The Athletic

The process Olympic gold medalist Olivia Smoliga used to pull herself out of a slump:

There are a lot of things I love about my weekly sports business newsletter for The Athletic - right up there is the chance to synthesize everything we're covering (and it's a lot) and distill everything from in-the-room reporting with NFL commish Roger Goodell and YouTube CEO Neal Mohan to a deep dive on Ryan Smith's leadership style to sharing that the average MLB baseball has a "life" of 2.5 pitches. I'm speeding towards my one-year anniversary at TA, and I'm still blown away *daily* by my colleagues' talent. Name-checked in this week's edition (beyond Mohan and Smith): Arch Manning, Michael Grady, Swin Cash, Ira Gorawara, Omaha Productions, Burke Magnus, Mercury13, Apollo Global Management, Inc., Denver Summit FC, Boston Legacy FC and a ton more. Still thinking about sports-business leaders I want to sit down with to interview in the coming months. Holler if you have any in mind. https://lnkd.in/e4aqxn42

Former Seattle Seahawks Pro Bowl running back Marshawn Lynch is now a credentialed photographer. He was spotted on the sidelines at this week's game between the Los Angeles Chargers and the Las Vegas Raiders at Allegiant Stadium.

Ben DiNucci has been cut seven times in the National Football League (NFL). Here’s what he told The Athletic that he has learned: “For any leader, I’d say: Be yourself. Be honest. Be truthful. It will go a long way in maintaining relationships and connections. For anybody dealing with rejection, I’d say that I’ve learned more about myself and mental toughness. As I’ve grown and progressed, I feel like I’ve developed more toughness. It callouses you in a way, like a blister. All of these hardships and rejections have developed almost a mental callous. If I get cut from an NFL team or fired from my job, there’s a reason. There was something that I wasn’t doing, so you have to look in the mirror, make adjustments and move on. And even when you’re told no, no, no, no, you still have to keep getting up, because at some point, somebody is going to tell you yes again. It may not be the next day, the next month or even the next year, but you can always work and push for something.”

It was such a pleasure to work with The Athletic's brilliant NFL staff on an ambitious preseason project: 32 NFL team-themed Connections: Sports Edition puzzles. As the game nears its first anniversary, it's the first time we've branched out to publish more than one puzzle in a day, and I'm excited for us to continue finding different ways for readers to interact with our work. We've even attached a contest I'm so pumped about: One person who submits their score will be picked to collab on a future Connections game built around their fandom! A great way to start the season. https://lnkd.in/e-AYmcHP https://lnkd.in/eSmYH2iJ

Keegan Bradley, the first-time captain of the U.S. Ryder Cup team, faced an unusual dilemma last week: Should he pick himself for one of the final roster spots? Dr. Jennifer Lerner, a professor of public policy, decision science and management at Harvard University, told us about a process she suggests anyone use when making big decisions like that one. 

Michael Phelps and Jay Glazer created a community of athletes and celebrities who lean on each other in different ways. Phelps calls the network his “mental health buddies.” Glazer has another term: “battle buddies.” “These are some of the baddest dudes on the planet,” Glazer told The Athletic. And yet they have cried and vented and let each other in during their hardest and darkest moments. Though no one in the group is a mental health professional or has had training in the field, their personal experiences have allowed them to build a community. It’s tapped into a transformative idea: People often underestimate just how much they will enjoy deep conversations with other people. “Not because they fail to appreciate that having a meaningful conversation is something that they will enjoy personally,” said Nicholas Epley, a professor of behavioral science at the University of Chicago. “But because they underestimate how positively other people will respond to it. We underestimate how much power we actually have to make ourselves and other people feel better — notably better — by connecting with them.”

The most decorated American woman in Olympic history tells us she developed a strong sense of self through the unique way she views goals.

Savannah Bananas and/alongside/vs MLB? The Bananas are one of the great sports-business success stories (and case studies) of the 21st century. Highly recommend this deep dive from my colleague Evan Drellich on the complicated dynamic between the Bananas and MLB. Bananas owner Jesse Cole compared the brand to MLB by citing the trajectory of UFC w/r/t boxing — I think he meant it as a compliment to MLB, but given boxing’s decades of decline, that… doesn’t feel like a comp MLB will embrace? Really interesting quote from Cole: "I have Little Leagues reaching out every day that they say they want to do Banana Ball League. They don't want to play regular baseball, their kids want to play Banana Ball." Here’s where I net out: I buy MLB’s position that it doesn’t view Bananaball as a competitive threat, and I buy the Bananas’ position that they aren’t trying to compete with MLB. There is clearly room for both, in a way we have not seen in, say, pro football or men's pro basketball. (Women's pro basketball, with the WNBA and Unrivaled Basketball, is a different story.) It is, however, a fascinating case of incumbent vs. insurgent at a moment when attention is everything, and the Bananas have found a winning strategy. https://lnkd.in/e25z7PMn

Olympic medalist Ilona Maher isn’t afraid to be herself. In an interview with The Athletic, she opened up about what empowers her to embrace authenticity: “My mom said this once to me: 'Well, you don’t like everybody, so why would you want everybody to like you?’ I was like, 'Man, that’s really true.' It’s getting to a place where you don’t need the approval of others, and it’s very hard.
I mean, I still sometimes get caught up in that. There are going to be people always who maybe aren’t as secure or want to see others thrive. To be your authentic self is actually kind of like an 'F U' to them and a brave and beautiful thing.”