Lost in Sports

The Hartford Whalers logo is everywhere, worn by celebrities from Snoop Dogg to Adam Sandler....even though the team no longer exists. But the small state capital was once home to hockey greats like Gordie Howe and Ron Francis, before the team was uprooted to North Carolina. Ben returns to his home state to find out how Hartford once had a NHL team, why the team moved and ripped the heart out of the city, and how it’s seemingly more popular now than when it existed.

In 1999, a comedy about the ABA -- the upstart 70s basketball league -- was supposed to be released. The movie starred Orlando Jones, Kelsey Grammer and Jason Segel, and featured cameos by Jim Brown, Roy Jones Jr, and Julius Erving. Everyone involved thought the movie was going to be a classic. But it never came out. Most of the actors never even got to see it. Ben investigates the untold story of New Jersey Turnpikes to find out what actually happened.

America’s collective adoration of the underdog means that people love to hate Tom Brady. In the world of sports, hatred is inevitable, so why are haters always gonna hate? And in the context of sports, could hate be a positive thing? What might it take to change one fan’s mind?

Featuring: 12-year-old viral Brady-hater Ace Davis, Asst. Prof. of Psychology at Univ. of Central Arkansas Marc Sestir, and Chad Neidt, the Broncos fan who wrote the “FU Tom Brady” song.

Thanks to Chad Neidt, Brandon Perna & ThatsGoodSports, 12:05 AM Productions, LLC / Jimmy Kimmel Live! and Lex 18 News for the clips used in this episode.  

For years, EA Sports produced an extremely popular, and extremely accurate, college football video game— with all the NCAA teams, stadiums, mascots, traditions, and, yes, the actual players. And then it was gone, leaving its cult fanbase enraged and fighting to keep the game alive. Ben explores the NCAA Football video game series, how it was made, why it went away, and how its loss exposed what it really means to be a college athlete.

In Religion of Sports' latest podcast series, Host Iggy Monda takes listeners inside America’s locker rooms and field houses to explore hazing in high school sports today. Through deeply personal stories of kids who have hazed, parents who have fought for accountability, coaches who are scared of what their players do when they’re not looking, and people who have hazed others, he ultimately asks why hazing is so ingrained in American culture – and what it says about us.

Follow ROS Presents: Roughhousing for the full series.