The Sports Brew

Rory McIlroy makes history at the Master's ⛳️

Apr 14, 2025

What We’re Watching:

Masters: Rory McIlroy overcame the doubters to win his first green jacket Sunday afternoon. It’s McIlroy’s first major win since the 2014 PGA Championship and comes with a piece of history. With the win, McIlroy became only the sixth golfer ever to win the Career Grand Slam. He joins Tiger Woods, Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player, Ben Hogan, and Gene Sarazen.
NBA: The NBA Playoffs are set, with the Play-In Tournament kicking off Tuesday at 7:30pm EST.
NHL: 14 of 16 NHL teams have clinched their playoff spots, with the playoffs kicking off Saturday the 19th.
MLB: The Dodgers are now 11-6 after starting the season 8-0. Torpedo bats continue to take the league by storm, with multiple players on multiple teams using them. You can even bet on torpedo bat home runs!
UFC: A big weekend in the UFC as Alexander Volkanovski won back his featherweight title belt in a unanimous decision victory over Diego Lopes. Paddy Pimblett also cemented his status as a top lightweight contender with his dominant performance against Michael Chandler. VaynerSports fighters will headline the next two UFC events, with Ian Machado Garry headlining UFC Kansas City vs Carlos Prates and Anthony Smith, in the final fight of his career, taking on Zhang Mingyang. The following weekend, two VS fighters will be put against each other, with Deveison Figeurido taking on Cory Sandhagen in a No. 1 bantamweight eliminator fight.
F1: Formula 1 is amid a three-weekend tilt of races, with Oscar Piastri winning Sunday’s Bahrain Grand Prix.

Sports Business: The first college football NIL holdout

The NIL era has been a rollercoaster ride and it’s only just beginning. In a few short months, on July 1st, we’ll reach the four-year anniversary of NIL becoming law. Maybe it’s surprising that we made it this far without someone holding out. But I don’t know anymore, the entire landscape is out of whack.

Nico Iamaleava (read that last name a few more times) became the first college athlete to refuse to practice or participate in meetings in protest of his NIL earnings. Iamaleava and his team allegedly wanted up to $4m in NIL money from Tennessee, double the current $2m he’s making. Josh Heupel and Tennessee said nobody is bigger than the team and moved on from Iamaleava over the weekend.

Everyone on Twitter will remind you this is why NIL and the transfer portal are bad, or some iteration of that belief. Don’t let them fool you - only the NCAA is to blame. Their inability to see and plan for the inevitable has us where we are today: free agency in college sports.

International Sports: McLaren’s dominance headlines start to the 2025 season

McLaren is off to a roaring start only four races into the season. They have 151 points in the WCC to Mercedes’ 93 and Red Bull’s 71. On top of that, their drivers are sitting in 1st (Lando Norris) and 2nd (Oscar Piastri) in the Drivers’ Championship, although Verstappen and George Russell are not too far behind. Up next on the calendar is the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix this weekend and the Miami Grand Prix the first weekend in May.

Culture & Entertainment: Lebron & Ken Doll, who would have thought?

Mattel last week announced that Lebron James would become the first male athlete to have an official Ken Doll. I know what you’re thinking, but this is part of Barbie’s Kenbassadors line, so surely everything will work out. Based on the line in this video, I would say it actually has.

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