June 3, 2017 10:34 pm

This Week’s Playing with Science Guest Soccer Expert Is Our Own Host, Gary O’Reilly

Normally, the experts on Playing with Science are the guests.

But this week, the subject was soccer, and it just so happens that we have our own ringer, former professional soccer player – and one of our hosts –  Gary O’Reilly. Gary not only played soccer in England for 14 years, but he also followed that up with a career as a very popular sports broadcaster and commentator.

Don’t take our word for it. This past month, World Soccer Talk, one of the leading soccer websites in the US, wrote an article about Gary after they found out about Playing with Science, and they said this:

“Many longtime fans of the Premier League will remember the very recognizable voice of co-commentator Gary O’Reilly, who was a regular fixture of the weekend calendar for many years. The former Tottenham Hotspur and Crystal Palace defender was a trusted voice you could depend on for keen tactical observations.”

You can read the World Soccer Talk article here, but, for some of Gary’s most recent tactical observations, you have no further to go than to click here for our latest episode, Cosmic Queries: The Physics of Soccer.

In it, Gary, Chuck Nice and returning guest sports physics expert Professor John Eric Goff dive into the science of “the beautiful game.” Gary and Prof. Goff tackle fan-submitted questions about free kicks and how to “bend it like Beckham;” the impact of the Magnus Effect on a kicked soccer ball, and much more. You’ll hear all about Hugo Sanchez’ chilenas and Pelé’s bicycle kicks, aerodynamics, backspin, gravity, the “drag crisis” and even Newton’s Third Law.

This episode is another of our off-season special episodes brought to you by TuneIn, and if you haven’t yet subscribed to the free Playing with Science channel on TuneIn, you can do it now.

You can also listen right now, if you prefer on Apple Podcasts, SoundCloud, Stitcher, Google Play Music or even just right here on our website.

And be sure to tune in next Wednesday at 7pm EDT for our next episode, Basketball: Game Changer – Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s Skyhook.

That’s it for now. Keep Looking Up!
–Jeffrey Simons