Hang Up and Listen: The Will Goodell Go? Edition
Slate’s sports podcast on another terrible week for the NFL, U.S. domination of the basketball World Cup, and Jon Bois’ Breaking Madden series.

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In this week’s episode of Slate’s sports podcast Hang Up and Listen, Stefan Fatsis, Josh Levin, and Mike Pesca discuss the NFL’s continued reactionary stance to domestic abuse, what fans can and should expect from the league, and the changes in media coverage of the NFL. They examine the U.S. team’s dominant win at the FIBA World Cup, the cycle of Americans’ attitude toward international basketball, and whether the ease of victory this time will affect U.S. teams in future international tournaments. Finally, they interview SB Nation writer Jon Bois about his Breaking Madden series, the evolution of the Madden NFL video game series, and subverting the NFL.
Here are links to some of the articles and other items mentioned on the show:
- After last week’s news, even Peter King asked if we should still like football.
- On Sunday, the Carolina Panthers deactivated defensive end Greg Hardy, who has been convicted of assaulting and threatening to kill his ex-girlfriend.
- Mike addressed the NFL’s handling of Ray Rice in two episodes of the Gist last week.
- In the New York Times, Alan Schwarz collected Roger Goodell’s failings as NFL commissioner.
- After San Francisco 49ers defensive end Ray McDonald was arrested for felony domestic violence, 49ers coach Jim Harbaugh said he has no tolerance for domestic violence.
- McDonald was active on Sunday, because he “is not Ray Rice” and the team and Hargaugh needed to allow McDonald due process before taking any action.
- NFL commissioner Roger Goodell told CBS This Morning that the league never saw the video of Rice and his fiancée inside the elevator.
- Christine Brennan interviewed Goodell for USA Today and spoke with the Sherman Report about how she got the interview.
- The San Diego Union-Tribune keeps a database of NFL player arrests.
- FiveThirtyEight compared the rate of arrests of NFL players to the national average for men of the same age.
- On ESPN, Hannah Storm and Cris Carter spoke out against abuse by NFL players, and James Brown did the same on CBS.
- On Slate, Amanda Hess praised TMZ’s coverage of athletes’ misdeeds.
- After deactivating Adrian Peterson in reaction to child abuse charges, the Minnesota Vikings announced on Monday that the team will reinstate Peterson, citing the need for “due process.”
- The U.S team easily beat Serbia to win the FIBA World Cup of basketball.
- Manu Ginobili was not impressed with the 2004 U.S. Olympic team roster.
- After the U.S. lost to Greece in 2006, Chris Broussard wrote for ESPN Insider that “we’ve lost our grip on the game” and “our skills are lacking big time.”
- Jose Barea was the leading scorer in the first round of this year’s tournament.
- Adrian Wojnarowski says that NBA stars should not play for Team USA.
- The San Antonio Spurs hired famed Italian coach Ettore Messina.
- The Cleveland Cavaliers hired international coaching veteran David Blatt.
- Jon Bois is the mind behind the Internet sensation Breaking Madden, one-half of the Punt Brothers podcast, and sometimes the proprietor of Jon’s Sandwich Shop on Twitter.
- Bois talked to BuzzFeed about the genesis of Breaking Madden.
- The NFL made EA Sports remove several features of the old Madden series, including the ambulance.
Hang Up and Listen’s BEEFTANKS:
Mike’s BEEFTANK: Thanking Joe Flacco for reminding us that they’re just football players—even with a Harvard degree.
Stefan’s BEEFTANK: A review of Serbian sports’ best theme songs.
Josh’s BEEFTANK: Deep cuts from Things You May Have Missed if You are not an Obsessive LSU Football Fan.
On this week’s Slate Plus bonus segment, Stefan Fatsis, Josh Levin, and Mike Pesca discuss Robert Griffin III’s latest injury and the public perception of the young quarterback. Slate Plus members get an ad free version of this podcast with bonus segments. Visit slate.com/hangupplus and try it free for two weeks.
Podcast production and edit by Mike Vuolo. Links compiled by Chris Laskowski.
You can email us at hangup@slate.com.