Category: News

Jared Goff was once thought to be one of the NFL’s future stars. But after a few lean years, getting traded to Detroit for Matthew Stafford, and a tough 2021 season, the former No. 1 overall pick entered this year, like many on the Lions, with an awful lot to prove.

He responded with one of the best years of his career, completing 65.1 percent of his passes for 4,438 yards, 29 touchdowns, and a career-low seven interceptions. In the process, he led the Lions to a 9-8 record and their first winning season since 2017, falling just shy of the playoffs due to a tiebreaker with Seattle. It was a big year for Detroit as a team and Goff personally, as he earned a trip to the Pro Bowl for his efforts and re-established himself as a starter in the league.

This week, Goff will take part in P&G’s Battle of the Paddles (Wednesday, 7 p.m. ET on Twitch), where eight NFL stars will compete in a ping-pong tournament that has Goff very excited for a chance to show off his skills. We talked with Goff over Zoom on Monday about his reign as the Lions’ ping-pong king, playing for Dan Campbell, what this season meant to him and the Lions, and more.

How was the Pro Bowl? And what did you think of the first year this format with the Pro Bowl Games, flag football, and the way that they changed things up?

Yeah, I thought it was fun. I think now they definitely have ways where they can improve the overall week for us maybe a little bit, but I thought it was really well done. I think the the mini games were fun and the game itself was fun. I’m sure there’ll be tweaks next year, but I think the flag football format keeps it light keeps it fun. But also it was competitive. It was really competitive, certainly towards the end there and guys want to win that little extra money and it was fun.

Yeah, football, particularly, is such a tough sport to play when everybody’s trying to stay healthy and nobody wants to go too hard and flag seems to be able to bring out that competitiveness while also taking away some of that risk. For you as a quarterback, you don’t have a line in front of you and it’s just kind of seven on seven at that point. What was the adjustment you had to make in playing the flag format?

Yeah with the rusher it was different without having guys blocking, and just having a free rusher made it a little bit difficult, and you have to adjust to that and I think we did towards the end there. But it was fun. It was really fun. I think if I had to do it, I would love to do it again. It was really great.

To go back to your season in Detroit, what were you most pleased with? The team was able to produce a 9-8 season and coming up just shy of the playoffs, but made what looked from the outside like some significant strides and built towards what can hopefully be continued growth next year?

Yeah, I think in our last 10 games we were 8-2 and being able to finish like that is really hard in this league. And you know, we did a good job climbing out of the hole we dug ourselves and can come in the next year knowing that we can’t afford a hole like that. You have to come out of the gates firing and I think for our young guys, definitely, it allowed them to grow up a little bit and see what it takes to win and how the third and fourth quarter can change the game. So it was good. We got a lot of good learning and really a good springboard for us coming into this next year.

With Hard Knocks and everything, I think people got to know y’all some and Dan Campbell especially became a guy that I think NFL fans gravitated towards. What is it like playing for a coach like him, with his energy, and what that does for the team?

He’s fun. He really is. He keeps it he keeps it fun, but he also holds us to a pretty high standard and holds us accountable. But, you know, he was a player, so he doesn’t do much coach-speak. He understands what we’ll kind of see through, and he keeps it fun, man. That’s the main thing he does is it keeps us together and allows us to be ourselves and have fun playing this game.

What did this season mean for you personally? I mean, coming out of the trade a couple years ago and your career was in flux and had a lot of people questioning what your place in the league was. Being able to put on the performance that you did this season, what did it mean to you to go out and perform the way you did and kind of re-establish yourself in a sense as a Pro Bowl quarterback in the league?

Yeah, it was good. It was definitely more rewarding doing it with the guys we did it with, the success together, but yeah, I was happy with how I played. Definitely towards the end of the season and was able to settle in pretty nicely, and then coming into this offseason, hope to continue that and continue to make strides in the right direction. But yeah, it was a lot of fun this year and getting to work with those guys that we kind of did not have success with last year, and then do it again this year and have a lot more success is the most rewarding part.

What is it like when you build a rapport with a receiver like Amon-Ra St. Brown? Y’all seemed to really build that connection and what does it do for you as a quarterback when you have that trust that even if maybe he doesn’t have a ton of separation, you just seem to believe that he’s going to be able to come down with that ball?

Yeah, I trust him. I trust him a lot. I trust him in traffic. I trust him over the middle. He goes in there and he sticks his head in there and makes the tough catches and that’s all you can ask for as a quarterback, and I think he’s a very friendly target. He always seems to get himself open and is great after the catch. So he’s everything you want as a receiver and you know, I’m excited just to continue to play with him.

Your partnered with P&G here in Gillette for the for the Battle of the Paddles. What’s your ping pong skill level like? Are you one of the guys that’s in there in the clubhouse playing a bunch?

Yeah. So I’ll be representing Gillette in the in the Battle the Paddles and it’s exciting for me because I’ve been waiting for a moment like this for a long time with my ping pong skill. And you know, we had a little tournament in our locker room last offseason and fortunately I came out on top of that, so I feel like this is the next step is to see the entire NFL and see who’s the see who’s the best player. But yeah, you can you can see it on Twitch at 7 p.m. Eastern and it’ll be a lot of fun. It’s exciting to be able to represent your team and be able to hopefully get come out with a W.

Is there anybody you’re looking forward to maybe seeing on the table?

I’ve got Budda Baker in round one. Would love to play [Christian] McCaffrey and take him down. Trevor Lawrence just beat me in the Pro Bowl and our little game we had, so I want to take him down. Yeah, it’ll be fun.

Ron DeSantis hasn’t formally announced he’s running for president yet, but most people expect he will. One of them is Donald Trump. He’s been trashing anybody who’s even thinking of running against him in 2024, but he’s singled out the governor of the state he now calls home. On Tuesday, he stepped up his attacks by sharing a photo of him allegedly doing something Republicans have made a favorite object of demonization.

As caught by The Daily Mail, the former president took to his rinky-dink Twitter clone to re-post (or “re-Truth”) someone who shared a photo purportedly showing him when he was a high school teacher in Georgia. The image finds the early 20s future governor of Florida — and champion of the GOP’s “grooming” attacks — boozing it up with three young women.

“That’s not Ron, is it? He would never do such a thing!” Trump wrote in one of two posts in which he shared the picture.

The Truth Social user who originally shared the image wrote claimed that the picture shows that DeSantis “was having a “drink” party with his students when he was a high school teacher.” He added, “Having drinks with underage girls and cuddling with them certainly look pretty gross and ephebophiliaesque.” (For those not in the know, ephebophilia is an archaic term used to describe older people attracted to teens between 15 and 19.)

The image has been around for some time. One progressive Twitter account shared it back in 2021. The age of the three girls, whose faces are blurred to protect their privacy, is not known. They very well could be his age.

What is clear is that by sharing unverified and possibly fictitious “dirt” on his likely presidential opponent, Trump is going next level with his DeSantis attacks. Is DeSantis ready for Trump to get Trump-level nasty? Possibly not. Fasten your seatbelts. It’s gonna be a bumpy next year and a half.

(Via The Daily Mail)

Tucker Carlson exists in a world of privileged white men. And nothing gets his panties in a bunch more than when he feels that privileged white men are being “discriminated” against. But that’s exactly what he’s claiming Joe Biden is doing by making diversity an important part of his decisions when appointing new federal judges. And Tucker’s not happy.

On Monday night, as Mediaite reports, the Fox News firebrand felt no shame in promoting his pro-white male privilege agenda while attacking the president for appointing just five white men to federal judgeships.

“The point of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion — as you’ve often heard — is to wind up with a leadership class that ‘looks like America,’” Carlson explained. “Now we think you should hire on the basis of merit,” he added — surprising absolutely no one. He continued:

“That’s kind of an appealing idea: the people who run the country should look like the country. That’s not what it’s about at all. Because no administration has ever looked less like America — just by the numbers — than the Biden administration. It’s not about making the administration look like America, it’s about discriminating against certain classes of people who don’t vote for them.”

Only Carlson could talk about “discriminating against” “certain classes of people” with a straight face when those “classes” are privileged white male Republicans.

Yes, Tucker’s issue is with the fact that Biden is attempting to level the playing field in our justice system — which has long been the domain of old white dudes — by lambasting the POTUS for appointing nearly two dozen Black women as federal judges.

Carlson pointed to a Claremont Institute fellow who “found that out of 97 federal judges confirmed under Joe Biden, the total number of White men – five! Twenty-two are Black women. So, this is race-based hiring. It’s illegal, but it’s also not about looking like America. It’s about punishing people.”

As Michael Luciano wrote for Mediaite, but Carlson conveniently left out of his outrage:

“Sixty-nine percent of federal judges are White, a race that makes up 58% of the U.S. population. Meanwhile, 62% of the bench is male, though just under half the U.S. population is. And all judges of color — including Black, Latino, and Asian-American ones — amount to just 30% of the bench.”

So Carlson is actually correct when he says the administration does not look like America. In order to replicate the diversity of our country, we’re going to need to replace a lot of these white male judges.

You can watch Carlson make a fool of himself — yet again — here.

(Via Mediaite)

Rumors continue to circulate about a backstage fight between former Migos members Offset and Quavo at the Grammys this past weekend — despite Offset’s efforts to dispel them.

Now, alleged footage of Cardi B supposedly yelling at the two former bandmates to break it up has surfaced; fittingly, you can find that on TMZ.

Although neither Cardi, Quavo, or Offset appears in the video, you can hear Cardi’s distinctive voice yelling, “Both of y’all’s wrong! This is not right!” And while it’s not clear who she’s addressing she does tell someone “No bitch, shut the f*ck up ’cause you shouldn’t have been talking.”

The original report surfaced on TMZ shortly after the show on Sunday, detailing how the two men were separated after a physical altercation. The fight reportedly stemmed from Quavo’s refusal to allow Offset to join him onstage for his tribute to Takeoff.

As rumors circulated online, Offset tweeted, “What tf I look like fighting my brother yal n****s is crazy,” seemingly denying the rumor. However, if it’s untrue that the two Atlantans were involved in a fight, then it becomes even more unclear who Cardi is yelling at in the video.

Perhaps the answer will be revealed in time; hopefully, though, Offset and Quavo can reconcile after losing Takeoff, realizing that life is too short and whatever petty argument separated them isn’t worth losing their connection as well.

Cardi B is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Ashton Kutcher and Reese Witherspoon star in a new romcom, Your Place Or Mine, for Netflix. From the looks of the various premiere photos (above and here), however, only the title of the movie immediately gives away the film’s subgenre. As our own Josh Kurp pointed out, these two are not exactly Oscar Isaac and Jessica Chastain on the red carpet, and Mila Kunis apparently gave both Ashton and Reese some ribbing for looking so “awkward” on the red carpet by not embracing each other. This apparently wasn’t the case due to Ashton’s admitted not wild attitude about bathing, so what gives?

All of this (or none of this, rather) happened for a reason. As Kutcher explained on the Chicks In The Office podcast, he was incredibly worried about showing too much chemistry and being accused of having an affair. In Kutcher’s mind, he chose the lesser of two awkward situations. Via Page Six:

“Here’s the thing: If I put my arm around her and was, like, all friendly with her, I’d be having an affair with her,” the actor, who is married to Mila Kunis, said on the “Chicks in the Office” podcast Monday.

“If I stand next to her and I put my hands in my pockets, so there’s no chance that, like, that could be the rumor, the rumor is we don’t like each other.”

Well, mission accomplished? No one is out there accusing Ashton of having an affair with Reese. And there’s something to be said for avoiding unnecessary, press-fueled drama. You can watch Ashton’s explanation below.

(Via Page Six)

The 2023 Rising Stars Challenge will maintain the four-team mini-tournament structure that began last year. The event will feature three teams drafted by former NBA players and a fourth squad comprised of G-League Ignite players. The tournament will consist of two games played to the target score of 40 points and then a final game played to 25 points.

On Tuesday afternoon, former All-Stars Pau Gasol, Deron Williams, and Joakim Noah did a live draft of the 21 rookie and sophomore players that will play in the event.

Looking at the rosters, Noah appeared to draft based on whether or not a player has that dog in them. His team features all the best best defenders from this crop of players. There’s little shooting, but they will make sure a game to 40 points takes as long as humanly possible. Gasol, on the other hand, went the pure hooper route. Outside of Barnes and Alvarado, every player on his roster could be categorized as a bucket, different, or a problem. If they keep advanced stats for a rising stars game, their three-point rate should be through the roof. Lastly, Williams’ team doesn’t seem to have one common thread, which could be due to the fact that Williams said he hasn’t watched a lot of these players.

Nevertheless, this group of rookies and sophomores will put on a show, while the G League team (which is led by Jason Terry) will give fans a chance to watch projected top-5 pick Scoot Henderson. The event will take place on Saturday, February 18.

Amid all the talk of Beyoncé being overlooked for Album Of The Year at the Grammys multiple times — including in the most recent award show this past Sunday– another artist with a history of being snubbed is calling out the Recording Academy for not giving him his due.

Snoop Dogg, who has been nominated for 20 awards throughout his 30-year career and won none of them, posted a graphic on Instagram listing the awards of his rap contemporaries. “Rappers with the most Grammy Awards,” it reads, listing Jay-Z (24), Kanye West (24), Kendrick Lamar (17), Eminem (15), and Pharrell (13). That last one seems questionable, considering Pharrell doesn’t rap on most of his creative output.

Still, they all have more than Snoop, who captioned his post, “20 nominations. 0 wins,” with some sarcastic applause.

Over the years, Snoop has been nominated for Best Rap Solo Performance for “Gin and Juice” in 1995, Best Rap/Sung Collaboration for “Beautiful” with Pharrell in 2004, Best Rap Song for “Drop It Like It’s Hot” in 2005, and even Best Reggae Album for his album Reincarnated in 2014, but as he pointed out, he hasn’t actually won for any of them.

Snoop is far from the only rapper to have been shut out at the Grammys. It’s a list that includes Busta Rhymes, DMX, Nicki Minaj, Pusha T, and Rick Ross, and until very recently, Nas, who won Best Rap Album in 2021 for King’s Disease, ending a 25-year drought.

Much like “Republicanism,” what it means to be a “Christian” today — in a heated political climate where church and state regularly intersect — is constantly in flux. And depends not only on who you ask, but which day of the week or hour of the day you ask them. The latest example of Christianity run amok comes to us courtesy of Lauren Boebert.

As Raw Story reports, the gun-lovin’ Colorado congresswoman — who only narrowly won her reelection in November — stopped by a church, where she spoke to the crowd of devoted churchgoers and even attempted to lead them in prayer. A prayer that many interpreted as wishing death upon President Joe Biden.

“May his days be few and another take his office,” Boebert said of the current POTUS.

Say what?

As Sarah K. Burris wrote for Raw Story, this isn’t the first time Boebert has uttered that phrase — or at least something very similar to it. In 2022, she stopped by the Charis Christian Center in Colorado Springs and also prayed that Biden’s “days be few.”

The social media reaction to Boebert’s comments was swift, with some calling for any church that would host such a partisan person spewing hatred immediately have their tax-exempt status revoked.

Others have suggested that Boebert’s words constitute a threat to the president, and should therefore be charged as a federal crime. According to Burris, “Boebert has gotten away with in the past because she’s not asking activists to actively kill, but rather praying for death.”

(Via Raw Story)

After Spider-Man: No Way Home director Jon Watts walked away from directing duties on Marvel’s highly-anticipated reboot of the Fantastic Four, WandaVision director Matt Shakman was handed the reins. However, that decision required Shakman to walk away from Star Trek 4, and apparently, it wasn’t that tough of a call.

“Movies have different journeys and momentums and and schedules are a little bit mercurial, and so when the ‘Fantastic Four’ opportunity came up, it was just too hard to pass up, and to go back home to Marvel, a place that I worked on ‘WandaVision’ at, with those people who are wonderful collaborators,” Shakman recently told The Wrap.

However, Shakman says filming Star Trek 4 would have been an “unbelievable pleasure” because he truly is a fan of both franchises:

“It’s really a family there and to be able to go back and tackle something that I truly love, and they’re very similar in some ways: they both were launched in the ’60s at the same time, they’re both about optimism and looking to the stars and technology can solve everything and they’re about family too — the family you have, the family you make. So they’re aligned in many ways and speak to my heart and equally, so I’m excited to be working on ‘Fantastic Four.’”

Naturally, Shakman didn’t devolve any details about Fantastic Four‘s plot or its casting, which still continues to spur online theories about who will play the iconic comic book characters and when they might pop up in the MCU first. But the director did reveal that the film will start shooting in “early 2024,” which means Marvel fans could be waiting a while for news on the casting front.

Fantastic Four will hit theaters on February 14, 2025.

(Via The Wrap)

Leonardo DiCaprio, the 48-year-old actor who is no stranger to dating younger women, has reportedly been linked to Eden Polani, a 19-year-old French Israeli model. For perspective’s sake, the age gap between the two of them is roughly the same as The Last of Us co-stars Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey, or David Harbour and Millie Bobby Brown, who have a father and daughter-like relationship on Stranger Things.

But according to TMZ, and despite a photo of them sitting next to each other at a recent music release party in Los Angeles, DiCaprio isn’t dating the teenager.

A source close to Leo tells us despite a photo showing Eden and Leo sitting next to each other, they’re not dating and not a couple whatsoever. Our source says Leo and Eden just so happen to have been seated next to each other at the party, and were hanging in the same group. Our source makes it clear, just because Leo might be talking to or sitting with a girl doesn’t mean he’s dating her.

The denial hasn’t stopped Twitter from making jokes about Leo and Eden, however. Or pointing out that he rarely dates anyone over 25, which is how old Titanic turns this year.

Even though DiCaprio and Polani aren’t dating, it’s amusing to imagine him talking to her about the things that were popular when he was 19. “So… you like Blind Melon?”

(Via TMZ)