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On Friday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported 23,903 new coronavirus cases in Florida, the highest-single day total in the state since the beginning of the pandemic. A “fifth of all new U.S. infections and current hospitalizations” come from the Sunshine State, the Washington Post reports, but Republican governor Ron DeSantis is doing everything in his power to prevent mask mandates, even for kids returning to school. “We can either have a free society or we can have a biomedical security state and I can tell you, Florida, we’re a free state,” he said last week.

Florida might be a “free state” but it’s a “free state” with nearly 40,000 deaths from COVID led by a “piece of sh*t” governor. That’s according to comedian Bill Burr, who unloaded on DeSantis during Monday’s episode of the Monday Morning Podcast.

“DeSantis, whoever this guy is — and they have the most grumpiest looking photo ever — this guy is starting to build stature in 2024 and he says he disagrees on mask mandates,” Burr said. “The amount of people who not only don’t even own a microscope or even have a pair of scrubs — you know, unless they went to some Halloween party — who are literally questioning doctors… At this point, it’s just hilarious.” The Mandalorian actor continued, “These f*cking piece of sh*t politicians! He knows that that’s what his fanbase wants him to do so that’s what the f*ck he’s gonna do. Unbelievable.”

Burr previously went after anti-vaxxers for being “full of sh*t… I’ll tell you right now, if they came out with a shot that gave you a flat stomach and abs, all of these same people that ‘you ain’t f*ckin’ with my freedom,’ they’d be right down there getting that f*cking thing.” You can listen to the Monday Morning Podcast episode below.

(Via Mediaite)

It’s been eight long years since we last got a new college football game. The NCAA Football series was shuttered due to the NCAA’s refusal to pay its athletes, but there is hope on the horizon for a new college football game in the near future. EA Sports College Football, the spiritual successor to the series, is on the way and we’ll hopefully be able to get our hands on it sometime around 2023.

While the video game has laid dormant, there has still been incredible football taking place on the field in that timespan. We’ve seen some all-time great college football players come and go without an opportunity to play as them in the virtual world with their college teams. That’s been an incredible disappointment, but there is a possible way to rectify this in the future. A feature in a lot of the old games was the ability to play as some of the classic teams from the earlier days of college football.

This means, as long as the developers can find a way to pay the players involved, we can play as some of these teams we missed out on. Of course, with 130 teams to choose from, picking who should be in won’t be easy. So we’ve decided to break it down year by year, with a handful of honorable mentions, on which teams we missed out on should be in the follow-up.

The teams picked for the list were chosen for the following reasons:

• Pick up and playability – These are teams that theoretically you could fire up the game, sit down with a friend, and go at it with one another. Anyone can go into Dynasty and turn UMass or Bowling Green into a title contender after hours and hours of play, but we want teams that would have been a popular pick in college dorms across the country.
• Fun factor – What counts as fun in a college football game can vary, but most of us have a pretty good idea of what teams and stars would not be fun to play as; if your favorite team was coached by Will Muschamp then you can safely assume they did not make this list.
• Impact on the sport – Some teams are easy to pick up, others had a fun gimmick, but a handful of teams on this list had far too much of a historical impact to not be included.
• Fun players – While real players were never “officially” in the game we all remember playing as some of college football’s greatest athletes in the old games. Having an awesome player we missed out on the chance to play is a good chance to at least end up as an honorable mention.

2014 – Ohio State

Unfortunately, we never got to experience the College Football Playoff in the video game world and that also means we didn’t get to use its first-ever champion. The 2014 Ohio State Buckeyes, led by third-string quarterback Cardale Jones, controversially snuck in as the four seed over undefeated TCU and Baylor. They proceeded to quiet any doubters about how much they belonged there by going through Alabama and Oregon to win the title. Turns out Ezekiel Elliot, Curtis Samuel, and one of the fastest offenses in the country made them a pretty good football team. All that speed would have made them an absolute blast to use in the games and we could have made some really weird playbooks utilizing their three starting-caliber quarterbacks.

Honorable Mention: 2014 Ole Miss – This team was led by fan favorite Bo “Dr. Bo.” Wallace. This Ole Miss team thrived on chaos and managed to upset Alabama in 2014.

2015 – Stanford

While everyone else would have been picking Clemson, Ohio State, Oklahoma, or maybe even Ole Miss the true NCAA nerds would have been frustrating everyone with Stanford. Nothing in these games was more frustrating to deal with than an accurate quarterback and a running back who could catch the football. Unfortunately for anyone not using them, this team had Kevin Hogan and Christian McCaffrey to do exactly that. McCaffrey’s speed and versatility would have made a video game version of him unstoppable. There’s a reason this Stanford team finished the year ranked No. 3 in the AP poll.

Honorable Mention: 2015 Clemson – Deshaun Watson to Mike Williams would have been a cheat code.

2016 – USF

The Gulf Coast offense is what eventually would get Willie Taggart a job at Oregon, then Florida State, but it would have never worked without one of the most dynamic backfields we’d ever seen. Quinton Flowers and Marlon Mack were two of the most dominant runners in the game and their ability to get out in space and make plays happen made this one of the most exciting teams in college football, in 2016. One of the greatest crimes of the NCAA football series is that we never got to use these two together in the video game world because they would have broken the game. The read option was already a powerful tool at this point and the Flowers-Mack combo probably would have forced a few broken controllers with how unstoppable they would have been running it. No matter what decision the defense made it would have been the wrong one.

Honorable Mention: 2016 Penn State – Trace McSorley and Saquon Barkley would have been an incredible video game duo. This was the year they made the Rose Bowl and played in an all-timer against USC.

2017 – Louisville

This might not be when Lamar Jackson won the Heisman, but he was arguably better in his final year in school anyway. There were serious Madden 2004 Michael Vick vibes when watching Jackson’s ability to not only make magic happen with his legs, but his ability to hit the deep ball made him a true dual threat. The team around him at Louisville was good, not great, but Jackson’s one of those individual players that would have been able to overcome this on the virtual field. It’s a shame we never got to experience that.

Honorable Mention: 2017 UCF – The only undefeated team in the country in 2017 made a claim to the national title, and they were also a pretty fun team on top of that.

2018 – Clemson

Of all the Clemson teams that have gone to the Playoff, this was probably the most complete one. Trevor Lawrence was just a freshman, but he already looked like one of the best QB’s in college football as he helped them cruise to an undefeated championship campaign. With weapons like Travis Etienne and Tee Higgins to work with, there’s no way this team wouldn’t have been an auto pick for most players. The only thing holding them back is they might have been too good to be considered fun to play, but it’s hard to leave Lawerence off this list.

Honorable Mention: 2018 Army – Using the triple option in video games can be a real fun time and this Army team was one of the best to ever do it.

2019 – LSU

Being arguably the greatest team in college football history makes this LSU team an auto-lock. Joe Burrow, Clyde Edwards-Helaire, Ja’Marr Chase, and Justin Jefferson were an unstoppable group of athletes. Throw in K’Lavon Chaisson on the edge with Patrick Queen manning the linebackers and the defense would have made scoring impossible. This would have been auto-ban in any dorm room outside of Baton Rouge because they were that unfair.

Honorable Mention: 2019 Kentucky – This Kentucky team wasn’t very good, but their entire offense was telling Lynn Bowden to go be an athlete and that’s the kind of gimmick that will thrive in video games.

2020 – Alabama

While not quite the same level of dominance as 2019 LSU, this Alabama team was just as stacked. Devonta Smith, the eventual winner of the Heisman, was arguably the second best receiver on the team behind an injured Jaylen Waddle. Well in video games Waddle is going to be healthy and they’ll have Mac Jones throwing them the ball. With Najee Harris in the backfield next to Jones this is a team that would have dominated virtual fields through a dynamic passing attack. Let’s pair up this group against 2019 LSU in a virtual showdown to see who comes out on top.

Honorable Mention: 2020 Ohio State – A virtual Justin Fields throwing to Chris Olave and Garrett Wilson would have just felt unfair.

Anna Bediones lives and breathes sneakers. Aside from being a fan of all things basketball since childhood, Bediones has built her life around sneakers. She started out working in retail before starting to write about sneakers and sneaker culture which lead to content creating and influencing — Bediones has one of the best sneakerhead Instagram accounts with over 40k followers.

Now, Bediones is the new Director of Women’s strategy at SoleSavy, a sneaker-obsessed community-driven platform that tasks itself with helping sneakerheads buy sneakers at a fair price without having to deal with aftermarket resale vultures.

I’ve you spent any time in sneakerhead forums or in the comments section of your favorite fashion website (or you’re just a woman who loves sneakers), you’re probably well aware that the sneaker community can be full of assholes who try to tell you what you should and shouldn’t like. Since the community is the one thing SoleSavy values above, you know, sneakers, the platform has brought Bediones on board to lead the strategy for the platform’s new woman’s-only community.

“It’s important for us to facilitate a community that allows women to enjoy sneakers without external judgment or disruption,” Bediones tells me over the phone. “One of the big complaints that women have about the sneaker community, as a whole, is that it’s quite gatekeep-y. It’s almost like women are put to a higher standard of what a sneakerhead should look and be like”

Bediones continues, “We just want to have a space for women to feel comfortable to share whatever they want about sneakers and network with other community members and sneaker lovers without anybody else injecting themselves into these conversations.”

I linked up with Bediones to get her take on the current sneaker climate, the efforts that brands are now making to better cater to women (and how they can still do better), and the value of community in the sneaker space. She also ran us through her favorite shoes of the year so far, and the pairs that have alluded her grasp. Let’s dive in!

I’ve noticed brands like Nike are really trying to bump up efforts to cater to women. Women’s size exclusives, or the Aleali May, AMBUSH collaborations come to mind, how else can the big brands step it up?

There are a lot of opportunities for brands to support women. Collaborating with more women is an amazing way to start, and we have Aleali and Melody Ehsani and AMBUSH, and a lot of other women who are starting to have more long terms relationships with these brands. But having women internally making decisions is also something else they can incorporate. This way when you’re creating products for women you actually have real women making the decisions behind whatever products are coming out and whatever initiatives are happening.

There is also the issue of accessibility for women. We saw Jordan Brand and A Ma Maniere do an amazing roll-out back in April, and I think that sets a new standard of how women’s products can be rolled out and how women can be prioritized in women’s exclusive sneakers. Accessibility is a huge issue across the board, the biggest thing is when you’re making products for women and women can’t even access them, something needs to change there.

Having more women internally is one of the biggest things they can change so that we can properly make decisions to make sure women are prioritized and being spoken to appropriately.

You touched on the gatekeep-y aspects of sneaker culture, for anyone that has been turned off by that aspect of the community, what’s so rewarding about being part of a community where you can freely talk about shoes?

What we always say is that people join SoleSavy to learn about how to buy sneakers, but stay for the community. I myself joined the community late last year, and my role started four months ago. But for the last six months, I’ve been observing how the community looks out for each other. It’s so encouraging, a lot of it goes well beyond just sneakers. A member recently had a job interview and because they had created such a bond with other members, they received an incredible amount of support for that. We encourage members to share their personal projects, we have members who start podcasts or fashion blogs or want to start writing.

The internet can be such a mean place, but in the SoleSavy community, everyone is people first. People assist on sneaker releases, on top of all that, we have an assist channel to facilitate this. I think this is a community you can’t really create anywhere else because it’s also heavily vetted. You have to apply for membership. So, you’re vetted before you’re admitted into our SoleSavy community. Then just to make sure you’re not a reseller, we have dedicated community leaders who are constantly monitoring all of our channels. There’s a no-tolerance policy for bullying or harassment. We have a very dedicated team ensuring this community is safe, even more so in our women’s space.

Buying shoes on a markup is obviously a very familiar scenario for sneakerheads. With women’s sneakers, it’s almost impossible to get women’s sneakers at retail price. Why does that disparity exist so strongly?

That goes back to my point earlier about having more women internally. Allocation is a big component of the accessibility of women’s products. Because the quantity is often lower in smaller sizes, the markup is even higher on the aftermarket because there is scarcity to it. There’s just not as much product allocated to the smaller sizes, and people who wear general men’s sizes now also have to compete with men purchasing the product. When I look at our monitors (monitors are part of our SoleSavy technology), we can see stock on a lot of the shops we monitor and you can see the disparity between how many size fives there are vs how many size tens there are. I think that’s also not really insider knowledge, in any buying scenario the large often tend to have the most allocation vs the smallest sizing.

There’s a dismissive quality when it comes to sizing, a lot of sneaker dudes will say “just size up or size down.” As someone who has bought sneakers for his partner, this doesn’t always work out. If you’re a women’s 7 1/2, that doesn’t mean you always wear a men’s size 6, why is this an imperfect way of sizing for sneakers?

Because every brand and every model varies in sizing and how it fits in certain markets. We’ve created a guide that’s ever-growing and based on community input, on how to convert your size from men’s to women’s and vice versa. “1.5” is a good baseline to start with, but we all know that different shoes fit differently. A Jordan 1 fits differently than an Air Force 1, or a Yeezy Foam Runner, or a New Balance sneaker. A lot of that information is crowdsourced in SoleSavy, a lot of people who have already had these pairs can weigh in on how a sneaker fits. It’s a good baseline to start with, but the brands don’t work off of one standard sizing model. Just like you would wear a different size in any other brand, that would also apply to converting your men’s and women’s shoes.

What’s your personal sneaker story, how did you get into the culture to where you’re at now?

I grew up in a basketball household and my dad loved to put me in sneakers. We watched a lot of basketball. He put me into basketball at eight years old. I guess I wanted to be just like my dad. That basketball interest also affected my style inspiration. Anything that fit within the basketball culture and also translated into music is what I gravitated towards. My idols were Michael Jordan, Kobe Byrant, Allen Iverson, and any woman that I saw in pop culture that also embodied that style of sneakers, streetwear, baggy clothing, TLC, Aaliyah, Sporty Spice, all of that really impacted the way that I dressed and the things that I liked. I would say basketball is the root of it and my interest just kept continuously growing through the ’90s and 2000s.

What are some of your all-time favorite sneaker drops and why?

I really like the Jordan 3 A Ma Maniere. That’s the front runner for my favorite sneaker this year. Not only was it designed for women, but the storytelling behind it was also incredible. The rollout was near perfect. It was new and so well done, the way they prioritized women. I also really liked the Jordan 4 Union release from last year because it gave sneaker consumers a fair shot at buying the sneakers. Amazing bot protection, which also set a standard last year for how sneakers can be released, and A Ma Maniere pulled pieces of that for their own drop.

Shoe-wise, my favorite shoes are the Air Jordan 1 Court Purple. It wasn’t originally a women’s shoes. That’s my personal favorite shoe this year. I love the Kobe 6 Grinches as well, not roll out wise but as a shoe. That was a really hard shoe to get, and why I joined SoleSavy the day that I did.

If you had to choose a favorite sneaker silhouette what would it be?

Air Jordan 4. It’s just the easiest to wear I think it’s more elevated, nothing against the Air Force 1, but the four shows my personality more because not as many people wear it. It also came out the year I was born, which I also love.

What are the craziest lengths you’ve gone to cop a pair of sneakers?

I’ve camped out overnight. Not my favorite thing to do, it’s winter, and winter here in Toronto is very cold. It was for the Jordan 1 BRED. I can’t remember the year. I want to say 2013? I camped out overnight for those and drove an hour out of the city and I met a lot of friends in line.

Before that, I would go early to buy sneakers, like five hours before the mall opened and that’s never been fun because I’m almost always the only girl or have been historically. And buying resale, which I hate more than anything, but sometimes you just have to.

Is there a pair of sneakers that has eluded your grasp?

For the longest time, it was the Kobe 6 Grinches. I wanted them when they first came out but I was in college and I couldn’t afford to have that many pairs of basketball sneakers. Plus, I had torn my ACL that year. So I was like, ‘alright, I don’t need shoes this year.’ But for the last five years, I’ve been telling myself I’m going to do it. But $2,500 bucks for a pair of sneakers is just insane to me.

What’s your take on Crocs?

I use to be very anti-Croc. Very. Now, I’m slowly getting ready to buy myself a pair because I fell in love with the Foam Runners when they dropped. I love them so much, so now I’m thinking maybe I’ll like Crocs too. And like I mentioned, a lot of NBA players influence my style. Seeing NBA players wearing them, I’m finally warming up to Crocs. So I no longer have an anti-Croc opinion.

I feel like that’s the case with a lot of people. People are softening up to the idea. What do you love about the Foam Runners?

I just think they’re so comfortable. They’re so easy to wear. Plus, I’m a Kanye fan. I grew up being a fanatic, he’s one of my idols in the 2000s and 2010s. I think they’re just so interesting and I know they’re funny looking, but the shape is just so unique and so streamlined and aesthetically pleasing that I wear them every single day. So I don’t know if Crocs can replace those, but I’m going to try!

When WarnerMedia made the decision to simultaneously release its entire 2021 film slate on HBO Max and in theaters, it was a controversial decision that angered filmmakers like Christopher Nolan and Denis Villeneuve, even with the pandemic raging at its highest levels at the time. However, with some time between the HBO Max decision and The Suicide Squad‘s release, director James Gunn makes the case for why the dual release strategy isn’t that big of a deal, and he makes a very compelling argument about how the theater isn’t where films become classics. Via Variety:

I don’t really care that much. I really just care about whatever the project is in front of me. “The Suicide Squad” is made to be seen first and foremost on a big screen. I think it’s gonna work just fine on television. Listen, movies don’t last because they’re seen on the big screen. Movies last because they’re seen on television. “Jaws” isn’t still a classic because people are watching it in theaters. I’ve never seen “Jaws” in a movie theater. It’s one of my favorite movies.

While Gunn fully admits that making the Peacemaker series for HBO Max softened his views on The Suicide Squad‘s streaming release, he definitely doesn’t want to see the theatrical experience “die.” Although, Gunn fully admits theaters are in trouble right now, and he doesn’t hold back on who’s to blame.

“We’ve still got COVID, because people won’t get vaccinated, which, you know, they should,” Gunn told Variety. “Hopefully — hopefully — that will not be a big deal to us in a year. And if that’s the case, what’s going to happen? We don’t know.”

For the record, Gunn’s Variety interview took place before The Suicide Squad struggled in theaters as the Delta variant continued to spike cases in the US. However, the movie reportedly performed well on HBO Max, so it’ll be interesting to hear his thoughts on the ongoing streaming release debate with that information in the mix.

(Via Variety)

Quentin Tarantino’s gone on a podcast rampage of late. The famously boisterous director opened up to Marc Maron about a Once Upon A Time In Hollywood casting dream that went unfulfilled. He got profane with Joe Rogan while discussing the controversial portrayal of Bruce Lee in that same film. And recently, he visited The Moment podcast, hosted by Billions co-creator Brian Koppelman, and revealed how he’s holding onto a childhood grudge, including a vow never to give any money to his mother, Connie.

Apparently, 12-year-old QT got into an argument with his mother over his time spent on crafting screenplays, at the expense of paying enough attention in school. This dispute grew contentious. “In the middle of her little tirade,” Tarantino related (via The Wrap) while adding what his mother said next. “‘Oh, and by the way, this little ‘writing career’ — with the finger quotes and everything — this little ‘writing career’ that you’re doing? That sh*t is f*cking over.” This moment not only stuck in his head but led Tarantino to throw down a vow and stick with it:

“When she said that to me in that sarcastic way, I was in my head and I go: ‘Okay, lady, when I become a successful writer, you will never see penny one from my success. There will be no house for you. There’s no vacation for you, no Elvis Cadillac for mommy. You get nothing. Because you said that.’”

Quentin did explain that he has helped his mother, once, when she got into “a jam with the IRS.” Yet as far as anything else goes, he insisted, “There are consequences for your words as you deal with your children.” He then added, “Remember there are consequences for your sarcastic tone about what’s meaningful to them.” Perhaps that seems a little harsh, or maybe the whole experience is partially why Quentin has taken a laid-back approach to certain aspects of his on childrearing experience.

(Via The Moment With Brian Koppelman & The Wrap)

The Ted Lasso Power Rankings are a weekly analysis of who and/or what had the strongest performance in each episode. Most of the list will feature individual characters, although the committee does reserve the right to honor anything from animals to inanimate objects to laws of nature to general concepts. There are very few rules here.

Season 2, Episode 3 — Do The Right-est Thing

HONORABLE MENTION: Trent Crimm, The Independent (need one of you to make a supercut of him introducing himself at press conferences while standing up and removing his glasses); Keeley (tough week between the photoshoot causing assorted calamity and the Bantr app not really taking off); Sassy Smurf (straight shooter, seems like a fun hang); Mae (really great little dance she did in the background while the pub was singing the Jamie Tartt song); Higgins (still funny to me to keep him out of the listings proper, so here he stays); Nate (I am suddenly very sad for Nate and need him to find love on the Bantr app at once); Phoebe (no ice cream for dinner, but she understands why)

10. Nora (Last Week: Not ranked)

Big fan of Nora, the sassy child of Rebecca’s friend (and Ted’s one-time lover), Sassy Smurf. I like that she’s a little jerk almost all of the time except when she gets hopelessly starstruck by Sam, because that feels correct and natural for most teens. I like that she dresses kind of like a street urchin from a film adaptation of a Charles Dickens novel, because it reinforces everything I think I know about British people. But mostly I like that she made this awful horsefly/pee joke within about 30 seconds of appearing on-screen for the first time.

Do I think for one second that a deeply sarcastic teen like Nora would ever make a joke this corny on purpose? No. Do I think she would roll her eyes all the way back into her head if an adult around her made this joke? Absolutely. Do I care at all, even for a little, even just long enough to emit a whispered “hmm” as I think about it again right now? Reader, I do not. The lesson here is to just accept a good thing sometimes and not let your brain think you out of it.

9. Ted Lasso (Last Week: 6)

Ted is a fascinating man. Consider:

• He is comfortable enough around a one-time lover to make an “Is she mine?” joke about the woman’s teenage child, in front of his boss
• He is so uncomfortable at the mere mention of the menstrual cycle that he looks like he’s trying to hide his entire body behind his mustache

Dr. Sharon is going to have a field day with him. She’s going to be running around inside his brain like Nicolas Cage in the National Treasure movies, carrying a torch and sliding tiles around until she unlocks the secret room where the jewels are. I can’t wait.

8. Soccer Saturday Host Jeff Stelling (Last Week: Not ranked)

I would, without hyperbole, watch this show — a fake sports commentary show that discusses fictional athletes that play a sport I barely follow in real-life — for an entire half-hour. Maybe even a full hour. It’s perfect. My new favorite guy is the host, Jeff, who is desperately trying to hold things together, to make it a normal show that follows normal rules, as the dudes around him descend into bickering madness. Look at him in that last screencap. It’s beautiful. Add him to the list of minor characters I now want a full episode of backstory about.

(UPDATE: It has been brought to my attention that Soccer Saturday is, in fact, a real show, and Roy’s presence is the only fictional element. This somehow makes me enjoy all of it even more.)

Semi-related: I tweeted about how much I love sports pundit Roy and how I want him to have his own show and I got this reply…

… which is maybe the best idea I’ve ever heard. I need this at once. Like, in real life. Thirty minutes every weekday. I know this reads like a joke but I assure you it is not.

7. Led Tasso (Last Week: Not ranked)

This is startling. When I watched the trailer for this season, weeks ago, and saw a reference to an evil alter-ego named Led Tasso, I thought it would be my favorite moment of the whole season. Flipping around names like this — spoonerisms, they’re called — is one of my favorite hobbies. Try it yourself sometime. A few of my favorites: Paul Rudd (Raul Pudd), Samuel L. Jackson (Jam Sackson), former NBA all-star Danny Granger (Granny Danger). And so on.

And yet! This sunglasses-wearing demon was ineffectual when it came to results. He made no substantial progress in opening up the team to Jamie’s return. All he did was yell and kick some soccer balls and wear sunglasses. I still love him very much and would like to see video of whatever exactly happened inside that Chuck E. Cheese, but I cannot in good conscience rank him any higher than this.

6. Dr. Sharon (Last Week: 4)

Took her one session to fix soccer vagabond and reality show loser Jamie Tartt, apparently. That’s kind of impressive. Part of me wants to see what she can do with my mysterious king Coach Beard. Another part of me is terrified of what would happen. I will needs weeks to consider this.

5. Roy (Last Week: 2)

I must, once again, for the third consecutive week, insist that Roy Kent get a daytime talk show, one where he gives blunt but shockingly helpful life advice to an audience of housewives. Maybe like The View but with him and the Yoga Mums in the comfy chair with cups of tea and/or whiskey. Look at what he’s done for Rebecca already this season. He’s given her accurate advice for both her love life and for relating to children. He’s wise and profane like an NC-17 Oprah. Air this every day at noon and the show with Trent Crimm every day at dinner time. Roy is a star. Point a camera at him as often as possible.

4. Rebecca (Last Week: Not ranked)

Good for Rebecca. I’m glad she stuck up for Sam and I’m glad she got to do it in a way that let her be a competent, assertive authority figure. She is that, to be sure, but a lot of the show has focused on the various ways her personal life is a disaster, and even when she’s gotten a win it’s been with the assistance of someone around her, with Ted in the darts scene being the most notable example.

But here, all her, sticking up for a good person and a good cause even though it could make things sticky and weird going forward. She probably needs to reconsider her office open-door policy — not sure how she gets anything done with various employees barging in all day long — but otherwise quite solid.

3. Jamie Tartt (Last Week: 10)

Nice little emotional journey and awakening for Jamie this week, all of which you are welcome to discuss on your own time. I want to talk about crying. Specifically, I want to talk about the thing where I watched the screener for this episode over lunch last week (“Oh, I have a free 30 minutes, lemme quick watch Ted Lasso”), expecting a fun little diversion, and ended up legitimately crying when Jamie taped over the Dubai Air logo on his jersey.

While this is fine, generally, both because I support shows doing cool emotional stuff and because I cry all the time when they do, it did make it tough to just go back to work after that emotional journey. I was over here in pieces trying to, like, edit blog posts while sniffling. It was a weird day. Happy for Jamie, though. I don’t think it will stick long-term, or at least that he won’t slip up and go all diva again, but it was still nice.

2. Sam (Last Week: 8)

Sam has been having a tough go of it this season. He’s the team’s star but they’re stuck playing to ties every match. Ted brought back Jamie against his stated wishes. He landed a big star-making advertising campaign and then learned from his disappointed father that the company he’s endorsing is responsible for destroying his homeland. The hits kept coming for a dude who is either the first or second nicest guy on the team, depending on how much you believe there is darkness hidden inside my sweet prince Dani Rojas.

So this was a cool moment to see, across the board, but especially at the press conference. I like that he shot down Trent’s soccer question. I think Trent liked it, too. It was great how all the other reporters started clamoring and Trent went full alpha when he realized he could finally ask a serious journalism question. This is why we need that Trent-Roy PTI show.

1. Coach Beard (Last Week: 1)

To recap:

• Last week, we learned Coach Beard is sleeping in the clubhouse because he got into an argument with Jane and she threw his phone into the river
• This week, we learned he could not download Keeley’s new dating app because he shares an iCloud account with Jane and he worries she’ll destroy his phone with pliers and a blowtorch

This is now my favorite running subplot on the show. I need to know how many phones he goes through. I need a running tally. I want him to walk into an Apple Store — yes, I am endorsing shameless product placement for Apple on the Apple TV show, but only for jokes — and have the employees react to him like he’s Norm from Cheers. Like, they just have phones ready for him. He walks in and some employee hands him a new phone all casually, without even looking away from another customer, like they do it every morning. Maybe Coach Beard brings him a coffee the way he likes it, like they’re buddies now.

I don’t know. I’m just spitballing. But I’m also serious.

Reservation Dogs, the new FX (on Hulu) series from Sterlin Harjo and Taika Waititi, is a slice-of-rambling life portrait of four “criminals.” I put that word in quotes because you’ll never be able to forget that this is a Waititi work on FX (also home to What We Do in the Shadows, one of the funniest shows on TV). This life of crime is an absurd one, and this gang of Indigenous teens can’t go about their hustlin’ and thievin’ in an effective way. Meanwhile, their reservation life oozes multiple obvious not-so-subtle homages (a semi-pastiche of a pastiche, if you will) to a certain Quentin Tarantino work, but these kids can’t even get things off the ground to fathom some enormous diamond heist. They’re comically low-stakes, and they’re ostensibly the story’s main characters, although there’s another big one. That would be the show’s Oklahoma setting (the show was shot outside of Muskogee, the Creek Nation headquarters), which Harjo (a member of the Seminole Nation who also has Muskogee Creek heritage) and Waititi (who has delighted in dropping nods to his own Māori heritage) deftly use in their bid for authenticity.

The bid is a serious one, despite the not-so-serious subject matter at hand. The show exclusively builds itself from the minds of Indigenous writers, cast, and crew members, who know that feeling of identifying with one’s own close-knit community while also, at times, feeling those confines. And the project itself is a tremendous display of not only Indigenous representation, on and offscreen. It’s also what happens when a community comes together to tell the stories that they want to tell in the way that they want to tell them. And so, these characters didn’t burst fully-formed onto the screen. I wouldn’t say there’s massive character development (we’ve got some breezy episode runtime), but layers do show themselves. These teens also aren’t in service of propping up anyone else’s stories (or any other community’s stories) but their own. That’s huge when one reflects upon how Indigenous characters have been represented in Hollywood projects throughout pop culture history.

All of this is happening after Native Americans endured atrocities and were pushed into reservations and still, at times, find themselves marginalized against the mainstream community. And the way that the show maneuvers against stereotypes is bitingly funny. What transpires builds upon what Peacock’s Rutherford Falls is doing, respectably, while still, you know, revolving on Ed Helms (who co-created and stars) to be the focal point through which the show’s cultural commentary reverberates. Yet Reservation Dogs commits itself to Indigenous ownership and reclamation from the ground up. Furthermore, the show’s tone embraces surreal, what-the-f*ck elements, which underscore realities for Indigenous communities in the U.S. If that sounds familiar to you as a fan of Atlanta‘s FX, then yes, you should put this show on your list. Likewise, those who recently loved Betty will enjoy similar come-what-may vibes here.

It must also be noted that what might seem like a niche project shot in Oklahoma could carry a lot of appeal. (Don’t hate on Oklahoma, man. Marty Scorsese is there and shooting a movie with Brendan Fraser and some guy named Leo as we speak.) One can easily surrender to how this show touches upon the cultural shackles of Indigenous people while also embracing a rambling approach to exploring what these teens do (surprisingly a lot yet not much at all) on a daily basis. They find themselves in some ridiculous scrapes and situations that are written, and acted, with a sensational approach, like a paintball attack by a rival group — known as, yes, the Indian Mafia — that rolls in slo-mo. The scene ends with the group’s apparent ringleader collapsing and awakening to his warrior-spirit guide, who’s a nod to almost every Native American cultural cliché out there.

Yet there’s a lot of heart in this mystically realistic character, who helps to cement the soul of this series. The show’s very cheeky and lighthearted, and in that way, Reservation Dogs pushes against the assumption that one must be overly serious when forging ahead to tell stories from communities that found themselves steeped in tragedy not too terribly long ago, against the backdrop of history. This community is one of survivorship, yet one must remember that identity should not be singularly defined by trauma. In that way, Reservation Dogs recognizes the value of telling textured stories, even if (at least in the four episodes screened for critics) the commentary doesn’t yet reach Atlanta levels. There’s a lot of room to grow here, and this show’s characters get some fine setups for future development. The group’s ringleader, Bear (D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai), is entirely ineffectual, and Elora Denan (Devery Jacobs) could probably do a better job as frontwoman, but that’s part of the charm here, too. Paulina Alexis (Willie Jack) and Cheese (Lane Factor) round out the group.

“Cheese” must be the coolest/uncoolest character name of all time, right? You’ll dig Cheese (he’s adorable), but the group is mourning a fifth member (weirdly named “Daniel,” who sounds too ordinary) and desperately want to build their savings up and get the hell out of dodge, lest they suffer their lost friend’s fate. There aren’t a whole lot of ways for teens to rustle up cash in rural Oklahoma, so they decide to evade the law, such as it is in tribal terms. Enter the heisting of snacks and edibles and other very ridiculous efforts. So far, the show weaves a humor-filled tapestry while diving in and out of realities that often plague reservation life (the medical clinic frequently attended by Bear, for example) while still somehow tying into a broader mainstream set of references that a larger audience can appreciate. Reservation Dogs doesn’t try too hard to impress, either, and that’s the beauty of this show. It’s authentically impressive and (so far) a ride to nowhere, but what an enjoyable ride to take.

Reservation Dogs premieres on FX on Hulu on August 9.

Isaiah Thomas has always been a tremendous scorer, peaking in his 2016-17 season with the Celtics in which he averaged 28.9 points per game and took Boston to the conference finals. However, from there Thomas’ career got derailed by a hip injury and a trade to Cleveland and later the Lakers, with stops in Washington, Denver, and most recently a cup of coffee in New Orleans.

Thomas has tried to do whatever he can to prove he can still, at minimum, be a valuable veteran bench scorer in the NBA, but that is a tough market to stick in beyond the elite guys like Lou Williams. As such, Thomas spends his summers traveling the country playing in various pro-ams to show that, yes, he is still that guy, and so far in 2021 he’s put up two legendary performances.

The first came in Atlanta at the AEBL where he scored 65, lighting it up from deep and then getting wherever he wanted off of that smooth jumper. On Monday night, Thomas returned home to Seattle for The Crawsover, Jamal Crawford’s pro-am, where he put on an even bigger show in Seattle as he went off for 81 points, with BallIsLife providing a full documentation of the highlights above, but maybe the best of them all came with this stepback.

Thomas is, truly, an incredible scorer and watching him play against non-pros is just a reminder of how ridiculously good all of these pro guys are. It is also hopefully the latest indication that Thomas is, truly, fully recovered from his hip injury. Whether Thomas lands with an NBA team this season remains to be seen, but at the very least, if you see him at a local gym this summer, be ready for a show.

When Athena started Twitch streaming it was for one sole purpose: she wanted to play Rocket League online. The idea of streaming anything else was a non-starter for her because she loved it that much. The game about rocket-powered cars playing soccer is an addictive escape from reality for some, but for her, it changed her entire life. That love has grown from a hobby to a career, and has led to some pretty amazing opportunities. It also eventually put her on the path to meet music duo smle, made up of Grammy-nominated electronic duo Ruben Cardenas and Lewis Martinee.

The pair love video games themselves, with Cardenas putting 2000 hours into Rocket League himself, and Martinee being a regular streamer on Twitch playing games like Overwatch and Valorant. It’s that love of video games that pushed the three to make a music video together, with Athena moving past streaming into singing on the track. It just made sense, with gaming being the bridge between worlds, as it often is.

Uproxx Edge got with all three to discuss how the song came together, their love of gaming (especially Rocket League), their Mad Max themed video, and more.

Chris Barnewall: What does this song and video mean to you?

Athena: Creating “Eternal” will forever be a pivotal moment in my life. Music has always been a huge passion of mine, and to be able to create something that has never been done before is unforgettable. I hope everyone can feel how much heart we have put into this song. Get excited for more future releases!

Cardenas: “Eternal” is a pretty special moment for us, Athena, and the music and gaming worlds. It’s the first time a Rocket League content creator pairs up with an artist who’s had in-game music to make a song specifically for the game. It’s been so fun getting everything together for this – from having some of the other top Rocket League content creators cameo in the video, to working closely with Monstercat and Psyonix to make this a major moment, has been nothing short of exciting. We hope those listening feel as energized as we are, because this one’s really special to us.

What led the three of you to decide to collaborate together?

Cardenas: So [I’m] a big fan of Rocket League and I’m always, you know, keeping my ear to the streets as far as all the creators and stuff and I would watch Athena here and obviously she’s into Rocket League but she sings as well. And I was kind of like, whoa, she sings well. One night I was popping in to [her Twitch] chat and started talking about music right when she was talking about music and she recognized us from our music before because she liked some of our music. And then we took a shot like “hey you want to do music together?”

Athena: Honestly, it was just a mix of two worlds that I have always been extremely passionate about, and to be able to kind of work together, you know, with Ruben and Lewis. And to do something that I know a lot of people will hopefully enjoy. It was absolutely insane. It was just, it was just the perfect moment on how we met and how we were able to, you know, just dive into the whole, the whole song. It was unbelievable.

Have you always wanted to sing?

Athena: Music has always been a huge part of my life. I’m sure you can ask anyone. It’s been such a factor in everything that I do, whether it be, you know, warming up for basketball in high school or playing games on Twitch, and having that in the background. It’s just something that people can bond to and just relate to one another with the lyrics. And I have always wanted to take that extra step and really dive into it, but I never really had the opportunity. And so when this arose, and Ruben and Lewis went and contacted me. I couldn’t let this pass up.

Did you take any singing lessons before this?

Martinee: She’s a complete natural. She’s amazing.

Athena: Okay, you are being way too kind.

Martinee: I’m not!

Cardenas: It’s for real dude.

Athena: I just never really thought I’d be singing on a song, just like, as a collaboration, I always found singing was something that I just like to do in my spare time and granted, singing lessons would be great and I hundred percent should take them. But no, this is kind of my first step into the music world and I haven’t really done voice lessons.

What kind of music does everyone like to listen to when you’re not streaming or making your own music?

Martinee: I have a wide variety of genres. I really like pop a lot, and Indie, sometimes folk music. That’s usually what I’m listening to.

Athena: I think for me, I often say that I was born in the wrong decade. I absolutely love Fleetwood Mac, Billy Joel and I often find myself listening to oldies and just classics and my parents listened to them growing up. So I listened to them growing up and have very fond memories tied to them.

Cardenas: Yeah, and I grew up rock and roll and blues and stuff like that my parents listened to and also a lot of pop. Yeah, just kind of like all over the place. Go through phases, you know?

Why Mad Max as the inspiration for the video?

Martinee: Well, because one the aesthetic is super cool. A lot of lyrics are based and literally taken from a Rocket League map called Wasteland, which has that whole Mad Max aesthetic.

Athena: So it was I think an element of the music video is to have it in some way tie back to Rocket League. Because of course, Rocket League has had such a huge impact on my life and that’s how I met Ruben and then Lewis. So I think it was really important for us to have some car some race element to it and we found that having a race that was just Mad Max style was the perfect combination and just a kind of paid homage to the game that impacted us so much.

“We can talk, but money talks, so talk mo’ bucks,” Jay-Z spits on 2001’s “Izzo (H.O.V.A.)”, indicating just how mammoth his empire would become. Not only was The Blueprint single his first Top 10 hit (signaling his growing rap domination), but it also marked Kanye West’s mainstream introduction. Then solely an in-house producer for Roc-A-Fella Records, he made his place known with the jovial “Izzo (H.O.V.A.)” production and later his rollercoaster ride as a solo rap superstar.

In the decade following “Izzo (H.O.V.A.)”, both artists’ pockets got even heavier as they skyrocketed as the Kings of Rap. Being the boastful men they are, their untouchable stature was celebrated on Watch The Throne. The joint project, which turns 10 this month, was a natural progression of the buddies’ careers. West was still on a high from 2010’s magnum opus My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, a prog-rap feast that was released eight months prior. As for Jay-Z, he dropped his 11th album The Blueprint 3 in 2009. Albeit insipid compared to the triptych’s previous albums, it gifted him his first No. 1 hit with the ubiquitous, Grammy-winning “Empire State Of Mind”.

So they kept the momentum going, combining years of friendship, equal love for the finer things in life, and sh*t-talking together on a handful of collaborations on Watch The Throne. The packaging alone was dripping in luxe: the pair called on Riccardo Tisci, Givenchy’s creative director at the time, to design the gold-plated artwork as well as their tour outfits that ignited the idea of concert merch being presented as high-fashion.

Even the album’s creation was an event. They recorded in extravagant hotels and villas all around the world, from New York City, Paris, Sydney (where Russell Crowe, whom West shouts out on “Illest Motherf*cker Alive” made a cameo), England, Los Angeles, and Hawaii (the same place West hunkered down for My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy). It was a lifestyle that only the rich and famous could acquire, which they made clear throughout the album.

“It’s just protecting the music and the culture. It’s people that’s in the forefront of the music. ‘Watch the Throne,’ like protect it. You just watch how popular music shift, and how hip-hop basically replaced rock & roll as the youth music,” Jay-Z explained during the album’s promo run. “The same thing can happen to hip-hop. It can be replaced by other forms of music. So it’s making sure that we put the effort into making the best product so we can contend with all this other music, with dance music that’s dominating the charts right now and indie music that’s dominating the festivals.”

That idea of reclaiming rap as a youth genre was best seen on “H•A•M,” the album’s first single and the most arrogant track on Watch The Throne. The pair’s braggadocio lyrics (see Jay-Z’s Birdman subliminal “I’m like, ‘Really, half a billi,’ n****, really?’ You got baby money / Keep it real with n****s, n****s ain’t got my lady money) was anchored by Lex Luger’s intense, spooky, and operatic production — his signature sound that ruled hip-hop for a wink of time. Yet “H•A•M” wasn’t the best reflection of the album, and the rappers seemingly agreed, ultimately placing it as a bonus track on the deluxe edition.

Watch The Throne’s true landmark was “Otis.” Diehard fans remember exactly where they were when it premiered on Hot 97, with Funkmaster Flex dropping infinite bombs on the single. It’s one of West and Jigga’s most jubilant moments that highlight their innate chemistry, as they trade grandiose bars atop a fervently chopped sample of Otis Redding’s “Try A Little Tenderness” that could only be executed by West himself. The Spike Jonze-directed video doubled-down on the rappers’ blatant flexes (“Luxury rap, the Hermès of verses / Sophisticated ignorance, write my curses in cursive”) by deconstructing a Maybach 57 like kids playing with a toy car just for the hell of it.

The decadence continued on The Neptunes co-produced “Gotta Have It” that gave us timely references like “planking on a million” and “Maybachs on ‘Bachs on ‘Bachs on ‘Bachs on ‘Bachs”, as well as the “No Church In The Wild” opener. Featuring Frank Ocean (who just became a critical darling with his debut mixtape nostalgia,ULTRA), it is an ominous, cinematic masterpiece. The artists discuss Greek philosophy, the constructs of religion and monogamy (“Jesus was a carpenter, Yeezy laid beats / Hova flow the Holy Ghost”), and misogynistic power (“You will not control the threesome”)

Then there’s “N****s In Paris.” The Grammy-winning track put producer Hit-Boy on the map, thanks to its bonkers blend of thumping basslines, ear-piercing synths, and that incredibly random Blades Of Glory dialogue that best summates the song: “No one knows what it means, but it’s provocative!” It’s weird, anthemtic nature is best displayed in a live setting, with West and Jay-Z showing just how wonderfully obnoxious it is by performing it a record of 11 times during their Paris tour stop.

​​https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gG_dA32oH44

But the luxury rap and trendy sounds (the dubstep-driven “Who Gon Stop Me” and the bombastic electronics of “Why I Love You”) were balanced with messages that gave an insight into what it means to be successful and Black in America.

The pair call upon RZA, who funnels Nina Simone’s ​​”Feeling Good” through Auto-tune as they somberly ruminate over the lessons they want to teach their future sons. It was an interesting foreshadow, as both rappers first had daughters before adding their male heirs to their throne. While West mostly harbored the album’s viral moments, “Welcome To The Jungle” belongs to Jay-Z. Here, he reveals pain, grief, and depression he’s faced while describing himself as a “tortured soul,” flipping the Guns N’ Roses debaucherous reference to represent the rugged streets. Yes, the rappers were rich beyond measure, but they also grappled with the average Black American struggle that contrasted with Black excellence (“Murder To Excellence”) and if the American Dream is even achievable (“Made In America”).

Jay-Z and West already launched their careers into music’s stratosphere by the time of Watch The Throne’s release, but they solidified themselves as rap visionaries shrouded by wealth in an untouchable tax bracket. Jay-Z continued to flaunt his riches, releasing the designer Magna Carta Holy Grail in 2013 before breaking his facade with 2017’s 4:44 and later becoming rap’s first billionaire in 2019. West had a vastly different trajectory: in the midst of releasing five more albums (including this year’s DONDA), he became even more known for controversy, from supporting President Trump, having very public mental breakdowns that targeted then-wife Kim Kardashian, Kris Jenner and his daughter North, harmfully declaring “Slavery is dead” and later divorcing the Kardashian.

There have been many cries for a Watch The Throne sequel, and the teasers and false starts didn’t help the cause. It was unclear if the reunion was ever going to happen, especially as Jay-Z continued to distance himself from his once-close ally. Interim joint projects, from Drake and Future’s What A Time To Be Alive to 21 Savage and Offset’s Without Warning and even West’s Kids See Ghosts with Kid Cudi, helped satiate millennial rap fans.

The pair seem to be on better terms, though, with the former recently making an unexpected appearance on West’s DONDA. But the opulent spectacle that made Watch The Throne so fun cannot be replicated. “How many people you know can take it this far?” Beyoncé mused on “Lift Off.” Jay-Z and Kanye West exceeded far beyond their pinnacles at the time, and it’s hard to guesstimate how much further they could possibly go. But we’re fine not knowing the answer for now.