Jennifer Coolidge, what are you doing here?!

Today we’re going international. We have not one but two stories from across the pond this week because if we’re going to be the premier sports/culture newsletter in the world, we have to meet people where they are.

Below you’ll find a breakdown of the Rugby World Cup 💪 that's underway, the WNBA finals 🏀, a record-breaking week for Simone Biles 🤸‍♀️, and an intro to the English Premier League ⚽️.

We’re trying out a new format with some quick hitter stories down the page so let us know if you like that style and we’ll keep pushing forward!

Also, keep sending out those referrals, the spot at the wedding is still up for grabs.

THIS PAST WEEK ⏮

“You don’t talk about the NBA, but you’ll talk about Rugby?”

Exactly. The World Cup of Rugby 💪 is underway with the quarterfinals and semifinals happening over the next week. What is Rugby you ask? Well, it’s theorized that the sport started in 1823 when an Englishman was playing soccer, until he picked up the ball and started running. Everyone on the field tried to tackle him and voila! A new sport was made.

Watching rugby can be intense, it looks and feels quite like American football — without any pads. It’s dudes moving at alarming speeds, bashing into each other as they make their way to the other end of the field. But similar to hockey, these large, scary fellas are quite soft at their core. Here’s a heart-melting assortment of postgame players and their kids; don’t you agree that something about the dichotomy of babies and ogres (endearing) is just downright cute?

In addition to happy families, the Rugby World Cup has provided some incredible fan clips. For context, the best rugby countries in the world are heavily imbibed🍺 — think England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales which leads to some wonderful postgame interviews like the one below.

Double Aces

We find ourselves in the midst of the WNBA 🏀 finals, where the New York Liberty and the Las Vegas Aces are vying for the championship title. The Aces come in as defending champions, having won it all last year, while the Liberty seek their inaugural title.

Things are looking grim for New York, however, as Las Vegas has dominated them for two straight games, taking a commanding 2-0 series lead. After being overpowered once again last night, the Liberty face steep odds to get back in the series.

Who to watch

The creation of "super teams" has become a fascinating storyline in the NBA 🏀as star players team up, forming formidable rosters geared for must-see TV. In 2023, we're seeing this compelling dynamic emerge in the WNBA for the first time with both the Aces and the Liberty stacking their talent.

In Vegas, the Aces boast an incredible 4 of the league's top 7 players, led by superstar A'ja Wilson. Wilson is scoring at an impressive clip this season, punctuated by her latest highlights below. Meanwhile, the Liberty have assembled their own concentration of elite players ready to challenge Vegas.

While this concentration of talent may create a competitive imbalance that disadvantages small markets, as a league we can appreciate the high caliber of play brought by these super team matchups. When juggernauts like the Aces and Liberty clash, we all win with the chance to witness history in the making at the highest level of women's basketball. Here’s a clip of A’ja showing out last night.

On the other side, the New York Liberty have Breanna Stewart, the league MVP and already one of the best WNBA players in history. Stewart joined the team earlier this year after bringing 2 championships to the Seattle Storm. Dropping her recent highlights below as well.

How is the league doing?

The WNBA is thriving due to stellar on-court play, expanded media reach, and new growth avenues. Historically the league has grappled to find its footing, but key metrics indicate it may have hit a sweet spot:

• Viewership of the regular season was up 21% in 2023 compared to the previous year

  • Game 1 of the finals this past week was the most watched Finals game ever with 729K tuning in

• The social media footprint has grown tremendously as the league has focused on digital media. Their highlight and video views were up 96% this year

• There’s a new team joining the league in San Francisco under the same ownership as the Warriors in the NBA.

• The players are performing at high levels

  • The Seattle Storm’s Jewell Loyd set a WNBA single-season record with 939 points.

  • The New York Liberty’s Breanna Stewart had a WNBA-record six games of at least 40 points.

  • The Phoenix Mercury’s Diana Taurasi became the first player in WNBA history to score 10,000 career points.

  • The Las Vegas Aces’ A’ja Wilson became the fastest player to reach 3,500 points, 1,500 rebounds, and 300 blocks.

  • New York’s Sabrina Ionescu set records for 3-pointers made in the regular season (128)

Between the on and off-court success of the league, we can’t wait to see where the next few years go. Tune in on Sunday at noon to see if the Aces can close up shop and win back-to-back titles.

Conversation Points

• The most insane physical feat you can imagine took place at the Chicago Marathon as 23-year-old Kevin Kiptum from Kenya broke the men’s world record. He completed 26.2 miles in 2 hours and 35 seconds. That’s an average of 4:36 minute miles and 13 mph for an entire marathon. We couldn’t run that fast for 20 seconds. 🏃‍♀️

• Adele ⭐️ lets slip that she’s married to Rich Paul. Adele and her sports super-agent beau maintain a very private relationship and her on-stage blurt was one of our first glimpses behind the scenes of their love.

• Last week we proclaimed the NFL 🏈 game of the week was the 49ers vs the Cowboys on Sunday Night Football. It did not disappoint, as the game drew the largest week 5 football viewership ever! The game itself was dominated by the 49ers who have now cemented themselves as the current best team in the NFL.

• The Olympics announced they are adding four new sports to the 2028 games in Los Angeles. Cricket 🏏, flag football 🏈, baseball ⚾️, and softball 🥎 will be added officially as the Olympics returns to America for the first time since 2002. We know it’s far away but you can sign up to receive presale notices for 2028 tickets here. 

• Drake ⭐️ released his new album “For All the Dogs”. Drake notoriously includes references to athletes in his songs and in the new album he alludes to Dillon Brooks and Muhammad Ali. He also just finished his recent tour where a bevy of superstars appeared on stage alongside him, including Lebron James, Kevin Durant, and Tom Brady 🐐

• The NHL 🏒 announced that the salary cap will go up next year from $83.5M to around $88M. The “salary cap” is how much money the team is allowed to spend on all the players’ contracts in a given year so essentially, each team is getting a 5.4% raise. Inflation am I right? In all seriousness, the low salary cap in the NHL is one of the main limitations to the growth of the game and this will be a huge step toward bringing the league up to par with other professional sports.

• Ariana Grande’s ⭐️ divorce with Dalton Gomez was finalized after two years of marriage. This news came out exactly 25 years after Ariana got hit by a flying puck at an NHL🏒 game as a toddler. Now that’s a sports x pop-culture crossover.

LEARNING MODULE 💡

The English Premier League

At SportsBall we’ve had some international requests to expand our coverage across the Atlantic Ocean to the beautiful game of soccer ⚽️ and the English Premier League (EPL). We’ll give a breakdown of how the league works, how it’s different than American sports, and some weird references to remember different teams.

How it works and how it’s different

There are 8 main levels of professional soccer leagues in England. The most prestigious is the English Premier League, with the least prestigious level being a group of tiny regional leagues around England. For reference, if the EPL was to soccer what Leonardo DiCaprio is to acting, these level 8 leagues would be your high school drama teacher.

What’s great about each of these leagues is that it’s all a meritocracy, and you aren’t stuck in your league. If you watched Ted Lasso you may have learned this (spoiler alert). At the end of every season, the best teams in each of these leagues get to move up one level (promotion) and the worst teams have to move one level down (relegation). This infographic should help make it easy to understand.

There is one big wrinkle with this structure that might make some Americans’ skin crawl… No playoffs. The EPL just plays their season’s worth of games and that’s that. No Cinderella stories, no underdog delights, none of it. It’s hard to fathom, but it makes it so teams have to outpace others the entire season and be better in the long run. Every game matters.

Let’s remember some teams

Want to get to know some of the famous teams in the league? Here are some curated comparisons to celebrities (loose sense of the term) for some of the top clubs:

Manchester United - Kendall Roy
Both Ken and Man U have all the money in the world but they just can’t figure out how to win down the stretch. Neither of these groups can get out of their own way!

Tottenham - Kaitlyn Bristowe
Tottenham and their fans are very full of themselves although having not won any championships in recent memory. It has people wondering “why are you even a big deal?” That’s how we feel about any famous ex-bachelor contestant, to be honest. Except you, Gerry! We hope you find love.

Newcastle - Hagrid
On the much less posh side, Newcastle represents a more working-class, loyal, resilient bunch. An honorable crew you can’t pass judgment on. Hence our friend Hagrid.

Arsenal - Jennifer Coolidge
Arsenal is a historically excellent team, hitting their stride as a club in the 90’s. In recent years they fell off a bit, only to see a resurgence in popularity and potential in the last year or two. Sound familiar? Hello, Jenn Coolidge in White Lotus.

ATHLETE OF THE WEEK 🏆

Simone Biles

10 years after winning her first world championship as a 16-year-old, Simone Biles 🤸‍♀️ triumphantly captured her 6th, standing atop the first all-black women's podium in the gymnastics all-around competition in Belgium. The accomplishment not only launched Simone into a league of her own as the most decorated gymnast ever, but it also represents a significant milestone in her journey back from a two-year break from the sport.

Many remember when Biles pulled out of the pandemic-delayed Tokyo Olympics back in 2021 due to a mental block of the Twisties. The affliction made waves across the country, spurring unfounded arguments of mental toughness and national pride while leaving her bearing the disproportionate brunt of fan judgment. In the center of the public eye, we’ve watched Simone gracefully bring herself back to the precipice of the sport with parts of her journey (both in and out of the gym) mapped below:

Between the athletic triumph of the Biles II and the profound vulnerability of sharing her mental health journey, Simone is blazing the trail for athletes of the future in more ways than one. Little does she know, she has another accomplishment to add to the list: SportsBall Athlete of the Week.

THIS NEXT WEEK ⏭

MLB Playoffs

We’ve already seen some more playoff dreams shattered in the MLB ⚾️ since the last time we talked as the Rangers swept the Orioles, the Astros beat the Twins, and the Arizona Diamondbacks swept the Los Angeles Dodgers.

That means 3 of the 4 semifinal teams are now solidified, and some underdogs to boot! The Texas Rangers will play the Houston Astros in the American League and the Arizona Diamondbacks will play either the Philadelphia Phillies or Atlanta Braves in the National League. The semifinals will begin this Sunday and go through all next week, try and catch a game if you can!

Rugby

As mentioned above, the Rugby World Cup is underway in France (please watch that fan video if you haven’t yet it’s hilarious). This weekend will hold the quarterfinals which is the final 8 teams and the matches listed in the picture below. The favorites to win the championship out of this group is tied between Ireland and France, with South Africa and New Zealand close behind them.

So if you’re bored Saturday or Sunday morning, find these games on Peacock and see if you like it! Maybe don’t eat while you’re watching though, you might lose your appetite.

College Football

There are two HUGE rivalry games in college football on Saturday. We have a nice little PNW matchup between Oregon and Washington who are both undefeated. There’s also USC vs. Notre Dame, an almost century-old rivalry with both teams highly ranked this year and a star quarterback playing for the Trojans. Below is when and how you can watch them.

• No. 7 Washington vs. No. 8 Oregon | 12:30 PM PST | ABC

• No. 10 USC at No. 21 Notre Dame | 4:30 PM PST | NBC/Peacock

NFL

There’s a lot of parity in the NFL this year so far, with only a couple of teams standing out as top dogs. That will make this week especially interesting as it will separate the contenders from pretenders. There are certainly some interesting matchups to keep your eye on here that we’ll list below:

Seahawks vs. Bengals - Sunday 10 AM PST
The Bengals were expected to be good but have been bad while the Seahawks were expected to be bad but have been good. We can maybe say that the winner of this game is semi-officially good.

Lions vs. Buccaneers - Sunday 1:25 PM PST
Both of these teams are in a similar spot this week as above-average teams heading into the weekend. The winner here will cement themselves as a top 5 team in their conference.

If you’ve gotten this far, thanks for reading, and don’t forget to use that referral link! We already had someone wind some stickers which we now have to order smh. Have a great weekend!

— Riley and Claire