Now through September 10th, sky-high elegance at dream prices during the Air France rendezvous.

It's time to book your flight to Paris at our best prices, only during the Air France rendezvous, with daily flights from New York.

And with Air France, enjoy a complimentary glass of champagne in all

cabins. Eligance is a journey. Air France. Restrictions apply. See terms and conditions at airfrance.

U.S. It is Tuesday, September 2nd, 2025. I hope you had a good holiday weekend. Welcome back to

Hang Up and Listen, the sports podcast here at Slate. Back with you yet again. I'm Alex Kirsner. I'm a

contributing writer for Slate, and I co-host Split Zone Duo, a national college football podcast.

We'll talk about the college football season, whose first week wrapped up the other night with a brutal performance by the North Carolina Tar Heels, led by one Bill Belichick. With a long weekend to chew on it behind us, we'll think through the Dallas Cowboys trading Michael Parsons to the Green Bay Packers in one of the wildest moves any NFL team has ever made. Wild, not in a good way. And we'll talk with Lindsay Darvin,

a sports management professor and scholar on video games about how the gaming world is boosting

or not boosting women's sports. As usual, joining me this week is Lindsay Gibbs, the publisher

of PowerPlays, the newsletter that covers the biggest stories of the day in women's sports.

Lindsay, have you, as a North Carolina Tar Heels fan, been able to sleep overnight? Are you recovering from that ordeal in Chapel Hill? I don't know what you're talking about, Alex. I don't know what you're talking about. What weird thing to be asking me about football season? That's not a North Carolina Targill thing.

It's true. Honestly, ridiculous of me to bring it off. In the middle of a WMBA playoff race,

that I would even talk about this, maybe we'll come back to it in a moment. And of course,

we've got Ben Lindberg with us. Ben is a senior editor for The Ringer, and he co-hosts effectively wild Baseball podcast. Ben, how are you?

Once again asking myself if I'm ready for some football, not knowing the answer,

but ready or not, here it comes, as Bill Pelichick found out this weekend.

Before we get into our business, as usual, we want to say thank you to our Slate Plus members

for making Hang Up and Listen possible.

Subscribing helps us make this thing. It also lets you get it ad free, which is a great perk. And you get bonus segments. And there is good news because we have heard, as Ben alludes to,

that football is now something to be gotten ready for. There are NFL games on Thursday night.

There is an NFL game on Thursday night and there are a series of them, a bunch of them on Friday and then over the weekend.

...