Tiger Woods is attempting yet another comeback and Eli Manning will not start for the first time in 13 years.

SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

And now it’s time for sports.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

SIMON: Eli Manning’s streak of consecutive games is scheduled to come to an end tomorrow. But in golf, Tiger Woods might be back again. NPR sports correspondent Tom Goldman joins us. Tom, thanks so much for being with us.

TOM GOLDMAN, BYLINE: Scott, thanks for having me.

SIMON: (Laughter) And Tiger’s looking like he can play golf again, isn’t he?

GOLDMAN: You know, he certainly doesn’t look like a nearly 42-year-old man returning from his fourth back surgery. In his first competitive golf in almost a year, he has shot two straight rounds in the 60s. He’s swinging free and hard. He’s hitting the ball far. He’s chipping and putting. It looks solid. Granted, Scott, this tournament he’s playing in is a nice, little cushy event hosted by him in the Bahamas. It only has 18 players, although many of them are the world’s top-ranked guys.

SIMON: It’s his own – he’s hosting his own event? Surely, that’s stacking the deck, isn’t it? But go ahead. Yeah?

GOLDMAN: (Laughter) No, no, no. I mean, everyone has a shot. There is no cut after two rounds, so it’s not the pressure cooker of a regular PGA Tour event. But he led for a time Friday. Going into today, he was five shots behind the leader. And Tiger Mania (ph) is growing. There’s so many people who are so eager to see him do magical things on the golf course again.

SIMON: He’s had a lot of back trouble, as you note – four surgeries – and, to be sure, personal trouble, much of his own making. But he’s only 41, 42. He could have some very strong years – tricky as backs are – couldn’t he?

GOLDMAN: Yeah. Well, he could. You know, a few. Backs are very tricky, especially with violent torquing golf swings like Tiger’s. And we should note that he played this event last year. He did really well – raised expectations like he is now. And then in a couple of events after that, his back deserted him. He did play golf for nine straight days before this event began to get his back and his body and his mind ready. After two really good rounds, the back appears to be holding up. He said he took some Advil during the round yesterday not because he was hurting but because of his surgeon’s orders. So we shall see. If he can stay healthy, 2018 could be a fascinating year on the Tour.

SIMON: Yeah. Eli Manning doesn’t start tomorrow – New York Giants against the Oakland Raiders – ending a streak of 210 regular season games at that number. Now, the Jints have had a miserable season, but is Eli Manning the reason?

GOLDMAN: Well, he’s not the entire reason. It’s always – you know, it’s a team failure. But yeah. You look at a few key stats, and Manning doesn’t appear to be the guy who led the Giants to two Super Bowl titles in the last nine years. You know, perhaps it was time to move on.

But it’s the way the Giants did it that has appalled many fellow players and fans. He was told he could keep starting the final games of the season to keep the streak alive but that he’d come out of games so the team could take a look at his backups. He wanted none of that. He said that was more about chasing hollow numbers than competing.

SIMON: Yeah. The NFL’s been dealing with social actions and protests this season. They announced a social action plan initiative of their own this week. What do you see in it?

GOLDMAN: It’s a response to the player protests begun by Colin Kaepernick last season, which, you know, multiplied this season. The NFL reportedly will put up about $90 million over seven years for social justice programs – programs that deal with improving education, community police relations, the criminal justice system. Some players still are suspicious of this and say the league is trying to buy its way out and get players to stop protesting. But there are a lot supporting the plan. And at the very least, this appears to be a step in a good direction.

SIMON: NPR’s Tom Goldman, thanks so much for being back with us. Talk to you soon.

GOLDMAN: Always a pleasure, Scott.

(SOUNDBITE OF SPEEDOMETER SONG, “TROUBLED LAND”)

Copyright © 2017 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.

On Friday, FIFA announced the World Cup final draw for next year’s event in Russia. So now that the match-ups have been set, who has an easy path to the final, who’s in the Group of Death, and who should Americans root for since the U.S. will not be in it?

KELLY MCEVERS, HOST:

The final draw for the World Cup was announced today. The 32 teams in the tournament now know who they will be playing next summer in Russia. And of course that does not include the U.S. team which was eliminated back in October. Hardcore U.S. fans might not be ready to root for another country, but if you are up for it, there are still plenty of upstarts and feel-good teams to root for. Here to help us figure that out and talk about all other things World Cup is Roger Bennett of the “Men In Blazers” podcast and show on NBC Sports. Welcome back to the show.

ROGER BENNETT: Oh, Kelly, it’s a joy to be here even with bittersweet emotion after that World Cup draw without the United States in it.

MCEVERS: Are you sure you’re that upset about the U.S.?

BENNETT: I could not be more distraught. I adore the United States more than Kid Rock loves the United States. So I am absolutely bereft despite my accent.

MCEVERS: For those of us who would have liked to root for the U.S. and are looking for somebody else to root for, who would you advise?

BENNETT: If you’re big-hearted, you could go for the home team – little Russia, the host nation. I’m not a conspiracy theorist, Kelly, but they ended up in the easiest group while Vladimir Putin looked on from the stage. They’re essentially in the Cleveland Browns of groups for Putin’s team. And there will no doubt be viewing parties across the United States of America for the opening game on June 14 when Russia plays Saudi Arabia. That’s the big one.

MCEVERS: Aside from Russia, are there any other good underdogs to root for?

BENNETT: My advice to all of your listeners is do not choose the England team, whatever you do.

MCEVERS: (Laughter) OK.

BENNETT: I’m speaking with scars all over my body, emotional traumas that this team have given me in major tournaments past. They will raise your hopes and then find cruel, sadistic, unusual ways to self-sabotage. The jewel of the tournament, Kelly, if you’re looking for an underdog, a heart-warming story – look no further than Iceland, the smallest nation of all time to compete in the World Cup, just 325,000 Icelanders in that population, around the same size as Corpus Christi, Texas.

I met them. They have a charming coach who until recently was a part-time dentist on an island that has more puffins than it did people. But these players – they have a collective (unintelligible). Their talent – very little of it is world-class. Collectively, when they take the field, they believe Viking blood runs through their veins. And watching them in major tournaments defy the odds over and over again, it’s a delirious sight to see. They take on Argentina in that opening game, and I fancy their odds.

MCEVERS: OK, so – but what if you actually hate underdogs – just, like, not your thing. You were the one person who is actually sad that the Death Star blew up at the end of Star Wars, or you were, like, somebody who, you know – I don’t know – roots for the New England Patriots. Like, who, besides the big ones – like, who are the ones you’d really bet on?

BENNETT: There’s a saying in world football that football is a simple game where 22 men chase a football and at the final whistle, Germany always wins.

MCEVERS: (Laughter).

BENNETT: They are the reigning world champions.

MCEVERS: Yeah.

BENNETT: They have the – just a youth development system that pumps out a trout farm of young talent. And if you want to back the favorites, Germany is the team for you.

MCEVERS: Roger Bennett of the “Men In Blazers” podcast and TV show on NBC Sports, thank you so much.

BENNETT: Kelly, thanks for having me on.

Copyright © 2017 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.

Down to only three players on the court, the University of Alabama men’s basketball team came very close to pulling off the upset of a lifetime against Minnesota. Instead, the team will have to settle for one of the grittiest losing efforts ever.

ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST:

For University of Alabama fans, rock bottom came at about 6:30 p.m. Eastern on Saturday. The top-ranked Crimson Tide football team had just lost to despised rival Auburn in a nationally televised upset.

KELLY MCEVERS, HOST:

And then the Alabama basketball team was about to lose, well, almost everyone. We’ll explain. Bama was down by seven in the second half of its game against the University of Minnesota. The only really noteworthy thing at that point about the game is that it was being live streamed on Facebook. And then this happened.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

UNIDENTIFIED ANNOUNCER: And we’ve got fisticuffs, a scuffle underneath and players ready to throw.

SIEGEL: Well, nobody wound up throwing a punch, but the entire Alabama bench stormed onto the court. And according to NCAA rules, any bench player who steps onto the court during a fight can be ejected, which meant this.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

UNIDENTIFIED ANNOUNCER: The entire bench from Alabama has been ejected from this game, and now the five on the court for Alabama are the five who have to go the rest of the way.

MCEVERS: With all their subs out of the game, the pressure was on the five players who were left on the court. But a couple minutes later, one of those five fouled out. And a minute after that, another Alabama player sprained his ankle. That meant the Crimson Tide had to go most of the second half with three players against five.

SIEGEL: The announcers had a hard time wrapping their heads around this idea.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

UNIDENTIFIED ANNOUNCER: Now, you might see this in someone’s front yard when you have three high school guys playing against maybe four or five younger children.

MCEVERS: Yet somehow Alabama, who once trailed Minnesota by 19 with five players, cut the lead to three points with a minute left in the game.

SIEGEL: Now, it turns out they only needed one player, freshman guard Collin Sexton. He nearly beat Minnesota by himself, scoring 40 points with crazy drives to the basket and impossible three-point shots over two and even three defenders.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

UNIDENTIFIED ANNOUNCER: Sexton – the rebound. Here he comes. Sexton himself got it. It’s a one-possession game.

(CHEERING)

MCEVERS: Sadly Sexton and his two teammates ran out of gas and got no closer. Minnesota won by five and thus ended Alabama’s no good, very bad sports day. But even in losing, Bama might have gained a cult hero in Collin Sexton.

(SOUNDBITE OF SAINT MOTEL SONG, “MY TYPE”)

Copyright © 2017 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.

Scott Simon talks with Howard Bryant of ESPN about questions of how long the NFL can continue to dominate professional sports.

SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

And now it’s time for sports.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

SIMON: But as the time for NFL football passed, numbers are often down. Controversies are up. We’re joined now by Howard Bryant of espn.com and ESPN The Magazine. Howard, good morning. And I understand it’s the birthday of Joe DiMaggio, Pope John XXIII, Ben Stein and Howard Bryant.

HOWARD BRYANT: And Bucky Dent and Donovan McNabb. Thank you, Scott.

SIMON: Oh, my gosh. OK. Bucky Dent, who has a…

BRYANT: All the 11/25s out there. It’s a pretty good day.

SIMON: Yeah, Bucky Dent, who’s got a – quite an exciting middle name in Boston, yes.

BRYANT: That’s right.

SIMON: Well, happy birthday, my friend.

BRYANT: Thank you.

SIMON: Football – concussions, brain damage, protests, grumpy owners, racist mascots. Is pro football deflating in value before our eyes?

BRYANT: Well, it’s fascinating, Scott, when you think about it because this is the one sport – we saw it with basketball in the late 1970s, where people thought that the drug scandals in basketball were hurting it, that the game was too black, that people didn’t care that you can’t – you only care about a basketball game in the last five minutes. And the sport was failing.

We remember it during the steroid era in baseball, where the game was really struggling, where we were talking about drugs instead of superstars. Everything about Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa and Alex Rodriguez and Roger Clemens was always about drugs instead of their greatness. But we never talked about it with football. We never discussed football being a problem sport, even though football had plenty of problems, because the money kept rolling in.

SIMON: Yeah.

BRYANT: And now the money’s not quite rolling in as much as it did. You’ve got CTE, which is the brain trauma issues that have always been there for the last several years, especially in more and more prominence. And I think you also have the diminishing returns of football. Roger Goodell, the commissioner, said he wants $25 billion in revenue for the NFL by 2027, and it’s at $13 billion now. So what do they do?

We used to have football on Sundays and Mondays and then Saturdays after Thanksgiving. Now you play Sunday, Monday, Thursday, Saturdays and now Sunday nights. So I think people may have had enough of football. It’s not that staple for a couple days that it used to be.

SIMON: Yeah.

BRYANT: And then, of course, there’s the protests, as well. Let’s think about this in terms of the players fighting injustice. But you also have the – you have the fans. You have a lot of fans that say that they don’t like what they’re seeing on the field from the players. And it finally is making football a more complicated sport than it has been. I think that football – like baseball with some of the World Series that we’ve had in the past few years – finally, football needs the game to save it. It really does need a great postseason to get people to maybe think better about the sport because it is struggling right now.

SIMON: Yeah. I did not watch the games on Thursday. I got to tell you I have a hard time watching because of the brain damage issue. Simple as that.

BRYANT: Well, it’s hard, Scott. I mean, it’s very hard. I remember watching a Patriots game a couple of years ago, and Stevan Ridley – the running back – came – you know, came down, got a ball off tackle, and just got hammered. And he fumbled the ball, and you could tell he was unconscious right when he got hit. And I started watching it. And I’m thinking, I do this for a living, and this is really, really hard to watch. And how long before you start to recognize as a fan that you’ve got a piece of this?

SIMON: Yeah.

BRYANT: You’ve got a part of this. You’ve got to decide. And so far, for many years, fans have made that decision – that they’re willing to watch these players knock themselves unconscious and justify it because they make so much money. But you do have a piece of this when you watch, and it is very, very difficult to watch these days.

SIMON: Well, Howard Bryant of ESPN, thanks so much for being with us. And happy birthday again, my friend.

BRYANT: Thank you. And happy holidays.

(SOUNDBITE OF LETTUCE’S “PHYLLIS”)

Copyright © 2017 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.

Tomorrow a holiday tradition — Thanksgiving and the NFL. Fans have three different games they can devour, but TV ratings are down as controversy has dogged America’s number one spectator sport. Is the future of the NFL at risk?

ELISE HU, HOST:

There are three NFL games on the schedule for tomorrow, a Thanksgiving tradition that millions of people will watch. And try as they might, fans can’t hide from the fact that the NFL is in the midst of a season filled with more controversy than usual. President Trump continues to assail players protesting during the national anthem. The inherent violence of the game has left key players injured. And as NPR’s Tom Goldman reports, it’s all raising new questions about the future of America’s favorite spectator sport.

TOM GOLDMAN, BYLINE: NFL waters are never calm. It’s the nature of a volatile game played by men at risk every play. But this season is roiling the waters even more. For every highlight…

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

UNIDENTIFIED COMMENTATOR #1: Now he throws downfield, reaching up – Baldwin makes a catch. It’s on the 40, 30…

GOLDMAN: …There have been players protesting and hearing about it.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

UNIDENTIFIED CROWD: (Booing).

GOLDMAN: For every moment of violent ballet…

(SOUNDBITE OF NFL PLAYERS COLLIDING)

UNIDENTIFIED MAN #1: (Unintelligible).

UNIDENTIFIED MAN #2: There we go. There we go. There we go. There we go. There we go.

(SOUNDBITE OF WHISTLE BLOWING)

UNIDENTIFIED MAN #2: Whew. There we go.

GOLDMAN: …There’s been just violence.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

UNIDENTIFIED COMMENTATOR #2: Would have been a first down, and Rodgers is hurt.

GOLDMAN: Star players like Green Bay quarterback Aaron Rodgers and New York Giants wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr. have been carted off the field with broken bones. Dallas running back Ezekiel Elliott was suspended because of domestic violence allegations. And of course concussion is recognized as a constant, part of the game every season. It is, in the words of veteran sportscaster Bob Costas, football’s existential issue.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

BOB COSTAS: This game destroys people’s brains – not everyone but a substantial number.

GOLDMAN: Speaking this month at the same symposium, sports journalist Tony Kornheiser added to what Costas said with a bleak forecast for the future. The NFL, he said, may go the way of horse racing and boxing. They once dominated the American sports landscape.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED BROADCAST)

TONY KORNHEISER: It’s not going to happen this year. It’s not going to happen in five years or 10 years. But if they don’t find a way to make it safe – and we don’t see how they will – as great as it is, as much fun as it is, the game’s not going to be around.

GOLDMAN: Is a slow exit beginning with a second straight year of declining TV ratings? On a conference call this week, NFL spokesman Joe Lockhart said ratings are down 5 to 6 percent from last season. Ticket sales are down, too.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

JOE LOCKHART: We’re not looking at a precipitous drop here that has a particular reason around it. But you know, it is something that we watch very closely.

GOLDMAN: I asked the NFL if there was someone I could talk to about strategy going forward, strategy to ensure the NFL’s future viability now being called into question. The league didn’t respond. But there are indications of forward thinking. For the past six years, the NFL has been partners with Whistle Sports. It’s a company that creates and distributes sports content and targets 13- to 34-year-olds, a next generation of sports consumers already consuming differently. They watch sports on multiple screens at the same time – TV, phones, laptops. And, says Whistle Sports creator Jeff Urban, they don’t care as much about sports news and scores.

JEFF URBAN: But we care about, how do you bring great stories to life or bring personalities from the NFL or take the helmet off and really bring a sense of humor and accessibility in a way that we can do it?

GOLDMAN: Dwindling TV ratings may tell one story about the NFL. But a joint survey by Whistle and The Nielsen Company tells another. The survey found for younger fans the favorite sport to follow is American football.

URBAN: The passion for the sport maybe isn’t wavering. I think that the kinds of passion that people are demonstrating for the sport just might be different.

GOLDMAN: That paints a bright future for the game. Of course evolving concussion research may spell a different, darker outcome. But for now, the NFL chugs along, hoping another Thanksgiving feast of football leaves fans full but still wanting more. Tom Goldman, NPR News.

(SOUNDBITE OF CINNAMON CHASERS’ “LUV DELUXE”)

Copyright © 2017 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.

NPR’s Lulu Garcia-Navarro speaks with Victoria Arlen, who made it to the semifinals on Dancing with the Stars even though just two years ago she couldn’t walk.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

LULU GARCIA-NAVARRO, HOST:

How do you dance when you can’t feel your legs?

(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, “DANCING WITH THE STARS”)

UNIDENTIFIED SINGER: (Singing) Everybody dance now.

UNIDENTIFIED ANNOUNCER: Live from Hollywood, this is “Dancing With The Stars.”

UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN #1: “Dancing With The Stars” Season 25.

VICTORIA ARLEN: Hi, I’m Victoria Arlen, and I am an ESPN host.

TOM BERGERON: Next on the floor…

UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN #2: Victoria and Val.

BERGERON: Victoria and Val.

ARLEN: I’m ready to dance (laughter).

GARCIA-NAVARRO: This week in Out of Bounds, Victoria Arlen competed in the semifinals of “Dancing With The Stars.” The 23-year-old was diagnosed with two rare autoimmune conditions as a child. She was in a coma for four years and in a wheelchair for nearly a decade. She won a gold medal at the London Paralympics in 2012 before teaching herself how to walk and then dance again. Victoria Arlen joins me now from our studios in Culver City, Calif. Good morning.

ARLEN: Good morning.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: You were eliminated this past week. I’m sorry (laughter).

ARLEN: It’s OK. Yeah, I mean, obviously, that was not the plan. But all good things. And it was just an amazing ride for sure.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: You have an amazing story of recovery. You couldn’t walk until fairly recently. How do you go from being paralyzed to dancing on “Dancing With The Stars?”

ARLEN: I honestly – for me, when I was 10 years old, I wanted to be on the show. I fell in love with the show when it first premiered, and I’ve always just loved and been fascinated with dance. And my parents really made a promise that they would do everything they could to give me back all that was taken away from me when I got sick. And the biggest thing that was left were my legs.

And so we discovered a program called Project Walk that’s actually based out here in California. And my parents, being the epic humans they are, brought it to the East Coast, brought it to our hometown. And a year and a half ago, I took steps. And from there, you know, for me, with everything that I’ve gone through, when I started to walk, I was like, well, why not run? Why not dance?

GARCIA-NAVARRO: But did you know how to dance? I mean, was it something that you were like – did you have a natural ability? Because it seems like going, you know, walking to dancing as well as you dance – that’s, like, a big leap.

ARLEN: It’s pretty crazy. I did not have dance – much dance experience. When I was 2, I did ballet, tap and jazz. But I think that was the beauty of it. And that was what made the season so special for my partner and I, for Val and I – is because we went out there each time on the dance floor and kind of redefined what was possible. And it wouldn’t have been possible without Val.

I mean, Val took this incredible leap and believed in me and gave me these tools in the choreography that really showed me what I was capable of but so many other people, as well. And so it’s pretty – it’s still pretty mind-blowing. I mean, our first day, just me turning, I fell over. And so the fact that we went from there to the top five is pretty crazy.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: Val Chmerkovskiy, your partner in this, just in case people don’t know. So yeah. When you fell that first time, did you think maybe this was something that was going to be harder than you had thought?

ARLEN: I knew it was going to be challenging. I think (laughter) after our first day, I called my mom crying. And I said, it’s really hard to dance when you can’t feel your legs.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: Can I ask you just about the mechanics of dancing when you can’t feel your legs? Is there anything that you need to do differently, I imagine, to make that work?

ARLEN: It’s definitely challenging. I mean, I think for Val and I, we had a lot of keywords that we used and a lot of, like, tappings. So when we would be doing ballroom, he would kind of say, OK, left. OK, right. Yeah, we’re going to turn. We’re going to change. And so it was a lot of keywords. And it was a lot of repetition to the point where you’re not even thinking about – or I’m not even thinking about where my legs are.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: And who do you want to win?

ARLEN: Who do I want to win? I…

GARCIA-NAVARRO: (Laughter).

ARLEN: …You know, it’s, this whole season has been just absolutely spectacular. And, you know, for me…

GARCIA-NAVARRO: Come on (laughter).

ARLEN: …You know, I think it’s going to be a toss-up between Jordan Fisher and Lindsey Stirling. I think the two of them have been consistently amazing each and every week. I mean, everyone’s been amazing, but I really feel like it’s going to be a toss-up between the two of them.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: Victoria Arlen, who is also a host and reporter for ESPN as well as a contestant on “Dancing With The Stars,” thank you so much.

ARLEN: Thank you.

Copyright © 2017 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.