| MIKE HOGAN,
EXECUTIVE DIGITAL DIRECTOR |
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The capital-P Patriots are in the news for all the wrong reasons this week, and I can’t deny that, as a lifelong New York sports fan, I don’t hate to see it. First, there was that extremely odd CBS This Morning interview in which ex-coach Bill Belichick’s much younger girlfriend could be seen sitting behind the furniture, trying to control the line of questioning. Then our own Kase Wickman chased down reports that the team’s custom-painted jet recently made a trip to Guantánamo Bay. Were deported migrants sitting against their will in seats usually occupied by Joe Cardona and Robert Kraft? Spokespeople say no—not this time, at least. Which is a relief. Running errands for ICE might be a little too, er, patriotic, even for this team. |
Golf—long the quiet game of country clubs—is getting a high-tech makeover. And if Tiger Woods and his TGL cofounders have their way, it will soon be a fast-paced, arena-filling spectacle. Think: short matches, free-flowing drinks, and a turned-up soundtrack.
TGL, a digital golf league five years in the making, is a made-for-TV revision that plans to be the pinnacle of sports simulations by turning golf into a freewheeling video game. Golfers, such as hotshots Rory McIlroy and Collin Morikawa, are mic’d up at every match, much the same way the NFL uses hot mics to catch candid commentary. The point is to hear players talking trash and tactics to one another. |
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Alexis Ohanian, cofounder of Reddit, won’t share the exact amount he invested in the venture, but he admits it was somewhere between $25 million and $100 million. “There is a scenario where no one watches,” Ohanian tells Andrew Zaleski before TGL’s debut. “But Tiger Woods alone is worthy of a pilgrimage multiple times a year. And you never bet against Tiger Woods.” |
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Sources close to the White House say the president is growing more frustrated with his defense secretary’s bad press. |
“The New England Patriots organization is not involved in, nor does it approve, sanction, or coordinate the uses of the aircrafts when they are chartered for non-team purposes,” a Patriots spokesperson told VF. |
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“What the Hell Happened to Coach?” |
Bill Belichick famously led the New England Patriots to six Super Bowl wins during a historic 24-year run. But someone else appeared to call the shots for the 73-year-old coach during his recent CBS News Sunday morning interview: his 24-year-old girlfriend, Jordon Hudson.
“Not talking about this,” she interjected from the producer’s table, sounding more like a manager or publicist than a romantic interest. The gruff coach’s seeming power reversal with his girlfriend has reportedly been surprising to Belichick’s inner circle: “This guy is known as being such a strong voice and in many ways autocratic—and here he is becoming mush in her hands and letting her direct everything,” one person told Page Six.
VF’s Julie Miller digs into the relationship that the couple’s friends reportedly call “alarming.” |
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