Andrew Beaton (4:53)

For the tax prep.

Alex Osola (4:54)

So it's worth looking into different options. On the youe Money Briefing podcast from the Wall Street Journal, we're breaking down the latest tax rules, how to keep your tax data safe, and ways to file for free. Catch our Series tax season 2025 what's new February 2 and 9 on your money briefing. The super bowl is this weekend, and President Trump is planning to be there at the start of his term. The president has moved quickly to unravel diversity, equity and inclusion efforts in the federal government. And many companies from Google to Target have followed suit, rolling back their own diversity practices. But one organization that hasn't done so, the National Football League. Andrew Beaton covers the NFL for the Journal and joins me now from New Orleans, where he's also preparing to attend the Super Bowl. Andrew. This week, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said he's staying firm on the league's diversity initiatives and said they won't change just because the political climate has shifted. Who's supporting him in this?

Ryan Reynolds (5:55)

When Roger Goodell says something like that, it has to have the backing of team owners because at the end of the day, he works for them. And even Kansas City Chiefs owner Clark Hunt has said that the league still stands by its diversity initiatives, which over the last several years have also become a lot more public facing. And racism has been stenciled in the back of the end zones. The league has committed hundreds of millions of dollars to social justice initiatives, and that is just part of a number of efforts the league has made to become a leading voice in this space. And that's become a lot more complicated in recent weeks. Ever since Donald Trump took office again, the federal government has been dismantling DEI initiatives, and that sort of left the NFL in a difficult position of are they going to stick with it?

Alex Osola (6:41)

Right. And you know, it's interesting that you mentioned that, because what I remember was in 2016, when Colin Kaepernick was protesting racial injustice, the NFL had a series of reactions, but ultimately let him protest, and President Trump took issue with it. What is different, maybe for the NFL.

Ryan Reynolds (6:57)

This time, when the whole kneeling during the anthem situation arose, the NFL was really the target of a lot of ire from the president. And at that point, the NFL, which is America's most popular sport, ended up in a bizarre situation where it was in a feud with America's sitting president in 2017. And so the NFL felt the pressure and they at one point even tried to put in a rule that would have ended the kneeling during the anthem. But then the pendulum really swung back in 2020 when in the wake of George Floyd's killing, there were national protests against police brutality. And that's when Roger Goodell made a rather stunning admission that the league was wrong. And that's really the genesis of when the NFL really started amplifying these initiatives. And so now there's this question of did that pendulum swing back again now that maybe the political climate has changed? And what Roger Goodell made clear was that they weren't going to be just going with the tide again this time and that they were going to stick with where they've been.

Alex Osola (7:54)

That fact alone is kind of surprising, especially since, as you mentioned before, a number of Fortune 500 companies are sort of falling in line behind the perspectives and initiatives from the Trump administration. So why isn't the NFL maybe subject to some of the same dynamics or able to hold steady in this political wind at this moment?

Ryan Reynolds (8:14)

In some ways, the NFL is like other businesses. It prints money. This is an industry that's over $20 billion a year, the NFL. But unlike a public company, they don't have to answer to shareholders. They don' has to see how their stock price is doing in the morning. And at the end of the day, the people who control the business are the owners of the 32 teams and they're the ones who really control everything. And so the decision making is really rooted in them, in the commissioner's office, in the owners. And the NFL is also different in that while they are trying to appeal to the hundreds of millions of people that watch NFL games, they also have to be sensitive to the fact that this is a workforce of players who are predominantly black. And those are the same players who had called out the league in 2020 for not having their backs more on these issues. And so they, they have a lot of needles that are pretty sensitive to thread in this whole situation.

Alex Osola (9:06)

All right, guess we'll have to watch how it all plays out on Sunday. That was WSJ reporter Andrew Beaton. Andrew, thank you so much.

Ryan Reynolds (9:12)

Thank you so much.

Alex Osola (9:19)

A federal judge has extended a deadline for federal employees to decide whether to accept a buyout offer from the Trump administration. U.S. district Judge George O'Toole in Massachusetts ordered the deadline, which was initially today to be paused until at least February 10 while litigation continues. The American Federation of Government Employees and other unions sued to block the buyout offer, which said employees would be paid for eight months if they left willingly. More than 40,000 federal workers had already agreed to resign ahead of the deadline. Trump administration lawyers in court documents called attempts to block the program a last minute maneuver. And we're exclusively reporting that the White House is preparing an executive order to cut thousands of workers in the U.S. department of Health and Human Services. That's according to people familiar with the matter. Under the order, the Food and Drug Administration, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other health agencies would have to cut a certain percentage of employees. The order could come as soon as next week, the people said. The White House denied that there is an executive order related to HHS coming and finally, when you're looking to use an AI assistant, choosing the right one for you isn't just about picking the smartest model. It also comes down to the tools and features that help you get things done, WSJ's senior personal technology columnist Joanna Stern told our Tech News Briefing podcast what to look for when you're choosing between OpenAI's ChatGPT, Anthropic's Claude, or the new kid on the block Deepseek, you.

Andrew Beaton (10:48)

Want to think about am I getting the best model? And of course that is the race that is happening in the industry and lots of them right now are talking about reasoning models. This is the idea that the model takes a little bit more time to think about its answer. And in the case of Deep Seek, it even gives you kind of a play by play of how the model is thinking. It's kind of a self aware, quirky bot that's like maybe I should answer with this, maybe I should answer with that. And you see that. But actually OpenAI has had a reasoning model and it doesn't do that, but it just says thinking. And that's where I think these all are really going to become more about features because you're only going to require so much of that smarts if you're just a basic worker. We're not all trying to find the cure to cancer or solve the world's biggest issues at work. We're all trying to just kind of get some of our basic stuff done, whether that be writing or research or creating spreadsheets, managing email. And so that's where I think the features now come into play in a big way. And you want to look at what those features are.

Alex Osola (11:47)

To hear more from Joanna, check out tomorrow's Tech News Briefing podcast. And that's what's news for this Thursday afternoon. Today's show is produced by Anthony Bansi with supervising producer Michael Kosmides. Additional sound today courtesy of Reuters. I'm Alex Osola for the Wall Street Journal. We'll be back with a new show tomorrow morning. Thanks for listening.