…“Off Campus” rejoice! Season 2 plans have been revealed and, speaking as someone who binged Season 1 in like three days, I’d say things are moving in the right direction. For the readers in the chat, they plan to skip book two and go straight to book three. I don’t know how to read so that means nothing to me but you know.
Speaking of hockey romance (Why does it feel like this is the only thing I talk about anymore? Does anyone want to hang out in real life?), the unaffiliated-with-Heated-Rivalry “Heated Rivalry: The Unauthorized Musical Parody” reviews are in. And they’re great.
Speaking of heated things (sorry, at least I’m moving off hockey romcoms), it’s too damn hot at the French Open. The players (and fans) are dropping like flies. Online armies are calling for someone to address “the heat issue” which, feels like a bigger problem than Roland-Garros can solve, but maybe if we all keep recycling…
Speaking of other heated things (sorry again, but I’m on a, um, heater), San Antonio vs. OKC is starting to manifest Texas-Oklahoma football rivalry vibes. However, Shai vs. Everyone on the Internet is a rivalry that I (and Molly Morrison) simply will not stand for any longer.
Speaking of…things, here’s one last thing. We launched OffBall FC, a soccer storytelling platform written by my colleague Daniel-Yaw Miller and pro NWSL-er Madison Hammond. Give us a follow here. Give us a subscribe here. Plus, we’ve got a special Champions League final takeover happening here.
Forward this to a Mina Kimes stan. Or someone who needs a geography lesson.
I’ve been lightly stalking Mina Kimes for a few weeks. That’s not totally true, but it’s not totally not true either. And it’s good for clicks. The real version is I have been hitting her up once a week or so, asking if she’d pretty pretty please chat with me, because she’s one of my personal GOATs, and I fully believe that few people have the insight and perspective to lend, say, a sports culture newsletter that she does. Anyways, Mina found time in her busy schedule to chat with me about many things very near and dear to her heart, including hosting the Scripps National Spelling Bee, her love of geography, and the Mariners’ eternal World Series quest. But first… “Celebrity Jeopardy.”
Ashtyn Butuso: How long was it a dream of yours to win Jeopardy?
Mina Kimes: I could argue I built my entire career purely so that I could somehow backdoor my way into “Celebrity Jeopardy.” I hate telling people, by the way, that I was on “Celebrity Jeopardy” because their first reaction is, "You're not a celebrity." The reason I was on this season, which was All-Stars, was because I was on the prior season, and I had won [but] I really kicked myself about how that one went over for a while. So this was a little bit of a redemption tour for me.
AB: How was it facing a friend in Katie Nolan?
MK: I do love that it is a little bit of a document of our friendship because they got to show a few moments of us talking. It was just fun to be on TV with my friend again because we hadn't been on TV together in so long.
AB: It feels there are some parallels between the spelling bee and Jeopardy.
MK: I think there's a lot of connective fiber. Obviously, they're both competitions that involve knowledge and academics, right? But also, there's a lot you can prepare for in both, that I think is surprising to folks. When people watch Jeopardy, they think you either know it or you don't. And certainly that's part of it, but there's so much that goes into strategy and wagering and buzzing and there's ways you can prepare for it that are sort of deceptive or maybe not well-known.
And I think the same thing applies to the spelling bee. Obviously, being good at memorizing stuff is important, but we all have spellcheck. We all have access to the internet. But as I've spent more time watching it and learning a little bit about how these kids prepare and get there, I've learned that it's far more about critical thinking and problem solving. The kids now don't just know the words, they know how they're built. They know what a lot of them mean. There's vocab rounds. I think when you watch, [you see] it's a game within the game, then you start recognizing patterns and how they're using deductive reasoning. It's similar to football for me.
MK: I grew up competing in geography bees. I grew up all over the country. My dad was in the military and geography was really important in my family, knowing the capital of every country in the world, things like that. I play this game every day called Quintumble which is a 5x5 grid game of letters and I have a couple friends who, that's all we do! Every day we just text each other our Quintumble score.
The best kind of friendship is one where you just send each other a single game. I think these games really are more social than any social network right now, right? I have actual friendships with people who I just play games with.
AB: Obviously you've achieved every professional goal, because of your formidable sports TV stardom. But what are other goals?
MK: That's really sweet of you to say. I'll say one that's directly a goal. I want to bring back the geography bee, which stopped in, I think, 2020. National Geographic stopped putting it on…As somebody who's really passionate about geography and who grew up doing geography bees…
AB: …I didn’t even know about this!
MK: … Alex Trebek used to host it, by the way! Similar to spelling, learning about geography is more important than ever. I would love to do that. In terms of my actual job, I would love to play a role in helping more women talk about the game either on podcasts or on television. I've been doing this now for close to a decade and there's still not that many of us. Especially because there's so many female football fans, period, and that's a number that continues to grow every year.
AB: Pivoting without any good segue, I like to ask everyone what their biggest fear is. What’s yours?
MK: The Mariners never making it to a World Series in my lifetime. It's not looking great right now…and I have a two-and-a-half-year-old son and I live not super far from Dodger Stadium and I sometimes look at him and I'm like, did I just curse you with a lifetime of baseball misery?
AB: That's if he's a Mariner fan. What if he betrays you and changes his mind?
MK: He probably will, because I've learned in my limited time as a parent, trying to get your kids to do anything is a fool's errand. And so I'll say that and then I'll also say global warming [laughs].
AB: Ok… on a more positive note. You are someone whose taste I admire. Tell me what you are reading so I know what to read next.
MK: I just read “Kin” by Tayari Jones, which is a very popular piece of fiction about two female friends in the American South. It's very, very beautifully written. I devoured it. Next on my list is “American Hagwon,” by my friend Min Jin Lee who wrote the book “Pachinko.” It’s super long but you'll just tear through it. Oh, I'm actually also reading, for obvious reasons, “Bee Season” by Myla Goldberg, which is about a girl who competes in a spelling bee.
AB: What is so special about the spelling bee, for those who aren’t familiar?
MK: As I've done the prep, not only am I excited to dive into the how — and I really want to do the spelling bee like we talk about football on NFL Live — but I've also been reading the dossier of these kids as I try to learn more about them and their names, and you just fall in love with every single one of them. They're also 12 and it really shows up. It'll be this kid who knows the first thousand digits of pi and last year he was bitten by a pig. The fun facts are just so great.
AB: So it’s kind of giving Little League World Series in that way.
MK: Yes! Exactly.
You should really try to make it to Cannes Lions, if you Cannes.
Why, you ask? What a great question. Cannes Lions is a five-day extravaganza where you can connect with some of the biggest marketers and executives and brands in the world. And, for two of those days, their programming will revolve around sports. Let’s call it, LIONS Sport.
Got any other questions? Save them for my favorite track girlie and World Champion, Tara Davis-Woodhall, who’ll be speaking on a panel with Kayla Green, Founder and CMO of ATHLOS, about how to capture next gen fans.
Speaking of capturing next gen fans, part of that mission will require keeping girls in sports, something we all need to lock in on. “Mamas, don’t let your babies grow up to quit sports!” -F1 pioneer and legend Susie Wolff, probably. Wolff will be leading a workshop on how to be actionable about change and progress when it comes to encouraging girls to stick to (playing) sports.
And if you are someone that historically can’t handle the pressure, you’ll want to sit in on F1 racer George Russell teaching you the positive impact pressure can have on you, and how you can leverage it to sharpen your instincts and navigate that tissue-thin edge between good and great..
I don’t know about you, but I've been to Cannes before, and I'll do it again this year (threatening)!
Read on here, then book your flight.
Timepiece collectors and soccer fans alike: treat yourself.
Knicks fans, treat yourselves. RIGHT NOW, I am so serious!!!!!!
Have a bbq, but please, whatever you do,make sure you don’t poison your teammates.
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