Christen Press Says Keep Your Name, Kinda

Plus, Messi Is Everywhere

April 02, 2025

…And Kiki Rice proved it. Every day for the past year, she wrote “we will be in the final 4” in her journal, and what do you know? It came true. Kiki, if you are reading this, please manifest whirled peas. 

Colorado and Syracuse are pitching joint practices and spring games to the NCAA. An off-handed idea Deion Sanders mentioned a few weeks back that may just become a reality. 

What does it look like when a student-athlete has a brand deal but has to rep the brand’s competitor because of the school’s deals? It looks like Cooper Flagg, and Nike is making sure to remind us all of that. 

You get a Christmas game! You get a Christmas game! Amazon announced Prime will get rights to the third NFL game on Christmas day, along with the two already slated to run on Netflix. 

Steve Kornacki is pivoting to sports. The analyst is exiting MSNBC for NBC Sports, where he’ll become chief data analyst in both the news and sports divisions. We’re told he’ll also switch from his trademark khakis to something more moisture-wicking, like compression or mesh shorts. 

Dear reader, your mission—should you accept—is to forward this newsletter to your favorite person in the world. They deserve nice things.

Soccer’s favorite lesbian couple, Christen Press and Tobin Heath, addressed a burning topic on the latest episode of their podcast: whether or not female athletes should change their names when they’re married.

Christen starts by saying no person should have opinions on what a woman does with her last name…however, she adds, she believes these players should keep their names since they gained notoriety with them. She may have a point when you consider the brand building that came along with the names. The merch sales, the online discussions, SEO rankings, the social media handles, the effect a name might have on commercial successes and deals. 

Tobin says if two athletes are married, it should come down to stats; the better overall athlete gets to keep the last name. Seems fair to us.

This topic of discussion first came to be when ArtButMakeItSports did a post for Sophia Smith— oops—Wilson, and fans had stuff to say about it. 

But Wilson fired back with the always-cutting “get a hobby” suggestion. 

And Wilson isn’t the only one changing her name (and catching some flack for it). Mal Pugh became Mal Swanson, Emily Madril became Emily Sams.  Lindsay Heaps (née Horan) says she changed hers to honor her husband. A story she told on Sam Mewis’ pod.

For Lynn Biyendolo (née Williams), the choice wasn’t immediately clear. She wanted to keep Williams for her father, but during their father-daughter dance, her dad gave his blessing on a name change. The reason for taking her husband’s surname was that in his Congolese naming culture, Biyendolo is a name specific to their family members only. 

@womensgamemib

"And I'm Lynn Biyendolo." 🥹 @Lynn Raenie Williams tells Sam & Becky the story behind the decision to change her last name 🫶 Good Vibes is ... See more

The transition seems a little tougher for the “old heads” to grasp. Even though she was at most of their weddings, Kelley O’Hara has a hard time keeping it all straight—she says that since she’s gay, she might consider hyphenating, but the apostrophe couple with a hyphen seems too aggressive. 

So, even though we’ve all decided no one should have an opinion on what someone does with their name, everyone’s giving theirs. What do you think? Tag us on social and let us know @offball ! 

Leo Messi is a busy guy. No surprise there—he’s one of the most celebrated, decorated, sought-after soccer players of all time. Lately, he’s been hanging out with the coolest people in the industry, too. 

The Miami Open was a star-studded event, and since he lives and plays in Miami, you already know Messi was there. Andy Murray got a pic with the GOAT and made it clear his Spanish needs work.

Leo also hit up an Adidas event and shared the stage with NFL (almost) GOAT Patrick Mahomes and, oh yeah, the FIFA World Cup Trophy. This had everyone buzzin’ because it may or may not have been a commitment to play in the 2026 World Cup (it wasn’t…but what if it was…). 

It seems like every celebrity under the Miami sun was at Cipriani Miami for David Beckham’s b-day bash earlier this week—Victoria, Tom Brady, Shaq, Justin Theroux, Luis Suarez, and about 100 others—so obviously Leo wasn’t missing that one either. 

And tonight (sorry to our east coasters) at 11:30 pm ET, in one of the most anticipated matches of his MLS career, he’ll face LAFC in the CONCACAF Champions Cup quarterfinals. LAFC is obviously another star-studded football club—for example, here’s Will Ferrell to get you hyped about the match. 

By the way, one person who will not be there is Messi’s official bodyguard turned social media star, who was banned from the field at the league’s insistence. Something Messi and his team can’t be happy about, considering there have been more security breaches and field rushers in America than ever happened when Messi played in Europe. 

Best of luck to both teams (and security teams). May the best team win, and may Messi be somewhere cool again tomorrow.

Allegedly, Flau’Jae Johnson has the same 24 hours as the rest of us. Mariah Rose doesn’t believe it, and neither do we, tbh. 

@mariahcrose

She can do it alllll #flaujae #lsuwbb #wnbadraft #storytime

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