Only a Game
Only a Game is a weekly sports program distributed by National Public Radio and hosted formerly by Bill Littlefield. It is currently hosted and produced by Karen Given. The show is produced at WBUR in Boston and airs on 264 affiliate stations around the country every Saturday. The program is one hour long.
Only a Game features coverage of mainstream sports including the NFL, Major League Baseball, the NBA, the NHL, NASCAR, and men's and women's collegiate sports. Littlefield discusses mainstream sports with the program's regular analysts including Tim Kurkjian of ESPN; Kevin Hench of Fox Sports; Pat Forde of ESPN; Dan Wetzel of Yahoo! Sports; Helene Elliott of the Los Angeles Times; and others.
The program is also known for its coverage of offbeat sports and competitive events. Subjects covered on the program include a race up the stairs at the Empire State Building, an adaptive rowing competition for disabled athletes, lobster boat racing in Maine, and an event formerly known as the Rat Olympics.
Every week Littlefield is joined by sportswriter Charlie Pierce and the two discuss the week's top stories and oddball sports news items.
On June 7, 2018, WBUR announced that Bill Littlefield was "hanging up his cleats." He hosted his final episode as regular host, after 25 years of hosting Only a Game, on July 28, 2018. On June 17, 2020, WBUR announced that the show would end in the fall of 2020.
Guests on Only a Game have included John Updike, former U.S. Poet Laureate Robert Pinsky, commentator Bud Collins; current and former athletes Muhammad Ali, Kristine Lilly, former U.S. Senator Bill Bradley, Bill Russell, Oscar Robertson, Lenny Wilkens, and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar; and coaches Pat Summitt and Geno Auriemma.
