Axios

Tennessee's Republican Gov. Bill Lee said Monday that transgender girls should be banned from playing on middle and high school sports teams, claiming trans athletes will "destroy women's sports," AP reports.

Why it matters: His comments come as the Tennessee GOP attempts to pass legislation requiring student-athletes to provide "original" birth certificates in order to participate in school sports. They argue that trans girls have an edge in athletics because they were assigned male at birth, but research has shown there is no automatic advantage.

The NBA said in the statement Wednesday that "all teams will play the national anthem in keeping with longstanding league policy."

Why it matters: The statement came after Dallas Mavericks' owner Mark Cuban said his team hadn't played the national anthem during home games so far this season and didn't plan to do so moving forward. The Mavericks are believed to be the first American professional sports team to cease the practice.

MLB is slightly altering the construction of its baseballs in the hopes of deadening them off the bat.

Driving the news: The league sent a memo to all 30 teams outlining changes that would "center the ball within the specification range" of bounciness — a range that has always been wide enough for significant variance among balls.

The Dallas Mavericks haven't played the national anthem during home games this season and don't plan to play it moving forward, owner Mark Cuban confirmed to Axios.

Why it matters: The Mavericks are believed to be the first American professional sports team to cease playing the anthem at home.

Former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick on Tuesday disclosed that he has formed a blank-check company that will seek to raise $250 million in an IPO.

Why it matters: Kaepernick hasn't played pro football since 2016, but has remained a cultural lightning rod — either loved or loathed for his social activism, including his strong support of the Black Lives Matters movement.

The cost of hosting the Olympics has skyrocketed in recent decades, outpacing revenues from visitors and saddling cities with heavy maintenance burdens. As a result, residents of potential host cities have increasingly resisted their government's bids to host the games.

Why it matters: Authoritarian countries eager for global approbation can ignore local opposition, making hosting the Olympics increasingly the terrain of autocratic regimes.

Super Bowl LV was watched by a total of 96.4 million viewers, according to Nielsen ratings provided by CBS Sports.

Details: The broadcast broke records as the most live-streamed NFL game ever, averaging 5.7 million viewers per minute — up 65% from last year's big game.

With athlete activism on the rise, and protest guidelines in flux, Olympians could play a larger role than ever in shaping the narrative around the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics — which have come under heavy scrutiny due to China's human rights abuses.

The state of play: The U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee announced in December that it would no longer prohibit athletes from "peacefully and respectfully demonstrating in support of racial and social justice for all human beings."

Brady and Gronkowski got Tampa Bay the Lombardi Trophy, but the city fumbled its pandemic-era Super Bowl win with postgame mass celebrations.

Why it matters: Anthony Fauci and other top health officials pleaded the city to stay home — or, at the very least, be smart about small gatherings — but that didn't stop throngs of maskless fans from swarming downtown Tampa and SoHo.

Global fears of China's authoritarian rise are overshadowing the upcoming 2022 Winter Olympic Games in Beijing and sparking calls for a boycott.

Why it matters: By openly flouting human rights norms while claiming leadership of the international system, China is cracking the foundation upon which global traditions such as the Olympics are based.

Americans heeding advice to skip their usual Super Bowl celebrations triggered the latest COVID ripple effect, with the amount of beer poured from taps down 46% nationally from last year — and nearly 70% in a Tom Brady-less Boston.

The big picture: Data from the Beer Board, a New York tech company that helps optimize beer flows in some 1,300 locations across the country, provided insight into which cities had the most liberal crowd policies and free-flowing taps.