For a week, black NFL players have been under an even brighter spotlight than on any given Sunday and while some families are turning away from the game, others are watching closely.

ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST:

For almost two weeks, black players in the National Football League have been under an intense spotlight during the national anthem, some standing, some kneeling and many of them locking arms with their teammates. The silent protests or demonstrations of solidarity have turned off some fans. But as Tonya Mosley of member station KQED in San Francisco reports, many black families are watching closely.

TONYA MOSLEY, BYLINE: There’s one thing you should know about Rob Hughes. He’s hopelessly devoted to NFL football. His wife, Jwana, jokes it’s his first love.

JWANA HUGHES: Eagles. Since I met him, diehard Eagle fan.

MOSLEY: He has the Comcast RedZone deluxe cable package. It gives him access to every game in the country. On a 60-inch television from the comfort of his living room couch, Hughes even checks his fantasy football online during commercial breaks.

ROB HUGHES: If I could have a TV in my bathroom so I wouldn’t have to actually miss a second, I would (laughter).

MOSLEY: But things have been a little different this season. Hughes pays more attention to the top of the game, the national anthem, what players are kneeling and what players aren’t. As we jump in the car to grab some snacks before his beloved Philly Eagles play the Los Angeles Chargers, Hughes explains how he sometimes puts himself in the players’ shoes.

R. HUGHES: Would I kneel? Would I stand? Would I do the patriotic thing, as I was taught?

MOSLEY: He’s not sure. He supports a player’s right to protest – no question. And he supports that the protest is against police brutality. Last year, he took his 13-year-old son to Colin Kaepernick’s Know Your Rights Camp in Oakland. At the time, Kaepernick was a quarterback for the 49ers, and he was scrutinized for taking the knee throughout the season during the national anthem.

R. HUGHES: It took a whole lot of heart for that dude to do that. I also think to myself, like, I wonder if he thought that all this would come from just that one act.

MOSLEY: Hughes’ son Kelby says Kaepernick’s camp was life-changing. He learned stuff like how to talk to and deal with law enforcement. But most of all, Kelby says he learned that he has the right to know his rights. Now when he sits to watch football with his dad, he’s thinking about a lot more than a touchdown.

KELBY: Every time I see a game, that reminds me of people who have knelt and people who have at least tried to solve our problems in our country.

MOSLEY: Some of the family’s friends are boycotting the NFL by not watching the games. They feel Kaepernick hasn’t been hired for political reasons. But Hughes doesn’t want to do that.

R. HUGHES: You have to also – what? – boycott everybody that supports them. So I’ve got to boycott Visa. I’ve got to boycott Pepsi. I’ve got to boycott all these corporate entities that also do that.

MOSLEY: Other people are boycotting the NFL for allowing the players to protest during the anthem. This frustrates Hughes’s wife, Jwana.

J. HUGHES: It’s not about the flag. It’s about police brutality. That’s the way I take it as.

R. HUGHES: Touchdown. Touchdown.

MOSLEY: This week, the Eagles beat the Chargers. Hughes took note during the anthem as the camera focused on Eagles safety Malcolm Jenkins raising his fist. For NPR News, I’m Tonya Mosley in San Leandro, Calif.

(SOUNDBITE OF PETE ROCK’S “A LITTLE SOUL”)

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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.

Beverly and Donald McLeod divorced after 35 years. The big question: Who would keep the hockey tickets. The couple owns two season tickets to the Edmonton Oilers NHL games.

DAVID GREENE, HOST:

Good morning. I’m David Greene. A judge had to intervene in a custody battle in Canada. Beverly and Donald MacLeod divorced after 35 years. The big question was who would keep the hockey tickets? The couple owns two season tickets to Edmonton Oilers games. Beverley wanted joint custody of the seats, and she won. The judge laid out this plan for how the couple will divvy-up games. They do not have to actually sit together watching hockey. That would have been a stick-ing point. It’s MORNING EDITION.

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.

The long ball is back. Major League Baseball players broke the single season record for home runs. But, how did this happen? And do we have to start wondering about steroids again?

ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST:

The long ball is back. Major League Baseball players have hit just shy of 6,000 home runs this year, and that’s a record. Miami’s Giancarlo Stanton and the Yankees’ Aaron Judge are the star sluggers of this season, going into tonight’s games with 57 and 50 home runs respectively. But more than a hundred major leaguers have hit more than 20 home runs this year. That’s a record number. And 20 home runs used to be a respectable sum. We should note this is also a record-breaking season for strikeouts. And joining me to talk about this is Jonah Keri of CBS Sports. Welcome back to the program.

JONAH KERI: Thank you for having me, Robert.

SIEGEL: How did we get here? Has it been a gradual climb up in the number of home runs each season?

KERI: It has, but it’s accelerated over the last couple years. And there’s nothing too mysterious about it. There have been studies done by Ben Lindbergh at The Ringer as well as Rob Arthur at FiveThirtyEight that determined the ball is juiced. You’ve got an ability to manipulate how lively the ball can be. And right now those tests have shown that the ball is flying about seven feet further on average than in the past. Now, it’s seven, you say to yourself. Well, 400, hit the ball out into centerfield and so forth.

But seven could make a difference. A lot of what you call wall-scraper home runs are going out this season in addition to some colossal blasts. So now you’re in a situation where a lot of people are hitting home runs. Not just the big strong sluggers that you would expect, but some fellows who’ve never hit home runs before in their lives are suddenly hitting 15, 20, 25 home runs.

SIEGEL: And you’re saying that it’s because of, say, how tightly wound or stitched the baseball is?

KERI: So there’s two things going on. Number one is what you would call the center of restitution, which is referred to as core. So that basically is how lively the ball is, one. And then two, the seams are lower – so as you said, more tightly stitched. And that creates a couple of issues. There’s less drag on the ball as it goes through the air. And even more so – and in my mind maybe even more nefarious, honestly – is that some pitchers have complained that they are getting blister problems for the first time in their career as a result of these lower seams because the grip is very different. Now, that part has not been proven, but if it’s true that is a pretty big turn in terms of baseball.

SIEGEL: But given the number of strikeouts and given all the talk about the launch angle of the baseball as it leaves the bat, it seems that more baseball players are going up to the plate trying to hit a home run.

KERI: Well, that’s certainly true. But it has to do with incentives. You know, if you hit a bunch of home runs and you strike out, there’s nothing that’s going to get you fired from your job for that. And Aaron Judge is a classic example of this. Aaron Judge has more than 50 home runs. He’s going to win the AL Rookie of the Year, maybe MVP. He struck out more than 200 times this year. Only six players ever in the history of baseball, including Judge, have done that. And we don’t say, Aaron Judge, tisk-tisk (ph), all those strikeouts. We say, Aaron Judge, what an exciting player.

SIEGEL: The idea that this is caused by baseballs that are juiced is a less disturbing explanation than that it’s caused by players who are juiced. Is there any suggestion that perhaps performance-enhancing drugs are back in the game?

KERI: One thing I try to do is deal in evidence. We know based on these studies that the baseball is juiced, so we can say that with confidence. Whether or not players are taking performance-enhancing drugs is just difficult to ascertain. We don’t have recent failed tests or anything like that to prove it. It doesn’t necessarily mean that an absence of evidence suggests that nothing is going on. It’s just that we don’t know. And so for me to cast aspersions in that way would just be irresponsible.

SIEGEL: Is all of the interest in the long ball unfair to a player like Jose Altuve of Houston who’s going to win a batting title? He’s all of 5’6″. He’s hit over 20 home runs this year. But he’s a great player, but not a player who’s ever going to hit 50 home runs.

KERI: Well, I think Altuve’s going to get attention. He might win the AL MVP award despite him not hitting 50 home runs. That great-all-around game does play. And I’ll tell you something. This could show up in terms of contracts because you’re going to get a bunch of power hitters who are going to go out on the open market this year and might not get as much money as they expected. A lot of these big, strong sluggers who don’t have a complete game necessarily – they’re not fast, they don’t necessarily hit for a high average, they’re basically just sluggers – are not getting their just due.

And I would submit to you that if Jose Altuve went out on the open market right now he would get an unbelievable amount of money because he’s athletic, he steals bases, he plays good defense, he hits for a high average and, yes, he has some power. Whereas if you look at some other sluggers that have gone out on the open market and will this offseason, it’s a supply and demand issue. If everybody’s hitting home runs, why bother spending a lot for home runs?

SIEGEL: Jonah Keri of CBS Sports, thanks for talking with us.

KERI: Thank you, Robert.

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.

The Department of Justice announced fraud and corruption charges for a scheme allegedly involving four college basketball coaches and the head of global sports marketing for Adidas, plus five other defendants. NPR’s Robert Siegel talks to Mike DeCourcy of Sporting News about the case.

ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST:

The Department of Justice has brought charges in a wide-ranging college basketball bribery and fraud case. Here’s how U.S. Attorney Joon Kim laid it out at a news conference today.

(SOUNDBITE OF PRESS CONFERENCE)

JOON KIM: Coaches at some of the nation’s top programs soliciting and accepting cash bribes, managers and financial advisers circling blue-chip prospects like coyotes and employees of one of the world’s largest sportswear companies secretly funneling cash to the families of high school recruits.

SIEGEL: Ten people have been charged, including four assistant college basketball coaches and an executive at Adidas. All have been arrested. Mike DeCourcy is a college basketball columnist with The Sporting News, and he’s been covering this case. Welcome to the program.

MIKE DECOURCY: Thank you, Robert.

SIEGEL: The U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York described two separate schemes. Let’s talk about the first one. This involved the assistant coaches being bribed. What was the alleged scheme, and who did they say was involved?

DECOURCY: Well, there are four assistant coaches, including a coach at Auburn, associate head coach Chuck Person, as well as assistant coaches at Oklahoma State, Southern California and Arizona. They are charged with accepting bribes for delivering particular players who had gone through their programs to a particular financial management firm. And then of course the financial management firm would profit from their association with those players as they turned professional.

SIEGEL: It’s alleged that the coaches took money in order to direct the players to those companies. And the second scheme – what’s charged there?

DECOURCY: The second case involves a scheme to direct particular players to particular schools who were affiliated with one of the conspirator’s apparel company.

SIEGEL: And we should say the apparel company isn’t named I guess in this. But the – it’s Adidas obviously from reading between the lines.

DECOURCY: The – one of the indicted people was an executive at Adidas.

SIEGEL: Bill Sweeney of the FBI New York field office said at the news conference today that this investigation is ongoing. And he said to others conducting business this way in college sports, we have your playbook. Do you assume they’re going to be more indictments in this case?

DECOURCY: I would not rule that out. But I think the point that was made by the FBI agent was more like, don’t do this stuff because we’ll catch you. And before, the problem had always been if you get caught, well, you might lose your job at school, or your school might go on probation or lose a post-season tournament or something like that. Now there’s a lot more at stake. I think there was a cavalier attitude when it was only the NCAA. They had to be worried about – those three letters, the FBI, are a lot more intimidating than the four in the NCAA.

SIEGEL: Yeah. Of the people indicted, only one name rings a bell with me, and that’s Chuck Person, an assistant coach at Auburn but also a former star basketball player there and a longtime NBA player.

DECOURCY: What’s interesting about that is Chuck Person, according to statistical websites, made over $22 million in his NBA career and is making over a quarter of a million dollars a year as the associate head coach at Auburn. So why would he need the money that he was alleged to have accepted as a bribe? And I think that’s the question that people in basketball are asking and that they wonder if the federal authorities will ask as well.

SIEGEL: Mike DeCourcy, college basketball columnist for The Sporting News, thanks for talking with us.

DECOURCY: Thank you very much.

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.