Quarantine Skills Competitions

Throughout the quarantine, many of us have found talents that we have that we never knew we had. We have slept 10-12 hours straight, we have been "the most bored we ever have been in our lives", and surely there has been a day where we consumed nearly our own body weight in popcorn. For athletes this quarantine has probably looked very different. We have seen many different competitions on all different platforms of social media, but seeing professional athletes doing their sports is just hitting all the right buttons of hope throughout quarantine. Even something as simple as Team TaylorMade bouncing a golf ball on their wedge has kept sports fans smiling throughout the quarantine https://www.instagram.com/p/B-XdtouAOs7/

What are the rumors we have heard about today? Well, there are two major Quarantine Skills Competitions that we might find ourselves watching in the near future.

1) This one seems to be a very long stretch, but everyday that passes it seems to become more and more of a reality.

"The Match" is what they called the round that Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson dueled out at Shadow Creek Golf Course on November the 23rd 2019. Now, although I didn't watch the match live, I did see replays, highlights, and of course the finish of this spectacular match. The $9 million winner-take-all purse was decided by 22 holes (4 playoff holes after the original 18) and a 4 feet 2 inch putt by Phil Mickelson (which can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hi69QPcj-zU).

Now, Tiger and Phil are in talks of a rematch, with two very unlikely co-stars joining them. Tom Brady and Peyton Manning have been invited to crash "The Rematch". In the midst of COVID19, the four will play for a purse to donate to "the great pandemic of the 21st century" (I am coining that phrase right now... I will collect all my royalties from the History books in the future). Although the date isn't set, we get to look forward to team Mickelson/Brady vs. Woods/Manning (Bettors beware, Woods/Manning have competed as a team once before).

(well isn't this just an absolutely perfect picture?)

Nothing is set in stone, but if this does end up happening, we should all fight corona virus together by bringing back sports, and donating to the cause. I don't think I have a favorite in this match, but what a lineup of players in the field: Mickelson, Woods, Brady, Manning. Four of the most recognizable names in all of sports, and four characters who helped me develop my personal love for sports.

2) Something that is being first reported (entirely in English) by Simply Sports comes from across the pond. Zlatan Ibrahimović, forward for AC Milan, has challenged Manchester United Midfielder, and former teammate Paul Pogba to a skills competition. Both of these lads have absolutely incredible talent with a football.

Ibrahimović has an unreal scorpion-like overhead speciality. Highlights from his last season at LA Galaxy, where he absolutely dominated the MLS can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9TdM4f4PN3g

Pogba has a boot of velcro. His World Cup highlights from 2018, where he walked off a World Cup Champion can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DCVGxhX376E

There are absolutely zero details in this story: it comes from two Instagram posts, a challenge, and a poll asking whether or not the challenge should be accepted. Surely, with Ibrahimović living in Italy at the moment they won't be meeting up and it will just be another Instagram challenge, but hey, in my book, it is the closest we are going to get to live sports. For those of you who are not soccer fans, all you have to know is that Zlatan Ibrahimović is the most confident soccer player of all time and that Paul Pogba has never had less than a 5 Star Skills rating in FIFA. Putting these two against one another over Instagram, just juggling the footbal with be much to my enjoyment. 95% of Pogba's followers agree this would be a joy to watch through quarantine.