🔎 The Solution to the Biggest Problem in Sports (That No One Is Talking About)

In partnership with

I’m developing a theory around rappers performing at the Super Bowl Halftime Show:

In short, they’re too polarizing.

The fan culture around rap is so intense (beef, eras, styles, etc.) that you’re forced into a box of “loving it,” or you get lumped in with the racist Twitter crowd.

My official opinion is at the end.

In today’s newsletter:

🗞 The Big Story: The Solution to the Biggest Problem in Sports (That No One Is Talking About)

📉 Biggest Loser: The NFL’s (Secret) Plan to Get Rid of Its Most Valuable Merch

🏆 Winner’s Circle: The 21-Year-Old Who Turned a $100K Loss Into the Biggest Basketball League in the World

Reasons you should be a Locked On NBA insider

What’s up, NBA fans! From our expert hosts who cover your team every day on our podcasts, we offer a free daily newsletter delivered right to your email so you don’t miss any of the action on the court. Get expert analysis, game previews, post-game breakdowns, trade talk, draft coverage, and more. We curate your daily ticket to everything NBA, giving you the rundown for each NBA team and the league news you need to know. Be one of thousands of fans who are already insiders - fast and easy.

Subscribe for free

🗞 The Big Story

Four college students might have just solved the biggest problem in sports that no one is talking about.

Background: At the start of his junior year at the University of Washington in 2021, Jerred Mace came across a video of a blind man watching a soccer match via his sighted friend, guiding his hand along a game board to represent the action on the field.

However, Jerred realized that for the other roughly 250 million people worldwide with significant vision impairments, this type of experience isn’t always an option.

In fact, one study suggests that 73% of sports fans with visual impairments avoid attending games or events altogether because of accessibility barriers, so Jerred and three of his classmates set out to change that.

Behind the Tech: The team started by using the same principle Jerred saw in that original video, but instead of someone guiding another person’s hand, they use haptic vibrations under a silicon surface that outlines the field or court so users can feel the game action through their fingertips.

This tablet-sized device is meant to sit on a person’s lap and now includes buttons that take fans through a tutorial for the sport they're watching.

Since launching the device in 2023, audio has also been added via plug-in headphones so that fans can hear the score and clock updates, and the device itself has been made 50% smaller since the initial prototype.

This device receives gameplay information that is already being collected by these leagues in real time, and it can be used anywhere in the stadiums or arenas that offer them.

As of this year, the Portland Trailblazers have become the first professional team to roll these OneCourt devices out for all their home games at no cost to fans.

And after raising nearly half a million dollars last year, Jerred and his team say that their technology is ready for almost any sport you can think of.

📉 Biggest Loser

The NFL has a secret plan to prevent fans from buying its most valuable merchandise; let’s break it down.

Pre-made Merchandise: It’s no secret that every year, the NFL pre-makes thousands of “Super Bowl Champion” hats and t-shirts for each team that plays in the big game.

Before the Super Bowl is even played, the league has already printed and shipped the winning merchandise for each team to physical retailers in each city so that they can be sold the minute the clock strikes zero.

However, before 1997, the NFL simply instructed the retailers with the losing team’s merchandise to throw all the items away.

Naturally, some shirts or hats would slip through the cracks, resulting in highly sought-after collectibles like this 1989 Cincinnati Bengals Super Bowl Champion shirt listed for $10,000.

Lost, But Not Wasted: So, when the league was approached by a charity in 1997 that pitched them the idea of donating this merchandise instead, it felt like a win-win.

The league could ship its useless inventory across the world where it couldn’t get re-sold while also helping people in need.

That’s why, for the last 28 years, the NFL has quietly sent retailers new instructions on how to send the losing team’s items to a distribution center on the East Coast.

A charity called Good360 will sort and send the nearly 1,500 shirts and 500 hats to places like:

• Ukraine

• Mongolia

• Georgia

• Estonia

• Latvia

(This is where $80,000 worth of Chiefs’ merchandise will end up this year.)

However, for the NFL, the most important part of this whole arrangement is that Good360 only works with pre-vetted partners that must follow strict standards to ensure their items aren’t resold back into the US.

I guess the price of a Chiefs’ three-peat shirt just went up.

Ditch High Electric Bills with Solar

Tired of high electric bills? Make the switch to solar with EnergySage and start saving! Our Solar Marketplace makes it easy to compare quotes from top-rated installers, ensuring you find the best deal for your home. With average savings of 20% on installation costs, going solar is more affordable than ever. Ditch your high electric bills and gain energy independence.

Start comparing solar quotes today!

🏆 Winner’s Circle

This 21-year-old took a $100,000 loss and turned it into the biggest basketball league in the world, but not in the way you might think.

Background: In 2019, Connor Renton had just graduated college and was working an entry-level job at a bank in Toronto when he started looking for a local rec basketball league to join; there was just one problem:

Everyone he could find sucked.

From their cheap, dirty pinnies to the fact that you had to call your own fouls, it seemed like everyone had accepted the fact that since they had graduated college, this was their only option.

But Connor disagreed.

Going All In: Connor began setting aside money from his job at the bank, and once he had $10,000, he went to a local sporting goods store to buy a few dozen blank Nike jerseys and got them all custom-printed with unique logos.

He then rented out a small community center in his hometown, hired refs, and even hired a photographer and videographer to come out and shoot the game just like the pros.

In his first year, Connor fielded 8 teams, and the “Brodie League” was officially born.

The people who first joined the league loved the elevated experience so much that they started recruiting their friends to play and heading into 2020, Connor was expecting the league to triple in size.

So, with the projected $100,000 he planned to collect the following year, he quit his job and bought 500 more jerseys for the Brodie League’s second season.

Set Back: But then COVID hit, and Connor had to refund almost all the money he had just used to stock up for the following year. Not to mention, lockdowns meant that Brodie League couldn’t operate for over a year, but Connor didn’t quit.

Instead, he made sure his league was the first to reopen once the restrictions were lifted, which exploded the number of teams from 8 to 34.

Over the next few years, this number kept doubling, and today, Brodie League has over 600 teams across 20 cities.

Connor told me that equates to over 20,000 athletes playing in his league today, making it the largest basketball league by total participation worldwide.

Not bad for a kid from Toronto.

⏱️ In Other News

• A blackout for March Madness and the Masters?

• Why haven’t the PGA and LIV merged yet?

• Sportsbooks won BIG on the Super Bowl.

🎁 Share the Bottom of the Ninth

When you refer new readers to the Bottom of the Ninth, you win exclusive prizes.

➡️ Here is your unique link to share: https://bottom-of-the-ninth.beehiiv.com/subscribe?ref=PLACEHOLDER

You’re currently at 0. That’s only 1 away from receiving a Bottom of the Ninth Sticker!

*Please do not use fake email addresses — they will not qualify as referrals. Thank you!

👋🏻 Happy Friday!

The halftime show was awesome. Kendrick’s dedication to trolling Drake while still playing multiple hits is, quite frankly, a level of artistry we should all strive for.

That’s not even mentioning all of the symbolism layered in the performance that took several days to unpack.