🔥 Good Good Gone

🎓 NFL and NBA players are going back to school. This whole saga is the NIL era in a nutshell. Cleveland Browns tight end Dae’Quan Wright is trying to go back and play for LSU after getting waived, while the Celtics RJ Luis Jr. is also heading back to the NCAA to play for — you guessed it — the LSU Tigers. I guess this is the school's new niche. 

• The Big Ten passed a rule this week barring former pros from returning to the conference, but the SEC seems willing to let it rip. As Browns coach Todd Monken put it: "Man, ain't this shit crazy?"
  

• Who knows, maybe we’ll get 41-year-old Joe Flacco suiting up for Michigan in 2027. There’s been worse ideas. 

⛳️ Good Good golf just nuked its entire business with a single ad. The golf apparel and media brand released a commercial for its new collaboration with Callaway, which showed one of the company’s founders shoving a girl to the ground for touching his new driver. I’m not sure who the genius was who thought to themselves,  “nothing sells golf clubs like domestic violence,” but it’s hard to believe either company let this ad run. 

• The boycotting of Good Good’s products has been swift. Almost every major golf retailer has confirmed they will no longer carry the brand's apparel. The PGA Tour is almost certainly going to pull the plug on Good Good’s sponsorship of an upcoming tournament.
  

• It’s a good thing the founder put out a really genuine apology. Crisis PR 101 right here (blame the marketing team).

🏈 Deshaun Watson somehow won the QB1 job in Cleveland. It wasn’t exactly the hardest job to win, but this is still shocking. In pre-season, Watson went 5-of-12 for 36 yards with an interception against the Buffalo Bills backups. At his post-game press conference, he then criticized the fans for booing him during the game, saying it was clearly personal and not "performance related.” 

• Apparently that was a strong enough push to win him the Browns QB job. Tough break, Shedeur.
  

• One name to keep an eye out — once Deshaun inevitably plays himself out of the starting job — is JJ McCarthy. The Vikings QB has apparently been splitting second-team reps with Carson Wentz and is a lock to be moved (if not cut). 

🎾 Roger Federer came out of retirement for one night at the U.S. Open. At 45, Fed still looks like he could win tournaments. Even if you’re not a tennis fan, watching Roger Federer hit a one-handed backhand down the line is one of the prettiest sights in sports. Would love for him to pull a Tom Brady and make an ill-advised comeback against his family’s wishes.

👖 Speaking of Tom Brady, he did a GQ cover story talking about his newfound love for leather pants. Whenever you think Tom has reached his peak level of divorced dad, he goes out and talks about how he became “a leather pants guy at 49." 

• Tom told GQ his full leather suit felt like a uniform. Would love to see him implement full-leather unis for the Raiders. The lineman would look phenomenal. 

🎰 Diamondbacks star Ketel Marte was caught in a casino while his team had a game. This has been an odd couple of weeks for Marte and the Dbacks. It all started when he randomly no-showed for a game in Boston last week, which his manager had no explanation for. Marte similarly disappeared and missed games after the All-Star break last year with no reason. 

• Marte’s agent released a vague statement this week saying that he’s dealing with both a personal matter and an injury. Fast forward to this week, he’s caught ripping blackjack hands while rehabbing his “injury.” 

• I can’t imagine his teammates are gonna take it well that he'd rather be at the casino than in the dugout watching his team (or better yet, playing) during a playoff hunt. Weird stuff.

📉 LIV Golf is laying off almost all of its staff. This is what successful leagues always do, guys. Don’t worry. LIV 2.0 is going to be huge. 

⚾️ We got two all-time home run robberies this week. It feels like we’re getting one of these daily, but it doesn’t make the plays any less impressive. The Nationals’ Jacob Young scaling the centre field wall against the Marlins was absurd, but we gotta show some love to some Minor League players. This is one of the most athletic plays you’ll ever see on a baseball field. 

Alright, that’s enough for one Friday.

If you enjoyed the newsletter, do us a solid and forward it to a friend.