The New York Times debuted a new ad spotlighting its investigations and coverage of the impact of brain injuries to football and other sports. Jason Stallman, Sports Editor at The New York Times, joins Cheddar on a special episode of "The Business of Sports" to discuss what he's seeing in the push for more safety concerns.
Stallman says The New York Times takes a special interest in this topic because it doesn't just impact NFL players. More and more young kids are getting into the sport. He calls it a public safety issue if it is the case that repeated head injuries can lead to cognitive damage later in life.
So are we at a turning point in the quest for head injuries to be taken more seriously in sports? Stallman says as the science has mounted over the past decade many people wonder when it will become more of a talking point among players. Although he does cite that certain parts of the country have taken steps to address the risk of head injuries. Some schools have stopped having full contact practices. However, Stallman is unsure when NFL players will start addressing the issue. He says the dynamics are much different when you're being paid millions of dollars to play a sport.
Brandon Marcello, National College Football Reporter for 247Sports, breaks down each of the two semifinal matchups and explains why the smart money is on the two SEC teams.
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Mark Drumheller, betting analyst for Yahoo Sportsbook and The Sharp App, dives into an icy matchup between the Vikings and Packers, as well as other must-watch games including a potential trap in Baltimore.
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Trysta Krick, Host of 'BetMGM Tonight' helps clear up a very crowded playoff picture by making selections for Week 17's top games while pointing to to an AFC West matchup for her lock of the week.
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Trysta Krick and Mark Drumheller give viewers their winning picks ahead of Week 17 of the NFL season, while Brandon Marcello dissects each of the College Football Playoff semifinal matchups.
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The National Women's Soccer League is partnering with Voyager Digital as its first-ever cryptocurrency brokerage in a multi-year deal. Marla Messing, interim CEO of the NWSL, and Steve Ehrlich, CEO of Voyager Digital, joined Cheddar to discuss benefitting the league and educating players and fans as a way of democratizing cryptocurrency. Messing explained that the players themselves will own half the assets as part of how the deal is structured. "My hope is, just in terms of the expectations of crypto over the long term, that I hope a lot of them are able to just let it sit there," she said. "And that one day this will be a nice retirement account for them."
Barstool Sports CEO Erika Nardini joined Cheddar's Kristen Scholer to discuss plans for the future even as COVID-19 upended Barstool's sponsorship of the Arizona Bowl featuring the Boise State Broncos and the Central Michigan Chippewas due to the spreading omicron variant. "In our case as a company, coronavirus has been a big boom for us," she noted. "We've been able to create a lot of new programming, launch a lot of different personalities, and frankly take share from traditional media, and that's what we've done the entire pandemic." While she admitted to taking a hit on the canceled Bowl game, live events aren't completely off the table for Barstool in 2022. Nardini also talked about potential sports betting expansion following its partnership with Penn National Gaming.
