Month: October 2020

The Giants and Rams played a pretty sleepy, boring game in an empty SoFi Stadium on Sunday, with the Rams emerging with a 17-9 win thanks to a game-sealing interception as New York worked their way into the redzone.

The most exciting play of the game was Jalen Ramsey blowing up a screen pass to Golden Tate in which he went through a blocker and then put a perfect tackle on Tate, slamming him to the ground emphatically.

That moment reminded many of Tate and Ramsey’s off-field history, as Ramsey has two children with Tate’s sister, with Tate publicly making statements calling out Ramsey for disrespecting his sister after the two broke up. After the game, Ramsey and Tate came together at midfield in a moment that many likely should’ve seen coming, sparking a brawl between the two teams as they swung at each other and then ended up wrestling to the ground, with the two teams fighting while trying to break it up.

It will be interesting to see if the league issues any discipline for this, given that we are in the midst of a pandemic and we’ve already seen multiple games postponed due to positive tests this week. As such, two teams brawling isn’t exactly ideal, both in terms of optics and in creating close face-to-face contact.

As for Tate and Ramsey, this would seem to only further their issues with each other and this likely won’t be their last confrontation.

Donald Trump is allegedly getting better. Late Thursday night it was reported that the president, who has been widely accused of downplaying the pandemic that has affected the United States in far greater numbers than elsewhere, had tested positive for COVID-19. Since then he’s been quarantining, first in the White House and then in a massive suite in D.C.’s Walter Reed Army Medical Center. Word on his condition has been fuzzy, with some reports being grim, others being very optimistic. And on late Sunday, in an apparent attempt to show off his alleged good spirits, he got into an SUV with a pile of Secret Service agents to do a quick drive around the massive crowds that have gathered, loudly, outside of the hospital.

Thing is, even if he’s been feeling better, anyone who’s tested positive for the coronavirus should not be crammed inside a tight space with anyone, even if they’re decked out in PPE, as they appear to be. While Trump’s supporters may appreciate the gesture, others noticing the quick drive from afar, on social media, thought it was cruel.

Some pointed out that the Secret Service’s job — to take a bullet for the president — has its limits.

Some pointed out that endangering officers sworn to uphold lives doesn’t gibe with other public statements about the police put forth by this administration.

Some quoted a former Secret Service officer and leaders.

That’s a lot of righteous anger, but hand it to Jordan Uhl for finding the one humorous lining of Trump’s latest dangerous photo op stunt.

So did this guy.

In any case, if it’s true that Trump was tested positive Thursday night, he has another week-and-a-half until he’s supposed to be around anyone else, for fear of exposing them to a highly infectious disease. But we’ll see how long that lasts.

Looking to show off their skills in a new medium, Lupe Fiasco and Royce Da 5’9″ have announced a new podcast, entitled The Lupe & Royce Show, in partnership with SayWhat Media. Lupe made the announcement on Instagram, with a caption that read, “SURPRISE!!! Me & @royceda59 decided to do a podcast 2 gether like 2 real geniuses.” You can currently listen to a trailer for the show on Apple Podcasts and Spotify, with a description that reads, “Half conversation between friends, half interview show, and 100% weird.” Lupe also revealed that the podcast features Thomas Frank and will be available starting October 8.

The two rappers last made news together when Lupe asked Royce for permission to replace Joe Budden in the Slaughterhouse rap collective.” Royce quickly turned down the request, but for good reason, as he laster explained. “He’s no ‘group replacement guy.’ He’s great. He’s not just an MC, he’s a ‘master,’” Royce said in an interview with HipHopDX. “That’s something completely different. They’re two totally different kinds of rappers and people. So that’s not a swap.”

The The Lupe & Royce Show announcement comes days after Lupe shared his Tape Tape double-single with Soundtrakk. He also teamed up with Florida producer Kaelin Ellis for their House EP which they released back in July.

The NBA Finals lost a bit of intrigue in Game 1 when the Heat, in the midst of a blowout loss, saw two of their star players go down with injuries. Goran Dragic left the game with what was eventually determined to be a plantar fascia tear of his left foot, with Bam Adebayo leaving in the third quarter with a neck strain.

Both players were held out of Game 2, with mild hope that they could play later in the series. The Heat lost Game 2 despite a valiant effort to keep things relatively close in the second half, but the talent discrepancy without Adebayo and Dragic was simply too great. In Game 3, the Heat will once again have to find a way to scrap their way to a win without the services of their All-Star big man and former All-Star point guard, as the team announced both would be sitting out again.

It’s an extremely unfortunate way for this Finals to be taking place, as the Lakers won Game 1 emphatically, injuries or not, but the Heat not being at full strength puts a damper on the excitement that the series began with. Miami was on one of the great playoff runs we’ve seen from an unexpected contender, and for them to not have a shot at the Lakers with their full squad is a disappointment. Still, as Erik Spoelstra said after Game 2, they don’t care what expectations are, they still feel they need to go out and win, with or without Adebayo and Dragic.

The Seattle Storm are one game away from their fourth WNBA championship as a franchise and second in three years after a 104-91 win over the Las Vegas Aces in Game 2 of the WNBA Finals.

The Aces have simply not had any answers for the Seattle offense, which had three players score 20-plus in Game 2. Breanna Stewart led all scorers with 22 points on 7-of-13 shooting (5-of-8 from three) to go along with five assists and four rebounds. She had plenty of help, as Alysha Clark and Natasha Howard each had 21 points on a combined 17-of-22 from the field, and the legendary Sue Bird had 16 points and 10 assists as they simply cooked the Las Vegas defense with their ball movement.

The Storm had 33 assists on 40 made shots in Game 2, posting a preposterous 57.1/46.2/80.0 shooting split as a team, as they took advantage of the Aces aggressive helping on defense, particularly in the post, to create open looks from the perimeter. The Aces on a few occasions pulled within a few of Seattle, but the closing run by the Storm was just too much. On each of these fourth quarter three-pointers that helped salt the game away, you can see how they took advantage of the Aces pack the paint defense against them, as perimeter players sank inside leaving opportunities for open shooters.

On the other end, the Aces played really well. MVP A’ja Wilson had 20 points on 8-of-17 shooting, while Emma Cannon added 17 points off the bench and Angel McCoughtry chipped in 16. As a team they hit 52 percent from the field and 42.1 percent from three-point range, which typically would be more than enough for the three-point averse Aces, but they simply cannot seem to stop this Storm offense.

As the series shifts to a potential closeout Game 3 for Seattle, Vegas will have to find a way to slow down the Storm offense. They have to stick more with perimeter shooters and cut off driving lanes for Bird, who has 26 assists in two games this series and is simply carving them up. Stewart is nigh unstoppable, but they might just have to give up some one-on-one opportunities to the former MVP in exchange for knocking their shooters out of rhythm.

While Game 2 of the WNBA Finals was taking place in the Wubble at IMG Academy in Florida, the league released the 10 players who earned All-WNBA honors this season. The players on the first team will earn a $10,300 bonus, while second team players earn a $5,150 bonus for being named All-WNBA.

WNBA MVP A’ja Wilson and league DPOY Candace Parker both earned unanimous selections to the first team as forwards, with Breanna Stewart, who has been a dominant force for the Seattle Storm thus far in the Finals, earned 46 first-team votes at center, one shy of joining Wilson and Parker for unanimous honors. The rest of All-WNBA teams are as follows.

All-WNBA First Team

A’ja Wilson
Candace Parker
Breanna Stewart
Courtney Vandersloot
Arike Ogunbowale

All-WNBA Second Team

Diana Taurasi
DeWanna Bonner
Napheesa Collier
Skyler Diggins-Smith
Myisha Hines-Allen

Vandersloot set a new WNBA record by averaging 10 assists per game this season, making her an unsurprising first team selection, while Ogunbowale averaged a league-high 22.8 points per game this season in Dallas. The second team features a pair of Phoenix teammates in Taurasi and Diggins-Smith, as they averaged 18.7 and 17.7 points per game respectively. Bonner was third in the league in scoring at 19.7 points per game while Collier was the league’s Rookie of the Year in Minnesota, and Hines-Allen averaged 17 points and 8.9 rebounds per game in Washington.

Halloween’s the next major holiday to look forward to, but with his new song, “This Day,” Usher has his eyes set on Christmas. The song sports an appearance from Kiana Lede and will be a part of the soundtrack to Netflix’s upcoming film, Jingle Jangle: A Christmas Journey, which stars Forest Whitaker, Keegan-Michael Key, Phylicia Rashad, Ricky Martin, Anika Noni Rose, and more. The track is a motivational number that aims to uplift those feeling the pressures of life. Usher and Kiana give a powerful reminder to listeners that one day all their hard work will be paid off.

As for the movie’s soundtrack, which will be released on November 13 through Atlantic Records, John Legend is set to provide the film’s original score. The song is Usher’s third single of the year, joining “SexBeat,” his collaboration with Lil Jon and Ludacris. That one follows his 2019 track, “Don’t Waste My Time,” with Ella Mai, as singles from his upcoming Confessions 2 album.

As for Kiana Lede, the Phoenix native shared her debut album Kiki earlier this year, a 19-track effort that boasted appearances from Ari Lennox, Lucky Daye, 6lack, and more.

You can listen to “This Day” in the video above.

Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

The Dallas Cowboys did their best to comeback from another massive fourth quarter deficit on Sunday, as they rattled off 24 unanswered points on the Cleveland Browns to cut a 41-14 Browns lead to 41-38 with just under four minutes to play in the game. However, unlike their unbelievable comeback win over the Falcons two weeks ago, the Browns were able to get just enough offense late to put the game away, courtesy of Odell Beckham Jr.

The star receiver had, by far, his best game as a Brown on Sunday, catching five passes for 81 yards and a pair of touchdowns while also rushing for 73 yards on two carries, including the dagger, a 50-yard end-around score that, for a moment, looked like it might result in a 10-plus yard loss before Beckham turned the corner and evaded some horrific tackling efforts from the Cowboys secondary.

It was Beckham’s second TD of the day on a trick play, as he also caught a touchdown pass from fellow wideout Jarvis Landry for Cleveland’s first score of the day.

The reverse put Cleveland up nine and all but put the game on ice, but things got, briefly, dicey for Cleveland when the extra point was blocked and Dallas could have run it back to make it just a seven point game. However, the Cowboys kicked the ball around and, ultimately, the Browns recovered in the end zone for a two-point conversion — and the guy who blocked it was offsides anyways.

It was just about the perfect ending to a game that saw Dallas’ defense unable to do anything to stop the Browns all game before Cleveland stalled out on three straight fourth quarter drives while trying to preserve the lead. Beckham puts up a monster game that will, at least for a bit, quiet the concerns about how much he’s being used in the Cleveland offense, as the Browns move to 3-1. Dallas, meanwhile, drops to 1-3, with their lone win being that miracle comeback over the Falcons as the Mike McCarthy era is off to a dismal start.

J. Cole has been teasing his upcoming project, The Fall Off, for a couple of years now. It began with the inclusion of “1985 (Intro to “The Fall Of”)” on his 2018 album, KOD. Promotion of the album continued the following year as Cole mentioned it during his performance at the 2019 Day N Vegas festival. Now it seems like fans will be receiving something from Cole, whether it be the album or something else, as he delivered what seems to be a new update through his alter ego, Kill Edward, who he first introduced onKOD.

In a pair of posts to his Instagram story, Kill Edward says, “Damn been off for awhile but ima make sure we end 2020 something special” in the first post before concluded the message with “Stay tuned hope y’all ready!” in the second post. In a 2018 Vulture profile, it was revealed that Kill Edward is Cole’s alter ego, one inspired by his father. Cole’s last update from the The Fall Off arrived a couple of months with the release of his Lewis Street double-single which featured he first songs of 2020: “Lion King On Ice” and “The Climb Back.”

The announcement through Kill Edward’s page comes after J. Cole was honored with a large mural in Durham, North Carolina done by graffiti artist JEKS who worked in collaboration with hip-hop photographer Jonathan Mannion.

Coronavirus remains the biggest topic of discussion in the United States and the world at large, amplified by Donald Trump’s positive coronavirus diagnosis and subsequent hospitalization on Friday. Trump’s medical status seems to be uncertain, as is the status of many who interacted with Trump and the White House over the last week.

That’s made a lot of other people take their own precautions as the uncertainty remains, including the Democratic challenger for Lindsey Graham’s senate seat in South Carolina. Graham is in a tough race against Jamie Harrison, who has seen a huge fundraising boom after the death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Graham has led the charge to replace her Supreme Court seat before the November election, a reversal of his stance on a similar situation four years ago.

The attention and fundraising has made Graham basically beg for money for his own campaign, as his lead has shrunk in recent weeks. That put a lot of attention on a debate between Graham and Harrison, and on Saturday the latter showed up with his own extreme version of personal protective equipment: a huge plexiglass shield put between himself and Graham to prevent the potential spread of coronavirus.

Graham, of course, has not tested positive in the days since Trump’s diagnosis but Harrison wasn’t taking any chances, and he explained why during the debate itself.

“Tonight I am taking this seriously,” Harrison said, explaining that the virus has impacted himself and his family this year. “That’s why I put this plexiglass up. Because it’s not just about me — it’s about the people in my life that I have to take care of as well. My two boys, my wife, my grandmother.”

Graham said late last week that he tested negative, but the CDC recommends people exposed to the virus self-quarantine for 14 days to prevent a potential asymptomatic spread to others. Graham is clearly not doing that, and so his opponent for his hotly-contested Senate seat certainly did everything he could to keep his distance on Saturday.