Month: October 2020

Donald Trump may still be contagious, but on Saturday, he held a rally at the White House less than a week since he was released from Walter Reed National Military Center following his novel coronavirus diagnosis and multiple reports of some significant side effects from COVID-19. There’s plenty still unknown about when Trump first tested positive, how many people were infected, and whether it’s even safe for him to be around other people.

But as we get further away from his hospitalization and subsequent release on Monday, we’re learning more about the way he initially wanted to leave the hospital. Trump has made plenty of public statements, including some vulgar ones on the Rush Limbaugh show, but he hasn’t mentioned he wanted to pull a Cam Newton when he left Walter Reed.

According to a story in the New York Times on Saturday, Trump had pitched some confidants on a dramatic plan to leave the hospital while looking weak, only to reveal a Superman shirt under his customary suit.

In several phone calls last weekend from the presidential suite at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, Mr. Trump shared an idea he was considering: When he left the hospital, he wanted to appear frail at first when people saw him, according to people with knowledge of the conversations. But underneath his button-down dress shirt, he would wear a Superman T-shirt, which he would reveal as a symbol of strength when he ripped open the top layer. He ultimately did not go ahead with the stunt.

There are a lot of parallels to connect here, including Trump apparently wanting to riff on the first appearance of Gene Wilder’s Willy Wonka in appearing to be frailer than he actually was in order to get a big response to the shirt stunt. What Trump did instead, of course, was return to the White House and walk up a flight of stairs to the South Portico, where he then removed his mask and saluted in what became a campaign ad or sorts. That was bizarre in it’s own right, but at least it didn’t look like a touchdown celebration that could draw a flag in the NFL on Sundays.

Jeopardy! has always been a game of accuracy and following the rules, which is why it’s very funny when the context clues make a contestant go in a very incorrect direction. The latest example, as it often is, comes from the world of sports — specifically, NASCAR.

On Thursday night, a Jeopardy! clue popped up about NASCAR brothers Kurt and Kyle Busch in a category had contestants thinking about beer names. But the question went very wrong, and the former brother’s racing team took notice on Twitter.

“What is Coors,” was the answer given for a question that, if you’re a NASCAR fan, is clearly about the Busch brothers. Jeopardy! contestants often struggle with sports questions, so this isn’t that big of a surprise. But usually these fails go unnoticed by the person the clue was actually about. The New York Yankees, for example, were a little too busy this week to publicly respond to contestants butchering a category about the team’s history.

But Kurt Busch saw it thanks to Chip Ganassi Racing sharing it on Twitter. He then retweeted it and responded himself, laughing and suggesting an even worse answer given the fizzy clue.

It just goes to show you, once again, that not everyone’s idea of “easy” is the same when it comes to trivia. It’s one of the many ways watching Jeopardy! can make you feel better about your own trivia aptitude. You know, sometimes.

Some college football teams are really good at finding ways to get creative. The sport inherently needs teams to zig when others zag in an attempt to catch opponents off guard every now and then, and while it ends in disaster sometimes, it’s beautiful when these little wrinkles end up working out.

An example of this came on Saturday afternoon as 13th-ranked Auburn played host to Arkansas. During the first quarter, the Tigers came out in the Wildcat, which led to an 11-yard game. The fun wrinkle here was who ran the Wildcat — instead of snapping the ball directly to a hyper-agile running back, or a wide receiver who has a rocket for an arm, Auburn turned to 6’2, 300 pound true freshman tight end J.J. Pegues. Watch the young man rumble:

This wasn’t Pegues’ first carry of the year — he registered two last week against Georgia — but this was easily his best. A four-star athlete recruit in the class of 2020, Pegues showed off his impressive athleticism by planting his foot in the ground for a spin move and hurdling a defender. Both of those would have been impressive no matter who did it, but for a dude of his size (and, not to mention, a true freshman with that kind of football IQ) to pull this off is something else. I hope Auburn gives him the ball a lot more this season.

There is nothing quite like a particularly off-the-rails college football rivalry game. Thanks to the fine folks at the University of Oklahoma and the University of Texas, we got just that in the 2020 Red River Showdown. The two teams squared off in a thrilling, four overtime contest, and by the time the dust settled and Longhorn quarterback Sam Ehlinger’s pass fell into the hands of Sooner defensive back Tre Brown’s hands, Oklahoma knocked off Texas and secured a 53-45 win.

The game was filled with drama early on, with Oklahoma benching star redshirt freshman quarterback Spencer Rattler prior to the half then inserting him back in once the teams returned from the locker room. The Sooners seemed prime to come out on top, though, as they had a 31-17 lead with just under five minutes remaining.

Then, things went off the rails. The Longhorns scored a touchdown with 3:28 left, failed to recover an onside kick, forced a fumble that the Sooners recovered, and broke up a third down pass to get the ball back. They got the ball at their own 16 with 1:52 remaining, then marched down the field and scored the game-tying touchdown with 14 seconds left, when Ehlinger jumped and found a wide open Keaontay Ingram.

Both teams found the end zone in the first overtime, with Ehlinger scampering in and Rattler lobbing one up for tight end and apparent part-time power forward Austin Stogner, who boxed out his defender beautiful and hauled in the ball for six.

The two signal callers turned to their legs in the second overtime. Rattler started things off by getting six, but upon review, it was determined he was just short. This brought up a fourth down, where he went under center and punched it in.

Things weren’t quite as dramatic for the Longhorns. Ehlinger ran for a 25-yard score, and even though the officials missed a … let’s call it aggressive hold up front, Texas forced OT number three.

The kickers entered the fray in the third overtime. You can guess how this went, both by the fact that another overtime came and because nothing good ever happens when college kickers enter the discourse. Texas got the ball first and lined up for a 33-yard kick by Cameron Dicker, but Oklahoma’s Perrion Winfrey got his hand up and swatted the ball down.

Oklahoma responded by playing for the field goal, which never ends well. Sure enough, Gabe Brkic pushed his 31-yard kick wide left, prompting an exasperated Gus Johnson to scream “COLLEGE FOOTBALL!”

Overtime number four started with Oklahoma getting the ball and Rattler making one heck of a play to find Drake Stoops for six. Because of college overtime’s rules, the Sooners had to go for two and were successful, adding a little extra pressure to the ensuing Texas possession.

Things got hairy for the Horns on the ensuing possession, as they got a first down but were called for a holding. As a result, they faced first-and-goal from the 19, and after an incompletion on the first play of that series, Ehlinger got picked off.

The Sooners were starving for a win over their rivals after back-to-back losses in recent weeks that knocked them out of the top-25. The fact that it happened against their biggest rivals and in such dramatic fashion surely didn’t hurt, either.

While Killer Mike’s 2020 might be highlighted by the Run The Jewels 4 album he and El-P released together, the Atlanta rapper has also spent much of the year fighting for equality and social justice in the Black community. The rapper took over Selena Gomez’s Instagram page to talk about activism, speaking publicly on the deaths of George Floyd and Rayshard Brooks, and more. Now the rapper is taking a big step to help the Black and Latinx community on the financial side of things.

Teaming up with civil rights activist and former mayor of Atlanta, Andrew J. Young, and founder of the Bounce TV network, Ryan Glover, Killer Mike has launched the Greenwood digital banking platform for Black and Latinx people. Speaking on the new endeavor in a press release, Killer Mike said, “Today, a dollar circulates for 20 days in the white community but only six hours in the Black community.” He added, “Moreover, a Black person is twice as likely as a white person to be denied a mortgage. This lack of fairness in the financial system is why we created Greenwood.”

To start, Greenwood is offering saving and spending accounts for potential customers as well as black metal debit cards for those who sign up before the end of 2020. Apple, Samsung and Android pay features, mobile check deposits, peer-to-peer transfers, virtual debit cards, and free ATM usage in over 30,000 locations will also be provided to users. Greenwood will also offer five free meals to a family for every person that signs up with the banking platform and every use of a Greenwood debit card will result in a donation to the United Negro College Fund, Goodr and the NAACP. Lastly, the bank will also offer monthly grants in the amount of $10,000 to Black and Latinx customers with a small business.

You can find more information about the banking platform here.

The Miami Heat gutted out a thrilling Game 5 win on Friday night, forcing the Los Angeles Lakers to have to wait for a potential coronation. The team rode a monster night from Jimmy Butler and some hot shooting from Duncan Robinson to see through the win, and as a result, we’ll have a crucial Game 6 on Sunday.

The game marked a small quirk: It was the first time all season that the Lakers lost in their Mamba jerseys. The team entered the game 4-0 in those threads, and while they were slated to wear them in Games 2 and 7, the team opted to toss them on for Friday night in the lead-up to the game.

The Heat were made aware of that record, and according to Jae Crowder, the decision to toss them on by the Lakers served as inspiration heading into the contest.

“You’re hearing how they’re putting the black jerseys on and sh*t and how they haven’t lost a game in those and people start talking about that,” Crowder said, per Bleacher Report. “That is motivation, and it’s always going to get under your skin a little bit. You obviously funnel that in the right direction and use it as motivation and it definitely helped tonight.”

Miami is very much a team that will take any little slight as a way to fire themselves up for a game, so this shouldn’t come as a huge shock. Still, Crowder and co. will very much hope that they get to see these uniforms one more time, because there is nothing they’d love more right now than to force a Game 7.

LSU has shown a drop-off following their torrid, national championship winning 2019 campaign, something that isn’t particularly shocking considering all they lost. Still, the 17th-ranked Tigers entered Saturday’s game against 0-2 Missouri as 14.5-point favorites, and in a high-scoring affair, the Tigers came out on top, 45-41. Well, one of the Tigers came out on top, but to the surprise of most, it was the ones from Columbia.

The game was ultimately decided by a shocking defensive stand by Mizzou. Following a touchdown by Niko Hea to put them up with 5:18 left in the game, LSU got the ball and had eyes on the end zone.

Myles Brennan marched the defending national champs down the field, getting them down to the Missouri 1-yard line with 37 seconds left. The Tigers had one timeout left, so Ed Orgeron had to figure out the best way to manage the situation.

But a funny thing about college football is how the incredible happens in these moments. LSU opted for a pair of runs by Tyrion Davis-Price on first and second down, both of which got stuffed by the Mizzou defense. On third down, the Tigers opted to go to the air, with Brennan’s pass to Terrance Marshall getting broken up.

With 16 seconds on the clock and a touchdown needed to stave off an upset, LSU went to the air once again on fourth down. Brennan rolled out to his right, saw Marshall in the end zone, and went for the win. But much to his chagrin, Joshuah Bledsoe made the play of his life, diving to break up the pass and securing the win for Missouri.

Missouri started its season with back-to-back losses to Alabama and Tennessee. Avoiding an 0-3 start seemed like a longshot, but stuffing a team four times on the 1 is a longshot, too.

Unlike in recent years years, Mariah Carey has been fairly active lately, and it’s thanks in large part to her newly released memoir, The Meaning of Mariah Carey. Her press run for the new book has cleared up a number of rumors, some of which include whether her songs “My All” and “The Roof” were about her relationship with Major League Baseball star Derek Jeter and the recording and release of a 1995 grunge album entitled Someone’s Ugly Daughter. Fresh off topping the New York Times best-seller list with the memoir, Carey has fans seething with excitement for yet another reason.

Friday afternoon, the singer posted a picture of three directors chairs on Twitter, each featuring a set of initials: M.C., A.G., J.H. Above it was Christmas emoji. After the post, people quickly speculated that the initials stood for Carey herself, Ariana Grande, Jennifer Hudson, and that the picture could result in a new Christmas track with the three singers on it. As a result, people took to Twitter to share their reactions to the potential track.

“Ariana Grande, Mariah Carey AND Jennifer Hudson ALL IN ONE SONG,” one fan wrote. “We won!!!! Another Christmas #1 classic on the way.” Another wrote, “Ariana Grande, Mariah Carey AND Jennifer Hudson on the same track is simply unfair lmaooooo no ones topping this.” The post comes a week after Carey shared The Rarities compilation album which featured previously-unreleased tracks “with personal relevance and meaning” to the singer.

You can see more reactions below.

A number of narratives were at play entering Saturday morning’s Overwatch League Grand Finals. The San Francisco Shock, a team that is primed to be the league’s first dynasty, looked to repeat as champions despite major changes, like losing 2019 OWL MVP Jay “Sinatraa” Won to retirement midway through the year and a season that was suddenly shifted to being played exclusively online. The Shock entered the Grand Finals with a chance to be the first team to repeat in a league that feels exclusively designed to prevent that.

Across from them was the Seoul Dynasty, a franchise that, from the day it was created, was meant to live as their name suggests. Seoul was supposed to be the perennial favorite every year of Overwatch League. If South Korea is the epicenter of eSports, then the Dynasty sought out a position at the top of the sport. Despite these expectations, they had largely failed in the first two seasons of the league, missing the playoffs entirely in year one and coming in as the bottom seed in the second season. Making the Grand Final was what needed to happen for a franchise that expects greatness.

It’s safe to say that there was a lot on the line entering the contest, but only one team could come out on top. Unsurprisingly, it was the one that looked great almost all season long: the star-studded San Francisco Shock. They’re a team that took every single change and setback head-on and came out on the other side better for it. The Shock were deserving to win the championship, and here’s how they did it.

GAME 1

The Shock were arguably the best team on the control point during Grand Finals weekend and we saw some of that on display here. After going down early in round one, the Shock composed themselves and re-captured point on the way to a close 100 percent to 99 percent victory to take a 1-0 lead.

San Francisco showed its dominance in round two with an incredible display of overwhelming force. The Dynasty never took control of point, and the Shock rolled to a Game 1 victory.

GAME 2

Sometimes a game is won early. Other times, it’s won late. Game 2 was arguably decided entirely by Seoul’s first point performance in rounds one and two. In the first round, they almost immediately relented the point to San Francisco after the Shock steamrolled to point and immediately took a pick advantage with high ground. As is tradition on Kings Row, the Shock immediately rolled through point two on the way to the third and final point.

This is where we saw Seoul finally start to regain a little control and hold San Francisco for a few minutes, but the Shock rarely ever wasted time. Any pushes that ended were immediately restarted, and the overwhelming pressure by the Shock eventually led to a 3-0 lead entering round two. Seoul, on the other hand, did not get this same kind of luxury. They needed overtime to capture the first point and the Shock’s ability to never really stop pushing allowed for an incredible stall. All that time wasting left Seoul with little room for error.

The Dynasty did manage to get the payload within inches of capping third point and forcing a round three, but without the time bank on their side, the Shock managed to push them back and win Game 2.

Game 3

Thanks to having counter pick, the Dynasty chose to send Game 3 to Hanamura, a map where the Shock are 18-0 and haven’t lost since 2018. The gamble worked: The Seoul managed to sneak away with the first win against the Shock on Hanamura in two years. They played great, used much better positioning, and just simply out-played the Shock.

Game 4

Seoul was dominant in Game 4. They pushed all the way to third point with a double sniper comp that San Francisco just couldn’t match. That said, Seoul didn’t have much of a time bank to work with, so a quick push by the Shock could put a damper on their comeback efforts quickly.

Enter Genji. The Dynasty ran the surprise Genji on defense, and it was spectacular. Profit cleaned up, and thanks to the Ana pick, they had one of the best combos in the game, nano-blade, on their side. That, along with some sick hooks by Gesutre on Roadhog, led to a full hold on first point. Seoul tied it up at 2-2.

Game 5

Back to control point, and this is where the Shock are at their most dangerous. When you have the best Tracer in the world in Striker and an absolute head clicker in Ans, it makes sense they would be dominant on control point maps, but you can’t count out the Dynasty. Profit is not too shabby on the gun himself and he had a play that, at the time, felt like it could act as a momentum swing to take the game back in the Dynasty’s favor.

The Shock recovered, though, and when the game was on the line, Ans made sure to close it out to put the Shock within one win of the championship.

Game 6

This was the game that decided it all. The Shock smelled blood in the water and came out strong, but any early series jitters the Dynasty may have had were gone. They fought every step of the way, and when they managed to hold the Shock to only two capture points, it felt like we were on the way to a Game 7.

The Shock made sure to never let it be in doubt. They drained almost all of Seoul’s clock on the first point, just like they did on Kings Row, and then didn’t let them get anywhere close to capping the second point. The Dynasty got stuck at the choke and never made it farther than that. As Super blasted a whole hog to finish off the remaining Dynasty players, it became clear the Shock were going to repeat as champions.

It really came down to one thing at the end: execution on mistakes. The Dynasty too often didn’t take advantage of pushes where they had the advantage and wasted time. Game 6 alone saw a lack of urgency pushing through the first choke, despite Hollywood being an incredibly difficult map to push past the second point on, and poor mistakes. On the opening push of the very beginning of the game, the Dynasty let Tobi die almost immediately. They won the team fight that proceeded after that, but those are the kind of mistakes that ended up costing them at the end of the match. You can’t give the Shock opportunities like that, because if you do, they will burn you.

That said, this doesn’t feel like a one and done for the Dynasty. They’re in a position to take this and build off momentum. The Dynasty are finally starting to reach the expectations that were put upon them, and it will be exciting to see what they do with them. The Shock, on the other hand, have a moment to do something truly spectacular. This is a team full of stars. They’ve repeated as champions. There is no reason to think that if they enter next season with this same group they can’t three-peat.

Craig Of The Creek launched its third season back in June, and since then the show has premiered nine episodes, with the last one coming in late August. A trailer for an upcoming Halloween special, entitled “Trick or Creek,” was released, and it shows one of its characters dressing up as Missy Elliott for some trick or treating. Craig Williams’ mother, Nicole, who is voiced by Kimberly Hebert Gregory, enthusiastically flaunts her outfit made of trash bags, attempting to emulate her get-up in the video “The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly).” Her kids don’t get it.

Missy Elliott herself caught wind of the trailer and shared her reaction to it. First, she dropped a series of emojis, including laughing and fire emojis. Later, she returned with a second comment that read, “I am so humbly grateful,” accompanied by a purple heart emoji.

Her emulation in the Craig Of The Creek episode comes after she landed a star on Hollywood’s Walk Of Fame and joined Dua Lipa on her Club Future Nostalgia remix album.

You can watch the Craig Of The Creek video in the post above.

Missy Elliott is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.