Goodnight, sweet prince: The Gronk Era in WWE has officially come to an end. Former New England Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski signed a limited-appearance deal with WWE just in time for WrestleMania 36 earlier this year, where he appeared as host and won the 24/7 Championship from his best friend Mojo Rawley by kinda-sorta dropping from a raised platform onto a pile of guys waiting to catch him, trust fall-style.

Shortly after WrestleMania 36, the tight end, who had previously said he was retired from football, was unexpectedly traded to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to be reunited with Tom Brady. So what did that mean for his WWE deal? Well, it’s over, according to Wrestling Inc., who says Gronk had a clause in his contract that allowed him to exit if he returned to the football field. Thankfully, Gronk graciously did the job on his way out the door to a more-than-willing R-Truth:

According to Dave Meltzer, Gronk had a three-event deal with WWE: WrestleMania 36, SummerSlam and whatever this fall’s Saudi Arabian megashow would have been called. That’s all gone now, though, as Gronk and TB12 once again are going for a ring together this fall. When reached for comment, Mojo Rawley definitely did not say, “Alas, poor Gronk! I knew him, WWE Universe, a fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy. He hath borne me on his back a thousand times, and now, how abhorred in my imagination it is! My gorge rises at it.” But maybe he’s thinking it.

Comedian, Nailed It! host, and podcast legend Nicole Byer recently published her first book, #VERYFAT #VERYBRAVE: The Fat Girl’s Guide to Being #Brave and Not a Dejected, Melancholy, Down-in-the-Dumps Weeping Fat Girl in a Bikini. It’s the When the Pawn… of book titles! Anyway, #VERYFAT #VERYBRAVE is a #VeryFunny “guide to being a #brave, bikini-wearing badass,” but if Byer decides to write another book, it should be for children. She’s good at explaining things to them, as evidenced by a post on Instagram, where she gave advice on how to talk to kids about Black Lives Matter.

After being told by one of her followers that they would “keep their head down and just let their kids watch Nailed It” (I’m picturing Helen Lovejoy), Byer wrote, “That made me boo hoo hoo. That you will allow your kid to watch me but not stand up for me. So I’ll do the work, I’ll write you a conversation to have with your white child.” It goes:

“A good way to explain to kids #blacklivesmatter: You like this black lady, right? She’s silly? She makes you tee hee hee? You would be sad if a police officer hurt her, right? Well, this is the current country we live in where someone you like can be hurt by the color of their skin and people in charge aren’t doing a f*cking (you can replace that with dang if ya kids are soft) thing about it.”

Byer later added, “The curfews, the helicopters, the police in riot gear is all because black people have asked to not be killed… that’s it. There’s literally nothing else to it. Now once a week, let’s read about sh*t (stuff for the soft kids) that happens to black people that doesn’t get covered in schools, like Juneteenth, black Wall Street, how black people have influenced most of pop culture today and aren’t credited or it’s just co-[opted].”

She ended the note with a message that all parents should be required to hear as soon as their child is born: “Raise kids who give a f*ck.” Read the whole note below.

A TikTok video showing a police officer attempting to kneel with protesters has gone viral—but not for his kneeling. The video shows an officer in Washington, D.C. kneeling in front of a group of protesters—and then immediately being lifted to his feet by fellow officers.

He knelt again, and was again immediately lifted up by the arms and pulled away. After he walked back to the protesters, an officer came up behind him and spoke something in his ear. (Anyone read lips? It’s too noisy to hear what he said.)

---

The TikTok post refers to two officers who knelt, and a video posted to Twitter of the same event shows a second officer kneeling at first. According to the Twitter post, the two kneeling officers were black. It appears the officers preventing the kneeling are white.

We’ve seen police officers of all races kneeling and walking with protesters this week, while at the same time seeing police responding to peaceful protesters with tear gas and rubber bullets. Some don’t trust the shows of solidarity, especially when they are followed up by militarized responses. Some feel that sincere cops who agree with the protests aren’t doing enough to make that clear with their actions.

This video footage is a visceral reminder of what good cops are up against when they go against the “blue code.” Part of these protests has to do with bad cops not being held accountable by their colleagues. Too many cops will cover for one another when they break the law or violate human decency—yet these officers won’t allow their colleagues to show solidarity with protesters and diffuse the situation by expressing their agreement with the cause. It’s striking.

These protests are about this kind of “police vs. the community” vibe that’s created when policing is done with violence and brutality. When a community doesn’t feel protected by the people who are supposed to be protectors of the community, something is wrong.

This is about far more than just arresting the officers complicit in George Floyd’s death. Individual cases of justice are important, but ongoing, systemic injustice needs to be addressed. Accountability. Reform. Better screening and training. Prioritizing deescalation and listening to what communities really want. Getting rid of racist policies and ousting racist police officers.

Too little has been done for too long. We need police like these two officers—who understanding the heart of the issue and are courageous enough to go against the status quo—to push leadership into making real, lasting change. Otherwise we’re going to keep on ending up right where we are.

---

View Entire Post ›

On May 25, George Floyd died at the hands of Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin — as he knelt on Floyd’s neck for nearly 9 minutes — and some of his colleagues. As other police killings across the country have done, Floyd’s death immediately sparked outrage in both Minnesota and across the nation. Feeling voiceless and ignored after another life was taken at the hands of the police, fans looked to artists with large platforms to spread messages synonymous with “Black lives matter” and “no justice, no peace” to their fans. The responses from some of these artists — even from those who are members of the affected communities — have left their fans to realize they were better off with their initial silence.

One of the early entries to this trend was Lil Wayne’s commentary on his Young Money radio show four days after Floyd’s death. “Some people put a tweet out and they think they did something,” he said. “Some people wear a shirt and they think they did something. What you gonna do after that? Did you actually help the person? Did you actually help the family? Did you actually go out there and do something? So, if I ain’t about to do all that, then I ain’t about to do nothing. I’ll pray for ya.”

While his message seemed to address those who failed to follow through with their actions, his awkwardly-worded statement found fans ripping him for his words. In their eyes, a tweet or a shirt contributes to the spreading of the message, thus increasing awareness of its severity. Praying, as Wayne has seemingly resorted to, does nothing.

Questionable comments from other artists poured in throughout the week, leaving fans scratching their heads in confusion or throwing their phones in frustration. T.I. described Atlanta as “Wakanda” in response to riots in the city saying, “This city don’t deserve this, however, I understand that a lot of others do, but we can’t do this here. This Wakanda, it’s sacred, it must be protected.” DaBaby also left fans confused with his statement that read in part, “I always sit back and let the hype blow over before I give my insight,” raising many questions as to what exactly the “hype” he referred to actually was.

Elsewhere, Diddy shared a tweet which read: “This is not just a race issue this is a HUMAN RIGHTS ISSUE!!!!!!” That message left fans up in arms, wondering why it had to be either/or, rather than both. And then The-Dream stormed onto Twitter to remind his followers and fellow Atlantans that “I own things in this city, a lot of Blacks own things in this city, from Bankhead to Buckhead. Do not destroy property — that negates the decades of work. My children will not be set back by you!”

In each of the aforementioned situations, as well as many others, these well-known names left their fans and communities confused or unsure of their stance rather than aligning themselves with a message that fans could grasp onto. Their neutrality caused fans to regret lending an ear to listen, rather than focus on their social efforts. While the failure to pick a side was met with disappointed sighs from fans, the voices that came out in outright disapproval of fans set forth a wave of reconsideration, one that looked to rethink the general image of many celebrities in the eyes of some fans.

These celebrities are just a few that looked to talk sense to their fans and failed to understand their anger. However, it must be noted that many other celebrities stood hand-in-hand with their fans and the Black Lives Matter movement as a whole. Cardi B praised protestors and their efforts, Billie Eilish condemned those who aligned themselves with the “All Lives Matter” slogan, J. Cole took to the North Carolina streets with protestors in support of the movement, and both Chika and Halsey joined respective protests where they faced undeserving consequences. The individuals who are for the cause will show up and use their voice when the time calls for it.

For those who overlooked the Black Lives Matter movement (for whatever reason), a celebrity who uses their platform to acknowledge its prevalence and importance makes it that much harder to remain ignorant. However, efforts to rely heavily on these artists — and celebrities as a whole — is a risky approach. Waiting for their stance and overall message can prove regretful if it doesn’t align with the agenda at hand, failing to reach those who haven’t joined the struggle.

Celebrities cannot always be our superheroes. They cannot be relied on to walk through the crowd and stand at the forefront, or to even stand in the midst of it. With yet another life unforgivingly ripped from our community, Black people need an army of supporters to walk through the streets with ear-ringing reminders, for the umpteenth time, of the importance of our lives. The movement leaves no room for those who are neutral with their support.

The new age of social media has made celebrities more accessible than ever. However, the events in America within the past week and a half have proven that they can still be out of touch. Resources for this support are available elsewhere and civil leaders are scattered throughout cities across the country, each with varying followings and platforms. They are the individuals who will be on standby for us. Our bat signals may be acknowledged by celebrities in some instances while being ignored in others. If they see fit to provide help, they should arrive without the signal and walk with their community for a better cause, all while helping to give a voice to the voiceless.

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

As demonstrations continue across the country to protest police brutality and the murder of George Floyd, many musicians have offered their support. Twitter was flooded with screenshots of financial donations, Gunna performed a livestream concert to benefit Floyd’s family, Jay-Z took out newspaper ads across the country, and Halsey described being tear-gassed and shot with rubber bullets in an LA protest. Now, Saint Jhn is offering his financial support by diverting a video shoot budget to charity.

Saint Jhn recently teamed up with Future for a remix of “Roses.” The track arrived last Friday, and this week Saint Jhn was supposed to film an accompanying video. But instead of going forward with the shoot, the rapper asked his label for the full budget and donated the money to bail funds and black-owned businesses across the country.

Announcing his charitable act on social media, Jhn said he even managed to raise the video’s budget by $40,000:

“I was gonna shoot a video for the remix to Roses that me and Future just did, we were literally gonna shoot it in the next 2 days. I just got off the phone with La Reid, I asked him to bump the budget from 60k to 100k, then I asked him to give me the video budget and don’t ask what I’m gonna do with it. He agreed.”

He seems to have chipped in an additional $25,000 of his own money as well, because he goes on to note, “I’m donating 125k across Bail Funds and black owned businesses affected right now.”

Read Saint Jhn’s full statement below.

By now you’ve likely seen a number of official statements from big corporate entities acknowledging the nationwide protests calling for justice for George Floyd and an end to police violence. For the most part, they’ve been less vague than in years past, which is a good thing. Yesterday, Viacom — which owns Comedy Central and Nickolodeon — suspended programming for a full eight minutes and 46 seconds in tribute to George Floyd and the greater BLM movement, Nike released an ad calling on Americans to recognize that racism is a problem in America (which moved Adidas, their biggest competitor, to re-share it), and the Washington Post reported that companies from Peloton to Netflix issued statements recognizing the need to stand up to the injustices of racism. Companies across the music industry also went dark all day, in what was dubbed #BlackoutTuesday.

Clearly a line is being drawn in the sand and corporations are trying to enter the conversation. For some, the commitment may prove genuine, for others it might be lip service — time (and hiring practices and wages and donations) will tell. For corporations that are still crafting a statement, and there are many right now according to WaPo, Ben & Jerry’s official statement, which was issued yesterday on Twitter, offers a solid reference point. In no uncertain terms, the brand called for the dismantling of white supremacy.

“All of us at Ben & Jerry’s are outraged about the murder of another Black person by Minneapolis police officers last week and the continued violent response by police against protestors. We have to speak out,” the statement begins, directly attributing Floyd’s death to the officers involved in his arrest. “The police officer who put his knee on George Floyd’s neck and the police officers who stood by and watched didn’t just murder George Floyd, they stole him,” continues the statement, before taking some time to offer insight into America’s troubling history with race.

“The murder of George Floyd was the result of inhumane policy brutality that is perpetuated by a culture of white supremacy. What happened to George Floyd was not the result of a bad apple; it was the predictable consequence of a racist and prejudiced system and culture that has treated Black bodies as the enemy from the beginning. What happened to George Floyd in Minneapolis is the fruit borne of toxic seeds planted on the shores of our country in Jamestown in 1619, when the first enslaved men and women arrived on this continent. Floyd is the latest in a long list of names that stretches back to that time and that shore.”

Additionally, Ben & Jerry’s offered a three-point plan on how we can collectively seek justice for the victims of state-sponsored violence and racism, which included establishing a formal process of nationwide healing and reconciliation, the passage of H.R. 40, which relates to studying appropriate remedies and reparations for people of color, and supporting Floyd’s family’s call for a national task force to draft bipartisan legislation aimed at ending racial violence.

“Unless and until white America is willing to collectively acknowledge its privilege, take responsibility for its past and the impact it has on the present, and commit to creating a future steeped in justice, the list of names that George Floyd has been added to will never end.” As the statement nears its close, it reads, “We have to use this moment to accelerate our nation’s long journey towards justice and a more perfect union.”

Ben & Jerry’s — which is owned by the massive consumer goods brand Unilever but retains “autonomous subsidiary” status — has long been a supporter of Black Lives Matter, first issuing public support for the movement in 2016. The company also has a tradition of forward-thinking initiatives, most recently coming to an agreement with migrant workers in Vermont that helped to ensure better working conditions and wages.

Now that the final details are being put in place for the scope and schedule of the NBA’s season in Orlando this summer, some of the finer points are being nailed down as well.

According to Keith Smith of Yahoo! Sports, who has been on top of the Walt Disney World story from the start, Disney has enough professional-level courts available at the Wide World of Sports complex where the season will be played, but is leaving it up to teams to transport their home courts if they want.

Admittedly, if one team does this, they sort of all would need to follow suit. If there are eight games in one night and two of them have Mickey Mouse at center court and the other six have NBA logos, it’s going to seem a bit silly.

However, the NBA has been highly focused on the legitimacy of this season, wanting to keep intact the traditional playoff structure and not condensing things too much. They’re giving teams a long runway for training camps and practices to avoid major injuries. They tried to wait as long as possible to not absorb needed testing supplies as America continues to fight against its pandemic.

Home courts may seem like a trivial thing, but if branding and team pride are the reasons to try something like this, a sense of home for teams is a nice touch.

On Friday, Derek Chauvin was charged with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter for his role in the death of George Floyd. However, the three other officers on the scene — Thomas Lane, J.A. Kueng, and Tou Thao — have yet to be charged. That said, it is being reported that Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison has apparently made a decision on the fate of the other officers, and an announcement is expected to come this afternoon.

Ahead of that, Drake is nervous. Today, he took to his Instagram to share his thoughts on the situation, saying that he is “praying for harsh JUSTICE.” He wrote in a Story, “The decision on the other officers will be announced this afternoon and it BETTER reflect the cries and outrage of the people…this is an opportunity for those in power who are used to protecting each other to show the nation they are being heard…pivotal moment in history is upon us and I am praying for harsh JUSTICE…can’t say I’m not nervous though.”

Drake has been active on social media lately. He recently spoke up to address old lyrics about Kylie Jenner, and he also revealed a surprising list of his top five rappers.

Sports games have carved out their own gigantic niche in the video game marketplace, and a schedule all their own. Unlike a title in the Call of Duty or Super Mario universes, you know that every single year, EA Sports will drop its latest FIFA, Madden, or NHL game, or a new NBA or WWE 2K release will hit the shelves. The clockwork of the gaming calendar is well-established: The next 364 days are spent playing said game, and on the 365th, the cycle begins anew, with the little number at the end of the release increasing by one.

In terms of brand loyalty, sports sims are as strong as any genre of video games. This is despite the fact that sports games are oftentimes quite flawed. Sure, they’re fun, and getting a look at the new bells and whistles each series adds over a year of development can be a blast, but it is exceedingly rare to find a perfect sports video game. And in a lot of ways the innovation possible in the genre is largely unexplored as deadlines on each title loom year after year.

The good news is that in gaming, support and sales can create the opportunity to innovate. And considering the two authors here play a lot of sports video games and are often up playing FIFA and NBA 2K until 3 a.m., we’ve given some considerable thought to how these games can improve. It may not be realistic, but we tried to stay within the realm of possibility that major changes can be made within the span of a year or two.

1. Space, space, space

Video games, just in general, are getting bigger and bigger. Players can oftentimes deviate from main stories and take a more choose your own adventure path, pouring hours into exploring gargantuan worlds and doing side missions. Sometimes, it’s nice to just run around and mindlessly marvel at the carefully-crafted scenery. The main thing that stood out to me about, say, Final Fantasy VII Remake or Marvel’s Spider-Man was how there were lengthy stretches where I forgot that I was playing a video game, because it just looked like I was consuming something real.

Sports games are not afforded this luxury, as there is a finite amount of space upon which games can be played. You have assuredly played games of 2K or NHL where your teammates just cannot get out of your way, a deep irony as the modern NBA is embracing the pace-and-space era. Or perhaps you’ve played Madden and found the attempt at making something as simple as “running the football” ultra-realistic to be remarkably and unnecessarily clumsy — think of every complaint that one friend has about how NCAA was fun and modern Madden can be so frustrating.

The drive to make games realistic just does not gel with sports games. They oftentimes feel clunky, trying their best to fit into the confined space they are given by nature of the sports we are virtually playing. An exception to this are soccer games like FIFA and PES, as the 10 outfield players have more than enough space to operate, but even they can get rather frustrating when space is at a premium — the newest FIFA game, for example, received critiques for being too favorable to defenders and not as free-flowing as some of its predecessors.

At a certain point, sports games will be similar to the evolution of iPhones. For years, Apple’s thinking was that people did not want big, so iPhones began getting smaller and smaller before Apple changed course. Now, iPhones are bigger than ever. For sports games, the emphasis in recent years has been on being as realistic as possible. Here’s to hoping that 2K, EA, and other game publishers realize that’s not necessarily the best thing for sports games.

2. Embrace being a game

Modern sports sims seem to have split in this regard. The main feature of a title is a product as photo-realistic as the sport you watch on TV, and in many ways the game has tried to mimic the television product as much as possible. But the more realistic games get, the less fun they tend to be. Each year it’s tougher to create a major sports sim that is fun and joyful and lets you turn off your brain while you pour hours into something that is never trying too hard. This isn’t to say that basketball games need to be more NBA Jam than NBA 2K, but feeling the influence of the former on the latter might not be the worst idea in the world.

The “fun” arcade-y version is often siloed away in faraway corners of The Neighborhood or in a game mode that’s experimented with for a few years and usually sundowned due to lack of attention or creative neglect. In many ways, games tend to feel too big, but not in a way that gives you too many fun things to do. They’re just trying to be all things, and most of them are not actually executed very well or presented in a coherent way.

The classic games that people go back to aren’t enduringly popular because they are lifelike, but because the mechanics are extremely fun, the learning curve creates the sense of real progress and there’s often nostalgia that comes with the experience. Much of what games have become — platforms for major musical releases, opportunities for brand collaborations or celebrity integrations — have nothing to do with actually making a game fun to play.

3. Tighten it up

Apologies for another metaphor here, but sports games are like a steak. They’re quite good, and a little fat is a good thing. When the fat gets to be overwhelming, and to the point that it feels like it is taking away from what you’re there to do, it can be a bit much.

An example: There are times when NBA 2K can be a remarkably frustrating game. It’s fun when you’re actually playing basketball, but it could use a few tweaks. It is hard, however, to feel like gameplay is all that important when you hop into The Neighborhood and see all of these things that aren’t really all that necessary, like the ultimate frisbee course that exists around the perimeter or The Cages, which exist because … I’m not totally sure.

NBA 2K has done a great job in recent years, for example, of adding advanced analytics to help evaluate your gameplay. It’s an excellent feature for a hardcore 2K player looking to sharpen skills and train more like a pro, and embracing an area the real league is headed is a smart one for a dedicated simulation. Those advanced features are often buried in clunky menus that are increasingly difficult to navigate.

It’s an understandable problem, and one that’s inevitable on titles that are so huge that entire teams are working on specific features and modes independently. But in many ways these big sports titles need to follow the simplicity and ease of use that indie games made by small teams create with ease. Not every game can be What The Golf, but if every game had a title screen like it we’d all be much happier.

4. Microtransactions, no

This is the genie that would be the toughest to shove back into the bottle. Microtransactions are an unavoidable reality in many games, and in sports games, they can be particularly pesky. For Ultimate Team players in the EA Sports universe, microtransactions that unlock loot boxes and other various card packs are a nuisance — in the final quarter of 2019, FIFA 20 brought in nearly $1 billion from microtransactions, an absolutely staggering number that led to lawsuits in France. This problem also exists in Madden and NHL.

And of course, there is NBA 2K, a game built so brazenly on you spending money beyond the $60+ you forked over for the game that it would be funny if not for the fact that it is so exploitative. Microtransactions are as much a part of NBA 2K as layups, as constant in FIFA and Madden as the blades of grass that make up virtual fields. That doesn’t mean it’s a good thing, or necessarily something that makes the games any better.

It’s a system that has spun out of control, even as it provides the backbone that props up and stabilizes the industry. And the worst part is that doing this can be necessary — for those who head into The Neighborhood for the first time in 2K, microtransactions make your player better and, if you value this, give your player a sense of style that makes them less boring. In Ultimate Team, microtransactions are crucial as you work to build better teams. They exist in MLB: The Show as well, but Sony has at least attempted to curb them in the past.

Gaming companies need to either figure out ways to either reduce microtransactions or reduce their importance in games. It takes away from the experience of actually playing and growing as a player in them, incentivizing cutting the line in its place. And just from a moral standpoint, people are already spending money to play in the first place, double dipping beyond that feels like pure greed.

If microtransactions need to exist, though, there is an opportunity to use that model to institute many of the hopes and dreams mentioned above. If you talk to game developers they’ll tell you many of the major ideas and areas for innovation in sports sims take far longer than a single development year to institute. There just isn’t the time to dream big when yearly deadlines for incremental updates loom large.

While new features will always make their way into game releases, an overwhelming amount of players buy new games simply because their team’s players will appear on the right roster in the newest edition. If many of these major titles were to, say, offer roster and uniform updates as a microtransaction and spent the majority of that development year on major updates and streamlining, the developers could have considerably more time to fine-tune and streamline various game modes to make a much more cohesive and polished title. It may be a missed opportunity for the traditional $60 game and microtransactions that come with it, but the result could dramatically shift the industry for the better.