T. J. The last time you were here, we were talking about your report on Brittany Griner. Your

latest is on the Palestinian men's national soccer team. How did this story come about?

It was on our radar just that the team actually has a shot of qualifying for the World Cup,

which would be an incredible advancement for them.

But we just were discussing this idea that if you're Palestinian,

there are not a lot of things you can look at and say,

this is ours.

But the team is one thing where people can sort of rally.

So we decided to reach out to the team and go where they were and see okay what exactly does this team represent

When one plays on a national team there's a certain amount of coverage that you're accustomed to

What media usually covers this Palestinian team and how difficult

was it to effectively reach these guys just on a basic level? There isn't a lot. They have some coverage, but it's very local. This is not a team with a big international following.

It exists and has existed in kind of this bubble.

So when I got out there, people were, I mean they were

incredibly eager to talk to ESPN. You know, anybody who's followed these issues

knows that there's a mistrust of American mainstream media, particularly the New York Times, the major publications.

ESPN was something different and at the beginning of the trip everybody said that they could not wait to talk, that they wanted to reach an American audience to spread their message.

I mean, I only got a chance to talk to a few players for very odd reasons that we I know we'll get into,

but suddenly all my access was cut off.

The ones I did speak to, and especially the ones with whom I had casual conversations either at the practice pitch or at the hotel, you know, they were saying,

look, it's both completely exhausting and the thing that motivates them.

They wanted to say they were there for the Palestinian people, for the cause,

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