Hello and welcome to the history of fun where we explore the hidden back stories behind the things you love to do.

My name is Russ Frustick, and today I'm joined by Allegra Frank.

Hi.

How are you?

Oh, wow.

That's what we like to hear.

We also have a very special guest. Chris Plant technically is in the office today, but unable to join us. But that is okay. And I even go as far as to say, great. Because we have a special guest in John Boyce of SB Nation fame. Welcome, John. Well, thank you. I love y'all Polygon buddies. It's great to be here.

We bring Vox Media together on crappy coffee tables. It's a very bad table.

Well, I'm happy we could get together because I kind of feel like we're, you know,

Espionation and Polygon are kind of close cousins. We are both dedicated to screwing around and messing stuff up and playing games.

Very true.

People forget that sports are also a game.

Yeah.

I forget that all the time.

My motto is that sports are sometimes more than a game.

Sports are a way of life.

That's a phrase I made up. You know what?

That should go on the front of a book somewhere. And the back too. I'd give you both.

I think it should go on the back of a shirt that says gamer and then you think it's about video games, but it's all about sports.

Bye. Today we were talking about the thing that people who love sports and love games never think about,

but probably impacted more people than you might imagine, especially if you live in the U.S.

I don't know internationally whether this is the case, but we're going to be talking about

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