Welcome to Monday's Morning Mashup. For the latest news, start at our WEEI.com home page or click here for the top stories from our news wire.
MONDAY'S BROADCAST HIGHLIGHTS:NBA: Denver at Philadelphia, 7 p.m. (NBATV)NBA: Boston at Phoenix, 10 p.m. (NBATV, NBCSB)NHL: Washington at NY Rangers, 7:30 p.m. (NBCSN)
AROUND THE WEB:
-- Loyola-Chicago's famous basketball chaplain, Sister Jean, has given the school license to use her name and image on merchandise.
Demand from licensees has been coming in to Loyola's athletic department and school officials asked the nun for permission to use her likeness on T-shirts.
"We weren't going to do anything until she gave her blessing," said Tom Sorboro, a Loyola senior associate athletic director. "She didn't ask for anything for herself."
Loyola has so far approved over 25 Sister Jean T-shirts from companies including Fanatics, which created a Final Four shirt with her phrase, "Worship. Work And Win."
First licensed Sister Jean Final Four shirt just went live on @Fanatics pic.twitter.com/A31L6GOwGy
— Darren Rovell (@darrenrovell) March 26, 2018"To have Fanatics involved here and for us to be on the front page of the world's biggest sports website is unparalleled," Sorboro said.
There is also still some unlicensed merchandise on the market, including shirts that put Sister Jean on the Air Jordan logo and another T-shirt that plays off And1's logo and makes it "AndNun."
Loyola gave away Sister Jean bobbleheads in 2011 and approved a new bobblehead to Sklar's Bobblehead Hall of Fame last week.
"Licensing rules prohibit the sale of bobbleheads of college players," Sklar said. "But Sister Jean's bobblehead really represents the entire team, school and the Loyola-Chicago community."
Sock company Rock 'Em Apparel contacted Loyola to make licensed Sister Jean socks and started selling them online Sunday afternoon.
"Usually it's an athlete or coach that captivates the attention of the sports world," said Steve Rollins, Rock 'Em Apparel senior vice president. "She brought Loyola's tournament run to the next level by letting the world see her passion for her team. Everyone wants to wear something with her image on it for good luck."
"Sister Jean is the most famous religious licensing icon since the pope," Sorboro said. "She's captured the attention of the entire nation."
-- Vince Wilfork has been keeping busy since retiring from the NFL last August and shared two videos Sunday on Instagram showing him riding a bike for the first time in over 15 years.
A post shared by VINCE WILFORK (@vincewilfork) on Mar 25, 2018 at 11:50am PDT
"When yo ass ain't ride a bike in over 15 years and thank you still got it!!," the former Patriot captioned the videos.
Wilfork seems to be enjoying retirement and has posted pictures of himself fishing, grilling and spending time with his family.
QUOTE OF THE DAY: "I have a lot of respect for Malcolm. [Since> the day he got here in rookie minicamp four years ago, he's always competed as hard as he could. He was a great competitor on the field, and I totally respect that. I'm not going to get into last year, next year, some other year. I talked to Malcolm, wished him well at Tennessee. Obviously, Mike [Vrabel> and Jon [Robinson> are great people who I have a lot of respect for in that organization; I have a lot of respect for Malcolm, and we wish him well." -- Bill Belichick, on Malcolm Butler
