Jeff Gordon made his iRacing debut at virtual Talladega on Sunday afternoon, but the retired NASCAR driver didn’t get off to the start he hoped. Gordon was the latest racing pro to try his hand at the video game version of America’s most popular stock car series, as the shutdown of the actual NASCAR circuit has put drivers in their homes giving virtual racing a go.

It was a cool moment in what’s been a growing event for the iRacing series, which has allowed drivers to distract fans from a bleak sports-less reality with some fun and plenty of controversy since the series began in mid-March. And Gordon got in on the fun with his paint scheme as well, an homage to an infamous win he had at Talladega in 2004 that literally re-wrote the NASCAR rulebook.

Gordon’s first pixelated event, however, quickly got into trouble at virtual Talladega Superspeedway. At one point, he nearly flew off the track and actually got his car stuck in the virtual catch fence.

The crash is one of the many joys of iRacing and why it works so well as a televised event. A crash this severe in real life would be harrowing and potentially dangerous for the drivers. As visually stunning as it is to see a high-powered stock car go airborne and see the physics at work, it could be deadly.

In iRacing, however, it’s actually kind of hilarious that Gordon found trouble at a track in which he had so much history. And though racers get a second chance after crashes — it’s not like there’s any need for a pit crew to try and salvage digitally wrecked cars — Gordon crashed twice on Sunday and saw himself get an early exit from the race. He really seemed to take it in stride, though, and like many drivers he enjoyed the virtual racing experience.

It’s tough out there on Talladega with no spotters. Even in the digital world.

In late March, Scarface revealed that he tested positive for COVID-19, the illness caused by novel coronavirus. A Houston legend and a member of the Geto Boyz, Scarface revealed the news during a zoom chat with fellow Geto Boys member Willie D on his YouTube channel.

“This whole three weeks have been an ordeal,” he said.” I’ve been to the point where I just felt like I was going to die, bro. I threw up so much until it was just hot sauce. Like your gasses and the sh*t in your stomach, your acids. I didn’t have no food in my stomach.”

In the month following, not much was said about Scarface’s condition until this past Wednesday night. Joining Willie D on his YouTube channel for another conversation, Scarface shared an update on his health.

“I fought COVID, double bilateral pneumonia — both lungs — and kidney failure in my house,” he said. “I went back to the hospital. I just got out of the hospital [on April 20].” He later revealed how his body felt through the ordeal, “I couldn’t keep food down, I couldn’t get comfortable, I couldn’t sleep, I couldn’t stay woke, I could not breathe. It was the worst time of my life.” He later revealed that her most likely “30 pounds” by the end of it all.

Pointing to his dialysis port, he continued by explaining how the circumstances have changed his lifestyle. “That’s my new lifeline, I gotta change my entire diet, I gotta do dialysis four days a week, three hours a day. That’s taking all my blood out, cleaning it and putting it back in my body.”

As for the rest of the conversation, Scarface also opened up about Georgia’s controversial reopening of nonessential businesses, calling it “stupid” and a way for the government to have black people “pass that shit out amongst ourselves and kill ourselves.”

View Entire Post ›

The couple were together for 10 years.

View Entire Post ›

Who’s ready to make all of our hair problems go *poof*?

View Entire Post ›

View Entire Post ›

Aragorn, is that you?

View Entire Post ›

The two chain restaurants successfully applied for a total of $30 million in loans from the Paycheck Protection Program.

View Entire Post ›

The New Orleans Saints will once again be led by quarterback Drew Brees, who decided against retirement to return to New Orleans on a two-year, $50 million deal.

The Saints are also insistent that they have their quarterback of the future already on the roster in the form of 29-year-old Taysom Hill, who they signed to a two-year, $21 million extension (with $16 million due at signing) on Sunday to show their commitment to him.

Not only have they now committed $71 million to those two quarterbacks for the next two seasons, it’s also been widely reported on Sunday morning that Jameis Winston will be joining their quarterback room on a one-year deal to take over Teddy Bridgewater’s role as the nominal backup to Brees.

It’s interesting that Sean Payton and company insist that Hill is the future, but in possible absences of Brees, they insist on having a different quarterback playing backup. As Charles Robinson of Yahoo notes, the idea is to mitigate the issues caused by possible injury to Hill, who plays all over the field (and on special teams) and as such has a higher injury risk than any other backup in the league. It also allows them to keep him in that role, even when Brees is out, although it certainly raises questions about how they plan to use Hill once Brees does retire if they aren’t giving the heir apparent regular snaps in a situation where Brees is hurt.

In any case, the Saints are investing heavily in this year’s quarterback room and it will be interesting to see if Jameis can use this opportunity to grow as a player and parlay some time in New Orleans into another starting job in the future, a la Bridgewater.

Bless Kenan Thompson for understanding that a world without sports is hungry for just about any sports-related content right now. The latest episode of SNL At Home featured Thompson doing his best to entertain a sports world largely on hold while COVID-19 ravages the known world, with the longtime Saturday Night Live star starring in three sports-related sketches to fill the void.

The first was Charles Barkley appearing on What’s Up With That to tell a Michael Jordan story apparently cut during The Last Dance. Thompson later donned a pair of gloves and got some golf clubs out to play OJ Simpson, who is dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic just fine. Except for the moments that make him very… mad.

Later on, Thompson himself reprised his role as retired Boston Red Sox player David Ortiz. Thompson’s version of the Red Sox slugger is obsessed with obscure foods and full of sponsorship opportunities, and none of that changed with the SNL mainstay stuck at home. Thompson has played Ortiz like this for years, including in 2014 where a trip to the White House to celebrate the Red Sox winning the World Series was mostly about the “big lunch” the team had.

The same was the case earlier in the current SNL season, which saw Thompson play Ortiz after he was shot in the Dominican Republic. Now that Big Papi is at home, though, it was up to Thompson to play Ortiz making a Big Dominican Lunch for himself.

“How you gonna are a big lunch in quarantine?” Ortiz asked. “You gotta learn to improvise.”

Ortiz then made “a very simple dish based on things lying around the house.” Though according to some context clues and rough Spanish translation, Ortiz apparently has monkey paws and dolphin tongues lying around to make for lunch. The sketch is big on hyperbole, but the weird sponsorship deals are what really steal the show.

Ortiz says the sponsorship list starts with an “exploded can of beans,” and his hand sanitizer ad is really what stole the show.

“Have you been washing your hands like a thousand times a day. well then you’re in pure hell,” Thompson said, grimacing. “Pure Hell: why is my skin just like a bunch of dust?”

Papi also broke out his “seven meat sancocho,” which he claims PETA called “a genocide.” It was an extremely weird sketch, of course, but clearly a character that Thompson loves to play. And in a world where actual sports aren’t really happening, it was a welcome distraction to watch Big Papi cook for a bit.