SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
And now it's time for sports.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
SIMON: LIV Golf, L-I-V Golf, comes crashing down. Canada bans hockey teams from Russia. And an NFL player shares some disturbing news about his head injuries. We're joined now by Michele Steele, who writes the Steele Cut Substack on sports and economics. Michele, thanks so much for being with us.
MICHELE STEELE: Good morning, Scott.
SIMON: LIV Golf - the upstart tour began four years ago. So much fanfare, billions of Saudi dollars, a number of former PGA stars. This week, they announced they're shutting down. What happened?
STEELE: The short version is that the Saudis just turned off the spigot, Scott. You know, when you have a league that has a bunch of money but not many fans, it all goes poof real quick. You're right. It started with a lot of fanfare in 2022. Saudi Arabia wanted to rebrand themselves into this kind of dynamic, world player type country.
SIMON: Yeah.
STEELE: They were going to use sports, especially golf, to help themselves do that. They gave generational money to players like Bryson DeChambeau and Jon Rahm to leave the PGA Tour. They never got traction. The roster was, like, 10 good players, a bunch of stiffs. They burned through $5 billion. And the Saudis, with everything going on in the Middle East, started to rethink their spending. So the PGA Tour is still here, still standing and you got a bunch of former LIV players who now have a really uncertain, but...
SIMON: Yeah.
STEELE: ...Certainly penalized, path back to the tour.
SIMON: And moving on, Canada's Prime Minister Mark Carney announced neither the Russian or Belarusian teams will be allowed to play in the World Junior Hockey tournament in Alberta next month. This is part of a larger boycott of Russia by European teams. What's going on?
STEELE: Yeah. Carney came to this decision after the Court of Arbitration for Sport, which is based in Switzerland, ordered Russia last week reinstated in World Juniors, and Carney replied to that decision. He said as long as the war goes on, none of those athletes are going to be allowed in. Canada controls the visa. So you can be a court in Switzerland. They can say come on in, but you can't force Canada to stamp the passports. And this is part of a larger wave, Scott - Norway, Denmark, Sweden, others have said they're not going to play Russia.
SIMON: Is this a big step to take with athletics for youngsters? It is the junior hockey tournament, after all.
STEELE: Yeah. That is also what critics, like Russia's ambassador to Canada, is saying - you know, Russian kids didn't start this war. But the flip side is Ukrainian kids are paying a price...
SIMON: Yeah.
STEELE: ...Far greater than hockey. So Carney's effort is just a small way of trying to punish the aggressor here - Russia - on a world stage.
SIMON: Finally, troubling revelations from TreVeyon Henderson of the New England Patriots, who announced he had an unexpected, unusual medical emergency involving a series of unexplained neurological symptoms. He did not suffer one obvious traumatic injury on the field, but given what we have learned about CTE, it's hard not to be concerned, isn't it?
STEELE: I'll say. The timing is hard to ignore, Scott. Just over a week ago, I saw a story from Boston University. Their researchers estimated that 75% of NFL players who died between '08 and 2023 had signs of CTE - that is the highest estimate yet. Now, the researchers caution it is a statistical estimate. CTE can only be confirmed in an autopsy. Many people with signs of the disease never develop symptoms.
But as for Henderson, he's a young guy - just 24 years old. As far as I've seen, neither here or the Patriots have said what caused his neurological symptoms. And those symptoms have a lot of possible causes, so nobody should link the case to CTE. But, you know, your instincts are right. As far as it relates to the larger sport, we're in an environment where the league wants to cut down on head impacts. They have new helmet design. So a young player speaking openly is part of that shift. I hope that Henderson is getting good care and a clear answer. He's a young guy. I'm rooting for him.
SIMON: Yeah. Well, our Michele Steele of Steele Cut Substack, thanks so much for being with us.
STEELE: Talk to you next time, Scott.
(SOUNDBITE OF DJ RYOW'S "MIRAGE") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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