Hang Up and Listen

The NBC’s Tony Dungy Problem Edition

Slate’s sports podcast on the NFL playoffs, Tony Dungy, and the Australian Open and Break Point.

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Episode Notes

Joel Anderson, Stefan Fatsis, and Josh Levin assess the divisional round of the NFL playoffs. They also discuss Tony Dungy’s history of anti-gay rhetoric, and whether NBC and the NFL should do something about it. Finally, Slate contributor Isaac Butler joins to talk about the rise of the American men at the Australian Open and Netflix’s tennis reality series Break Point.

• Support Hang Up and Listen by subscribing to Slate Plus.

• Stefan lost to his daughter in a live-streamed Scrabble game at a tournament in New Orleans.

Damar Hamlin attended the Bills’ playoff loss to the Bengals and visited his teammates in the locker room.

Brett Maher had an extra point blocked and made a couple of field goals in the Cowboys’ loss to the 49ers.

• Last week, former NFL head coach and current NBC analyst Tony Dungy spread an anti-trans hoax on Twitter.

• Dungy also spoke at the anti-abortion March to Life Rally in Washington, where he invoked Hamlin’s on-field cardiac arrest.

• In the Nation, Dave Zirin wrote that Dungy’s statements were “a staggering indictment of the politics the NFL and the network’s partners allow and the kind that they condemn.”

USA Today columnist Nancy Armour wrote that Dungy apologized for his anti-trans tweet “without offering an explanation or acknowledgment of why it was wrong or the harm he’d caused.”

• Earlier this month, Cyd Ziegler of Outsports published a two-part series about Dungy’s history of anti-gay comments and actions.

Follow Isaac Butler on Twitter and buy his book The Method.

• Christopher Clarey’s New York Times piece on the rise of American men at the Australian Open.

Clarey on Ben Shelton.

• Butler’s Slate review of the Netflix series Break Point.

Hang Up and Listen’s weekly Gwen Knapp:

Josh’s Gwen Knapp: The time Vernon Maxwell went into the stands and punched a fan.

On this week’s bonus segment, Joel, Stefan, and Josh talk about Ed Reed’s almost-hiring at Bethune-Cookman.

Podcast production and edit by Kevin Bendis.

You can email us at hangup@slate.com.

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About the Show

A weekly sports discussion show from Slate. Hang Up and Listen features Slate personalities Joel Anderson, Stefan Fatsis, and Josh Levin.

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