…CBS Sports announced the launch of “hoopHer,” a social media vertical dedicated to women’s basketball coverage. Follow them here. 

Lisa Leslie was already immortalized in WNBA/Sparks history forever, so they figured she might as well have a statue outside Crypto.com Arena alongside all the other legends in sports’ version of the Uffizi. I’m sure modeling for the statue was a breeze considering Leslie modeled at NYFW a few days prior. Is this the best sports statue in years?! 

Everyone is reading books now. Even sports fans. As long as the aforementioned books are romance novels, that is. There’s a huge boom in F1 romance novels in particular. Boy, I can’t wait until I finally learn how to read.

The Atlanta Dream’s Rhyne Howard gave us a lesson in manifestation. All you have to do to get exactly what you want in this life is to never shut up about it (positive). Like how she finally met Queen Latifah Monday night after never shutting up about it.  

We’re running out of new sentences, because the Starbucks guy wants to fund Ryan Clark’s comeback (his words), not mine. So he’s investing in Ryan Clark’s production company, Pivot25. I’m not sure what other shows they’ll be producing but it’s safe to assume at some point they’ll do a Roast (ha ha…)

“Performative male” is a pejorative taunt levied at men who appear to be leveraging their clothing and hobbies a certain way. To pander to a certain type. 

Search the term on TikTok and you’ll come up with hundreds, nay, thousands of results depicting mustachioed men lugging feminist literature and matcha around town in a tote bag. There have been contests dedicated to finding the most performative male. Because what kind of man reads books, drinks tea, and paints their nails? 

There isn’t a lot of crossover when it comes to performative males and sports. But more and more “performative male” is becoming a pejorative taunt levied at Bears QB Caleb Williams. 

I already wanted to write in defense of Caleb before he became the talk of the town because of his injury last weekend, but thanks to all of his haters (and boy, are there lots of them), I ended up with even more of a foundation for my argument. 

Since college, big tough sports guys have projected sexual orientations onto Caleb because he painted his nails and carried a nice bag. 

And some have backed off, sure, but not a lot has changed. After Caleb went down with his hamstring injury this weekend, internet users like “The Girthquake” took to the internet to ridicule him for crying, claiming it was dramatic. It wasn’t just people like that. Even prominent media voices like Emmanuel Acho had much to say. 

Now, I am not here to lecture you, but I do welcome you to think about things a little bit differently. My thoughts here are this:

If you think Caleb is performative for loving matcha because it’s a (?) feminine (?) drink, you haven’t read about the health benefits of it, and you don’t understand how it’s helped keep people focused (without the jitters) for over 900 years. 

If you don’t understand Caleb’s use of wired headphones, you don’t understand being Type B and constantly losing your airpods — and that’s ok. You also probably don’t understand not wanting to carry big honking Beats by Dre everywhere you go. Ask yourself: are Stephen Curry or Marcus Smart performative? You can pry my wired headphones from my cold dead hands. 

Having your nails done is no longer a feminine errand. A$AP Rocky (married to RIHANNA), Anderson Paak, Bad Bunny, Jalen Green, Jared McCain, Russell Westbrook, all have been known to rock a manicure. And maybe you don’t see that hygiene and whimsy are important parts of life, but I promise you they are, and your life will improve when you embrace both. 

And, most importantly, if you think it’s embarrassing that an athlete could be overcome with emotion, you don’t know ball. You don’t understand sports. Sports is as much emotion and pageantry and passion as it is Xs and Os. 

Anyone wanna go get a matcha? 

In the face of generative AI overtaking everything, Richard Pathomsiri, director of video production for the University of Idaho Athletics, had a brilliant idea: hire a human to paint humans. Richard wanted Emma Cuddy, a local artist and student, to paint gameday and game week posters for every Idaho Vandals football game this season. After watching the 1990 movie  Dreams by Akira Kurosawa, where a character is surrounded by Vincent van Gogh paintings and Martin Scorsese simultaneously, it all clicked.

“At that moment, I understood the importance of the different mediums of art and knew that I wanted Emma to paint for something that you would not typically associate with her art.”

“Hang it in the Louvre” is a popular meme for images in sports. But Emma’s gameday posters, characterized by Richard as “realistic players next to absurd situations,” are literally Louvre worthy. We spoke with Emma about her artistic process and inspirations below.

OffBall: Start by telling us how you got into art and about your relationship with Idaho.

Emma Cuddy: I have always been drawn to creative work, whether it was drawing, sculpting painting, or collaging, I have always created. I started oil painting in high school, and it quickly became my favorite medium by far. 

Honestly, before I started doing these paintings for the Vandal football team, I didn’t have much of a connection with the athletic department or football team at all. The only games I had really been to were with my dad, who is a University of Idaho alumni and huge Vandal fan. Being able to work with Richard and the Athletic department has changed my view on Idaho football drastically. Seeing all the work that goes on behind the scenes and all the great people involved in making each game happen has really made me respect and admire our school and team so much more. 

OB: How has this has impacted you and your work so far this season?

EC: When I started this job, I saw the paintings as these sort of fantastical, and a bit ridiculous, works that would be a bit of a challenge for me. The first one I made was really difficult. It was my first time ever painting a football uniform, a helmet, and all of the Vandal embellishments. But I found that with each painting, I got more excited and more efficient. I quickly became more confident and creative with each painting, and I hope the future paintings continue to get better. 

OB: Whose work do you look up to—whether it be other artists, teams, or designers? Where do you draw inspiration from?

EC: My favorite painter and biggest inspiration is the figurative painter, John Singer Sargent. Whenever I feel lost or need inspiration I look at his paintings. They are so beautifully done they are almost discouraging, but they provide so much information and insight into how I would like to paint. 

OB: What’s your favorite design so far? Anything coming up that you can tease?

EC: So far, the Abilene painting. I felt that this painting had the best rendering of the football player and it was a fun concept. I am really looking forward to the Homecoming painting that I am working on. It is definitely the most detailed, and most dynamic painting that I have planned.