Month: February 2022

For those of us country fans who are passionate about expanding diversity within the genre — word to Jason Isbell — the recent success of Mickey Guyton has been a boon. This rising country star isn’t afraid to speak on the subjects that are closest to her heart, releasing the song “Black Like Me” last year, following up on themes addressed in the resurgence of the Black Lives Matter movement in 2020. But her debut full-length, Remember Her Name was also an incredible addition to country music last year, and it earned Guyton three Grammy nominations in this year’s ceremony.

So for anyone who has been paying attention, the NFL’s decision to tap Guyton for the National Anthem at this year’s Super Bowl made perfect sense. And she was in fine form for her moment in the spotlight today, absolutely belting out the anthem to kick off one of the most important sporting events of the year. Another great addition to her setlist would’ve been Mickey’s own early hit, “Rosé,” but hey, we can’t have everything. Check out her performance up above, and if you want to get a headstart before she likely wins a few awards at this year’s Grammys, stream her 2021 album, Remember Her Name right here.

The MCU’s cranking back to life in theaters (after the bang-up Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, the underwhelming Eternals, and the box-office-storming Spider-Man: No Way Home) with Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness starring Benedict Cumberbatch after WandaVision and Loki cracked open the multiverse. We’ve already seen an extensive teaser that revealed some consequences for Doctor Strange f*cking with the Multiverse a little too much. He’d asked for help from Wanda and learned that he’s apparently the universe’s greatest threat. It’s a lot!

And it’s about to become even more overwhelming with this full-on trailer, which shows how, even though Wanda Maximoff initially seems receptive to helping Strange, she’s not exactly pleased about this: “You break the rules… and become the hero. I do it, and I become the enemy. That doesn’t seem fair.”

Yup, Wanda’s brand of Chaos Magic certainly isn’t regarded as kindly as the heroics of Strange. She’s got a valid complaint there for sure, and we’ve already seen her (at the end of WandaVision) studying the Darkhold, so one can expect her to wield that knowledge here. The trailer also follows up on the very brief synopsis from Marvel Studios, which points towards Dr. Stephen Strange screwing up (even more) by “cast[ing] a forbidden spell that opens a portal to the multiverse.” Then “a threat emerges that may be too big for his team to handle.” Won’t someone please listen to Wong?

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness hits theaters on May 6, 2022.

Jhene Aiko and Big Sean are clearly fans of the LA Rams, even if they were mistaken for another celebrity couple at a recent game. The couple that makes music together, and watches sports together, stays together, chyron troubles be damned. Undeterred, Jhene showed up at Super Bowl LVI today, ready to honor her country and her team. She wasn’t singing a track off her Grammy-nominated album, Chilombo, but the oh-so-patriotic “America The Beautiful.”

Along with rising country star Mickey Guyton, who was tapped to sing the National Anthem this year, Aiko helped open this year’s Super Bowl with her rendition of the classic patriotic tune. In true Aiko fashion, there was plenty of soulfulness and her own twist on the standard. Check out her performance up above and stay tuned for a lot more music coming your way today.

The Super Bowl halftime performance is always a big deal for any artist, but this year, Dr. Dre organized an all-star cast that includes Eminem, Kendrick Lamar, Snoop Dogg and Mary J. Blige. And with rumors of a new single from Kendrick Lamar spreading like wildfire, that show is definitely not a music moment to miss, even if you’re not necessarily a sports fan.

The Super Bowl is here and that brings with it the largest sports betting card of the year. With mobile betting apps and legal sports betting in more and more places, every week offers a veritable smorgasbord of player and team props, but there is still nothing that comes close to the prop sheet for the Super Bowl.

As we did a year ago, we are going to try and track every bet for the Rams and Bengals in this year’s Super Bowl, updating throughout the night to help you keep track of all the props. We are pulling our numbers from Caesars Sportsbook, so there may be some differences depending on your book of choice, but for the most part these should be pretty close to the consensus numbers across the board. We are not tracking the more exotic props (cross-sport props, etc.) or any of the combo props, but we’ll hit all individual player stat props, team stat props, first player props, and as much as we can.

We will list the player and their Over/Under numbers below, separated by prop type, and they’ll get a bolded OVER when they cross that mark or an UNDER at the end of the night if they fall short. When a first prop gets completed, we’ll bold it and bold the winner of the prop.

We hope you have a successful night on the prop sheet and for those of you who just want to keep track of what bettors are sweating out there, hopefully this is a one stop shop for you to track it all.

COIN TOSS

Heads (-105) vs. Tails (-105)

First Props

Who Receives Opening Kickoff: Rams (-120)
Opening Kickoff To Be Touchback: Yes (+100)
What Happens First: Sack (-110)
First Team In Red Zone: Rams (-130)
First Team To Score: Rams (-135)
First Touchdown Will Be: Passing (-200)
First Rams TD Will Be: Passing (-200)
First Bengals TD Will Be: Any Other Type (+145) vs. Passing (-175)
Team To Punt First: Rams (+100)
Team With First TD Pass: Rams (-130)
Team To Commit First Turnover: Rams (-130) vs. Bengals (+100)
What Happens First For Matthew Stafford: TD (-270)
What Happens First For Joe Burrow: TD (-240) vs. INT (+200)
What Happens First For Bengals: Punt (-160) vs. Score (+130)
What Happens First For Rams: Punt (-130)
First Scoring Play Will Be:
Team With First Charged TO: Rams (-140) vs. Bengals (+110)
Team With First Made FG: Rams (-115) vs. Bengals (-115)
Team With First Sack: Bengals (+160)
First Turnover Of Game Will Be: INT (-180) vs. Fumble (+150)
First Score Of Game Will Be: TD (-170)

First Player Props

Matthew Stafford Yards Of First Completion: Under 7.5 (+100)
Joe Burrow Yards Of First Completion: Over 7.5 (-125)
First Pass By Matthew Stafford Will Be: Complete (-200)
First Pass By Joe Burrow Will Be: Complete (-200)
Matthew Stafford Yards Of First TD Pass: Over 10.5 (-110)
Joe Burrow Yards Of First TD Pass: Over 9.5 (-140) vs. Under 9.5 (+110)
Cam Akers Yards Of First Rush: Over 3.5 (+100) vs. Under 3.5 (-130)
Sony Michel Yards Of First Rush: Under 3.5 (-130)
Cooper Kupp Yards Of First Reception: Over 11.5 (+100)
Odell Beckham Yards Of First Reception: Over 10.5 (-115)
Joe Mixon Yards Of First Rush: Under 3.5 (-130)
Ja’Marr Chase Yards Of First Reception: Under 11.5 (-130)
Tee Higgins Yards Of First Reception: Over 11.5 (-115) vs. Under 11.5 (-115)
Tyler Boyd Yards Of First Reception: Under 8.5 (-115)
First Touchdown: Odell Beckham Jr. (+850)

Overall Bengals Player Props

Trey Hendrickson Sack: Yes (-140)
Joe Burrow Passing TDs: Over 1.5 (-160) vs. Under 1.6 (+130)
Joe Burrow Passing Yards: Over 276.5 (-125) vs. Under 276.5 (-105)
Joe Burrow INTs: Over 0.5 (-140) vs. Under 0.5 (+110)
Joe Burrow Completions: Over 24.5 (-110) vs. Under 24.5 (-120)
Joe Burrow Pass Attempts: Over 36.5 (-105) vs. Under 36.5 (-125)
Joe Burrow Longest Completion: Over 38.5 (-120) vs. Under 38.5 (-110)
Joe Burrow Rushing Yards: Over 11.5 (-130) vs. Under 11.5 (+100)
Ja’Marr Chase Rushing Yards: Over 3.5 (-135) vs. Under 3.5 (+105)
Joe Mixon Rushing Yards: Over 60.5 (-110) vs. Under 60.5 (-120)
Joe Burrow Rushing Attempts: Over 2.5 (-130) vs. Under 2.5 (+100)
Joe Mixon Rushing Attempts: Over 16.5 (+100) vs. Under 16.5 (-130)
Joe Mixon Rush+Receiving Yards: Over 89.5 (+100) vs. Under 89.5 (-130)
Samaje Perine Rush+Receiving Yards: Over 17.5 (-115) vs. Under 17.5 (-115)
Joe Mixon Receiving Yards: Over 25.5 (-110) vs. Under 25.5 (-120)
CJ Uzomah Receiving Yards: Over 26.5 (-115) vs. Under 26.5 (-115)
Samaje Perine Receiving Yards: Over 10.5 (+100) vs. Under 10.5 (-130)
Tee Higgins Receiving Yards: Over 69.5 (-105) vs. Under 69.5 (-125)
Ja’Marr Chase Receiving Yards: Over 79.5 (-115) vs. Under 79.5 (-115)
Tyler Boyd Receiving Yards: Over 43.5 (-105) vs. Under 43.5 (-125)
CJ Uzomah Receptions: Over 3.5 (+155) vs. Under 3.5 (-190)
Ja’Marr Chase Receptions: Over 5.5 (-130) vs. Under 5.5 (+100)
Joe Mixon Receptions: Over 3.5 (-130) vs. Under 3.5 (+100)
Samaje Perine Receptions: Over 1.5 (-120) vs. Under 1.5 (-110)
Tyler Boyd Receptions: Over 4.5 (+140) vs. Under 4.5 (-170)
Tee Higgins Receptions: Over 5.5 (-110) vs. Under 5.5 (-120)
Joe Mixon Longest Reception: Over 12.5 (-105) vs. Under 12.5 (-125)
CJ Uzomah Longest Reception: Over 13.5 (-120) vs. Under 13.5 (-110)
Ja’Marr Chase Longest Reception: Over 27.5 (-110) vs. Under 27.5 (-120)
Tyler Boyd Longest Reception: Over 18.5 (+100) vs. Under 18.5 (-130)
Tee Higgins Longest Reception: Over 24.5 (-105) vs. Under 24.5 (-125)

Overall Rams Player Props

Matthew Stafford Passing TDs: Over 1.5 (-220) vs. Under 1.6 (+180)
Matthew Stafford Passing Yards: Over 284.5 (-125) vs. Under 284.5 (-105)
Matthew Stafford INTs: Over 0.5 (-135) vs. Under 0.5 (+105)
Matthew Stafford Completions: Over 23.5 (-130) vs. Under (+100)
Matthew Stafford Pass Attempts: Over 35.5 (-110) vs. Under (-120)
Matthew Stafford Longest Completion: Over 38.5 (-120) vs. Under 38.5 (-110)
Matthew Stafford Rushing Yards: Over 6.5 (+105) vs. Under 6.5 (-135)
Cam Akers Rushing Yards: Over 60.5 (-110) vs. Under 60.5 (-120)
Sony Michel Rushing Yards: Over 19.5 (-115) vs. Under 19.5 (-115)
Cooper Kupp Rushing Yards: Over 0.5 (+170) vs. Under 0.5 (-210)
Matthew Stafford Rushing Attempts: Over 2.5 (-145) vs. Under 2.5 (+115)
Cam Akers Rushing Attempts: Over 15.5 (+100) vs. Under 15.5 (-130)
Sony Michel Rushing Attempts: Over 5.5 (-125) vs. Under 5.5 (-105)
Cam Akers Rush+Receiving Yards: Over 80.5 (+100) vs. Under 80.5 (-130)
Sony Michel Rush+Receiving Yards: Over 29.5 (-105) vs. Under 29.5 (-125)
Van Jefferson Receptions: Over 2.5 (-135) vs. Under 2.5 (+105)
Kendall Blanton Receptions: Over 3.5 (+150) vs. Under 3.5 (-180)
Sony Michel Receptions: Over 1.5 (+185) vs. Under 1.5 (-230)
Odell Beckham Jr. Receptions: Over 5.5 (-105) vs. Under 5.5 (-125)
Cooper Kupp Receptions: Over 8.5 (-105) vs. Under 8.5 (-125)
Cam Akers Receptions: Over 2.5 (+150) vs. Under 2.5 (-180)
Cooper Kupp Receiving Yards: Over 102.5 (-120) vs. Under 102.5 (-110)
Cam Akers Receiving Yards: Over 15.5 (-125) vs. Under 15.5 (-105)
Van Jefferson Receiving Yards: Over 32.5 (-115) vs. Under 32.5 (-115)
Kendall Blanton Receiving Yards: Over 30.5 (-115) vs. Under 30.5 (-115)
Odell Beckham Jr. Receiving Yards: Over 64.5 (-125) vs. Under 64.5 (-105)
Odell Beckham Jr. Longest Reception: Over 23.5 (-110) vs. Under 23.5 (-120)
Kendall Blanton Longest Reception: Over 15.5 (-105) vs. Under 15.5 (-125)
Cam Akers Longest Reception: Over 10.5 (-115) vs. Under 10.5 (-115)
Van Jefferson Longest Reception: Over 17.5 (-125) vs. Under 17.5 (-105)
Cooper Kupp Longest Reception: Over 28.5 (-130) vs. Under 28.5 (+100)

Overall Team Props

Team With Most Net Yards: Rams (-160) vs. Bengals (+130)
Team With More Third Down Conversions: Rams (-150) vs. Bengals (+120)
Team With More Offensive Plays: Rams (-145) vs. Bengals (+115)
Team With Most First Downs: Rams (-170) vs. Bengals (+140)
Team With Longest Punt Return: Rams (-145) vs. Bengals (+115)
Team With Most Punts: Rams (+110) vs. Bengals (-140)
Team With Longest Kickoff Return: Rams (+105) vs. Bengals (-135)
Team With Most Made FGs: Rams (-110) vs. Bengals (-120)
Team With Most Rushing Yards: Rams (-175) vs. Bengals (+145)

It’s Super Bowl Sunday, which means folks across the world are going to forget about their diets for one evening and consume food that is fried or covered in sauce or, if they are eating chicken wings, both. One such person appears to be Mike Greenberg, ESPN‘s longtime Swiss Army knife of a personality who has seemingly hosted everything during his tenure with the Worldwide Leader.

Greeny posted a picture to his Twitter account of himself having a pregame meal and wait a second is that a goddamn knife and fork.

This is not the first time that Greenberg’s eating habits — i.e. using a knife and fork — have been in the spotlight, but with today being Super Bowl Sunday, he decided to get a post off and remind everyone that this is his go-to method for eating stuff. Seriously, he went into this in 2020 and it’s a lot.

“I eat everything with a knife and fork,” Greenberg said. “Literally everything. You name it, I eat it with a knife and fork. The answer is yes — right now, wherever you are, if you’re scraming out options at me, the answer is yes. I eat pizza with a knife and fork, I eat wings with a knife and fork, I eat sandwiches with a knife and fork, I eat everything — hamburgers, with a knife and fork — for exactly that reason. I don’t like to get things on the fingers. I’m not as worried about it getting in my eyes, I don’t like when your fingers smell after you eat something, you get mustard on them, or ketchup, or whatever it might be. Literally anything. I don’t like the feeling of it, I also don’t like my disgusticting (?) hands touching the food that I’m then eating at any time — I was germaphobic, I didn’t need a pandemic to be a germaphobe.”

He goes on to say he eats cookies with a knife and fork. Mike, my man, I say this to you as someone who ran into you at the old NBA Store in New York City on multiple occasions in the mid-00s: It is fine if you get food on your fingers.

You don’t hear a lot from Chevy Chase these days. He never had a major turning point in his career like fellow ‘70s SNL alum Bill Murray, and though he hasn’t a regular high profile gig since he ditched Community after the fourth season. There were reports that he was difficult to work with on the set of the collegiate comedy, where he played devil-may-care rich guy and bigot Pierce Hawthorne. And, like his character, he really couldn’t “give a crap” if he pissed anyone off.

Chase was profiled for CBS Sunday Morning with a look at his storied career, including conquering both SNL and then movies, including the Vacation franchise. He also did a rare sit-down, in which he was asked about his former cast members complaining about his behavior on set.

“I guess you’d have to ask them. I don’t give a crap,” Chase responded. “I am who I am. And I like where— who I am. I don’t care. And it’s part of me that I don’t care. And I’ve thought about that a lot. And I don’t know what to tell you, man. I just don’t care.”

Among the stories that emerged from the show’s set was that Chase got into a heated argument in 2012 with creator Dan Harmon, with whom he repeatedly clashed, over Pierce saying bigoted things. Chase reportedly snapped, saying that next he’ll be told to call one of the Black cast members the N-word. It wasn’t revealed whether he was referring to Donald Glover or Yvette Nicole Brown specifically. Chase left the show not long after, though he made a guest appearance on the following season.

You can watch the full CBS Sunday Morning segment above.

(Via Deadline)

The Los Angeles Rams are making their second Super Bowl appearance in the last five years, having lost in Super Bowl LIII to the Patriots in 2018. For superstar defensive tackle, a Super Bowl ring is the last thing missing from his Hall of Fame resume, as the three-time Defensive Player of the Year has been the most dominant player on that side of the ball for over a half decade.

The 30-year-old is still playing at an elite level, and while he didn’t take home DPOY honors this year, he was among the top contenders once again as he is annually. For most, they’d expect Donald to play for many more years, but on the NBC pregame show, Rodney Harrison dropped a bombshell less than an hour before kickoff.

Harrison says Donald told him this week that he will seriously consider retiring if he finally checks that Super Bowl title off his NFL to-do list on Sunday night in L.A.

“He also told me this, if he wins a Super Bowl, there’s a strong possibility that he could walk away from the game and retire,” Harrison said. “…He just talked about wanting to spend more time with his family, and he talked about his body. Said he works really hard on his body year round and he’s achy.”

It would be a shocker but not unprecedented, as we’ve seen some all-time greats retire in their primes rather than continue until they hit the decline or have to deal with serious injuries. The two best examples are Barry Sanders and Calvin Johnson, who walked away from the NFL at 31 and 30 years old respectively.

Donald Trump has never seemed to have much of a grasp on reality. At times he genuinely seems to believe his own bull. Perhaps he really does seem to think the 2020 election was stolen from him, despite a complete dearth of evidence to prove it. Still, calling his chaotic one-term presidency a “romantic period” seemed to be going too far, particularly knowing what we now know about him clogging White House toilets with illegally torn-up documents.

The former president, who now lives in resorts where he babbles to strangers, called into Fox News as he so often does these days. And he ranted about his successor, as he also so often does these days. He was waxing poetic on the glories of a term during which his approval rating never hit acceptable marks and during which hundreds of thousands of Americans died.

“Our country was thriving. We were just beating everybody,” Trump told his hosts, though it wasn’t clear who he meant by “everybody.” He then imagined what his base thought of a term that ended in disgrace. “And they view it as a romantic period I think, and I think that’s really why it’s doing so well, because there is a lot of romance to the book.” (This was a reference to his pricey coffee table book, which The Washington Post described as the product of a “wandering mind.”)

He went on to talk about how “we were respected,” though the only people he could cite as respecting the country under his watch were Vladimir Putin, who may be about to start a war, President Xi of China, who has been accused of human rights violations, and Kim Jong-un, who is a straight-up dictator.

He went on, saying, “And people viewed it as a very beautiful and maybe romantic time in a sense, despite all of the nonsense by the other side, the radical left I call it, because that’s what it is, they’re sick. So it was a beautiful time and people loved it.”

It’s a grossly distorted view of a time of high anxiety and government incompetence. And people online couldn’t help but beg to differ with his rosy summation.

Meanwhile, Rudy Giuliani, one of his closest cronies, is reportedly in talks to sing to the House Select committee investigating the events of Jan. 6, which closed out his term in appropriately disgraceful fashion.

(Via Raw Story)

It’s said that superhero movies have kept adults in a state of arrested development, but some take it further than most. Case in point: In a recent post on Reddit (as caught by IndieWire), one woman claims that her husband is willing to miss the birth of their child so he can see The Batman on opening day.

In one of those “AITA” (“Am I the Asshole?”) posts that often go viral, a mid-twenties woman says that her 28-year-old husband is prioritizing Robert Pattinson’s maiden voyage as the Caped Crusader over being there when a person he helped create enters the world. The issue is that the film’s release date coincides with one of their estimated due date. While only a fraction of babies arrive on due dates, there’s still a chance.

“He says it is important to see the movie the first day because of spoilers and that, even I end up having the baby that day while he is watching the movie, at worst he would arrived [sic] a few hours late and is not such a big deal,” the woman writes. “He says I am being irrational and emotional because of being pregnant. I am upset because I feel deprioritize by him.”

Commenters have by and large been supportive, some wondering whether the “irrational and emotional” might be the person who would rather see a comic book movie (even one with nods to Kurt Cobain) instead of being there to support his wife through one of the most difficult days of her life. It’s also worth noting that The Batman is incredibly long, about a half hour longer than Goodfellas. That’s a lot of time away from your spouse’s side as she’s going through pain you will never have to experience.

(Via IndieWire)

Not only are we a few hours away from a Super Bowl matchup between the Cincinnati Bengals and the Los Angeles Rams, but we’re also almost moments away from what’s lining up to be an awesome halftime show. Dr. Dre, Eminem, Kendrick Lamar, Snoop Dogg, and Mary J. Blige are all going to take the stage later tonight. Dre has promised some surprises for the halftime show, but whatever’s about to happen won’t occur without approval from the NFL.

One thing they shot down was this: Eminem reportedly wanted to take a knee in solidarity with Colin Kaepernick. According to Consequence and Puck, the NFL denied Eminem’s request. The league has also allegedly denied one of Snoop Dogg’s outfits due to possible gang ties and it flagged Dr. Dre’s lyric from “Still D.R.E.” as it includes lyrics like “still not loving police.” It’s reported that the league doesn’t want the Super Bowl to be perceived as a “divisive culture war moment.”

Nonetheless, Dre is very excited about the halftime show, which he spent upwards of $7 million worth to put together. “Hip-hop is the biggest genre of music on the planet right now, so it’s crazy that it took all of this time for us to be recognized,” he said. “I think we’re going to go on and do a fantastic show and we’re going to do it so big that they can’t deny us any more in the future.”