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Hang Up and Listen is brought to you by Audible. Get a 30-day free trial by signing up at audiblepodcast.com/hangup. Our pick of the week is Ladies and Gentlemen, the Bronx Is Burning: 1977, Baseball, Politics, and the Battle for the Soul of a City by Jonathan Mahler.

Hang Up and Listen is pleased to present a weekly segment featuring Alex Belth, the proprietor of Deadspin’s sports journalism archive The Stacks. This week’s featured story is “The Most Hated Winner in Football,” Leonard Shecter’s 1969 Look magazine piece on Al Davis. You can follow Alex on Twitter and email him.

In this week’s episode of Slate’s sports podcast Hang Up and Listen, Stefan Fatsis, Josh Levin, and Mike Pesca discuss how athletes should respond to Russia’s anti-gay laws and whether there should be a boycott of the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi. They also talk about NBC’s wall-to-wall coverage of the Barclays Premier League. Finally, they interview filmmaker Sean Pamphilon about his new documentary The United States of Football and his role in the New Orleans Saints bounty scandal. 

Here are links to some of the articles and other items mentioned on the show:

• Russia won the most gold medals at the IAAF World Track and Field Championships, but the United States won the overall medal count.
• Policymic’s Innokenty (Kes) Grekov explains Russia’s anti-gay propaganda law.
• Russian pole vaulter Yelena Isinbayeva made public statements supporting the law; Isinbayeva later backed away from her comments, blaming her poor English skills.
• Cyd Zeigler of Outsports calls Russia’s anti-gay laws “a disgrace,” but does not advocate for a United States boycott of the 2014 Winter Olympics.
• Julia Ioffe of the New Republic wrote, “Boycotting the Olympics won’t stop Russian homophobia.”
• U.S. track athlete Nick Symmonds’ wrote a blog post for Runner’s World stating that he doesn’t agree with the law but would be a respectful guest and not speak out against the host nation.
• Liz Clarke of the Washington Post asks if remaining silent equals a “tacit approval of the law.”
  
• Swedish high jumper Emma Green Tregaro painted her fingernails in a rainbow pattern, then was told by the IAAF that she was violating their regulations.
• The Barclays Premier League debuted on NBC this weekend.
• Pro Soccer Talk lists the many ways you can take in NBC’s broadcasts of matches and highlights.
• NBC paid $250 million for the Premier League rights, while the previous three-year deal with Fox was worth $80 million.
• NBC introduced Americans to their soccer coverage with some basic guidelines and a video featuring Jason Sudeikis as coach Ted Lasso.
• Jack Pitt-Brooke of the British newspaper The Independent wrote about NBC’s push to get Americans watching the Premier League.
• Sean Pamphilon’s The United States of Football opens August 23 in select cities.
• Pamphilon was inspired to make the documentary after reading Michael Silver’s article about Kyle Turley in 2009.
• Heads Up Football is an organization trying to make the game safer for kids, with instructional videos on how to tackle correctly.
• The Aspen Institute’s roundtable discussion on “The Future of Youth Football.”
• A high school football player died in Atlanta this past weekend after making a tackle.
• Last year, Pamphilon released footage of Saints defensive coordinator Gregg Williams encouraging players to injure players on the 49ers.  
• Pamphilon published an essay to go along with the footage.
• Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk writes that Pamphilon is an “opportunist” who is only out for himself.
• Pamphilon defends his actions in an interview with the Saints blog The Angry Who Dat.

Hang Up and Listen’s little dribblers:

Mike’s little dibbler: The Chicago Cubs lost the 1906 World Series against the “Hitless Wonders,” the Chicago White Sox. Why didn’t the Cubs pitch Carl Lundgren?

Stefan’s little dribbler: Antigua Barracuda FC recently completed the worst season in North American professional sports history, compiling an 0-26-0 record.

Josh’s little dribbler: While Major League Baseball is tinkering with its instant replay system, cricket players stand accused of trying to subvert cricket’s replay technology by using silicone tape.

Podcast production and edit by Mike Vuolo. Our intern is Michael Gerber.

You can email us at hangup@slate.com.