GoneTrending

For the first time in the history of the franchise, the cover athlete for the upcoming Madden game plays for the Buffalo Bills. It was announced on Wednesday morning that Josh Allen, the franchise’s Pro Bowl signal caller, will be the cover athlete for Madden NFL 24, and it’s an honor that he calls “surreal.”

“Madden is so iconic in itself, it is football culture,” Allen told Uproxx Sports over Zoom. “I’ve said this, I don’t know how many times, but I literally learned the game playing Madden as a kid — the rules, the penalties, coverages and concepts. So, I always felt like, as a kid, I felt like I had a step up playing Pop Warner because I know what they’re doing in Madden.”

A lifelong fan of the game, Allen still enjoys firing up Madden and seeing concepts that he runs during games. Of course, we’re still a bit of a way away from Allen leading the Buffalo offense onto the field for games this year, as the team is currently in the midst of Organized Team Activities with all eyes on winning the first Lombardi Trophy in franchise history.

Earlier this week, we sat down with Allen to discuss Madden, how it’s helped him become the quarterback he is today, how things are going in the team’s lead-up to the 2023 NFL season, and much more.

You’re on the cover of Madden. How’s it feel?

It’s a surreal feeling, and I can’t thank EA and Madden enough for allowing me to be on the cover of Madden 24. For it to be the year after John Madden [passed], it is so, so humbling, and it’s such a big honor for me to be able to, like I said, be on the cover after such an icon of the game. Madden is so iconic in itself, it is football culture. I’ve said this, I don’t know how many times, but I literally learned the game playing Madden as a kid — the rules, the penalties, coverages and concepts.

So, I always felt like, as a kid, I felt like I had a step up playing Pop Warner because I know what they’re doing in Madden — like, this is cover three, they’re trying to do cover two here. I literally learned the game of football by playing Madden. So it’s so cool now, I’ve got so many fond memories of playing my brother, my dad growing up, and all my friends growing up, Madden was my game. So, to now be on the cover, and to understand where I was at not too long ago, zero offers out of high school and junior college, and now to be on the cover of Madden and following some great footsteps like Drew Brees and Tom Brady and some other really cool guys that have graced the cover. So, it’s a special, special moment for me.

You mentioned playing growing up — was there a team that you always used? Were there players that you always tried to use? How’d that work?

Yeah, so I grew up a 49ers fan. I typically tried to play with them. Unfortunately, when I was at that age, they weren’t super good all the time. So, I used Green Bay quite a bit because of Brett Favre, and there was a few other teams that I would mess with, but I tried to play with the Niners as much as possible. I was telling a story earlier that Ken Dorsey is our offensive coordinator here. When I would pick the 49ers, I forgot what year it was of Madden, but I’d always go in and put him in, because his speed rating was way higher than whoever the starter was at the time. I had to tell him that when I saw him.

You mentioned it, but is it still something to this day where you’ll play Madden and you feel like it helps you … maybe now that you have a bit more of a mastery than middle school Josh, it helps you maybe sharpen things like recognizing coverages, stuff like that?

I absolutely think so. And I think there’s so many concepts that Madden has that I actually run in real games. To sit there and like, I’m watching film — you know what? Let’s play some film. I want to go out there and I can actually do it without actually doing it. And I definitely think there’s a lot of application from the game to the field. And I’m not saying it’s perfect, but it is the most realistic experience you can get to actually playing in the NFL.

You’re the first Bills player to be on the cover of Madden, and I feel like “the first Bills player to do this,” or “the Bills record holder for this” is getting to be a little common with you. Does that feeling of being the first Bill to ever do something stop being cool?

I think it’s more of an important recognition for the organization and the city that’s contributed so much to football, and I think that this community has been starving for one Lombardi Trophy for a long time. And that’s what my goal is, to bring a Lombardi Trophy back to Bills Mafia and Western New York. But you know, I think they’re going to enjoy the cover, I think they’re going to enjoy to have some bragging rights across the league. I was telling someone earlier, something came up, there’s gonna be 31 teams that hate this, right? If there wasn’t, that’s a problem. The only ones that matter is Bills Mafia, to me, and if 31 other teams didn’t kind of hate me a little bit, or at least have a little bit of hatred towards me, I think that’d be a problem. So, I’m fine with it, it’s the world that we live in, the occupation I picked, so, gotta live with it. But as long as Bills Mafia is happy with me and they get to enjoy this with me, it’s all good.

Let’s talk a little bit of ball. Generally, how’s the offseason gone so far?

Offseason has been great, we’re getting after it here during our phase one, two, and we’re now in phase three of OTAs, where it’s actually going on the field to throw the ball around a little bit to some of our guys. We’re just out here working, and some of the new guys that we’ve added, it’s good to get to see their body language and throw with them, know them on a deeper level and just develop that camaraderie and trust that you need to have in a team. So yeah, it’s been going good, a lot of stuff to work on, though — obviously, by no means are we where we want to be and we’re striving to find a way to get the job done, and like I said, bring the Lombardi Trophy back to Western New York. That’s all our team wants to do.

So there have been a couple of quotes that I’ve seen from your coaches that I’d love to ask you about. The first one is from coach McDermott, who said “I’ve seen a different Josh this offseason, he’s got a new sense of focus and determination.” That new sense of focus and determination that a guy who would recognize that by now, where does that come from?

I think as you get older in this league — I’m going into my sixth year now. Understanding what this league is, it’s hard to win in this league, sometimes it takes a little bit of luck, but you earn it now, you earn it in the offseason, you earn winning games by your preparation and coming to OTAs and learning new teammates and developing that camaraderie, like I said earlier.

I don’t want to allow myself to have anything to hang my hat on, like I should have been doing this more, I could have watched more film, I could have thrown more with my receivers. So, I want to allow myself to exhaust every option, that when push comes to shove, I have literally done everything I could do to put myself in the best situation possible and I’m ready for the moment. Hopefully the guys on the team can see me be me, and they can try to match me, and I think the leadership aspects of what I’m trying to do this year is a little bit different, too. And again, leaning on our other leaders and in our locker room and our coaching staff, like coach McDermott. I’m just trying to be the best quarterback that I can be for this Bills team.

Kind of going off of that, coach Dorsey had a quote about how the offense is in the process of growing what our true identity is. So as the guy who’s lining up under center, how would you define the true identity of the Buffalo Bills’ offense?

Well, I think that’s still to be seen. We’re working on different things, and obviously, we’ve got quite a few new faces on our offense this year. And, again, it’s going to take some time to put the right pieces in the right spots to make plays for us. But again, that’s our goal, is to put our guys [in position] to have as much success as they can and put them in positions where they’re gonna succeed. That’s what we’re trying to do, we’re figuring that out right now in OTAs. There’s gonna be stuff that we run in OTAs that we may never run throughout the season, there gonna be some stuff that we don’t run yet, that we’re going to find out — it’s a copycat league, if there’s one team doing something that’s really good that we can apply that to ourselves, and we can learn from it and use it, that’s what we’ll do, too. So, just try new things and just kind of throwing things at the wall right now and see what sticks, and we’re gonna go from there.

I think I found that so interesting because you guys are consistently one of, if not the best offense in the NFL. So in your eyes, is growing an identity a matter of doing something consistently? Is it a matter of having new wrinkles? Is it a matter of going, “this is our system, we’re going to trust it?”

You alluded to it earlier, we’re consistently one of the better ranking offenses in the league. So you don’t want to, you know, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, right? So, just find new ways to, again, put our guys in positions to be successful — whether that’s bringing a guy inside or outside or lining them up in certain different spots, that’s our coaching staff, and they’re going to figure that out. And it’s my job to be an extension of coach Dorsey and try to do what he’s wanting me to do on each and every play while he’s sitting up in the box calling these plays.

And then my last question, a lot of my closest friends are Bills fans, and I always find it striking how they want you specifically to be the guy who takes this franchise to the mountaintop. How does it inspire you, motivate you, etc. knowing you have an entire city putting its faith in you to get them to this thing that most of these people have wanted their entire life?

I think that’s why I love playing here in Buffalo so much and I can relate to the fan so much, because they care about football almost as much as I care about football. And knowing that, I so badly, that’s all I want to do is bring a Lombardi Trophy back to Western New York. I dream about the day that we get to have this parade and it’s gonna be something special. So again, we gotta get there first. There’s no added pressure from the outside that I haven’t already put on myself, I’m so internally motivated, and I know our team is as well. So, we’re gonna continue to work hard and then try to find a way to get it done.

Azealia Banks has made waves for yet another social media post some fans are calling truly unhinged for its treatment of the recent death of Wild ‘N Out star Jacky Oh. Banks posted the message on her recently restored Instagram Story this week, addressing Oh’s death while excoriating Oh’s surviving partner and co-star DC Young Fly.

“DC Young Fly spent years disguising his own deeply rooted hatred of self as jokes pointed at women’s beauty,” she wrote. “Projecting his own feelings about his own ugliness unto women perfectly secure in their own skin. Say what you want about my tears. They were pure tears of rage. And not at all a sign of weakness. Because in the end. I won. I’m happy I cried and moved on. That Jackie o girl must have been as deeply insecure about herself.”

Banks made matters on the next slide, seemingly positing that Oh’s death was the result of DC Young Fly’s own bad karma. “Dead at 32 exactly on my 32nd birthday, May 31st, 2023 in Miami, FL,” she wrote. “You n***** are going to learn to stop f*cking with me.” Given speculation online that Oh died due to complications from cosmetic surgery, the unspoken barbs in Banks’ comments are that DC Young Fly’s comments about women’s looks made Oh insecure enough to undergo the risky procedure in the first place.

Fans aren’t happy about Banks’ post, with one observer declaring that they were “disgusted” and cited Banks taking DC’s jokes on Wild ‘N Out — a show infamous for its insult humor — personally for years after he made them.

Another expressed a wish for DC and his co-stars to roast Banks again. Another simply called Banks a “demon.” One more pointed out “what she said wasn’t nowhere near cool.” See more responses below.

Banks recently went viral for calling out Matty Healy in the wake of rumors he was dating Taylor Swift. The “couple” has since reportedly broken up.

The best part about being an actor is (probably) learning that your peers also love your work. Making money and being famous might be cool too, but it’s mostly just about rubbing elbows with people who you admire. It’s nice when actors and directors gush about working with each other, or when they write parts specifically with someone in mind. But it’s got to be tough looking up to certain industry folks and learning that they might not feel the same way about you.

Over the years, various directors have been openly critical of Marvel movies and their stars. This includes Martin Scorsese and Quentin Tarantino, who have both slammed the cinematic integrity of the various superhero stories. “Part of the Marvel-ization of Hollywood is… you have all these actors who have become famous playing these characters,” Tarantino said last year. “But they’re not movie stars. Right? Captain America is the star. Or Thor is the star. I mean, I’m not the first person to say that.” He’s not the first, but he is one of the biggest!

While some of the argument might be understandable, Chris Hemsworth took the criticism to heart. “That’s super depressing when I hear that,” Hemsworth told GQ. “There goes two of my heroes I won’t work with. I guess they’re not a fan of me,” he said. Technically, Tarantino isn’t a fan of Thor, but the two seem to go hand in hand.

Hemsworth is still grateful for the Marvel experience. He has been playing Thor for over a decade, and it’s helped him break out into Hollywood. “I’m thankful that I have been a part of something that kept people in cinemas. Now, whether or not those films were to the detriment of other films, I don’t know,” he continued.

Hemsworth then went on to express frustration with how different types of cinema have been perceived by various directors (and actors) over the years. “I don’t love when we start scrutinizing each other when there’s so much fragility in the business and in this space of the arts as it is… I say that less to the directors who made those comments, who are all, by the way, still my heroes, and in a heartbeat I would leap to work with any of them. But I say it more to the broader opinion around that topic.”

Whether or not they are considered “cinema,” the truth is that these movies dominate the box office for a reason: people love to escape the real world for a bit. Not everyone wants to watch a Tarantino movie about movies. Sometimes you want to watch a jacked Australian punch a space god. It’s all personal preference, anyway.

(Via GQ)

Sharon Van Etten has shared a new song, “Quiet Eyes,” that is featured as the closing song for the new A24 film, Past Lives.

“Is this really a mystery life? / Where we only learn from our own mistakes,” Van Etten sings on the emotional track, making it all the more fitting for its placement in this movie.

The video also features footage from the film, which is centered around first loves who re-encounter one another as adults, but life keeps getting in the way. The two characters are seen meeting each other in a park, along with some brilliant landscape shots of NYC.

“The idea of past lives, who I used to be, what I could have been, people I lost touch with, parts of myself I lost along the way… is a beautiful, intangible, relatable concept that Celine Song so gracefully explores in her story, Past Lives,” Van Etten wrote on Twitter, speaking to her love for the director and her debut feature.

Van Etten co-wrote the track with Mini Mansions’ Zachary Dawes. As for the rest of the Past Lives soundtrack, it includes a total of 16 songs. Grizzly Bear members Daniel Rossen and Christopher Bear composed the rest of the score.

Check out “Quiet Eyes” above.

Romy of The XX is gearing up to drop a solo album. Today (June 7) she took to social media to share a video announcing her long-awaited debut album, Mid Air, which is set to arrive this fall.

In the clip, Romy is seen carrying a test pressing of the album, assuring fans, “it’s real, it exists.”

Ahead of the album, Romy has shared a new song called “Loveher,” a sapphic, dance-ready pop track whose arrival feels more timely than ever during Pride Month.

“Lover, you know when they ask me, I’ll tell them / Won’t be ashamed, no / I can’t wait to tell them / Love her, I love her / I love her, I love her,” she sings on the song’s chorus.

In the teaser clip, she notes that “Loveher” is a “really personal song” for her.

“It was the first song that I made that I felt like this is a song for me to sing,” she explained. “This is a project I wanted to do, and I hope you like it.”

In the song’s accompanying visual, Romy dances under colorful spotlights, coming into her most authentic self.

You can see the video for “Loveher” above and the tracklist and cover art for Mid Air below.

1. “Loveher”
2. “Weightless”
3. “The Sea”
4. “One Last Try”
5. “DMC”
6. “Strong” Feat. Fred Again..
7. “Twice”
8. “Did I”
9. “Mid Air” Feat. Beverly Glenn-Copeland
10. “Enjoy Your Life.”
11. “She’s On My Mind”

Mid Air is out 9/8 via Young. Find more information here.

The greatest footballer to ever live is coming to Major League Soccer. According to multiple media reports, Lionel Messi, whose departure from Paris Saint-Germain was announced earlier this year, has decided to join Inter Miami, marking the end of a years-long pursuit by the side that played its first game in MLS back in 2020.

News of Messi’s decision began to trickle in starting on Tuesday, with The Athletic reporting that Messi would eschew a lucrative offer to join the Saudi Pro League to pursue one of two options: Miami or FC Barcelona, the club with which he turned into the best player on the planet.

On Wednesday, the news of Messi’s decision started to crystalize thanks to Guillem Balagué, a Spanish journalist who authored Messi’s biography in 2013, along with a handful of other European journalists.

And then, right around midday on the east coast, word came from Fabrizio Romano that Messi is, indeed, on his way to the United States.

Much has been made of the circumstances around which Miami would be able to afford Messi. There have been reports that every MLS team will pitch in to help Miami afford Messi, with the belief that his addition would help the league’s bottom line. And as The Athletic reported, two of MLS’ main financial partners, Apple and adidas (the latter of which has a lifelong sponsorship with Messi), are rumored to be playing a role in getting him to the States.

Multiple sources involved in or briefed on the high-level league discussions said earlier this week that MLS and Apple have discussed offering Messi a share of the revenue generated by new subscribers to MLS Season Pass, the league’s streaming package on Apple TV+. Both sides view Messi’s potential involvement in Major League Soccer as a boon; Apple and MLS signed a 10-year, $2.5 billion agreement this spring. On Tuesday, Apple revealed that a four-part docuseries chronicling Messi’s five World Cup appearances would stream on Apple TV+.
Adidas, which is among MLS’ largest corporate sponsors, has prepared its own potential arrangement to entice Messi to the United States, multiple sources briefed on those plans told The Athletic on Tuesday. Messi is being offered a profit-sharing agreement with the sportswear giant, those sources said, which would involve the player receiving a cut of any increase in Adidas’ profits resulting from his involvement in MLS.

It is worth mentioning that, on Tuesday, Apple TV+ announced that Messi will be the subject of a four-part docuseries, although there was no mention of this being linked with a move to MLS.

Messi will join a Miami side in the midst of a tumultuous season. The team finds itself in last place in the Eastern Conference on 15 points, although it is only six points behind Charlotte for the final playoff spot and has a game in hand, and last week, Miami fired its head coach, Phil Neville. This would not be the first time the club has a high-profile Argentinian forward in its ranks, as Gonzalo Higuaín, a former teammate of Messi’s at the international level, spent the last 2.5 years with the club before his retirement.

Messi’s bonafides in the world of soccer are unmatched. He holds a record seven Ballon d’Ors, given annually to the best footballer in the world, has won his domestic league in Spain and France a combined 12 times, and is a four-time winner of the Champions League, all from his time as a member of Barcelona. Last year, Messi obtained the final major trophy that had eluded him throughout his career, as he led Argentina to its first World Cup since 1986.

It’s the NBA offseason for every team that isn’t in the Finals, which can only mean one thing: There are questions about what team Damian Lillard is going to play basketball for next season. Of course, there is no indication that Lillard actually wants to leave the Portland Trail Blazers, which is usually how things go during this time of the year.

In fact, Lillard appeared on “The Last Stand” and was asked by Brian Custer, explicitly, if he plans on playing for the Blazers when the 2023-24 season begins, to which he said “I do.” This came, however, after he was asked about a list of teams, and whether or not he’d be interested in one over the rest.

“Everybody keeps saying Damian Lillard is going to be traded to the Knicks, Damian Lillard’s gonna be traded to the Heat, Damian Lillard should be traded to the Celtics, Damian Lillard’s gonna be traded to the Nets,” Custer said at the 49:20 mark of the above video. “If one of those trades went through, out of those teams, which one would you be like, that’s not too bad?”

“Miami, obviously,” Lillard said with a laugh. “Miami is the obvious one, and Bam is my dog. Bam is my dog, for real. But I mean, I think Miami’s the obvious one, Brooklyn is another obvious one, cause Mikal Bridges is my dog, too. And both have capable rosters, so.”

It is unclear who the “everybody” is that is saying that Lillard is going to get a trade to the Knicks, Heat, Celtics, or Nets. Anyway, until the words “I would like a trade from the Portland Trail Blazers” leaves his mouth, I am going to continue assuming that Damian Lillard is gonna be a Blazer forever.

Janelle Monaé’s provocative rollout for their new album The Age Of Pleasure has been a sight to behold. In addition to two well-received singles, “Float” and “Lipstick Lover,” Monaé has captured the public’s attention with unapologetic displays of sensuality, from dancing on tables during Grammy week to flashing a crowd during a listening party, declaring that they are “much happier when my titties are out.”

Keeping that hedonistic streak going, the non-gender-conforming artist evoked one of the original emblems of youthful abandon, MTV, in a new trailer for the album. Transforming the iconic logo into a PTV (for “Pleasure TV”), the VHS-aping video imitates the look of a recorded episode of MTV’s popular Spring Break broadcasts, with a beach party hosted by a VJ, Tree Young. Meanwhile, Monaé can be seen in the crowd flying a Progress Pride flag, which was created in 2018 by nonbinary artist Daniel Quasar and combines the traditional rainbow flag with black and brown stripes to represent people of color and the colors of the trans flag, blue, pink, and white.

The Age Of Pleasure is due on June 9. You can get more info here.

Janelle Monaé is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Netflix’s Wednesday has that rare type of appeal that makes people of all different generations want to tune in. You’ve got Addams Family fans from way back when, you’ve got the TikTok teen goths all in because of Jenna Ortega, and the Hot Topic Millenial Goths are on board thanks to Tim Burton. The only thing missing is Michael Keaton to appeal to the dads of the world, but Beetlejuice 2 has that locked down.

Ortega is still somehow surprised by the fanbase, though, as she recently revealed on The Hollywood Reporter‘s roundtable with fellow actresses. “Wednesday has a much wider audience than I anticipated, at least age-wise, so it’s older people and younger people,” she explained. So she was surprised when it’s not just younger fans coming up to her to share their love for the show. And sometimes it’s people with the type of authority to seat you next to an exit door, like flight attendants.

“But I’ve had a couple of weird plane stories, too, where I’ve woken up to notes or things like that,” she began. “I got off [a plane] yesterday, and at the end, the flight attendant took her hair down out of the bun and it was in two braids and she took her bangs down and she said, ‘You made me do this,’” she explained. While it was nice of the attendant to wait until the flight was over, it does seem vaguely threatening to say that Ortega made her get bangs. That’s just a normal rite of passage for every woman at some point in their life. But at least the flight attendant didn’t say anything about her smoking habits, which could have been a major issue at 30 thousand feet in the air.

Of course, when it comes to fan encounters, it could be a lot worse. Abbott Elementary’s Sheryl Lee Ralph says she appreciates the love, but not when it’s coming from fans in the bathroom. “It’s the ones who talk to me in the bathroom, now that’s a problem. In the toilet at the airport, it’s like, ‘Oh my goodness!’ Yeah, ‘Thank you, thank you. May I continue now?’” She exclaimed. It’s no wonder so many actors chose to fly private and get the luxury of a quiet trip while also contributing to the climate crisis. It’s all give and take for the famous.

(Via The Hollywood Reporter)

Mike Pence is officially entering the increasingly crowded 2024 Republican primary where he is widely considered to be a long-shot thanks to his connection to Donald Trump. For MAGA voters, Pence is seen as a traitor for not overturning the 2020 election, which led to rioters threatening to hang Pence during the January 6 attacks. To mainstream Republicans, well, again Pence worked for Trump. However, you’d barely know it based on the official campaign biography for Pence’s 2024 run.

According to Raw Story, Pence only uses two sentences to mention his time as Trump’s vice president before “essentially rushing through the years 2017-2021.” Instead, Pence leans more heavily into his role as the governor of Indiana because why should everyone be so concerned with his actual time in the White House? It’s not like Pence is trying to get back there– oh, right.

The bio refers to him as “Vice President Pence” throughout, for a total of 17 times – almost as many times as it mentions Indiana, where he served as governor, a job which gets two meaty paragraphs touting his accomplishments. Trump’s name appears three times – exactly as many references as the word “Hoosiers” – but one of those refers more to the administration, and Pence’s service there, rather than the twice-impeached individual.

Of course, Pence is going to need to do more than just pretend he wasn’t the Vice President of the United States for four years to make a dent in the 2024 race. Despite a growing mountain of legal trouble, Trump is still the front-runner, and should he somehow be taken out of the race, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is close behind the former president in the polls.

Although, DeSantis has been increasingly prone to meltdowns, so this could be an interesting primary.

(Via Raw Story)