- Why is it such a fight to get the NFL to not have its head
up its legalistic ass? The league is far too militant about subjects that
simply don’t matter at all, all in the name of micromanaging every aspect of
the game and trying to control its image to a finite degree. Its uniform police
have long operated on a Third World dictator-level of control, but this past
Sunday, the NFL’s corporate stooges deigned to allow players to wear - gasp -
unique, specially designed cleats promoting various charitable causes with
which they’re associated. But wait, what of the Tennessee Titans and Cleveland
Browns, the two teams with a bye week and therefore excluded from the temporary
relaxation of NFL uniform rules? Initially, the word was that missing the My
Cause My Cleats weekend meant that Titans and Browns players wouldn’t get to
take part, even by wearing their specialized cleats this coming Sunday. At
least two Titans, cornerback Jason McCourty and tight end Delanie Walker,
planned to wear their special cleats anyway in a wholly defensible “eff you” to
the ass hats who run the league. McCourty would be promoting a joint charity he
and his twin brother, New England Patriots safety Devin McCourty, have a joint
charity called Tackle Sickle Cell. "I believe you should be [allowed], so
I'll be wearing mine for the game," Jason McCourty said. Alas, the league
has realized how bad it looked in all of this and has done a last-minute change
of its stance. "We have spoken to both the Titans and Browns," NFL
senior vice president of communications Natalie Ravitz said. "Players from
the two teams on a bye last week can participate in My Cause/My Cleats in Week
14." How verrrrry munificent of you……..
- It’s another moronic example of someone doing an insane
task in a lame effort to get their name in the Guinness Book of World Records. Sure,
this time the idiot in question did so in the name of charity, but that doesn’t
make it any less ridiculous. Enter Gulfport, Mississippi resident Jamie
Richardson who is now a world record holder and should not be the least bit
proud of it. For six-plus days, Richardson stood and rang a bell, over and
over, allowed only a five-minute break every hour. He finally broke the
150-hour record at 7 a.m., surrounded by his friends and family, who should
have been ashamed to be associated with this farce at all. "My hands are
sore and cold from the wet but they'll be okay," Richardson said. The
reason he rang that damn bell for so damn long and went without sleep for
nearly a week is to benefit the Salvation Army, a charitable organization that
means a lot to he and his family. He was once homeless and went to the
Salvation Army for assistance. "We got through it. We went to the
Salvation Army and they became family to us," Richardson said. Family
friends said Richardson made it clear all along that he wanted the focus of his
record-breaking effort to be on the organization and not on himself, but it’s
pretty clear that all of the headlines are about a guy who didn’t work or sleep
for nearly a week so he could unleash one of the most annoying sounds known to
mankind, over and over again. After wrapping up his bell-ringing record, he
went to church with his family and then headed home for some long-overdue
sleep……..
- Warner Bros.’ water-based superhero finally has a debut
date. Aquaman will finally get his chance to stand alone and shine in the
running DC/Marvel superhero race for cinematic glory, as Warner Bros. has
finally confirmed the release date for the film starring Jason Momoa as Aquaman
and Amber Heard as Mera. That dynamic duo will hit cinema screens in October 2018,
which is still a long freaking way off and three years after Momoa made his
debut as Aquaman in this year’s “Batman v. Superman: Dawn Of Justice.” Fans won't
have to wait until 2018 to see them again, as Momoa will reprise his role next
year’s Justice League movie, joined by Heard in her debut performance as Mera
after she was cast in the role back in March. Aquaman and his cadre of
water-based powers made their DC Comics debut in 1941, but amazingly, Momoa’s
brief appearance in “Batman v. Superman: Dawn Of Justice” represented the first
time the character has appeared in a live-action film. The Aquaman movie will
be helmed by director James Wan, who also directed “Fast & Furious 7” and “The
Conjuring,” with “Batman v. Superman” director Zack Snyder serving as an
executive producer. “I kind of don’t want to give too much away but know this:
The spirit that I’m going for is like a classic sort of swashbuckling action
adventure, sort of high seas adventure story,” Wan said of the film. “It’s
ultimately a quest story in the spirit of Raiders Of The Lost Ark meets
Romancing The Stone.” In truth, all of that matters very little because people
love superhero movies and will fork over their movie dollars to see them no
matter how good they are……..
- It’s Romania v. Hungary in a battle of small, eastern
European countries most people around the world would struggle to locate on a
map. But this fight isn't over territory, borders or even economic
interests…no, it’s over a festival. The center of the drama is a senior ethnic
Hungarian politician who says the Romanian culture ministry discriminated
against the Hungarian community in failing to win international recognition for
a religious festival. The individual throwing shade is Csilla Hegedus, deputy
head of the Union of Democratic Hungarians in Romania, with claims that 100
Hungarian experts had worked six years to secure UNESCO protection for a
Catholic pilgrimage in northwest Romania where 1.4 million Hungarians live.
According to Hegedus, a Romanian culture ministry official failed to provide
UNESCO with documentation it requested about the festival. Ah, nothing gets the
blood boiling quite like a failure to submit the proper paperwork and
undercutting a push for UNESCO protection of a religious festival. In truth,
this is merely the latest escalation in rising tensions between the two
countries, coming not long after Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto
told Hungarian diplomats not to attend Romania's national day celebration. Add
in the fact that Transylvania became part of Romania in 1918 after long
existing as part of the Austro-Hungarian empire and you have all of the
ingredients you need for a combustible mix that can go boom over something as
simple as seeking United Nations recognition and protection for a religious
festival………
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