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The Denver Broncos entered Sunday needing a win against the Lions in order to move above .500 on the season and keep pace with the crowded AFC Wild Card race, but also came into the game with heavy hearts.

On Thursday night, word emerged that former Broncos star receiver Demaryius Thomas had died at just 33 years old, leading to an outpouring of remembrances from his former teammates and opponents about a man who was beloved in not only the Denver locker room, but also in New York, New England, and Houston where he spent brief time to close out his career. Denver is where he is most closely associated, though, having starred for the Broncos, catching 90+ balls in five straight years including the Broncos championship season in 2015, and authoring one of the most memorable plays in recent Denver sports history with his touchdown catch from Tim Tebow to win a 2011 Wild Card game against Pittsburgh.

To pay tribute to Thomas, the Broncos opened Sunday’s game with just 10 men on the field, as wide receiver Courtland Sutton left the X receiver spot open and Denver let the play clock wind to zero as the crowd roared and chanted “D-T.”

The Broncos would go on to score a touchdown on that opening drive that started with that touching tribute in an emotional scene in Denver, and the Lions rightfully declined the penalty as a gesture of their own.

On Thursday, Ye and Drake’s Larry Hoover benefit concert finally went down, to great acclaim. Ye performed a number of tracks from throughout his catalog while Drake stuck to songs from Certified Lover Boy. The concert also offered some merchandise for attendees and viewers at home to purchase, ranging from hoodies, jeans, and t-shirts. As the show was a benefit concert for Larry Hoover, the incarcerated founder of Chicago’s Gangster Disciples gang, many wondered where the profits from the show would go. Just a couple of days after the concert, we have an answer (sort of).

According to GQ, a representative confirmed that the sales made from the merchandise sold with the concert will not be donated to charity. It’s unknown where the money will go, but the representative confirmed the funds will not be given to organizations like criminal justice reform groups. However, that is not the case for the ticket sales from the concert. Those will reportedly be donated to those groups, leaving them to receive a sizeable amount of money as a result of the benefit show.

This comes after a report revealed that federal officials were “surprised” and upset about Drake and Ye’s support towards Larry Hoover. They struggled to understand why they would vouch for Hoover’s release, a man they called “the worst of the worst.”

Warning: This post contains a major spoiler about the first episode of And Just Like That…

The first episode of the Sex and the City revival ended with a bang: Big bit it. The wealthy spouse played by Chris Noth thought that by hopping on his Peloton, he was paving the way for a long and healthy life. Instead he suffered a fatal heart attack, leaving Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker) a widow. It was a surprise to everyone, from the media, who fell for some well-planted fake-outs, to the exercise bike company itself. But it looks like they’ve already found a quick and funny form of damage control.

On Sunday, a mere four days after the first two episodes of And Just Like That… dropped on HBO Max, Peloton’s social media account had another surprise: They’d already made a new commercial referencing Big’s Peloton-assisted death. And it even stars no less than Noth himself.

“To new beginnings,” Noth tells a woman as they nestle on the couch in front of a roaring fire. “Shall we take another ride? Life’s too short not to.” But he’s not referring to that. He’s referring to the Peloton placed right behind them. A narrator then reminds viewers that exercising is a good way to prevent what happened to Big. “And just like that, the world was reminded that regular cycling stimulates and improves your heart, lungs, and circulation,” he says, adding that it reduces risk of cardiovascular diseases while strengthening the heart.

Peloton brass okayed the use of their products on And Just Like That…, but they were not aware that one of their bikes would feature in a major onscreen death. After the episode dominated the news (and their stock plummeted) they put out a statement. “Mr. Big lived what many would call an extravagant lifestyle — including cocktails, cigars, and big steaks — and was at serious risk as he had a previous cardiac event in Season 6,” the company said in a statement to US Weekly. “These lifestyle choices and perhaps even his family history, which often is a significant factor, were the likely cause of his death. Riding his Peloton bike may have even helped delay his cardiac event.”

Rod Wave is known for wearing his heart on his sleeve. It’s what that’s made him appealing to his fanbase, who gave the Florida rapper his first No. 1 album with Soulfly earlier this year. Despite this, Rod Wave’s last single “Nirvana,” which he shared and quickly deleted on Saturday, left many concerned, as people felt it sounded like a suicide letter.

The lyrics left people worried. “If you’re hearin’ this, it’s too late / I’ve been writin’ this since Tuesday, today Friday / That mean tomorrow’s doomsday / Tried to fight the pain, but it ate me alive,” he sings. However, according to Rod Wave himself, there’s nothing to worry about.

The Florida native hopped on Instagram Live to set the record straight. “Why the f*ck people take that sh*t and just say that was my suicide letter?” he said. “That’s not how that works. That’s not how suicide letters work. You don’t go to a studio and record a suicide letter. Real fans of me, people that listen to my music and f*ck with me, they know what my music be like, feel what I’m saying?” He added, “So, sh*t, they should already…But all the blogs and sh*t posting…just like cooking up sh*t saying, ‘Rod posting a suicide letter,’ that’s not true, bro.”

Rod also addressed critics who believed the song was an odd way for him to get people’s attention. “F*ck niggas hating, talking ’bout I’m looking for attention. Bitch, who the f*ck needs attention?” he said in the video. “You forgot who the f*ck I was? I don’t need new attention. Did you not see my tour? Did you not see my album sales? I don’t need no extra attention. I had already deleted my Insta and my Twitter and all that shit because of the extra attention. I don’t need no extra attention from nobody, I’m good.”

You can listen to a clip from his livestream and hear some of “Nirvana” above.

Courtside fans is something that is a unique element to basketball, as one of the few sports that puts players in such close and constant proximity to fans. The interaction between courtside fans and players, particularly those on the opposing team, can sometimes produce memorable moments and rivalries can extend beyond the players on the court to some of those most famous fans that are a constant courtside presence.

However, for every Spike Lee or Jack Nicholson who have the cache and relationships with players to get away with jawing, there are dozens of others who want to be involved in that way but go about it in the wrong way. We’ve seen in recent years a few instances of courtside fans crossing a line with players, with LeBron James twice having fans in Indiana and Atlanta ejected for going too far in their efforts at trash talk.

A lot of times the interactions are made brief by the players, who can grow frustrated by a constant loud presence courtside, and they’ll take just enough time to deliver a curt message to try and put an end to the chatter. This happened in Atlanta on Friday, when a fan was chirping at Kevin Durant, who turned to the fan and told him simply to “shut your ass up, motherf**ker.”

That was, seemingly, that, and all parties moved on and it didn’t seem like much of anything. However, since that video went viral, the league looked into it and decided it was enough to hand Durant a $25,000 fine for using obscene language to a fan.

It feels like a steep and rather unnecessary fine, given the only reason it came to anyone’s attention was because of a viral video, not because of some actual formal complaint from the fan in question. If anything, the fan got what they wanted out of it, because the only reason they’d be filming themselves trash talking an NBA player is in hopes of getting a response.

More than two years after releasing his last body of work, Rick Ross returned this past weekend with his eleventh album Richer Than I Ever Been. It’s a rather short project, with just 12 songs and guest appearances from Wale, Future, Benny The Butcher, and more. To celebrate, Ross returns with a video for the album’s lead single, “Outlawz” with 21 Savage and Jazmine Sullivan. It finds Ross driving around town, with appearances from his two collaborators.

The video comes after Ross responded to rumors that he and Meek Mill, who is signed to his Maybach Music Group label, were not on good terms. “I feel like we’re both hustlers,” he said during an interview at the Grammy Museum. “That’s one thing about life, you either grow together or grow apart. As a boss, you make that decision, because whatever it is you want to do, Ricky Rozay wants to see you do it. There’s a lot of people that didn’t last or was still down with me the way Meek is — so I want to see the homie shine regardless.”

You can watch the video for “Outlawz” in the video above.

Richer Than I Ever Been is out now via Maybach Music Group/Epic Records. Get it here.

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

They say he’s still the de facto leader of the Republican Party, but perhaps Trump’s influence is on the wane. That’s one takeaway from the maiden voyage of his “History Tour,” the nationwide jaunt he’s embarking upon with disgraced former Bill O’Reilly. Back in June, the pair announced they were going on the road. It sounded like a sure-fire money-maker. But sales were slow, and seats to the first show on Saturday were still very much available mere days before kick-off. And from the sound of it, they were still free when the former president and the disgraced Fox News host took the stage.

As per The Sun Sentinel (as caught by The Daily Beast), Trump and O’Reilly kicked things off at the FLA Live Arena in Sunrise, Florida, home to the Florida Panthers. But they couldn’t get football-level crowds. “Many seats remained empty in the cavernous arena,” the paper reported. “The top-level was closed, and ticket buyers were ‘upgraded’ to the lower bowl.”

Tickets for the show went for at least $138, after fees. Some VIP attendees paid far more than that.

The premise of the tour was ostensibly about history, but Trump famously can’t keep to script. Indeed, he even shocked the crowd by calling his presidential predecessor, Barack Obama, “smart and sharp” — a 180 from the constant criticism and “birther” lies he pelted him with during his tenure.

When tickets went on sale over the summer, sales were slow, prompting O’Reilly to threaten a Politico reporter who reported on it. “You put one word in there that’s not true, I’ll sue your ass off and you can quote me on that,” O’Reilly said. “You’re just a hatchet man and that’s what you are.”

But now it appears if you want to watch a guy whose forthcoming social media service is already in legal trouble flap his gums, there should be plenty of seats available.

(Via The Daily Beast and The Sun Sentinel)

Last night, for the second time in her career, Billie Eilish brought her talents to Saturday Night Live. The last time she appeared, back in 2019, she defied gravity with a performance of “Bad Guy.” This time around, the singer signed on as both musical guest and host. In one sketch, the singer and cast member Heidi Gardner joined forces to update the story of Jesus’ birth.

The sketch was entitled “Hip-Hop Nativity,” and it found the two recruiting a group of actors to play many of the characters from the biblical story. They taught them how to twerk, strut, and pole dance. The actors initially raises issues over the biblical update, but they eventually went along with it. The closing bit also jokingly revealed that Hamilton creator Lin-Manuel Miranda will direct a full-length film version of Billie and Gardner’s updated nativity story.

In addition to the “Hip-Hop Nativity” skit, Billie also performed “Happier Than Ever” and “Male Fantasy” on SNL. The former made for an epic performance while the latter was a bit darker and relaxed.

In non-Eilish SNL news, the episode also featured Kate McKinnon returning as Dr. Fauci while Weekend Update skewered Jussie Smollett and the torching of the Fox News Christmas tree.

You can watch Billie’s Hip-Hop Nativity sketch in the video above.

Anne Rice, best known for Gothic novels about bloodsuckers, such as Interview with the Vampire, has passed away, as per The New York Times. She was 80 years old.

The news was revealed on Facebook by her son, Christopher Rice, who said his mother died from “complications resulting from a stroke.” He added, “She left us almost nineteen years to the day my father, her husband Stan, died.”

Born in New Orleans, Rice burst onto the literary scene in 1976, when she published Interview with the Vampire, which introduced her most famous creation, Lestat, an antiheroic bloodsucker whose exploits she chronicled over several books in what became known as “The Vampire Chronicles.”

Her debut book was turned into a blockbuster movie in 1994, starring Tom Cruise as Lestat, Brad Pitt as the man he turns, and Kirsten Dunst as a vampiric little girl. A follow-up, The Queen of the Damned, which featured pop star Aaliyah, followed in 2001. She has been credited with helping re-popularize vampire fiction, and more of her work is slated to be adapted for the screen.

But Rice was interested in far more than vampires. She wrote historical novels, including 1979’s The Feast of All Saints, about the black community in New Orleans before the Civil War. She wrote Christian fiction, including speculative accounts of the early life of Jesus Christ (which, too, have been turned into movies). She wrote erotic fiction, including Exit to Eden, which was improbably turned into a comedy starring Dan Aykroyd and Rosie O’Donnell.

“In her final hours, I sat beside her hospital bed in awe of her accomplishments and her courage, awash in memories of a life that took us from the fog laced hills of the San Francisco Bay Area to the magical streets of New Orleans to the twinkling vistas of Southern California,” Christopher wrote in his post.

After news broke of Rice’s passing, people on social media were quick to pay tribute to the legendary novelist.

(Via NYT)

As the 2021-22 NBA season enters its third month, any hopes that the COVID-19 pandemic would be less impactful this season than last have been dashed. Many of the games top stars have found themselves in the league’s health and safety protocols early this season, including some who have had difficult battles with the virus that have kept them out longer than just the 10 days required by league rules.

Currently, the Chicago Bulls are dealing with a number of absences due to protocols, as seven players missed Saturday night’s blowout loss to the Heat due to health and safety protocols, including star DeMar DeRozan, and now the Bulls will be without their other star scorer as Zach LaVine entered protocols on Sunday following his 33-point effort in Miami.

Troy Brown will also enter protocols, bringing the team’s total to nine players currently out.

The Bulls situation is the worst of any team in the league in terms of absences and it’s reasonable to wonder if the league, which has been loathe to postpone any games this season due to COVID absences, should consider whether nine players absent is worthy of rescheduling Tuesday’s game against Detroit if some of Chicago’s players don’t test out of protocols in time to play. The current roster, including those added via hardship waivers, features nine players, which is technically enough to play Tuesday.