Jason Aspes

Governance of pickleball is at a crossroads. The sport hangs in the balance. upaa.unitedpickleball.com/bl…

To all Gator Nation, its fans and supporters. We need to stay positive and continue to have an optimistic outlook on our football program. What we can’t do and need to stop is this bickering, false rumor spreading, gossiping type of crap. We need to understand that change takes time. Culture change within a program takes time. It doesn’t happen in one spring practice or training camp. I would recommend everyone watch the Saban documentary on ESPN. Especially the first 2 episodes. He talks about it and the players talk about changing the culture within the program. The mindset of the players and building the foundation for the future players so they understand the standard when they step foot on campus. Sumrall and his staff are in the process of doing that. It takes time. Some players change and adapt quickly. Others take time. And some don’t change at all and those players find their way out of the program. Like all Gator fans, I was excited after our first 4 games. It was great to truly be relevant again. To see a team play with a physicality and a fire that we hadn’t truly seen under Billy. A coach in Sumrall who doesn’t shy away from pointing out the obviously and exudes confidence. But to be honest, some of us saw the weakness. Sumrall told us we weren’t back yet. But lots of us didn’t want to see it or listen to it. Here we are now, 2 bad loses after a 4-0 start and a couple good wins. We still have a team that is changing and adapting to what is being asked of them. Change takes time like I said. It’s easy to buy in to the changes, especially culture changes when we are winning. The true determinant is when shit starts hitting the fan. Do the plays quit because things start getting hard and fall back into the old ways of doing things or thinking. Or do they stick to the plan. Have the mental strength to push past these hard times, continue to work hard, and believe in their coaches and their leadership. This is will the team is at. I believe we have the right guy captaining the ship and the players to follow his lead. We, as followers, fans, supporters, need to continue to show up and show our support. We have seen glimpses of what I believe will be our future. But as I said, change, full change takes time. And we need to give Sumrall and these players time to do it. So what I ask, from one Gator to another, is stop this BS rumor mill going on social. It’s doing nobody any good. It’s only hurting us and our team. Let’s stick together and support these coaches and players. In all kinds of weather, we all stick together!!!🐊🐊🐊 @GatorsFB

WELL SAID AVA 🗣️🤝 Pickleball is for everyone. Female athletes are equal. End of story.

Firefight Zone is back at the PPA Veolia Arizona Open! Join us tomorrow live from Mesa, AZ. 2-10pm MST on the PBTV app or PPA streamed courts YouTube Channel with a loaded cast including: -Jason Aspes -Jared Paul -Tito Machado -Johnny Goldberg -Chris Cali -& more! 📺: youtube.com/@ppastreamedcour…

I always say this to people when they ask me about pickleball: Super Bowl I did not sell out its stadium. The NBA Finals was so small in the beginning relative to what it has become, and at least once, CBS chose to air golf instead, so it put the NBA game on tape delay. UFC was banned in most states in this country within a lot of our lifetimes. That’s the journey of things becoming popular. Every sport that’s massive today was small and easy to dismiss at some point. I’m 50 years old. I’ve watched UFC go from a side circus to one of the most important sports in the world. In my lifetime, I watched basketball go from the third sport to potentially the first sport, or the second sport. I watched football pass baseball as most peoples’ favorite sport in the U.S. I saw Tiger Woods change the calculus on golf. I watched ESPN go from something very few people watched when I was a kid to a cultural phenomenon. That history matters because I think people dramatically underestimate how much room there is for more sports, pickleball and wiffle ball included.

Starting in 2027, UPA-A has made the decision to publish non-performance, correlative data for certified paddles. Learn more below. upaa.unitedpickleball.com/bl…

One of the most moving press conferences I've ever been a part of.... Za'Darius Smith retired in 2025 during his 11th NFL season, just five games after signing with Philadelphia, for personal reasons. Today he shared those reasons. Very emotional and said his mom always wanted him to end up in Atlanta. @ATLNewsFirst

A great move by the @UPAApb and @spus44 upaa.unitedpickleball.com/pp… The UPA-A is going to have randomized paddle testing using the official Go/No- Go Machine at @ppachallenger events starting next week at the Atlanta PPA Challenger (Aug 28-30). Additionally, players will now be able to challenge opponents' paddles just like on the full @PPAtour. If a player challenges a paddle, the player in question and can either put aside that paddle and play with a different one, or submit for a challenge. The test costs the challenger $75 if the paddle passes. If the paddle fails, the player with the failed paddle is charged $150 and cannot compete with that paddle for the remainder of the event.

Talk that talk, Gary! 🗣️🔥 VaynerMedia CEO, MLP investor and New Jersey 5s co-owner Gary Vee joined CNBC’s ‘Squawk Box’ and had a few things to say about Major League Pickleball. 👀🏓 We’re listening. 🎥: @CNBC #MLP2026