Crunching Tackles

With the coronavirus spreading across the planet, it's shaking everything from Italian soccer to the Summer Olympics. We take some time to talk about the epidemic's impact and tell some stories on other times that world emergencies have changed the sports world.

Sports fans around the world idolize athletes from Lionel Messi to Kobe Bryant. Kids put posters on their walls and adults follow their favorite athletes on social media. But what makes an athlete into a role model in our eyes - and should athletes even be our role models? We sit down to talk about some of our sporting heroes and ask those big questions on today's episode.

Colleges across America rake in millions of dollars every year through athletics, but not a cent of that money goes to their athletes. But California has forced the NCAA's hand, and Congress held a subcommittee hearing last week to demand changes. We discuss the current situation and consider some ways the NCAA could make the system fairer for student-athletes.

Editor's note: Maurizio Sarri's comments we reference were in relation to a recent Juventus loss in Serie A, not the Coppa Italia.

In Episode 3, we take a look at the CTE crisis in the NFL. What is the situation, how is it affecting players, and how is the NFL responding? We finish by asking some big questions about the future of football. We've had the NFL for 100 years - what will football look like in 2120?

For more about CTE, here are a few links to some sources and issues we discuss in this episode:

- https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/07/25/sports/football/nfl-cte.html

- https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/07/sports/football/football-cte-study-risk.html

- https://www.espn.com/espn/otl/story/_/id/15667689/congressional-report-finds-nfl-improperly-intervened-brain-research-cost-taxpayers-16-million

In our second episode, we sit down to talk about the life and impact of Kobe Bryant. We discuss how sports fans should view his legacy in light of his controversial past, and take a closer look at how we should deal with the death of imperfect celebrities like Kobe who literally changed the world.

Welcome to the very first episode of Crunching Tackles! We break down the human rights and corruption issues surrounding the World Cup in Qatar and discuss the effects corrupt countries are having on the sports world.