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The New Orleans Saints have gotten off to a good start to the season with a 2-0 record thanks in large part to them having one of the (if not the) best defenses in the NFL.

On the other side of the ball they’re led by Derek Carr, who may not be among the NFL’s elite at quarterback, but certainly gives the Saints a competent and quality veteran starter to manage the offense and play complementary ball alongside their defense. On Sunday, the Saints put forth their best half of football thus far, taking a 17-0 lead on the road in Green Bay at the break. The defense contributed one of the touchdowns with Carr providing the other, and it looked in the mid-third as though the Saints would be cruising to a win and the good vibes of a 3-0 start.

However, on a third down dropback, Carr got slung to the ground by Packers defensive lineman Rashan Gary, slamming onto his throwing shoulder, where he would stay down on the ground and receive attention from the training staff.

Carr would eventually walk off the field and to the locker room for X-rays on that shoulder, with the Saints officially ruling him as questionable with a shoulder injury.

That meant Jameis Winston was inserted under center for the next drive, with the Saints at least having the luxury of having one of the best backups in the league still on their roster. However, the Saints organization and fans will be waiting nervously for an update on Carr’s health, as he took a nasty hit on that shoulder when he was thrown violently to the ground, and losing him for an extended period would be highly unfortunate.

UPDATE: Carr was ruled out with a shoulder injury later in the second half.

Usher’s Vegas residency may be coming to an end, but Sin City hasn’t seen the last of him. In February 2024, the musician will take the stage as the featured headliner during the Super Bowl LVIII Halftime show. Although fans are looking forward to him playing the hits, Usher wants to give the world a taste of something new.

Following the news of his upcoming performance, Usher’s official Apple Music page revealed the release of his next album, called Coming Home. The site reveals its cover, expected release date, and the number of songs set to appear. So far, the only named track is his single, “Good Good,” which features Summer Walker and 21 Savage.

During an interview with Apple Music’s Zane Lowe, Usher shared the title’s meaning and talked about the album’s creative vision. “[This album] is a love letter to the legacy of my career. I’ve been coming home in a lot of different ways,” he said. “The choice of music. Reconnection to some of the people that I’ve worked with from my past and people who I’ve always wanted to work with… In a sense, I’m coming home because I am in that comfortable space.”

Coming Home is out 2/11/2024 via Mega/Gamma. Find more information here.

It has not been a good start to the season for Deshaun Watson, as the Cleveland Browns starter has regressed tremendously from his All-Pro days in Houston. Watson was largely the reason the team lost on Monday night a week ago to Pittsburgh, as turnovers and two personal foul penalties on Watson helped the Steelers win a game in which their offense was dreadful as well.

This week, the Browns faced off with yet another inept offense, as they dueled with Ryan Tannehill and the Titans in Cleveland, and it was yet another disasterclass from both offenses. Tannehill and the Titans couldn’t do anything in the first half against Myles Garrett and the Browns defense, only mustering their 3 points on a field goal set up by a Cleveland turnover. The Browns fared a bit better, but Watson continued to make some of the worst decisions you will ever see from a quarterback (particularly one who was once among the league’s best).

The funniest example of Watson’s baffling decision-making came in the second quarter when he got wrapped up for a near sack and then chose to chuck the ball backwards towards Elijah Moore, which meant the bouncing ball was a live fumble which led to a big loss of yardage for Cleveland as Moore scooped it up and quickly got brought down well behind the line of scrimmage.

The announcers reacting to Watson just hucking the ball backwards is hysterical, and you could hear the Browns crowd groan in anguish as the ball bounced around on the turf. The good news for Cleveland is, the Titans are quite bad and so this drive still somehow ended up being a touchdown for the Browns despite the best efforts of Watson on this play.

Is there anything the Swifties can’t do? Taylor Swift’s beloved superfans’ disdain for Ticketmaster might have been the push behind a new tax law. After the ticketing platform flubbed Swift’s The Eras Tour pre-sale, the singer’s supporters deemed the company public enemy number one. Second on their list are resellers looking to cash in on the public’s love for Swift.

According to the Wall Street Journal, President Joe Biden, the United States Senate, and Congress have taken aim at Ticketmaster, siccing the on resellers with a new tax law. According to the Wall Street Journal, the agency has unveiled a new law set to go into effect for the 2022 tax year, in which e-distributors, such as Ticketmaster and StubHub, will be required to provide the agency with information on people who sold more than $600 worth of tickets. The sellers will be held responsible for the taxes of that transaction. This law applies to the ticket’s sale price, not the seller’s profit.

In the past, the threshold was more than $20,000 in revenue and over 200 transactions. WSJ revealed that IRS commissioner Danny Werfel said they have not announced any future plans to give an additional reprieve. The 1099-K form for the 2023 tax year will be available soon.

Cassidy Hutchinson is back. The former Donald Trump aide became a household name last summer during her bombshell testimony for the House’s Jan. 6 committee. Turns out she had even more stories to tell. Her new book, Enough, in which she reveals things like the shallow reason why her old boss wouldn’t wear a mask at the height of the pandemic. She also accused Rudy Giuliani of groping her with “frozen fingers.” Hutchinson has so much dirt that she saved some for her press tour.

In a new interview with The New York Times (in a bit teased out by The Daily Beast), Hutchinson describes the last days of the Trump administration as being “awash in paranoia.” Things sound like they got very Watergate-era Nixon:

It was, by her telling, an administration awash in paranoia, with Mr. Meadows and others refusing to dispose of daily litter in “burn bags” for fear that someone from the “deep state” might intercept the contents. Instead, she writes, Mr. Meadows burned so many documents in his fireplace in the final days of the Trump presidency that his wife complained to Ms. Hutchinson about how expensive it had become to dry-clean the “bonfire” aroma from his suits.

Granted, Nixon staffers used to shred, not burn, documents, which at least doesn’t leave a foul odor.

Hutchinson also claimed that Meadows once asked her if she would “take a bullet” for the guy who doesn’t even risk breaking a fingernail. She nervously joked that maybe she’d take one in the thigh.

In the meantime, the guy at the center of all this nonsense is back on top with GOP polling, meaning he’ll either wind up back in the presidency or, thanks to the 91 criminal charges against him, in jail. Or both!

(Via NYT and The Daily Beast)

The Renaissance World Tour has been a revolving door of guest appearances. During Beyoncé’s birthday concert in Inglewood, California, she dialed things up a notch by inviting music legend Diana Ross and rapper Kendrick Lamar to share the stage with her. That wasn’t the end of her surprise performances. On Saturday, September 23, as the tour planted its roots in her hometown of Houston, Texas, Beyoncé brought another native for a highly anticipated set.

At the NRG Stadium, Beyoncé & Megan Thee Stallion treated the sold-out crowd to a spicy performance of their top-charting and Grammy Award-winning song, “Savage (Remix).” As Megan made her way to the front of the stage, she took the time to remind the audience of her H-town roots. Then she embraced the cocky energy of the track, bragging, “I’m that b*tch. Still that b*tch.”

“Yes, Megan,” yelled Beyoncé.

The celebrities amongst the crowd included Lizzo, Normani, Teyana Taylor, Coco Jones, and Victoria Monét.

There’s not much Beyoncé can do to outdo night one in Houston. But knowing Mrs. Knowles-Carter, she’ll find a way to make the final performance slated for Sunday, September 24, even grander.

Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Last month Vivek Ramaswamy went from semi-obscure new Republican presidential candidate to a possible new face of the GOP. The pharma bro even pissed off Chris Christie, who said he “sounds like ChatGPT.” Now another public figure has an arguably even funnier description of the youngish candidate.

As per Mediaite, Sean Penn — fresh off a wild Variety interview in which he said he would have killed “everyone” involved in the September 11 attacks had he been president then, as well as said he’d like to violate AI versions of studio execs’ daughters (!!) — sat down with CNN’s Jim Acosta, who asked him about Ramaswamy vowing to cut off U.S. aid to Ukraine amidst the Russian invasion. Penn’s response was enjoyably nutty.

“I don’t find him very interesting,” Penn said, “because he’s just like a high school student who’s impressive because he got an ‘A’ in something he’ll never apply in life.”

Penn, of course, has been a champion of Ukraine from the start, even spending the early days of the invasion on the ground, to the point where he was told to “get the f*ck out” of there for his own well-being. At one point he swore he would “smelt” one or both of his acting Oscars in protest of the war. It appears he did not follow through on that threat, but he did gift one of them to Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky.

(Via Mediaite)

How are you doing these days? However you are, there’s a good chance you’re faring better than Rudy Giuliani. Over the last three years, the former NYC mayor has suffered one indignity after another, all because he threw his lot in with former president Donald Trump. Now, on top of everything else — on top of pricey lawsuits, money issues, accusations, and endless embarrassments — he’s suffering another humiliation: a mean if accurate nickname.

As per HuffPost, Joe Scarborough and co-host Willie Geist devoted part of Friday’s Morning Joe to discussing how far Giuliani has fallen.

“I don’t know if he faces prison, if he faces bankruptcy, if he faces additional charges,” Scarborough said. “It’s just from from all directions. And this is the cost, of course, when you turn your life over to Donald Trump.”

Geist pointed out that it seems Giuliani can’t pay his ever-mounting legal bills, prompting Scarborough to say, “It was all fun and games until the indictments started coming down.” He added, “And now, like for so many of the people around Donald Trump, the bill is coming due.”

Scarborough then bestowed upon him a new nickname: “From America’s Mayor to America’s Deadbeat.”

He stressed how unfortunate it is for anyone to team up with the former president, saying, “Following Donald Trump can get you thrown in jail or ruin you financially.”

Of course, Trump could always roar back into office after next year’s election. Perhaps that’s why some continue to take his side, throwing the dice on whether or not the big guy gets a belated second term. Of course, if the bet fails then there’s a stiff penalty for all. Besides, judging from how little help Trump has given Giuliani, it’s not clear if he’ll help out anyone if he’s back in power.

(Via HuffPost)

With the Super Bowl coming to Las Vegas for the first time ever this February, there figured to be plenty of interest from musical artists in performing this year’s halftime show. The annual rumors of a possible Taylor Swift performance came and went, and the NFL’s dream of getting the pop icon will continue on for another year.

Still, there are a ton of artists with ties to Vegas through residencies, and the league (and partner Roc Nation) had to decide what direction they wanted to go in for the show. Ultimately they landed Usher, who has a residency in Vegas coming to a close later this year, as the legendary R&B artist will perform a compilation of his biggest hits at Allegiant Stadium on February 11, 2024.

The NFL announced the news by getting Kim Kardashian and Marshawn Lynch involved to film a video where they hop on the other line of a phone call from an Usher music video.

As always there are debates about who should’ve been the selection and fan theories that ended up being incorrect, but Usher is hard to argue against as he has a deep history of hits to dig into, is an incredible live performer, and can absolutely carry a solo halftime performance. He also just so happens to have his next album, “Coming Home” releasing on…February 11, 2024.

Donald Trump may be doing pretty well for himself these days — long as you ignore those 91 criminal charges against him — but the party he leads is in disarray. There’s a ton of in-fighting right now, especially among the House GOP, who are scrambling to either avert a government shutdown or put the blame for same on someone who’s not them. Speaking of, Matt Gaetz recently made the mistake of saying nice things about Trump rival Ron DeSantis. That got him called out by one of the party’s more sinister agents.

Per Newsweek, Gaetz put a silver lining on the Florida governor’s rapidly fading presidential aspirations. “DeSantis will return to Florida as a popular, successful governor with two years of runway to cement a legacy of accomplishment in America’s third largest (and best) state,” he wrote.

Roger Stone, the GOP’s notorious longtime fixer, wasn’t having that one. Calling him “wrong,” Stone said, “You created this monster who has proven to be a backstabbing weasel and ingrate .He’s done and if you keep kissing his ass, so are you.”

Definitely not ominous mafia stuff! It’s sad because Gaetz and Stone go way back. In 2019, as Stone was awaiting sentencing for obstruction in the Robert Mueller Russia investigation, Gaetz told him, over a hot mic, that Trump won’t let him “go down for this.”

For those keeping track at home, Gaetz is now feuding with not only Roger Stone but also Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy, whom he’s so desperate to oust that he may have left a motion to unseat him in a bathroom.

(Via Newsweek)