Remember when platform holders used to sign meaningful marketing arrangements? We lived through the entire PlayStation 3 generation, so we recall having to wait for Call of Duty map packs and Grand Theft Auto V expansions. In this era of cross-platform play, however, manufacturers are still desperately trying to cling onto the concept of “exclusive” perks – and Call of Duty: Vanguard’s are a bit embarrassing.
While this is ultimately good news for all potential players of the first-person shooter, regardless of platform, the PlayStation Blog post makes for slightly amusing reading. Did you know, for example, that those who purchase a Battle Pass Bundle for either the new game or Call of Duty: Warzone on PlayStation will get five – count them, five! – additional Tier Skips. “That’s a total of 25 Tier Skips!” a desperate Daniel Noel exclaimed, who’s clearly ruing his role at Activision right now.
But that’s not all, readers – oh no! PS Plus subscribers will get a free in-game bundle, featuring “a new Operator Skin, Weapon Blueprint, and much more”. PlayStation 5 and PS4 players can also look forward to a 25 per cent boost to Weapon XP when playing in parties (seriously!), and “exclusive” monthly Double XP windows that will last for 24 hours at most. And finally, the pièce de résistance: two additional loadout slots.
The NFL is going to court. What happens next is anyone’s guess.
This litigation isn’t breaking news. We’ve known since early September that the league unsuccessfully exhausted every avenue to get the Rams relocation lawsuit tossed out of court. Despite what will eventually be millions of dollars in billable hours and the very best white shoe attorneys that money can buy, the NFL’s most serious legal battle since the 1986 USFL antitrust suit rolls on.
But there was a moment worthy of reflection this week when the leaking of email exchanges between Jon Gruden and former Washington Football Team executive Bruce Allen reminded us how much the league dominates investigative narratives. Maybe even to the point of choosing who gets protected and who gets sacrificed. That should raise concern where the realities of control lie in the St. Louis lawsuit.
Before tying the events surrounding Gruden to future NFL litigation, here’s what is taking place in this Rams relocation suit.
Rams owner Stan Kroenke is a key figure in litigation involving the city of St. Louis and the NFL. (REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson)
5 NFL team owners in St. Louis fight
For those who haven’t been following along, this legal fight isn’t going well for the league. And it’s most definitely not looking like something that will pan out like the 1986 antitrust lawsuit, which ultimately culminated in only $3.76 in damages, largely because a jury felt team owner Donald Trump and the USFL did more damage to itself than the NFL ever did. No, this Rams suit is a whole different set of thunderheads rolling in, the kind that is far more likely to result in a $376 million check being cut than $3.76. Actually, the league could be looking at billion-dollar damages on its hands.
That’s why there has been no end to legal jousting and foot-dragging from the NFL’s attorneys over the past month during a discovery process that is seeking to determine the net worth of five franchise owners who were most influential in the Rams relocation: the Rams’ Stan Kroenke; the Dallas Cowboys’ Jerry Jones; the New England Patriots’ Robert Kraft; the New York Giants’ John Mara; and the Kansas City Chiefs’ Clark Hunt. Kroenke will be the only one on the hook for the final check, but the net worths and franchise values of those other owners could significantly impact a judgment of damages should the NFL lose this case.
The result has been attorneys for St. Louis complaining that all five of the team owners are being difficult about opening their books. And not just the books pertaining to their teams, but their finances for all of their business. And when I say they’re defying a court order, they’re doing it to the point of contempt at this stage with arguments that have become so ridiculous that the Giants’ Mara had an NFL lawyer argue Wednesday that Mara doesn’t know or understand what his franchise is actually worth.
Forbes annually can come up with that number, but Mara is apparently clueless and confused about all of it.
The NFL doesn’t want the trial to take place in St. Louis because it essentially knows a jury in that town has likely been poisoned against the league. It also doesn’t want the same jury to decide the guilt or innocence of the league and the financial damages probably because a jury finding the NFL guilty of screwing over the city of St. Louis with a relocation would also be very likely to award staggering damages.
NFL won’t have control like it does over Jon Gruden and WFT affairs
In terms of potential precedents set in franchise relocation, it’s all interesting even if it might be too in the weeds for fans when it comes to the daily legal maneuvers. But there’s a part of this court battle that is also very easy for fans to understand this week: That when it comes to investigative narratives, the discovery process and what hits the light of day, the league has almost always been in control of the fight. It wields the power to do what it pleases.
That much was on display over the summer during the Washington Football Team’s workplace investigation. The probe came and went with a $10 million Dan Snyder penalty and virtually nothing in the way of details about what transpired with the club owner or all of his employees. There wasn’t a written report of findings. And beyond the fine, almost nothing was officially known about what kind of sanctions Snyder faced from the league. Even the discovery was almost entirely shielded — until the Gruden and Allen emails popped up last week and showcased some of the less savory things that people will say when they assume nobody will ever see them.
The NFL certainly doesn’t seem to be throwing a fit about those emails going public, despite the fact that those messages were supposed to be shielded like the 650,000 others that have been reviewed from the Washington franchise. It also isn’t saying what else might have been in those servers — or who else might be implicated in a fashion similar to Gruden or Allen. Despite renewed calls for full transparency, the league has made it clear it’s never going to happen.
Some people will remain protected. Some people won’t. And the league will retain its ability to wield power over narrative and secrecy. At least until this whole St. Louis litigation gets into a courtroom. Then that all goes out the door.
That’s what makes this situation with the Rams so striking. It has morphed into a legal battle where the NFL cannot control the discovery process — nor control the narrative of what happens once a trial starts. If this litigation goes forward in Missouri, there’s no telling what gets dug up in the process. Maybe it will be something along the lines of the unsavory things that have already hit daylight. Like Rams staffers referring to a supposedly heartfelt goodbye letter to the city of St. Louis as the “AMF” letter. AMF being an acronym for “Adios Mother F******.” Or the discovery that chief operating officer Kevin Demoff was forwarding articles to the league office in 2015 that highlighted St. Louis’ murder rate and credit rating.
Yikes.
Now pair that kind of discovery damage with a trial wave, where Kroenke has to get on a witness stand and face questions. And lining up behind him for their turn under oath, Jones, Kraft, Mara, Hunt and even NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, all sitting in a witness box preparing to answer who knows what. Remember all those high-price attorneys the NFL pays for? Well, this is where the hired legal lawn mowers start running over hand grenades that they didn’t know existed.
And that’s why there’s a very good chance a staggering settlement check gets written to make all of this go away before a jury can sit down and deliberate about whatever is pulled from behind the NFL’s veil of secrecy.
If this week taught us anything, it’s that there is a lot of discomfort to be found on the other side of the NFL losing power over process and information. For that very reason, the NFL has to feel like it can’t face this trial in St. Louis. It’s not an investigation that can be buried. It’s not a set of probing questions on that witness stand that can be ignored.
And maybe most important of all, it’s not going to be an onslaught of media attention that gets wiped out by a total suffocation of information. No, this would be the league’s laundry — business, personal and financial — hung out for everyone to see. That’s the type of theater the NFL can’t control and it won’t be ignored. And it will be the center of the football universe when the curtain goes up in a court room next year.
In a recent interview with Independent, Stephen Dorff, most famous for his role of the villain Deacon Frost in Blade, criticized the modern film industry, particularly modern superhero movies including Marvel’s Black Widow.
“I still hunt out the good s**t because I don’t want to be in Black Widow,” Dorff said. “It looks like garbage to me. It looks like a bad video game. I’m embarrassed for those people. I’m embarrassed for Scarlett! I’m sure she got paid five, seven million bucks, but I’m embarrassed for her. I don’t want to be in those movies. I really don’t. I’ll find that kid director that’s gonna be the next [Stanley] Kubrick and I’ll act for him instead.”
The much-anticipated Black Widow film is hitting theaters and Disney+ Premier Access on July 9, 2021, after being delayed more than a year due to COVID-19. It will be the 24th film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the first film in the franchise’s “Phase Four”, with 10 more films on the schedule. The franchise launched with Iron Man in 2008, significantly changing the landscape for superhero films a decade after Dorff’s Blade, which kickstarted Marvel’s success in film.
A reboot of Blade starring Mahershala Ali has been announced for the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Painters in a Wisconsin village made a very public blunder when they made a typo on the water tower.
Plover hired painters to decorate the tower with the village’s name, but two of the templates were accidentally reversed before going up, resulting in “Village of Plvoer.”
WISCONSIN WALMART EMPLOYEE TACKLES DEER THAT GOT LOOSE IN STORE
A new paint job on a water tower in Plover, Wis., spelled it “Plvoer.” (Point/Plover Metro Wire)
Residents immediately noticed the error Thursday, taking to social media to mock the mistake, saying “Lvoe it!” and “Big lover of it,” Fox6 Now reported.
Some people suggested leaving the mistake since it “created so many laughs” and was “unique,” The Stevens Point Journal reported.
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Village Administrator Dan Mahoney said the mistake was quickly covered and should be fixed by Friday.
The montage of celebrities gushing over New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, D., as he received an Emmy award in November sparked a new wave of conservative mockery on Monday.
Cuomo rode high in 2020 for his handling of the coronavirus pandemic in spite of his state leading the nation in deaths, but he is now under fire from both parties over his administration’s suspected cover-up of nursing home fatalities from the virus.
Cuomo received the Founders Award “in recognition of his leadership during the Covid-19 pandemic and his masterful use of television to inform and calm people around the world” at the International Emmy Awards ceremony on Nov. 23, and liberal celebrities like Ben Stiller, Spike Lee, and Robert de Niro heaped praise upon him in a pre-recorded video.
TWITTER USERS TRASH SNL FOR IGNORING CUOMO’S NURSING HOME SCANDAL: ‘WAS IT TOO EASY?’
The briefings “gave us hope, gave us clarity, gave us the truth, and gave us something we were not getting from Washington: leadership,” comedian Billy Crystal said. “You are the epitome of New York tough.”
Stiller said “I look up to you” and mentioned he reached out to Cuomo’s younger brother, CNN host Chris Cuomo, for advice on what good-natured jokes to make about him.
“You are the man,” actress Rosie Perez said. “We were all in a crisis, in a panic, and every single day you came on the airwaves, and you offered your strength, your leadership, your direction, and your caring, and your heart.”
“Thank you for your leadership during these trying times,” de Niro said.
But with Cuomo’s handling of the pandemic in the state under a new light, with reports on what some Republicans are calling obstruction of justice, conservatives heaped scorn upon Cuomo and his Hollywood fans.
TUCKER CARLSON: FROM ANDREW CUOMO TO THE LINCOLN PROJECT, MEDIA PROTECTED THE WORST OF POLITICS
“What if I told you celebrities were dumb?” Tablet’s Noam Blum wrote.
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Fourteen Democratic New York state Senators have joined Republicans in seeking to strip Cuomo of his emergency powers granted during the pandemic, amid separate bipartisan calls for a federal investigation into his administration.
Tom Izzo called Michigan State basketball’s 88-58 loss to No. 16 Iowa “a total breakdown” he didn’t see coming, putting blame on himself.
Detroit Free Press
EAST LANSING —Tom Izzo’s stoicism spoke volumes.
The normally fiery Hall of Fame coach stood emotionless on Michigan State basketball’s sideline for much of Saturday’s 88-58 blowout to No. 16 Iowa, silently searching for answers while watching his team put together yet another ignominious performance that takes some effort to find in record books.
The worst home loss in his 26-year career.
SHAWN WINDSOR: Forget the NCAA tournament. MSU is drowning in a sea of uncertainty
The worst loss in Breslin Center’s 31-plus-year history.
The worst home loss for the Spartans since one of the most infamous moments in program history 46 years ago.
The momentary momentum of MSU’s back-to-back wins erased and replaced with that same feeling Izzo and his players have felt a few times — equaling the 30-point loss they suffered 17 days earlier at Rutgers.
Izzo chose his words patiently — “embarrassing,” “disappointing” and “lack of effort” among them — knowing any chance the Spartans (10-8, 4-8 Big Ten) have of extending their now-22 straight NCAA tournament appearance streak rests on pulling it together over the final eight games of the regular season.
“Today was an ambush,” Izzo said. “It’s one game. It’s not good, but it’s not been indicative of how we’ve played (recently). We know what our goal is and what we have to do. There’s so many games we have to win, and we have eight left to do that in, to see what we can do.
“No excuses, blame should go on me and solely on me not on (the players). … I didn’t see it coming necessarily, but that’s my job.”
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It was the Spartans’ second 30-point defeat in less than a month after losing, 67-37, at Rutgers on Jan. 28, following a 20-day break between games due to COVID-19 issues within the program. Those two are Izzo’s worst defeats since losing, 98-63, to No. 1 North Carolina on Dec. 3, 2008 at Ford Field.
MSU also lost by 25 at Minnesota on Dec. 28 and now has dropped five games by double digits this season, all during Big Ten play. Izzo’s previous worst loss at Breslin defeat came by 25 points (68-43) to Minnesota on Jan. 4, 1997. None of the Spartans’ four conference wins this season have come against a team with an above-.500 league record.
It marks MSU’s worst home defeat since Jan. 4, 1975, the infamous 107-55 defeat to No. 1 Indiana before which 10 Black players walked out on Gus Ganakas before the game.
They travel to No. 25 Purdue on Tuesday (7 p.m., ESPN), desperately needing to avenge their one-point home loss from Jan. 8 to salvage hope.
“We have to find a way. That’s all we can do, we have to find a way, and we have to bite down,” said senior captain Joshua Langford, who scored 11 points. “I think this is where we’ll truly see what kind of team we have.”
Izzo’s strategy to contain Iowa’s Luka Garza worked yet backfired.
The Spartans held the nation’s leading scorer to a season-low eight points on 3 of 11 shooting, ending the 6-foot-11 center’s 44-game streak of scoring in double figures. Garza had not been limited to under 10 by a Big Ten opponent since Illinois did it on March 14, 2019, when he was a sophomore.
MSU achieved that by running double teams at Garza in the post, sometimes accidental triple-teams. That left the rest of the Hawkeyes (14-6, 8-5) perched at the perimeter. And they divebombed and pecked apart the Spartans.
Just over 10 minutes into the game, Iowa made its eighth 3-pointer on its 11th try. It was part of a 27-6 run that put the Hawkeyes ahead by 20. MSU would get no closer than 15 early in the second half, from which Iowa went on a 33-14 run.
The Hawkeyes finished 13 of 25 on 3-point attempts, shooting 49.2% overall despite Garza’s struggles. He scored 27 points as the Iowa edge the Spartans, 84-78, on Feb. 2 in Iowa City.
“You gotta pick your poison,” Izzo said. “… We missed some shots, they made some shots. And that was a difference in the game.”
Joe Wieskamp led Iowa with 21 points, hitting five from deep among his 7 of 13 shooting performance. But Izzo felt it was Iowa’s other players who hurt MSU worse.
Connor McCaffery, a 28.3% shooter from deep, made 4 of 6 and finished with 16 points. Keegan Murray, who entered making 32.3%, hit his two attempts from deep.
“Our defense was just wasn’t there today,” said MSU junior Gabe Brown, who scored 10 of his team-high 15 points in the game’s final 13 minutes. “We didn’t connect very well on defense.”
Meantime, the Spartans continued to look discombobulated and dysfunctional on offense, making just 35.5% overall and going 3 of 18 on 3-point tries until making their final three attempts with the game well out of reach in the final 5 minutes.
Aaron Henry scored 13 points but sat for 8 minutes of the first half as Izzo felt he lacked necessary energy. Joey Hauser continued to battle foul trouble and miss shots, scoring nine points on 4 of 12 attempts with seven rebounds. The rest of MSU’s post players — Malik Hall, Marcus Bingham Jr., Thomas Kithier, Julius Marble and Mady Sissoko — combined for six points and 13 rebounds.
To compound problems, Rocket Watts did not return from the locker room after halftime. A team spokesman said he did not return “for health and safety precautions” after scoring just three points on 1 of 5 shooting in 10 first-half minutes as MSU trailed, 46-27, at intermission.
And there is no time for fatigue or frustration. Izzo on his pregame radio show he thinks the Spartans may be playing four games a week soon, playing the makeup game with Illinois on Feb. 23 and still needing to reschedule postponements with Indiana and Michigan. The Big Ten tournament is scheduled to begin March 10 in Indianapolis.
“I mean, (losing by) 30 points at home is horrible. We don’t want that, so it is embarrassing to go out there and play like that, like what we did,” Brown said. “But it’s not over yet. We’re still fighting, and we still believe that we can make this run. And we’re going to.”
Contact Chris Solari: csolari@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @chrissolari. Read more on the Michigan State Spartans and sign up for our Spartans newsletter.
The Mavericks lost their fourth game in a row, falling to the Jazz 120-101. It was a dispiriting effort from Dallas, who yet again showed a level of lethargy and carelessness not often seen by a professional basketball team. The team has a hard schedule and terrible luck with health, but at a certain point, they have to show up and play basketball at a high level. Or maybe at least a competitive one.
The offense was disjointed to start the game, as the Mavericks were only able to put up 12 points in the first quarter. The Jazz, however, had no problem getting buckets, hitting seven 3-pointers on their way to 37 points in the opening frame. This was despite missing their star Donovan Mitchell, out for the second straight game due to concussion protocols. Dallas fought back in the second, cutting the deficit to 16, but Utah roared back in the third, outscoring the Mavericks by ten on with another barrage of shots from deep.
Not much changed in the fourth. Luka Doncic put up a respectable line of 25 points, six rebounds, and seven assists. Bojan Bogdanovic led the way for the Jazz, scoring 32 points and shooting 7-of-11 from deep.
It’s getting repetitive, but the same problems haunt this team from game to game. Much of it can be solved by effort; some of it would be solved by shots just falling, which percentages say will eventually happen. So if everything discussed below feels familiar, it is. Here are three things from another demoralizing loss to the Jazz.
Kristaps Porzingis is in a bad, bad place.
Porzingis had a terrible first half — 1-of-4 shooting from the field, three points, and three rebounds. He also had three fouls, and quickly picked up two more less than two minutes into the third quarter. Porzingis got some run in the fourth quarter when the game was already decided, eventually finishing with 11 points and nine rebounds.
There’s plenty to complain about with Porzingis. He’s not shooting well, or doing much on defense, or rebounding at all. The Mavericks brought him to Dallas to be the second star and to carry the scoring load when Doncic sits. He’s not doing that and can’t influence the game when he doesn’t score. The Mavericks can only hope his shooting form returns soon, because they need all the help they can get right now.
The Mavericks rebounding woes continue.
Dallas was bludgeoned on the boards, as the Jazz outrebounded the Mavericks 56-40. They were especially crushed on the defensive end, giving up 17 offensive rebounds while only grabbing eight themselves. This isn’t due to roster size or talent. The Mavericks were fourth in the NBA in team rebounding last season. Most of that roster returned this year.
The difference is the effort level, which has been mentioned enough. They don’t have to win the rebounding battle every night, but they can’t lose it by this much. At some point they have to show some pride and attack every loose ball like it’s the seventh game of a playoff series.
3-point shooting buried the Mavericks early
The Jazz hit their 3-pointers, and the Mavericks did not. It’s that simple.
Utah shot 41 percent from behind the arc, while Dallas only hit 27 percent. At some point the Mavericks have to hold opponents to a reasonable percentage from deep, and make their own shots. Doncic is setting up the Mavericks’ shooters for good looks. They’re just not falling. Maybe that will change going forward, but for now Dallas will have a tough time winning if they don’t reverse their fortune from the 3-point line.
The Mavericks don’t have much time to figure out how to right the ship. They’re back in Dallas tomorrow night to face the Suns at 8 p.m. CST.
Here’s thepostgame podcast, Mavs Moneyball After Dark. If you can’t see the embed below “More from Mavs Moneyball”,click here. And if you haven’t yet, subscribe by searching “Mavs Moneyball podcast” into your favorite podcast app.
