4:29

NPR’s Robert Siegel talks with Jonah Keri of Grantland about some of the newcomers in this year’s Major League Baseball playoffs, including the Houston Astros and the Chicago Cubs.

Transcript

ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST:

There are plenty of familiar faces in this year’s Major League Baseball playoffs. The St. Louis Cardinals, the Los Angeles Dodgers, New York Yankees – they’re all in again. But there are also plenty of upstarts in the postseason including a couple of teams playing in wild-card games this week. And joining me to talk about all this is Grantland’s Jonah Keri. Welcome to the program again.

JONAH KERI: Thanks for having me.

SIEGEL: Let’s start with the wild-card games. In the American League matchup tomorrow in New York, the Houston Astros are sending out their best pitcher and the man who may have the biggest beard in all baseball, Dallas Keuchel, against the Yankees. How do you see that one playing out?

KERI: You know, it will be interesting to see. Keuchel does seem to be a pretty good matchup in that ballpark. On the other hand, once you get to these one-game playoffs, you’re not necessarily going to ride your starter seven, eight or nine innings because you have the ability to pull out all the stops. It’s an elimination game. And from that standpoint, the Yankees would seem to have the advantage because the Yankees have two monster relievers in Dellin Betances and Andrew Miller. So they have the ability to mix and match a little bit and get aggressive in how they use that bullpen which could nullify potentially any advantage that the Astros might have in starting.

SIEGEL: Well, then in Wednesday’s National League matchup, the Chicago Cubs will face the Pittsburgh Pirates in Pittsburgh. The Pirates have won 98 games, and the Cubs have won 97. But after this wild-card game, one of those teams will be going home – doesn’t seem fair.

KERI: Yeah, what a beauty of a matchup. It doesn’t seem fair. You’re right. Both managers have kind of intimated they wish it was at least a three-game series.

And great pitching matchup here – Jake Arrieta – what a phenomenal season by him. One of the best seasons we’ve seen in a long, long time by any pitcher. He’s great for the Cubs. And for the Pirates, Gerrit Cole will be an excellent matchup for him. You know, again here it could be a bullpen situation where the Pirates – they could roll out guys starting in the fifth or sixth inning if Cole tires.

The thing about Arrieta, though, is Arrieta just set an all-time major league record for lowest ERA in the second half – .75. And so if there is any one pitcher that you would consider riding deep into this game and not treated as a – what you would call a bullpen game, it could be Arrieta. I mean, it’s not impossible. He could just come out there and win the game one to nothing or two to nothing.

SIEGEL: Pirates haven’t won a World Series since 1979. The Cubs, of course, haven’t won at all since Theodore Roosevelt was president. It’s hard to imagine a casual fan not rooting for the team that wins that game.

KERI: Yeah, absolutely. These are two very likable ball clubs. There’s no question they’re underdogs. I mean, not just the World Series – the Pirates didn’t have a winning season for two decades before finally breaking that streak a couple years ago. And you know, the Cubs, of course, have a lot of great young players too – Chris Bryant, who’s going to win Rookie of the Year and Joe Maddon, the Renaissance man as the manager – likable to many, although possibly not to the Cubs’ rivals. Perhaps they don’t see his Merlot drinking is all that attractive.

SIEGEL: (Laughter). Now, waiting for either the Cubs or the Pirates – whoever wins that game – are the St. Louis Cardinals who are in the playoffs for what seems to be the 700th season in a row. How do the Cards keep doing this?

KERI: Well, I mean, they just have a great organization top to bottom. I mean, you look at – the players are certainly great, but it really starts with scouting and player development and their general manager, John Mozeliak. And they do an excellent job. And yes, in some ways, it’s predictable that the Cardinals made it this year, but if you dig down to the details, they lost half their roster over the course this season. But they just have such incredible depth. They find a way to draft guys, develop them, bring them up to the majors and put them in position to succeed. So credit to everybody – credit to those players certainly, credit to the manager Mike Matheny, who I don’t think gets enough credit, quite frankly, and credit to the front office and to the Scouts and the number crunchers and everybody who puts them in position to make that happen. It really is the model franchise in baseball.

SIEGEL: In the American League, the Kansas City Royals are back in the playoffs again. Last year they surprised and delighted almost everyone with an incredible playoff run that ended in the ninth inning of game seven of the World Series with the tying run on third base. This year, they surprised absolutely no one by being the best team in the American League all season long. Can the Royals handle the burden of great expectations and make it back to the World Series?

KERI: You know, it’s quite possible. And they’re such a strange team. We’re sitting here obsessing, almost, over starting pitching – this player and this pitcher.

The way that they won it last year was basically with bullpen, with defense and with base running. They just ran you to death, and they would small ball you to death. And all that stuff was happening. And the difference in this year’s club versus last year is that all of a sudden, they’re not just a, you know, a paper-cut team offensively. You know, they’ll hit some homeruns and doubles and have a chance to beat you offensively too. So they are a dangerous club and one of the better teams coming into the playoffs.

SIEGEL: Jonah Keri, who covers baseball for Grantland. Jonah thanks.

KERI: Thank you.

Copyright © 2015 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 a contractor for NPR, and accuracy and availability may vary. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Please be aware that the authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio.

9:34

This September alone, three high school football players died after injuries sustained on the field. The latest, a 17-year-old quarterback from New Jersey, suffered a ruptured spleen during a game just over a week ago.

In some high schools across the U.S., deaths such as these — and an increased focus on the risk of head injury and concussions — have raised concerns among parents and diminished interest in the sport. At others, like the Maplewood Richmond Heights High School in suburban St. Louis, the football programs have disbanded altogether.

Earlier this year, at a live event in Dallas, NPR’s Michel Martin discussed the ethics of football with two longtime players — one retired from the NFL, the other just beginning college. Nate Jackson, who played six seasons in the NFL, and Nahshon Ellerbe, a former high school football star now at Rice University, joined Martin again this week to resume the conversation on All Things Considered.

“For people who haven’t played the sport before, it’s hard to explain to them why you would subject your body to that kind of stress and turmoil,” Ellerbe tells her. “But for people who play the game and love it, it’s pretty simple.”

But complexities remain.

To hear the full interview, listen to the audio link above.

Interview Highlights

On a dangerous incident from Jackson’s high school football days

Jackson: I had a scrimmage when I was a senior, and the quarterback for the other team was scrambling. He got held up on his legs and spun around, and our linebacker hit him right in the face mask with such force that it popped the straps off his chin strap and pushed his face mask from his nose and split his lip from his nose down and basically exposed his teeth. He was spitting out blood, and I was standing right over him.

It was a sobering moment, definitely. But the urgency of a football game — you know it’s a next-man-up mentality, and we just kept on going. Once they got him off the field, got him in an ambulance and drove him away, we looked at each other and shook it off and then we were right back off there playing again. So, for me, that was a good introduction to the machine that just keeps on rolling. It doesn’t stop. …

I was in high school and I had aspirations to continuing playing. You know, you just hope it’s not you, and when it happens to a friend or an opponent, you feel bad for them, but the moment sweeps you right up back in it and you forget about it very quickly.

On why Ellerbe keeps playing football, even knowing that people can get badly hurt

Ellerbe: I think definitely the reward of playing football, and the experience you have, just kind of outweighs any type of fear that you may have. Because my teammates that I’ve seen sustained major injuries — I never sustained one, thankfully — but the ones I’ve seen sustain major injuries, you know, they are some of the hardest-working and passionate players that I’ve ever been around.

So, football is a game just full of passion, and we as high school football players, as college football players, we come to the game knowing that there are risks. But really, quite honestly, if you ask any player, they’ll probably tell you they don’t really care because they love the game. And they love having teammates, and they love that atmosphere.

On why it might be that the three deaths recently all occurred at the high school level

Jackson: I think because the disparity in skill levels, sometimes, on a high school field is pretty vast compared to college and especially the NFL. In the NFL, all these guys are really the cream of the crop, the strongest, fastest, most stable guys of the bunch, and the lower you go down, you know, you’ll have guys on a football field in high school who might not belong there.

That’s kind of part of the cultural funneling system that puts all boys on a football field. Not all boys are cut out to play football. Me and Nahshon are, but some of these high school kids get put on compromising positions on the field and end up taking a shot from a guy who’s much bigger, much faster, much stronger. And his body just can’t withstand it.

Also, the medical treatment that’s received, the medical officials that are on site in the NFL and college, you know, they have more resources at their fingertips, whereas at these high schools, they can be stretched pretty thin, as far as the medical training of the people involved or the ability for them to get to the hospital fast.

On what Jackson would recommend, to make the sport safer

Jackson: I think it’s about coaching, really. It’s the coaches taking a step back and looking at the well-being of the kids.

I think football did a lot of great things for me. I feel like I left the game with my mind intact, and it gave me a lot of great opportunities. I wouldn’t go back and change anything I did, and I don’t think Nahshon would either — and all the guys I played with in the NFL will tell you the exact same thing.

But I think it’s the culture around the game — not so much the players themselves, but in amateur football, the adults that funnel them on the field, that mow the lawn, that make the helmets, that set the broken arm (if you break your arm), that take you to the hospital, that allow you to pass classes maybe when you didn’t deserve it. Those are the people who need to ask themselves what they are creating by allowing this game to exist and putting it on such a pedestal.

The thing about it is, you know, we believe that football is a very, very important event, and that’s why we’ll sacrifice our lives for it. It’s a proving ground for manhood. And everybody in your community, wherever you are in America, and every high school — they rally around the football team, and it’s the central point of all the energy and the school pride, and so there’s so much momentum around it.

I don’t know how you pull that back, because the NFL is a hype machine, you know. So they’re selling this product, and it trickles down. And all the kids watch it, and they want to be there, too.

On whether Ellerbe has heard conversations — with teammates, parents or coaches — changing around the sport

Ellerbe: I definitely think the measures that we take to protect ourselves are definitely changed, It’s kind of crazy how innovations have taken place, and how much more protection and how much knowledge we have now.

But I will say, I think a big difference is that there’s so many player protections, drill work, practice layouts, game days, sideline procedures that aren’t used in high school that are standard in college and professional football — things like that, where we discuss in college locker rooms, “OK, thank God we have those things now; we didn’t have those things in high schools.”

So I think there are certain ways to protect ourselves certain ways, to be smarter. Coaching is extremely important. Just knowing the correct way to tackle — if you don’t know that, you put yourself at huge risk of getting hurt every time you step on the field.

But, you know, in the locker room we are not all that concerned about injuries. Obviously, when someone does get injured, we rally around them and we help them get back to full strength. But we don’t talk about it. It’s just kind of taboo. We just work hard, put our heads down and keep going because it’s the game we love, and it’s the game that we’ve been playing for so long.

4:17

The New York Jets and Miami Dolphins play in London Sunday. Andrea Kremer of HBO’s Real Sports and the NFL Network says that despite logistical challenges, it could mean big profits for the NFL.

Transcript

SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

Time now for sports.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

SIMON: Is London calling the NFL? The New York Jets and the Miami Dolphins play this weekend at Wembley Stadium, where men in shorts usually play footee. The game’s expected to be a sellout. The NFL will play three games in London this year. Could London get a team before Los Angeles? We’re joined now by Andrea Kremer, correspondent for HBO’s “Real Sports” on the NFL Network. Andrea, thanks for being with us.

ANDREA KREMER, BYLINE: It’s great to talk to you, Scott, and I’m very happy to have heard that familiar sports theme because I don’t know if I’ve ever had a lead-in that involves topless women. So I was very happy to…

SIMON: (Laughter) That’s quite a statement coming from you.

KREMER: There you go.

SIMON: Britain’s treasury chancellor, presumably with his pinstripes on, says he wants an NFL franchise in London in five years. What are some of the practical challenges, though, of having a team that’s based across the ocean?

KREMER: Yeah, that sounds like wishful thinking. Look, this international series with the NFL playing games in London started in 2007. And it’s grown every year, and in fact, they’re expecting 84,000 people tomorrow at Wembley for the Jets and the Dolphins. And it’s a big weekend in the U.K. for sports. You’ve got Arsenal versus Manchester United. You’ve got the Rugby World Cup. So where does the NFL come into play? Look, it’s hard to conduct league business; there are logistical hurdles. Tuesday in the NFL, you always check out players that are available, free agents – street free agents as they call them. You can’t possibly do that across the pond. You have to have the business of a team centered in the United States, and then if you’re going to start playing, you know, six hours away – and that’s on the East Coast…

SIMON: Yeah.

KREMER: …Not including the time difference, it’s going to be very, very challenging. But what the NFL usually wants, the NFL usually gets.

SIMON: Now, I assume they’ve run the number – I mean, London would become – at least as I figure it – certainly the largest single-team NFL market. I guess they think they can rake in the pounds.

KREMER: Well, yeah, I mean – that’s what it always comes down to. I mean, you’ve got a commissioner who has said that within the next 10 years he would like to grow the National Football League to a $25 billion – that’s B, billion dollar industry. So I think it’s definitely possible, but there are a lot of challenges that have to be represented. Plus, you know, right now different teams go over. So you can be a Dallas Cowboys fan, but you’re still going to watch the Jets and the Dolphins because you like NFL football. But how do you really build a fan base? I think that’s going to be a big challenge as well.

SIMON: Yeah. Quick question now – well, not so quick. Coca-Cola, Visa, Budweiser, McDonald’s – they’ve now all called for Sepp Blatter, the head of FIFA, to resign after Swiss criminal proceedings have begun against him. I don’t think though they’ve actually withdrawn their sponsorship of international soccer games – the ads, right? Would that say more?

KREMER: No, they have not withdrawn their sponsorships. And remember, even someone like Visa and even dating back to May when some of these sweeping changes at FIFA were called for, Visa’s agreement runs until 2022. So, you know – you’ve had Sepp Blatter, who has been quite defiant and adamant – anyone that knows him would completely be unsurprised by that posture – saying that, you know, he still does not intend to resign before his stated goal of next February. And he looks like he’s prepared to call the bluff of the sponsors. You know, look, even back last year with the horrific year that the NFL had, they still never lost any major sponsors. But there was one situation where the Minnesota Vikings before they actually, you know, put Adrian Peterson on hold for the whole season, they did lose a sponsor – one of their local sponsors. And they acted quickly. The next week, Adrian Peterson was basically gone for the whole season. That’s the only precedent that I’ve seen. But, you know, look, Sepp Blatter could still be suspended by the FIFA Ethics Committee, but, Scott, no one has ever accused ethics and FIFA of being in the same sentence.

SIMON: Andrea Kremer. You’re listening to WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News.

Copyright © 2015 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 a contractor for NPR, and accuracy and availability may vary. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Please be aware that the authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio.

4:33

The Pittsburgh Steelers’ high-powered NFL offense lost its veteran quarterback, Ben Roethlisberger, to a hurt knee last weekend after a hit by a defensive player. Roethlisberger is the latest high profile quarterback to go down this season, and there’s concern there could be more.

Transcript

ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST:

And now to a different contest. It’s week four of the National Football League season. Tonight, the Pittsburgh Steelers host the Baltimore Ravens. The Steelers don’t have starting quarterback Ben Roethlisberger. He injured his knee last Sunday and joined a growing list of bruised and harried quarterbacks. That list is growing in part because some offensive linemen, the players who are supposed to protect the quarterback, aren’t. Here’s NPR’s Tom Goldman.

TOM GOLDMAN, BYLINE: Quarterbacks are most effective upright. But the images that define this young season are QBs in varying stages of freefall. After Detroit’s week two loss, one of the first questions for quarterback Matthew Stafford was, what body parts were x-rayed?

MATTHEW STAFFORD: My ribs and chest.

GOLDMAN: X-rays were negative, and Stafford got to play on – not so with Dallas’s Tony Romo and the Steelers’ Roethlisberger, both out for multiple games, both injured by defenders. The blame is falling squarely on the broad shoulders of offensive linemen. They’re used to it. They know nobody pays attention to them unless they make a mistake. But the mistakes are perceived as so numerous now that longtime NFL executive and ESPN analyst Bill Polian described the problem as an epidemic.

BILL POLIAN: It is a sad state of affairs, and if it keeps up, we’re going to be talking about backup quarterbacks playing a lot.

SCOTT PETERS: You know, so I played seven years in the NFL as an offensive lineman, and prior to that…

GOLDMAN: Scott Peters says he was frustrated throughout his career, which ended in 2009, because he never truly learned the technique necessary for his position. Peters, who now teaches line skills using mixed martial arts, thinks it’s still an issue in the league and a big reason for the current problems.

PETERS: Offensive line is not an intuitive position. It’s one that requires a tremendous amount of skill that goes against your intuition, whereas defensive linemen – not to put them down, but it’s more reactive and responsive.

GOLDMAN: Offensive linemen are taught how to repel defenders with hands, arms, foot placement, body angle, all while backing up. But Peters says it’s not taught enough, and the players’ current labor contract is partly to blame. The 2011 CBA aimed to promote more player safety by reducing off-season practice time – five weeks less, in fact. But Peters says that’s leaving O-linemen less skilled and quarterbacks more at risk.

PETERS: The real issue there is the restrictions that say, you can’t do, quote, unquote, “football activities.” So you can lift weights, but you can’t work on your skills that make you better at football. At least you can’t do that with coach’s supervision, and that’s what you need.

ERIC WINSTON: You know, I think that’s, like, a pretty flimsy argument, in my opinion.

GOLDMAN: When Eric Winston says that, understand a couple of things. He’s the president of the players union that fought for that contract with its reduced practice time, and he’s a veteran offensive lineman for the Cincinnati Bengals, a team with one of the league’s best O-lines…

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

UNIDENTIFIED ANNOUNCER: Dalton throws – A.J. Green at the 50.

GOLDMAN: That’s been more responsible for this…

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

UNIDENTIFIED ANNOUNCER: Touchdown Cincinnati.

GOLDMAN: …Than miscues and hurt quarterbacks. Winston says offensive linemen have ample time in the off season to work with coaches even with the restrictions – seven weeks’ worth. He thinks O-lines struggle because teams have patchwork units instead of lines that have played together several years like the Bengals and because of bad drafting or teams not wanting to pay a lot for skilled linemen. Also, the current emphasis on spread offenses and passing has turned defensive linemen into huge, speedy quarterback hunters.

WINSTON: I don’t think there’s ever been a time in this league when its been harder to be an offensive lineman. The athleticism now on the defensive line is so great that it makes it so hard to block these guys.

GOLDMAN: As the season goes on, struggling lines will try to come together to play and protect and keep those backup quarterbacks off the field. Tom Goldman, NPR News.

Copyright © 2015 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 a contractor for NPR, and accuracy and availability may vary. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Please be aware that the authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio.