The Match WAS Can’t Miss Television

Christian Martinelli 

Covid-19 has snatched any type of fun or entertainment out of our lives for the last three months. Sports is the main event most people have been clamoring to bring back, but it’s been near impossible with all the uncertainty looming. The last few weeks we saw NASCAR, German Soccer, and the UFC come back, so slowly but surely things have been returning to normal. This weekend four of the greatest athletes of all time came together to raise millions for Covid-19 relief. Those athletes were Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Tom Brady, and Peyton Manning, teamed up to play a golf tournament on TNT. It was raining, they were mic’d up, and the madness that ensued was legendary.

Tiger and Phil being two of the best golfers, and Peyton and Tom being two of the best quarterbacks both with massive rivalries against each other, made this so interesting. The teams were Phil and Tom Vs. Tiger and Peyton, from the jump team Tiger had a huge advantage. Not only was this Tigers home course, but he’s the better player than Phil at this point in their careers, and Peyton is the better player than Tom because he’s been retired for half a decade. Understandably Tom and Phil were +150 underdogs, and they proved Vegas to be right once again.

The match started very badly for Tom and Phil, and after eight holes they were already down three. In classic Tom Brady fashion he may have over prepared, because before the round he had already played 18 holes and taken 1,000s of swings and that may have been what led to his dismal start. Brady was bad out of the gate, while Peyton was very solid. When it came to Tiger Woods, he’s all the way back. Tiger didn’t hit a single bad shot all day, you could tell you were watching a master of his craft.

The trash talk between these four legends was awesome, from Peyton telling Tom, “I’ll get Nick Foles as my caddy”, to Tom telling Peyton, “Eli would’ve made that”, to Tiger telling Phil, “you can mark your ball with one of my US Open medals.” It was all around just a great event, and fun for the viewer at home which was probably a difficult feat. Charles Barkley learned very quickly why you never trash talk Tom Brady, as he made some remarks about how bad Brady has been playing Brady then sunk the ball from 150 yards out for the best shot of the day, he also responded with, “suck on that Chuck!” There were a lot of funny, tense, and happy moments throughout the round and to categorize the match as anything other than a massive success would be crazy.

As expected, team Tiger and Peyton won the match, but just by the skin of their teeth as Phil and Tom mounted a comeback as usual. The foursome raised $10 million of their own money, and other people around the world donated another $10 million for a grand total of $20 million raised for Covid-19 relief. Not only was it entertaining as hell, but it was all for a great cause. These athletes brought a lot of joy to the world on Sunday evening by bringing back sports and helping people that are badly in need. The Match was great and I hope TNT continues to do it with different great athletes, because I would watch every week. I can’t wait for real sports to be back, but for what we have right now that was great. When this is all over we’ll look back and thank Tiger, Tom, Phil, and Peyton for bringing us some sports when we needed it most.

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