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Looking to treat fans to a much-needed live performance, Sturgill Simpson livestreamed a concert from Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium. The auditorium, much like other large venues around the country, is closed as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. The livestreamed concert comes nearly a year after Simpson shared his Sound & Fury album, for which he toured during the early part of 2020.

Simpson was joined by Stuart Duncan on the fiddle, Mike Bub on bass, Sierra Hull on the mandolin, Scott Vestal one the banjo, Tim O’Brien and Mark Howad on the guitar, and Miles Miller drums. It was a group Simpson described as “most likely the greatest bluegrass band on the planet tonight.” Strugill and company performed for over an hour in the empty Ryman Auditorium. The livestream also doubled as a charity drive, with proceeds going to the Special Forces Foundation, the Equity Alliance, and the MusiCares COVID-19 Relief Fund.

The livestream performance comes nearly three months after Sturgill was forced to cancel the US leg of his tour due to the coronavirus. He later revealed that he came down with Covid-19 symptoms after sharing a picture of himself at his local ER in mid-March. Despite the many symptoms, Simpsons said the doctors would not test him as he “did not fit testing criteria.” A month later he received the test at a testing facility outside a National Guard depot where he tested positive. Sturgill has since recovered from the virus.

You can watch the livestreamed performance in the video above.

Over the last two weeks, two of the UFC’s top stars, Jon Jones and Jorge Masvidal, have publicly vented over frustrations stemming from contract negotiations on their next respective fights. First, it was Jones, who has teased a move to the heavyweight division recently, calling out the UFC over refusing to pay the money required to book a Francis Ngannou super fight. He then requested his release and threatened to vacate the light heavyweight belt.

Masvidal followed suit, expressing frustration over his purse for an expected title fight against Kamaru Usman. He eventually asking for his release, too.

Following the UFC 250 weigh-ins on Friday, UFC president Dana White responded to the latest outcry by sending a clear message to Jones, Masvidal and any other fighters pushing back for better pay: don’t fight.

“These guys are independent contractors,” White said, per MMA Fighting. “This isn’t like the NFL, where I can make you – you come to practice, and you do this, or you’re going to get fined. These guys can do whatever they want. They can say whatever they want.”

While White may not have the power to “fine” fighters for not competing, he does control over what their future in the sport looks like. And Masvidal was quick to point out that they can’t freely move over to a competitor due to promotional agreements.

Masvidal also retweeted retired UFC fighter DaMarques Johnson, who used White’s NFL comparison to breakdown the pay discrepancy based on revenue splits.

For now, it appears Masvidal and Jones are happy to hold out for better pay. But until they get buy-in from the sport’s other big names, it appears White is just fine booking other top stars.

Drew Brees echoed his go-to line about kneeling during the national anthem earlier this week, mentioning that he believed doing that to protest systemic oppression and police brutality against Black individuals disrespected the American flag and current and former members of the military. But unlike when Brees would say this in 2016, when Colin Kaepernick tried to use protesting as a chance to start a discourse about two issues that have long plagued the U.S., the New Orleans Saints quarterback faced serious blowback from individuals around the world of sports.

Brees ended up apologizing on his Instagram account several times, and said that he would strive to be a better ally moving forward. One such person who found this unnecessary was, unsurprisingly, Donald Trump, who tweeted that while he was a “big fan” of Brees, the Pro Bowl signal caller “should not have taken back his original stance on honoring our magnificent American Flag.”

It is hardly the first time that the president has opted to comment on Kaepernick-inspired protests, but on Friday evening, Brees, whose family met Trump at this year’s College Football Playoff championship game, offered up an explanation for why the president got this one wrong. Brees posted an image that simply said “To President Trump,” then wrote a note to the commander-in-chief.

In his remarks, Brees admitted that in 2017, the flag was used “to turn people away or distract them from the real issues that face our black communities” and specifically cited “systemic racial injustice, economic oppression, police brutality, and judicial & prison reform.” He also called for America to use the energy that exists in this moment to lead to real, meaningful change that helps the communities that have long been marginalized.

“We as a white community need to listen and learn from the pain and suffering of our black communities,” Brees wrote. “We must acknowledge the problems, identify the solutions, and then put this into action. The black community cannot do it alone. This will require all of us.”

Brees has never exactly been the type of person to rock the boat, so it is a bit surprising to see Brees call out Trump like this. Trump, as of this writing, has not offered up any sort of response to Brees’ post.

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After consecutive losses to light heavyweight champion Jon Jones and top contender Anthony Smith, Alexander Gustafsson announced his surprising retirement from MMA in a post-fight interview. But just one year later, Gustafsson is hungry for UFC gold and making a comeback to the sport with a move to the heavyweight division.

According to MMA Fighting, the 33-year-old Gustafsson will return to the Octagon for his 17th appearance at UFC’s “Fight Island” on July 25 against Fabricio Werdum.

Werdum returned from a reduced two-year USADA suspension in May to suffer a decision loss to Aleksei Oleinik. At 42, the former champion will look to kickstart one more run into title contention in a loaded division just two months after his last bout. His last win came in November of 2017, when Werdum picked up a win by unanimous decision against Marcin Tybura.

Gustafsson has lost all three attempts at capturing UFC gold, dropping a decision loss to Jones in 2013, a decision loss to Daniel Cormier in 2015, and a knockout at the hands of Jones in 2018. Gustafsson’s anticipated tilt with Werdum will play the undercard of Darren Till’s main event showdown with Robert Whittaker. Antonio Rogerio Nogueira is also expected to face off against Mauricio Rua.

The location of UFC’s “Fight Island” is still unknown, but could be revealed by UFC president Dana White next week.

Days after George Floyd was killed by police officer in Minnesota on May 25, Lil Wayne went on his Young Money Radio show to speak about Floyd’s death. However, his awkwardly-worded statement failed to resonate with listeners. As a result, Wayne was subject to a high amount of criticism for his words, especially for his thoughts on the actions of the general public following his death. “Some people put a tweet out and they think they did something,” he said on the show. “Some people wear a shirt and they think they did something. What you gonna do after that? Did you actually help the person? Did you actually help the family? Did you actually go out there and do something?”

Wayne returned Friday with another Young Money Radio show episode, in which he clarified his comments while speaking to Killer Mike. “Mike, last week people misinterpreted my words,” he said. “I respect the effort of the people to seek justice and what they doin’. I just knew it was time for more action than a tweet. Also, my mama always told me—I sat in the passenger seat getting picked up from school every day and dropped off. I would look outside that window in the ‘hood, so you gon’ see situations when you riding home. I might make a comment or give my opinion on what I just saw.”

Wayne also said his mom would reprimand him for what he said, saying she would tell him to mind his own business. He also said his comments came from his experiences as a youth: “I’m from New Orleans where, what we’re seeing ladies and gentlemen around the world finally because [of] the cameraphones and all that, baby, we went through that every day. We saw that, we went through that every week.”

You can listen to Wayne clarify his comments on the reaction to Floyd’s death in the video above, starting around the 3:50 mark.

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Summer is here. The air is warm. Thunderstorms are rolling through and new video game consoles should be getting shown to us soon. While there may be no E3 this year, the anticipation around the opportunity to see more of the highly anticipated Playstation 5 and Xbox: Series X is extremely high. While we know what the Series X looks like after Microsoft unveiled it at December’s game awards, we are still awaiting anything beyond a Wired article in relation to the PlayStation 5.

The last generation is largely considered a victory for Sony with the PlayStation 4 outselling the Xbox One and having a deeper and stronger library of games. Of course, Sony has not been without their own faults this generation.

While Microsoft embraced the new trend of crossplay, allowing gamers to play games with each other no matter the console they owned, Sony strongly pushed against it throughout the generation with only a handful of exceptions to major titles like Fortnite and Rocket League. On the other side though you have PlayStation with very strong exclusive titles like Uncharted 4, Street Fighter V, Marvel’s Spiderman, God of War, Persona 5, Horizon Zero Dawn, and the list can really go on. The Xbox One tried to continue some of their long-lasting titles such as Halo and Gears of War, but the reactions to Gears was that it was good, not great, and the less said about Halo 5‘s campaign the better.

While it’s hard to predict a company’s overall strategy going into a new generation, we can make some educated guesses. In the last few years, both companies have positioned themselves for the next generation. We’ve heard chatter and it’s always worth noting what has made each successful in the past. The first PlayStation arrived on the scene in 1994 and the first Xbox in 2001. Over the decades they have found what worked for them and it would not be surprising to see them stay in their lane, as it were, while appealing to both long-time fans and new ones. With all that said, let’s take a look at the tale of the tape, at least as it stands right now.

PlayStation 5: Strong games, more power

Going all the way back to the ’90s, when the PlayStation was entering the scene against Nintendo and Sega, they made their name by releasing high-quality exclusives. During the PS2 era, they continued this trend and that console is well known for having one of, if not the greatest game library of all time. They slipped up in the PS3 era. Their launch price point was too high, the system was too hard to develop for, and they flat out failed to keep up with the innovative ideas coming out of the Microsoft camp. For the PS4 era, however, they learned from their past fails, simplifying the formula. The price tag has been competitive, they made sure they had the best exclusives, and even though they took heat for fighting against crossplay, it was part of what made them who they were. You buy a PlayStation because they have games you can only play on a PlayStation.

Because of that, it’s hard to see them not keeping with the status quo as they enter this next generation. And that theory is reinforced by what we’ve seen so far through info released through Wired (with talk about 8K visuals and an SSD that sounds transformational) and the Unreal Engine 5 reveal. Sony knows what they do best: have great games and a powerful console. They’re gonna stick with that and present as a powerful workhorse.

Xbox will innovate through service

It’s odd to think that Microsoft, for as big a name as it is, has truly never “won” a console generation. Even the mighty 360 was still barely outsold by the Playstation 3. Xbox’s first foray into consoles saw a horrible launch that almost announced it dead on arrival. Had it not been for Halo and a little thing called Xbox Live we might be discussing the two console giants Nintendo and Sony instead of Microsoft and Sony. That said, the 360 era is where Microsoft truly made its name. Not only through incredible first-person shooters like Halo 3, but by offering everyone’s favorite online service Xbox Live, reinforcing the social element of gaming.

When we look at the Xbox One, we can see signs of Microsoft once again trying to make the services they offer the selling point for their console. Xbox made a huge push into the realm of crossplay this generation and is fully embracing the idea that anyone should be able to play any games they want. This includes older games. As gamers grow up they want to play their old favorites without hanging on to mothballed consoles from the past. As such, Microsoft has fully embraced backwards compatibility. They have already advertised that the Xbox: Series X will continue to support this.

Our commitment to compatibility means existing Xbox One games, including backward-compatible Xbox 360 and original Xbox games, look and play better than ever before. Your favorite games, including titles in Xbox Game Pass, benefit from steadier framerates, faster load times and improved resolution and visual fidelity – all with no developer work required. Your Xbox One gaming accessories also come forward with you.

If Xbox can’t beat Sony with buzzy exclusives then they are going to try and win fans over with the ability to play just about every game under the sun on their console. One of the ways they do this through Gamepass. A feature that was released on the Xbox ONE, Gamepass allows players to stream games to their console and play them whenever they want. Similar to something like a Netflix for games. The library on Gamepass is incredible and it is probably the best service on any console at the moment. This is an area that the Series X can take advantage of.

Verdict

This generation of consoles could define what video games are for years to come. Is Xbox’s progressive idea of ignoring exclusivity and streaming games the future or will the traditional style of Playstation featuring exclusives and strong boxes win out? It’ll be fascinating to see which way video game lovers lean come release time and how each company evolves its strategy in response.