Welcome to the latest episode of Hot Takedown, FiveThirtyEight’s sports podcast. On this week’s episode (July 26, 2017), FiveThirtyEight sports editor Geoff Foster joins Kate and Neil for his inaugural appearance on the podcast. He helps us break down how the current collective bargaining agreement in the NFL is screwing over rookie players — despite the fact that they’ve been found to contribute half of all NFL value. Next, we’re joined by The Undefeated’s Jerry Bembry to discuss the site’s 50 Greatest Black Athletes list, which is currently counting down 10 new players each week until Aug. 8. We chat about the methodology behind the SurveyMonkey-compiled list, the difficulties of comparing athletes across sports and some of the list’s biggest surprises — and snubs.
Here are links to the things we discussed during the show:
- Bleacher Report’s Mike Freeman originally wrote on how the NFL is cheating rookies out of millions of dollars.
- Chase Stuart looked at the stats behind this for FootballPerspective.com.
- In early July, Buffalo Bills wide receiver Sammy Watkins lamented how much bigger NBA free-agent contracts are than those in the NFL.
- The Undefeated is currently releasing a list of the 50 Greatest Black Athletes of All Time.
- For more of Jerry Bembry’s thoughts as the list progresses, you can follow him on Twitter.