city at the moment knows how to deal with this,” says Ashley Watson, 26, who works at a hospital in Leicester. “Everyone’s obviously excited and happy.”

Watson has three Leicester City tattoos — across his back, forearm and leg. He got the first one 10 years ago, when Leicester City wasn’t even in the top division of English soccer. His forearm reads: “Leicester Till I Die.”

“This season is the most remarkable season in the history of — not just football — but my life,” he says, choking up. “Because you never thought Leicester could win the league — not without the money of [rival teams] Manchester City, Chelsea, Manchester United, Liverpool, Arsenal.”

Leicester City’s starting-squad salaries come to about $24 million. The sports’ biggest, richest teams — those Leicester has been up against in this competition — often spend that sum to acquire a single star player.

By contrast, Leicester City’s lead goal-scorer, Jamie Vardy, was working in a factory a few years ago, playing soccer at night in the U.K.-equivalent of the minor leagues. Now, a biopic film is reportedly in the works about Vardy’s life.

This week, the city is bedecked in blue and white — the colors of LCFC, the Leicester City Football Club. Shops and restaurants display “Backing the Blues” posters. Even the Church of England is flying the Leicester City soccer flag, atop the city’s gothic cathedral.

Overshadowed by bigger Birmingham 45 miles away, Leicester is one of England’s most diverse cities. On a Sunday stroll through the center, NPR spotted an African gospel choir, many Muslim women in headscarves and an entire soccer-crazed Vietnamese family all wearing curly clown wigs in blue and white.

One of Leicester’s main thoroughfares, Narborough Road, is known as Britain’s most diverse main street.

“On Narborough Road, you can eat Turkish, you can eat Indian, Pakistani, Greek,” says Leo Daniels, who lives on the road. “There are so many different languages spoken and different people living here.”

Daniels was taking his children out for an evening stroll, to pick up ice cream and soak in local team spirit.

“We’re looking at a Leicester City scarf ’round the statue of Richard the III’s neck,” he says. “Everything connected with Leicester, and about Leicester, is now supporting Leicester City for this title run. It’s fantastic.”

Leicester is where the bones of the 15th-century King Richard III were found buried under a parking lot several years ago. Some Leicester fans believe the spirit of Richard — who ruled 500 years ago — is guiding their soccer team now.

“If he could be here, he’d be cheering them on!” says Rachel Hare, in a local Leicester pub. “He’s been here for 500 years, we just didn’t know it!” says her husband, Steve Hare.

And that’s pretty much how they feel about their soccer team, too.

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Sports April 30, 2016

#NPRreads: Take Your Pick Of Space, Race Or Celebrity

The side of Jupiter's moon Europa that faces the giant planet.

#NPRreads is a weekly feature on Twitter and on The Two-Way. The premise is simple: Correspondents, editors and producers from our newsroom share the pieces that have kept them reading, using the #NPRreads hashtag. Each weekend, we highlight some of the best stories.

From national security editor Philip Ewing:

Speaking of @airspacemag, great story this month on the search for life on the moons of Jupiter and Saturn #NPRreads https://t.co/VBDLezocRV

— Phil Ewing (@philewing) April 29, 2016

Some of the most promising potential homes for life away from Earth are the moons of Jupiter and Saturn. NASA and researchers want to “visit” them all — but given the cost, time and distances involved with sending missions to the outer solar system, they must think very carefully about picking their shots, as Smithsonian’s Air & Space magazine reports.

The side of Jupiter’s moon Europa that faces the giant planet. NASA/JPL/University of Arizona hide caption

toggle caption NASA/JPL/University of Arizona

When scientists do reach the point of planning a mission, spaceflight challenges don’t get much tougher: The radiation and gravity forces are brutal. Plus some potential missions require inventing whole new techniques for astro-amphibious-underwater exploration. A future mission to Jupiter’s moon Europa, for example, could involve sending a probe across the expanse of space, then having it drop a robot submarine through the crust of ice on the surface to explore the liquid ocean below. Another proposal calls for sending a spacecraft to Saturn’s Titan — a moon larger than our own, and larger even than the former planet Pluto — which would launch what I insist be called a Space Boat to sail on its lakes of methane.

Air & Space also details the case for life on Saturn’s moon of Enceladus, and makes clear that exploration in the coming decades may determine whether life in the universe is unique to Earth or whether — just as probably — it’s abundant.

From business news intern Naomi LaChance:

When a suggested Facebook tag evokes centuries of racism and oppression. From the brilliant @tejucole #NPRreads https://t.co/D78A4gFyAO

— Naomi LaChance (@lachancenaomi) April 28, 2016

When Toronto-based photographer Zun Lee started taking the “orphaned Polaroids” of African-Americans that he’d bought secondhand and uploading them to Facebook, he found that they were not so orphaned after all. Facebook’s facial recognition system gave him suggested tags of people he had never met, but whose memories he held in his hand.

Lee is an artist, but at his computer he had waded into a whole new territory.

Teju Cole explores this artist’s responsibility, the responsibility to protect intimate moments, with great tact and poise in his new essay in the New York Times Magazine, The Digital Afterlife of Lost Family Photos. Cole writes: “Black Americans, for most of their time in this country, were named, traded and collected against their will. They were branded — physically tagged — both to hurt and control them.”

In a time of mass data collection and widespread surveillance, Lee’s conundrum faces new urgency, one that finds its ideal home in the writing of Teju Cole. If you have family photos or use a computer, you should read this piece.

From executive producer for editorial franchises Tracy Wahl:

I came across this piece in a typical way — I saw it on social media from an old friend at the Dallas Morning News, Mike Drago.

How a priest views the sad #JohnnyManziel saga. @frjoshTX does it again. https://t.co/XP2Wji8gm9 pic.twitter.com/RXdgqNz4xK

— Mike Drago (@MikeDrago) April 27, 2016

I had never heard of the writer and didn’t care very much about the Johnny Manziel story. But once I started reading, I was hooked.

A reminder: Manziel is a free-agent quarterback, most recently with the Cleveland Browns. A Dallas County grand jury indicted him on a misdemeanor assault charge brought by his ex-girlfriend.

Commentator Father Joshua J. Whitfield, a priest at St. Rita Catholic Church in North Dallas, ultimately asks us to think of Manziel as a man who can change.

Whitfield pushes all of us to ask about our own role in creating a sports celebrity that tolerates domestic abuse. But it’s not as if we can just examine one moment in the process of creating a superstar.

Check out this incredible writing about Manziel:

“His is a story of family history and upbringing: of an East Texas wildcatter, cockfighting sort of history. An upbringing by overly-driven parents of a child never given a chance to grow up into a man. It’s a story of the cult of sports and the cult of the child, woven together and raised almost to the status of religion, a religion become abuse in some families, a religion of constant, endless, physically harmful year-round sports shoved down the throats of children for the sake of dreams typically shattered by the age of 18.”

Powerful stuff.

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Sports April 29, 2016

NFL Player Laremy Tunsil Loses Millions In Draft After Twitter Hack

Last night before and during the NFL Draft, the Twitter and Instagram accounts of Laremy Tunsil, one of the draft’s top prospects, were hacked and used to tweet a damaging video and screenshots.

Transcript

AUDIE CORNISH, HOST:

The NFL draft is normally a straightforward event. Teams pick players. Players say, I’m happy to be part of my new team, and off they go. This year, things went differently. University of Mississippi offensive lineman Laremy Tunsil was expected to be picked as high as third overall, but a series of surprising twists meant that didn’t happen. NPR’s Becky Sullivan takes it from here.

BECKY SULLIVAN, BYLINE: Thirteen minutes before the draft last night, this short video showed up on Laremy Tunsil’s Twitter account. There’s a guy on a couch wearing a mask that’s attached to a bong, and it looks like he’s smoking. Then, he takes off the mask. You can see his face. It’s Laremy Tunsil. Tunsil was arguably the best prospect in the country at his position, but the video clearly bothered teams. These days, the NFL is pretty sensitive about character. And practically speaking, teams can be reluctant to draft a player who might be a risk for getting suspended for smoking pot. So team after team passed on Tunsil, until finally he was taken at number 13.

(SOUNDBITE OF 2016 NFL DRAFT)

ROGER GOODELL: The Miami Dolphins select Laremy Tunsil.

SULLIVAN: It doesn’t sound that big, but the drop to 13th probably cost Tunsil six to eight million dollars. Then, things got worse – not for Tunsil, but for his alma mater. On Tunsil’s Instagram account, someone posted two screenshots that seemed to show Tunsil texting with a coach at Ole Miss while Tunsil was still in school there. He’s asking for money to help pay his rent and his mom’s electricity bill. The coach doesn’t say yes, but he does say, quote, “we all agreed on an amount.” This is kind of a big deal because the NCAA usually does not allow schools to give athletes any kind of special compensation above the cost of attending school. Meanwhile, Tunsil is still at the draft and has to give his post-draft press conference. And he said his accounts had been hacked, though it’s not clear who the culprit is. Then, Tunsil admitted that the exchange with the Ole Miss coach was legit.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

LAREMY TUNSIL: That was true. Like I said, I made a mistake of that happening, and it happened.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: So there was an exchange between you and your coach of money?

TUNSIL: I have to say yeah.

SULLIVAN: This is just the latest in a dramatic week for Laremy Tunsil. On Tuesday, he was sued by his own stepfather for defamation related to a fight they had last summer. As for Ole Miss, the school was already in the NCAA’s doghouse, in part because Laremy Tunsil was given free loaner cars by a dealership in Mississippi. Now, with these new allegations, Ole Miss says they plan to, quote, aggressively investigate and fully cooperate with the NCAA. Becky Sullivan, NPR News.

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Sports April 28, 2016

3 Things To Know About The NFL Draft That Don't Have Much To Do With Football

The 2016 NFL draft kicks off in Chicago on Thursday. Getty Images hide caption

toggle caption Getty Images

The 2016 NFL draft starts tonight so here’s our comprehensive first-round mock draft.

Just kidding. Mock drafts are in such abundance they practically comprise their own genre at this point. So instead, here are three other things to know about the NFL draft.

1. Moritz Boehringer

This 22-year-old wide receiver from Germany has never played a single game of football in the U.S., but his athleticism, strength and speed have some NFL scouts predicting he could be the first German player ever to make it to the NFL.

He started playing football when he was 17, and most recently played in the highest level of German football, NFL.com reported. At 6’4″ and 227 lbs, he impressed scouts at an NFL pro day in March, tallying scores and times in various drills that ranked him among the top wide receiver prospects from the NFL scouting combine in February, the site said. It added that six teams, including the Patriots, Packers and Broncos, expressed interest in him.

Still, relative inexperience could trump his raw talent. After all, as MMQB.com writes, Boehringer was until recently, “a mechanical engineering student in Aalen, Germany, who drove 50 kilometers each way to practice American football once a week.”

If he is drafted, likely in the later rounds, he will be the first European player to be drafted straight into the league.

“I don’t have any expectations,” Boehringer said, according to ESPN. “I’ll just wait and see what happens. The best advice I’ve gotten is just keep working hard. It’s just my dream to play.”

2. The draft takes forever

Get a sandwich and a beer or two (or five) because the first round of the NFL draft, scheduled for Thursday night at 8 p.m., will take a long time. Each of the 32 NFL teams is allotted 10 minutes to make their first round picks, meaning the process can take more than five hours to complete, though it usually doesn’t take that long. ESPN has blocked out 3.5 hours for the first round. Rounds 2 and 3 are scheduled for Friday at 7 p.m. and rounds 4-7 will be held Saturday at noon. Draft protocol stipulates that teams get seven minutes per pick in round 2 and five minutes in rounds 3-6. They have four minutes to make a pick in round 7. If that seems specific and bureaucratic, here’s the six-step process for actually choosing a player, according to NFL rules:

“When a team decides on a selection, it communicates the player’s name from its draft room to its representatives at Selection Square. The team representative then writes the player’s name, position and school on a card and submits it to an NFL staff member known as a runner.

“When the runner gets the card, the selection is official, and the draft clock is reset for the next pick. A second runner goes to the representatives of the team up next and lets them know who was chosen. Upon receiving the card, the first runner immediately radios the selection to a NFL Player Personnel representative, who inputs the player’s name into a database that notifies all clubs of the pick. The runner also walks the card to the head table, where it’s given to Ken Fiore, vice president of player personnel.

“Fiore reviews the name for accuracy and records the pick. He then shares the name with the NFL’s broadcast partners, the commissioner and other league or team representatives so they can announce the pick.”

Something tell us that the first-ever draft in 1936, which featured teams like the Brooklyn Dodgers and the Boston Redskins, was a simpler affair.

3. Scouting reports

Not only are players evaluated on the strength of the “draft stock” and “measurables,” that is, how fast they run, how high they jump, how far they throw and how many passes they catch, future NFL players are increasingly being assessed on subjective factors such as “character.” For example, Carolina Panthers’ quarterback Cam Newton was infamously maligned as “fake” and “selfish” in a scouting report before he was drafted.

Scouts, perhaps attempting to remain relevant in a sports atmosphere where analytics are holding more and more sway (anyone can compare sets of numbers, after all) have taken to citing sources, many of whom are anonymous, as insights into players’ “readiness” for the NFL. Recently, this took the form of a scout questioning the cooking abilities of Ohio State’s Eli Apple. In the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, an unnamed scout was quoted as saying, “I worry about him because of off-the-field issues. The kid has no life skills. At all. Can’t cook. Just a baby. He’s not first round for me. He scares me to death.”

Several news outlets called out out the “lunacy” of this pre-draft assessment, and posited that these types of reports point to a “weakness” in the drafting process.

Then there’s this from Slate:

“There are two great things about this scout’s foray into food criticism. One is that the last NFL season ended with Peyton Manning winning a Super Bowl and retiring. Peyton Manning, in addition to being a guaranteed Hall of Famer and one of the best football players ever, was once publicly described by members of his own family as not being able to open a can of soup.

The article cites a 1999 Sports Illustrated profile that quotes members of Manning’s family explaining that he not only couldn’t open soup, but had his girlfriend order Chinese food for him.

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Sports April 27, 2016

Even Though It's April, Sports Headlines Scream Football

With the NFL draft and 2 quarterbacks in court, football proves it can make news year round, and not always for the right reasons. Our commentator says football, not baseball, is our national pastime.

Transcript

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

Never mind that we’re in baseball season as well as the season of pro basketball and hockey playoffs. USA Today columnist Christine Brennan tells us that in America, there is still just one sport.

CHRISTINE BRENNAN: It’s April, but the sports headlines scream football. Tom Brady’s four-game NFL suspension for Deflategate has been reinstated by a federal appeals court. Yes, Deflategate is back. Johnny Manziel, the former Cleveland Browns quarterback, has been indicted on a domestic violence charge after allegedly hitting his girlfriend several times. Two young college players – Jared Goff of California and Carson Wentz of North Dakota State – Are about to be selected at the top of the 2016 NFL draft. So what season is this anyway? It’s football season in America, sports fans. It always is.

The NFL, not Major League Baseball, is our real national pastime. Oh, millions upon millions of fans will go to the baseball games this spring and summer. I’ll be among them. I love baseball in the summertime. There’s nothing better. Well, except for going to a football game in the fall – Or actually just watching it on TV. I’m speaking for the American sports fan here, not necessarily myself. The numbers bear this out. Sports TV ratings are at their highest for the National Football League, with college football not too far behind for its biggest games. And nothing gets close to the Super Bowl – Always the most-watched show on TV every year.

The NFL off-season lasted less than three months. And now here comes the NFL draft Thursday night, live from Chicago. In 2014, TV coverage of the draft reached a record 45.7 million people over three days. Those people were not watching anyone throw a pass or make a tackle. They were watching team executives sitting next to a telephone at a table, choosing a young man who then walks on stage and nervously adjusts his new team’s cap on top of his head. And then it happens again and again. It’s the pro-sports Groundhog Day. But it’s also really good reality TV. One of the reasons for the huge ratings in 2014, people couldn’t stop watching Heisman Trophy-winner Johnny Manziel slip all the way down to the 22nd pick, a slide greased by his off field antics. Turns out he should have slipped all the way out of the draft, but that’s another story.

Sports fans, by wide margins, chose to watch that NFL draft drama hour after hour rather than real live sports. The 2014 draft easily beat out two NBA and two NHL playoff games being played that same evening. See what I mean? The NFL is our national pastime. The NFL also spurs on important national conversations. The troubling Manziel news is a continuation of a domestic violence conversation begun after the release, a year and a half ago, of the Ray Rice elevator video – That punch and his punishment, or lack thereof. When something that big happens in the NFL, it instantly becomes conversation fodder for the nation. So maybe football headlines all year ’round do have their place after all.

INSKEEP: Christine Brennan is a sports columnist with USA Today.

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Sports April 26, 2016

British Inquest Finds Police At Fault For Hillsborough Soccer Stadium Disaster

An inquest into the deaths of 96 soccer fans in a British sports stadium has concluded that faulty policing was responsible. The supporters of Liverpool Football Club were crushed to death during a game in 1989. Their relatives had to fight for nearly 30 years to overcome a police cover-up, which included allegations that the fans themselves were to blame for the disaster.

Transcript

KELLY MCEVERS, HOST:

The longest legal inquest in UK history wrapped up today, the investigation into the Hillsborough disaster. That was a 1989 crush at a soccer stadium in England that killed 96 people. It was the worst sports disaster in UK history. But it took nearly 30 years for the truth about what happened that day to finally come out. To learn more, we’re joined by NPR’s Lauren Frayer in London. Welcome to the show.

LAUREN FRAYER, BYLINE: Hi, Kelly.

MCEVERS: And Lauren, tell us what happened that afternoon at the Hillsborough Stadium in 1989.

FRAYER: It was a sold-out soccer game, a huge overflow of fans were outside. And so police opened a stadium gate to try to relieve some of the congestion. They were worried about a crush of people outside the stadium and didn’t realize that it created a massive crush inside. There were steel fences and turnstiles that people were pushed up against. And all but three of those 96 victims died of asphyxia. Many of them were very young, some just children. It was a family day out. There was one family who lost two daughters, young children. Police say it was a stampede instigated by drunken fans without tickets, and families have spent nearly 30 years trying to overcome a police cover-up and get justice for their relatives.

MCEVERS: So then, what happened today?

FRAYER: Today, a jury in this investigation found that the 96 victims of Hillsborough were killed unlawfully, that police errors were to blame. And gross negligence by the top officer in charge of security that day made him responsible for manslaughter. The jury also found that the behavior of soccer fans themselves did not contribute to the disaster. And that created this really emotional moment outside the courtroom for victims’ families.

Twenty-seven years in the making, they’ve been waiting to see their loved ones exonerated. They left the courtroom today singing Liverpool’s soccer team’s anthem “You’ll Never Walk Alone.” These were Liverpool fans who died. Let’s hear some of that now.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

UNIDENTIFIED PEOPLE: (Singing) You’ll never walk alone. Walk on. Walk on with hope in your heart.

MCEVERS: So these fans finally exonerated. How is it that the fans themselves were blamed for the stampede?

FRAYER: So this was decades ago in this era of soccer hooliganism. And the narrative that emerged from both police and some news media in the UK was that the fans were drunk and out of control. A top police official actually lied and said it was fans that opened that external gate at the stadium.

Margaret Thatcher’s former press secretary blamed the fans. And a tabloid newspaper, The Sun, ran a story about fans attacking rescue workers, pickpocketing the bodies of victims. These were really ugly accusations about people involved in this disaster and even the very people who died. Here’s Anne Burkett who lost her son Peter. She spoke to reporters outside the court.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

ANNE BURKETT: To lose a loved one in a disaster is impossible to describe in mere words. What followed massively increased the distress and grief of all of us families. A police cover-up of industrial proportions, it has continued in one guise or another until today.

MCEVERS: So I guess the question is – why did it take so long for people like Anne Burkett to get answers? And what are the police saying about this?

FRAYER: Well, the denials and cover-up and finger-pointing went on for years. But today, finally, police took full blame. They issued condolences to victims, called the police errors catastrophic. Hillsborough really changed the way sporting events are policed around the world – also changed the design of stadiums. There are no external stadium fences anymore, for example – no standing-only sections like there were at Hillsborough.

This was a fact-finding inquest, so not a criminal case. But the finding of unlawful killing means British prosecutors are now under pressure. And they say they’re now studying these findings and are considering criminal charges.

MCEVERS: That’s NPR’s Lauren Frayer. Thank you.

FRAYER: You’re welcome.

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Sports April 25, 2016

Tom Brady's 'Deflategate' Suspension Reinstated By Appeals Court

Tom Brady’s four-game suspension by the NFL for reportedly deflating footballs is back on. The penalty was overturned by federal judge last summer, who agreed with Brady’s argument that the penalty was unfair. But on Monday, a three-judge panel disagreed, saying the NFL was within its rights when it imposed the suspension.

Transcript

KELLY MCEVERS, HOST:

Deflategate is the NFL story that just keeps on giving. A federal court panel ruled today the NFL commissioner did have the right to suspend Patriots quarterback Tom Brady for four games. NPR’s Tom Goldman reports.

TOM GOLDMAN, BYLINE: Tom Brady’s back-and-forth legal case is back again. He was suspended after the NFL decided it was more probable than not Brady ordered balls deflated below the legal limit during the 2015 AFC Championship game. Then in September, a federal judge overturned the suspension. Then today, a federal appeals court voted 2 to 1 to uphold the suspension, giving the NFL a massive win according to Tulane sports law professor Gabe Feldman.

GABE FELDMAN: Although there was a dissenting opinion, the majority opinion was about as favorable for the NFL as they could possibly have expected.

GOLDMAN: Feldman says the decision ends a losing streak for NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell in recent cases of player misconduct.

FELDMAN: In each of those cases, the commissioner’s initial discipline was either eliminated or reduced by an arbitrator or a federal judge.

GOLDMAN: But today’s ruling essentially says Goodell did not exceed the scope of his power, power the league says was negotiated as part of the current collective bargaining agreement. No word on a possible Brady appeal – if the suspension holds, Brady would miss the first four games of the regular season. Tom Goldman, NPR News.

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