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In this week’s episode of Slate’s sports podcast Hang Up and Listen, Stefan Fatsis and Josh Levin are joined by Spencer Hall of SB Nation to talk about the weekend in college football, including Texas A&M’s loss to UCLA and Howard’s win over UNLV. Aaron Schatz of Football Outsiders also comes on the show to discuss whether NFL teams like the Bills, Browns, and Jets are going to usher in a new era of losing on purpose. Finally, they interview Ed Cunningham, the announcer who quit his job with ESPN because of his ethical concerns about football and brain injuries.
Here are links to some of the articles and other items mentioned on the show:
- Follow Spencer Hall on Twitter and read his essay on the dawn of another college football season.
- Texas A&M somehow blew a 44–10 lead to UCLA, inspiring an A&M regent to publicly call for coach Kevin Sumlin’s firing.
- Howard beat UNLV as a 45-point underdog, perhaps the biggest upset in modern college football history.
- In the feel-bad game of the season, Liberty beat Baylor.
- Liberty’s quarterback is Stephen Buckshot Calvert.
- Follow Aaron Schatz on Twitter and buy the Football Outsiders Almanac 2017.
- ESPN’s Bill Barnwell wrote a primer on tanking in the NFL.
- The Ringer’s Kevin Clark on how tanking could become a big problem for the NFL.
- Commissioner Roger Goodell claims no one tanks.
- John Branch’s New York Times piece on Ed Cunningham’s decision to quit his job as an ESPN college football analyst.
- In a 2008 Slate piece, Cunningham told Stefan about his NFL career: “It sucked. It was not fun.”
- Cunningham’s pro teammate Dave Duerson killed himself in 2011.
Hang Up and Listen’s weekly Landslidid:
Stefan’s Landslidid: All the quarterbacks who got signed this NFL offseason who aren’t Colin Kaepernick.
Josh’s Landslidid: Conflicts of interest in tennis broadcasting are a problem. Here’s a solution.
On this week’s Slate Plus bonus segment, Stefan and Josh talk about the first week of the U.S. Open and rooting for American tennis players against all reason. Visit Slate.com/hangupplus and try it free for two weeks.
Podcast production and edit by Patrick Fort.
You can email us at hangup@slate.com.
