The Scriptwriters Are Cooking

…Jordan Chiles and A’ja Wilson are two of Time’s Women Of The Year. These two athletes both helped break viewership records in their respective sports this year, they both won gold medals in Paris, and oh yeah, they both absolutely ate their Time covers up. 

Now here’s a show that’ll make you say “Wooooowwwww.” Owen Wilson is starring in an Apple TV+ golf comedy alongside real golfers like Max Homa and Keegan Bradley. 

Zara is trying to get in on the running boom. The fast fashion brand has been quietly releasing a line of high-tech running sneakers called Zara Athleticz, and it’s giving some people pause. Zara insists the carbon-plated shoes are quality enough to run marathons in. We won’t be running 26 miles anytime soon, but let us know if they worked for you. 

Devin Booker and Kendall Jenner skied back into each other’s hearts. They spent Valentine’s Day in Aspen and were seen together again in NYC this weekend. A couple of courtside spottings, and we should see some Kendall-themed prop bets popping up soon enough. 

It’s too cold outside, stay in and watch a sports doc. Like this one—produced by Togethxr—which follows the most prominent women in U.S. snowboarding and will make you go “ok, but really, how do they do that?” over and over again. The first part drops on 2/26.

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"and the bills' three sons" #haileesteinfeld #nfl #buffalobills @Hailee Steinfeld

It seems there are two kinds of people in the world. There are: 1. die-hard hockey fans, who seem to devote every waking moment to trying to convince the 2. non-hockey fans to experience the magic that is their favorite sport. Hockey is already one of the biggest sports in the world, but with the reintroduction of the 4 Nations Face Off, it’s been on another level. 

Unhappy sports fans have long believed in scriptwriters having a say in the way the season plays out. The league is an easy place to lay blame when your team loses. It’s rigged, they love to say. 

But in the case of hockey this year, the locker room might look more like a writer’s room. Before the first USA vs. Canada matchup on Saturday, the two teams knew fans wanted intensity. This rivalry runs deep, with Canada being the long-time dominator. You’ve probably heard by now, in the first 9 seconds of that game, we saw not one, not two, not three– oh wait no, yeah, three fights. Three! And fans couldn’t get enough of it. 

While the plot points were planned à la WWE or Real Housewives, the outcomes were unknown. The NHL was able to maintain authenticity while manufacturing the excitement that kept fans going. 

And the NHL is using other strategies to appeal to fans. While the NFL has leveraged Kristin Juszczyk’s design eye to tap into its [female] fanbase, the NHL has found their equivalent in Lauren Kyle McDavid (who makes a gorgeous jacket, we must say). And they’re using legends from other sports to appeal to new fans. 

All that hype paid off. Even if you didn’t watch the rematch last night, it was all over our timelines. It might not have featured scripted fights, but the storyline was still impeccable. Canada sought revenge, and Sidney Crosby passed the baton to the newly anointed best player in the world, Connor McDavid, as he won it for his country in OT.

Maybe it’s time the non-hockey fans hopped on the bandwagon because the game is growing.

Dear reader, if you work at The Academy, please help us submit a pitch for a new category because Anthony Davis deserves an award for these hijinks.

*Shaq voice* We owe AD an apology because we weren’t familiar with his prank game. Although, maybe we should have been because he has a history of April Fool’s pranks.

The clips they’ve released so far remind us of a simpler time, a time when Justin Timberlake’s home was being fake repossessed and a shaggy guy in a trucker hat jumped out from a trailer screaming, “you just got Punk’d!” Only this is even better, because how often do we get to see athletes in this light? So far, we know Cameron Brink and Terance Mann, DLO and Jarred Vanderbilt, and Mookie Betts are guests on the show, and we imagine that’s just the beginning. 

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LaMelo Ball posted a heartfelt photo of him and his father after news broke that LaVar underwent foot amputation surgery due to a medical issue.