Category: News

The NFL opened its “legal tampering” window on Monday — which is a ridiculous phrase since, by definition, tampering can’t be legal — where teams and players can negotiate free agent contracts.

While most were focused on the quarterback market and, in particular, the future of Aaron Rodgers in Green Bay and whether he would end up with the Jets who have been pursuing him this offseason, a big name at the running back position made the biggest early headline. Not long after free agency opened, word broke that Chargers star running back Austin Ekeler was seeking permission to find a trade after contract talks with L.A. stalled.

Over the last two seasons Ekeler has been one of the most productive backs in the NFL, with 38 rushing and receiving touchdowns (the most by any player in the league in that time frame, and has been one of the most consistent presences for the Chargers offense. Ekeler’s value is particularly elevated by his ability to catch passes out of the backfield (177 receptions over the last two years), which could make him an intriguing target for offenses looking to add some balance to their passing game. Fantasy owners will be particularly intrigued by where Ekeler goes, as he’s been a monster in fantasy for some time because of how he racks up TDs and, for those in PPR leagues, how many receptions he gets.

For the Chargers, losing Ekeler would be big, but might not be a complete disaster depending on who they could replace him with. As far as rushing the ball, Ekeler could be replaced, and while they won’t find anyone who can catch the ball like he can out of the backfield, that might not be the worst thing in the world. Justin Herbert is a wildly talented young quarterback who can be a bit too quick to check it down, in part because Ekeler is so good and reliable catching the ball out of the backfield. Forcing Herbert to throw the ball downfield more often by simply removing that safety valve may end up being good for the Chargers in the long run, even if there might be growing pains in Ekeler’s absence initially.

Shakira recently told Univision that her son, Milan, encouraged her to work with Bizarrap. And so, Shakira collaborated with Bizarrap on “Bzrp Music Sessions, Vol. 53,” a top-10 Billboard Hot 100 hit. Everybody won, right?

Nope!

“Bzrp Music Sessions, Vol. 53” takes aim at retired Barcelona and Spain soccer great Gerard Piqué, who dated Shakira for the better part of 11 years and shares two sons with her (Milan and Sasha). Bizarrap and Shakira performed the world’s most popular diss track on Friday’s (March 10) The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, and Adele was watching.

During Adele’s ongoing Weekends With Adele Las Vegas residency, she asked an audience member to name their “favorite band or artist.” The fan initially said Adele, which was not an acceptable answer, and eventually said, “I also like Shakira.”

Animated as ever, Adele responded, “Oh! I saw her performance last night on Jimmy Fallon! Her ex-husband’s in trouble!” (Piqué and Shakira were never married, but the point still stands.)

Piqué spoke for himself during a Twitch livestream in January. “Casio sent us wrist watches,” he said (as translated from Spanish to English by Marca). “We reached a sponsorship agreement with Casio.” In the song, Shakira says, “I’m worth two 22-year-olds / You traded in a Ferrari for a Twingo / You traded in a Rolex for a Casio.”

And then Casio handed Piqué another L by publicly denying any such deal.

Watch Bizarrap and Shakira’s “Bzrp Music Sessions, Vol. 53” performance on Fallon above, or watch their sit-down interview with Fallon below.

During the latest episode of Last Week Tonight, John Oliver went deep on Temporary Assistance For Needy Families, or TANF, a program that’s supposed to help lift families out of property. Instead, it routinely fails, and in the case of Brett Favre, it apparently enhanced the lives of the wealthy. The former NFL quarterback has been embroiled in a scandal in Mississippi where he allegedly helped to arrange for welfare funds from TANF to build a $5 million volleyball stadium at his daughter’s college. It was a gross misuse of public funds, and Oliver meticulously skewered Favre over the scandal.

“I’m a little surprised you even need a stadium to play volleyball in,” Oliver quipped. “I thought it was a sport mainly played outdoors by sexually frustrated men who aren’t wearing shirts and sporty dogs who unexpectedly are. But clearly, I was wrong about that.”

The late night host then went to town on text messages from Favre where he specifically asks, “Is there any way the media can find out where it came from and how much?”

“Brett, I have some terrible news for you,” Oliver said. “The media did find out. That’s what’s happening right now.”

Oliver then highlighted how needy families rarely qualify for TANF benefits in Mississippi, which makes the Favre scandal all the more egregious.

“That’s pretty infuriating to hear,” he said. “And it gets even worse when you learn that in Mississippi last year of roughly 190,000 children living in poverty, just 2,600 were receiving money from TANF while, remember, of the roughly one Brett Favres in Mississippi, 100% of them managed to get $5 million for this f*cking volleyball stadium. It’s enough to make you want to see Brett Favre hit in the nuts with a football.”

Oliver then noted that, legally, Favre claims that he did nothing wrong and that the NFL star had no idea where the funds were coming from. He also returned $1.1 million that he was personally paid, but Oliver isn’t buying his excuse.

“It’s not clear exactly where he thought the money was coming from,” the Last Week Tonight host said. “Perhaps he thinks there’s some pot of taxpayer money that he can just dip his sausage fingers into whenever he needs something. I don’t know. He’s been hit in the head a lot. Not enough, but a lot.”

Even though The Last Of Us just wrapped up its first season, there is still plenty more apocalyptic content left to be told. It’s no surprise that the hit fungi-infested series was officially renewed for a second season, meaning there is a lot more beautifully heartbreaking apocalyptic nonsense to come. And that means more Pedro Pascal, which is the main draw here.

While it will probably be until at least next year that we get more Joel and Ellie, we know that the key cast will likely return: Bella Ramsey recently said there is “no limit” to how many seasons she would sign on for, so it seems pretty likely that we will get our lovably grumpy duo for another round.

Season one brought the first game to life, and season two will pick up after the events of the first season, though The Last Of Us Part II, which was released in 2020, might get more than one season in order to properly finish off the story. “We will not say how many. But more than one is factually correct,” screenwriter Craig Mazin told UK GQ earlier this year.

Mazin confirmed to Deadline that the crew has been actively listening to fan feedback in order to craft even more seasons that the fans will enjoy. “We learned by watching the audience watch the show. I personally have noted how much they liked those encounters. And I think we have some really interesting things coming that will be satisfying without burying you.”

So what can we expect from season two? Maybe another staple tear-jerker episode? Some more giraffes? Only time will tell!

(Via Polygon)

As Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine drags well into its second year, the Russian president’s brutal reputation keeps heightening. This is the case even as Putin obsesses over cabbage while cutting off ammo from his private army of mercenaries as they suffer enormous loss off life alongside garden-variety Russian troops. The Kremlin has also been making Lex Luthor-type statements, yet since the war’s onset in early 2022, people cannot help but notice (on a more micro note) that Russian elites (with close ties to Putin) continue to die mysterious deaths after criticizing his bloodshed in Ukraine.

The Sun has assembled a staggering list of 39 such deaths so far, and that includes several deaths when elites seemingly wander out of high-story windows while taking smoke breaks and such. Others have been strangled and died from gunshot wounds in deaths that have been ruled “suicides,” and here’s a sampling of the more bizarre instances:

– Died of ‘drug induced heart attack’ during shamanic ritual in Moscow

– Shot dead in swimming pool in Leningrad

– Fell down a cliff to his death in Sochi

– Burned alive in his apartment in Moscow

– Dies in hospital of sepsis in Moscow

If you think that this montage sounds not unlike “Baptismal bloodbath” at the end of The Godfather, then you’re not alone. The Sun spoke to analysts who allege that Putin is a “mafia boss” figure, and these analysis also believe that contract killing could play a role here. A retired U.S. Army Military Intelligence Officer, Jon Sweet, declared, “Anyone seen as a potential threat seems to have an attraction to an open window.” Whereas Professor Anthony Glees declared that “two kinds of victim” exist, and those include actual high-profile critics (“frequently involved in big Russian corporations”) of the war, along with “those who Putin believes have double-crossed him.”

Of course, nothing conclusive has ever arisen from side-eyes toward Putin for his opponents dying in mysterious and seemingly unlikely ways. Speculation will continue to abound, though, and it’s worth noting that Putin has jailed his most vocal political opponent, Alexei Nalvalny, for years, and a documentary on his life won an Academy Award at Sunday night’s ceremony.

(Via The Sun)

Nick Cannon is no stranger to people joking about his productivity. Andy Cohen joked that he should get a vasectomy, the paternity experts at Maury shared some suggestions of their own, and fellow comedian Kevin Hart even sent him a vending machine full of condoms as a prank.

So, when Oscars host Jimmy Kimmel joked that Nick and his kids were at least partly responsible for the record-breaking box office scores of Avatar: The Way Of Water, the multi-hyphenate father of 11 took it in stride. “Avatar: The Way Of Water was the most expensive movie ever made,” Jimmy noted in his opening monologue.

“Disney spent 2 billion dollars to make this movie. Just to break even, all of Nick Cannon’s children had to see Avatar four times.”

According to TMZ, when he was asked how he felt about the joke, Nick said he was on-board with the jokes, as he and Kimmel are close. After all, Nick started out as a standup comic himself, so he can handle being the target of a good roast.

In fact, of all the cracks about his seeming drive to populate a small country, some of the best (and strangest) have come from Nick himself. Last week, he teamed up with Kevin Hart to shoot a (probably fake) promo for a game show about women competing to be his seventh baby mama. He also cracked a few jokes over the holidays about the added pressure having so many kids puts on him.

There are softball interviews, and then there’s Brian Kilmeade literally tossing a baseball softly with Ron DeSantis. The Florida governor indulged the Fox & Friends anchor by joining him on a baseball field in Dunedin where the two discussed DeSantis’ potential presidential run while playing catch (no fastballs included, literally).

Kilmeade, who’s been a frequent defender of DeSantis, even teed up the governor for a shot at Donald Trump because, again, the whole thing took the softball interview to a level of cringe that’s surprising even for Fox News. Kilmeade asked DeSantis what he thought about Trump testing out nicknames, and he worked in a little jab of his own.

Via Florida Politics:

“You have a record of achievement. People can call you a name, but that’s not going to trump the achievement. And so we built the astounding record of achievement. The best is yet to come. I’m defined by my accomplishments. I’m defined by leading the state, and I’m defined by having a state, which is the number one destination for Americans who are looking for a better way of life.”

While the softball interview might play well with Fox viewers, over on Twitter it’s getting ripped to shreds where users are dunking on everything from DeSantis’ height to the “divorced dad energy.” However, people also began theorizing that the whole production may be a deliberate attempt to troll Trump and the infamous photo of him attempting to play catch, but mostly it was meatball jokes.

You can see some of the reactions below:

(Via Aaron Rupar on Twitter)

It’s been nearly one year since Uproxx featured 88rising and Rich Brian on its April 2022 cover.

Since then, the label amplifying Asian voices in hip-hop staged the first-ever label-curated set on Coachella’s main stage (as noted by Billboard at the time) and brought its own Head In The Clouds Festival to California, Manila, and Jakarta.

Today, March 13, Head In The Clouds Festival announced its inaugural Head In The Clouds New York will take place at Forest Hills Stadium in Queens, New York on May 20 and May 21, 2023.

“88rising started in New York City, from a parking garage in the Bronx to where the first employees came together where we sat in a room in a shared space in Brooklyn to lay the foundation of what 88rising is,” 88rising CEO and founder Sean Miyashiro said in a statement exclusively provided to Billboard.

Miyashiro continued, “It was the most magical time of my life — the whole experience of building and things starting to happen, is the best part of all this. All of this happened in New York City, winter, spring, summer fall — through the seasons it’s where 88rising took shape, and I’m beyond proud and to me it’s only fitting that this was all born there. It’s especially meaningful to be able to do it at an iconic venue like Forest Hills Stadium during its 100th anniversary!”

Billboard additionally relayed that Head In The Clouds is partnering with Heart Of Dinner, a non-profit organization “directly addressing food insecurity and isolation experienced by Asian American Seniors,” in 2023 by donating $1 per ticket sold and activating on-site.

Saturday, May 20, will stage ITZY, Rich Brian, Beabadoobee, Milli, Akini Jing, Dumbfoundead, Fifi Zhang, Hojean, Isoxo, Paravi, Raveena, Spence Lee, and Warren Hue.

Sunday, May 21, will be handled by NIKI, DPR Live, DPR Ian, XG, Atarashii Gakko!, Dabin, Knock2, Loren, Masiwei, P-Lo, Veegee, Wolftyla, and Yeek.

The first ticket sale is slated for Friday, March 17, beginning at 10 a.m. EST. Registration for early access is available here.

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

A couple of years ago, I wrote about why hip-hop doesn’t really do covers of past songs and albums like other genres. I still think it’s pretty good, but last week, rap fans got an object lesson in how harshly a cover can get judged when Logic put a melodic spin on Ice Cube’s 1992 classic “It Was A Good Day.”

While Logic doesn’t see hip-hop as a competition, plenty of rap fans were appalled that he would deign to recreate such a seminal song from the hip-hop canon. However, he shrugged off the backlash on TikTok, claiming that he’d already received the most important co-sign: One from Ice Cube himself.

Replying to a comment that suggested he do a whole album of similar covers, Logic posted a whole new video saying, “It’s funny you should say that because I thought about doing that… Everybody’s all pissed off at me because I did a f*cking Ice Cube cover. Meanwhile, I texted Ice Cube and he’s like, ‘Man, keep on doing you, brotha.’ Who gives a fuck [about the backlash]?”

He also agreed about a potential covers album, positing he could use it for a good cause. “I should do a whole f*cking album, and just do a whole album of f*cking hard-ass ’90s records and call it Logic Greatest Hits, and get all them paid, and get them publishing, and take care of all the legends and the GOATs and the greats from the 90s.”

While it seems that Logic may need a refresher on how publishing royalties work, it’s hard to be mad at him for working to flip a pretty negative situation into a helpful one, even if it doesn’t quite work the way he seems to think (many early pioneers of hip-hop do not own their publishing, so they probably wouldn’t get paid much, if at all, by a covers album). And while that may make some rap fans angry, it certainly does seem as though it’d generate some buzz.

To see Logic perform his own songs, you can check him out on tour with Juicy J.

The 2023 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament is upon us, as the bracket of 68 teams that will vie for a national championship was unveiled on Sunday afternoon, with the complete TV schedule for the first round arriving later in the evening.

Once again, the lead broadcast team will be Jim Nantz, Grant Hill, and Bill Raftery, with Tracy Wolfson on sidelines, as Nantz gets set to call his 32nd and final Final Four in Houston. While it’s Nantz’s last dance, there’s no indication that the 79-year-old Raftery will be ending his tenure as college basketball’s favorite voice, but every year is a good year to celebrate the finest in Rafteryisms.

April 3 will be the last time Bill opens the game with a “Jim Nantz, Grant Hill…the [insert team] come out in a little MANTOMAN” as Ian Eagle will fill Nantz’s seat in 2024. Along the way in March we can hope for some lingerie on the deck, puppies to get in order, a little kiss, and everyone’s favorite: ONIONS! To get us all ready for tournament time, CBS put out a three-minute video of Bill’s best ONIONS calls — some from March and some from elsewhere — that is truly a delight.

As Bill says, there are onions and then there are ONIONS. Sometimes we get them early, on rare occasion a double order, but the one March constant is somewhere along the way, onions get served up.