Weathering The Storm
Barstool Sports is stepping up for women’s golf, arrests in a sports star’s death and how the Bills are setting the hiring standards.
Serving up the best conversation starters since the weather.
Cloudy with a 100% of impressive knowledge,
The Last Night’s Game Team
Golf
The PGA (Professional Golfers Association) Championship tournament is the talk of the weekend. It’s the second major tournament of the PGA season. While the tournament is a big deal, what’s an even bigger deal is what Barstool Sports Is doing for the college women golfers. After the NCAA cancelled their championship tournament seemingly without any valid reason, Barstool Sports stepped in to put together a championship tournament in a week. The “Let them play” tournament featuring 10 teams vying for the championship began yesterday in Phoenix, AZ. BOLD MOVES
Overtime
This is the craziest story that we couldn’t make up if we tried. In November, the world mourned when the international superstar and Argentinean soccer legend Diego Maradona, 60, died following brain surgery. This week his team of medical professionals was charged with homicide in his death. The medical board found that his medical team acted in an "inappropriate, deficient and reckless manner." OY VEY
Sideline stat
The Buffalo Bills (NFL - National Football League) are pushing through the glass ceiling. The team hired a new offensive assistant Sophia Lewin. They recently hired Andrea Gosper, Mechelle Geeter and Nikki Donoff, all in football operations positions. The team is co-led by co-owner Kim Pegula. BETTER TOGETHER
Coaches’ corner
Who doesn’t have travel envy after the last year and a half? Well, the F1 (Formula One) race in Monaco is going to make that worst. Forget the race; the scenery steals the show at this race with beautiful architecture and more yachts than you can count lining the race track. Lewis Hamilton, the seven-time World Champion, and Max Verstappen, the 23-year-old with a racing pedigree, are the two to watch In the race while you dream of a European vacation. WHY YACHT?
Can We Just Talk?
Breaking down the Pippen-Beasley drama (so much drama…), a Friday edition of “tell me something good” and why big feet are a big problem.
Here’s to hoping that the most drama you encounter this weekend is in this newsletter.
Let’s do this,
The Last Night’s Game Team
NFL (National Football League)
The conversation around the NFL season seems to be marred with constant COVID chatter, so let’s talk about something positive. This week brings us the player-led campaign My Cause My Cleats. A record number of players worked with artists and cleat manufacturers to create custom-designed cleats that will be worn this week and then auctioned off to benefit the charity of their choice. More than 20% of the 1,000 players participating chose social justice causes with others selecting youth, education or health and wellness-related initiatives. TELL ME SOMETHING GOOD
Overtime
It’s the sports-related drama everyone is talking about – the Minnesota Timberwolves (NBA - National Basketball Association) Malik Beasley, 24, and Larsa Pippen, 46. Allow us to fill you in. Beasley asked Pippen out via a public Instagram post. Here’s the awkward part - Beasley is married and has a child with Montana Yao. Then photos surfaced of Beasley and Pippen out together, only a month after Beasley was charged with felony threats of violence and fifth-degree drug possession. Oh, and Pippen’s estranged husband is NBA legend Scottie Pippen. (She also a past history – allegedly – with rapper Future but we’ll let you go down that rabbit hole yourself). Yesterday Yao, who was said to be caught off guard by all of this, filed for divorce from Beasley. SO MUCH DRAMA
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It’s the football game we seriously never thought we’d be talking about – BYU and Coastal Carolina. The two teams are making lemonade out of the lemons 2020 gave them. Both BYU and Coastal Carolina have 9-0 records but are still looking for the respect of the CFP committee (College Football Playoff committee – they decide which teams go into the playoffs). So when Coastal Carolina’s opponent cancelled their game on Thursday, BYU lived by their 2020 motto of “Anyone, Anywhere, Anytime” and stepped in to play Coastal Carolina on two days’ notice. Now they’re the game of the week and College GameDay will even be broadcasting live from the campus. SEIZE THE DAY
Coaches’ corner
Normally we’d say that George Russell has big shoes to fill this weekend in replacing seven-time World Champion Lewis Hamilton (who has COVID) in this weekend’s F1 (Formula One) race, but not in this case. Russell has a big problem and it’s not nerves. His size 11 feet are too big for Lewis Hamilton’s car so he’s having to wear smaller shoes to make it work. NO PAIN NO GAIN
May The Force Be With You
A new professional sport now has a home in the U.S., star-studded soccer playoffs and the family-friendly golf tourney with a $1M purse.
As curfews go into effect across the country, that means your masked conversation while dining outdoors should be interesting and thought-provoking. What better way to relate to everyone than where sports meets pop culture?
No need for a curfew if your bedtime is 10 pm,
The Last Night’s Game Team
MLS (Major League Soccer)
Tonight’s Friday night lights bring us a different kind of football tonight with the start of the MLS playoffs in a COVID world. With a compressed schedule, MLS will do everything in their power to reschedule a game where one or both teams is suffering from a COVID outbreak but it could result in a forfeit of the game and therefore the team would exit the postseason (it’s a single-elimination tournament). The Sporting Kansas City and Philadelphia Union are both ranked No. 1 in their respective conferences but it’s anyone’s guess who will end up in the finals on December 12. Kevin Durant (Phil. Union) is one of the star-studded athletes and celebrities to have an ownership stake in an MLS team. SIDE HUSTLE
Overtime
Don’t get us wrong, we all wish COVID would go away but the wife of Detroit Lions (NFL - National Football League) quarterback Matt Stafford took to social media to share her displeasure with the rules in place. In Kelly Stafford’s Instagram life story she said “I'm over living in a dictatorship we call Michigan.” The rant comes days after Michigan implemented new rules including taking school and work virtual. She later apologized for the use of the word dictatorship and praised healthcare workers. RUBBED PEOPLE THE WRONG WAY
Sideline stat
There’s nothing like quality family time on the golf course but how about doing it for your share of $1M? Tiger Woods announced that he and his son Charlie, 11, will be battling it out against John Daly and 18 other legendary golfers (think Greg Norman, David Duval and Jim Furyk) and a member of their family in the PNC Championship on December 17. While the tourney is for fun and won’t go against anyone’s records there is a total purse of $1M on the line. FAMILY FUN
Coaches’ corner
Wednesday night was a big night for the Ball family. First, the youngest of the three basketball brothers, LaMelo Ball was the third selection in the NBA (National Basketball Association) Draft by the Charlotte Hornets. (Michael Jordan is an owner and chairman of the Hornets). And SPOILER ALERT older brother, Lonzo Ball who plays for the New Orleans Pelicans, was unveiled as the whatchamacallit on the “Masked Singer.” Like a man to man defense, actor Ken Jeong nailed it when he said it was Ball, who is also a rapper on the side. SO LITTLE TIME FOR THAT MUCH TALENT