Welcome to this week’s episode of Hot Takedown, our podcast where the hot sports takes of the week meet the numbers that prove them right or tear them down. On this week’s show (Sept. 29, 2015), we reveal the names of the two people who won the Super Bowl in Madden NFL 16 with FiveThirtyEight’s Walt Hickey at quarterback (his avatar at least). Then we look at the rash of injuries to NFL quarterbacks and whether it’s going to doom their teams, we tour the many, many reasons the Washington Nationals imploded this year, and we preview Thursday’s National Women’s Soccer League championship game. Plus, a Significant Digit on a wild finish in the WNBA playoffs.
Stream the episode by clicking the play button, or subscribe using one of the podcast clients we’ve linked to above. Below is a video excerpt and links to some of what we discussed on the show.
What’s to blame for the Nationals’ collapse?
- Congratulations to Tim Curry and Luke Barr for winning Madden with Walt as their quarterback.
- FiveThirtyEight’s Rob Arthur tries to untangle the Nationals’ many woes.
- The Guardian’s Howard Megdal looks at whether the NWSL is taking advantage of its American fan base.
- Five things you need to know before Thursday’s NWSL championship game.
- Significant Digit: 1. The WNBA has admitted that a pivotal call at the end of a playoff game — giving the Minnesota Lynx a 1-point win — was incorrect.
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