Month: January 2021

The Boston Celtics got a bit of brutal news on Saturday afternoon as word dropped that star forward Jayson Tatum will miss up to two weeks due to the league’s COVID-19 protocols. It is unclear if Tatum tested positive or was just a close contact, but regardless, he is now set to quarantine for the next 10-14 days.

The news of Tatum getting sidelined did not just impact the Celtics, however. According to Shams Charania of The Athletic, Washington Wizards star and league-leading scorer Bradley Beal will miss the team’s game on Saturday night against the Miami Heat following exposure to Tatum.

Beal and the Wizards played the Celtics on Friday, falling 116-107. Charania added the reason why in a subsequent tweet: After the game, Beal and Tatum, both of whom are natives of St. Louis and attended the same high school several years apart, spent time on the floor speaking to one another. It was determined that Beal was close enough to Tatum that this was cause for concern.

The news of Beal being out is the latest in what has been a brutal week for the NBA with regards to its ability to put on a season amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Earlier in the day, a mix of normal injuries and COVID-19 protocols led to the Philadelphia 76ers only having eight players — the minimum required to play a game‚ in a loss to the Denver Nuggets, which was without young standout Michael Porter Jr. due to his need to quarantine after exposure.

If all things go well for the West Coast rapper, 2021 will be the first full year of freedom for Drakeo The Ruler. For the last four years, the rapper was locked up in Los Angeles’ Men’s Central Jail following a pair of arrests that stunted his initial rise to fame.

A month after his release from prison in November, Drakeo shared his We Know The Truth mixtape which delivered 25 new songs to fans including “Mr. Mosley Claps Back,” one that he recently delivered a music video for. The visual finds Drakeo posted in a loft with a few of his friends as he delivers slick bars that warns his listeners and fellow competitors that he is certainly not the one to play with.

Shortly after his release, Drakeo shared the reason behind Los Angeles District Attorney Jackie Lacey’s ill feelings toward him after he refiled new charges against the rapper in 2019. “I was successful and I was from the streets. They don’t like to see someone like me make it, it goes against how they operate,” he said. “For someone like me to get out of the streets, it just goes against everything that they stand for.” Since his release, Drakeo has been unstoppable, sharing a second mixtape, Because Yall Asked at the end of December.

You can watch the “Mr. Mosley Claps Back” video above. We Know The Truth is out now via Stinc Team. Get it here.

Football teams love running screen passes because they are, theoretically, low risk plays. They involve the quarterback getting the ball quickly to a pass catcher — whether they be a wide receiver or a running back — and setting them up with at least a blocker so they can pick up a few easy yards.

The issue is that when they don’t work, they end in disaster. That’s what happened in the NFC Wild Card tilt between the Los Angeles Rams and the Seattle Seahawks. During the second quarter of what had been a pretty defensive football game, Russell Wilson dropped back and looked to pick up a few easy yards with a screen pass to DK Metcalf.

Unfortunately for Wilson, Rams cornerback Darious Williams knew exactly what was coming. Whether it was because he read something or he just knew what his division foes like to do in that spot, Williams blew the play up, reeled in the pass from Wilson, and despite Metcalf’s best effort was able to stroll into the end zone untouched.

The craziest thing about this is that the play was not only the first pick six on a WR screen pass this season, it was the first time a quarterback was picked off on this play all year.

Weird things happen in the playoffs, and few things are weirder than something like this happening. Regardless, this is one hell of a play by Williams to give the Rams their first touchdown of the game.

For the past two years, CBS has been working on a reboot of the 1980s drama series, The Equalizer. At the time of its announcement back in November 2019, it was revealed that Queen Latifah would be an executive producer for the show and play the lead role of Robyn McCall in the series as well. A pilot order for the new reboot was issued a few months later and once production for the first season was complete, a premiere date of February 7, 2021 was shared with fans.

With less than a month to go until the show launches on CBS, the first trailer was shared with fans on Twitter and it only added to the excitement many have for the new series.

The 30-second trailer begins with Latifah walking alongside her daughter Delilah, who is played by Laya DeLeon Hayes, as a few action shots of Latifah appear on the screen while her daughter questions her seemingly random decision to quit her job. The next 20 seconds find the famed actress and singer ducking gunshots and shooting some of her own all while solving crime in the process. When asked about her occupation towards the end of the trailer, Latifah confidently says, “I’m the one you call when you can’t call 911.”

After getting a glimpse of what’s the come in The Equalizer reboot, fans quickly took to Twitter to share their reactions. “Queen Latifah as a badass in The Equalizer new series?” one viewer asked. “Yes Please!!!” Another said, “All I saw was Queen Latifah with a gun and immediately said “I don’t care what it is, I’m gonna watch that.”

You can watch the trailer above and read more reactions from fans below.

For the first time since 1995, the Buffalo Bills have won a playoff game. The AFC East champions and the pesky Indianapolis Colts kicked off the 2021 NFL Playoffs with an absolutely thrilling football game, and despite the fact that Indy threw everything it could at them late, Buffalo came out on top, 27-24.

Indianapolis rushed out to an early 10-7 lead and appeared to have the perfect gameplan for taking Buffalo down. They relied heavily on their ability to run the ball and asking Philip Rivers to make high-percentage throws in the passing game, but there was an issue: The Colts could not finish drives, getting inside the Bills’ 15 three times and only turning it into 10 points.

Their third trip to the doorstep may have turned the tide of the game — Indianapolis got it down to Buffalo’s 1 but could not punch it in. On the next drive, the Bills went 96 yards just before the end of half and scored on a Josh Allen run.

In a move that was trademarked by the team that had dominated Buffalo’s division for decades, they scored late to end the first half, got the ball to start the second, and got points via a field goal. Their next two drives ended in similar ways — an Allen touchdown toss to Stefon Diggs and a field goal — but Indianapolis kept finding answers. They began to stray from their gameplan and began attacking a little more, which led to a pair of touchdown passes by Rivers, one to Zach Pascal and one to Jack Doyle.

Buffalo managed to get a little cushion between those Colts touchdowns on a 54-yard field goal by rookie kicker Tyler Bass, whose boot into the wind looked like it would have been good from at least 60.

But the Colts kept coming, and after forcing a Bills punt with 2:37 left — the drive was going well until disaster struck and an Allen fumble put them in an insurmountable second-and-33 — Indianapolis got the ball back just before the two-minute warning and needing a field goal to force an extra period.

The game seemed over with less than 30 seconds left. Rivers found his receiver, Pascal, over the middle of the field. Pascal went down to reel the pass in, but got up, started running, and had the ball jarred out by Matt Milano. He was called down on the field, though, and the officials determined after a review that the play stood as called, despite the fact that replays looked to show his knees off the ground and the ball recovered by Jordan Poyer.

It was a controversial decision, but it ended up delaying the inevitable — Rivers attempted a hail mary that would have been short even if it landed in the arms of one of his receivers.

More than three years after its release, Lil Nas X’s “Old Town Road” has once again made history. The singer’s breakout smash hit is now the most-certified song in music history at 14x Platinum, breaking the tie it held with Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee’s “Despacito.” The Spanish duo’s song had held the record since January 2020. The new achievement is the latest in a long list of records “Old Town Road” has smashed, including becoming the fastest single in RIAA history to receive Diamond certification in the United States, as well as spending the most consecutive weeks at No. 1, namely 19. The song also won a pair of Grammy awards for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance and Best Music Video.

Staying true to his comical social media ways, the singer posted a hilarious reaction to the news on Twitter.

The new achievement comes after he released his first children’s book, C Is For Country. According to a publisher’s statement, the book invites young readers to join the singer and Panini the pony — named after the song from his 7 EP — as they journey through the alphabet. The description: “Experience wide-open pastures, farm animals, guitar music, cowboy hats, and all things country in this debut picture book that’s perfect for music lovers learning their ABCs and for anyone who loves Nas’s signature genre-blending style.”

As far as the singer’s upcoming music, his debut album is scheduled to arrive at some point this year. He spent much of the second half of 2020 teasing it and slowly updating fans on its progress. The last update came in October, revealing that the project was “98% done.”

Sacha Baron Cohen played a small role in what became the fall of Donald Trump: He tricked his attorney Rudy Giuliani into participating in a shocking and humiliating fake interview for his sequel to Borat. But the performer isn’t just kidding around. He’s broken character on multiple occasions to call out social media for allowing the proliferation of misinformation, including that perpetrated by Trump himself. So when Twitter finally banned the outgoing president from their service, he was overjoyed.

“This is the most important moment in the history of social media,” Baron Cohen wrote on his personal Twitter account. “The world’s largest platforms have banned the world’s biggest purveyor of lies, conspiracies and hate. To every Facebook and Twitter employee, user and advocate who fought for this–the entire world thanks you!”

Trump was ousted from Twitter — and has his services blocked or limited on many other social media services as well — after the events of the last week, in which he was accused of inciting what became a failed coup by an army of his supporters. Five people were left dead, including a police officer, and disturbing photos find heavily armed supporters even toting zip ties, suggesting they were out for hostages. The 45th president has regularly used social media to spread lies, including baseless claims about voter fraud in November’s election.

Back in November of 2019, Baron Cohen broke from his characters to deliver a fiery speech in which he took Facebook, and its head Mark Zuckerberg, to the woodshed for allowing “hate and violence” to spread on their service. He made sure to address one of the criticisms made by Trump supporters in the wake of the Twitter ban: that his removal is violation of the first amendment. Baron Cohen would disagree:

“This is not about limiting anyone’s free speech. This is about giving people, including some of the most reprehensible people on earth, the biggest platform in history to reach a third of the planet. Freedom of speech is not freedom of reach. Sadly, there will always be racists, misogynists, anti-Semites and child abusers. But I think we could all agree that we should not be giving bigots and pedophiles a free platform to amplify their views and target their victims.”

(Via Consequence of Sound)

While some have to be forced off social media, such as outgoing American president Donald Trump, others leave by choice. That, reportedly, is what Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are doing. A source close to them told The Times of London that while the Duke and Duchess of Sussex have a new company, Archewell, they have “no plans” to put it on Twitter, Facebook, etc. They are also “very unlikely” to return to their personal accounts.

The pair, who left England and most of their royal duties last year and wound up in California with a Netflix deal, have previously opened up about being harassed online, just as they have by the British tabloids. They also haven’t been on social media in some time. Markle talked to People in October, explaining why she’s stepped away from a life devoted to doomscrolling and such:

“I’ve made a personal choice to not have any account, so I don’t know what’s out there, and many ways that’s helpful for me … I have a lot of concerns for people that have become obsessed with it. And it is so much a part of our daily culture for so many people that it’s an addiction like many others. There are very few things in this world where you call the person who is engaging with it a user.”

(Via The Times of London and EW)

Back in September, Katy Perry was home with her daughter, Daisy Dove Bloom, when she learned a man had climbed over the fence of their Beverly Hills property. The alleged stalker, William Edward Terry, was asked to leave but, when he refused to do so, was apprehended by security and placed under a citizen’s arrest. Terry was officially charged with trespassing on Wednesday and given a court arraignment date of January 8. However, he did not show up, according to TMZ.

A warrant was issued for his arrest, but Perry’s fear is that he will try and come in contact with the singer and her family once again. This could prove to be costly for him, as a restraining order was put in place at the request of Perry’s husband Orlando Bloom, their child Daisy, and Orlando’s son Flynn. On top of that, Terry used his social media accounts to harass Perry with lewd and unwarranted messages prior to the trespassing incident. Threats were also made to Bloom and other people close to the singer.

Katy gave birth to Daisy, her and Orlando’s first child, back in August, just a month before the trespassing incident. The birth was announced on UNICEF’s Instagram, as they are both Goodwill Ambassadors for the foundation. The post was also attached to a donation page, which asked followers to contribute to in order to “help every mother and newborn get the care they need.”

(via TMZ)

A lot has changed for Donald Trump in the last few days. He began the week merely as the outgoing president, with about two weeks left in office yet still fanning the flames of baseless voter fraud. But after his supporters launched a deadly siege on the Capitol building, resulting in five deaths, including that of a police officer, the tide has sharply changed. On Friday night, Twitter announced they were permanently banning him. Other social media services followed suit, either expelling him outright or limiting his powers.

One of them is Pinterest. Mind you, Trump does not have an account there. According to Axios, the image- and gif-sharing site has been “limiting hashtags related to pro-Trump topics such as #StopTheSteal since around the November election.” A spokesperson also said, “Our team is continuing to monitor and removing harmful content, including misinformation and conspiracy theories that may incite violence.”

Still, when Fox News put up a graphic containing all the social media sites cracking down on all things Donald Trump, lots of people online thought it was weird to see the bougie joint alongside places like Facebook, Google, YouTube, Instagram, Reddit, even Twitch, and more besides.

Shopify also got singled out for similar reasons.

You can see a full list of social media services that have blocked or limited all things Trump over at Axios.