Now in its 18th season, REAL SPORTS WITH BRYANT GUMBEL presents more enterprising features and reporting when its 179th edition, available in HDTV, debuts TUESDAY, FEB. 21 (10:00-11:00 p.m. ET/PT), exclusively on HBO. Segments include:
Russian Plane Crash. On Sept. 7, 2011, Yaroslavl Lokomotiv, one of Russia’s premier hockey teams, boarded a Soviet-era Yak-42 jet at a Yaroslavl airport to travel to a game in Minsk, the capital of Belarus. A few moments after lift-off, the chartered aircraft crashed about 500 yards from the runway, instantly killing 43 of the 45 passengers, including several NHL veterans. The model of the aircraft carrying the team had a long history of problems, while the airline currently has one of the worst air safety records in the world. However, Russian air safety officials confirmed that the crash was caused by basic human error during takeoff. REAL SPORTS correspondent Bernard Goldberg travels to Yaroslavl to delve further into what happened that tragic September afternoon.
Jeb Corliss. The top competitor in an activity fraught with danger, 35-year-old Jeb Corliss is a professional BASE jumper, skydiver and wingsuiter. At age 18, he found comfort in what most would deem uncomfortable – jumping out of airplanes – and has since jumped off some of the world’s highest structures, including Paris’ Eiffel Tower, Seattle’s Space Needle and the Petronas Twin Towers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. In 2006, he was arrested for attempting to BASE jump from New York’s Empire State Building. REAL SPORTS correspondent Jon Frankel goes behind the scenes with Corliss as he attempts a jump in Cape Town, South Africa and captures his nearly fatal crash on film.
Leigh Steinberg. Once the most powerful sports agent in the world, Leigh Steinberg built an empire by making NFL players and himself extremely wealthy. The 62-year-old lawyer was the agent for a host of stars, including Troy Aikman, Steve Young and Drew Bledsoe, and even branched out into boxing, representing Oscar de la Hoya and Lennox Lewis. Now Steinberg is living with a roommate in an apartment in Southern California, fighting an addiction that he says cost him everything. REAL SPORTS correspondent Armen Keteyian presents a no-holds-barred look at the former NFL super agent and his fall from glory.