Category: Viral

The Carolina Panthers are looking to push for a postseason berth this year after going 5-12 last season. One way they’re trying to do this is to add Baker Mayfield to their roster — while it is unclear if Mayfield or incumbent starter Sam Darnold will be QB1 for the Panthers this season, the pair should, if all goes well, push one another all the way until the start of the regular season.

Mayfield apparently had a nice moment on Saturday morning during practice, as he found another former Cleveland Brown — wide receiver Rashard Higgins — for a touchdown. But unfortunately for them, Higgins had a little too much fun celebrating, so head coach Matt Rhule made the entire offense run.

So, what happened here? Higgins’ signature celebration is to roll out an imaginary red carpet (you can read about it right here), and he did that a little too early for Rhule’s liking. As a result, Rhule explained after practice that this was something he felt the need to address.

“We’re not a team that reaches the ball across the goal line,” Rhule said. “You know, I told the guys, ‘Hey, after you score a touchdown, celebrate, have fun today, this isn’t a true game, but we’re playing like a game.’ But in between the white lines. Great play by Higgy, made a great touchdown catch, but I just wanted to make sure they all understood that we won’t win if we don’t protect the football. Sometimes as a coach, too, you gotta make sure the intensity stays throughout the whole practice.”

Rhule went on to say he wanted the defense to understand that they do not give up explosive plays and the offense to understand that celebrations wait until after the ball gets into the end zone. You have to think the point got across when the collection of adults were made to run by their boss for enjoying something that happened at work a little too much.

When it hit theaters in the early aughts, the Peter Jackson-helmed Lord of the Rings trilogy reignited interest in the fantasies of J.R.R. Tolkien in general. One of them even the Oscar for Best Picture! But not everyone was a fan. One of the series’ notable critics was Christopher Tolkien, the author’s son and literary executor, who believed the films “eviscerated” his father’s complex work. The estate’s hatred of the films may have even kept Jackson from returning to Amazon’s super-pricey forthcoming LoTR show, The Rings of Power.

The Hollywood Reporter spoke with Jackson, who revealed that Amazon effectively ghosted him after approaching him. “They asked me if I wanted to be involved—[writer-producer Fran Walsh] and I—and I said, ‘That’s an impossible question to answer without seeing a script,” he said. The super-company told him they’d send him the first couple scripts…which never showed up. “That’s the last thing I heard,” he said, but added that it didn’t bug him: “Which is fine. No complaints at all.”

But THR dug a little deeper and discovered a more complicated story. In a statement Amazon said that while “pursuing the rights for our show, we were obligated to keep the series distinct and separate from the films.” Sources untangled that one a bit. For one thing, Amazon lawyers were opposed to the idea, likely because Warner Bros. currently owns the rights to the films and they didn’t want any overlap.

But also reportedly against Jackson returning was the Tolkien estate. They own the rights to the books, for which Amazon forked over a princely $250 million. The Tolkien estate is clearly very opinionated; they also disavowed Tolkien, the biopic about the author starring Nicholas Hoult. Put two and two together and you can imagine Amazon doing whatever the Tolkien people say. But Jackson, who’s already returned to the Middle-earth well before, at least says he’s cool with that. Besides, he’s already moved on to other matters, namely World War I, The Beatles, and incredible but ethically dodgy restorations of archival footage.

(Via THR)

It’s been a big summer for a number of members of the Philadelphia 76ers, and on Saturday, forward Tobias Harris’ life is going to change forever. Harris and his fiancé, Jasmine Winton, are getting married, and unsurprisingly, the high-scoring Sixer is happy about the development. On Saturday morning, Harris took to Twitter and expressed his excitement about tying the knot a little later in the day.

Of course, because this was tweeted by Tobias Harris, a whole lot of folks’ minds went to his NBA best friend (Boban Marjanovic) and not his real life best friend (who, maybe that was Boban for a little but your significant other eventually takes that mantle for a lot of people).

Harris and Marjanovic were teammates for years, and while both are the kinds of dudes who seem to get along with everyone, the pair struck up quite the friendship during their tenures with the Detroit Pistons, Los Angeles Clippers, and 76ers — Marjanovic even had Harris come with him to the debut of John Wick: Chapter 3 — Parabellum. In fact, Harris was very upset when the pair eventually went their separate ways. Anyway, to avoid and confusion, Harris posted a follow-up tweet to stress that he is marrying someone else.

Hopefully this goes over better than that time Marjanovic and Luka Doncic got matching BFF hoodies and Harris felt betrayed. But regardless: Congrats to Harris and Winton on the big day.

Donald Trump has always painted himself as the rich guy who’s good at business, but even he sometimes needs financial support. When he does, he knows who to turn to: his cash-strapped supporters. He’s asked them to help fund his fight for election integrity (which he then mostly pocketed). He’s asked them to help fix his private plane. Now he’s asking them to pony up for his almost certainly frivolous lawsuit against CNN.

The former president recently claimed he was looking to sue the news network because of their habit of calling his 2020 election lies “lies.” Citing the “overwhelming evidence” of voter fraud (that has never been presented), he argued that CNN was guilty of defamation. Does he have much of a case? Probably not. But few love to muck up the courts with dodgy cases than Donald Trump.

In any case, Trump sent out a fundraising e-mail calling on his tireless fans to fork over the cash for a lawsuit that may not have much merit. “I’m calling on my best and most dedicated supporters to add their names to stand with me in my impending LAWSUIT against Fake News CNN,” he wrote in an e-mail with the subject header “Let’s Sue CNN.”

He followed that up with another fundraising e-mail, in which he tried to pressure more people to give him money. “I’m going to look over the names of the first 45 Patriots who added their names to publicly stand with their President AGAINST CNN,” he wrote.

When announcing his CNN lawsuit, Trump teased that it could be only the beginning. “I will also be commencing actions against other media outlets who have defamed me and defrauded the public regarding the overwhelming evidence of fraud throughout the 2020 Election,” he wrote. “I will never stop fighting for the truth and for the future of our Country!”

Alas, Trump doesn’t have a great track record when it comes to winning court cases, even when the judges were appointed by him.

(Via The Daily Beast)

The San Francisco 49ers are coming off of a surprise run to the NFC Championship Game and find themselves in the midst of a gigantic offseason, as the team is moving away from quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo and handing the reins of their offense over to second-year signal caller Trey Lance. Preseason practices have, however, run into some problems, although they don’t seem to have anything to do with their QB situation.

On multiple occasions during the team’s practice on Tuesday this past week, players got punchy with one another. The most notable one came when a late hit by star linebacker Fred Warner led to wide receiver Marcus Johnson suffering a concussion. A fellow receiver, Brandon Aiyuk, confronted Warner, which led to a brawl breaking out.

While Niners coach Kyle Shanahan said he wasn’t bothered by Aiyuk standing up for his teammate, his strong preference seems to be that no one fights anyone.

“I want everyone challenging each other,” Shanahan told the press on Friday. “I don’t care how much crap each other talks; I don’t care how close they get to fighting. They can do whatever they want to get themselves to be as intense as they want and bring the best out of each other, which happens a lot that way. And it’s the same on the field.

“But once you throw a punch, you get ejected or you get a penalty, and we pride ourselves on, I want people to be irritants, I want people to get as close as they can to all that stuff. I want people to get right on the line where they’re about to black out, but you can’t black out on the football field or you cost your team.”

Let all 32 NFL teams take this as a lesson: fighting in practice is bad.

Pete Davidson gets around, which may surprise men more than women. But for the last months, he’s been in a committed — and sometimes turbulent — relationship with one person: Kim Kardashian. The SNL vet and socialite/businesswoman began dating last October, though they only made their red carpet debut in May. But now, as per CNN, the two have called it quits.

Sources say the reason was simple: their schedules and locations haven’t always lined up, and the friction was apparently such that they have decided to part ways. They met, appropriately enough, at his workplace. “I did ‘SNL,’ and then when we kissed in the scene, it was just a vibe,” she once revealed on her Hulu show.

Their relationship was a bumpy one, though through no fault of their own. It was usually Kardashian’s ex-husband, Kanye West. Their divorce was finalized this March, and he made a point of repeatedly intruding on their lives, attempting to make Davidson’s life hell. Davidson often did the smart thing, which is to say he did nothing. Occasionally he fought back, albeit in the form of jokes and a bit of trolling.

Davidson has long been a prolific fan of tattoos, some of which he’s gotten removed. What he’ll do with his Kardashian tattoos remains to be seen, though a lot of people had jokes on that matter.

In any case, pour one out for Pete and Kim.

(Via CNN)

Roger Stone is in deep doo-doo. Last week, the conspiracy theorist was found guilty in a defamation trial, having spread nonsense about parents of victims of the Sandy Hook massacre. His punishment? He must pay a total of $49.3 million to one family alone — $4.1 million in compensatory damages, $45.2 million in punitive damages. Jones is already out there begging his fans for money. Now he has some help.

Fellow MAGA insider Roger Stone — who’s not doing too well either — recorded a video for InfoWars where he tried to double down on Jones’ efforts. “Alex Jones is a good and decent man. He’s a God-fearing Christian,” Jones pleaded. “”He’s done more for this movement than perhaps anyone you can name. And right now, he needs our support.” He then directed viewers to InfoWars’ merch page, so they can buy his questionable vitamins and books. If they don’t want any of that, he added, they could always just donate cold hard cash.

Stone is no stranger to appearing on Jones’ show, which has been widely de-platformed from places like YouTube. During an appearance on the show in April, Stone was interrupted by his host wandering in the background, shirtless.

Jones’ defamation trial was arguably the most bizarre in an era of out-there trials. At one point, he was informed, while on the stand, with a live feed streaming to the public, that the entire contents of his phone had been accidentally sent to the lawyer representing the Sandy Hook parents suing him. His punishment was parceled out in two parts. After being informed that the compensatory damages were “only” $4.1 million, he declared it a major victory. The next day, they tacked on the punitive damages, which happened to be about 11 times larger.

On the heels of his Grey Day tour, $NOT has dropped a new single. On “Immaculate,” $NOT experiments with his sound, slowing down the pace of his typical hype sound, and creating one that is more trippy and downtempo. Produced by GeeohhS, “Immaculate” is comprised of an arrangement of keys, drums, and raindrops, emulating a sound inspired by ’90s R&B fused with that of ASAP Rocky‘s LiveLoveASAP era.

“I’m smokin’ and rollin’ and chokin’ / My mind don’t be open for none of that bullsh*t / While I run to the ocean, my feet in slow motion / Somebody come help me, I’m trippin’,” he raps over the smooth, silky beat.

In the song’s accompanying video, $NOT is seen outside of a 7-Eleven, polishing his jewelry, vibing with his crew, and getting his car washed by a couple of women in nun outfits. Elsewhere in the video, $NOT sits in a tree, as a woman stands by the tree trying to catch his attention.

While he hasn’t announced a follow up to his album, Ethereal, which dropped this past February, $NOT shared how he plans to approach his next project in an interview with Complex.

“After [Ethereal], now I have to make sure everything is sharp,” he said. From the lyrics to the beat, I have to get really crazy…It’s one of those things where I’ll actually have to write down sh*t. Because for Ethereal, I didn’t really write sh*t. Everything is a freestyle, and punching in words. But for the next one, I want to get back to the basics and pull out a notebook and start writing shit for real.”

Check out “Immaculate” above.

$NOT is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Mustard protege Roddy Ricch took a hiatus from social media this past February, following the negative reception of his sophomore album, Live Life Fast. This past Thursday (August 4), he returned to Instagram and shared with fans that he had been dealing with emotional difficulty. In his post, he revealed he’s working on the third installment of his Feed Tha Streets mixtape series

“I understand things have escalated quickly and God has taken us to places we never would’ve imagined possible but I’m here for every challenge and obstacle,” said Ricch in a caption. “Thank You to everybody whose [sic] stayed supportive of me through all the glorious moments and all the hard times.”

Elsewhere in the post, Ricch revealed he is working with some “amazing people” to build a tech company called ROLL. He also shared that he plans to be transparent in the process of recording his music, as well as his personal life.

“I want to be closer to my fans and show all the sides no one ever sees. I want to show my album process, my new journey of fatherhood and all the things that comes with the life of being RR.”

Ricch’s latest EP, The Big 3, is available for streaming here.

Roddy Ricch is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Just weeks away from his upcoming sixth studio, In Loving Memory, Blackbear has dropped a new track, featuring The Used. On “Toxic Energy,” Blackbear looks back on a past relationship, finally noticing the red flags he missed the first time around.

The song contains drum production by Travis Barker, and is an electric guitar-driven track, creating a nod to Blackbear’s early emo days performing as Mat Musto.

“From the moment that I met you / You had powers over me / Shoulda known / I shoulda known / You were toxic energy / You were lightning / You were cocaine / You were everything between /Shoulda known / I shoulda known / You were toxic energy,” sings Blackbear on the song’s chorus.

On the second verse, Bert McCracken of The Used delivers a verse recalling miserable memories of an ex, saying, “You’re lonely, addicted / You clench your fists and quit it / Your bitter heart is freezing / Anxiety, thoughts fleeting.”

The song latches onto the nostalgia of early aughts emo rock, while remaining true to Blackbear’s “sad boy” pop nature.

Check out “Toxic Energy” above, and the In Loving Memory cover art and tracklist below.

1. “I Don’t Love Me”
2. “Dead Inside”
3. “Toxic Energy” Feat. The Used
4. “Nothing Matters” Feat. New Found Glory
5. “GFY” Feat. Machine Gun Kelly
6. “Broken World”
7. “Painkiller”
8. “FUILU”
9. “The Idea”
10. “Poltergeist” Feat. Bayside
11. “Back In Rehab”
12. “Hazel Inside”

In Loving Memory is out 8/26 via Columbia Records. Pre-save it here.