The Sport Superlatives– Issue No. 50

December 15, 2024

🏆 The Superlatives 🏆

The Most Unbothered: Coach Kara Lawson

Duke’s women’s basketball coach, Kara Lawson, is no stranger to motivational speeches. She’s been known to drop a nugget or two of good advice. If you haven’t heard her “Handle Hard Better” speech, we highly recommend you take a listen. Her latest words of wisdom come from a recent episode of her radio show. When asked how she coaches her team to tune out all the noise, (read: opinions, criticism, attention) she said, “someone's opinion of you doesn’t change whether you can do it or not… so if that opinion doesn’t increase or decrease the likelihood, then why would we ever, worry about it?” We’re with you when you’re right sis! Let’s all aim to tune out the noise and be as unbothered as Coach Kara Lawson, shall we?

The Most Bothered: Coach Thomas Brown

The NFL's Chicago Bears have had a must-watch season… in the… you-can’t-tear-your-eyes-away-from-a-train-wreck way. After previous head coach, Matt Eberflus, was relieved of his duties, offensive coordinator, Thomas Brown, was tapped as interim head coach. This was just 17 days after he was promoted from passing game coordinator to offensive coordinator. While his title and responsibilities keep increasing, apparently, his weight keeps decreasing. Coach Brown recently shared that he lost over 20 lbs in November. He said he’s been too busy to think about eating, which he doesn’t recommend. Seeing as the team is still losing pretty badly… he likely won’t be gaining that weight back until after the season. Luckily, it’ll all be over for them soon because… we don’t expect a playoff run, though they haven’t been eliminated just yet!

🏒The Family Business:  Big news for our favorite boys on the ice! Some NHL players got picked to represent their countries in the Four Nations Face-off in February where the United States, Canada, Finland, and Sweden will battle it out to claim the title of best country for hockey in the entire world. Fun fact from the US team is that they’ll be featuring two sets of brothers - the Hughes (Quinn of the Vancouver Canucks and Jack of the New Jersey Devils) and the Tkachuks (Brady of the Ottawa Senators and Matthew of the Florida Panthers). It’s also pretty fun that each set of brothers represents a Canadian and East Coast team while also having international hockey playing parents.

Over in the PWHL, the league is just about two weeks into their season, and they’ve already said, “let’s make some changes and also take a little break.” After a wildly popular inaugural season that was driven in no small part by the free streaming of all their games on YouTube, the PWHL announced they were doing a test run of games on…Twitch. You know, the same Twitch that recently updated its sexual harassment policy because their previous sexual harassment policy didn’t do enough to moderate the amount of sexual harassment in the comments section. As fans of women’s sports, this whole one step forward, three steps back thing gets old pretty quickly. Allegedly, they’re just “testing new platforms” out, so here’s to hoping they don’t stick with this one (all signs, aka streaming numbers, are on our side).

And if you’re not caught up on the season yet, here’s your chance! The PWHL is currently on an international break for the 6-Nations Tournament, featuring the United States, Canada, Switzerland, Czechia, Sweden, and Finland (see a theme?). Past games are available on YouTube and the aforementioned Twitch.

🏈 Giving Berth: Alright y’all, we are in week 15 out of 18 in the regular NFL season. Just four more weeks until the playoffs. Suddenly all those playoff predictions floating around don’t seem so far-fetched anymore. Let’s recap where we are: seven teams thus far have been eliminated and four teams (KC Chiefs, Buffalo Bills, Detroit Lions and Philadelphia Eagles) have clinched their playoff berths. Meanwhile, the non-eliminated and playoff bound teams, will be giving week 15 everything they’ve got to secure a spot.

Additionally, the Minnesota Vikings and the Detroit Lions are going for that number one spot in the NFC North division. The Houston Texans and the Philadelphia Eagles are looking to shut the ish down this weekend as the official leaders in their respective divisions (AFC South and NFC East). But honestly, all the other divisions are looking real hunger game-esque. May the odds be ever in their favor, indeed.

🥍 Are You New Here? Earlier this week, the Women’s Lacrosse League (WLL) hard launched their first official four teams. The league's first pro teams will be the Boston Guard, California Palms, Maryland Charm, and NY Charging. The teams will debut in February 2025 as they compete for the first-ever WLL title. This debut is perfectly timed as lacrosse will re-enter the Olympics chat in the 2028 Olympic games in Los Angeles. Lacrosse has not been a sport in any Olympics since the Summer Olympics of 1948… and that was just the men! This Olympics will be the first time women will compete in the sport on the Olympic stage. Woohoo, one step for woman-kind.

🏈 Do the Heisman On That…Bro: To nobody’s surprise, Travis Hunter won the Heisman Trophy last night. I mean, everyone was acting surprised, but can anybody name one other person on the ballot? Don't worry, we’ll wait. Regardless, Travis gave a tearful speech thanking everyone who’s helped in his journey to the top (even Lil’ Wayne…who was of course there…cuz where else would he be on a Saturday night?). It goes without saying (but we still gon’ say it) that Coach Prime and teamie Shedeur Sanders were in attendance, and even spoke to the media during the family commentary segment. It was beautiful to see a young man’s dreams manifest. We know it’s only the beginning for young Travvy, and we look forward to hearing his name called on draft night. Also, a bit off topic but… Cam Newton knows he’s too big to be wearing such attention seeking headwear. Sir, it’s not your night….at least attempt to blend in.

🏀 What Happens in Vegas: The Emirates NBA Cup tournament made its way to Vegas for the semifinals last night. From the Eastern Conference, the Milwaukee Bucks defeated the Atlanta Hawks in a close game that [kinda surprisingly] came down to the final minutes. Now, nobody had the Hawks doing anything of substance with their season on their bingo card; but hey, an NBA Cup semifinal berth is something…to uh…build on. Anywho, the Bucks are clearly determined to win something and prove that the Dame-Giannis pairing is not a complete fail. 

On the Western Side, the Thunder defeated the Rockets pretty handily. The Gen-Z fashion icon, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, showed that he is ready for the spotlight and is worthy of the talk surrounding his MVP candidacy. Love that for him. Well, in the event that the remainder of their season goes downhill, SGA can always lean on a consolatory NBA Cup MVP trophy… if he plays his cards right.

All that to say: The OKC Thunder will play the Milwaukee Bucks in the NBA Cup finals Tuesday, December 17 at 8:30pm. Be there, or be…preparing for an early bedtime. Either way, we listen and we don’t judge.

⚾️ The Suite Life:  Free Agent Juan Soto has left the Yankees to head down the street and around the corner to their less popular, less cool, and uglier cousin, the Mets. How? Why? You ask…Well, the Mets paid big bank to get Soto…and also sold their first born children. Jokes, jokes. But really, Soto signed the biggest deal ever in all of the four major sports: 15 years, 765 million dollars. Sheesh. We can’t even begin to fathom what that looks like. But wait, there’s more. Along with a no-trade clause, Juan gets a hotel suite when he travels and he gets his very own stadium suite. Baby, you better bring them [other] New-yorkers a World Series trophy NEOWW… cuz we know a fair trade ain’t never been robbery…but robbery, well that they won’t stand for.

🚩Calling Off Work: Now, we've all had those days that we wake up and say “I do not feeling like going to work today”. But after hitting snooze on the alarm a few times, we get up and go… because we have a slight addiction to buying pretty things. Oh… is that just us… awkward… ok moving on. Anywho, San Francisco 49ers LB, Devondre Campbell, was having that type of day on Thursday. Except, he made it to the field but when the coach told him to sub in to play he was like ‘nah… I'm good’. He apparently refused to go into the game, and in the 3rd quarter, he left the game completely. After the game, his teammates and coach had plenty to say, expressing their disappointment (putting it lightly). It came as no surprise to hear that Campbell was released from the team the next day. This takes ‘not doing your part in a group project’ to the next level. Tsk tsk. Major red flag. 

🏠 OOOH They [still] Stealin’: The NFL stars keep taking L’s even when they win. Huh? Well, these away games are leaving their residences open and vacant…and the thieves can’t resist. At this point, it’s got to be some kinda operation, right? Well, we digress, the latest victim of the Bling Ring revamp is Bengals QB, Joe Burrow. Burrow was in Dallas for a Monday Night Football game against the Cowboys when the police were called regarding a break-in at his Ohio residence. Now, Burrow’s case is a bit more interesting because there was a Sports Illustrated model at his home who called 911, and now, everyone is in the man’s business regarding his relationship status too. Yikes…double Yikes. The League keeps warning players not to publicly share their location, but that’s just useless advice, because google is free. Well, everyone can rest a little easier knowing the FBI is on the case. We’re sure the culprit(s) will be caught….eventually.

🗣 He Said, He Said….He Said: The Eagles had some infighting last week that led to the PR team working overtime to keep the sharks from smelling blood in the water. What you talkin’ ‘bout, Willis? Well, Eagles’ wide receiver, AJ Brown, was quoted saying that the team needs to work on their passing when asked how they can improve their offense. Of course everyone took that to mean he’s beefing with Jalen Hurts. This assumption was only made more real when teammate, Brandon Graham, took to his radio show to say that the two (Brown and Hurts) are not as cool as they used to be. Well, if that’s not adding fuel to the fire…then we don’t know what is. Anywho, in true “keep it in the family” fashion, everybody ended up retracting their comments, saying it was a misunderstanding, and insisting that it’s all kumbaya over there in Philly. Ok, we hear you…but, something still doesn't smell right. Either way, Brandon, sweetie, didn’t your Mom teach you to not run around telling in-house business, outside?

Your sports term of the week is: No-trade Clause

IRL Example: See Juan “Big Bank” Soto’s contract. But really, it’s like accepting a job with the caveat that they can’t send you off to work at some other site, if you don’t want to go. It’s giving: that’s not in my job description.

Hold my phone, the WAGs are getting catty -rawr! No, not that type of catty but these outfits from Ciara and Ayesha Curry are the cat’s meow! (Ha! Get it?)

We can’t get enough of this look from Russell Wilson’s wife and singer, Ciara. There is something so luxe about a black and leopard print mix. It’s giving when I snap my finger I expect a glass of champagne to be placed in my awaiting hand, darling.

Forever21 has an option that looks just as luxe without the luxe costs:

Now, this one is for the girl’s with some curves. Ayesha Curry’s form fitting leopard mini is giving we like to partayyy-ayyy-ayyy. Seriously, this dress has all the ingredients for the perfect winter party dress:

✔Leopard print

✔Ruching

✔Tiered ruffles

✔Sheer off-the shoulder sleeves

Go ahead and add to cart, sis. 

Take a cue from Ayesha and Ciara and let your wild side out a bit!

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!

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