The Sport Superlatives - Issue No. 53

January 11, 2024

🏆 The Superlatives 🏆

The Cutest Way to Show Team Spirit : Josh Hart

New York Knicks’ shooting guard, Josh Hart, is repping NY all day everyday. He loves NY from the bottom of his soul to… the top of his head. You may have thought Josh was just rocking regular, degular braids but upon closer observation, you can see that he shows his love in his braids. How creative, right? Super cute!

The Craziest Way to Show Team Spirit: A Chicago Bulls Fan

An Atlanta tattoo artist recently shared the “craziest” tattoo that they have ever done… and we have to say, no lies were told. We love and respect Michael Jordan like any other geriatric millennial. But as much as we love Space Jam, there is just no way we can justify this level of fandom. No one can doubt this fan’s loyalty to MJ that’s for sure. Unhinged behavior.

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🏈 Endings and New Beginnings: Cue the violins… Week 18 of the regular NFL season has concluded. Let’s talk about some highlights from the final week: 

• Kansas City may as well have taken a bye week with the way they played. After choosing to bench their A squad they sent in their backup squad to compete against the Denver Broncos whom they lost to with a final score of 38-0. Yikes, sounds like they need better backups… because 0?… Yea, that’s just embarrassing. 

• Pittsburgh Steelers lost their final regular season game to the Cincinnati Bengals 17-19. Looks like the Bengals finally got their groove back… just in time to be eliminated from the postseason. But anywho, although most people doubt how far the Steelers will get, Mike Tomlin made it to another postseason. 

• Arguably, the most anticipated game was the match-up between the Detroit Lions and the Minnesota Vikings. This NFC North championship showdown drew in an average of 28.5 million to watch the Vikings lose spectacularly to the Lions 31-9. 

Now that we’re officially into the postseason, all the losers that didn’t make the cut are headed to sandy pastures (aka the beach) while the rest gear up for their upcoming games. AFC No. 1 seed, the Kansas City Chiefs, and NFC No. 1 seed, Detroit Lions, will rest on their laurels. Meanwhile, the other teams will battle it out in the wild, wild west… better known as Wild Card weekend. Games kick off Saturday, January 11th with the final Wild Card game on Monday, January 13th. Welp, we know where we will be all weekend… on our couch watching football. In case you plan on having the same weekend plans, here is the schedule and where to watch. 

🏒 Oh, the Places You’ll Go: We’ve got a lot of hockey players coming back from travel, traveling, and figuring out how to pack for outdoor ice hockey in Florida. A quick recap!

The Returners: Many future NHLers just wrapped up a trip to Ottawa for the World Junior Championship (WJC) where the US claimed their seventh gold, and first ever back-to-back gold medals, with an OT win over Finland. With us at the halfway point in the NHL season, it was a great opportunity for almost all the NHL teams to see how their prospects are doing. We say “almost all” because of the thirty-two teams in the NHL, every team except the Boston Bruins had at least one prospect playing in the tournament. Hope that works out for them.

The Travelers: The PWHL kicked off their Takeover Tour on January 5^th in Seattle with the ceremonial puck dropped by Jessica Campbell, an assistant coach for the Seattle Kraken, and the first woman to become a full-time NHL assistant coach. The Takeover Tour is stopping at several NHL arenas over the next couple months, so don’t miss out on a chance to catch the PWHL in action if they’re coming to an arena near you!

The “How do I Pack for This?”-ers: The NHL Winter Classic has traditionally been a regular season game hosted at an outside venue. For example, the 2025 Winter Classic was held December 31^st at Wrigley Field where the St. Louis Blues handily defeated the Chicago Blackhawks, 6-2. It’s extra fun because the teams get to introduce a new jersey into the rotation, but more importantly, it’s cold outside. Apparently, the NHL thinks that’s too predictable, so instead, the 2026 Winter Classic between the Florida Panthers and Boston Bruins will be played on January 2^nd in…Miami. Just checked the Miami forecast, and it’s not looking good for the frozen water part of the playing surface.

🏈 And Just Like That…two teams are left standing. To the NCAA College Football National Championships we go! Notre Dame defeated Penn State in a tight game Thursday night that was all tied up late in the 4th quarter. With a little luck of the Irish, a late game interception, and a 41-yard field goal, Notre Dame punched their ticket to the title game. 

In Friday night’s game, Ohio State made quick work of Texas (who only made it out of the quarterfinals by the skin of their everything’s-bigger-in-Texas teeth in the first place). The two teams were tied heading into the 4th quarter, at which point Ohio State decided they were done with all the back and forth and proceeded to outscore Texas 14-0. Welp, time to unhook them horns; and sorry to interrupt Matthew McConaughey, but Taylor Swift had the best country celebrity football ambassador gig of all time…or whatever Kanye said. 

The big game between Ohio State and Notre Dame will finally take place Monday (another week day…sigh) January 20 at 7:30 ET in Atlanta, GA (hmm, maybe they’ll have cleared the snow by then). Oh, and if you’re in town, you can attend the game for a measly $2,000. Or, you can be like us and watch it on ESPN with the rest of the peasants.

🤼🏽‍♂️ When Your Idols Become Unrivaled…or whatever the kids are saying. Either way, Coco Gauff is supporting women’s sports…now that’s the type of girl on girl action we love to see! Gauff is the latest celebrity to invest in the 3x3 women’s basketball league, Unrivaled. So just to get this straight: She carries team USA to the United Cup trophy, wins MVP, and drops this?…a true queen. Hey, but when you’re the highest paid female athlete of 2024, you gotta do something with all that moolah. Are we right? (like any of us would know). Anywho, good luck to the rest of the Australian Open field, because it seems like Miss Coco is on a roll.

🤕 How Do You Get Injured on Your Day Off? Well, our mommas would likely say we were doing something we ain’t have no business doing. Surprise, surprise…Cleveland Browns quarterback, Deshaun Watson, ruptured his already injured Achilles tendon…again. So, Deshaun, please do tell, how did you [re]injure your Achilles? Well, if he was indeed doing something that he didn’t have any business doing (aka something prohibited in his contract), the Browns will save a whopping 92 million dollars. Deshaun (Mr. Watson, cuz he’s nasty)… do something he’s not supposed to?...no way! We’re sure he has nothing to worry about…*eye roll*.

☕ The Tea is Hot and So is the Coffee: Jimmy Butler was “working” at his coffee shop, Big Brand Coffee, and posted a video that many say was directed towards his Miami Heat boss, Pat Riley. In the video, Butler is seen hovering over his employee, and complimenting him then says “See, I gave you a compliment. That’s what bosses do, they build you up, they don’t break you down.” Now the poor employee looked like he just came to do his hours, collect his money, and head home. Poor lil tink tink didn’t know what was going on… but we do. As we told y’all last week, Butler is at odds with the Miami Heat organization because he openly expressed his desire to be traded. This running-of-the-mouth landed him a 7-game suspension. This all comes after comments made during last year’s playoffs that saw a bit of back and forth between Riley and Butler. I think we can all agree that it’s time to move on. We just hope they can close out this chapter so that both parties are happy…and innocent baristas can do their jobs in peace.

Your sports term of the week is: Wild Card

IRL Example: It’s like being top 10 in your class at school. Were you Valedictorian? No…Salutatorian? No, again…but, you were still amazing. AND you got one of those lovely little cords around your neck during graduation. YAY!…Now, get out there into the real world.

Angle Reese and Gabby Thomas are out here like easy, breezy, beautiful cover girls as they grace the covers of Vogue’s latest issue. The spread highlights what us Sport Superlative Girlies already know: that the sports world is full of fashion inspo! Please join us in admiring our favs on these Vogue covers: 

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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