Sports & Entertainment Beat

Welcome back to the second to last (or penultimate, which is also the name I have given my favorite writing utensil) Spotlight of 2022! That’s right, I’ll be back next week to put a shining bow on the year that was, and then I’m off for the remainder of the holiday season. Lest you forget between hearing the seemingly ubiquitous jingling of bells beside a Salvation Army kettle, watching a marathon of different Hallmark Channel movies that are somehow all the same and suddenly having event plans that require more travel time than the amount of time spent at the event itself (bah humbug!).  But don’t panic now, there is still plenty of time to get some last minutelast-minute shopping (and reading) accomplished. Need gift ideas? You’ve come to the wrong place. All I can tell you is what is likely an unpopular (digital) stocking stuffer this year, as compared to years past: NFTs and cryptocurrencies. I suppose that in light of recent lawsuits (related to EthereumMax and Yuga Labs’ Bored Ape Yacht Club) brought by strangers who have decided to stake their finances on the social media posts of other strangers (who happen to be famous athletes and entertainers that have announced their ownership of NFTs), I ought to disclaim here that this is not investment advice. Though I certainly need not disclaim that I am neither an athlete nor entertainer. So, you might say, for all the wrong reasons, NFTs and cryptocurrency is back in the spotlight. 

• • US Premier Rugby Sevens expands to a total of 16 men’s and women’s teams in an effort to spread interest in the United Kingdom-originated sport stateside in advance of the 2031 Rugby World Cup in the Americas. That’s one kind of UK spread I can get behind. Marmite on the other hand…?
  • Rappers DaBaby and Roddy Ricch are among those named as defendants in a new copyright infringement lawsuit over their 2020 chart-topper, “Rockstar.” My defense strategy would be to plead infancy and have Roddy change his name to “Roddy Insolvent.” But then again, I am not a litigator.
  • College sports recruitment season is in full swing, and the impact of NIL deals is being felt by schools such as Ohio State who are bitter that they are not the highest bidder.