Tiger Woods' TGL debut was as ridiculously bad as it was fantastic

This is For The Win’s daily newsletter, The Morning Win. Did a friend recommend or forward this to you? If so, subscribe here. Have feedback? Leave your questions, comments and concerns through this brief reader survey! Now, here’s Mike Sykes.

Good morning, Winners! Welcome back to the Morning Win. Thanks so much for rocking with us today. We appreciate you.

Remember all that stuff we said about Tomorrow's Golf League last week? It all still applies. The SponCon is still too overt and overbearing. The players' competitive drive was as strong as my 5-year-old niece's toy truck, which isn't very strong at all. And, somehow, we still haven't had a close match yet.

But, hey, man. Tiger Woods played golf last night.

That other stuff? Get it out of here. Who cares? It hits different when the Eye of the Tiger starts playing and you catch the first glimpse of that red polo. This might be the most robust dog and pony show the golf world has ever seen. But if Tiger is selling, you can be sure everyone else is probably buying. As it turns out, Tiger Woods playing golf on television in any format is an excellent idea, no matter what it looks like or how well he plays.

And you better believe he stunk. It wasn't just him — his entire team phoned it in.  LA Golf Club thrashed Woods' Jupiter Links team with a score of 12 to 1 in a match that was never really close or competitive. Sounds exactly like last week, doesn't it?

Every wedge shot for Jupiter was long. They were driving the balls all over the virtual map in places they probably shouldn't have. The putting? Don't even get me started on the putting. Watching Kevin Kisner completely blade this ball into the pin had to be the highlight of the TGL seasons so far but for all the wrong reasons.

Seeing Tiger cry laughing like that was incredible, even as his team continuously spiraled into defeat. That right there? Seeing that was a blast. It made the disappointment of this match totally worth it. I kept watching it over and over and over again because, like Tiger, I just couldn't stop laughing.

And that's when it hit me. Maybe that's the sell.

It's certainly not what we thought TGL was going to be. I'm not actually sure it's what TGL wants to be. But this league has been at its best so far when our favorite golfers are at their most unserious. That's when this league really shines.

Time will tell whether that's a good or bad thing or if it can even work when Tiger, himself, isn't the one cackling on the greens.

But I'll tell you this: That was probably funny enough to get me to come back, at least one more time, next week.

Tom Brady is playing by different rules

The NFL has a real problem on its hands with Tom Brady, even if it won't acknowledge it.

Brady is calling playoff games for FOX these days. He's also a part owner of the Las Vegas Raiders. The Raiders are looking for a new head coach and just so happen to be recruiting Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson. Brady is also calling the Lions' playoff game against the Commanders this weekend.

See what I'm getting at? If you don't, our Robert Zeglinski explains it further here:

Nobody is doing anything about this. No one is saying a word. Adam Schefter reports that the folks in the league office believe everyone is principled enough to do things the right way here.

All I know is that if Johnson ends up with the Raiders, it'll look pretty fishy.

Wii Sports, but make it the Australian Open

I'm not going to lie, guys. It was kind of jarring seeing the Australian Open being broadcast on YouTube as if the players were playing their matches on Wii Sports.

BUT. This is kind of fire.

That's what the AO's YouTube broadcast looks like. They're using AI avatars to skate around the tournament's broadcast rights on YouTube conveniently. It's kind of ridiculous, but also kind of genius at the same time. It's basically the same thing as seeing a Simpsons NFL broadcast, except it's just a tad bit more serious.

The broadcast gets everything, too! Even the racquet smashes. It's just perfect in every way.

Quick hits: Unrivaled is awesome ... Jontay Porter's friends are morons ... and more

— Unrivaled is really here for the players in every single way. Meg Hall has more on that.

— If you thought Jontay Porter was dumb, wait til you get a load of his homies. Blake Schuster has more on that here.

— Audi Crooks don't care about no 3-pointer streak — even if it was 945 games long. Here's Meg with more.

— Greg Anthony gifting Deion Sanders his blazer via Shedeur Sanders is one of the funniest things you'll see today. Bryan Kalbrosky has the deets.

— Jason Kelce doing LeBron's chalk toss is amazing. Caroline Darney has more.

— We've got NFL Divisional Round power rankings from Christian D'Andrea and Robert Zeglinski here.

That's a wrap, folks. Thanks so much for reading. Have a great Wednesday. Peace.

-Sykes ✌️

This article originally appeared on For The Win: Tiger Woods' TGL debut was as ridiculously bad as it was fantastic