'The Fyre Fest Of Sports': The Bizarre Case Of Bishop Sycamore
The Lead
Wondery
3.9 • 2.2K Ratings
🗓️ 3 September 2021
⏱️ 22 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
On Sunday afternoon, two high school football teams took the field in what looked like an ordinary game, broadcast live on ESPN. And then things got weird. In the days that followed, the Internet became obsessed with one of the teams, Bishop Sycamore, and its elusive head coach, Roy Johnson. Now, amidst a public outcry and a firestorm of questions, the governor of Ohio has called for an investigation into the school and its football program. Today, The Athletic's Andy Staples takes us down the rabbit hole of a school that was not what it seemed.
Read Andy Staples and Ari Wasserman's full story about Bishop Sycamore:
https://theathletic.com/2798560/2021/08/30/how-the-washington-generals-of-high-school-football-conned-espn/
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Transcript
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| 0:40.0 | Go listen to Redhanded right now on Amazon Music or wherever you get your podcasts. |
| 0:46.0 | On Sunday afternoon, two high school football teams took the field in a nationally televised matchup. |
| 0:58.0 | But what appeared at first to be an ordinary game turned out to be anything but. |
| 1:04.0 | From what we've seen so far that this is not a fair fight and there's got to be a point now, Luke's where you do worry about health and safety. |
| 1:11.0 | I already am worried about it. I think it's this could potentially be dangerous. |
| 1:18.0 | As the game turned into a blowout and more and more players got hurt, questions started to crop up about whether one of the teams was even a real school. |
| 1:26.0 | Now in social media, nobody seemed to know who Bishop Sycamore was, not even fans in the school's home state of Ohio. |
| 1:33.0 | The Ohio Department of Education does not list a charter school under the name of Bishop Sycamore. |
| 1:39.0 | Governor Mike DeWine has asked the Ohio Department of Education to launch an investigation into a Columbus Bay school and football team. |
| 1:47.0 | Today, the athletics Andy Staples on the curious case of Bishop Sycamore High School. |
| 1:52.0 | This is essentially the fire fest of sports. I mean, the game broadcast itself was essentially the picture of that cheese sandwich that launched the whole fire fest thing. |
| 2:02.0 | From Wondering in the Athletic, I'm Tiffany Oshinsky. It's Friday, September 3rd, and this is The Lead. |
| 2:09.0 | So Andy, we're here to talk about one of the more bizarre sports stories that I can remember. |
| 2:16.0 | But before we start peeling back the layers of the onion here, let's start with the game that got things moving. |
... |
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