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Sometimes we talk ourselves out of our dreams and convince ourselves that we can’t do that thing because of kids, age, not enough time or some other reason. But what happens when we just go for the dream we want instead of thinking of excuses to avoid the commitment? That’s exactly what 49-year-old Ray Ruschel did, and his teammates are glad he didn’t think he was too old to try. Ruschel, a student at North Dakota State College of Science, decided to try out for the college football team even though he hadn’t played the sport since his senior year of high school.

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The backup defensive lineman is old enough to be the dad of his teammates, and that additional life experience has come in handy for the team. It’s easy to get discouraged or frustrated after a loss, and typically coaches are the ones giving the pep talk or calling out all the areas the team went wrong. But pep talks seem to be something Ruschel is really good at. When the team lost to a rival college, Ruschel stepped in to tell the team they weren’t failing by losing one game and they still had the rest of the season to qualify to make it to the playoffs.

The middle-aged lineman wasn’t always a motivational speaker to football teams. He spent nearly 20 years in the Army National Guard as well as working nights at a sugar beet factory before deciding to return to school. The school is a two-year college that offers degrees in skilled trades and healthcare, among other things. The decision to return to college would not only allow him a change to move up in his career field, but it unexpectedly gave him another chance at playing college football.

Ruschel told the AP that once he found out his college didn’t have an age limit for school sports, “Something just clicked in my head, like why not play?” The coach of the football team is one year younger than Ruschel and explained to the AP that the older player is “just a really likable guy with an ambition not to leave any stone unturned. As long as he’s here on this earth.”

When you’re over a certain age demographic, taking risks to chase after dreams can be terrifying but Ruschel is proving that it can be worth the risk. You’re never too old to go after things you want in life and with your lived experience comes a level of wisdom that you likely wouldn’t have had earlier in life.

The response to Ruschel playing football with teenagers and young adults more than half his age was one of acceptance. He told KVLY, “They’ve all been very receptive of me coming in and playing. At first, they thought I was another football coach on our first day of camp. And whenever I got in line for pads, they were like ‘wait a minute, you’re playing?’”

Ruschel explained to KVLY, “I’m having a blast playing. Out here with these young kids and actually being able to keep up! I surprise myself.” Just that sentence alone should be enough to get you to go for a dream you’ve been putting off. The lineman is proving not just to be an encouragement to his teammates but to people everywhere.

I was alive during the peak of Barney & Friends-mania, but I still find it hard to believe how much people hated that purple dinosaur. The hostility towards the unassuming kids show is the inspiration for Peacock’s I Love You, You Hate Me, which chronicles “the rise and fall of Barney the Dinosaur’s furious backlash — and what it says about the human need to hate.” The documentary also features an interview with David Joyner, who was inside the Barney suit from 1991 to 2001… and now works as a “tantric sex guru.”

“David Joyner, the body of Barney, talks about this in the film… tantric sex guru and Barney,” director Tommy Avallone told Fox News. “It’s weird in the same sentence, you know? But once you put space in between and really talk about [it], it’s not as weird as you would think in that he’s never doing any of this tantric stuff in the Barney suit.”

Kink-shaming is wrong and bad, except for when it comes to people looking to have a, um, tantric experience with Barney. They deserve some light shaming.

In I Love You, You Hate Me, Joyner (who previously discussed his second career with Vice) explains that he helps “goddesses reconnect with their sexual energy on a spiritual level,” which includes massage and meditation. “Anything beyond that, there’s no extra fee,” the “tantric massage specialist” added. Does that mean what literally everyone thinks it means? “Not necessarily,” he said. “Not all the clients have a full session.”

Avallone stressed that while many people associate Joyner’s tantra principles with sex, “that was never happening with Barney.” Instead, he relied on the “energy work and meditation” from his practice to “heighten Barney’s performance” and deliver joy. “You talk to other people from the Barney crew, and they feel like it worked,” said Avallone. “You really felt David’s heart come out of his suit.”

I Love You, You Hate Me is available on Peacock now.

(Via Fox News and EW)

Prior to announcing Blink-182’s official reunion, Mark Hoppus attended the Children’s Hospital gala in Los Angeles over the weekend. Attending the red carpet with his wife, he spoke to The Hollywood Reporter about some other exciting career moves he has in the works.

Hoppus is hopping on over to the book world, revealing that he’s in the process of writing a memoir. While it will include details about his time in Blink-182, Hoppus will also document his journey of battling a cancer diagnosis. In June 2021, Hoppus entered treatment for stage 4 lymphoma. He has since been cancer-free since last September after breaking the news on Instagram.

“I started writing a book, actually, earlier this year,” Hoppus said. “I’m not that far into it yet but I’m writing a book about my life and experience in Blink and what I’ve gone through over the past year or so.”

“We’re finalizing the deal and I’m really happy with the way that’s coming together. I’m excited to tell my story,” he continued. “I didn’t say anything about being sick for the longest time because I was so scared and overwhelmed by the whole thing.”

Blink-182 will embark on their reunion tour next year, with stops across North and South America, Europe, and Australia. A complete list of dates, along with more information, is available here. The band also are dropping a new song, “Edging,” this Friday.

Blink-182 is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

(House of the Dragon spoilers will be found below.)

After a long and brutal eight episodes of suffering, despair, and maggot-infested wounds, King Viserys finally succumbed to the illness that plagued him for seemingly decades (though the timeline is a bit uncertain). Paddy Considine’s portrayal of the king was already applauded by George R. R. Martin, and it seems like he is finally ready to say goodbye to the show and the inevitable mess he caused while on his deathbed.

Considine took to Instagram to post a final goodbye to the character and the “incredible adventure” that he had while working on the series. He also gave a special shout-out to Sian Brooke (Queen Aemma Arryn) who helped allow his story to come full circle. Considine wrote:

Thank you for the kind words. I cannot reply to every comment, but I’d like to acknowledge that they haven’t been lost upon me. It was an incredible adventure where I made lots of new friends that will be with me for the rest of my life. I’d like to thank the creators for allowing me the freedom to make Viserys my own. I have never loved a character so much. I want to give massive love and respect to @brooke.sian who came in for only a few days, but changed the course of my character with her brilliant performance and commitment to the work. The impact stayed with me until my final improvised words. She unlocked the missing piece of the puzzle for me, and allowed my story to come full circle. From the moment she dies, so does Viserys. It was a love story. That’s the secret I carried with me. As sick as he gets, he never, himself, demands any cure. He quietly accepts his suffering, never forgiving himself for putting his beloved wife through such torture in her final moments. Viserys was a gift. I am so honoured he found me. Now, no more.

The actor paired his goodbye note with photos from his short but solid reign on the show. While he’s not the first character to say their goodbyes, he did play a vital role in the first half of the season, so he will be missed. Including for his brilliantly sad reaction photos.

After an NBC News report made the choice to focus on John Fetterman’s stroke recovery, the Pennsylvania lieutenant governor still came out swinging at his opponent, Dr. Oz, on Wednesday morning. In a candid tweet, Fetterman continued to be upfront about his health issues, which he’s been transparent about since suffering a stroke ahead of the PA primaries in May. Fetterman has routinely called out Oz’s campaign for taking cheap shots at the near-death experience, and that’s not about to change.

“Recovering from a stroke in public isn’t easy,” Fetterman tweeted. “But in January, I’m going to be much better – and Dr. Oz will still be a fraud.”

Fetterman’s resolve arrives after NBC News aired the first in-person interview with the Senate candidate, and he required the use of closed captioning. However, that isn’t new information. Fetterman has been open that he still has lingering auditory issues from the stroke, and that it sometimes affects his speech. NBC News highlighted this difficulty by noting that “Fetterman occasionally stuttered and had trouble finding words.”

A subsequent published report took things even further by actually writing out Fetterman’s stuttering:

Fetterman, acknowledging the challenges he still faces, added: “But it gets much, much better where I take in a lot. But to be precise, I use captioning, so that’s really the maijing — that’s the major challenge. And every now and then I’ll miss a word. Every now and then. Or sometimes I’ll maybe mush two words together. But as long as I have captioning, I’m able to understand exactly what’s being asked.”

At one point, he struggled to articulate the word “empathetic” — toggling between the correct pronunciation and “emphetic” — and then pointed to that as an example of the effect of the stroke. Asked about those moments, Fetterman said searching for language is not a difficult experience.

“No, I don’t think it was hard. It was just about having to be thinking more, uh, sl, uh — slower — to just understand and that sometimes that’s kind of the processing that happens,” Fetterman said.

NBC News reporting was widely criticized by journalists who have recently interviewed Fetterman. The news organization was also taken to task for leaning into ableism.

You can see some of the reactions below:

(Via John Fetterman on Twitter)

NPR is continuing to highlight Latin acts on the rise with the El Tiny spin-off of the Tiny Desk series. Dominican rapper Tokischa is the latest artist to perform re-imagined versions of her hits in a performance that was released (October 12).

NPR revived the El Tiny spin-off of Tiny Desk for Latinx Heritage Month. Omar Apollo was the first artist to kick off the series last month. Mexican singer Girl Ultra and Argentine rapper Trueno followed his lead and now Tokischa is up next.

This past year, Tokischa has helped globalize Dominican dembow music. Spanish pop star Rosalía enlisted her for last year’s “Linda” and then “La Combi Versace” from the Motomami album. Last month, Madonna tapped Tokischa for a dembow-infused remix of “Hung Up” that was retitled “Hung Up On Tokischa.”

For her El Tiny desk performance, Tokischa substituted the dembow sound of her hits with other genres of the Caribbean. She transformed “Hola” into a bachata track and infused “Somo Iguales” with a mambo rhythm. Tokischa also dabbled in other genres like bossa nova in “Perra,” her collaboration with J Balvin, and Mexican corridos with the brand new song “Kilos De Amor.” The most striking moment of her set is her soulful performance of “Estilazo,” her LGBTQ+ anthem with Marshmello.

“Kilos De Amor” was the only song from Tokischa’s set that hasn’t been released yet. It could be her upcoming collaboration with Mexican singer Natanael Cano. In May, Tokischa and Cano were spotted filming a music video together in Mexico City.

Scarlett Johansson is one of the most in-demand actresses in Hollywood at the moment, fronting Marvel franchises and Oscar-nominated dramas while achieving the kind of recognition and staying power most only dream of. But, that wasn’t always the case.

In fact, Johansson has revealed that her teenage acting years were filled with anxiety and fear over being pigeonholed into “hyper-sexualized” roles. The Black Widow star guested on Dax Shepard’s Armchair Expert podcast earlier this week where she revisited some key moments in her career. Johansson has been acting professionally since she was seven years old, and she admitted that starting in the business so young meant she “definitely was in different situations that were not age-appropriate.”

“Luckily my mom was really good about protecting me from a lot of that stuff, but she can’t do that for everything,” Johansson told Shepard during the hour-long chat, via Deadline.

Once she became a teenager, the actress started booking roles that forced her to be seen as more mature than her age. Her breakout performance in Lost In Translation saw her playing a character five years older than her actual age, which was 17.

“I think everybody thought I was older,” she said.“I remember thinking to myself, ‘I think people think I’m, like, 40 years old.’ I got kind of pigeonholed into this weird, hypersexualized thing… It was like, that’s the kind of career you have, these are the roles you’ve played. And I was like, ‘This is it?’”

The actress started to view that perception of maturity — which had previously helped her book more interesting roles than other actresses her age — as something she need to push back on.

“It somehow stopped being something that was desirable and something that I was fighting against,” she said. “I wasn’t getting offers for work for things that I wanted to do. I felt like it was over, kind of. And so it was scary, at the time.”

Thankfully, Johansson was able to alter that trajectory and carve out a place for herself on film that felt worthy of her talents, something she hopes that the next generation of actresses like Zendaya and Florence Pugh can do with more ease.

“I’ve come to this realization that it’s important to understand progress and change when it’s really meaningful,” she said. “It takes two steps forward and two steps back, and then it gets better and then it gets worse. It’s not finite. I think if you don’t leave room for people to figure it out, then the actual progressive change doesn’t really happen. I see younger actors that are in their 20s, it feels like they’re allowed to be all these different things. It’s another time.”

(Via Deadline)

The 2022-23 NBA season tips off later this month and today, the league’s broadcast partner ESPN has announced another partnership, this one with Atlantic Records, to bring a new slate of thumping soundtrack singles to accompany its NBA schedule. The first round of promos (and a new theme song) has already begun airing featuring a remix of Ty Dolla Sign’s song “My Friends” with Mustard that name-checks such NBA stars as Ja Morant, Klay Thompson, Luka Dončić, and Steph Curry.

New tracks will premiere throughout the season including during ESPN’s Christmas Day slate, the Playoffs, Finals, play-in tournament, and Saturday primetime matchups. While the press release remains cagey, it promises “exclusive remixes and bespoke songs from some of Atlantic’s biggest stars.” Artists on the Atlantic Records roster include A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie, Bruno Mars, Burna Boy, Cardi B, Don Toliver, Cordae, Gucci Mane, Jack Harlow, Lil Uzi Vert, Lizzo, Meek Mill, Missy Elliott, Rico Nasty, Roddy Ricch, and Young Thug.

In a statement, Atlantic Records’ West Coast President Kevin Weaver said, “We couldn’t be more excited about this new partnership with ESPN for our artists and the upcoming NBA season. ESPN has proven itself as a first-in-class network for the way they use music across all of its programming. This is a fantastic way for our world-class roster of superstars to reach fans where they live every day.”

The season starts Wednesday, October 19, with the Knicks vs. the Grizzlies in Memphis.

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

Of course, as K-pop continues to dominate the globe, it’s worth recognizing this generation’s pioneering artists on the forefront of it all.

With that being said, the MTV European Music Awards (EMAs) announced this year’s nominations including some of the biggest and brightest names in the K-pop industry.

After the 2022 MTV Video Music Awards successfully debuted Blackpink‘s first ever live performance of “Pink Venom” and awarding Lisa for Best K-Pop over the summer, the quartet takes the lead with the most nominations for a K-pop act this year. The female powerhouses are the first K-pop act to ever be nominated for Best Video with “Pink Venom.” The music video goes up against Harry Styles’ “As It Was,” Doja Cat’s “Woman,” Kendrick Lamar’s “The Heart Part 5,” Nicki Minaj’s “Super Freaky Girl,” and Taylor Swift’s “All Too Well (10 Minute Version).” Other categories the group is nominated for are Biggest Fans, Best Metaverse Performance, and Best K-Pop.

HYBE’s leading boy groups, BTS and SEVENTEEN, each received three nominations. BTS for Best Fans, Best K-Pop and Best Metaverse Performance. While SEVENTEEN also received a Best K-Pop nomination under their belt as well as Best New, and Best Push. TXT, on the other hand, becomes the Korean representative for Best Asia Act.

The full list of nominations for Best K-pop are: Blackpink, Blackpink’s Lisa, BTS, ITZY, SEVENTEEN and TWICE.

Voting is open until November 9 at 11:59 p.m. CET, and the 2022 MTV Europe Music Awards will broadcast live from Germany on November 13.

The idea of luxury streetwear in 2022 isn’t a novel concept. It’s what many sneakerheads have come to expect. Even demand. We’re far from the days when sneakers were just simple canvas or leather trainers with paper-thin midsoles. These days, it’s not totally out of the ordinary to rock kicks made from finely sourced materials, featuring expert detailing, and the sort of craft usually reserved for high-end luxury labels, totally alien to the practical function-focused world of sneakers.

Big sneaker brands like Nike and Adidas regularly team up with luxury labels like Dior, Louis Vuitton, and Balenciaga to produce sneakers that fetch jaw-dropping prices. Outside of those direct brand collaborations, sneakers like the Jordan XI Concord, Nike Air Fear of God, and the Yeezy 750 have luxury built right into their designs. But it wasn’t always like this, it was the Air Jordan II that paved the way for the luxury-sneaker era. And now, 36 years after its release, the underrated silhouette is finally getting the recognition it deserves.

With a string of releases that began with last year’s Off-White Air Jordan II, designed by the late great Virgil Abloh (though Don C gets some credit here for his beautiful 2016 collection of quilted leather Jordan IIs, which we don’t doubt caught Virgil’s eye), the Air Jordan II has been getting noteworthy collaboration after collaboration, resulting in the best run of designs the silhouette has ever enjoyed. But how did it take this long for the II to finally resonate?

For that, let’s turn back the pages of history.

PART I — A Brief History

German designer Jil Sander is largely credited with being the first person to combine the world of high-end fashion and sportswear with her 1998 PUMA collaboration, the PUMA King Football Cleat — opening the door for other designers from the luxury realm to quickly follow suit. Since then, the worlds of luxury fashion and streetwear have continued to merge year after year, probably best exemplified by Virgil Abloh, a designer who solidified his name as a streetwear icon when he reimagined 10 classic Nike silhouettes, capturing the imagination of the entire fashion industry in the process and later taking on the role of creative director of men’s fashion at Louis Vuitton.

While the Jil Sander’s PUMA collaboration is the first big successful team-up between a luxury brand and a sportswear icon, it wasn’t the first time someone thought to merge the two worlds together. Over a decade before Sander’s partnership with PUMA, Nike designers Peter Moore and Bruce Kilgore, along with Michael Jordan came together to give us the Air Jordan II, a first-of-its-kind luxury sneaker that was so ahead of its time that it never really caught on and ended up being buried under the popularity of the classic designs that predated and proceeded it. Moore would leave Nike in 1987 to establish his own brand in partnership with DC shoe retailer Mark Van Grack dubbed VanGrack, and almost stole Jordan from Nike in the process.

“I was honest with him to a fault,” Moore said to Uproxx about Jordan shortly before his death. “I told him, you can get richer owning your own company but we’re not going to beat your [Nike] endorsement overnight. It’s going to take some time. In the end, he got ownership and the upfront cash.”

Ultimately, Jordan stayed with the Swoosh when he saw the design of the Jordan III with its futuristic aesthetic and embroidered Jumpman logo. The logo, one of Jordan’s favorite aspects of the III, was designed by Peter Moore.

The design team for the AJ II, besides being attached to one of the greatest players in the game, was made up of sneaker legends. The trio of Moore, Kilgore, and Jordan was truly an All-Star trio. Moore was the designer behind the Air Jordan 1, as well as the iconic Wings logo and the Nike Dunk, and Kilgore gave the world the Air Force 1 — so it’s kind of astounding how little of a thing people make about this sneaker. It’s like ignoring a post-Beatles McCartney/Lennon team-up, it combines the genius of two masters of their craft to create something that was, at the time, genre-defying.

PART II — The Design

The concept of the Air Jordan II was simple, Jordan wanted a sneaker flexible enough to work both on the court and when he was luxuriating at the golf club, a combination of sports functionality and luxury Italian dress shoes, and the II is just that. At certain angles, the way the design lines split the midsole, it almost looks like this sneaker is rocking a heel!

Released in 1987, the Air Jordan II was originally marketed as the Air Jordan Imagination, according to Sole Savy, and featured a premium leather upper, faux iguana skin detailing, and a full-length air unit underfoot for increased comfort.

But that luxury take on the sneaker came with a price, $100 to be exact according to High Snobiety, which was $35 dollars more than the Air Jordan I (what a time to be alive) and was at the time a very high amount of money for a basketball shoe. In addition to the high price tag, the sneakers weren’t very easy to get a hold of. The initial run was crafted in Italy and limited to just 30 stores spread across 19 metropolitan areas — adding a level of exclusivity to the sneaker that at the time was unheard of and has now, for better or worse, become the norm.

Ultimately, that lack of easy accessibility may be the reason the Air Jordan I continued to be so popular amongst the earliest sneakerheads and young Jordan fans passed over its more premium successor, the Air Jordan II. Fitting with their broader theme, Kilgore and Moore made the decision to ditch the iconic Swoosh branding, making Jordan himself the centerpiece of the brand. In 1986 the Jumpman Logo wasn’t a thing yet, but you can see how some of Moore’s influence and ideas eventually made it to Tinker Hatfield’s Jordan III design. This distinction between Jordan and Nike, and seeing Jordan as a brand in and of itself, made an impact on young sneakerheads.

“I remember watching clips of Jordan playing as a kid and he was wearing Jordan 2s… I always thought Jordan Is was just Nike, but the Jordan II was the signature shoe that defined the Jordan brand, in my opinion,” artist and sneaker influencer Lee Brown tells Uproxx. “It gave the message that it wasn’t just Nike. It paved the way for athletes to have signature shoes.”

The Jordan II was far from the first signature shoe but it was the first time a brand viewed the attached athlete as bigger than the brand itself. Aside from the luxury design and experimental branding, the Jordan II also brought innovation to the court. Responding to an on-court injury suffered by Jordan, Kilgore and Moore wanted the II to provide better cushioning and support so they revamped the sole with a full-length air unit.

This started a trend of each subsequent Jordan responding to the needs of the player and it helped the design to hold up past its prime.

“For me, the Jordan II is special because it was the first signature Jordan that I ever owned,” says sneaker photographer Andy Dutton. “I grew up in a semi-rural place so all of the exposure I had to Jordan models and other cool shoes was TV… I saw a few pairs of Jordan XIs and Jordan Vs playing basketball in high school, but didn’t know how to get them. Then one day I walked into my small local mall and sitting on the shelf at the Footlocker were two pairs of Jordan 2s, an all-white low and black and silver high. I played my senior year basketball season in those shoes. Ever since then, I’ve had a special love for the Jordan II.”

When asked how the shoe performed, Dutton says:

“I felt they performed incredibly well for how old the model was. It was ahead of its time with the full-length air unit, which definitely helped with cushioning. Would I play in them today? Probably not.”

Ultimately, at the time of its release, the Air Jordan II was a commercial failure and according to Nice Kicks, wasn’t well-loved by Jordan himself — despite a strong season where Jordan won his first Slam Dunk Championship while rocking the IIs, and made the All-NBA First Team for the first time in his career. Jordan’s preference for the design of the original Air Jordan I explains the creation of the Air Jordan 1.5, a rare sneaker that combines the look of the I with the feel of the II.

PART III — The Comeback & Future

For years Nike and the brands and designers they frequently collaborate with had been ignoring the Air Jordan II until Virgil Abloh dropped his Off-White rendition in 2021 which combined Abloh’s deconstructionist aesthetic with the luxury design of the original and served as a celebration of the history of the sneaker. Abloh’s concept was to play on Jordan’s practice of signing pairs of sneakers and giving them away to young fans after games, so he pulled an actual pair of Jordan IIs from the Nike archives, lifted Jordan’s signature as well as the detail of the cracked and aged midsole and recreated it on a two colorway set.

Like Jil Sanders opened the door for luxury brands to combine with streetwear staples, Abloh’s Off-White Jordan II opened the door for other artists and brands to take a stab at the underappreciated design.

Abloh’s influence has culminated in a flood of new designs this year, marking 2022 as easily the silhouette’s best year.

In 2022 we have seen new Jordan IIs from American artist Nina Chanel Abney, beloved streetwear label Union LA, the Paris fashion label Maison Château Rouge, and perhaps one of the best brands to consistently drop amazing Jordan collaborations, Atlanta-based A Ma Maniére.

In 2021 GQ wrote an article titled, “Can Virgil Abloh Make the Air Jordan 2 Cool?” This year alone proves that the answer is a definitive “yes!” And now even Nike itself is putting some respect on the Jordan II name with the recent decision to retro the original Jordan II colorway for the first time in 12 years.

Even celebrity sneakerheads are starting to take notice, J Balvin’s next sneaker with Nike will be a cloud-adorned Air Jordan II, which will likely prove to be one of the best sneaker collaborations of the year. Period.

Sneaker influencer, writer, and creative, Anna Bediones, speaking on the renewed popularity of the silhouette and why it failed to initially connect with audiences the way other early Jordans did says:

“I love the idea of combining luxury with sportswear. While it’s definitely more prominent now it’s not a new concept… but I imagine it was just before its time. I think the ’90s and 2000s were more accessible in fashion and sneakers, whereas today fashion is a lot more aspirational which adds to its popularity within the mainstream but also alienates a lot of people, including sneaker enthusiasts.”

In the late ’80s, before people were willing to drop some serious money on sneakers, that heftier price tag might’ve proven too great a hurdle to pass for early sneakerheads who were, unlike Jordan, just looking for sneakers to ball in, not fancy expensive Italian dress shoes. But like Bediones points out, fashion is a lot more aspirational these days — sneakerheads seek out luxury and no other Jordan combines luxury with the look and feel of classic basketball sneakers quite like the Air Jordan II.

The Air Jordan II might not have the on-court advantage it once had, but the sneaker will forever stand as a design that not only pushed the Jordan brand forward but elevated the entire look and feel of sneakers. Even if it took a few years decades for people to fully see the vision.