Tired of merely rolling their eyes when teammates engage in locker-room talk that questions space travel authenticity and the curvature of the earth, NFL players turned media personalities Travis and Jason Kelce brought on astrophysicist and fellow media personality Neil deGrasse Tyson to set the record straight on their podcast “New Heights.”
The result was the whimsical, entertaining and perhaps persuasive tutorial one would expect from this trio, with laughs aplenty peppering Tyson’s scientific explanations.
The segment began with Travis Kelce, the Kansas City Chiefs star tight end and husband of Taylor Swift, asking Tyson if he was aware of the conspiracy theories coursing through the NFL, as ridiculous as they are rampant: “You can’t go an entire week without hearing somebody say we didn’t go to the moon.”
Tyson: “Ooooh.”
Jason Kelce, retired Philadelphia Eagles center and current ESPN analyst, chimes in: “We need your help.”
Tyson: “The good thing about science is that it’s true whether or not you believe in it (eliciting the first of many hearty laughs). They aren’t denying that the rocket launched. Where did they think that rocket was going? To the Piggly Wiggly down the street to get some groceries?
“We went to the moon nine times, Apollo 8 through Apollo 17. Apollo 8 didn’t land, Apollo 13 didn’t land, but they went to the moon. You would have to say we faked the moon landing nine times. Who does that?”
After the trio is done laughing some more, Tyson explains that the fake landing rumors stemmed from a belief that NASA was losing its space exploration race with Russia and turned to Hollywood to create phony video.
Proving he’s a master of the one-liner as well as of exploding stars, dwarf galaxies and the structure of the Milky Way, Tyson said that Hollywood’s finest special effects folks told NASA, “We’ve studied the problem and what we’ve concluded is, to make the most convincing fakery, we should do this on location.”
Tyson breaks into a belly laugh before spitting out, “Everything is a conspiracy if you don’t know anything about anything.”
The “StarTalk” and “Cosmos: Possible Worlds” host plugs his latest book, “Take Me to Your Leader,” which explores humanity’s obsession with extraterrestrial life and offers etiquette for imagined close encounters. (“Ever since childhood,” the book begins, “I’ve wanted to be abducted by aliens.”)
Jason Kelce returns the conversation to terra firma, describing another common contention among NFL players: “that the Earth is flat and not round.”
Tyson chides the flat-Earth folks gently, saying: “In a free country, think whatever you want. I’m not going to chase you down. But if you think the world is flat, I just don’t want you to become head of NASA.”
Jason: “Stick with football.”
Tyson offers an explanation directly for NFL players: “You guys play football. It’s Sunday. Everybody is playing their games. You guys play in the winter when the sun sets early. I am in the dark in New York City watching the 49ers play at home and the sun is up. That can only happen if the Earth is round.
“Football is the best example of a round Earth. That’s all I’m saying. You can’t have sunshine in San Francisco and darkness in New York unless the Earth is round.”
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