February 2, 2024

Do you love sports? Want to find a way to fit more sports into your week? We’ve got you. From keeping up with your work colleagues to impressing hot dates, our newsletter aims to keep you in the know regardless of your fandom level or the reason. That’s your business, sis!

🏆 The Superlatives 🏆

The Best Hands 

This week, we have to give it to Kansas City Chiefs’ player, Travis Kelce, better known as Taylor Swift’s boo. Kelce had a record-breaking game with 11 catches total during the AFC Championship against the Baltimore Ravens.  There is no denying how impressive his catches were throughout the game, especially the catch at the beginning of the second quarter. We would have given him a kiss after that game, too, Tay Tay.

The Worst Fumble

The worst fumble goes to Mr. Butterfingers himself, Zay Flowers. Did y’all see that fumble at the goal line? Gather around children, this is what happens when you read too many comic books. You think you can fly like Superman with the ball; then you realize you’re just regular old Clark Kent minus the powers… and the championship.

During a post-game interview, Flowers said this “won’t break him,” and we genuinely believe it won’t. He will go on to be great… as soon as he learns to secure the ball when he catches it and stops trying to be cute. 

Honorable mention

Not to steal the light from Zay, but the Detroit Lions had one of the biggest fumbles of all time. More details on that below!

🏈 You only get one shot: Little did we know when Eminem rapped those famous lyrics all those years ago, they'd be a prophecy for the Detroit Lions' opportunity to go to the Super Bowl. Lions’ head coach, Dan Campbell, certainly feels that way. The Detroit Lions started the NFC Championship game against the San Francisco 49ers strong, leading at halftime 24 to 7. Not sure what happened in those locker rooms, but after the half, the 9ers QB Brock Purdy came out playing like he spent the whole break staring at the pay discrepancy between him & Pat Mahomes (it’s a pretty big difference). 

The 49ers not only closed the gap but established a lead by the 4th quarter. The Lions definitely tried their hardest, but in the end, just couldn’t secure the W. With a final score of 34 (49ers) to 31 (Lions), the 49ers are headed to Vegas for the Super Bowl. Hopefully Brock stays away from the Strip so he can keep his little coins. 

🏈 Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it's the Ravens falling from their pedestal. After all that hard work to get to the number one seed in the AFC, the Ravens just couldn't seem to pull it together against the Kansas City Chiefs. The most impressive play by the Ravens was when Lamar Jackson threw the ball to himself. Which, given what happened with Butterfingers Zay, can we blame him?

In the end, the Chiefs played epically, and the Ravens played their worst game all season. The Chiefs didn’t even have to score in the second half to win 17 to 10 against the Ravens. Someone get Lamar & the rest of the Ravens some water so they won’t choke next year. 

🏈 Spinning the block: Four score and seven years ago, the Kansas City Chiefs and the San Francisco 49ers played against each other in the Super Bowl. Jk. It was only four years ago in the 2019-2020 football season, which, tbh does kinda feel like four score years ago, are we right? 

The Kansas City Chiefs and the San Francisco 49ers are headed to Vegas for a Super Bowl rematch! During their last Super Bowl matchup, the Chiefs came out as the victors. Let’s see which team emerges as the winner this year, shall we?

🎾 We are the Champions: Congrats to all the Australian Open Champions! 

🎾 He is HIM: After dethroning the reigning Aussie Open champ, Jannik Sinner completed his quest for his first Grand Slam title by defeating Daniil Medvedev in 5 sets. Sinner made a miraculous comeback after being down 2 sets to 0. We all thought he was dead in the water, but it turns out he was just ‘resting his eyes.’ He certainly perked up in the last 3 sets, winning it all 3-6, 3-6, 6-4,6-4, 6-3!

🎾 She is HER: Speaking of resting one’s eyes, if you blinked, you might’ve missed Aryna Sabalenka’s defeat of Qinwen Zheng to win the women’s singles title. The lopsided battle was quick and to the point as Sabalenka overpowered Zheng to win in straight sets (6-3, 6-2).  That makes back-to-back Australian Open titles for Sabalenka.  Bet she’s on cloud nine singing: ‘They gon’ see that I can win this ish back to back’…or whatever Drake said.

🎾 They ate, and here are the crumbs…Hsieh Su-Wei took home championship titles in both women’s doubles and mixed doubles with her partners Elise Mertens and Jan Zielinski, respectively. Talk about carrying the team on your back. We all see who the common denominator is! Meanwhile, Rohan Bopanna and partner Matthew Ebden won the men’s doubles title while simultaneously making history.

At 43, Bopanna is the oldest man to win a grand slam title in the Open Era. We would love to be cliche and say, “Age ain’t nothing but a number,” but maybe some type of wine metaphor would be better. Or perhaps the age-old adage (see what we did there?)  “You’re not getting older, you’re getting better”…because it would seem that Bopanna is doing both.

Who all gon’ be there? 

NHL All-Star weekend began in Toronto Thursday, 2/1, and will last until Saturday, 2/3. Tune in to watch the skills competition on Friday evening at 7 pm or watch the All-Star game on Saturday at 3 pm. Who could resist a jam-packed weekend of fake-friendly, low-stakes, low-competition games?? Oh wait, this is the NHL, not the NBA…maybe there will be a higher level of competition after all. 

Speaking of low to no stakes and circling back to football 🏈 don’t forget that Feb 1-4 is also Pro Bowl weekend in Orlando, Florida. What’s not to love about having the best of the second best all in one place? In lieu of actual football games, you can tune in to watch the Flag Football Pro Bowl on Sunday, 2/4, at 3 pm. Great for watching or napping through. Yay!

Your sports term of the week is: double hit (also known as double contact)

IRL: It’s basically double dipping. Once is ok….but twice??? That’s just plain foul.

I spy with my little eye…a high-waist wide-leg pant trend. You couldn’t keep professional basketball players from peacocking in these pants if you tried!

For a more affordable version, check out Target’s version of the black wide-leg pants. For the high-end girlies who want to splurge a bit and try the trend, we found a gorgeous wool pair from Banana Republic.

Share The Sport Superlatives with hardcore sports fans or anyone who just likes to keep a little sports knowledge on hand. 

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