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Long snappers have one of the trickiest jobs in all of college football. Yes, they have to do one primary thing — get the football to either the holder or the punter — but if they mess that up, it will almost always lead to disaster. They have jobs after the ball gets snapped, but if they mess up that first thing, none of it matters and they end up making a potentially game-changing mistake.

On Saturday, we got the rare moment where something extremely good happened involving a long snapper. Vanderbilt is in The Swamp to take on the Florida Gators, and on a fourth-and-3 from their side of the field with fewer than four minutes remaining in the first half, the Commodores decided to send out the punt team. Everything went off without a hitch, as Matt Hayball booted the ball down the field.

Florida return man Jason Marshall Jr. took a poor angle to try and fair catch the ball on his own 8-yard line, which is a curious decision in and of itself. But he ended up muffing it and the ball rolled gently into the end zone, which led to a scrum. By the time things were sorted out, Vanderbilt long snapper Wesley Schelling had the ball in his hands for six.

This gave the ‘Dores a 14-6 lead they took into the locker room for halftime.

Dwight Howard made clear that he wanted to continue his basketball career, even though he struggled to find an NBA team that would want to bring him on board. As such, the soon-to-be 37-year-old Howard had to head overseas and sign a contract with Taoyuan Leopards of the T1 League in Taiwan.

Well, Howard made his debut with the Leopards on Saturday against New Taipei CTBC DEA, and he immediately took the league by storm. The 8-time All-NBA selection went for 38 points, 25 rebounds, nine assists, and four blocks in a 120-115 win. He also took 10(!!!) threes, and knocked down two of them.

The crowd is losing its collective mind as Dwight Howard is basically allowed to do whatever he wants is awesome, while you can tell that Howard is having a blast being on the floor.

Some of the ways this is fun: Howard’s previous career-high in attempts from three was three. This was the second time he made more than one triple in a game in his entire basketball career. The nine assists is a career-high, he hasn’t blocked four or more shots in a game since 2020, his 25 rebounds is the most he’s had in a game since he had 30 in 2018 as a member of the Charlotte Hornets, and this is the most points he’s scored in a game in nearly a decade, as he scored 39 points in March of 2013 during his disastrous first stint with the Los Angeles Lakers.

The last time Quentin Tarantino made a film, it was one of his highest grossing and best received. Even he think it’s his best. And yet he continues to hold by a threat he’s been making for ages: that he’ll quit after his 10th film. Once Upon a Time in Hollywood was his ninth, and he shows no signs of relenting from his plan. People have even tried to talk him out of it, but now he’s making a passionate argument for why he should pack it in.

“It’s time to wrap up the show,” Tarantino told CNN’s Chris Wallace in a wide-ranging interview. “I don’t want to work to diminishing returns.” Alluding to his recent comments about Marvel films and the current era of filmmaking, he also stated that “I don’t want to become this old man who’s out of touch…when already, I’m feeling a bit like an old man who’s out of touch with the current movies that are out right now. And that’s what happens, that’s exactly what happens.”

Tarantino, a celluloid and movie theater purist, said he’s not even sure “what a movie is” nowadays: “Is that something that plays on Netflix? Is that something that plays on Amazon, and people watch it on their couch?”

So what will Tarantino do with his free time? Well, he’s released two books in the last two years: a novelization/expansion/alternate version of Hollywood as well as the new Celluloid Speculation, which features essays on ‘70s Hollywood cinema (and plenty of eccentric opinions).

Still, he has at least one film left in him, and though he’s vowed to make — and then failed to deliver on — any number of sequels, such as a third Kill Bill, he swears his purported swan song will be an original work. Or it might be another Elmore Leonard adaptation.

(Via CNN)

Bill Barr has been on Donald Trump’s epic enemies list for almost two years now, and it looks like he won’t be off it any time soon. The former attorney general hasn’t been afraid to call him out on his bull. He’s even been predicting for months that the Justice Department, under Merrick Garland, will finally come for him. Now that they are, Barr thinks they have a case. But just because he thinks he’s a criminal doesn’t mean he won’t support him in 2024.

Barr went on PBS’s Firing Line, where he discussed one of the former president’s many legal problems: his absconding with government documents after he left the White House.

“If the Department of Justice can show that these were indeed very sensitive documents, which I think they probably were, and also show that the president consciously was involved in misleading the department, deceiving the government, and playing games after he had received the subpoena for the documents, those are serious charges,” he said.

When asked if he thinks Garland and team will actually indict Trump, Barr responded that it’s “increasingly more likely.”

Then again, when asked if he would have prosecuted Trump as AG, Barr wearily sighed, responding, “I’m not going to get into that.”

Barr was also asked about Trump’s newly launched third presidential run, which comes after the disastrous (for the GOP, anyway) midterms, which many blame on him. He said it “would be a tragedy” if he was once again the Republican nominee. But when pressed if he would vote for someone he admits violated the Constitution over a progressive Democrat, he danced around the issue, but ultimately concluded that he wouldn’t rule out supporting him again.

In other words, Barr has principles…up to a point.

(Via Vanity Fair)

The Detroit Pistons have been without the services of Cade Cunningham for the last five games due to a shin injury. According to a new report, it looks like Cunningham, the No. 1 overall pick in the 2021 NBA Draft, is going to be out for much longer after the severity of the injury was determined.

Marc Stein reported on Saturday that the Cunningham and the Pistons were trying to figure out what the best path forward was going to be for his injured shin, with surgery being an option on the table.

Not long after that, James L. Edwards III and Shams Charania of The Athletic reported that Cunningham has suffered a stress fracture, and that the former Oklahoma State standout will be out indefinitely as all of his options are weighed.

Via The Athletic:

There is still hope that this past week of rest subdued inflammation and pain enough to return to the floor sooner rather than later, but that still can only be decided with more time. In the worst-case scenario, the chronic pain continues to linger and Cunningham takes a route that forces him to miss an extended period. However, per league sources, Cunningham is trying to turn over every stone before deciding to get surgery.

Prior to suffering the injury, Cunningham, a first-team All-Rookie selection last season, averaged 19.9 points, 6.2 rebounds, and six assists in 33.3 minutes per game for Detroit this year.

The Philadelphia 76ers beat the Milwaukee Bucks on Friday night, 110-102. After the game, Giannis Antetokounmpo drew the ire of Sixers fans for an incident with an arena worker at Wells Fargo Center. Antetokounmpo was filmed trying to get up some free throws while a staff member tried to do something with a ladder, and after a back-and-forth, the former NBA MVP shoved the ladder out of the way.

It was a strange moment, largely because Antetokounmpo has never really been known for having this kind of temper. As it turns out, Antetokounmpo was in a bit of a bad mood before this happened due to a run-in he had with Sixers reserve big man Montrezl Harrell in which Harrell snatched a ball that Antetokounmpo was using while he tried to shoot and walked away.

According to Joe Vardon of The Athletic, a Sixers assistant coach who was with Harrell told Antetokounmpo he could not have his ball back and that he was not allowed to shoot. This led to Antetokounmpo going to get another ball, but by that time, the aforementioned arena worker had a ladder out to, per The Athletic, “remove video equipment from the tops of both backboards,” which happens every game. As he grew frustrated with the situation, Antetokounmpo threw the ladder aside.

“I never try to disrespect anyone, in any way shape or form,” Antetokounmpo said after things had simmered down. “I feel like today was just unfortunate event that took place. I think people did not respect the fact that sometimes players want to get some extra work in. I think it’s unprofessional to kick somebody off the court or take the ball or whatever the case might be. Or put the ladder in front of somebody while he’s trying to do his job. We get paid to do this. They didn’t just pick us. We get paid.”

Harrell, meanwhile, took to Twitter and posted the following.

Despite all of this, the two continued to work out on opposite ends of the floor, which led to more banter between the two and Thanasis Antetokounmpo getting involved.

“Yeah I took the ball, get the f— outta here,” Harrell said, as Giannis shouted from his end: “I’m doing my f—— job.”

After Antetokounmpo left the court for good, his brother, Milwaukee teammate Thanasis Antetokounmpo, walked to midcourt to speak to Harrell. The Sixers’ reserve center threatened Thanasis, saying at separate times “I’ll beat your a–” and “you better send that s— back to the locker room.” Thanasis walked away without incident.

The next game between the Bucks and the Sixers will take place on March 4 in Milwaukee.

Twitter may not be long for this world, but while it’s still here, it will continue to serve one valuable function: Everyday folks can still relentlessly drag the powerful and awful. Take Jim Cramer. His CNBC show Mad Money has been on the air since 2005, despite the frequency with which he’s been wrong about financial matters. He was at it again on Friday, opining, on Twitter, that Twitter isn’t going away because he believes its new founder — unpredictable rich lunatic Elon Musk — will save it from himself. Since Twitter hasn’t yet faded into the ether, plenty of people had a platform to give him what-fer.

“I am not as worried as others that Twitter will suddenly not work,” he wrote. “Call me bullish on @elonmusk and his desire to make it better.”

Thing is, people did call him bullish, and many other adjectives besides.

Many, though, interpreted a Jim Cramer endorsement as what it often is: the kiss of death.

Praising Elon Musk as he tanks his own expensive new toy wasn’t Cramer’s only bold pronouncement on Friday. He also came for Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes, who was sentenced to 11.5 years for fraud.

“Let me be clear,” he wrote, also on Twitter, “i think Holmes deserved every bit of that sentence and more.. She was one of the worst examples i have seen of a financial criminal who put thousands of lives in jeopardy just for the $$$$$”

Funny thing about that, though: Back in 2015, he declared her the next Steve Jobs, which even she found a bit much.

On a related note, disgraced FTX maybe-grifter Sam Bankman-Fried? He once praised him, too.

And who could forget the time he praised Bear Stearns and other firms, soon before the 2008 economic crisis?

That led Cramer to an epic on-air evisceration by then-Daily Show host Jon Stewart, which you can watch here, here, and here. At the time, Mad Money was only three years old. Somehow it went on for another 14 years and counting.

In the meantime, we can continue eulogizing Twitter before it’s finally gone, including remembering some classic Ted Cruz moments, out of many.

When primetime soap opera king Darren Star launched Emily In Paris in October 2020, this didn’t happen without controversy. The show, while relatively innocuous, still ruffled some feathers due to the very Carrie Bradshaw way that the protagonist took on a country where she didn’t even speak the language. And the show, which is largely devoid of substance, landed Golden Globe nominations while the more deserving I May Destroy You got left out in the cold.

As it turns out, this criticism was a fair one, but Emily (Lily Collins) has at least been attempting to learn some French. She’s now in the thick of her career, and her second season ended on a cliffhanger note, both on the personal and professional fronts. Granted, this stakes are not huge here, but the show us nonetheless engaging and a sugar-cookie confection of an escapist delight. Apparently Peyton Manning digs it, too, and it’s best not to think about that too much. As such, this show ended up with swift Netflix renewals, and we’re now heading into Season 3, which will arrive on December 21 with a whole lot of returning cast members.

Let’s do a brief rundown of where the main players stand.

– Emily’s love life: Our protagonist’s love life is surprisingly complicated. She ditched that Chicago boyfriend long ago and fell in lust with Gabriel (Lucas Bravo) and his skillet. They danced around their obvious mutual attraction, and Gabriel’s long-suffering, almost willfully blind girlfriend, Camille (Camille Rabat), freaked out over that massive skillet discovery. Those two ended up on the rocks, and then Emily landed in a casual thing with ^^ Alfie (Lucien Laviscount) ^^ that turned out to be slightly more than casual. However, Emily and Gabriel previously fell into bed together, but then that cad got back together with Camille, which is how the second season ended. However, there’s plenty of Alfie in Season 3, so maybe the love quartet will continue. Drama!

– Gabriel remained both a chef and hot: It’s impossible to understand why Gabriel is so poorly written, but the man can cook, so there’s that. He saved Emily’s butt on a professional level, and it’s clear that the show aims to put these two together eventually, but Camille remains a pushover, so they’re keeping her around. Meanwhile, Gabriel’s ambition is leading him towards needing a real marketing machine on his side to make his dreams come true. So, expect him to be in Emily’s life while still smoldering and pretending that this is all for work, which is about 15% true. We know better.

– Office turmoil abounds: At the end of Season 2, it seemed that Sylvie (Philippine Leroy-Beaulieu as the Miranda Priestly/Anna Winter-style boss) was leaving Savoir, and there’s a real question of whether Emily will stick around the company and/or also stay in Paris or go back to the United States. We can guess that she stays in Europe because no one wants to watch Emily in Chicago. Luc (Bruno Gouery) and Julien (Samuel Arnold) continue to be a hoot, and no one knows whether they’ll be with Sylvie or (for whatever reason) stick with Savoir. Meanwhile, expect a return from Madeline Wheeler (Kate Walsh), who was actually going to be Madeline in Paris before she got pregnant.

Meanwhile, Mindy (Ashley Park, shown left in the photo at the top of this post) continues to do the lounge singer thing, and she’s more entertaining and talented than this show will ever allow her to be. Expect this next season to be as light and airy as its predecessors, and there will be a fourth season coming, too. In other words, Emily will be giving ridiculous fashion vibes to the world while earning a billion Instagram likes without any effort at all. Bring on berets and baguettes, but don’t take this show seriously, ever.

At almost midnight on a Friday, Ticketmaster posted a new “apology” to Taylor Swift fans. In case you missed it, fans who were originally supposed to be able to purchase tickets to Swift’s The Eras Tour through the Verified Fan program were met with disastrous results and extreme disappointment. The outrage from Swifties sent them directly to petitioning to break up the monopoly that Ticketmaster and Live Nation have in the music industry — which is now being investigated by the Justice Department.

Swift even spoke out today about just how poorly Ticketmaster managed the expected demand for her 2023 tour. “I’m not going to make excuses for anyone because we asked them, multiple times, if they could handle this kind of demand and we were assured they could,” she shared on her Instagram story. “It’s truly amazing that 2.4 million people got tickets, but it really pisses me off that a lot of them feel like they went through several bear attacks to get them.”

“We want to apologize to Taylor and all of her fans – especially those who had a terrible experience trying to purchase tickets. We feel we owe it to everyone to share some information to help explain what happened,” Ticketmaster followed up in a new tweet, with a link redirecting to their website.

There, they attempt to explain with several statistics. 1.5 million people received Verified Fan codes across her 52 tour dates. All two million tickets were sold to said Verified Fans, and less than 5% of tickets are up for current resale. “No one who wasn’t verified was allowed to enter the queue, but the huge traffic hitting the site overall meant we had to slow down queues to keep them stable,” the article claims.

Despite Ticketmaster’s attempt at an apology tour for screwing up tickets for Taylor’s one, the Swifties aren’t buying it.

View some fan reactions below.

The Milwaukee Bucks went into Philadelphia to take on the 76ers on Friday night in a matchup of teams with aspirations of winning the Eastern Conference. Both sides were without major contributors, but ultimately, Joel Embiid was able to get Philadelphia a 110-102 win with a monster performance, particularly down the stretch.

Giannis Antetokounmpo had a pretty good game, going for 25 points and 14 rebounds. But his night could have been far better if not for some struggles at the free throw line, as Antetokounmpo shot a paltry 4-for-15. On the season, the former league MVP is at 62.1 percent at the charity stripe, the worst mark of his career.

After the game, Antetokounmpo tried to get some extra shots up on the floor at the Wells Fargo Center, but ran into the problem of an arena worker trying to do something with a ladder, according to a video captured by a fan in the arena. After a back-and-forth between the two that seemed a little contentious and featured Antetokounmpo attempting to move the ladder out of the way before the arena worker put it right back, Antetokounmpo shoved the ladder and knocked it over.

The Bucks’ next game i on Monday against the Portland Trail Blazers. We’ll see if Antetokounmpo addresses this before or after that game takes place.