When we first see Michael Imperioli in the season two premiere of The White Lotus, he is leaning on the railing on the back of a boat in Sicily. He looks hotter than ever (not that this matters, but it should be stated and maybe this is because everyone looks hotter on a boat?). He’s wearing chic rectangular sunglasses, a black tee, and a jacket, so he’s just as moody as ever. His hair has grayed but it’s still as lush as it was when The Sopranos premiered in 1999.
Imperioli, playing Dominic Di Grasso, is on a special vacation at The White Lotus in Sicily with his father and son. Seeing him back on HBO is as refreshing as a 7-day luxurious trip to Italy (not that I would know). Imperioli has an excited look on his face, which makes sense within the context of the show: most people look forward to vacations, particularly ones like this. But it also works as a meta moment. Imperioli is as excited to be back on HBO as we are to see him on HBO. Imperioli has changed since The Sopranos days. He’s older, presumably wiser, years past his days as Christopher Moltisanti. But his gift for making impulsive, selfish wrecks irresistible and funny remains the same.
Between The Sopranos, which ended in 2007,and season two of The White Lotus, Imperioli has appeared in films and various television shows (including The Office, Californication, and Lucifer). He has even returned to HBO in a 2012 episode of Girls and, more recently, in a small role in the limited series Watchmen. But his role on The White Lotus feels more major than anything he’s done since The Sopranos. Christopher Molisanti, a loyal but careless younger generation mobster struggling with addiction was destructive, but he was infuriatingly sympathetic thanks to Imperoli’s performance, which won him two Golden Globes and an Emmy. Imperioli captured a desperation, sadness, and fear you could feel and occasionally laugh at (Moltisanti’s screenplay era and his intervention resulted in some of the best comedy the world has ever seen). By the end of the series, Moltisanti, despite being pretty annoying, was the emotional center of the series and as a result, his death in the final season remains one of the most gut-wrenching in storytelling history.
On The White Lotus, Imperioli is playing someone completely different than Moltisanti, but using his same brilliant tricks to pull you into his psyche. Straight away, something about the Di Grasso family trip to visit their homeland isn’t quite right, a dynamic communicated in the dialogue as well as Imperoli’s body language. Dominic is the kind of guy who, normally, probably holds himself quite confidently, but there’s something solemn, tense, and lonely about him, particularly when he’s around his son, Albie, played by Adam DiMarco. In contrast, he has incredible chemistry with F. Murray Abraham, who plays his flatulent and flirtatious father. After a strange, rather empty encounter with Albie in the hotel hallway, Dominic (still in that perfect black tee) goes into his room and calls his wife who wants nothing to do with him. His daughter also doesn’t want to talk to him, either.
During the phone call, Imperoli barely moves. Instead, he lets his eyes – which can shift from puppy-like to menacing in between blinks – do all the work. Imperioli is apologizing to his wife, longing for her forgiveness, but his eyes and his eyebrows, which are absolute units, tell the real story: he knows he’ll never get it. By the end of the episode, Lucia (Simona Tabasco), an Italian sex worker, comes into Dominic’s room, revealing that he’s the client who contacted her online.
In season two of The White Lotus, Michael Imperioli brings a heaviness, an intriguing emotional weight that makes you want to be his big spoon despite how disgusting his behavior is, just like he did with Moltisanti over two decades ago. It is so, so good to have Michael Imperioli back on television.
Good Morning America shared a tweet with a video of the singer. The caption reads: “TOMORROW: We will have a special announcement from @taylorswift13 only on @GMA tomorrow!” The video just shows Swift saying the words “Good morning, America,” so really there’s not much she’s giving away there. Surely fans must be making theories already. However, most are in the replies saying that their bank accounts are not ready.
A popular theory so far is that a new music video will come out, which would follow the recent releases of the videos for “Anti-Hero” and “Bejeweled.” Others are begging for a tour, which is possible considering she discussed the idea on The Tonight Show last week. Jimmy Fallon mentioned that it’s been a while she last toured and she said, “I think I should do it,” which obviously prompted cheers from the crowd.
These aren’t likely questions anyone would answer in this situation, but credit to Roy for being upfront about the broader realities of the situation as they pertain to matters of career growth, work-life balance, and this crossroads moment in a career that could capitalize on any number of wins from the last few years as an actor, podcaster, producer (The Neutral Ground), comedian, and Daily Show correspondent. This in addition to talking about the ways Confess, Fletch challenged him as a performer and his thoughts on the state of politics heading into the midterms.
How are you doing?
I’m alright. How you been, bro? It’s been a minute.
Good, man. You’re the rumor mill du jour now.
Yeah.
I got to watch what I say. I don’t want Comedy Central lawyers to come swoop in and knock me out.
Yeah. I don’t know what they expect. I mean, we got to talk Atlanta, I know, but it’s like, the show is going to change. Into what? I don’t know. I know I just want to be a part of it.
I saw people talking about you for the Corden slot a few months ago. And I know from the last conversation we had, you’ve got a lot of things going on. And so I think about Trevor’s announcement and I wonder if these jobs are a bit of a gilded cage. Because, to me, having to host these shows seems to take away a lot of other opportunities. And so that’s where my mind goes. Trevor’s done well with still doing stand-up, but I think back to Jon when he was on it and he had to stop to do the movie (Rosewater).
Yeah. He had to literally stop to finally go and direct. I spoke with a former late night host, I can’t say who, but I spoke with a former late night host and they basically said that if you’re going to do late night, then you have to commit to that and that becomes your day-in, day-out. You can try to executive produce other stuff, but you can forget about acting, you can forget about movies, regular television-type stuff. Because a late night show, be it weekly or nightly, is time-consuming. It’s rewarding, but it’s time-consuming and it sucks all the air out of your life and the only thing you’re going to have left time to do is be a parent. And if you’re lucky you’ll figure out how to be a good spouse during that same time. (Laughs)
I feel like maybe it’s a little easier to have kids and actually do that stuff now. But I feel like traditionally, it hasn’t been.
I think every career in entertainment though, regardless of if it’s scripted or late night, a lot of that boils down to what kind of person do you want to be off camera. I’ve heard stories of TV actors who have adjusted rehearsal times so that they could go pick up their children from school every day. Now you got to have a little bit of clout to be able to do something like that, but there are definitely people that care about parenting more than anything else.
I just think that late night, regardless of how things play out with The Daily Show, it’s still a grind. Even as a correspondent to a degree. But at least as a correspondent I get the freedom to sneak off. I can go get a month off to go do Confess, Fletch or, “Hey, can I go to Long Island on Tuesday to shoot Only Murders In The Building?” “Sure, Roy. We have five more people who do your job. One of them can cover your shift.” And that’s the other thing about late night, ain’t no backup host. Jimmy Kimmel’s figured out a way to create a two-quarterback system [with guest hosts]. He’s the only one who has kinda hacked that code.
I’m trying to ask this without putting you on the spot too much.
No, man. Fire off, bro.
You like your life, right? You like that balance, the work-life balance where it is right now, right? How important is that for you to push that if you were to get an opportunity?
I think with growth comes sacrifice. So if I’m asked to grow in any capacity, there’s also still the option of being able to maybe try and create something of my own. I’ve given that some thought as well too. I don’t know which avenue is the best to remain a part of. I don’t know which plant to try and water, but I’m in a good position to have a couple of plants here. I do think that you have to figure out how to reconfigure your life if there is growth. So when I say growth, I could be offered a hosting slot somewhere, I could be offered a chance to do my own thing, I could get one of my scripts green-lit and have that go to series, and now I’m making a television show, and that too is a slog. And low key, that’s even worse because now I might be out of town depending on the script.
Through the pandemic, you launched the podcasts, multiple podcasts. You’ve done the doc project, and you’ve done the acting thing that’s blowing up, You’re used to having multiple projects running at this point, right?
Yeah, I’ve watered a couple other plants, but now we’re talking about really taking an opportunity after seven years and going, “Okay. Well, what do I want to do?” What I know is that I want to remain a part of The Daily Show. So that can happen in a lot of different capacities, bro. That could be host, that could be as a correspondent for whoever the new host is. I’m open to that too. But there still has to be other things happening for me in addition to that. If I’m still a correspondent then, yeah, I want to try and do as many other projects as I fucking can. But at the end of the day, it’s about making sure that I still make time for my child and try and be some sort of a present father. But TV has a way of taking that from you in any capacity, be it scripted or late night.
If you’re making a television show, you’re at it 12 hours a day for three months writing it and then you’re at it for 12 hours a day shooting it, then you got to edit, then you got to go out and promote. So you’re going to have long days one way or another once you’ve committed to this, otherwise, you just got to do like Leo DiCaprio and just come down every three years and bless everybody with something and get the hell on. (Laughs)
What is it that has kept you wanting to be a part of The Daily Show this long? What’s kept it fresh for you?
The thing I’m most thankful for is the ability to be able to make points using different joke vehicles. The biggest difference from Trevor to Jon, and I’m not sure if a lot of people have even noticed this, but we do a lot of sketches. There might be quick short sketches, but we do a lot of sketches on The Daily Show. We do a lot of web content. There’s a lot of stuff that’s not right for the show or doesn’t fit the timetable. And then that weird no man’s land from Friday to Monday when the show is dark, we can still pop stuff out over the weekend for expansion.
I hope that Trevor’s legacy gets the full appreciation for exactly what you just said. Writing the legacy of Trevor’s show, Jon shouldn’t be in the first four paragraphs of that and I feel like it’s in the first paragraph every time. And that’s weird because Trevor has made it his own show.
Trevor really did make it his own show and Trevor figured out new ways to deliver new satire and vehicles and platforms that didn’t exist when Jon held the chair. And to be able to address deeper issues to a society that has a shorter attention span as well is very key. It’s very, very difficult to do. And to be able to change, not just with the news, but to change with the viewing habits of people, I think that’s been the biggest thing and I think that’s going to be the interesting iteration as late night creatively evolves. I’m talking bigger than The Daily Show now because if you look at whatever CNN and MSNBC are slowly morphing into, I think there’s something to that. I think there’s something to the way Fox News evolved from Red Eye and to Gutfeld. There is an evolution in the style and way that we are going to start having these conversations on either side, left or right.
Oh yeah, for sure.
Everything evolves. And so I’m curious to see what the next evolution is going to be. And that’s part of why I want to be a part of it in any capacity is because you’re getting to reinvent something. The Daily Show with a new host, this is basically when the comedian is done with their hour set and they’ve put it on TV, and those jokes are done. You just shot your hour special and then the next morning you wake up with a blank sheet of paper and you got to do it all over again. And it’s horrifying, but you know it could be done. I’ve done it three times now, so to have a chance to have a front-row seat at a blank sheet of paper, oh fuck yeah. It’s horrifying, but also fuck yeah. And I’m saying the same thing about Corden too.
When I went back and reread the Confess, Fletch, I got more excited to see you in the role. I wanted more of you, I’ll be honest. I wanted more of you in the film.
A little more Flynn. I’m just glad I didn’t have to do an Irish accent, be like a true Boston Irish cop.
That was one knock on the film that I had. The other knock being it was like a secret for some reason that the film happened.
Yeah. Wasn’t a lot of marketing money.
Yeah. That would’ve been nice. But can you talk a little about the excitement of just trying to reconfigure a character and make that into a sort of a blank sheet of paper?
The thing that was cool for me was to be in scenes with Jon Ham and not have to carry the comedy or be expected to be big. When you look at Space Force and I’m in there with Steve Carell, Steve Carell’s going to bring energy out of you whether you like it or not. Steve Martin and Martin Short in Only Murders In The Building, they brought energy out of us whether we wanted to. Jacob Ming-Trent who’s in the scene with me, they’re up, so you’re up. But for this, it worked more if I was laid back and just let Jon do Fletch and let the Fletchiness of the character, the quirkiness of that character, let that drive the comedy. I don’t have to add an eyebrow or a weird scowl. Didn’t have to do none of that. You just sit there and chill and just let everything come to you. That was scary because I’ve never been asked to do that before performatively, so wondering, “Is this funny?” You know what I mean?
So The Daily Show is going to Atlanta for the midterms. What’s the mood going in for that?
Well, we’ll be in Georgia the week before and then we’ll be live election night. And that part of it, that’s where it’s a balloon drop or is it break out the whiskey? I just feel like they’re isn’t a problem in Georgia that ain’t happening anywhere else in the country. So it’s the perfect place to go and see what some of the issues are, talk to people, stuff like that, and really get to the bottom of some things.
I don’t know that Herschel Walker’s happening anywhere else though.
Well, you could believe that, but then Marjorie Taylor Greene already got elected. That was the Herschel of two years ago. So it’s like there’s these baffling people that have walked their way into the halls of our Congress and it’s like, oh, another person who’s never done this before and keeps running on, “I’m not a politician, I’m not a politician, I’m not a politician.” And then people are like, “Cool, perfect. You’re exactly who we want.”
I think I’ve stopped trying to pretend that I understand voters. I guess that’s not something you can really do on a thing like The Daily Show. I watch Jordan’s specials and am always baffled. I would scream back at people. I don’t have the restraint.
My thing is that as a correspondent, our job is to simply meet people where they are. Just tell me your truth. It might be interesting, it might be a little different, but just tell me your truth.
Is it hard to hold back judgment though?
Yeah, a little bit. But if you want to be journalistically sound, I think you have to just give them space. And Klepper will throw a jab. Klepper’s the best because he’ll snipe you, but not until you say what you said and then counter and create a conversation. At the beginning of the conversations that Klepper has with all those people at these rallies and shit, he’s not attacking, “Tell me why you’re stupid.” He’s just, “Hey, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Tell me what you’re feeling.” And even then, Klepper is beautiful with it because he never really attacks the person, he just attacks their point of view. It’s not you’re dumb, you are deplorable or whatever the fuck. It’s just, “Well, if that makes sense then shouldn’t A=B? But A doesn’t equal B, but I forgot you don’t believe in letters. Anyway. Da, da, da, da.”
At this point, people’s point of view is their everything, it’s their soul. That’s the thing that I never understand. The allegiance to a point of view I get, but the allegiance to politicians I don’t understand on either side, frankly. Do you find that to be a little creepy on either side when people worship any politician?
Yeah, I think it’s dangerous. I think it’s dangerous to fully invest in any one party and just vote down party lines. I think it’s dangerous. I think it makes you more ignorant. Not paying attention to all of the issues and to not seeing some of the nuance in some of the subjects. And then from that, you can be better able to put together what you feel and then vote for people that better match your now more educated viewpoint. I can’t remember what special I said it in, but people love to not know. We enjoy not knowing. No one wants to read, no one wants to do the extra thing that gets them a little bit smarter.
They feel like they know. Just the feel is enough. I go by my gut, shoot from the hip. That’s so appealing to people.
Ding, ding, ding.
‘The Daily Show’ will be broadcasting from Atlanta at 11PM ET Monday through Thursday and through Election Day.
The outfit is identical: A green tube top and frayed denim shorts. But the hair and acrylic nails show true dedication. And where better to do a photoshoot of the costume than in a gas station?
While these pictures went viral, the TikTok was even more attention-grabbing. He lip-syncs and dances along to the song, definitely testing the limits of the short shorts, which many people point out in the comments and praise him for his unhinged bravery.
This all follows the rapper’s other amusing and very viral Twitter moment: when he posted a photo with Will Ferrel. A fan in the replies pointed out, “where is Will’s hand?” Lil Nas X replied, “he couldn’t resist getting a good hand full of this big fat ass. and i couldn’t say no tbh.” He then followed that up with a meme and the caption: “omg if he see this he gone delete old town road from his spotify.”
A village in India’s Maharashtra state has had enough of two of the modern world’s greatest addictions, the internet and television. It has imposed a daily digital detox to give people a break from stress-inducing screen time so they can reconnect with the real world.
According to the BBC, a siren goes off every day at 7 p.m. in Vadgaon village in Sangli district, alerting all residents to turn off their TVs and smartphones. At 8:30 p.m., the siren blares again, letting everyone know it’s now OK to reconnect.
Vadgaon has a population of around 3,000 people, mainly composed of sugar mill workers and farmers.
The decision to implement a daily detox came after the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated the village’s dependence on technology, especially its kids.
“When physical classes resumed (after Covid lockdown), teachers realized children had become lazy, they did not want to read and write and were mostly engrossed in their mobile phones before and after school hours. There weren’t separate study rooms in the homes of the villagers. So, I put forth the idea of a digital detox,” Vijay Mohite, president of the village council, said according to India Today.
At first, men in the village scoffed at the idea. However, the village’s women agreed that a detox would help the community after they admitted they were spending too much time watching serials on television.
“We decided at the village meeting on 14 August—the eve of India’s Independence Day—that we needed to stop this addiction,” Mohite told BBC. “From the next day, all television sets and mobiles were shut down when the siren went off.”
The time away from screens has allowed for conversation to flourish in the village and provided children with a better environment for studying.
“The children were just not concentrating on their studies before,” Dilip Mohite, a farmer with three sons, told the BBC. “Now, there is a normal conversation [at home, even] among the adults.”
It’s hard to take a digital detox by yourself. Even though your phone may be off, it’s stressful knowing that others might be trying to contact you. But when people take the detox as a group, one of the biggest drawbacks to a detox—fear of missing out—goes by the wayside.
Smartphones aren’t bad in and of themselves, but when we start spending more of our lives in the digital realm instead of the real world, things can quickly get out of balance.
Psychologist Kia-Rai Prewitt, Ph.D., explained the benefits of a digital detox to the Cleveland Clinic.
“Doing a digital detox is a great way to find out if technology is holding you back from living your best life. The results of unplugging can be far-reaching, from being more productive at work to deepening your relationships with family and friends,” Dr. Prewitt wrote. “Benefits of taking a technology timeout include sharper focus, less stress, better social interactions, more control of your time.”
It’d be interesting to see if any researchers study Vadgaon village’s unique approach to technology. It could inspire other places throughout the world to incorporate their own digital siestas where we put down our phones and reconnect with the real world every day for a few hours.
Imagine living in a community where every day, at the same time, people put down their phones, turned off their TVs and played on their lawns, took their dogs for a walk, or went down to the corner bar or coffee shop for a drink. That type of interaction has to make people a lot happier than endlessly scrolling or flipping channels.
It’s understandable that a young child seeing a movie like “E.T.” might think the wide-eyed creature from another planet is real. After all, it’s an award-winning film with still-impressive animatronics that bring E.T. to life. One would probably assume, however, that a child who acted in the movie and saw the behind-the-scenes filmmaking process firsthand would know he wasn’t real.
However, that wasn’t the case for actress Drew Barrymore.
Barrymore played the main character’s younger sister, Gertie, in the film. After an initial scare, Gertie adored E.T.—and as it turns out, so did 7-year-old Barrymore.
Barrymore recently had some of the cast members on her daytime talk show for the film’s 40th anniversary and they described how she would interact with the E.T. character, even in-between takes. Henry Thomas, who played the main character Elliott, shared that it had been cold on the set one day and Barrymore asked the wardrobe lady for a scarf to put on E.T. so he wouldn’t get cold.
“I really, really loved him, in such a profound way,” said Barrymore, adding that she would take lunch to the adorable alien on set.
Dee Wallace Stone, who played Elliott and Gertie’s mother in the film, said “We found you over there just talking away to E.T., and so we let Steven [Spielberg] know. And so Steven, from that time on, appointed two guys to keep E.T. alive so whenever you came over to talk to him, he could react to you.”
u201cSteven Spielberg appointing 2 guys to ensure E.T. was always operating incase Drew Barrymore went over to talk to him has made my heart so full. What a menschu201d
For young children, the line between reality and fantasy can be quite fuzzy. Kids’ imaginations allow them to believe in everything from fairies to Santa Claus to monsters in their closets, and the fact that Barrymore believed E.T. to be real is such a pure example of childhood innocence.
That Spielberg took care to honor that innocence and nurture Barrymore’s imagination even when they weren’t filming is so touching. It’s particularly moving in this case, considering how key adults in Barrymore’s life were famously not protective of her childhood.
“Saturday Night Live” had some fun with the lukewarm feelings some Democrats have about President Biden over the weekend with a trailer for the mock horror film “2020 Part 2: 2024.”
The bit was funny because it mirrors the sentiments many had about Biden running in 2020. Hence, the trailer was a sequel to the fake film, “2020.”
In the sketch, a group of friends comes to terms with the fact that Joe Biden may be running for reelection at the age of 81. “I mean, I love the guy but he did his part,” “SNL” breakout star Bowen Yang says.
They try to rationalize a second term by pointing out Biden’s numerous achievements but cringe when they consider he recently crashed his bicycle. However uncomfortable Biden’s age makes them, they also have to consider a candidate who may be on the ballot if Biden decides against running again. This is where the true horror begins.
The friends ponder what could happen if the Democrats ran Beto O’Rourke, Bernie Sanders, Cory Booker or Pete Buttigieg, striking fear in all of their hearts.
Finally, the group considers the most horrifying and also best-qualified choice of all. “I have the perfect candidate. A superstar who can go all the way—Hillary,” Mikey Day says as he turns into the villain from “Smile.”
While the idea of a repeat of 2020 has some Democrats on edge, a recent poll found that the majority of Americans don’t want to see it happen either. In a prospective presidential race, 64% of voters don’t want to see Joe Biden on the ballot and 68% don’t want to see Trump.
In a hypothetical head-to-head race in 2024, Biden has a 4% lead over Trump.
When most people think of Julia Roberts, they think of “Pretty Woman” or “Ocean’s Eleven” or one of the other plethora of films she’s acted in. Most people don’t see her signature red hair and broad smile and immediately think of a civil rights icon. But there’s a connection that Gayle King encouraged Roberts to share during a recent interview.
Martin Luther King Jr. and his wife Coretta Scott King paid for the birth of the megacelebrity when her parents were in a bind with medical bills. The story is obviously more nuanced than the Kings ponying up $300 or whatever the price was to deliver babies back then.
Roberts explained to Gayle King that her parents became acquainted with the Kings after Coretta Scott King asked if her children could attend the acting school Roberts’ parents owned. The two couples became good friends after that, and thanks to a fateful phone call, Roberts was welcomed into this world carrying a little bit of unknown history with her.
The internet is buzzing with disbelief, because who the heck can say their birth was paid for by the Martin Luther King Jr.? Turns out, Julia Roberts, that’s who. Jay Willis commented on Twitter “No this is one of those history facts that my brain can’t process.”
Another commenter reminded us how recent this piece of history was, saying, “Illustrates just how young MLK was when he was assassinated and how recently he lived. Too many of us think America’s racist past was long ago. It is living memory.”
Most other reactions were just complete shock that this happened and isn’t documented, while others noted how uncomfortable Roberts appeared when she relayed the story. Turns out, there was likely good reason for the discomfort. Someone reposted a tweet from 2021 by Ashley Reynolds that included an article detailing how Roberts’ parents were targets of hate after they cast Yolanda King, one of the King’s children, as the lead in their play where she had to kiss a white boy.
The whole connection between the Roberts family and the iconic King family is simply fascinating. Listen to Roberts tell how the friendship happened below.
u201cToday is Julia Roberts birthday! 55 years ago MLK and Coretta Scott King paid for her parents hospital bill after she was born. Canu2019t stop thinking about this since I read it. Here she is talking about it with @GayleKingu201d
Former president Barack Obama reminded everyone of his off-the-cuff sense of humor at a campaign rally for Democratic voters in Detroit on Saturday, October 29. Nearly six years after leaving the White House, the 61-year-old lamented that it was more challenging for him to be out on the campaign trail than it used to be.
“I have to admit that sometimes going out on the campaign trail feels a little harder than it used to,” the 44th president said to the crowd. “Not just because I’m older and grayer…”
A woman behind Obama responded by screaming that he’s still “finer than a mug,” using what sounds like a euphemism for a much stronger phrase. Although, she may have used the whole term. The funny thing is that after she made the bold proclamation, she had no interest in backing down. She stayed strong, nodding affirmatively and twirling her finger in the air as Obama laughed on the stage.
The moment was a refreshing flashback for many who cherish the years when the young, charismatic politician was in office.
Warning: Contains explicit language.
u201cObama: Iu2019m getting old and gray.nnBlack lady: You fine than a mfer. nhttps://t.co/8ilpc5GsKMu201d
The audience and Obama thought the outburst was funny. “She said I was still fine,” Obama told the crowd with a grin. “I’m not gonna tell Michelle you said that, although Michelle does agree. She knows,” he said.
Obama’s appearance was part of a five-state tour to support Democrats in the midterm elections. The elections are an uphill battle for Democrats who face the headwinds of inflation, economic uncertainty and history. In modern elections, the president’s party has traditionally lost seats in Congress in the midterms.
The Week 8 edition of Monday Night Football featured an old-school division rivalry. The Cleveland Browns welcomed the Cincinnati Bengals to town and, in the early going, it was a slugfest to say the least. Neither team scored in the first quarter, with fewer than 150 total yards accumulated and a turnover on both sides. However, not all turnovers are created equal, and Cleveland’s giveaway came in hilarious fashion from the right arm of Amari Cooper.
Cooper, who is famously a wide receiver, took a reverse and lofted a ball into Cincinnati’s secondary late in the opening period while being hit. The result was disastrous for the Browns in that there wasn’t a single Cleveland pass-catcher in view for what became a (very) easy interception for Cincinnati’s Vonn Bell.
Obviously, Cooper should not be held to the same standard as a quarterback, and he was under duress when he threw the ball. Still, there has to be a trigger for Cooper to just eat the ball in that circumstance, and he was off-balance before he even uncorked the throw.
Fortunately for Cleveland, the play did not set Cincinnati up in immediate scoring territory, and the Bengals punted on the ensuing possession. As such, maybe this can become a point of amusement for Browns observers, as it certainly was for everyone else.
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