Saturday, September 25, 2010

Michael Vick was supposed to be a stopgap option for the Philadelphia Eagles while starter Kevin Kolb recovered from a concussion. Instead, after a surprise decision from head coach Andy Reid, Vick will be the Eagles’ starter going forward. Guest host Doug Tribou speaks with Bob Ford of the Philadelphia Inquirer about the Eagles’ quarterback switch.

The Baltimore Orioles were buried in last place in the AL East and well on their way to 100 losses when Buck Showalter was named manager in late July. Since then the Orioles are…well, still in last place, but they have a better record in the last two months than the Yankees, Rays and Red Sox. Doug explains how Showalter motivated a team that had nothing to play for.

Athletes are expected to take the field no matter what sort of cuts, scrapes or bruises they endure. But what happens when a player is affected not by a physical condition, but by a mental one? Doug speaks to Sports Illustrated’s Jon Wertheim about how attitudes in sports toward mental illness are changing.

The Pittsburgh Steelers and Dallas Cowboys combined to win five Super Bowls in the 1970s. In The Ones Who Hit the Hardest, Chad Millman and Shawn Coyne describe the rivalry between two football teams at the top of their game from two cities on opposite paths. Doug speaks with the authors about their new book.

Charlie Pierce joins Doug to round up the week’s sports news from pro baseball to college football to a Finnish brown bear doing yoga.

The New York Yankees won seven World Series titles under George Steinbrenner. But, as Doug notes in his commentary, that leaves 20 more championships won under an owner other than The Boss. So why does Steinbrenner’s memorial dwarf every other plaque in Yankee Stadium’s Monument Park?

When you think of Canadian sports you think pucks, skates, slap shots and chipped teeth. European sports? Soccer fans bundled in team scarves chanting, singing and waving flags. Turns out, the two sports cultures aren’t as far away as you think. The MLS has a very successful squad in Toronto largely in thanks to a group of rowdy fans that call themselves the "Red Patch Boys." Soon, the league will add two more Canadian teams in Montreal and Vancouver. Only A Game’s Sean Cole reports on the expansion of the MLS to the Great White North.