Preview of Real Sports for September 16

HBO’s Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel returns on Tuesday, September 16 with three new stories including a profile of ex-New York Giant Michael Strahan, now an analyst for Fox, and an investigation into the use of children to stitch soccer balls in India.

REAL SPORTS WITH BRYANT GUMBEL

PROFILES RECENTLY RETIRED NFL STAR MICHAEL STRAHAN,

VISITS TWO-TIME DEFENDING NASCAR CHAMPION JIMMIE JOHNSON

AND EXPOSES THE USE OF CHILD LABOR TO MAKE SOCCER BALLS IN INDIA,

WHEN IT RETURNS SEPT. 16, EXCLUSIVELY ON HBO

REAL SPORTS WITH BRYANT GUMBEL presents more enterprising features and reporting when its 138th edition debuts TUESDAY, SEPT. 16 (10:00 p.m. ET/PT & 9:00 p.m. CT), available in HDTV on HBO.

Segments include:

*Michael Strahan. Following a 15-year All-Pro career in the NFL, New York Giants star Michael Strahan probably thought he’d never hear his name and the word “rookie” in the same sentence again. But after the Giants won the Super Bowl in February, Strahan retired and jumped headfirst into a new career in the world of television broadcasting. With the NFL season getting underway, REAL SPORTS/Sports Illustrated correspondent Frank Deford goes behind the scenes with Strahan on the set of Fox’s NFL pre-game show.

Strahan and Deford talk about the new kid on the block at the venerable Fox NFL Sunday set; when Strahan knew it was time to hang up the No. 92 Giants jersey and close the books on his stellar playing career; how Jane Fonda’s fitness program whipped a pudgy youngster into football shape; what he feels today about the record-setting and disputed sack mark set when he tackled QB Brett Favre in 2001 at the Meadowlands; and why he promises not to shy away from criticizing former teammates.

*Jimmie Johnson. As NASCAR prepares for the upcoming “Chase for the Cup,” one driver has put himself in position to win the NASCAR Sprint Cup Championship three consecutive years, a feat accomplished only once before in the sport’s history. Currently sitting in third place in the Chase standings and coming off a dominating victory at the Chevy Rock and Roll 400, two-time defending champion Jimmie Johnson and his team intend to rewrite the history books. Johnson shares with Real Sports correspondent Jon Frankel his introduction to racing as child growing up outside San Diego; Jeff Gordon’s role in bringing Johnson onto his team in 2001; his approach to succeeding on the track; and why the only time he gets carsick is when he is riding in the right passenger seat.

*Childhood Lost. Each year, India produces more than one million hand-stitched soccer balls, most of which are exported for sale to nations around the world, including the United States. In some of the poorest areas of the country, children as young as six play a part in that industry, spending their days tediously sewing soccer balls together with little hope of a better life. The fortunate ones are paid cents a day for their work; the rest see nothing at all, because they’ve been sold into debt bondage and are forced to work as indentured servants. Continuing an investigative tradition that has brought the show the Sports Emmy^® for Outstanding Sports Journalism 11 of the last 13 years, REAL SPORTS correspondent Bernard Goldberg presents an in-depth and expanded exposé of this alarming use of child labor and explores what’s being done to stop it.

The story on Indian children sewing soccer balls will most likely be heart-wrenching to watch. And there may be an update on the attempt by Donald Trump to develop a golf course/resort in Scotland.