We’re Fernando Mendoza Pilled

…-How everyone in the OffBall Slack reacted to the news that Steph Curry and Under Armour were going their separate ways after 13 years. Sources say Nike and Adidas are sending edible arrangements to Oakland as we speak. 

If you’re familiar with sh*tposting, you’re familiar with how Lane Kiffin got where he is. It wasn’t long ago he was stranded on a tarmac. Now, he’s breaking the mold of what a college coach should be. 

Women's college hoops is better than ever, and Olivia Miles is a big reason why. Here’s what’s on her mind after her earth-shattering transfer to TCU (there’s no tea, she says). 

New Balance is quietly building the most endearing, sweetie-pilled roster in sports, says my pesky kid brother newsletter, SportsVerse. From Tyrese Maxey to Coco, to Cam, to the new generation like Quincy Wilson, they’re stacked with fresh faces. 

Back in my day, we used to go to the mall. Now, we do our shopping and food-courting at the game. From Phoenix to Atlanta, stadiums are making sure they’re more than game venues. They’re fueling economic development.

Felicia Pennant has made a name for herself globally. Look up the intersection of sport and style on Google Maps, and there she is, excitedly waving. The founder of “Season Zine”, which is a cross between a football fanzine and a fashion magazine, is telling stories the old-fashioned way: in print. And she’s doing it with some of the most high-profile athletes in soccer (sorry, football). We spoke just before she shipped out the newest issue, which features a cover story on one of the greatest players in the world, Naomi Girma.

Ashtyn Butuso: What led you to start Season? 

Felicia Pennant: Around 2015, when you typed in “female football fans,” “female soccer,” into Google, what used to come up was just like “the sexiest fans” and rating women on their attractiveness. And those women didn't have a name or a voice, and there was very few women of color, and I just felt like that didn’t represent me.

A myth about Season is that it's a women's football publication. It's not. It's anyone who's interested in football and fashion. Women are prioritized because they weren't really prioritized anywhere else when I started. Our mission counters the fact that modern football culture is male, pale, and sometimes stale. 

AB: Your magazine inspired me to start my own for basketball, so I understand the need for print media, but I’d love you to explain it to OffBall readers. 

FP: On a top-line level, so that there's variety. So that there's diversity of format and expression. But in this digital age, print is extra special; collectible quality is magnified. It's analog, it's offline — you don't need a screen to access it. It’s craftsmanship. It lives on forever. The [new] issues have arrived, and my whole flat smells like fresh printing, and it's just a really unique and original experience. 

AB: I know which stories I'm most excited about in the new issue, but which two to three stories are your favorite? 

FP: Ashtyn, I feel like you're asking me to pick my favorite child. Because this has been such a labor of love…The theme of the issue is “Truth or Dare.”

I think more than anything, we're more informed about what's going on in the world, in football and culture, and how we engage with it more than ever. And in terms of what I'm proudest of, [it’s] the cover story. So lovely to meet Naomi Girma. I always want to meet the person behind the myth or the hype. We shot her at a gallery in East London and in a beautiful Ethiopian restaurant to kind of tap into her heritage, which was really lovely. 

AB: How do you find that women's football fans differ from men's football fans, if at all? 

FP: So I don't think that there's a difference. It's just your personality and how you choose to engage with the game. I think inherently human behavior is the same. So this toxic energy that maybe feels newer in women's football, I mean, exists in society, in music culture, on the internet. 

AB: A large part of your audience is here, but you're based in the UK. How do you cater to global audiences? 

FP: I take great pride and pleasure in bursting the England superiority bubble. So bursting that, for me feels important to kind of highlight football cultures around the world. We've looked at Paris in this issue. We looked at Asia. We looked at Palestine and how football has become a space of comfort and safety.

AB: Was Hector Bellerin as cool as I imagine? 

FP: Yes, he's very cool, but very, very thoughtful. He's just like a lovely, charismatic person. When you get over the fact that it’s Hector Bellerin, famous footballer, incredibly stylish, objectively good-looking man. When you hear him speak, he speaks with purpose. Style and substance. So that includes football, but also the arts, fashion, creativity, and creating for himself. He has style and substance. One of the reasons we really wanted to interview him he’s DM’d his support and bought Season in the past, and I used to see him around at Fashion Week in London. He speaks about sustainability. 

You know, when there is sexism or racism or things like that, where he can, he does speak out and he does get a backlash about it, but someone who has integrity and is passionate with conviction. It is incredibly powerful. Yeah, just a brilliant person. 

AB: Do you have a favorite interview or piece that you've written? 

FP: Obviously, Hector, but I'd also say Martine Rose, purely because she's my favorite designer.

For her first Nike collab, I wrote all the interviews, so that was just a special moment in my career. All the burning questions I had, like, do you consider your clothes, men's wear or women's wear? What is the connection between football and fashion? And, you know, I'm obsessed with her Shox. I've just got the new ones.

Another element of why I relate to her is she's half Jamaican, so to be a woman of color, being able to build her own company and have a sense of longevity like her and Wales Bonner are both really inspiring.

Clear your Saturday morning/afternoon schedule, because you’ve gotta watch Fernando Mendzoa. There’s so much hype around Indiana’s fearless leader, and it’s perfectly warranted. Their comeback win against Penn State, which featured the greatest TD catch of…the year (?), history (?) (I don’t know, I don’t have voting powers), set Gus Johnson’s vocal chords on fire. Maybe literally. 

Fernando is getting ABB fan edits on social. They’re dropping He15man and HeisMendoza merch for him. He15Mendoza is a little too clunky for me. I’d split the difference. Or maybe we go Dwyane Wade style and hit them with the He/Him15Mendoza. 

Anyway you shake it, CFB’s darling has a bright future, even if he doesn’t win the Heisman Trophy (I think he will). 

If you’re interested in falling in love with a new NBA player, I highly suggest watching this short Noah Clowney doc by the Nets production crew. 

You’re never too old to play tennis. Start now. 

Go thrift shopping for new (old) athleisure.