Month: September 2020

The biggest apparel free agent in the world of sports has decided to join Puma. In a video he posted to his Twitter account on Saturday, Paris Saint-Germain star Neymar announced that he’s heading to the company that was famous for being the brand that sponsored iconic names in the football like Pele and Diego Maradona.

In the video, Neymar harkened back to those and other legends who have previously worn Puma as the inspiration for his decision, saying that “I wish to bring back the legacy that those athletes created on the pitch. I want the KING to reign on the pitch again, and inspire generations as it has inspired mine.”

Neymar was previously a longtime member of Nike’s roster of athletes, having signed with the company back when he was 13. However, that deal ended last month, and from the time that he became a free agent, rumors began swirling that he would hop on board with Puma, whose roster of footballers includes big names like Barcelona’s Antoine Griezmann and Manchester City’s Sergio Aguero. According to ESPN, only four Puma executives knew about the deal to sign Neymar as to keep this a secret.

There is no word on how much money is headed Neymar’s way, or if something like a signature boot is in his future. He will, however, have ties to his former sponsor, as both Brazil and PSG wear kits made by Nike.

Justin Bieber began the year with his comeback album, Changes — his first full-length release since 2015. Bieber kept fans satisfied with a few guest appearances and a slew of music videos, and while many assumed it would be another good while till his next full-length project, it appears that may not be the case. On Friday, Bieber jumped on Twitter and posted a pre-order link for an as-yet-untitled single with a caption that simply read “ONE WEEK,” confirming the single would arrive next Friday, September 18.

After Bieber’s news, his manager, Scooter Braun, went one further, teasing a new chapter in the singer’s career by quoting Bieber’s tweet and adding the hashtag, “#newerabegins???” with an eye emoji. What exactly this new era will entail remains to be seen, but at least they won’t have to wait too long to find out.

The announcement comes after Bieber starred in DJ Khaled and Drake’s “Popstar” video, where he served as a replacement for Drake after DJ Khaled drove the Toronto rapper from the shoot. Bieber also joined Jaden for their collaboration “Falling For You,” which appeared on Jaden’s CTV3: Cool Tape Vol. 3 album.

Check out the tweets from Justin Bieber and Scooter Braun above.

Here’s a thing to always keep in mind with sports, something that every fan (myself included!) forgets pretty frequently: Playing them at the level you need to be able to reach if you play professionally is hard. The times that they mess up and struggle to do something that they normally make look easy are still, somehow, more athletic than anything that any of us schmucks would do if we were put into the exact same position.

I say all of that as a precursor to this clip out of Belgium, where KV Mechelen and KV Oostende squared off in a Jupiler Pro League tilt on Saturday. It was a meeting between two mid-table sides, and in the 67th minute of action, 17-year-old Mechelen midfielder Aster Vranckx had the chance to break a 0-0 deadlock.

Please look at the image at the top of this post. Ok? We’re good? Alright, here’s how that went.

I have watched this a good 20 times and I still cannot believe he missed. Vranckx played the ball off of his chest, and normally when guys scuff these, it’s because they take their eyes off of the ball and start thinking of how they’re going to celebrate before it goes in. That doesn’t appear to happen here, and instead, he maybe expects the ball to bounce after it hits the ground and he rolls his foot over the top of it.

Vranckx is a youngster who made his first-team debut last year, and he already has two goals in his account, so fortunately, this wasn’t him missing a sitter to miss out on one of the biggest moments of a youngster’s career. Still, this could have gone better, both for him and his club — Mechelen lost, 1-0, after Oostende’s Jack Hendry scored in injury time.

Rihanna has been teasing what will be her ninth album for three years now, and now she returns with some comforting news for those who wait. “I’m always working on new music. Just because I haven’t released an album in a few years doesn’t mean I haven’t been working on it,” she said in an interview with New! Magazine. “I’m not just going to put music out because people are craving it. I’m going to make it worth the wait – and it will be worth the wait.”

Rihanna also went on to say that her endeavors, whether it be in music or through her Fenty brand, are all “about achieving excellence,” adding, “That’s why I will never put an album out for the sake of it or do a movie for the sake of it or a fashion collaboration for the sake of it. I have to believe in it.”

Throughout the year, Rihanna has repeatedly talked up the album that still has no release date, from trolling a Rihanna lookalike to telling fans it would live to expectations. “You’re not going to be disappointed when it happens. It’s going to be worth it,” she told ET. “I’m not just gonna put it out just because people are waiting.” This came after Rihanna revealed in March she was “very aggressively working on music” in a profile with British Vogue.

(via New! Magazine)

DC hasn’t always had the best luck with movies, but their TV shows have been both solid and diverse. Their slate is wide enough to include the acclaimed Harley Quinn animated show as well as Doom Patrol, a kooky, live-action program centered on a team of superheroes arguably even more screwed-up than that eternally grieving billionaire who dressed up like a bat. While something like the 2017 film Justice League needed to get a mulligan, Doom Patrol is doing just fine, so well, in fact, that it’s been greenlit for a third season.

Doom Patrol’s second season bowed on HBO Max back in July, bringing back such characters as Diane Guerrero’s Crazy Jane, Brendan Fraser’s Robotman, Matt Bomer’s Negative Man, April Bowlby’s Elasti-Woman, and Jovian Wade’s Cyborg. Lorded over them all is The Chief, played by no less than former James Bond Timothy Daulton — a character who, it was revealed, is responsible for turning them into unwitting superheroes. Season 2 found the team protecting The Chief’s daughter, Dorothy (Abigail Shapiro), whose own mysterious powers make her a potential threat to the world.

Doom Patrol began its life back in 2018, streaming on the DC Universe streaming service. It migrated to HBO Max during its second season, as parent company WarnerMedia owns DC films and TV.

(Via Deadline)

For a moment, it appeared that the New Orleans Saints and Alvin Kamara could be on the verge of a breakup. Kamara wanted to get paid by the Saints, and an unexcused absence from camp at the end of August mixed with a report that the team was “open to trading” him made it seem like something could be on the horizon.

However, cooler heads ended up prevailing between the team and the player, and as a result, a report on Tuesday from ESPN’s Adam Schefter indicated that a deal to keep Kamara in The Big Easy was coming. Fast forward to Saturday afternoon and the deal was finished, one that will compensate the Pro Bowl back handsomely.

According to Ian Rapoport of NFL Network, Kamara and the Saints agreed to a five-year extension that will give him $75 million and $15 million in guaranteed money. ESPN confirmed the particulars of this deal, which is tied for the second-highest average annual value for a running back behind only Christian McCaffrey of the Carolina Panthers.

Kamara’s ability to do a little bit of everything for the Saints is a huge piece to their puzzle. Last season, the former University of Tennessee standout ran for 797 yards with five touchdowns and caught 81 balls for 533 yards and a score.

Legendary reggae singer and frontman of Toots And The Maytals, Frederick “Toots” Hibbert, passed away Friday evening at the age of 77. The news came from an announcement made by his family, revealing that he “passed away peacefully, surrounded by his family” in a hospital in Kingston, Jamaica. He is survived by his wife of 39 years and seven of his eight children.

The cause of death has not yet been announced , but Hibbert’s passing comes after he was hospitalized for showing symptoms in line with the coronavirus. A rep later said Hibbert was fighting for his life after he was placed in a medically-induced coma.

Hibbert formed the first version of The Maytals in the early 1960s after moving to Kingston, Jamaica. Following the addition of Jackie Jackson, Hux Brown, Rad Bryan, and Paul Douglas, the group changed their name to Toots And The Maytals in 1972. They were instrumental in forming the rocksteady and ska sounds, and their 1968 song “Do the Reggay” inspired the name “reggae.” Some of their biggest and longest-lasting hits over their long career include “Bam Bam,” “Sweet and Dandy” and “54-46 That’s My Number.” The group released their most recent album, Got To Be Tough, at the end of August.

There was a time, not that long ago, when Twitter let president and Fox News addict Donald J. Trump say anything. He’s repeatedly broken the social media service’s rules, tweeting things that have gotten plenty of other people suspended, sometimes permanently. And while they’ll never go that far — at least as long as he’s the most powerful man in the world — Twitter brass have started flagging rule-breaking tweets, not deleting them entirely but hiding them underneath a warning. On Saturday they did it again.

The offending tweet: one that found Trump once again encouraging voter fraud. It’s a subject close to his heart, as the pandemic he’s failed to control has rendered in-person voting in the forthcoming national election dangerous. Trump has repeatedly and baselessly claimed mail-in voting can lead to fraud, all while repeatedly telling voters to vote twice: once by mail, and then go to their polling place and, if they suspect their vote has been counted, do it again. Along with rendering their mail-in vote pointless, it’s also a felony.

Trump again pushed this lie. “NORTH CAROLINA: To make sure your Ballot COUNTS, sign & send it in EARLY,” Trump wrote. “When Polls open, go to your Polling Place to see if it was COUNTED. IF NOT, VOTE! Your signed Ballot will not count because your vote has been posted. Don’t let them illegally take your vote away from you!” (Again, voting twice is a felony. Don’t do it.)

Not long after posting it, Twitter did their thing, hiding the content under a warning. “We placed a public interest notice on this Tweet for violating our Civic Integrity Policy, specifically for encouraging people to potentially vote twice,” Twitter wrote. “To protect people on Twitter, we err on the side of limiting the circulation of Tweets which advise people to take actions which could be illegal in the context of voting or result in the invalidation of their votes.”

Previously Twitter blocked a tweet by the president’s team’s account, @TeamTrump, which spread misinformation about COVID-19, claiming, falsely, that children are immune to the disease.

One of the NBA’s conference finals are set, while the other could possibly be all sorted out in the next few days. In the Eastern Conference, the Miami Heat made quick work of the Milwaukee Bucks in five, while the Boston Celtics knocked off the Toronto Raptors after a thrilling seven-game series. Out West, the Los Angeles teams are in pole position, with the Lakers hoping to finish things off against the Houston Rockets during Saturday’s Game 5 and the Clippers will look to do the same against the Denver Nuggets during Game 6 on Sunday.

The fact that the Western Conference is still a bit fluid means we don’t know for sure what the conference finals will look like. That has the schedule for everything a bit up in the air, but we have a pretty good idea of how things can shake out. As such, following Friday’s slate of games, the league announced how things will work for the next round of games.

While both of the Los Angeles teams would certainly like to avoid their respective series going to a Game 7, we’re still a ways away from those. Should the Nuggets force one against the Clippers, that would occur on Tuesday, Sept. 15. The Rockets, meanwhile, would hope to take the Lakers to one on Wed., Sept. 16.

Despite being unable to tour due to the pandemic, Phoebe Bridgers hasn’t had many issues performing tracks off her new album Punisher. Since the album’s June release, she’s done a number of livestream performances. On Saturday she’s performed an early morning set on CBS This Morning. Standing in a dimly-lit room while rocking a skeleton costume, Phoebe played three songs from the album, including “Kyoto,” “Garden Song,” and “I Know the End.”

Bridgers’ CBS This Morning set comes soon after the singer did a NPR Tiny Desk performance in a replica of the White House’s Oval Office. In addition to performing “Kyoto” and “I Know The End,” Phoebe also played “Moon Song,” another track off Punisher. Prior to that, the singer gave fans an interesting “world tour,” where she performed in locations such as her kitchen and bathroom. The latter also served as the location of her recent performance on Jimmy Kimmel Live!

For more content from Phoebe Bridgers, fans can check out her recent cover of Radiohead’s “Fake Plastic Trees” which she performed with singer-songwriter Arlo Parks.

Watch Phoebe Bridgers perform on CBS This Morning in the videos above.

Punisher is out now via Dead Oceans. Get it here.