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A fairly large group of sports fans all over the world are rejoicing as the NFL made its official return on Thursday night. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the league’s reigning Super Bowl champions, welcomed the Dallas Cowboys to their home stadium to officially start the new season. Prior to kickoff, however, fans at home and outside of Tampa Bay’s Raymond James Stadium were greeted by a performance from Ed Sheeran. The singer took the stage to perform his latest single, “Shivers” for fans that gathered at the venue.

The performance came hours after Sheeran released the track to his supporters. “Shivers” stands as the third single from his upcoming album, joining “Visiting Hours” and “Bad Habits” as records that gave fans a taste of what’s to come with the new album. After announcing “=” last month, Sheeran spoke about the album and what it means to him.

“= (Equals) is a really personal record and one that means a lot to me,” he said. “My life changed greatly over the past few years — I got married, became a father, experienced loss, and I reflect on these topics over the course of the album. I see it as my coming-of-age record, and I can’t wait to share this next chapter with you.”

You can watch Sheeran perform “Shivers” in the video above.

= is out 10/29 via Asylum/Atlantic. Pre-order it here.

Ed Sheeran is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Saturday Night Live will return next month for a new season, but the cast that will put on sketch comedy on short notice still seems up in the air. That includes Pete Davidson, who had an eventful Season 37 that saw him falling off the stage thanks to rapper Machine Gun Kelly during the show’s closing credits.

That moment went viral in its own right in January, and on Wednesday night Davidson explained what went wrong during the goodbyes. Davidson appeared on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon to talk about his upcoming movie and address what happened between himself and Machine Gun Kelly.

The moment happened early in the interview, and he sets the scene starting with an injury that the rapper endured during the production week.

“He bruised his coccyx that week,” Davidson said. “If you don’t know what a coccyx is, it’s the bone in your ass.”

The bruise meant that his mobility was limited, and he had to sit on a “little tooshie pillow.” But despite that, Kelly wanted to do something special during the show’s farewell.

“He got really excited and he went to pick me up, and he forgot he had a bruised coccyx,” Davidson said after explaining that he told the rapper to simply just enjoy the moment and, you know, wave. “So he went to pick me up and he couldn’t go up, so he just started to slowly tilt back.”

Davidson said the fall happened so slowly that they actually held a conversation on the way down.

“It was such a slow fall, we had time for him to go, ‘Oh no,’” Davidson said. “And I went, ‘You’re a f*cking moron.’”

It still remains to be seen if that will go down as one of the last times Davidson appears on the Studio 8H stage. But at least we now know that we’ll have an answer one way or another by October 2.

Drew Brees hung up his cleats earlier this year after the Saints’ playoff run came to a close, retiring as the NFL’s all-time leading passer with over 80,000 yards. The Super Bowl champion is a lock to go to Canton in a few years once he’s eligible, but he didn’t waste much time finding his second career, as he quickly inked a deal with NBC to join their NFL coverage for the 2021 season.

Brees made his debut on Sunday Night Football on Thursday for the season opener between the Cowboys and the Buccaneers, joining Mike Tirico and Tony Dungy on the field.

NFL fans were quick to notice that Brees looked a bit different than the last time we saw him on an NFL field, not just because he swapped a jersey for a suit, but also because his hair had made a miraculous recovery over the last year.

Brees, as many have pointed out, isn’t the first player to suddenly find a hairline as he began a new TV gig, as the same thing happened (and then un-happened) with Jason Witten when he entered the Monday Night Football booth before returning to football with the Raiders.

There were some terrific jokes as fans took in Brees’ new look, particularly those with a little New Orleans flair.

Crafting a great song or an excellent body of work is not an easy thing to do. This task is often laborious and requires months, even years of hard work. It’s something that many people brought up following the release of Kanye West’s Donda. However, claims that the rapper might have overworked engineers who contributed to the album left people debating where the line exists between hard work and overworking.

SZA seemed to declare her stance on the matter as she shared an Instagram post from singer Sev Daliza that declared great music sometimes requires intense labor.

“Unpopular opinion,” Daliza began. “You don’t get ‘off the grid’ quality of artistry without some extent of forced labor,” the singer wrote referencing West’s “Off The Grid” track from Donda. Sacrifices have to be made for greatness. Everybody tiptoeing these days afraid to cross boundaries or to be exposed. But at the end of the day, your favorite song, your favorite shoe, your favorite garment, your favorite drink wouldn’t be created if everybody in the process was in a comfortable state.”

Daliza added, “Labor takes its toll. Somebody at some point sacrificed something unwillingly for it. It’s not just the willing ones, sometimes we just need to dig our graves in order to feel alive.”

SZA shared Daliza’s post to her Instagram Story as it seems like it’s something the TDE singer may relate to. Prior and after the release of her beloved debut album Ctrl, SZA often spoke frequently about the struggles that went into crafting the project.

You can view the post above.

Pat Sajak and Vanna White aren’t leaving Wheel of Fortune anytime soon, but another member of the Sajak family is joining the team. Variety brought word on Wednesday that the longtime duo leading the way on the other syndicated game show companion to Jeopardy! will stay with the show until at least 2024.

That’s thanks to a new deal that comes on the heels of some Jeopardy! and Wheel-related drama with Mike Richards, the once-replacement host for the late Alex Trebek who resigned in shame last month and stepped down as executive producer of both shows in the aftermath of that controversy. As Variety detailed, Sajak and White will remain on Wheel of Fortune until at least the end of the 2023-24 season, with Sajak serving as consulting producer along with his hosting duties.

And one other note on the deal is that Sajak’s daughter, Maggie, will join the show as a digital correspondent.

“Wheel of Fortune” will also become more of a family affair this year as Maggie Sajak, Pat’s daughter, will be joining the show’s digital presence as its social correspondent. She’ll be the online host sharing exclusive videos, behind-the-scenes access, and interviews with the hosts, staff, crew, and contestants. “Wheel of Fortune’s” digital channels including its website and pages on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok.

The move comes after a year where game show succession plans have become big news. Trebek’s death, for example, made some wonder what the plan is for Wheel, as Sajak himself is 74 years old and in 2020 missed some tapings after recovering from surgery. While Sajak was recovering, Vanna White hosted the show while Maggie turned letters for a few episodes. It was a nice touch, and it seems that was a warmup for a bigger role in the show moving forward.

Whether Maggie Sajak has a future on the stage is tough to say, but at least the show is much more stable in its future than a still-host-less Jeopardy!

Superheroes have dominated comic books and cartoons for decades, and lately they’ve taken over movies and live TV as well. And the next step seems to be an influx of true comic book video games. The latest to join the ranks of Marvel heroes getting a new game is the popular lone wolf of the X-Men, Wolverine.

Developed by Insomniac, the creators of Ratchet and Clank and Marvel’s Spider-Man, Marvel’s Wolverine will be coming to PlayStation 5. That news came Thursday thanks to a teaser trailer that didn’t give us too much info, other than we know it’s in development. But it’s hard to not be excited about the chance to play as one of our favorite heroes.

The trailer opens with a bar and all the customers being knocked unconscious. Chairs have been destroyed and folk music is playing in the background. It’s the exact kinda place that Wolverine would hang out at, but he hasn’t quite finished the job. One person is still conscious and they’re trying to get Wolverine with a knife in the back while he’s not looking. The camera pans to his bloody knuckles, he pulls out his claws, and the Marvel logo appears. That’s all we get.

Wolverine has always been the most popular character among the X-Men, so he’s also had the most video games, and they’ve traditionally been hit-or-miss. The challenge with Wolverine has always been his healing powers and general indestructible nature. He’s not an easy character to make players feel like they’re being challenged, but also stays true to his powers, and walking that line is never easy. However, Insomniac’s history with Spider-Man gives a lot of reason for hope that a great Wolverine game can still be made.

There’s a lot of storytelling potential with Wolverine, as we’ve seen through multiple movies, and it’s going to be fun to see some of those stories explored in a video game. However, considering this trailer was a cinematic and it didn’t feature a release date we probably shouldn’t expect this game anytime soon.

One of the first notable albums to arrive this year came from London singer Arlo Parks. The singer-songwriter released her debut project, Collapsed In Sunbeams at the end of January and it’s an effort that was received well by those who were introduced to her growing talents.

During an interview with NME toward the end of 2020, she described the album as “a series of vignettes and intimate portraits surrounding [her] adolescence and the people that shaped it.” She added, “It is rooted in storytelling and nostalgia – I want it to feel both universal and hyper specific.”

It’s this very album that earned her one of the most coveted awards in the United Kingdom. Parks is the latest recipient of the Mercury Prize, which is an award given to the best album released in the UK by a British or Irish act. The singer was graced with the award at a ceremony for it on Thursday, beating out acts that included Wolf Alice, Celeste, and Mogwai to take home the prize.

She shared her appreciation for the win in an onstage speech. “I am completely speechless. I don’t have the words,” she said according to The Independent. “I just want to say a big thank you to my family. My mum and my dad are somewhere in the room today.”

She added, “This is something that came off a lot of hard work from a lot of different people… it took a lot of sacrifice and hard work to get here and there were moments when I wasn’t sure whether I’d make it through, but I’m here today.” Parks spoke further about the win afterward during an interview with BBC 6 Music.

“​I’m still coming off my little cloud – speechless for now, but very grateful,” she said before she was for what she was most proud about with her debut. “The storytelling,” she replied. “The honesty and the humanity and the fact that I was able to talk about things that were really important to me and affected me, in an honest way.​”

Parks also performed “Too Good” at the award show. You can watch her performance in the video above.

President Biden announced on Thursday a sweeping new vaccine mandate that will impact more than 80 million Americans. And while outrage from anti-vaxxers is sure to follow, the biggest thing many took away from the announcement is that Fox News is already enforcing a similar rule that the Democratic president announced in a national address.

Biden’s plan revealed Thursday aims to require companies that employ 100 or more people to mandate employees get fully vaccinated or provide a negative PRC test at least once a week. It’s a landmark shift from the mandates that had until this week been required by individual companies since the vaccines were approved for emergency use late last year.

“We need to do more,” Biden said in a speech on Thursday. “This is not about freedom or person choice. It’s about protecting yourself and those around you. The people you work with. The people you care about. The people you love.”

The speech had plenty of people talking, but the line that caught many by surprise was when Biden listed some companies that already have similar guidelines that will become national law.

“Some of the biggest companies are already requiring this,” Biden said. “United Airlines. Disney. Tyson’s Food. And even Fox News.”

Almost immediately, “even Fox News” started trending on Twitter as people reacted to the line. For some, it was the first time they had been made aware of vaccine mandates at the conservative news channel, which have been in place for months now.

“The bottom line is we’re going to protect vaccinated workers from unvaccinated co-workers,” Biden said, something that Fox News has already been doing. Too bad, however, the rhetoric actually airing on Fox News is nothing like what’s actually required when you work there.

As if The Matrix series wasn’t already tricky enough to follow in the four year span the original trilogy was released in, adding a massive 18-year gap between those films and the next certainly doesn’t make it any easier. Following the release of The Matrix Revolutions in 2003, we now have a first look at the next film installment in the series and while it’s incredibly exciting, there sure seems to be some confusion around it, whether that confusion being why is Lana Wachowski the only sibling returning to the project, or why is Keanu Reeves’ character, Neo aka Thomas Anderson, even alive. So, for those of you who are completely stoked to see the extremely long-awaited The Matrix Resurrections, but are finding yourselves a bit, well, lost, here’s a little recap to help you out a bit.

So, what happened at the end of The Matrix Revolutions?

At the end of The Matrix Revolutions, Neo and Trinity board Niobe’s (Jada Pinkett Smith) ship, the Logos, and make their way to the Machine City in an attempt to put an end to the war between man and machine. However, Neo and Trinity are inevitably ambushed by one of Agent Smith’s assimilated fighters, Bane, who ends up blinding Neo with an exposed power cable during their fight. Ultimately, this allows Neo to discover he has what is essentially a “third eye” that allows him to see source code in the real world, thus allowing his to see enough to defeat Bane.

However, this doesn’t mark the end of Neo and Trinity’s problems. As the Logos makes its way into the Machine City, it is attacked by the city’s defenses, and while the ship manages to make it into the stronghold, Trinity is killed in the process. After mourning his loss, Neo goes on ahead to meet with the machine’s leader, and proposes a truce between human and machines on the condition that he will put an end to their mutual enemy: Agent Smith, a program created by the machines they could no longer control.

The machines agree to Neo’s terms and allow him into the matrix, assisting him in his final mission of sacrificing himself in order to assimilate with Agent Smith and kill him from within. As a result, both Neo and Agent Smith perish in the film’s final confrontation, and the machines, true to their word, end the war on humans.

The machines then carry Neo’s real-life body away ceremoniously before retreating from the human city of Zion and rebooting the Matrix once more, with the added caveat of allowing humans to leave the matrix if they so choose.

In the film’s final scene, The Architect (Helmut Bakaitis) meets with the Oracle (Mary Alice) in a park and it is explained to us that Trinity — and Neo’s love for her — was the variable introduced in this reincarnation of Neo (the sixth, for those keeping score) that made this one powerful enough to end the cycle of human indoctrination. They then forbiddingly reach the conclusion that this truce will last “as long as it can,” before the Oracle adds she suspects Neo will be back again “someday.”

But wait, Neo is dead. How is that going to happen and how is there a fourth film?

Truth be told, that’s what we’re all kind of wondering! However, this screenshot from the trailer might offer a bit of an explanation:

Based on this still that flashes extremely briefly at about 12 seconds in, it seems the machines might have preserved Neo’s body following his death in the matrix. This would explain why the Neo we see in the trailer — which presumably takes place inside the matrix, judging by the overall look of the world and the code Neo sees on Trinity’s face — is in fine physical condition while we know his body is, uh, not. There’s also the possibility that the machines transferred Neo’s consciousness into a new body, which, while out there, isn’t much of a stretch in a science fiction film where people’s hobbies and abilities can literally be uploaded into them. Lastly, it could also be an entirely new, resurrected Neo, but him knowing Trinity throws a wrench in that a bit — unless it’s a glitch in the matrix.

As for what Trinity is doing there, this could be a resurrected version of her or a version Neo and/or the machines built with his consciousness. It also could be the entire matrix we see in the new trailer is a special matrix that only exists for Neo. Basically, there are a hell of a lot of mights and no real answers as of yet. We also don’t know why Lawrence Fishburne’s Morpheus is not making an appearance in the film, though it’s speculated Yahya Abdul-Mateen II might be playing a younger version of him.

We do know The Matrix likes to ask big questions, and it seems like this film is going to pose quite a few on what we think living is, whether that be questioning if this potential “ship of Theseus” Neo is still Neo or if, when given the choice like the machines claimed they would give humans, we’d still elect to live in a Matrix for comfort, choosing to be blissfully ignorant? The scene in which Neo examines everyone engrossed on their phones and seemingly placated throws some weight behind that theory. As of right now, The Matrix Resurrections is slated to hit theaters on December 22, 2021, and it looks like we’ll just have to do a whole lot of head-scratching — and rewatches — until then.

One of the best games on the PlayStation 4 is Marvel’s Spider-Man from Insomniac. It had been a long time since a superhero game was made that felt as good as that one did to play. It also nailed Peter Parker perfectly. Yuri Lowenthal, the voice of Peter, is arguably the best Peter has ever been. Then, they struck lightning again, with a truly amazing Miles Morales spin-off title. With two great games under their belt and an expected sequel on the way, everyone was asking for the same thing. We want a Spider-Man game where we can play as both Miles and Peter.

On Thursday, everyone got what they were asking for. With a quick trailer showcasing one of Peter’s gadgets, and Miles unique powers, the two heroes are faced with a new threat. Longtime Spider-Man villain, and sometimes anti-hero, Venom is shown in a dark alleyway.

(SPOILER FOR THE END OF SPIDER-MAN ON PS4 UPCOMING)

Venom being the main antagonist of this game would make sense, because anyone who finished the first game will remember the post-credits scene where Norman Osborn is speaking to his unconscious son Harry before a venom tentacle appears.

There is so much potential with this game. Hopefully, they go all-in on the ability to play as both Miles and Peter and make them both an integral part of the story. It would be a shame if they teased this only for Miles to be set off to the side while Peter got the spotlight in another game. Even if the story largely revolves around Peter, which is likely what will happen considering how the first game ended, the ability to at least play as Miles and have him involved is a necessity. His powers are incredible, the character has so much room for exploration, and we want to watch him continue growing into a superhero.

How they choose to go about making both characters playable will be the tricky part. They have options such as two separate campaigns and then a finale with both at the end, or they could have everything happening simultaneously with each character taking the reigns when the story needs it. The hardest, but most intriguing possibility, is the opportunity to play as both at the same time. Imagine for a second you’re swinging across Manhattan only to pick up information that a robbery is happening in Harlem. Instead of having to swing all the way across to the other side of town we could just switch over to the other Spider-Man and have them handle it instead.

Either way, with a 2023 release date we won’t have to wait too long for the next game. So there’s plenty to be excited about here.