NPR’s Scott Simon and sports reporter Michele Steele discuss the first round of the College Football Playoffs, Philip Rivers’ return to the NFL and a potential move for the Chicago Bears.
SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
And now it’s time for sports.
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SIMON: College football playoffs begin – Roll Tide Roll. Old Man Rivers returns for another week in the NFL. And just as the Bears battle the Pack (ph) for first place, they threaten to skip the state. But we’re happy to have Michele Steele join us. Michele, thanks so much for being with us.
MICHELE STEELE: Howdy, Scott.
SIMON: Well, speaking of howdy, Alabama was down 17 points last night but rallied to beat the Oklahoma Sooners of 34 to 24. How did they do it?
STEELE: Yeah. You know, I would say that Alabama spent the first half of this game in what I would call a pre-transformative state, Scott (laughter). It was a 20-minute brainstorm on how not to play football. They fell into a 17-point hole early in Norman. I just thought, maybe it’s time to turn this thing off. But you know what? ‘Bama inevitability kicked in. Their quarterback, Ty Simpson, settled down. The defense remembered they were actually playing a playoff game. It was that classic kind of death by a thousand cuts rally, and a 50-yard pick six didn’t hurt either.
SIMON: Going to see some upstarts playing today. James Madison faces Oregon. Tulane will take on Ole Miss. The big schools – Oregon and Mississippi – are favored, but do JMU and Tulane have a path?
STEELE: Yeah. I mean, in a 12-team playoff like we’re getting this year, we’ll finally get to see what happens when a powerhouse program like an Ole Miss plays kind of a Cinderella like a…
SIMON: Yeah.
STEELE: …JMU or Tulane. But for either of those schools to pull this off, it really would be a Christmas miracle, Scott. The odds maker’s not feeling the holiday spirit for these guys. They are not favored here. Oregon and Ole Miss, of course, are favored by about 21 points each. That’s not a hill to climb. That’s a…
SIMON: Yeah.
STEELE: …Vertical cliff. For JMU and Tulane, I think the path – if you want to talk about one – involves getting right with the Lord…
SIMON: (Laughter).
STEELE: …And, you know, hoping that Ole Miss and Oregon are looking past them – right? – to the quarters. So it’s a pretty steep climb, but, you know, what are you going to expect? These are very highly paid rosters on the other side – really built like well-oiled machines. So we’ll see. It would be cool if it happened. Let’s say that.
SIMON: Philip Rivers, 44, is going to start again tomorrow for the Indy Colts after being out of the league – a high school football coach since 2020. He looked pretty good against the Seahawks last Sunday. Is this a Disney movie?
STEELE: (Laughter) Maybe less of a Disney movie and more of a miracle of modern ibuprofen (laughter).
SIMON: Oh.
STEELE: (Laughter) He’s 44.
SIMON: Oh. What a way to break a…
STEELE: He’s 44.
SIMON: …Guy’s sentimental hopes. Yeah.
STEELE: He’s got 10 kids at home, right?
SIMON: Yeah.
STEELE: That’s the big thing with Philip Rivers. He’s elite, but he’s got a ton of kids. I remember interviewing him around baby number nine, I think, and I asked him after a game, who should be the MVP? And he said, his wife…
SIMON: Aw.
STEELE: …Which is the…
SIMON: God bless him.
STEELE: …Right answer…
SIMON: I love that.
STEELE: Which is the right answer. But it’s amazing that the Colts who are fighting for a playoff berth believe that Rivers gives them their best shot and not their backup.
SIMON: Look, a surprisingly wonderful season for the Chicago Bears. They lead the division. They’re playing the Green Bay Packers tonight to cement first place in the NFC. Why do they pick…
STEELE: (Laughter).
SIMON: …This time to announce they might move to Gary, Indiana?
STEELE: Yeah. The Gary Bears, the Gare (ph) Bears – it’s got a ring to it, unfortunately. But yeah. It’s the most Bears thing imaginable, right, Scott? We’re both from Chicago. You’ve got this really exciting team, and, of course, naturally, the week that they play their biggest rivals, they threaten to move to Indiana. Their CEO, Kevin Warren, wrote fans a letter saying the state of Illinois won’t budge on big tax breaks and almost a billion dollars in public funding for what they want, a new stadium. So he’s playing a high-stakes game of stadium chicken…
SIMON: Oh.
STEELE: …Not going over well.
SIMON: Yeah. Michele Steele, talk to you soon. Take care.
STEELE: See you next time.
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