Sports

Connecticut student-athletes have gotten the OK to play again.

A board of control for the governing body of state public high school sports, the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference, approved a return to play that’ll allow students to practice January 19 with games beginning February 8.

The youth sports shutdown in Connecticut -- one caused by the coronavirus pandemic -- may soon end.

Youth sports have been shut down in Connecticut since November, and the governing body of high school sports in Connecticut hopes to resume athletics Jan. 19 -- but there’s still no green light from the state Department of Public Health.

Seventeen AFC East championships. Nine Super Bowl appearances. Six Lombardi trophies. Twenty seasons pairing maybe the greatest head coach in the history of the NFL with maybe the greatest quarterback in the history of the NFL.

At the same time, there are words like "spygate." "Deflategate." And even "solicitation in Florida."

This hour, a look at one of the all-time great (and all-time most divisive) sports dynasties: the Tom Brady/Bill Belichick/Robert Kraft New England Patriots.

We are still living in two different realities. President Trump lost the election but still can't concede or admit it, and a high percentage of Republicans say they doubt the results -  even though courts have found no evidence to support their claims of fraud. 

Meanwhile, President-Elect Joe Biden is moving forward with his transition - including talking with foreign leaders, choosing Cabinet members, and planning his first 100 days in office. Can Biden unite us?

As we were preparing for our show on underdogs, I kept saying that we shouldn’t overlook the fact that, often, to be an underdog in the first place, you have to be relatively bad at the thing you’re an underdog about.

The more we talked about it, the more I found myself making the case that losers and losing are fascinating.

And they are. There’s a whole podcast about political candidates who lost. We romanticize losers in movies and TV and songs and stories.

The world has an Alex Trebek-shaped hole in it. Which raises a question: Who should fill said hole?

Billie Eilish has a new single out this week, which got The Nose thinking about her now-in-limbo James Bond theme song, which got The Nose thinking about James Bond theme songs in general.

And: Ted Lasso is a half-hour comedy series on AppleTV+. It stars Jason Sudeikis as the title character, and it's based on a character Sudeikis developed in 2013 for a series of promos for NBC Sports's Premier League coverage, of all things.

Broadcast sports giant ESPN is telling employees that pandemic-related layoffs are coming. In a company memo sent to NPR, Jimmy Pitaro, chairman, ESPN and sports content, revealed that 300 people would lose their jobs. He also said 200 open positions will be eliminated.

Traditional high school football won’t be played in Connecticut this fall. The Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference -- the governing body of state high school sports -- said the final decision follows a Department of Public Health recommendation to abandon full-contact, 11-on-11 football during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Though the state Department of Public Health has not reversed its decision that effectively banned high school football this fall, CIAC director Glenn Lungarini said he was pleased with how Friday’s three-hour discussion with officials went. 

The federal government may withhold key dollars for New Haven’s magnet school program if New Haven does not agree to ban transgender athletes from their chosen sports teams.

The New Haven Board of Education Wednesday night vowed to fight what it called strong-arm tactics, in court if necessary.

High school football players and their parents from across the state are urging the governing body of high school sports to change course and allow for a football season this year.

The CIAC decided to cancel full-contact high school football for the season, but other high school coaches in Connecticut are holding out hope that their student-athletes will get to play this fall amid the coronavirus pandemic.

This country has a long history of athlete protests.

This hour, we speak with athletes, including former UConn Husky Renee Montgomery, who sat out the WNBA season to focus on social justice issues. WNBA teams recently forwent games after the police shooting of Jacob Blake. 

We want to hear from you.

GUESTS:

This week, the NBA, the WBNA, MLB, MLS, tennis, and eventually the NHL all postponed games and matches in response to the shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wisconsin.

And: A Tweet listing the "Top 7 Warning Signs In a Man's Bookshelf" -- including "Too Much Hemingway," you see -- caused a bit of a fuss on the Twitter.

After a protracted back-and-forth with state health officials, Connecticut’s governing body of high school sports will go ahead with a fall season.