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The NFL’s schedule release has become an event on the league calendar, as teams spend weeks crafting elaborate videos to unveil their upcoming season’s schedule. One of the social teams that continually stands out is that of the Los Angeles Chargers, who aren’t afraid to get weird with their annual offering.

This year, the Chargers decided to create their schedule release video using ‘The Sims’, putting their opponents in the game in various skits. It’s honestly an incredible bit of world-building and storytelling on the part of the Chargers social and video team, who have John and Jim Harbaugh pillow fighting, Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift hopping on a jet, a Kirk Cousins DJ set getting ruined by the arrival of Michael Penix Jr., and a whole lot more.

While each of the team vignettes are great, the most incredible part comes in the credits, as they couldn’t resist a last minute update after Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker’s off the rails commencement speech over the weekend at Benedictine College in Kansas. In that speech, he said “the majority” of the women in the room were most excited about their futures as being wives and mothers.

That, along with a number of other political grievances aired by Butker, became national news, and the Chargers couldn’t help but put Butker in the kitchen for their credits scene. It’s some terrific work from the Chargers, especially given it had to be added to the video this week, which is probably why they didn’t have it in the actual schedule portion and as an add-on in the credits.

The Boston Celtics are headed to the Eastern Conference Finals for the sixth time in eight years. After finishing the year with the NBA’s best record, the Celtics polished off the Miami Heat in five games and moved on to face the Cleveland Cavaliers in the second round. After once again splitting the first two games in Boston, the Celtics were able to win both games in Cleveland, outlasting a banged up Cavs team to set up a closeout situation in Boston on Wednesday night.

With Donovan Mitchell, Jarrett Allen, and Caris LeVert all out with injury for Cleveland, the Celtics were heavy favorites to cruise to a win, but it turned out to be a much more difficult closeout situation than most anyone expected. Despite missing three key players, the Cavs came out and were game from the jump. Marcus Morris Sr., who had seven points all series coming in, doubled that total in the first half, while Darius Garland, Max Strus, and Evan Mobley combined for 26 points to give Cleveland the offensive lift it needed to not just hang around in the first half, but take the lead late in the second quarter.

The Celtics were able to close the half strong, as Derrick White was their best player in the half, scoring 15 points in the first two quarters and hitting some big shots while the stars got settled.

Jayson Tatum then finished the half with a flurry, getting a breakaway dunk off an Al Horford steal and then hit a three to close the half and give Boston a six-point cushion.

The Cavs would get the lead back down to one, but Boston finally looked like they were ready to snuff out Cleveland’s hopes as they went on a run to open up a double-digit lead.

However, the Cavs kept competing, with Mobley and Morris playing extremely well to keep Cleveland attached.

Ultimately, much like in Games 3 and 4, the Celtics were just too good for the Cavs to keep up with, even with Boston not firing on all cylinders. Every time Cleveland would go on a mini-run in the fourth quarter, the Celtics found an answer to push the lead back out to double digits, eventually polishing off a 113-96 win.

The Cavs gave an inspired effort considering the circumstances, with Mobley putting up his best game of the playoffs (and really of his playoff career) with 31 points on 14-of-23 shotoing, seven rebounds, two steals, and two blocks. Morris added 25 off the bench, but without Mitchell, they did not get enough from their backcourt in the second half, as Garland and Strus combined for just 5 points in the final 24 minutes. Going forward, Cleveland will face a very interesting offseason, with some decisions to be made about this core and who should be a part of it long-term.

For the Celtics, it was again not their prettiest performance, but they did what was needed to get the win and advance to the conference finals. All five starters reached double figures, with Tatum leading the way with 25 points, 10 rebounds, and nine assists. Al Horford gave a huge lift with 22 points and 15 rebounds, and Derrick White added 18 points and six assists, with most of his damage coming in the first half. It may not have been a dominant performance from Boston, but they showed in the fourth quarter they have that gear they can get to when needed, as they finally were able to put their foot on Cleveland’s neck.

Without Kristaps Porzingis, they’re not at their best on either end, but still are a talented two-way group and proved that again this series. If they can get him back and find that next level, they’ll undoubtedly be a formidable title contender.

Nothing is safe from eventization during the NFL offseason, including the annual schedule release. For several years, teams have used the opportunity to cleverly reveal next season’s opponents on social media, and the Los Angeles Chargers usually win the unspoken contest for Funniest Schedule Release. The Chargers brought their A game again on Wednesday night, May 15.

The Chargers’ chose to reveal their 2024 schedule with a The Sims-style video, and their social media team took the opportunity to poke fun at their AFC West rival Kansas City Chiefs.

The Chiefs will travel to Los Angeles in Week 4. To confirm the matchup, the Chargers video shows Jason Kelce and Travis Kelce hosting an episode of their wildly popular show, New Heights, and discussing Kelce’s now-famous April 2011 tweet about feeding a “squirle a piece of bread.” An animated Taylor Swift waves at Kelce through the window, and he’s clearly swooning while standing in front of Swift-themed posters from her albums Fearless, 1989, and Lover. Kelce and Swift scamper outside to board her private jet.

Kelce and Swift began dating last summer but confirmed their relationship publicly when Swift attended the Chiefs’ game against the Chicago Bears on September 24. Swift was also present at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City, Missouri when Kelce went off for 179 yards and one touchdown on 12 catches in a 31-17 win over the Chargers on October 22. In fact, Swift supported her All-Pro tight end boyfriend at most Chiefs games during last season, including Super Bowl LVIII, where Kansas City became the NFL’s first back-to-back champions since the 2003-04 New England Patriots.

Avril Lavigne is kicking off her The Greatest Hits Tour later this month, and yes, it will be Avril Lavigne on stage — not a body double named Melissa.

For years, a conspiracy theory has circulated that claims Lavigne died in 2003, after releasing her 2002 Grammy-nominated album Let Go, and replaced by a doppelgänger named Melissa. On this week’s episode of Call Her Daddy, Lavigne addressed the wild rumor with an endearing sense of humor.

“It’s just funny to me,” Lavigne said around the 42-minute mark. “On one end, everyone’s like, ‘Oh my God, you look the exact same. You haven’t aged a day,’ but then other people are like, you know, there’s a conspiracy theory that I’m not me.”

Host Alex Cooper cracked up laughing when Lavigne threw up a sarcastic thumbs-up. Lavigne continued, “Honestly, it’s not that bad. It could be worse, right? I feel like I got a good one. I don’t think it’s negative or anything creepy.”

Cooper interjected, “Avril, this conspiracy theory about you is a little creepy. Come on.”

Lavigne wasn’t convinced, shrugging and saying, “I don’t know. It could be worse. I mean, obviously, I am me. It’s so dumb.” Lavigne playfully jabbed Cooper and sarcastically said, “I mean, I feel like you might believe it?”

Ultimately, Cooper said she has “empathy” for Lavigne having to be the subject of such an absurd rumor and asked Lavigne if she cares about it, which she does not. At all.

Elsewhere in the episode, Lavigne shared that she’s “f*cking awesome” in a relationship and expertly avoided directly confirming whether she dated Tyga. She also opened up about being cheated on in the past and explained what she looks for in a partner.

Watch clips from Lavigne’s Call Her Daddy episode below.

The 2024 NBA Playoffs have not been Kenny Smith’s finest when it comes to his halftime runs to the video board on TNT. After proclaiming on the first night he wouldn’t lose a race to the board in the playoffs, he promptly lost to both Shaq and Charles Barkley in back-to-back nights in the first week.

From there, Smith started getting jumpy and even fell going up the stairs, leading to plenty of jokes at his expense from the rest of the desk and people watching at home — which they naturally put up on the board to the delight of Charles, Shaq, and Ernie. At one point, Chuck offered to pay to put one of the chair lifts they put on staircases for old people, leading to lots of laughs.

That was a couple weeks ago, and in the meantime Kenny’s had a couple other near stumbles, so on Wednesday, with Charles and Shaq back after a night off, they unveiled their newest addition to Studio J: a chair lift to the board.

I’m not sure Charles Barkley has ever been happier than seeing them follow through on his joke, and Kenny was a good sport and hopped onto the lift and rode it part of the way up before realizing if he waited for it to get to the top they might run out of time at the half. While there’s the potential for TNT to lose the NBA in the current rights negotiations, we can’t allow that to happen. If nothing else, they won’t get enough use out of the chair lift they just installed.

In early March, The National Music Publishers’ Association (NMPA) acknowledged the expiration of its license with TikTok in late April by sending a letter to its members. “At this time, we do not anticipate that there will be an option to renew or extend the current NMPA licenses or participate in a new license with TikTok through NMPA,” it said, in part, as relayed by Billboard.

On Wednesday, May 15, the NMPA shifted its attention toward Spotify. According to Variety, the NMPA issued a cease-and-desist to Spotify due to Spotify’s “use of lyrics in its recently launched video function and podcasts, and its remix feature that enables users to speed up or otherwise edit songs to create derivative works. The trade association claims that such uses are copyright violations and must be paid for.”

Variety additionally notes that the NMPA and Spotify “are also at odds over Spotify’s new premium subscription plans that combine music and audiobooks, which will mean a lower mechanical royalty rate for songwriters on those plans, although Spotify claims that earnings for creators will continue to rise due to increased volume.”

The NMPA is demanding Spotify remove unlicensed lyrics, videos, podcasts, or remix features to avoid copyright liability.

A Spotify representative issued a statement, as relayed by Variety, in which the rep calls the NMPA’s actions “a press stunt filled with false and misleading claims.”

Read the full report here.

Legendary New York graffiti artist Futura is teaming up with Nike this week for a new SB Dunk adorned with his artwork. Without a doubt, this is the dopest sneaker dropping this week, and that’s saying a lot considering this week also brings the return of the Jordan 11 Space Jam (more about that in this week’s SNX).

The sneaker features an unbleached canvas upper with overlays sporting a swirling psychedelic color scheme. Rounding out the design are embroidered details throughout, custom tongue labels, two-tone laces, and Futura’s signature at the heel, along with the artist’s Futura Laboratories studio logo. It’s a dope design that leans more toward the style of Futura’s contemporary art gallery offerings.

If you want a pair, good luck, this one is being released in ultra-limited quantities and you’re pretty much going to be competing against every fashion-forward skatewear fanatic in the country. Luckily, the playing field is as even as it can be in our modern sneaker market.

Currently, there is a raffle at the Futura Laboratories website (raffle closes at 5:00 pm on May 15th), but your best bet is probably hitting up skate shops in your area. For the full list of participating Nike SB stockists, hit the store list here. A wider release is set to hit the Nike SNKRS app on May 22nd.

If all else fails, you can try picking up the collab at aftermarket sites but be prepared to pay far higher than the modest list price of $135. For a closer look of the Futura SB Dunk, check out the photos below.

Last September, Joe Jonas and Sophie Turner’s divorce proceedings became extremely public. The former couple, who share two children, are each extremely famous, so their divorce was inevitably going to be public, but it reached another level of invasive when reports surfaced of Turner suing Jonas for custody of their children, which earned this response from Jonas. Sprinkle in Taylor Swift, the world’s most famous woman, and yes, the reckless celebrity gossip was hot.

In late September, Page Six reported that Swift had “loaned” Turner “a stunning apartment in her own downtown New York City neighborhood that the actress and her children can live in while Turner and [Joe] Jonas get their complex custody arrangements ironed out.”

Turner commented on Swift’s generosity in a newly published interview as British Vogue‘s June cover star, as excerpted below.

“Around the same time, Turner was forging a new friendship. Taylor Swift, who besides being one the world’s biggest pop stars had also briefly dated Joe Jonas when she was 18, was spotted having dinner with Turner at glittery Manhattan restaurant Via Carota. As the story goes, Swift’s relationship with Jonas had famously ended with a 27-second phone call, which is said to have inspired the singer to write ‘Forever & Always’ for Fearless, her second album.

“‘Taylor was an absolute hero to me this year,’ says Turner, who first met Swift around a decade prior but, for obvious reasons, hadn’t felt she was able to cultivate the friendship. When she found herself in New York last September without a place to stay, she reached out to Swift in hopes the pop star might know someone renting. Swift immediately offered up her place for free. “I’ve never been more grateful to anyone than I am for her because she took my children and me, and provided us with a home and a safe space,’ she says. ‘She really has a heart of gold.’”

Dr. Frances Oldham Kelsey had only been with the Food and Drug Administration for about a month when she was tasked with reviewing a drug named thalidomide for distribution in America.

Marketed as a sedative for pregnant women, thalidomide was already available in Canada, Germany, and several African countries.

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It could have been a very simple approval. But for Kelsey, something didn’t sit right. There were no tests showing thalidomide was safe for human use, particularly during pregnancy.

When Chemie Grünenthal released thalidomide in West Germany years earlier, they called it a “wonder drug” for pregnant women. They promised it would treat anxiety, insomnia, tension, and morning sickness and help pregnant women sleep.

What they didn’t advertise were its side effects.

Because it crosses the placental barrier between fetus and mother, thalidomide causes devastating — often fatal — physical defects. During the five years it was on the market, an estimated 10,000 babies globally were born with thalidomide-caused defects. Only about 60% lived past their first birthday.

In 1961, the health effects of thalidomide weren’t well-known. Only a few studies in the U.K. and Germany were starting to connect the dots between babies born with physical defects and the medication their mothers had taken while pregnant.

At the outset, that wasn’t what concerned Kelsey. She’d looked at the testimonials in the submission and found them “too glowing for the support in the way of clinical back up.” She pressed the American manufacturer, Cincinnati’s William S. Merrell Company, to share research on how their drug affected human patients. They refused. Instead, they complained to her superiors for holding up the approval. Still, she refused to back down.

A sample pack of thalidomide sent to doctors in the U.K. While more than 10,000 babies worldwide were born with thalidomide-related birth defects, FDA historian John Swann credits Dr. Kelsey with limiting the number of American babies affected to just 17.

Over the next year, the manufacturer would resubmit its application to sell thalidomide six times. Each time, Kelsey asked for more research. Each time, they refused.

By 1961, thousands of mothers were giving birth to babies with shocking and heartbreaking birth defects. Taking thalidomide early in their pregnancy was the one thing connecting them. The drug was quickly pulled from shelves, vanishing mostly by 1962.

Through dogged persistence, Kelsey and her team had prevented a national tragedy.

In 1962, President John F. Kennedy honored Kelsey with the Federal Civilian Service Medal. He thanked her for her exceptional judgment and for preventing a major tragedy of birth deformities in the United States:

“I know that we are all most indebted to Dr. Kelsey. The relationship and the hopes that all of us have for our children, I think, indicate to Dr. Kelsey, I am sure, how important her work is and those who labor with her to protect our families. So, Doctor, I know you know how much the country appreciates what you have done.”

But, she wasn’t done yet. Later that year, the FDA approved new, tougher regulations for companies seeking drug approval, inspired in large part by Kelsey’s work on thalidomide.

Reached via email, FDA historian John Swann said this about Kelsey’s legacy: “[Her] actions also made abundantly clear to the nation the important public health role that drug regulation and FDA itself play in public health. The revelation of the global experience with that drug and America’s close call indeed provided impetus to secure passage of a comprehensive drug regulation bill that had been more or less floundering during the time FDA was considering the application.”

Kelsey continued to work for the FDA until 2005. She died in 2015, aged 101, just days after receiving the Order of Canada for her work on thalidomide.

Bureaucratic approval work is rarely thrilling and not often celebrated. That’s a shame because it’s so critical.

People like Kelsey, who place public health and safety above all else — including their career — deserve every ounce of our collective respect and admiration.

This story originally appeared on 05.20.16

I’m trying desperately to be respectful of the person speaking to me, but my husband keeps texting me.

First he sends me a selfie of him with Rafi*, then it’s an account of who stopped him on his way into the NICU.

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Then he suggests I take a selfie with Jillian* so he can post them side-by-side on Facebook and boast that we finally have two babies.

People will ask if they’re twins, I’m sure. But they’re not twins. In fact, the babies aren’t even ours.

I take care of these babies because I’m what’s known as an “interim parent.”

The program I’m part of is rare; there are very few like it in the United States.

While the babies are in my care, the birth parents retain their legal rights as parents and are encouraged to visit their babies (if that’s something they would like).

If they weren’t in the care of interim moms like me, these tiny babies might wait in the hospital a few extra days while their adoptions are finalized — or they might enter the foster care system.

In New York, biological parents have 30 days after adoption proceedings begin to change their minds about their placement plan.

I became an interim parent when a local mom posted about it on our neighborhood Yahoo! group.

“That! THAT I can do!” I thought, as I looked at the computer screen.

I was thrilled. I felt incapable of doing other types of volunteer work, but I felt like I had finally found a community service that I could perform. So, my husband and I applied. And after months of doctor appointments, background checks, interviews, and letters of reference from close friends, we were accepted.

The hope with the interim boarding care program is that biological parents have time to gain clarity about their decisions without pressure.

It also helps adoptive parents feel secure in their status as parents.

The children don’t usually get the chance to be present when one of our babies goes home, so this was a special day. Roughly 30% of the babies I’ve cared for have returned to their biological parents after their stay with me, and the rest have been adopted. Many of the birth mothers I’ve known have pursued open adoptions, selecting and meeting their child’s forever families.

People often ask me what the experience of interim parenting is like, but there’s no rule: Each case is different.

Babies stay with us, on average, for a few weeks. But one baby stayed with us with five days, another for nine and a half weeks.

Whatever the scenario, my family and I are available to care for these babies until they go home … wherever “home” may be.

This work can be emotionally challenging, too. Some biological parents do not interact with us at all while they’re making big decisions, and some end up being very involved. Some text regularly, requesting photos and updates on the baby while the baby is in our care. Sometimes they schedule weekly visits with the babies. One birth mom became such a constant in our life that my son asked if we could bake her cookies.

I am often blown away by the biological parents’ gratitude.

Melody* was one of the most beautiful babies I’d ever cared for, and I met her parents a couple of times. When they came to take her home, it was as though she was the only one in the room. When they thanked me for taking care of her, my lip started to quiver.

I had also never met Jibraan’s dad, either, when I placed him in his arms the day they went home together. “From the bottom of my heart … I can’t tell you what you’ve done for me,” he said. I remember that he towered over me, the size of a linebacker, clenching his jaw to keep the tears from spilling down his cheeks.

When I wave goodbye to the social workers at the agency after introducing each baby to their forever family, I always wonder how long it will be before I get to hold another baby.

I don’t get attached to each baby, per se. But I get attached to having a baby, to taking care of a baby. I resent my empty arms, and I feel like I’ve lost my purpose. So each time I see the adoption agency’s phone number pop up on caller ID, my heart skips a beat.

When the voice on the other end says, “Hi, Ann … are you ready to take another baby?” my first thought is, “Baby! I’m getting a BABY!” That excitement lasts for at least 48 hours.

But even as the adrenaline calms down and the sleepless nights begin to take their toll, the experience of caring for each baby proves to be more than enough motivation for me to keep going.

The emotions that swell when my babies go home with any parent — their adoptive parents or their birth parents — are not just because of the emptiness I feel in my arms or even because of the happiness I have for my babies and their families.

The emotions I feel are because of the fullness in my heart and the gratitude I have for being a part of each of these babies’ stories, even if it’s just for a moment.

This article was written by Ann Lapin and originally appeared on 04.08.16