#The Video of The Week (HoF) . . . Hall of Fame! | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

vs120shound · 7 months

Text

Mother (right) and daughter sharing a cigarette together, consenting to a video in which they talk about their favorite drinks and smoking!

THE VIDEO OF THE WEEK 🚬 (SF HALL OF FAME) 🚬 NUMBER 3 IN THE SERIES!

For the Week of 091023-091623

★ ★ ★ ★ ★ + | Five-Plus "Stars"

From vs120shound staff | ★★★★★ (L)

REVISION/UPDATE: Mom here is called "Bobbi" by interviewer, Austin, the SM web-master/web producer. She is also known as Michelle Conners and Mechelle Montes. ID supplied by gtrtchr120. Correction: September 18, 2023 at 12:38 a.m. Bonus photos of Mom (Bobbi, Michelle, Mechelle) added at the bottom of the post.

By far one the greatest Mother-Daughter scenes in the Greater SF World Community's history. Easily. This is super cute daughter Christy (left) and her sparklingly pretty yet unidentified mother to her side. Mom's photo has been scrubbed from the SmokingModels (Florida, U.S.A.) models page. She was identified for years but we missed the boat on remembering, and that's a collective "My Bad!" without question. And let's not try to kid ourselves or any other SF aficionados for any reason, there have been plenty of sensational scenes with mothers sharing cigarettes with their daughters over the years. This IS our favorite among them! And we're not bashful about admitting the preeminent nature of this claim in our collective view! Not all will agree with this declaration, but some will say Christy and Mommy are deserving of being considered for that immense honor. Others will say, no, they're certainly not bad but there are so many others nearly as fine! We disagree with that position . . . and it is not No. 1 because of their knockout bodies, their sexiness and ample endowments each, although those obvious features only serve to enhance this video's appeal to SF aficionados!

. . . going the traditonal Bo Derek "1 to 10" rating, will say (no range here; just firm numbers for each) Christy is an 8.0 and gorgeous, elegant, sophisticated and mature Mom is a 9.0. We just don't know how they got to this point. Did mom sense that Christy was interested in her smoking and mom questioned her and agreed to help her into transitioning into becoming a smoker? Or did Christy simply say, "Hey, Mom, I'm interested in your smoking habit and I'd like to try it out." And from that point, Mom jumped in and said, "Great, Christy! I was wondering when you'd show interest in cigarettes, I was your age when Grandma showed me the ropes. Let me show you! Would you like to experiment with smoking? Or are you sure right now that you want to become a smoker as soon as possible? I can show you the right way to smoke like a lady." Mom should know; probably picked up the habit as a teenager some 20 years or so earlier.

Most likely it was one of those scenarios with slight modifications. Could have been, however, a case of Christy stealthily sneaking around and pilfering one or a few cigarettes at a time and trying it out, hoping those experimental cigarettes wouldn't be missed or that she'd be discovered? Or, finally, for another possiblity perhaps . . . Christy and some friends, or just Christy and her BFF, forged a pact to try to learn how to smoke together or they had already decided that's what they needed to do, to graduate into becoming full-time, addicted sexy smokers?

We know that hot, young Christy -- possibly as young as 13 or 14 y.o. or maybe as late as 16 or 17 y.o. or even at 18 -- certainly noticed how sexy her mom was when she was smoking, saw all the extra attention her mother got with her hot, seductive style with cigarettes. Young teenage daughters pick up on clues as to how to become more noticeable and sophisticated and more mature in their looks and behaviors. Smoking cigarettes is a sure-fire, great way to attain that ladylike appeal by others. They talk not so much about smoking in this long clip but more on their favorite alcoholic beverages. Young would-be smokers, and newbies to the habit, definitely sense and see the relationship between cigarettes and booze. They experiment; they learn; then they are hooked soon enough: Heavy smoking while drinking . . . chain smoking while binge drinking, when getting super drunk!

Added post-release, on Sept. 18, 2023 at 3:37 p.m.:

Here, in our classic video, Christy and "Bobbi" talk about fashion and style and what works as ensembles for them. Austin, the interviewer and web-master/web-producer for SmokingModels, floats the idea of searching for outfits on the cheap by going online and visiting E-bay! How revolutionary. That portion of the the nearly 8:56 of non-stop conversation dates this video

This post falls within SF Hall of Fame classification because for years by many SF aficionados this video has been considered to be a classic. It is a legendary, iconic video of Mothers-Daughters enjoying their love, friendship, camaraderie, common interests and time together all enhanced and accentuated by their shared habit of smoking cigarettes. Get the feeling that they tried . . . for years after this video was made and published by SmokingModels.com web-master/web producer Austin . . . and continued to try to have cigarettes at the same time, smoking them together. Doubt we are very wrong here, though we could be a tad off.

Re-posted: September 17, 2023

From vs120shound on August 26, 2022 . . .

Bonus photos of mom (Bobbi/Michelle/Mechelle) . . .

"That's her, mom. Just add 10 years on to how she appears in the video, putting "Bobbi" closer to 50 y.o. than the late-30s/early-40s that she might've been in the neighborhood during the time of the post's production and release on SmokingModels," -- vs120shound web-master/web producer

#SF #Hot women who love smoking cigarettes #Smoking cigarettes #Smoking #The Video of The Week (Honorable Mention)!#The Video of The Week (HoF) . . . Hall of Fame!#SmokingModels (Florida -- U.S.A.)!#Smoking interviews!#“Daughter” Christy!

460 notes · View notes

music-addiction-disorder · 1 year

Text

youtube

Last weeks poll ended with 16 votes, the winner (it was to be expected) was ZZ Top's 1983 "Eliminator" with 31,3%. It was a struggle for me aswell, but i ended up choosing "Afterburner" because it's the one that i keep going back to. It's must have something to do with that unique 80's sound...

youtube

The video for "Paranoid" was filmed in Belgium (1970), it was the first song i ever heard by Ozzy and Black Sabbath... i was hooked instantly! It's still my favorite Sabbath album to date, i mean... how can it not be with classics like "War Pigs", Paranoid", "Planet Caravan", "Iron Man" and "Fairies Wear Boots"?

youtube

Considered by many to be the first heavy metal band, Black Sabbath was formed in 1968 by Tony Iommi, Ozzy Osbourne, Geezer Butler and Bill Ward in Birmingham, UK. The band's original name was the Polka Tulk Blues Band (later shortened to Polka Tulk) and later on changed to Earth before becoming Black Sabbath inspired by an Italian horror movie of the same name. The original line-up lasted until 1979, after which Osbourne was fired and replaced by Ronnie James Dio. The line-up changes would continue, with no line-up remaining intact for consecutive studio releases. Throughout the changes, only Tony Iommi and keyboardist Geoff Nicholls, who also joined the band in 1979, would remain with Black Sabbath, although Nicholls would not always be credited as a full member. In 1997, Iommi, Butler, Ward, and Osbourne reunited, touring and releasing a live album in 1998, although a long-rumored studio release did not appear (the group attempted to record a new album in 2001 with producer Rick Rubin but the sessions were scrapped). After that, the group periodically reunited to tour with Ozzy's "Ozzfest" tour. In 2004, longtime keyboardist Geoff Nicholls was replaced by Adam Wakeman for an Ozzfest tour. No reason was given for the replacement. In 2006, the original line-up was inducted into the Rock 'n' Roll Hall Of Fame.

youtube

In 2007, Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler, Ronnie James Dio, and drummer Vinny Appice (who were featured on 1981's "Mob Rules" and 1992's "Dehumanizer") announced that they would tour together as Heaven & Hell (with Iommi, who owns the Black Sabbath name, deciding to keep the Black Sabbath name solely for the original line-up in light of their Rock 'n' Roll HOF induction) to support a Dio-era greatest hits release, which also featured 3 new Dio/Iommi compositions. A brand new live album was released under the Heaven & Hell name that same year, followed by a studio album in 2009.

youtube

In 2009, Osbourne sued Iommi over control of the Black Sabbath name. The lawsuit was settled the following year. In late 2011, it was announced that the original line-up would be recording and touring. Shortly, afterward, Bill Ward dropped out, stating he had been given a contract that was "unsignable". The three remaining members opted to continue without him. In 2013, the band released "13", their first studio album with Osbourne in 34 years. The band played their final live show in Birmingham, UK, on February 4, 2017. Although the band has announced that full-scale touring is done, Tony Iommi has stated that the door is still open for future music and possible live appearances.

youtube

Ps, if you vote please also reblog, the more people will do so the more this post will spread and the better the outcome and results will be. A big "thank you" in advance to anyone who will partake in this! Yours truly: @necro69mancer 🤘🍻

Oh, and also... suggestions for future polls are always welcome! 😎

youtube

@goblinkleaver @beardedguy1369 @1000deleting @wayward-cat @wolvesofodinedinburgh @manuaani @moonstar-magic @gloria-glitter @maidenintexas1 @machetazos88 @inkedupblondie @very-old-biker ...

22 notes · View notes

munispeaks · 2 years

Text

Chris Johnson Hopeful For Hall Of Fame Nod, But Ex-Teammate Promises It Will Happen

Play video content TMZSports.com Chris Johnson is now one of 129 people hoping to make the Hall of Fame in 2023 … but according to his former teammate, LenDale White, he doesn’t need to sweat it — ’cause he WILL get a bust in Canton next summer. CJ2K — one of the best running backs in NFL history — was officially nominated for the HOF for the first time earlier this week … alongside 128 other…

View On WordPress

0 notes

smallcollegebasketball · 3 years

Text

The Greatest of College Basketball Games

What makes a game “great”?

A well-executed game? A great finish? Great players and coaches? Great, exciting plays? The stakes? Conference or National Tournament game? A National Championship game? I think that, for a game to be truly “great”, then answer may be that it has a little bit - or a lot - of each of the above mentioned traits.

When I think of “great” games at the small college levels - at least over the last couple of decades - I think of the incredible four overtime thriller between Concordia (CA) and Robert Morris (IL) in the 2007 NAIA National Semi-Finals. (Here’s a video clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eJDaw2yYgw8). I think of the remarkable comeback win for Barton, over Winona State, in the 2007 NCAA Division II National Championship game in 2007. (Here’s a video clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0WzmQmz9Kdc). I also think of Findlay’s 2009 overtime thriller in the National Championship game to cap an undefeated season. (Here’s a recap: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iibhTY_txV4). I think about Texas Wesleyan’s last-second 3-pointer to win the 2006 NAIA National Championship over Oklahoma City. I think of the incredibly suspenseful ending in the 2010 NAIA National Championship game, as Oklahoma Baptist just barely edged Azusa Pacific. I think of Graceland - in their first and only time reaching the NAIA Tournament - hit a 3-pointer at the buzzer to win the 2018 NAIA National Championship. (Here’s a link to watch the final seconds: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O6c5MUprymE). How about the 2014 Wisconsin-Whitewater vs. Williams NCAA Division III National Championship game?!!! (Here’s the video clip of the finish: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L6arGWYIxpQ). How about “The Block” from Joey Flannery to seal Babson’s 2017 NCAA Division III National Championship game?!!! (Here’s the video clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DF8vlz52pKI).

Certainly, I’m missing many over the last couple of decades, but the games I listed above.....well, I’d consider them to be “great” games. Fantastic finishes with terrific players with something significant on the line.

I bring up this topic because I’ve seen some truly “great” games over the past week. Primarily, I’m referring to two games, yet my mind goes back about three weeks to a third great game.....

Starting a few weeks ago, the MIAA (NCAA Division II) Championship game between Washburn and NW MO State was truly a great college basketball game. Washburn and NW MO State had split during the regular season, with both games going into overtime. NW MO State has been - and is - the gold standard of NCAA Division II basketball over the last decade. Washburn is so well coached and so tough, and so good.....and they’ve had the Bearcats’ number this year. In this MIAA Championship game, which was played at Bearcat Arena, the game was tight throughout the evening. With 37 seconds remaining, Ryan Hawkins hit a free throw to tie the game at 66. Washburn took possession, and let the clock wind down, and they put the ball in the hands of Tyler Geiman, who has been spectacular all season long. (Geiman was named First Team All MIAA and was named to the Third Team All American by the D2 CCA). With 9 seconds remaining, Geiman launched a 3-pointer. Trevor Hudgins got a piece of the ball, and Diego Bernard picked it up and started to streak down the court, with second remaining and a tie game. At about mid-court, Geiman was called for a foul. Two shots with 2.7 seconds remaining. Bernard hit both of them. 68-66 for the MIAA Championship.....but then Washburn threw the inbounds pass to Tyler Geiman, who took two dribbles and fired up the desperation shot. When he launched it, he was been his own 3-point line and the half court line. It was later estimated to be a 57-foot shot. As the buzzer sounded, the ball was in flight....and yes, the ball dropped into the net! 69-68, Washburn, for the MIAA Championship. What a finish! What a game!

(As a note, Washburn handily won their first-round game in the NCAA Tournament and met up with NW MO State about a week later....and NW MO State put on one of the most remarkable performances - on both ends of the court - that I’ve seen in quite a while. For example, with 11:11 left in the game, the Bearcats led 72-19....that is not a misprint: The Bearcats were leading by 53 points over a very good, well coached NCAA Tournament team. The final was 85-44 - a 41-point win, as benches were cleared early in that one.)

...............

The other “great” game I’ve seen recently was the Central Region Championship game between NW MO State and Northern State. Northern State has been fantastic this season, and they had just won the NSIC for the fourth consecutive season. They came into the game with a 19-1 record. Parker Fox, a 6′8″ junior, is an incredibly explosive highlight reel. He plays so hard and is ridiculously athletic. He as the NSIC Player of the Year and was named First Team All American by multiple publications. In this game, which was played at Wachs Arena in Aberdeen, was played with great emotion, with a trip to the Elite Eight on the line. The game was played between two of the very best teams in the country, with several of the very best players in the country (legitimately, there were three players on the court that would be in the discussion for the National Player of the Year: Fox, Trevor Hudgins and Ryan Hawkins), and the full teams were just THAT good.

Fast forward. Parker Fox was fantastic for a high percentage of the game, finishing with 34 points and 12 rebounds, and going 14-18 from the field. He showed why he was in the discussion for National Player of the Year. With 3:04 left in the game, Fox went up for a layup and was fouled by Wes Dreamer. He made the shot and converted the free throw to put the Wolves up by 11, 76-65.

Then Trevor Hudgins and Ryan Hawkins made key plays down the stretch....and really, Trevor Hudgins just completely took over the game, eventually completing the remarkable comeback by hitting a step-back 3 with 7 seconds remaining to send the game into overtime. Early in OT, Northern State took a 2-point lead...and then NW MO State took over for the last few minutes and came away with a 91-86 win.

I felt privileged to witness this one..... two of the very best teams in the country just played their hearts out. You felt an exhilaration just watching this one. I think that everyone - players, coaches, fans, etc. - realized that they were a part of something special that night.

Below are photos of Trevor Hudgins, Ryan Hawkins and Parker Fox (yet note from the game referenced). Further below, I write about the final “great” game that I just witnessed last night.

Last night, in the NCAA Division II Semi-Finals, I witnessed another “great” game. This one was between Lincoln Memorial and West Texas A&M. There are so many sub-plots here. Tom Brown has built a powerhouse - and one of the truly elite programs in NCAA Division II - at West Texas A&M. The Buffs just won a record 4th straight Lone Star Conference Tournament Championship. They came into last night’s game with an 18-2 record, and were 32-1 last season (when the tournament was cancelled). They have been incredible dominant. Josh Schertz has built a powerhouse - and one of the truly elite programs in NCAA Division II - at Lincoln Memorial. The Railsplitters came into the game with a 19-3 record, and were 32-1 last season (before the tournament was cancelled). They have had an absolutely dominating decade, as Josh Schertz has the second highest winning percentage in the history of college basketball - at any level - for a coach that has been a Head Coach for at least 10 years.

This Elite Eight was set to be the final NCAA Division II Elite Eight for Josh Schertz, as he was just named the Head Coach at Indiana State.....with the caveat that he would still be allowed to coach his Lincoln Memorial Team in the Elite Eight.

The other interesting piece of information is that I had scheduled West Texas A&M vs. Lincoln Memorial for the opening of the 2019-20 season, in the Small College Basketball National Hall of Fame Classic, in St. Joe, MO, at the Civic Arena. So, on the opening day of the 2019-20 season, in an event that is exempted by the D2 Conference Commissioners Association (thank you, again, to the D2 CCA), the Buffs and Railsplitters, took to the court. It was a spectacular game between two immensely talented teams that are so, so well coached. As expected, it was a heck of a game. With 34 seconds remaining, Qua Grant hit a layup to tie the game at 83. LMU took possession and let the clock wind down....and then Vas McCauley nailed a 3-pointer with 5 seconds remaining to put the Railsplitters up, 86-83.....and then Qua Grant came back down and hit a 3-pointer with 1 second remaining to send the game into overtime. In OT, the Buffs outscored LMU 13-3 for a 99-89 win. The next day, Lincoln Memorial set the SCB HOF Classic record with a 50-point win over Davenport, and the Railsplitters didn’t lose another game for the rest of the season, finishing 32-1.

Fast forward to last night. A trip to the NCAA Division II National Championship was on the line. Coach Josh Schertz is coaching in his final Elite Eight before departing for Indiana State. The Railsplitters came out strong, and led by 9 at the halftime break, 44-35. In the second half, the Railsplitters hit the first bucket of the half to go up by 11. The Buffs then began to slowly chip away at the lead, yet the Railsplitters held the lead throughout the half....until the Buffs eventually caught them to tie the game at 79, with 3.43 remaining. From there, the Railsplitters rallied to take the lead, eventually going up by 5, 85-80, with 52 second remaining. Then, leading by 2 (86-84) with seconds remaining, the Buffs had the ball. Joel Murray drove the lane, put up a shot....which was promptly blocked by Cam Henry. The officials went to the replay to confirm that the ball was, indeed, sent out of bounds by Henry.....and to check the clock. They determined that the ball went out of bounds off of Henry, yet they added .9 seconds (9/10 of a second) back onto the clock. The ball was inbounded to Qua Grant, and the West Texas A&M players gave him space to operate. Grant drove from the right wing with his left hand, into the paint. He went up for the floater with about 3 seconds remaining. The ball bounced around the rim, and was batted around by multiple players, vying for the rebound. It was eventually tipped out to sophomore sharpshooter Zach Toussaint. Toussaint, who is typically a fantastic 3-point shooter, was 0-4 from the 3-point line and had been held scoreless up until this point. Toussaint grabbed the ball and quickly let it fly from about 23 feet. He released it will about .9 (9/10 of a second) left. As the ball was in flight, the backboard lit up and the buzzer sounded. As the ball dropped through the net to secure the 87-86 win for the Buffs, there was pandemonium and heartbreak all at the same time.

It was an instant classic. It was a “great” game.

#Lincoln Memorial #NW MO State #Northern State #West Texas A&M #Washburn

4 notes · View notes

hawkvalley · 3 years

Text

Broncos Regular Season Week 13

Hawk Valley

Quick Review

The Broncos lost to the Saints 31-3. Some people described Kendall's passes as lollipops. That doesn't make any sense to me. I would describe them as arcs over the incoming flights to Denver International Airport. After the first Denver drive, the Saints realized what kind of day it was going to be and called off the dogs.

The scoring sequence

In the third quarter, the Broncos had the ball on the 22 yard line. On first down, Gordon ran for 10 yards. On second down, Gordon slipped in the backfield and lost three yards. Fant caught the only completed pass of the day with 11:33 left in the third. Kendall Hinton's pass to Fant gained 13 yards. Lindsay followed that up with a run to the left for no gain. On second down, Hinton's pass was intercepted.

The Saints quarterback threw a pass that was almost intercepted on first down. The Saints quarterback dropped the ball and lost two yards on second down. On third down, the Broncos intercepted his pass.

The Broncos had to keep their running backs fresh, so Freeman came in and ran to the left for four yards on first down. Lindsay was out of the game with a knee injury. Hinton picked up 2 yards on a second down scramble. On third down, the Broncos tried a reverse with Hamler that lost 6 yards. At the 6:56 mark in the third quarter, the Broncos scored their only points of the game on a 58 yard field goal. That is why there will not be a longer review.

The Game Stats

Denver

Time of Possession

24:14

Passing Attempts

Passing Yards

Rushes

Rushing Yards

100

Saints

Time of Possession

35:46

Passing Attempts

Passing Yards

Rushes

Yards

229

Player Stats

The Running Game

* AYPC is average yards per carry

PlayerCarriesAYPCLongTD(s) Fumble(s) Gordon1231100 Lindsay921300 Freeman862300 Hinton24500 Hamler2-4-300

The Passing Attack

* He was targeted once

** He was targeted twice

PlayerReceptions%LongTD(s)Fumble(s) Fant150%1300 Patrick**00%000 Fumagalli*00%000 Hamilton*00%000 Jeudy*00%000 Vannett*00%000

The Quarterbacks

Kendall Hinton

Passing

compypaTD(s)INT(s)LongRating 11%102130

Rushing

AttYardsLongTD(s) 2750

Sacked

TimesYards LostFumble(s) 110

Hill

Passing

compypaTD(s)INT(s)LongRating 56%5012443

Rushing

AttYardsLongTD(s) 1044172

Sacked

Time(s)Yard(s) LostFumble(s) 3151

During the week

On Monday, the Denver Broncos stated a campaign to complain about their punishment. The Broncos must have issued talking points, because everyone in the media was parroting the same thing. It was unbelievable. If you've ever known someone that has had to talk from prepared statements, this is what that was, but with a vibe of a trial through the media.

The first point the Broncos made, was that the quarterbacks only took their mask off to eat and drink at the facility. The prepared defense, appealing to the common juror, suggested it was like getting a speeding ticket for traveling one mph above the speed limit. OK, they were doing well with their own defense at this point. Drew Lock even wrote a letter of apology. The NFL was just letting the Broncos fall into a trap.

Later in the week, the NFL revealed they had video evidence that the quarterbacks not only did not wear their masks, but they had caught the quarterbacks tampering with the contract tracing devices the NFL requires players to wear this season because of Covid. That ended the debate, but this upset Drew Lock's mom, who then took to social media to defend her son. *allegedly Drew's dad tried to stop her from posting. The Broncos stopped defending their quarterbacks and decided to move on.

I've mentioned it before, but I'll remind you now that the media was growing tired of Drew's responses to questions. Now, Lock was busted for tampering with NFL tracking devices. This led people on sports talk to wonder if anyone could trust Drew Lock. The NFL now has an impression of Drew.

After all of this happened, the "ownership" squabble was back in the news. Someone suggested they are growing tired of the Broncos and want to sell the team, the Bowlen kids however, don't wish to sell at this time...*allegedly. This basically reminded everyone there will be a court case in July about the ownership of the Denver Broncos.

The last thing that happened this week, was that the NFL hall of fame called the Broncos. They want something of Hinton's to put in Canton. The Broncos have agreed to send Hinton's wrist band with all of the plays on it to the HOF. The game where the practice squad receiver, that played one game in the NFL, with less than 24 hours notice... will now be remembered forever.

Looking Ahead to Future Opponents

Third Quarter Outlook

WeekTeamWinning %Wins 10Raiders55%6 11Dolphins64%7 12Saints82%9 13Chiefs91%10

Fourth Quarter Outlook

WeekTeamWinning %Wins 14Panthers33%4 15Buffalo73%8 16Chargers27%3 17Raiders55%6

A red line, might be wavy, indicates a loss.

A green line, might be double, indicates a win

*(records as of November 30)

Afc West Standings

Vs the Division

TeamGame(s) PlayedWinning %Net Las Vegas475%+34 Kansas City475%+26 Denver333%-51 Los Angeles30%-9

Vs the Conference

TeamGames PlayedWinning %Net Kansas City5100%+79 Denver560%+15 Los Angeles560%+1 Las Vegas333%-13

vs the NFC

TeamGames PlayedWinning %Net Kansas City2100%+5 Las Vegas450%-48 Los Angeles30%-15 Denver30%-53

Today's teams ranked by stats

Broncos (4-7)

31st

26th

14th

96%

-15**

Lost 1

** Worst in the nfl

Chiefs (10-1)

2nd

1st

1th

18th

90%

Won 6

Outlook

The above stats tell the story of this game. The Chiefs have a great offense and the Broncos do not.

I happened to notice the price of tickets for this game. The starting price, for one ticket, is $320. That makes it the second most expensive ticket in the NFL this week. A ticket to the Packer game will cost you $334.

The Broncos have a chance in this game, if the last week was just part of an elaborate ruse so that the Broncos quarterbacks could have two full weeks to prepare for the Chiefs, but... what are the odds of that being true.

The Last Four Games

The Kansas City Chiefs outscored their opponents by 35 points, 4 wins

The Denver Broncos were outscored by 53 points, 1 win

The Last Two Games

The Kansas City Chiefs outscored their opponents by 7 points, 2 wins

The Denver Broncos were outscored by 21 points, 1 win

Denver's Defense

In week 6, the Denver Broncos played the New England Patriots and they won. Since then both teams have played six games. The Patriots have won three games during this time period, the Broncos two. The Patriot's offense has outscored the Bronco's offense by 11 points during this time. The teams seem to be going in different directions though. The Patriots have been outscored by 25 points, but the Broncos have been outscored by 79. In other words, the Pats have been losing by about a field goal, the Broncos have been losing by about 2 touchdowns. I mention this because the defense gets a ton of praise for playing well.

Game Time

Sunday December 6 @ 6:20 PM MT

#denver broncos #afc west #kansas city chiefs #NFL football #nfl hall of fame #kendall hinton #denvskc #kcvsden

2 notes · View notes

songsmedia · 2 years

Link

0 notes

stephenbeach99 · 4 years

Text

Social Media Ax1

Socail Media

Week 10

In order for the San Antonio Spurs to celebrate Tim Duncan’s Hall of Fame induction, the San Antonio Spurs ran a contest in order to get fans to recreate his iconic bank shot, and called it “Tim’s Bank Shot Challenge”. This contest saw the fans put on their creative hats, and then deliver great pieces of content which the team could then share across all their social media platforms, which then leads to the fueling of the reach of the campaign.This social media campaign was a great way to engage, and also celebrate with fans for their love for not only Tim Duncan, but even the San Antonio Spurs.This campaign saw the use of both gifs, and video produced by the social media teams for their tools to promote it, and also competitions which appeals to fans the most. The Spurs implementing this competition just after Duncan’s HOF announcement was extremely effective for the organisation, as if promoted the business due to fans throughout the league getting involved with the Spurs as well, regardless if they were fans of that team or not.

0 notes

y2jthesexybeast · 7 years

Text

1.) Who is your favorite wrestler?

A: This is a tough one. I love AJ Styles and Jericho so much!

2.) Who is your least favorite wrestler?

A: Brock Lesnar (Hes not a true superstar to me cause he never is there every week like the rest and hes lazy af)

3.) What is your favorite and least favorite Wrestlemania?

A: 2017 had some really good moments like the Hardyz coming back! And im not sure about a least fave.

4.) What is your favorite and least favorite non-Wrestlemania pay-per-view?

A: So far I like all the PPVs so we’ll see!

5.) Do you prefer Faces or Heels?

A: I always prefer the good guys. Faces

7.) Name a wrestler who you think deserves a push?

A: Sami Zayn,Becky Lynch and Finn Balor

8.) What are some of your dream matches?

A: I’d like to see more Y2AJ interactions. Nia Jax vs Tamia would be good!

9.) Name a wrestler you think is overrated. Why?

A: Brock Lesnar. Like I said hes just not worthy of the championship. He gets paid way too much for what he’s worth.

10.) Name a wrestler you think is underrated. Why?

A: Roman Reigns cause many fans boo him and dont realize how hard he works for his money unlike Brock Lesnar. Fans need to open their eyes!

11.) Have you ever met a wrestler? If yes, who did you meet? If no, who would you like to meet?

A: When I was younger like 11 or 12 we went to a local wrestling event at a High School and there was a ring and there Ive met Ivan Koloff and I think Road Worrier Animal. They was so nice! (Ivan was a heel but so so nice and so was his wife) Id love to meet all my faves! Roman,Dean,Seth,Jericho,AJ Styles and more!

12.) Do you have any WWE or a WWE Superstar’s merchandise?

A: I have a DX Shirt, AJ Styles shirt, Roman Reigns pillow case!

13.) Which draws you to a wrestler more, their mic/talking skills or wrestling skills?

A: Wrestling skills then Mic skills in that order for me.

14.) What is your favorite and least favorite theme song?

A: Fave theme is Hardy Boyz "Loaded" and Im not sure on a least fave.

15.) What is your favorite era?

A: Attitude Era when Chris had his long hair <3

16.) What is your unpopular opinion?

A: Hmmm I dont have one really Im not sure but give it time lol I guess it would be Brock Lesnar sucks

17.) Raw or Smackdown?

A: I like both!

18.) What is your favorite tag-team?

A: Y2AJ and Hardy Boyz

19.) What is your least favorite tag-team?

A: Im not sure!

20.) If you could pick the matches at Wrestlemania what would they be?

A: Y2AJ vs The Club and winning! Or Y2AJ vs Hardys! Jericho or Finn vs Brock and winning the belt! Nia vs Tamia.

21.) Name a wrestler you would like to return.

A: Right now Jericho lol Edge,Christian and John Morrison! (I know Edge cant cause medical reasons :(

22.) Who is your favorite and least favorite commentator?

A: Fave is JR and least fave is JBL

23.) Who is your favorite and least favorite General Manager?

A: Fave GM has been Daniel and Shane. Least fave is Steph lol

24.) What are your favorite titles or title belts (old and new)?

A: I like em all!

25.) When did you start watching WWE?

A: Well I first started watching or paying more attention when I was younger like in my single digits. I got into it at a young age cause my Granny always watched and still does :)

26.) How long have you been watching WWE?

A: as long as my Granny has been watching! Since im 26 Im guessing 26 years cause Im sure they watched it when I was a baby :)

27.) Do you think WWE has improved or worsen?

A: Worsen cause they dont have pyros anymore and they act like they are losing money.

28.) What is your favorite and least favorite gimmick of your favorite wrestler?

A: Thats a hard one to answer cause I have a lot I like and dont like lol

29.) What is the best and worst RAW episode you’ve watched?

A: Cant pick just one Raw but any Raw that Roman as been beat up qualifies

30.) What is the best and worst Smackdown episode you’ve watched?

A: Cant really say it depends on how my faves was treated lol

31.) What are your Top 5 favorite storylines?

A: I really cant choose! There's been sp many!

32.) What are your Top 5 least favorite storylines?

A: Too many to count lol

33.) What are some of your favorite feuds or rivalries?

A: One of my fave feuds was Jericho and Regal. It was so funny! Of course any Jericho feud is a fave for me!

34.) Have you ever attended any WWE events?

A: I have not but would love to!

35.) Name a wrestler who you think deserves to be in the Hall of Fame?

A: I think this is a very easy answer for me. I think Chyna deserves to be in the HOF. Sure shes done porn in the past but that should have nothing to do with what shes done in WWE as a superstar. Also Sunny did porn and shes in so why cant Chyna? She was one of my fave women wrestlers!

36.) Who is your OTP?

A: My fave couple has to be Miz and Maryse and Steph and Hunter. I now they play heels but they are great couples and relationship goals. As a fantasy couple Id really love too see Sami and Becky get closer!

37.) Do you have a crush on any wrestler(s)?

A: So so so many! lol! Jericho,AJ Styles, Roman,Dean,Seth,Finn, Jeff Hardy, John Morrison and more! Lately I been seeing just how hot Fandango and Tyler are!

38.) What are your favorite finishers? A: Lion Tamer/Walls Of Jericho,Code Breaker, Styles Clash, Calf Crusher, Phenomenal Forearm, Superman Punch, Spear, Moonlight Drive, Starship Pain, C4 (If you havent seen C4 before then look it up using Moves of John Morrison on youtube!)

39.) What are your favorite catchphrases?

A: All of Chris's catchphrases lol And Believe That!

40.) Have you ever played any WWE video games? Which ones?

A: I havent played any cause most are too laggy on my laptop :(

41.) Do you share a birthday with a wrestler?

A: Sadly I dont think I do. My Birthday is April, 13th 1991!

Here you are @this-is-the-test! Sorry Im late :)

#q and a #wwe #wrestling #roman reigns #seth rollins #dean ambrose #john morrison #Chris Jericho #y2j #jeff hardy #fandango #breezango #tyler breeze

9 notes · View notes

themakersmovement · 5 years

Photo

Daily News Roundup: What to Expect from Google I/O 2019 Google I/O, the company’s yearly tech conference, starts next week. As usual, all the new stuff Google has been working on for the last year will be front and center. Here’s a quick look at what we expect to see. Android Q: Android is routinely a huge talking point at I/O, and this year will be no different. The Q Beta is already available on Pixel devices for developers and curious users to test, but expect to see more of what Google plans for the final builds as I/O progresses next week. Stadia: Google’s upcoming game streaming service is something the company will be pushing hard this year (especially as availability draws near), so we expect to see a lot about Stadia. Hopefully, that will include some of the information that has been missing so far—you know, like pricing and model. Pixel 3a/3a XL: These phones have been leaked into oblivion already, with full details, packaging, pricing, and literally everything else already out in the open. But we expect Google to officially unveil them next week, along with immediate availability. Android TV and Android Automotive: Not only will Q get a heavy focus, but we’ll likely see Google talk more about Android TV—its set-top box OS that has been mostly kept alive by the NVIDIA SHIELD for the past three years. Android Automotive (not to be confused with Android Auto, which is a totally different product), will also get some attention. Chrome, Smarthome, Assistant, and more: While the above list will likely be the most significant announcements made at I/O, Google will also probably highlight upcoming features in Chrome, talk about its smarthome products (including the recently leaked Nest Hub Max), and of course, Google Assistant. In other news, Spotify wants to put podcasts in your playlists, Verizon is selling Tumblr, Mozilla bans certain extensions, and more. Spotify is testing playlists with podcasts: How would you like to have a personal playlist that also includes several minutes of people talking in between songs? That’s what Spotify is testing by throwing short podcasts into personalized playlist mixes. It just seems so weird. [TechCrunch] Tumblr can’t catch a break: Yahoo had it and did nothing with it, then sold it to Verizon. Verizon also did nothing with it, and now it’s trying to sell the platform off. I got five on it if anyone else wants to go in with me. [The Verge] Mozilla bans Firefox extensions with obfuscated code: Starting on June 10th, any Firefox extension that doesn’t meet specific criteria—including full access to the source code—will be disallowed in its store. [ZDNet] Pokemon come to Playground: You can now drop Pikachu, Charizard, Mr. Mime, and Jigglypuff into your world with the new Detective Pikachu Playmoji pack for Google’s Playground platform on compatible Android phones. [Google Blog] Mortal Kombat, Super Mario Kart, and Solitaire make it to the HoF: The National Museum of Play has announced 2019’s inductees into the Video Game Hall of Fame, with Mortal Kombat, Super Mario Kart, Microsoft Windows Solitaire, and Colossal Cave Adventure all making the cut. [Engadget] A guy swallowed and AirPod, and It still worked: Apparently, this dude fell asleep with his AirPods in and accidentally swallowed one. I don’t even see how that’s possible, but hey, that’s not what’s important here. What’s important is that it still worked. [9to5Mac] Have you seen the Sonic the Hedgehog trailer? Lots of people have, and lots of people aren’t happy with how Sonic looks. The film’s director, James Fowler, acknowledged that people weren’t happy and pledged to fix it. Here’s to hoping for shorter legs and less weird teeth. As an aside Jim Carry as Robotnik looks amazing—especially the tease at the end. I’m into this movie just for that. [CNET] https://buff.ly/2IZWDbp

0 notes

daleisgreat · 5 years

Text

Wrestlemania 34

Happy Wrestlemania (WM) week everyone and happy birthday to me, and what better way to celebrate the big day than by doing my annual write up of the prior year’s ‘showcase of the immortals.’ Wrestlemania 34 (WM34) gets the dubious honor of being WWE’s sole 2018 BluRay release in North America due to the declining sales of the home video market. In my entry on last year’s BluRay I chastised it for skipping out on the usually included pre-show matches. For the WM34 BluRay, WWE heard the feedback and included all three pre-show matches……..but decided to cut the usually included Hall of Fame ceremony, and once again save on budget costs and skimp out on subtitles two years in a row! Shame! I would have been furious for WWE cutting out the Hall of Fame ceremony from the BluRay, especially since two of my all-time favorites Mark Henry and Bill Goldberg were inducted last year and both delivered tremendous speeches in addition to the Dudleyz having a surprisingly fun acceptance speech courtesy of D-Von’s late discovery of humor, but last year’s ceremony will be notorious for having the Hillbilly Jim induction. Hillbilly Jim got the HoF spot usually reserved for fun opening act talent to come out and have a few laughs and share a few career highlight moments and be out of there before you know it while getting the crowd started up for the rest of the night, much like an actual opening match. I was originally looking forward to Jim’s speech because I recall him being the only highlight on Legends House with his affable light-hearted levity in that train wreck of a show. Instead, Mr. Jim had the longest speech of the night at nearly 35 minutes where he meticulously laid out his entire career and droned on about his action figure payday.

Because of Jim’s speech I found myself surprisingly gracious WWE excluded it this year, and I can always watch Henry’s and Goldberg’s speeches on the Network or YouTube. WWE had key excerpts from Henry’s speech in an excellent retrospective they recently put on the network you can check out by clicking here, so watch that instead. The DVD version of WM34 includes a code for a digital copy of the HoF ceremony, but since that is absent from the BluRay version being covered here, and for my own sanity, we will be omitting my usual Hall of Fame coverage. There is a good substitute bonus feature for the HoF, but we will get to that in a bit. The trio of kickoff matches for WM34 featured both the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal and first ever Fabulous Moolah Memorial WM Women’s Battle Royal. The men’s match sadly saw Jim Ross’s and Jerry Lawler’s only commentary for the night. It paled to previous year’s editions with only a few notable eliminations like Ryder getting pounced out by Mojo. The end saw Bray Wyatt return after an absence from his ‘Ultimate Deletion’ match with Matt Hardy only to join forces with him here and help him win the Andre cup! The women’s royal featured half the participants padded out with NXT and Performance Center filler. It had an awful clunky beginning that dragged on and the only spot of note from it was the ending that transpired in the middle of Sasha’s and Bayley’s hard-to-watch rivalry where Bayley instantly turned on Sasha and disposed of her. She was then stunned by Naomi’s presence and essentially laid down for her so she could easily eliminate her in a head-shake inducing moment of the night to emerge the winner of the….curvy hip trophy. The women delivered a far superior battle royal effort at the Evolution PPV later in 2018 that told a fantastic story beginning to end so watch that instead. The cruiserweight title match between Cederic Alexander and Mustafa Ali was the sole highlight of the WM Kickoff. Ali debuted his glowy Sub-Zero-esque ring attire here, and the bout told a gripping narrative of the two representing the heart and soul of the 205 division. After some intense near-falls, Alexander walked out victorious after hitting his Lumbar Check finisher.

Onto the main card, it opened with what turned out to be the best pure match of the night with the Intercontinental title triple threat between Miz, Seth Rollins and Finn Balor. I completely forgot about the Miz-tourage until I saw them here. Unlike a lot of other triple threats, there were rarely any lulls here and several near-falls that got the crowd rocking with the highlight being Finn breaking up a pin with his Coup de Gras. Ultimately, Seth won the title after hitting his Stomp for the pin. The SmackDown Women’s Title was on the line next that saw Charlotte Flair end Asuka’s record-setting undefeated streak. I recall being stunned at this outcome as Asuka had a ton of momentum at the time and following a couple equally bummer losses to Carmella on the following PPVs she has never really recovered. She got a paper champion reign recently where she was rarely seen on TV throughout it until she suddenly dropped the title to, surprise, Charlotte. Despite it being a great WM match for the women, I will remember this as being the beginning of the end for Asuka. So in-between WM33 and 34, believe it or not Jinder Mahal got a half year title reign as WWE Champion and WWE will tell you it was not because he got suddenly jacked while they were trying a hard market push into India. Mahal lost the title a few month prior, but he got a nice consolation prize leaving WM34 the new US champion in a Fatal Four Way match between him, Randy Orton, Bobby Roode and Rusev in a solid, but forgettable match-up. Speaking of forgettable multi-person title matches, the SmackDown tag title triple threat between the Usos, New Day and Bludgeon Brothers fit that billing in what was a showcase for the on-the-rise Bludgy Bros. Unfortunately, the Bludgies specialize in plodding, big-man offense that did not capture this WM crowd when they eventually hit their top-rope powerbomb on Kofi to win the titles. The Bludgeon Brothers eventually evolved into a decent team and were starting to have some seriously good matches by Summerslam, but then Luke Harper suffered an ill-timed injury and the team was forced off TV. On a quick aside, I will give my sympathies to the Usos have only wrestled on WM entirely in pre-show matches for nearly a whole decade before finally making their primary WM card debut here to only lose the tag titles in a quick get-it-over with match.

What was not forgettable transpired next to be my overall best match of the night. While the IC title match was the best ‘pure’ wrestling match, the mixed tag between Triple H & Stephanie McMahon against Kurt Angle & Ronda Rousey had the unbeatable combination of great charisma, energy, wrestling, action and moments to produce an enthralling encounter I did not foresee to be anywhere near this entertaining. The huge X Factor going in was how good would Ronda Rousey be in her WWE debut, especially with only several weeks training going in and reports of her training at the WWE Performance Center being curtained off so no one could see or take video. Rousey surpassed all expectations and premiered a WWE star-making effort as soon as she tagged in. Steph was tremendous in playing Ronda’s foil in sneak attacks and begging for mercy. Ronda was exceptional with her ruthless offense on Steph and even a memorable encounter with Triple H. Props to the announcers who accentuated the match with classic calls by Corey Graves like ‘call the cops’ as soon as Ronda was tagged in and on the precipice of unleashing her fury. I vividly recall going nuts along with the crowd throughout this match with all the big moments that played out in a brilliantly booked match-up that saw Rousey & Angle win when Rousey made Steph tap to her armbar. The much anticipated match between John Cena and Undertaker happened next and I am still trying to make sense out of it a year later. This has been a longtime WM dream match, but it featured an awkward TV buildup with Cena repeatedly calling out the Undertaker to answer his challenge on TV for several weeks only to have no response back. Cena then said he would enjoy WM in the crowd with the fans and did just that and partook in some brewskis with the fans for the first five matches before an official informed him that Undertaker was in the building. Cena darted to the back to prep up and came out at this point ready for the ‘Taker, but ‘Taker once again did not show. Eventually acoustic-savant Elias came out and sang a diddy trashing Cena until John heard enough and sent Elias packing. Cena was about to leave the arena until the trademark gong hit and eerie special effects occurred with a nice nod to the end of WM33 which was where we last saw the Dead Man. A perplexed Cena ran to the ring for the now official match…..and was promptly ‘routed’ (as Cole appropriately called) by Undertaker in less than three minutes before succumbing to the Tombstone in a one-sided match that was all Undertaker. I know Cena has been focusing more on Hollywood efforts and Undertaker is especially up there in years and perhaps this quick match was all his cardio was capable of. That was what I thought anyways until Undertaker delivered fleshed out matches later on in the year at both Saudi Arabia shows, so ultimately I have no idea why this match turned out like this. One day I hope we get interviews from both Cena and ‘Taker filling us in on what the hell happed that determined the match play out this way. That said, both individuals are mysteriously absent from the WM35 card, and if ‘Taker winds up not on the show it would be his first time missing WM since 2000. With WM35 already ridiculously overbooked currently at 15 matches, I still would not mind seeing another impromptu chapter play out between these two in someway this Sunday.

Next up was the obligatory roll call for the previous night’s HoF inductees. Mysterious by his absence was celebrity wing inductee Kid Rock (though a couple of his songs were played throughout the night as the official WM34 theme songs). I could not help but chuckle at an off-handed backstage comment by Goldberg earlier in the night from the WWE 24 special on WM34 where Goldberg stated he intentionally showed up a few hours past his expected call time to avoid idle boredom. What was not a chuckling matter was Daniel Bryan overcoming WWE doctors’ three year ban on him from competition to wrestle again in a WWE ring. His long overdue return saw him tagging with Super Shane-O Mac to take on Amazing French Canadians 2.0 Kevin Owens & Sami Zayn. I am still shocked to see Shane McMahon compete here considering within the preceding month he survived a helicopter crash and suffered a hernia he postponed surgery on so he could make his WM and Saudi Arabia paydays. Shane played the partner-in-peril to perfection building up to the white-hot reaction for Bryan returning with fire hitting all his vintage moves, and somehow Shane was able to recuperate and pull off his Coast to Coast too. Eventually Bryan hit his running knee for the feel-good win of the show. WWE tried to build up the RAW Women’s Title match as another feel-good moment of overcoming bullying between Nia Jax and Alexa Bliss. It was difficult to convey this though because until a few weeks before Nia’s whole shtick for her near two years on WWE TV was using her size advantage to bully others, and all of a sudden cameras picking up on Alexa disparaging Nia’s size one time was suppose to get everyone sympathetic for Nia. It did not click and it resulted in a weak reaction for this despite both putting in a considerable effort for a good match that saw Nia win the title with a Samoan Drop from the middle turnbuckle. It did not help matters that within several weeks Nia was back to being a villain again so Rousey could have a metaphorical monster to slay (in all seriousness, Nia legit gels with Rousey and so far this past year I feel Rousey’s best matches have been with Nia) in her quest for gold.

Another disappointing match followed between AJ Styles and Shinsuke Nakamura for the WWE Title. I recall getting burnt out and in desperate need of a break at this point in the night of my original viewing and was hoping it held up better second time around. That was not the case, as the bout had a good initial chapter, but the two rarely got out of second gear until the closing minutes of the contest where things really amped up. It was a little better watching this with a fresh set of eyes, but not much and a far cry from their epic NJPW encounter at the beginning of 2016. Shinsuke’s heel turn though was well executed and fun to relive where he could not handle defeat and therefore delivered his first of many to come low blows to ‘The Phenomenal One.’ Re-watching the following RAW tag titles match next though with a fresh set of eyes was interesting where everyone wondered who the hell Braun Strowman would pick to be his tag team partner against Cesaro and Sheamus. I had no idea either and thought WWE would resort to a retired legend or celebrity and was taken aback when Braun wandered the crowd aimlessly before settling on a ‘fan’ in the form of a middle schooler going by Nicholas who later on was revealed to be the referee of the match’s son. This was the perfect placement for this type of match because I was in serious need of levity and needed something like this to recharge me for the remainder of the night. I got a kick when Braun tagged in Nicholas briefly for an awkward eye contact moment with Cesaro before Braun quickly tagged back in and finished him off with his powerslam to make Nicholas the youngest ever tag team champion....until they had to relinquish them the next night due to Nicholas’s school obligations. Turns out Corey Graves was correct when he had the line of the night upon their victory when exclaiming “Doesn’t he have Algebra and stuff?”

As bizarre and befuddling as the John Cena/Undertaker match was, I was doubly befuddled at the conclusion of the main event Universal title match between Roman Reigns and Brock Lesnar. The crowd was dumping on this match throughout with nasty chants and eventually having more interest in executing the wave. Brock had a prolonged beatdown on Roman which saw a total of 10 overhead/german suplexes and six F5s. It was reminiscent of the Summerslam 2014 throttling of John Cena. I (and the crowd) felt the beatdown on Roman was foreshadowing Roman ‘hulking up’ for the eventual win. Every Roman kickout lead to more and more boos because presumably I/they did not want another rah-rah Roman win to end WM. Roman took some nasty blows from Brock to open him up BAD as he was gushing all over the ring that was the catalyst for his comeback until he was caught with a sixth and decisive F5 from Brock for the abrupt end to the match that I think no one saw coming and I am still scratching my head over. A big part of me was relieved when it happened, but another part was shocked that WWE pulled the trigger on that finish. Even more jaw-dropping to me is when watching the aforementioned WWE 24 special on WM34 that shows after the match Brock emerging backstage and giving the cold shoulder walk past Vince and literally tossing the championship he could not care a single iota about directly onto Vince’s lap and Vince yelling at him ‘YOU ASSHOLE’ to Brock’s back. I know I always heard Brock is only there for his limited days for the big-money contract and keeps to himself, and seeing his genuine not give a damn reaction to Vince and the rest of the staff was a real eye opener. I will still root and cheer for Brock and his unique style he brings to his matches , but damn was this a way to end WM with the rare occasion where a heel left WM champion. I mentioned earlier WWE had a decent alternative to the HoF as extra features on the WM34 BluRay. That came in the form of the entire day-after RAW and a couple key moments from the next SmackDown. The entire RAW was just over two hours since there are no commercials. I am not going to recap the whole thing here, but it was cool reliving it for the raucous WM-weekend crowd and the expected NXT call-ups that debuted that night and looking back on the past year to see how far they have come. This was a nice substitute to the HoF, and as much as I jest about being relieved it was left off this year, I do hope the HoF is included in next year’s BluRay. Overall, I would have to give WrestleMania 34 a thumbs in the middle. Of the 14 matches only four of them are must-see (205 title, IC triple threat, Mixed Tag, RAW Women’s title) and a few matches underperformed/disappointed. Add to the fact the bonkers nature of the Cena/Undertaker and Universal title matches and it tallies up to a WM that can be best to jump around to the key moments of. Past Wrestling Blogs Best of WCW Clash of Champions Best of WCW Monday Nitro Volume 2 Best of WCW Monday Nitro Volume 3 Biggest Knuckleheads Bobby The Brain Heenan Daniel Bryan: Just Say Yes Yes Yes DDP: Positively Living Dusty Rhodes WWE Network Specials ECW Unreleased: Vol 1 ECW Unreleased: Vol 2 ECW Unreleased: Vol 3 Eric Bishoff: Wrestlings Most Controversial Figure Fight Owens Fight: The Kevin Owens Story For All Mankind Goldberg: The Ultimate Collection Impact Wresting Presents: Best of Hulk Hogan Its Good to Be the King: The Jerry Lawler Story The Kliq Rules Ladies and Gentlemen My Name is Paul Heyman Legends of Mid South Wrestling Macho Man: The Randy Savage Story Memphis Heat NXT Greatest Matches Vol 1 OMG Vol 2: Top 50 Incidents in WCW History OMG Vol 3: Top 50 Incidents in ECW History Owen: Hart of Gold RoH Supercard of Honor 2010-Present ScoobyDoo Wrestlemania Mystery Scott Hall: Living on a Razors Edge Sting: Into the Light Straight Outta Dudley-ville: Legacy of the Dudley Boyz Straight to the Top: Money in the Bank Anthology Superstar Collection: Zach Ryder TLC 2017 TNA Lockdown 2005-2016 Top 50 Superstars of All Time Tough Enough: Million Dollar Season True Giants Ultimate Fan Pack: Roman Reigns Ultimate Warrior: Always Believe War Games: WCWs Most Notorious Matches Warrior Week on WWE Network Wrestlemania 3: Championship Edition Wrestlemania 28-Present The Wrestler (2008) Wrestling Road Diaries Too Wrestling Road Diaries Three: Funny Equals Money Wrestlings Greatest Factions WWE Network Original Specials First Half 2015 WWE Network Original Specials Second Half 2015 WWE Network Original Specials First Half 2016 WWE Network Original Specials Second Half 2016 WWE Network Original Specials First Half 2017

0 notes

rickhorrow · 5 years

Text

15+5+5 To Watch 72219

15 TO WATCH/5 SPORTS TECH/POWER OF SPORTS 5: RICK HORROW’S TOP SPORTS/BIZ/TECH/PHILANTHROPY ISSUES FOR THE WEEK OF JULY 22

with Jacob Aere

Shane Lowry pocketed a cool $1.935 million for winning The Open Championship. He also netted thousands of new fans, and helped to unify Ireland through his sport. The affable Lowry, who came oh-so-close to winning the 2016 U.S. Open before blowing a four-shot lead to winner Dustin Johnson, has career earnings of close to $19 million, and his win on Sunday will almost certainly also include a bonus from primary sponsors Immedis and Banc of Ireland. However, the 2019 Open could potentially make an even bigger cultural mark. "This is the beginning of the Open taking its place as the Open and moving around the world…In my lifetime it is possible to see it being played in the Netherlands or maybe Australia," two-time winner of the Claret Jug Padraig Harrington shared with the Irish Times regarding Royal Portrush serving as a catalyst to take the major around the globe. Lowry is certain to be the face of Irish golf in the yearlong run up to the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo, especially as colleague Rory McIlroy struggles with his big-stage game.

PGA Tour approves fewer players making the cut in 2019-2020. As the final Major of the 2019 golf calendar is in the books, the PGA Tour policy board has approved a measure that "will reduce the number of players who make the cut from the top 70 and ties to the top 65 and ties." According to Golf Channel, the new cut policy will begin with the 2019-2020 season, which begins this fall. The board also "eliminated the secondary cut, which required a 54-hole field reduction if 78 or more players advanced to the weekend." The new 65-and-ties policy is the standard on the European Tour and developmental Korn Ferry Tour. This may seem like a minor decision to most golf fans, who generally only pay attention to the top of the leaderboard. But it has a huge impact on the journeyman tour pros who dance around the cut line week in and week out and survive by limiting paid coaching, leaving their families at home, and pulling all-nighters driving themselves to events.

Baseball HOF inducts latest crop of stars. This year, Yankees pitcher Mariano Rivera, Edgar Martinez, Harold Baines, Mike Mussina, Lee Smith, and Roy Halladay were among those enshrined on July 21 in Cooperstown, New York, and HOF officials anticipated record-breaking crowds for the induction ceremonies. The current record attendance of 82,000 was set in 2007, when Cal Ripken Jr. and Tony Gwynn were enshrined. The HOF did not provide an official attendance estimate, but one village official said that breaking the 2007 mark "is a possibility.” The Hall of Fame welcomes around 300,000 visitors each year. In honor of the event, ESPN reports that the Cooperstown Brewing Company has "produced Sandman Pilsner -- a special edition brew for Mariano Rivera" on the occasion of his HOF induction. And in a real flight of fancy, Delta Air Lines dedicated Gate 42 at JFK's Terminal 4 to Rivera. Delta, the official airline of the Yankees, also unveiled a 757 aircraft with a decal carrying Rivera's HOF inscription.

Major League Baseball could allow for sponsorship patches on its teams’ uniforms within three years, the league confirmed to SportsBusiness Journal. The success of the NBA decision to allow jersey branding, which brings in an average $7 million a year per team, has reportedly created “considerable interest” for MLB teams to follow suit. Van Wagner Sports & Entertainment confirmed to SBJ that it had been approached by MLB franchises for evaluations of the potential new inventory. The Excel sports agency, which worked on multiple NBA patch deals, also revealed that it had received inquiries from “curious” teams regarding the marketplace. “We’re examining the patch, but clearly we have things to work through first,” MLB EVP Noah Garden told SBJ. “I’d say it’s inevitable down the road, but certainly not immediate. This is something that requires a fairly long runway.” The new patch sponsorships would require the approval of the MLBPA as part of the next collective bargaining agreement, but MLB’s current uniform deal with Nike reportedly includes provision for uniform patches. Van Wagner estimated that deals could be worth $6-$8 million, with select high-profile teams able to secure more.

Tennis Channel served up the induction of China’s Li Na, France’s Mary Pierce, and Russia’s Yevgeny Kafelnikov into the International Tennis Hall of Fame on July 20. In addition to presenting the speeches and festivities surrounding the players, who combined to win 12 Grand Slam event among them, the network is providing live coverage of Hall of Fame Open for the Van Allen Cup throughout the week. Li became the first Asian-born player to be inducted into the Hall of Fame. As the New York Times noted, big "does not even begin to describe [Na's] enduring impact." In 2011, there were two WTA events in China, including the China Open. This year, there are 11. In addition, China has 10 women in the top 200 in singles and 51 in the top 850. Grass-roots participation in China has "soared, too, with an estimated 14 million players" driving a $4 billion industry. Also in China, World TeamTennis, which began its 44th season July 14, inked international streaming deals including that country. Coverage of all of the eight-team circuit’s 59 regular-season matches is available in China for the first time through video hosting service Youku.

A 22% minority stake in the Oklahoma City Thunder has been put up for sale, according to Bloomberg. The team share was previously owned by late oilman Aubrey McClendon, who passed away in a car crash in 2016. McClendon’s 22% ownership stake has reportedly been held by his estate since his death. The Thunder are worth $1.475 billion, according to Forbes, which would value a 22% stake in the team at around $324.5 million. However, Bloomberg’s report added that a value for McClendon’s stake could be discounted because it comes with voting rights but little else. The share does not come with representation on the board or any decision-making authority. The Thunder are controlled by Clay Bennett, whose Professional Basketball Club investment group purchased the Seattle Supersonics in 2006 before moving the franchise to Oklahoma City ahead of the 2008-2009 season. Likely also for sale soon: The multi-million dollar estate former Thunder star Russell Westbrook just completed in Oklahoma City suburb Nichols Hills – although there’s no yard sign up just yet. OKC residents continue to appear supportive of the star point guard even though he left the franchise, as the city is dotted with “Thank You Russell Westbrook” signs.

LeBron James’ agent starts a sports division at major Hollywood firm. United Talent Agency, one of the leading representation firms in Hollywood, has joined with the agent for nearly two dozen NBA stars, Rich Paul, to create a sports division for the entertainment company. Paul, who most famously represents James under his Klutch Sports Group banner, was named the head of UTA Sports. The alliance calls for Klutch, with Paul as chief executive, to operate as United Talent’s sports division while retaining its own branding. Klutch’s deal with UTA was initiated by the investment adviser Paul Wachter, who helped broker Fenway Sports Group’s 2002 purchase of EPL club Liverpool, as well as James’ lifetime deal with Nike. UTA, which restricted itself to off-the-field sports business until now, said it needs Paul’s muscle as it moves into direct competition with the established sports divisions at its primary rivals in Hollywood: CAA and WME. For years, Paul’s achievements were often dismissed as a natural by-product of his close relationship with James, who was still a teenager when they became friends. Today he is a force to be reckoned with, not just in sports, but now in entertainment.

PacMan is back on top. Boxer politician Manny Pacquiao defeated Keith Thurman by split decision Saturday night before a crowd of 14,356 at a rowdy MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. Pacquiao came in at No. 92 on Forbes' list of 2019 highest paid athletes, at $26 million – and according to ESPN, earned a guaranteed purse of $10 million by defeating Thurman. His 24 pay-per-view bouts to date have generated 20 million buys and an estimated $1.25 billion in revenue. His 2015 bout against Floyd Mayweather remains the best-selling fight in the history of boxing, with 4.6 million PPV buys. Pacquiao left longtime promoter Bob Arum in 2018 to sign with Al Haymon and his Premier Boxing Champions promotion. For last weekend’s fight, Fox Sports and Premier were hoping to "build on the performance of Premier's Errol Spence-Mikey Garcia inaugural PPV boxing event in March, “which drew more than 300,000 buys," according to MultiChannel News. Pacquiao was elected to the Philippine House of Representatives in 2010 and the country's Senate in 2016. With this kind of a day job, and given that he is now 40, there’s a strong possibility that his win over Thurman will be the last time we see Pacquiao in the ring.

As NFL training camps welcome new players this week, it’s not likely we’ll see a new NFL CBA this season. The NFL wants a new CBA done before the start of the 2019 season, but that seems "extremely unlikely at this point" and is "not something that the NFL is really pushing hard," according to NFL Network reports. The league and NFLPA last week in Chicago held their fourth meeting regarding the CBA, with Giants owner John Mara, Patriots owner Robert Kraft, and Steelers President Art Rooney II among those in attendance. Some of the "main issues were addressed," such as revenue splitting and there was "good communication between those sides." The current CBA expires after the 2020 season, and all parties "would like to get this done earlier rather than later." However, the NFL and the NFLPA want to "do the right deal, not just the quick deal." ESPN.com cited a source as saying that, "Big topics are tabled (for now).” The source added that the next set of negotiations are "set to start July 29." Among the big topics on the table – expanding the regular season to 18 games, which comes with weighty pros and cons for both sides.

MLS’ Fire to pay $65.5 million to move matches. According to JohnWallStreet, MLS’ Chicago Fire Soccer Club, ranked last in home attendance (averaging 11,417 per game), will amend their SeatGeek Stadium lease to allow for future home games to be played “in other Chicagoland sports venues.” Majority owner Andrew Hauptman believes moving games from the Village of Bridgeview to downtown Chicago will give the club “the opportunity to play [in front of] more fans than ever.” The Fire reportedly plan to play home games at Soldier Field next season. Chicago Fire SC is paying $65.5 million to get out of their existing lease. The organization will pay the Village $10 million upfront and make an additional $5 million donation to upgrade sporting facilities around the stadium. The $50.5 million balance will be paid in $3.5 million annual increments through 2036. Hauptman is paying $30 million more to move the team's home matches than he paid to acquire the club in 2007. But with expansion franchises now selling for $200 million, even with the buyout – and the $70+ million he’s lost over the last seven years – he will likely come out ahead.

RPM sale seems inevitable. Richard Petty Motorsports, one of NASCAR’s preeminent franchises, is in need of a revamp. Sources told JohnWallStreet that despite the team’s claim that it is running $5-$7 million short this season, “the figure is probably closer to $10-$12 million.” RPM’s problems began with the rise of ride sharing apps like Uber and Lyft, which severely challenged team owner Andy Murstein’s core business – Murstein is the president and largest shareholder of Medallion Financial Corporation (MFIN), which distributes taxi medallions. With MFIN shares down -47% (to $6.13) over the last five years, Murstein has cut back on team spending. As a result, the #43 car “runs way in the back of the pack (currently sitting 28th in the standings) and they're unable to sign marquee sponsors because no one wants to invest in a team that has an owner cutting corners on head count.” The Petty team needs a proper owner, and NASCAR really needs RPM to remain competitive.

ESPN cemented its commentator teams for the 2019-2020 college football season, with a slate of around 1,000 regular season games, 35 bowl games, and the College Football Playoff. Overall, the broadcaster will see nearly 30 commentating teams and fans this season with new commentator groups for Thursday and Friday games, while Saturdays will see several booths reunite from past seasons. Groupings of Chris Fowler, Kirk Herbstreit, and Maria Taylor, and Sean McDonough, Todd Blackledge, and Holly Rowe return this season, calling ESPN’s marquee games each week of the season. Most weeks, Fowler, Herbstreit, and Taylor will be onsite for ABC’s “Saturday Night Football,” while McDonough, Blackledge, and Rowe will call ESPN’s primetime game. ESPN’s roster this season also includes new contracts with analysts Dusty Dvoracek, Tom Luginbill, and Dan Orlovsky, and made headlines signing Ryan Leaf as an analyst. And get your headgear ready – last week, ESPN also announced that its wildly popular “College Gameday” will kick off the 2019 college football season from Sundance Square in Fort Worth on Saturday, August 31 before a marquee AT&T Stadium matchup between Auburn and the University of Oregon.

The Premier League has revealed that it reached a cumulative global audience of 3.2 billion for all programming watched during the 2018-2019 season, a 6% increase on the previous year. Working with Nielsen, England’s top-flight soccer league also found that the cumulative audience for live Premier League programming rose 11% to 1.35 billion. The Premier League credited a significant portion of its audience growth to new free-to-air (FTA) coverage in several countries including Brazil and South Africa. In total, the Premier League said it was shown in 188 of the world’s 193 countries recognized by the United Nations. An official release added that 262,102 hours of Premier League coverage were broadcast globally during the 2018-2019 season, reaching 1.03 billion homes for all broadcast types. Global audience figures have increasingly important for the Premier League after a dip in the value of its domestic TV rights for the next three-year cycle, to $6.3 billion. The drop was offset by a 30% rise in the price of the league’s international rights, which have been sold for a combined $5.3 billion for the 2019-2022 span.

X Games Minneapolis 2019 is set for August 1-4 at U.S. Bank Stadium, and ESPN is putting the finishing touches on its sponsor roster. This year, Wendy’s is joining returning sponsors Hotels.com, Monster Energy, Nexcar First Aid Products, Pacifico, SoFi, The Real Cost, and Harley-Davidson. Geico will once again serve as the official music stage sponsor. The sponsorship packages include a media presence within the 18 hours of coverage scheduled on ESPN, ESPN2, ABC, and the ESPN App, as well as content creation and on-site activation at the event. The Tokyo Olympics are now one year out, and those Games will feature more extreme sports than ever before, including new entrants sport climbing and surfing joining skateboarding, BMX racing, and other X Games staples. With that in mind, it is highly likely that the upcoming X Games Minneapolis will see a bigger viewing audience as well as the expanded sponsor roster.

Paddy Power brokers shirt sponsorship deal with Huddersfield Town AFC in West Yorkshire, England. The irreverent gambling and entertainment brand has a huge profile across the world, with an audience of well over two million people across Facebook and Twitter. The deal is Paddy Power’s first ever front-of-shirt sponsorship in England. The deal spans the home, away, and third kit, and will be in place for the 2019-2020 season. Explaining the decision to back Huddersfield Town, Paddy Power’s brand marketing director Michelle Spillane commented, “They’re a club which, first and foremost, value their fans and know what it means to be a football supporter. We’re confident this deal will bring some bite and bark to The Terriers’ upcoming season.” The tie-up marks a surprisingly traditional form of promotional activity for a bookmaker better known for masterminding headline-grabbing stunts, including drafting French actor and former pro soccer player Eric Cantona to offer Brits a customized "Brexit Bunker."

Top Five Tech

Overwatch League realigns its divisions and switches to a traditional home-and-away sports league format. The esports league changes will take effect in its third season, which will take place in 2020. The four divisions across the global league will soon comprise standard leagues with Northern, Eastern, Southern, Western divisions and a Pacific and Atlantic Conference. Each division will comprise five teams to make the league a 20 team competition with the entirety of the Eastern Division based in Asia. Scheduling will see 52 home stand weekend events hosted at venues across the world, with each team hosting two or more weekend events. According to The Verge, teams in each division will also collectively host three additional regular-season events in their home territories and play 28 matches over the course of the regular season. After launching in 2017, the Overwatch League is now entering a pivotal season to see if esports can be successful with city-based teams like the NBA, NHL, NFL, and MLB.

World TeamTennis announces international partnerships and "Watch and Bet" streaming deal. WTT began its 44th consecutive season this past weekend and announced that it will be broadcast in China for the first time ever through the video hosting service Youku. WTT's exclusive media partner in China will stream all 59 WTT regular season matches while in Latin America, Claro Sports and its digital brand are airing 17 WTT matches. Additionally, Stats Perform will deliver all 59 live matches to legal betting sites and apps outside North America and China for "watch and bet" streaming throughout the WTT season. Dailymotion, the video-sharing technology platform, will stream also and promote league content on a WTT-branded channel worldwide. CBS Sports Network and ESPN+ will air league coverage throughout its short tennis season July 14-August 3. WTT is one of five active U.S. pro sports leagues that has been in operation for over 40 years, along with the NFL, NBA, NHL, and MLB, and now gets its shot at the international spotlight.

ESPN+’s new digital network Big 12 Now will feature an 18-part series on the Kansas University football program starring head coach Les Miles. The series will follow the Kansas football team as they seek to raise their program to national prominence and will include four preseason episodes in August, followed by weekly installments during the college football season. According to Kansas University athletics, filming began this offseason, before Miles was hired, and will cover the entire 2019 season from start to finish. Miles was previously the Head Coach at Oklahoma State and Louisiana State, where he won a national championship and compiled an overall record of 112-32. The show will provide visuals and insights into fundraising, contract negotiations, building the coaching staff, preparing the players, and more. This spring, the Big 12 Conference and ESPN agreed to significantly expand their existing rights agreement, with both football and basketball teams in the conference likely to feature in-depth insights through new media.

Amazon Prime Video’s “All or Nothing” series now features the Carolina Panthers. Season four of the Emmy Award-winning sports documentary series will take viewers inside the locker room, on the sidelines, and off the field, this time with Cam Newton and crew. According to Spectacular Mag, the Amazon Original series is produced by NFL Films and will premiere on Friday, July 19 exclusively on Amazon Prime Video in more than 200 countries and territories worldwide. Emmy Award-winning actor Jon Hamm returns as narrator of the eight-episode season, which covers the Panthers’ 2018 campaign. The show follows a successful start to the Panthers’ 2018 campaign and its stunning finish as the health of Newton’s throwing shoulder evolves into the story of the season. This is a new way to give NFL superfans something to cling to during the off-season.

Esports organization 100 Thieves announced a new headquarters and retail location following $35 million funding round. 100 Thieves features teams competing in Fortnite, League of Legends, and Call of Duty, in addition to their apparel brand, which produces streetwear-inspired clothing that regularly sells out minutes after release. According to Dextero, some of the new funding has gone towards a new 15,000 square foot Los Angeles headquarters which will be home to all of 100 Thieves' business ventures, and will also house their competitive teams. Further, the new space will be used to design all their apparel and will serve as a retail storefront for the brand’s upcoming drops. The value of 100 Thieves has skyrocketed in the past year with some big names like music producer Scooter Braun and rapper Drake joining the company’s Board of Directors back in October. New reports suggest that the company is now worth $125 million, a jump of $35 million from its October 2018 valuation. Esports are about to make the jump into traditional sports league format thanks to Overwatch, and 100 Thieves will likely piggyback onto that momentum for expansion.

Power of Sports Five

REI looks to bolster environmental and outdoor journalism. According to PR Newswire, REI Co-op will debut its own print magazine this fall, as well as a new partnership to channel matching funds directly to local, nonprofit newsrooms covering crucial issues facing the outdoors. The 81-year-old retailer will retire its full-price mail-order catalog in favor of their print magazine, Uncommon Path, published by Hearst Magazines in collaboration with an in-house team of journalists and editors at REI. Uncommon Path will be available at all 155 REI stores and in select newsstands nationwide starting this fall. The purpose of the switch to magazines is to inspire a life outdoors by supporting compelling storytelling – both REI’s own channels and by supporting independent nonprofit journalists in communities across the country. The retailer is also announcing a new partnership with NewsMatch, a nationwide campaign to strengthen local journalism to help bolster climate change coverage and make people more conscious of life outdoors.

Yahoo! Sports starts NFL short-form series “Play It Forward.” According to Deadline, “Play It Forward” has two 11-minute episodes each week on Mondays and Thursdays for eight weeks across the off-season and feature the likes of Antonio Brown, Adrian Peterson, and Desean Jackson. The show will give viewers a glimpse into the players’ rise to the top and the ways they give back to the people who have supported them along the way. “Play it Forward” is produced by Bright Bay Creative, the nascent production company run by former Ice Road Truckers producer Brandon Killion and his wife Jill, in association with Complex Networks. The philanthropy isn’t necessarily on a non-profit level, but it shows the difference players can make in individual’s lives off the field.

Rappers Quavo and 2 Chainz take it to the basket for charity. On July 17 at Kobe Bryant’s Mamba Sports Academy near Los Angeles, the 100,000-square-foot sports and fitness facility hosted the celebrity-filled Huncho Legends basketball game, where hip-hop hitmakers Quavo and 2 Chainz led each of the opposing teams. According to Billboard, the event was held in partnership with streetwear brand Legends, and the game also supported Bryant’s Mamba Sports Foundation. On the sidelines, notable attendees included Quality Control Music founders Kevin "Coach K" Lee and Pierre "Pee" Thomas; Grammy-nominated singer Kehlani, Phoenix Suns star Devin Booker, and Oklahoma City Thunder guard Dennis Schroder. Through all of the online fame and big names at the event, $50,000 was raised by Quavo and the Legends Brand to support the youth sports movement in Atlanta.

The fifth annual Mixed Doubles Charity Classic is ready to fight opioid abuse. According to the York Dispatch, the Charity Classic at the Country Club of York has the goal of raising money to fight drug abuse that has plagued the USA and specifically New York. In previous years, the event has raised more than $100,000 for charity, including $65,000 raised last year for the York Opioid Collaborative. The fifth annual tournament is sponsored by UPMC Health Plan and will again benefit that same cause which “seeks to reduce opioid deaths in York County,” according to the non-profit’s website. The tournament features high quality tennis players including Jenni Goodling and has a total purse of $5,000 for the winners. A total of 16 teams are lined up to compete. New York saw 172 overdose deaths from opioids in 2018 and has seen a reduction to just 36 so far in 2019 thanks to the awareness around the crisis which has been aided by charities and media events such as the Mixed Doubles Charity Classic.

Texas Rangers slugger Joey Gallo discovers his off-field power to help dogs find homes. According to the MLBPA’s Infield Chatter on Twitter, Joey Gallo has overcome his childhood fear of dogs and teamed up with Operation Kindness to find homes for the original no-kill animal shelter in North Texas. By harnessing his image and posing next to animals from the shelter, Gallo posted photos of some of the shelter’s dogs on social media and saw an immediate response. Within an hour of posting photos with the adoptable dogs, Operation Kindness had found homes for the animals. Gallo has also owned his own Labrador Retriever named Ranger for four years and plans to continue his philanthropic efforts as he says the best part about being an athlete is the stage to “promote good in the world.”

0 notes

technteacher · 5 years

Text

Daily News Roundup: What to Expect from Google I/O 2019

Google I/O, the company’s yearly tech conference, starts next week. As usual, all the new stuff Google has been working on for the last year will be front and center. Here’s a quick look at what we expect to see.

Android Q: Android is routinely a huge talking point at I/O, and this year will be no different. The Q Beta is already available on Pixel devices for developers and curious users to test, but expect to see more of what Google plans for the final builds as I/O progresses next week.

Stadia: Google’s upcoming game streaming service is something the company will be pushing hard this year (especially as availability draws near), so we expect to see a lot about Stadia. Hopefully, that will include some of the information that has been missing so far—you know, like pricing and model.

Pixel 3a/3a XL: These phones have been leaked into oblivion already, with full details, packaging, pricing, and literally everything else already out in the open. But we expect Google to officially unveil them next week, along with immediate availability.

Android TV and Android Automotive: Not only will Q get a heavy focus, but we’ll likely see Google talk more about Android TV—its set-top box OS that has been mostly kept alive by the NVIDIA SHIELD for the past three years. Android Automotive (not to be confused with Android Auto, which is a totally different product), will also get some attention.

Chrome, Smarthome, Assistant, and more: While the above list will likely be the most significant announcements made at I/O, Google will also probably highlight upcoming features in Chrome, talk about its smarthome products (including the recently leaked Nest Hub Max), and of course, Google Assistant.

In other news, Spotify wants to put podcasts in your playlists, Verizon is selling Tumblr, Mozilla bans certain extensions, and more.

Spotify is testing playlists with podcasts: How would you like to have a personal playlist that also includes several minutes of people talking in between songs? That’s what Spotify is testing by throwing short podcasts into personalized playlist mixes. It just seems so weird. [TechCrunch]

Tumblr can’t catch a break: Yahoo had it and did nothing with it, then sold it to Verizon. Verizon also did nothing with it, and now it’s trying to sell the platform off. I got five on it if anyone else wants to go in with me. [The Verge]

Mozilla bans Firefox extensions with obfuscated code: Starting on June 10th, any Firefox extension that doesn’t meet specific criteria—including full access to the source code—will be disallowed in its store. [ZDNet]

Pokemon come to Playground: You can now drop Pikachu, Charizard, Mr. Mime, and Jigglypuff into your world with the new Detective Pikachu Playmoji pack for Google’s Playground platform on compatible Android phones. [Google Blog]

Mortal Kombat, Super Mario Kart, and Solitaire make it to the HoF: The National Museum of Play has announced 2019’s inductees into the Video Game Hall of Fame, with Mortal Kombat, Super Mario Kart, Microsoft Windows Solitaire, and Colossal Cave Adventure all making the cut. [Engadget]

A guy swallowed and AirPod, and It still worked: Apparently, this dude fell asleep with his AirPods in and accidentally swallowed one. I don’t even see how that’s possible, but hey, that’s not what’s important here. What’s important is that it still worked. [9to5Mac]

Have you seen the Sonic the Hedgehog trailer? Lots of people have, and lots of people aren’t happy with how Sonic looks. The film’s director, James Fowler, acknowledged that people weren’t happy and pledged to fix it. Here’s to hoping for shorter legs and less weird teeth. As an aside Jim Carry as Robotnik looks amazing—especially the tease at the end. I’m into this movie just for that. [CNET]

from How-To Geek http://bit.ly/2DXCv5J from Blogger http://bit.ly/2IZYoFi

#Blogger

0 notes

latestnews2018-blog · 6 years

Text

The New Day On Hogan Return: Never Trade Your Authenticity For Approval

New Post has been published on https://latestnews2018.com/the-new-day-on-hogan-return-never-trade-your-authenticity-for-approval/

The New Day On Hogan Return: Never Trade Your Authenticity For Approval

WWE trio The New Day have said they are indifferent to the return of Hulk Hogan, after the Hulkster was reinstated in the WWE Hall Of Fame earlier this week.

Hogan, who was fired in 2015 for racist remarks in a video, gave a speech backstage at the Extreme Rules Pay Per View, where he apologised for his comments, with the black members of the roster reportedly being 50/50 on his return.

In a tweet from Kofi Kingston, the trio said that time will tell whether their opinion on Hogan will change.

“To the WWE Universe and whoever else it may concern:

This will be the only statement we will make regarding Hogan’s reinstatement into WWE’s Hall of Fame. We do not wish to spend the energy debating the point because between our kids, our external ventures and this job, our energy is spread thin enough already, lol.

We are only writing this simply to provide an answer to the many who have bombarded us with questions on where we stand on the issue.

We preface this statement by emphasizing that this is our own opinion and may not necessarily reflect the opinion of anyone else affected.

How do we feel? Indifferent. We are not happy, or sad, angry or resentful. Who WWE puts into the HOF is totally and completely up to the company, and from a career standpoint, there is no argument on whether or not Hogan should have his place. We have no problem with his re-induction in the slightest degree. It is impossible to even begin to mention the history and evolution of the business without mentioning his name and accolades.

On a personal level, when someone makes racist and hateful comments about any race or group of people, especially to the degree that Hogan made about our people, we find it difficult to simply forget, regardless of how long ago it was, or the situation in which those comments were made. But we also do not respond with more feelings of hate. Instead, we just do not associate with the people who convey or have conveyed this negative and hurtful mindset. This instance will be no different. Perhaps if we see him make a genuine effort to change, then maybe our opinion of him will change with him. Time will tell.

Through the course of our lives, people have used racist comments towards us and it doesn’t feel good. But if we stopped moving forward everytime we were met with prejudicial hatred, then we would have never achieved our current accomplishments.

We know we are worth it, we know our kids are worth it, and most importantly, we know that people that look like us are worth it and always have been. There isn’t a person on this planet who will be ever be able to say anything to make us think otherwise because we believe in ourselves as a people and don’t need anyones approval on that, regardless of who they are.

Having said that, his reinstatement won’t change anything for us. It will have zero effect on our ability to perform or the level of effort we will put into doing what we love to do, and this is: To deliver an entertaining product each week for our fan base.

Sincerely,

-The New Day

“Never trade your authenticity for approval.”

(function(d, s, id) var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) return; js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = “http://connect.facebook.net/en_US/all.js#xfbml=1&appId=130207947076486&version=v2.10”; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs); (document, ‘script’, ‘facebook-jssdk’));(function(d, s, id) var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) return; js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = “http://connect.facebook.net/en_US/sdk.js#xfbml=1&appId=875046659199370&version=v2.10”; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs); (document, ‘script’, ‘facebook-jssdk’));

0 notes

365footballorg-blog · 6 years

Text

National Soccer Hall of Fame announces 2018 induction class

May 31, 201811:11AM EDT

On Thursday morning the National Soccer Hall of Fame began unveiling its 2018 induction class, ahead of this year’s Hall of Fame Weekend at Toyota Stadium in Frisco, Texas, set for Oct. 20.

Part of a $ 55 million renovation at the home of FC Dallas, the National Soccer Hall of Fame is a public-private partnership among FCD, the City of Frisco, Frisco Independent School District and U.S. Soccer.

The celebration on Oct. 20 will also include the 2018 Hall of Fame game, an MLS match featuring FC Dallas and Sporting Kansas City, an NASL Legends game to mark that league’s 50th anniversary, and a concert. To learn more about the NASL match, please visit NASL50th.com. Details of the concert will be released at a later date.

The first honoree of the day was the leader of Major League Soccer – and the architect of the league as we know it today.

Don Garber

Commissioner Don Garber was announced as the first member of the 2018 class, with his MLS colleague and fellow Hall of Famer Jeff Agoos springing a surprise at the league’s offices in Manhattan to present him with the trappings of his induction, a commemorative scarf and coin.

.@MLS Commissioner Don Garber thought he was settling in for a routine meeting, until Hall of Famer and colleague @JeffAgoos walked in…

Welcome to the Hall of Fame, Commissioner! #NSHOF18 pic.twitter.com/YkfgtahC0y

— National Soccer HOF (@soccerhof) May 31, 2018

Garber was technically elected to the National Soccer Hall of Fame in 2016, but opted to defer his official enshrinement until construction of the new Hall of Fame was completed in Frisco this year. He enters under the Builder category.

Garber was named commissioner of Major League Soccer in 1999, and in the nearly two decades under his guidance, the league has grown dramatically in many ways. MLS had only 10 member teams when he took over, and currently has 23 clubs competing today across the United States and Canada, as well as three expansion sides on the way, with 22 new owners coming on board during his tenure.

Don Garber has guided @MLS to tremendous growth. We’re proud to welcome him into the National Soccer Hall of Fame on October 20 in Frisco. Congratulations, Commissioner! #NSHOF18

📰 https://t.co/cq2XPHjRl7 pic.twitter.com/GiTUDjH4PD

— National Soccer HOF (@soccerhof) May 31, 2018

The Queens, New York native also played a large part in bolstering the league’s visibility and popularity by negotiating long-term broadcast deals with ESPN, FOX and Univision as well as international partnerships with major broadcasters in Canada, Europe, Asia and South America. In addition, Garber serves as CEO of Soccer United Marketing, the commercial arm of MLS and multiple soccer properties.

Garber led the process that saw 19 soccer stadiums constructed in the United States and Canada, with five more soccer venues set to open in the coming years, a major factor in MLS’ average attendance growing from some 14,000 fans per game when he became commissioner to more than 22,000 today.

<!–

Stay connected: Get access to breaking news, videos, and analysis from North America’s best soccer reporters via “This Week in MLS” newsletter or using our FREE mobile app.

–>

Stay connected: The all-new, completely redesigned, FREE official MLS app is your best mobile source for scores, news, analysis and highlights. Download: App Store | Google Play

#block-block-188 {padding:0;} #stay-connected {border-top:1px solid #ebebeb;margin:20px 0;} #stay-connected p {margin:0;color:#4d4d4d;line-height:1.5em;} @media screen and (max-width: 730px) { #stay-connected {padding:8px 6px 0 6px;width:100%;} } @media screen and (min-width: 731px) and (max-width: 1120px) { #stay-connected {padding:8px 6px 0 6px;width:100%;} } @media screen and (min-width: 1121px) { #stay-connected {padding:8px 6px 0 6px;width:708px;} }

MLSsoccer.com News

National Soccer Hall of Fame announces 2018 induction class was originally published on 365 Football

#2018 #announces #class #Fame #Hall #induction #national #Soccer

0 notes

buytabletsonline · 6 years

Link

(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});

LAS VEGAS—When we weren’t pounding the pavement at last week’s overloaded CES trade show, we at Ars Technica took whatever opportunity we could to nerd out in uniquely Vegas style. That didn’t mean dumping our spare quarters into a Lord of the Rings-themed slot machine; it meant hitching a ride to the Vegas Pinball Hall of Fame.

This collection of roughly 260 working pinball, electromechanical, and video games has been open to the public for over a decade, with its 2006 opening followed by a size-boosting relocation in 2009 to a venue two miles down Tropicana Avenue. It arguably includes the most varied and valuable open-every-day collection of pinball and pinball-like games in the United States, if not the world—but you’d never know it by simply passing the building.

Inside this concrete slab hides the biggest collection of the rarest pinball and electromechanical games ever made.

Sam Machkovech

This was taken by standing on a chair in one corner of the venue. You can get a sense of the machine variety here: mostly pinball and electromechanical, with about one-fifth of the space dedicated to video games.

Sam Machkovech

This is probably the best representation of the dim lighting in the room.

Sam Machkovech

Follow the rules.

Sam Machkovech

The rarest machine in the house by far, Midway’s Pinball Circus. Only two were ever made.

Sam Machkovech

We chose not to reproduce most of the information cards so you would have more to read should you visit the venue. But we had to post a few. This one’s crucial.

The VPHoF’s oldest pinball machine is from the 1920s. “These things used to be outlawed!” our guide reminded us.

That old machine sits next to arguably the collection’s highest-tech virtual pinball machine.

An average dive into an older machine. Start with the full, beautifully restored machine.

Then look closer at the Atlantis pin’s general body and layout.

Then zoom in on its information card. You’ll possibly need to squint.

Nearly one third of the room is dedicated to this ’50s and ’60s era of pins.

A few Elton John-based machines were in the house.

We did the best we could with the room’s weird lighting, in terms of imbalances thanks to inlaid lights in the machines.

Abra-ca-dabra! It sure was a different era when Gottlieb made so many pins.

Imagine if this game’s designers pulled off a mechanical way to arrange dominoes like shown in the art. Even so, it’s a striking design as drawn.

Rockin’.

I’m still floored by how the bouncy balls inside that Hi-Score Pool pin worked in action.

A closer look.

The collection’s more modern machines flank the wall near the entrance.

It’s impossible to get a photo that makes Black Hole look as good as it does in real life. Its black-on-black-on-black style has an incredible glow and effect.

More of Gottlieb’s best era.

A collection so bustling, Creature Of The Black Lagoon gets crowded out.

Not to be confused with Peppy the Clown, who appears in the second gallery.

KISS returned with a modern pin via Stern; this is not that version.

Street Fighter II: The Video Game: The Pinball Game.

This probably cost less to produce than the related film.

No shortage of sci-fi-themed pins at the VPHOF.

Not every day you run into the phrase Goldeneye 007 flanked by a big Sega logo. This came before Nintendo and Rare’s N64 classic.

I can think of two Elvira-themed pinball games from the 1980s, including this one.

One row had a space theme.

Another angle of those two pins, with ST:TNG flanking.

Continuing the space-license theme.

A zoom on that Spider-man machine.

This rare Q-bert machine is a treat.

Great ramps and action.

Not many of these exist.

And even fewer of its Goin’ Nuts spinoff exist. Like, only 10.

It’s hard to tell from the photo, but this Flintstones cab is gargantuan. About as big as a typical arcade-hall basketball game.

Giant flippers.

More Flintstones info.

Vegas, baby.

In case the full pinball table didn’t make it clear, this is a pinball game. Hold that pinball, Freddy.

Nightmare’s game board.

For a short spell, a few games capitalized on the popularity of Caddyshack by including old white dudes, golf, and pesky gophers. None of them officially mentioned Caddyshack.

The warehouse’s nondescript exterior only stands out thanks to a shopping-center marker and a single yellow sign above its front door. Walk in, and you may very well wonder if it’s technically open, considering the full room is unlit and there’s nobody acting as a greeter, taking a cover charge, or explaining how the venue works.

But what this room lacks in glitz or presentation, it makes up for in sheer pinball fandom. Every machine includes an index card covered in misspelled, chicken-scratch handwriting, with all kinds of details about a particular game’s general-interest trivia and minutia about the VPHoF’s edition in particular. (A few information cards appear in the above and below galleries.) The venue’s staff, meanwhile, keeps busy. Rather than work the door, they typically manage ongoing machine repairs and game swaps, as the venue frequently swaps its roughly 260 playable games out from a nearby warehouse with another 800-plus machines. Newer pinball games, along with the VPHoF’s rarest and most popular classics, are the inventory-swap exceptions, enjoying near-permanent status in the playable collection.

Let’s start this “electromechanical” gallery—meaning, games outside the pinball realm—with the delightful and weird Skid Row.

Sam Machkovech

An explainer. The HOF also had an Ice Cold Beer machine, which is similar in style but quite different in mechanics.

Need some two-player pinball in your life? The incredible and rare Challenger has you covered. Roughly 100 were produced. The table tilts depending on how well your side does.

Chicago Coin’s Slap Shot is also a fine two-player game, but it cannot be mistaken for pinball. This is straight-up versus hockey.

I appreciate this placement of the colorful, oddball clown machine next to the sex tester. Get a double dose of scary stuff, kids.

The collection includes quite a few gun games.

Plenty of bowling-launcher games, too.

Though, really, none of the bowling-styled games top this beast.

Another angle.

And you better believe the HOF has its share of baseball-like games.

Batter up!

The wind-up, and the pitch.

Baseball, arm wrestling, basketball.

In the center is Bally’s Target-Roll, a sort of roulette- and craps-like target-shooting game.

If this were working, you’d aim the rotation and angle of this ship as it spins around, trying to contact the other metal rods nearby.

This isn’t straight-up pinball; you’re actually managing the movement of cars around a track while playing, and you’re going for laps, not score.

Shoot-‘n-race. We had to wait for the video game era before someone combined these concepts.

“Shoot this rifle!” “No, shoot this rifle!”

Goalee is essentially a one-on-one hockey game. “One can play,” but it’s really like playing Pong against yourself.

We spent less time cataloging the video games on site, but we had to make room for this sit-down Star Trek cab.

Same can be said for this rarely-seen Nintendo duo of versus light-gun games.

We actually didn’t notice that the display was upside down until reviewing these photos. How odd.

“As machines go off to that big arcade in heaven, they lose their value,” a staffer told us while showing us around the collection. This is only made more complicated by the lack of new replacement parts existing for a lot of machines, the staffer added. “If the tech dies, the [game in question] either winds up in the Smithsonian or our backyard.”

VPHoF prices its games individually at 25 or 50 cents a play—hence, why it houses so many change-making machines, including a block of four side-by-side. That’s it for cost; visitors don’t have to pay a cover fee on top. These coin-catch mechanisms are specifically used, instead of being set to free-to-play, as part of the preservation process, in fact. “If the games aren’t played, they will say, ‘fuck you,’ because they dry out, and they get corroded,” the staffer told Ars. “They need to be played.”

Thus, while VPHoF, a registered 501(c)(3) non-profit, will gladly accept donations to maintain operation and repair costs, the owners and operators say they’re actually more interested in visitors coming to the place and going hands-on with the collection. If the above galleries (split into pinball, first, and electromechanical, second) aren’t hint enough, please accept our assurance that the venue is absolutely worth the detour during a Vegas trip, roughly eight minutes’ drive from McCarran Airport.

Listing image by Sam Machkovech

(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); http://ift.tt/2mwkLVf January 14, 2018 at 07:16PM

#buytabletsonline buytablets buytablet iphone5s technology iphonegraphic mobile electronics

0 notes

flauntpage · 6 years

Text

DGB Grab Bag: Three Stars of Comedy HOF, Ugly X-Mas Blazers, and RIP Johnny Bower

Three Stars of Comedy

The third star: Radko Gudas – We've all been there.

The second star: Tyler Seguin vs. P.K. Subban – It's the ol' last-off-the-ice superstition stalemate. Stick around for the twist ending.

The first star: Peter Laviolette and the Predators' coaches – The players bet the coaches that they could take at least five of six points on a tough Western Canada road trip. They did, so Laviolette and his staff had to wear these:

And yes, they made them wear them during an actual game.

The Inaugural Class of the Three Stars of Comedy Hall of Fame

Last week was the 200th edition of the Friday Grab Bag. The column has been running for nearly five years now; it dates back the Grantland days, made a brief stop at ESPN, and has lived here at Vice Sports for the last two years. Based on extensive customer research, for many of you it remains your Very Favorite Hockey Column to Read in the Office Bathroom After Lunch on Friday.™

That milestone, mixed in with the slowest week of the NHL regular season, would seem to make this a good time to unveil the first ever Three Stars of Comedy Hall of Fame. The three stars actually predates the Grab Bag itself, having launched as a monthly feature way back in 2011. And despite my occasional attempts to kill it when nobody is looking, the section continues to hold down the leadoff spot in the lineup.

Some weeks, finding three picks is easier than others. But certain personalities have done their best to ease my burden. That's where the Hall of Fame comes in. We'll do this HHOF style, with room for four picks per year. Ladies and gentlemen, the inaugural Class of 2017.

Ilyz Bryzgalov – The first star of the very first edition, Bryzgalov dominated the early days so thoroughly that at one point we tried to retire his number and eliminate him from future consideration. It didn't take, and even though he hasn't play in the NHL since 2015, he still finds a way to make periodic appearances. He's one of two unanimous picks for the inaugural class.

Phil Kessel – The other slam dunk pick, Kessel has appeared in the Three Stars section more than anyone else. Granted, some of those are cases where he's the butt of the joke, as everyone from Ilya Kovalchuk to Ryan Reaves has taken their runs at him. Sometimes he'll accidentally own himself. But in recent years we've learned that Phil can give as good as he gets, and then some. Here's all you need to know about why he's in on the first ballot: He's the only person to ever sweep all three stars in a single week. And he's done it twice.

P.K. Subban – Unlike Kessel or Bryzgalov, when Subban makes the Three Stars he's almost always in on the joke. And that's fine, because lord knows the NHL could use a few more guys with a sense of humor who aren't afraid to show it. Whether he's stealing The Rock's catch phrases, playing dress-up, or kissing Pierre McGuire, Subban's almost always fun. Even when he's sucker punching guys, he finds a way to make it funny. How this guy isn't the face of the league's marketing efforts in the U.S. right now, I'll never understand.

Roberto Luongo – Luongo is the Howie Morenz of funny hockey players, blazing the trail for the generations to come. It's easy to forget it now, but when Luongo first started using Twitter to make jokes, the idea of an NHL star trying to be funny was controversial enough that he had to pretend it wasn't him. But he's made regular appearances in the Three Stars ever since, with his best tweets often being the ones that poke fun at his own controversies, including his tire-pumping feud with Tim Thomas and his never-ending trade saga. And also, um, poop.

And that concludes the Class of 2017. The big omission here is Jaromir Jagr, who falls victim to the four-pick maximum. It was a coin flip between him and Luongo for the last spot, but I figure Jagr will be a unanimous first-ballot pick in the real Hall of Fame, which will probably slightly dampen his disappointment at missing out on a bigger honor here. Also, Luongo once let me play in (and win) his fantasy football league, so I feel like owe him.

Others receiving votes: Brian Burke, Joe Thornton, Wes McCauley, Taylor Hall, Darryl Sutter's face, Brent Burns, and Evgeni Malkin. Better luck next year, everyone.

Obscure Former Player of the Week

It's World Juniors time, with this year's tournament being held in Buffalo. It's always fun to browse through the list of the tournament's all-time top scorers; the list features plenty of future NHL superstars, like Peter Forsberg, Pavel Bure, and Eric Lindros, as well as some European players who never made it over to North America. But if you keep going, you get into the sweet spot of vaguely memorable NHL quasi-stars, like Michal Pivonka and Ulf Dahlen and Reijo Ruotsalainen. And you also find this week's obscure player: Finnish forward Petri Skriko.

Skriko was a teenage star in Europe, winning rookie honors in the top Finnish league in 1981. This was back when many European stars never made it over to the NHL, but the Canucks used an eighth-round pick on him in that summer's draft. It turned out to be a good gamble, as Skriko would have the second biggest impact on the Canucks of any 1981 eighth-rounder, just behind a defenseman picked by the Blues a few spots later.

That impact would have to wait, though. Skriko stayed in Finland until 1984, starring in a pair of WJCs along the way. But when he arrived in Vancouver, he fit in instantly, scoring 21 goals as a rookie and then following that with four-straight 30+ goal seasons. That included one stretch in 1986 in which he recorded three hat tricks in a span of eight days.

His production faded during the 1989-90 season, and he'd be traded to the Bruins the following year for a second-round pick. That deal ended up helping the Canucks down the line, as they used the pick on Michael Peca. Skriko helped the Bruins get to the 1991 Cup final before being traded to Winnipeg for Brent Ashton, had short stints with the Jets and Sharks before heading home to Finland in 1993 and then finishing his pro career in Denmark. He ended his NHL career with 541 games played, scoring 183 goals and 405 points.

Also, he had fantastic hair.

Be it Resolved

Last week was a big one for the Toronto Maple Leafs. Not only did they celebrate their 100th anniversary by pounding the Carolina Hurricanes 8-1, but they did it while scoring the 20,000th goal in team history.

Or did they?

Here's how the 20,000 breaks down. See if you can spot the problem.

Yeah, "shootout winners" aren't goals. I mean, they are, according to the league. For reasons that have never been entirely clear, the NHL awards the team that wins a shootout one "goal" in the goals-for column of the standings. That makes sense when you're describing the results of a game – you'd rather say "The Rangers won 5-4 in a shootout" than "The Rangers won 4-4 in a shootout," even if the fifth goal wasn't scored during the actual hockey portion of the game. But there's no reason to pretend that it was a real goal for deeper record-keeping purposes.

The NHL's always been weird and inconsistent about this. For example, they consider the shootout winner to be a goal, but don't give the guy who scored it credit for one in his personal stats. (A cynic might suggest that teams don't want their star players padding their stats with an extra half dozen goals a year and then expecting more money.) So it's a goal, but nobody scored it. That makes no sense. And they go the other way too, counting a shootout loss as a goal against even though, statistically, nobody let it in.

And it's not like this is all some sort of semantic argument, since goals for and against can come into play as a tie-breaker in the standings. That hasn't happened yet, but we have seen the league's weird shootout goal math decide the Jennings Trophy, so it's been etched into the record books already.

Needless to say, people who pay attention to this stuff were quick to point out that the Maple Leafs' stat wasn't what it seemed.

As with just about everything that doesn't involve bicycles, Dellow is right. Shootout goals shouldn't count towards a team's historical totals. So be it resolved: The Maple Leafs are well on their way to 20,000 but they're not there yet. Maybe they heard the complaints because they took a big chunk out of it with seven goals last night, but they're still 35 goals away. Real goals.

Classic YouTube Clip Breakdown

This week's YouTube clip isn't really a video; it's more of an audio file. But it's a good one, and under the circumstances I hope you'll indulge me.

This week's clip is Johnny Bower singing "Honky The Christmas Goose."

The hockey world lost Bower this week, as the Hall of Fame goaltender passed away at the age of 93. The rest of the week became a chance to mourn the loss of a legend, while celebrating a life well-lived.

Bower was one of the greatest goalies of all time, and quite likely the best of the 1960s, period. But somehow, that fact ended up being way down the list of what most people remember him for. In all of the many stories and tributes that poured in this week, the point that kept coming home was what a wonderful guy he was. For pretty much his entire life, Johnny Bower was just a very, very nice man. He didn't have to be, because he was a famous athlete and people were going to like him no matter what he did. But it seems like everyone in the hockey world has a story about Bower staying late to sign one last autograph or shake one more hand, or donating his time to a good cause, or having an encouraging word for someone going through a tough time. That's just who he was.

It sounds strange to say it, but it's almost impossible for a hockey player to be a universally beloved figure in Canada. The game just means too much to us up here. It gets too personal. We don't like to see fans of other teams get to be happy, so we instinctively dislike anyone who plays well for someone else. And it takes a lot to get us past that.

Put it this way: If I'm talking to a Habs fan who's getting a little too smug and I decide I want to knock them down a peg or two, I can come up with bad things to say about just about all of their beloved legends. Rocket Richard? He started a riot. Patrick Roy? He quit on the team. Guy Lafleur? What, you mean the guy from the Nordiques? But there's one ironclad exception: Jean Beliveau. No matter how much you hate the Canadiens, you can't find a bad word to say about Beliveau. That's just how it is. And Bower was the Maple Leafs' version of that. That's about the highest compliment you can pay a player.

On the ice, he really was one of the best, as this piece does a good job of showing. He ranks high on just about all of the all-time lists, both traditional and analytics-based. And while many have since been broken, he retired holding several goaltending records.

And of course, he left behind one record that will never be topped: "Honky the Christmas Goose."

You're listening to the story of Honky, a Christmas goose who struggled with his weight until he learned how to blow his nose. No, that doesn't really make sense, not least of which because geese don't have noses. Just enjoy the song and don't think about it too hard.

Honky was the creation of a CBC producer, and in 1965 he approached the Maple Leafs about having a player record the vocals. As Bower recounts it in this Toronto Star article, "He came into the dressing room and wanted to know if anybody on the team would be interested in singing these songs. I’ve never seen so many guys undress and get into the shower so quickly in my life!"

Bower ended up agreeing to do the song because, as the producer said at the time, he was basically "the friendliest man in Canada." There was one minor problem: Bower couldn't sing. But as longtime readers of this column know, that's never stopped a hockey player before, and the rest was history. (The children on the track are apparently Bower's 11-year-old son and some of the neighborhood kids.)

The song tells the story of Honky saving Christmas after Santa gets spooked by all the air traffic that's suddenly clogging up the skies. Continuing his long history of selfishly exploiting animals for their nose-based magic powers, Santa hires Honky to clear out a path.

"Rockets, kites and satellites." Yeah, I'm no aerospace engineer but I don't think there should be too many kites at that elevation. I'm pretty sure nobody in history has ever successfully got a kite twenty feet off the ground for more than six seconds before it nosedived directly down onto Grandma's head, so chill out Santa.

Luckily, the plan works and Honky saves the day. Finally, he'll get some respect, right?

"Though he is fat he is still some use." Holy smokes guys, Honky just saved Christmas for the entire planet, maybe ease up on the body shaming for one minute.

The record came out in November 1965, with proceeds going to charity. It was reportedly a big hit, selling 40,000 copies. They tried to get Bower to record a follow-up a year later, pitching something about "a pelican with a broken wing," but he knew how to quit when he was ahead.

For years, the song was lost to history, with only a handful of copies circulating in the pre-Internet days of the early 90s. But it's resurfaced since, and a new generation has had a chance to enjoy to story of Honky the Christmas Goose. If you can't get enough of the song, here's a clip of Bower performing it on stage at a children's benefit concert years ago.

RIP Johnny Bower. An all-time great goaltender, an even better person, and a passable singer. Not necessarily in that order.

Have a question, suggestion, old YouTube clip, or anything else you'd like to see included in this column? Email Sean at [email protected] and follow him on Twitter @DownGoesBrown.

DGB Grab Bag: Three Stars of Comedy HOF, Ugly X-Mas Blazers, and RIP Johnny Bower published first on http://ift.tt/2pLTmlv

0 notes