Hang Up and Listen: The Secrets of Football Night Edition
Slate’s sports podcast on producing an NFL telecast, the U.S. Open, and the International Olympic Committee’s big meeting in Argentina.
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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 this week is Loose Balls by Terry Pluto.
In this week’s episode of Slate’s sports podcast Hang Up and Listen, Stefan Fatsis, Josh Levin, and Mike Pesca are joined by Fred Gaudelli, the producer of NBC’s Sunday Night Football, who explains how the best football broadcast on television gets put together. Sports Illustrated’s Jon Wertheim comes on to discuss Serena Williams’ 17th grand slam title and all the other storylines at the 2013 U.S. Open. They also discuss the International Olympic Committee’s decision to hold the 2020 Games in Tokyo and to return wrestling to its rightful position as an Olympic sport. Finally, they remember basketball legend Zelmo Beaty.
Here are links to some of the articles and other items mentioned on the show:
- John Koblin’s Deadspin story on Fred Gaudelli and Sunday Night Football.
- Gaudelli’s NBC bio.
- Fox has former ref Mike Pereira to help explain NFL rules to viewers. This season, NBC will call on the NFL’s vice president of officiating Dean Blandino to play a similar role.
- NBC’s sideline reporter is Michele Tafoya.
- NFL ratings have declined slightly in the last couple of years.
- Sunday Night Football had the most viewers of any show in the 2012-2013 television season.
- Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal aren’t happy about the U.S. Open moving the men’s final to Monday.
- The New York Times’ Christopher Clarey on Serena Williams’ victory over Victoria Azarenka.
- Williams is 13-3 against Azarenka in her career.
- The Forbes list of the world’s highest-paid athletes features three female tennis players: Williams, Maria Sharapova, and Li Na.
- Most of the United States’ top junior players are African-American women.
- The Wall Street Journal’s Tom Perrotta calls the USTA “America’s sputtering tennis factory.”
- Jon Wertheim tries to diagnose what’s wrong with Roger Federer.
- Slate’s Lowen Liu argues that we should appreciate Federer all the more now that he’s become mortal.
- The Bryan brothers lost their chance to win the calendar Grand Slam, falling in the men’s doubles semifinals to Radek Stepanek and Leander Paes.
- Novak Djokovic and Stan Wawrinka played an amazing 21-minute game in Saturday’s men’s semifinals.
- The longest point played in a pro tennis match lasted 29 minutes.
- Should men continue to play five-set matches? Should women start to play five-setters?
- The International Olympic Committee selected Tokyo over Madrid and Istanbul as the host city for the 2020 Summer Olympics.
- Mike’s NPR report from Buenos Aires on wrestling keeping its spot in the Olympics.
- Hang Up and Listen covered the IOC’s initial decision to cut wrestling back in February, and then interviewed the head of the Committee for the Preservation of Olympic Wrestling in May.
- IOC president Jacques Rogge said that athletes and fans at the Sochi Olympics would not be affected by Russia’s anti-gay laws. He also reminded athletes that the IOC does not allow political protests.
Hang Up and Listen’s weekly Zelmos:
- Mike’s Zelmo: What it’s like to go to a soccer game in Argentina.
- Stefan’s Zelmo: The life and times of Zelmo Beaty, aka “Big Z,” aka “The Franchise.
- Josh’s Zelmo: The best Zelmo Beaty stories from Terry Pluto’s oral history of the ABA, Loose Balls.
Podcast production and edit by Mike Vuolo.