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The Bill That Could Change College Sports

By Mark Chalifoux
The Bill That Could Change College Sports
(Twitter/FirstTake)

The biggest story in college sports this week was the bill that passed the California Senate, allowing collegiate athletes to earn endorsement money. The governor of California has 30 days to sign the bill, which would go into effect in 2023. The bill could radically change the landscape of college sports.

A story of this magnitude draws plenty of takes, but Tim Tebow had one of the worst ones. He tries to make this about the purity of the amateur sporting experience and about school pride and some other nonsense. It’s an antiquated idea that exists mainly in fiction crafted by 65-year-old sportswriters. These days, it’s tough to argue college sports isn’t big business when the highest-paid employee at every major school is the football coach, usually followed in pecking order by a few other football coaches (and usually the head basketball coach, for good measure).

Most athletes are on the other side of the argument, including one of the biggest stars of all time.

Cam Newton is killing it this season. Sure, not on the football field where he’s had a rough start for fantasy owners, including a Thursday night loss to the Bucs. But he is killing it in the fashion department, where he has no parallel.

It’s certainly more interesting than some of the moves Tom Brady has pulled in the past.

 

Rob Gronkowski gave an interview this week where he revealed he’s had more than 20 concussions in his career. He also said brain damage was reversible, which is probably something you’d say as the result of getting 20 concussions.

Kobe ruthlessly dragged a child in an Instagram post. Coach Kobe was giving out accolades to his team when he mentioned one girl wasn’t in the team photo because she was at a dance recital, so you can ‘see where her focus was’. Coach Kobe, what a guy!

DeAndre Hopkins had one of the best highlights of the young NFL season. The Texans receiver is unquestionably the best at his position, but he showed another level of his game in week 1 when he body-slammed a cornerback.

And in the lowlight of the week, the Panthers-Bucs game endured the dreaded weather delay. And fans handled it about as typically as you’d expect an NFL fan base to respond, with a massive brawl!

“Dexter” Revival Takes Michael C. Hall Out of the Woods (and Miami)

By Mark Chalifoux
Dexter
(Showtime)

It was one of the best series on TV and then…it wasn’t. Few shows saw an unraveling after a series finale (and last few seasons, if we’re being totally honest) quite like “Dexter” on Showtime, but now, the gang is getting back together to fix those mistakes.

Here’s what we know, and it’s the most important thing: the 10-episode revival is not picking up where the story left off (thank god), which means Dexter is NOT A LUMBERJACK anymore. The controversial series finale had the vigilante faking his own death and starting a new life on the west coast as a lumberjack, which was deeply unsatisfying to many fans. So, like, just forget that, because the revival is picking up years later

The revival WON’T be going back to Miami either, as it’s set to take place in a fictional upstate New York town. Clancy Brown (Highlander, The Shawshank Redemption, Starship Troopers) is signed on to play the antagonist, and only a handful of other characters are known at this time. Of course, the main one, series star Michael C. Hall is back, obvs, and he too was frustrated by the finale.

“Let’s be real, people found the way that show left things pretty unsatisfying, and there’s always been a hope that a story would emerge that would be worth telling,” Hall told reporters. “I include myself in the group of people that wondered what the hell happened to that guy, so I’m excited to step back into it.”

It’s also clear it isn’t being rushed, as Hall said he and the show’s creators have bantered around ideas for years, but Hall never thought it was the right time. This time, they found an idea they really liked, and one Hall thought was a better fit for the character.

Hall said “I think in this case, the story that’s being told is worth telling in a way others weren’t, and I think enough time has passed where it’s become intriguing in a way that wasn’t before.”

The show is in production now and will air in the fall. It sounds really promising and will give fans of the original series (you know, before it fell apart) hope for a much more satisfying close.

Could Rick Moranis Appear in Ghostbusters: Afterlife? Winston Didn’t Say No

By Mike Julianelle
Ernie Hudson on Rick Moranis' Return
(Columbia)

In the midst of the nightmare that was 2020, there were a handful of bright spots. A bunch of movies landed on streaming services to help us survive, Taylor Swift graced us with two new albums, and Rick Moranis re-emerged into the spotlight after having taken years off to raise his kids.

The one-time megastar who started on SCTV starred in Strange Brew, headlined the Honey I Shrunk the Kids trilogy, and co-starred in Ghostbusters and Spaceballs, pulled back from Hollywood after his wife passed from cancer. Now that his kids are grown, he’s making a return to the industry, most notably in the forthcoming legacy-quel to Honey I Shrunk the Kids on Disney+.

Despite the imminent arrival of a new Ghostbusters film that exists in the same universe as the original movies and will feature cameos from some of the original cast, Moranis is not supposed to appear. Or is he?

Ernie Hudson, who suited up alongside Bill Murray, Dan Akyroyd, and Harold Ramis, was recently asked if Moranis makes an appearance in the new movie, and he didn’t exactly say no…

During a chat with Living Life Fearless, he was asked point black, and he dodged the question. “I think the studios probably want to hold that one,” Hudson said. “I love Rick. But yeah, I’ll let them share that.”

Moranis hasn’t spilled the beans, but he has expressed a willingness to dive back into work – but that the female-led Ghostbusters movie didn’t pique his interest.

“I’m interested in anything that I would find interesting. I still get the occasional query about a film or television role, and as soon as one comes along that piques my interest, I’ll probably do it,” Moranis told The Hollywood Reporter in 2015. “[But Ghostbusters 2016] didn’t appeal to me.”

If Hudson is playing coy and Moranis is returning, it’s a pretty well-kept secret. Bill Murray himself even denied it when he guested on Ellen, saying, “”We’re missing Rick Moranis and we’re missing Harold Ramis,” Murray said. “And they’re greatly missed for so many reasons. They were so much a part of the creation of it and the fun of it. But Harold is featured in the story of the movie, so it’s going to be very interesting.”

Maybe the movie’s delay, which was made necessary due to the pandemic, afforded a little extra time to find a way to get Moranis into the film. Or maybe the cast are just great at bluffing!

Either way, we’ll have to wait til this summer to find out, when Ghostbusters: Afterlife premieres. But you can tie yourself over with some crazy Facts About Rick Moranis.

2021’s Newest Trend Is the “Monkey Tail Beard” and TBH We’re Worried About You

By Yael Meshulam
Monkey Tail Beards
(Instagram/the_godriguez, bellaxbarbearia)

This has been one heck of a year. A freaking pandemic, all the political junk we never want to think about again, there’s a lot going on – and realistically, no person is fully equipped to handle it all. We’ve become accustomed to checking in on our loved ones even more than usual because it’s important to make sure the people we care about are holding it together as well as they possibly can. On a recent check-in, we were reminded that cries for help can come in a million different packages. Sometimes a questionable fad is nothing more than a questionable fad, but uh, we wanted to make sure you’re doing ok out there.

Nearly a year of quarantine has left even the biggest homebodies longing for the days of attending a party for a couple of hours before making an excuse to leave. We’ve had to come up with new and creative ways to stay busy, occasionally leading us to some pretty ridiculous situations. Or in this case, some ridiculous facial hair. The latest beard trend of 2021 is not entirely unexpected, given our deep desire for some sort of novelty during these monotonous days. Recently, photos featuring something called a “monkey tail beard” have been popping up on social media, and it’s – well, it’s exactly what it sounds like.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Angus Grant (@angusgrantart)

The bizarre facial hairdo features a single sideburn that essentially runs down the side of your face, swoops down around your chin, and circles upwards over one side of your mouth ending in some sort of long-winded moustache.

The trend first popped up in 2019 when MLB’s Mike Fiers showed up sporting the monkey tail beard, and we cannot stress this enough, he did it for laughs. Now, the monkey tail beard is making waves on social media by people who look suspiciously serious about it.

Listen, we get it. It’s a weird time, and we’re all just trying to make it through. If what you need to spread your creative wings within the confines of your own home is this thoroughly bananas look, more power to you – sometimes you really just need to monkey around and find out. All we ask is if you do decide to take the plunge, please photograph the evidence.

 

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A post shared by @sortadandy

Father Figures: My Hero

By Mike Julianelle

“This is my husband, Jesse, and our son, 24 hours after getting off ECMO from his heart surgery.

Our son is 5 months old and almost went into cardiac arrest two days after surgery and was placed on life support. Jesse has always pushed himself to be the best father, husband, and father figure.

He took care of me while I was battling Stage 4 Non Hodgkins Lymphoma our first year of marriage and now he is providing love and strength for our son in our third year of marriage. The obstacles that have been thrown his way have only made him love harder.

Our son is still fighting but getting stronger every day, and hearing his father’s voice, I believe, has been pushing him to get better. He is full of strength and love and deserves to be recognized for everything he has done and continues to do.

He’s my hero.

To all the good dads doing amazing things for their families, Jesse is right there with you.”

– Kirsten Boyer

Want to share a story about fatherhood? Email [email protected]

Giant Ape Finally Gets a Shot At Giant Lizard in Godzilla vs. Kong Trailer

By Mike Julianelle
King Kong vs Godzilla Trailer

With all of the real-world hullabaloo over the past few months, you may have forgotten that there is a Godzilla extended universe out there.

The modern-day Monsterverse started with Garth Edwards’ new Godzilla movie back in 2014, then there was Skull Island, featuring King Kong, which was a prequel that used a post-credits stinger to reveal its connection to the Godzilla movie, which got a sequel in Godzilla: King of the Monsters. In that one, the big lizard fought classic enemies Rodan, Mothra, and Ghidora, but now he’s facing his most formidable foe, the giant ape himself.

The two king monsters are coming head to head in the forthcoming Godzilla vs. Kong, directed by Adam Wingard (The Guest), in which Kong looks like the child-befriending gentle giant good guy, and the quiet, angry Godzilla is having none of it. The two go head to head while the almost-incidental humans in the story (including Alexander Skarsgaard, Rebecca Hall, and Coach Taylor) seek to uncover ancient mysteries surrounding the two behemoths.

I’m not convinced the pair won’t eventually team up to fight some larger foe, but there’s no real hint of that in the trailer, which focuses on their no-holds-barred brawl.

Check it out:

After Help From Mark Cuban, Delonte West Works at Rehab Facility He Attended

By Mark Chalifoux
Delonte West Working at Rehab
(Twitter/MarkCuban)

It’s one of the more uplifting stories from the sports world in the past year. Former NBA guard Delonte West had hit rock bottom with substance abuse and bipolar disorder in the fall, and photos of him looking disheveled, out of sorts, and living on the streets quickly made the rounds on social media. That’s when Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban picked him up from a gas station, took him to a hotel, and started his path to rehab.

Cuban shared an earlier update of his progress, and there’s an even happier update, as Delonte West now has a job, working at the same rehab facility that he checked into in the fall.

Cuban stays in close contact with West and with his mother, who he helped reunite with Delonte.

Honestly, it’s incredible to see Delonte West looking healthy and happy again, after where he was, and to even see him on a basketball court again. He was an incredible player in college at St. Joe’s and had a promising start to his NBA career, and it was such a bummer to see what had happened to him.

He played for Mark Cuban for one season. He played for many owners during his NBA career. Only one went to extraordinary lengths to help save him from disaster and get him on the road to recovery. Only one went to pick him up personally from a gas station. But it’s the type of Good News we need more of in 2021, as West begins working to help those in the same shoes he wore in the fall.

Dad Turns To Twitter for Prosthetic for Ballet-Loving Daughter

By Andrea Kramer
Ballerina Pollyanna Hope dances with a prosthetic foot
(Twitter/Christopher Hope)

When she was just a tot, Pollyanna Hope lost not only her grandmother to a freak bus accident in south London — she lost her own leg below the knee. While the accident hasn’t stopped the now 15-year-old from pursuing her dance dreams, she wants to trade in her running blade for something more graceful… which is where father Christopher Hope comes in.

The U.K. dad recently called out for help on Twitter for someone to “make our 15yo amputee daughter a prosthetic leg with the foot fixed in the pointe shape so she can do pointe work on it.” The appeal has been retweeted more than 3,000 times and counting, racking up nearly 6,000 hearts and more than 300,000 views.

The tweet received heartwarming responses and encouraging feedback, as well, with several people offering suggestions for the Hopes.

Many of the responses included references to a prosthetic limb designed by Pratt Institute graduate Jae-Hyun An. The relatively lightweight, carbon-fiber Marie-T allows amputee ballerinas to dance en pointe.

“In my research I came across Viktoria Modesta and she re-interpreted performance with her prosthetics,” An told Dezeen in 2018. “It was visually so powerful and opened a completely new area of prosthetics for me. I fell in love with the idea of designing something that could expand the artistic and cultural scene of a community with prosthetic users.”

Since the accident 13 years ago, Pollyanna has had no fewer than 21 operations and 20 prosthetic legs, including a “demi-pointe” foot by engineer Yusuf Mohammed in 2018, but Christopher said it became too heavy.

Whatever happens, the positive feedback has at least helped to restore his faith in humanity… or social media, at least.

“Social media gets quite a bad rep,” but the reaction to his plea has shown Christopher and Pollyanna “that there are actually really nice people out there who want to help.”

Watch Pollyanna’s beautiful pirouettes below:

A Cancelled PS1 Game Was Finished by Its Developer More Than 20 Years Later

By Nigel Jones
Magic Castle Completed PS1 Game
(YouTube/PIROWO)

Usually, when a video game is canceled, that’s the end of it.  Kaput.  Finito.  With the rise of homebrew consoles and games though, the idea of something being “canceled” doesn’t really exist anymore.  Most recently, we saw footage of an unfinished Simpsons game for the Sega Dreamcast that was discovered on a broken developers kit, and an unreleased WorkBoy Game Boy add-on that was thought to be a mere myth was discovered and play tested.

Magic Castle PS1 Game
(Kaiga)

Now, we can add a canceled Playstation game called ‘Magic Castle’ to that growing list of long, lost gaming history that continues to pop up.  The cool thing is, you can go and play it right now if you want.

Developed by Keiichi Matsunami & PIROWO using a Sony approved homebrew development kit called Net Yaroze, they were finally able to complete the game they started back in 1997.  Magic Castle is described as being a fantasy action-RPG with the main objective to “grow your character and ultimately get the illusionary treasure.”  It features four different character types (Knight, Magician, Archer, & Fighter) to choose from and a four-player co-op.  If this game had released back in the PS1 era, you would have had to have bought that Playstation Multitap add-on (which I never did own as a kid) to be able to play with four players.  There’s even the option while you’re playing to drop unused equipment and items on the ground Diablo-style, so you can give them to your teammates.

According to the developer interview on NetYaroze-Europe, production on Magic Castle began back in 1997, with development lasting around eight months.  Incomplete, but with the “concept of the game fully expressed” it was unsuccessfully pitched to several publishers in 1998. However, PIROWO was able to track down the source code for Magic Castle and finish what they started.

While this type of game is pretty common nowadays, if you’re curious to play something that was never released, Magic Castle is available to download here and recommended for use on a Playstation emulator.  I’m gonna try and see if I can get it to work on my PlayStation Classic.

Lost Game Boy Add-on Called WorkBoy Has Been Found After 28 Years

By Nigel Jones
Game Boy WorkBoy Discovered
(YouTube/DidYouKnowGaming?)

After 28 years, an unreleased Game Boy add-on called the “WorkBoy” has surfaced, and its features might surprise you.

The WorkBoy, which was designed by Source Research and Development and produced by Fabtek Inc. was supposed to be an accessory that would turn the Game Boy into a handheld computer.  By connecting the WorkBoy via Link Cable (that beautiful cable that would allow you to trade Pokemon with your friends back in the day), it would bring PDA-like functions such as an appointment book, calculator, and more to Nintendo’s handheld juggernaut.  If you thought trying to position your Game Boy under a light so you could see what you were playing was fun, just imagine how much more fun you would have trying to position the screen at exactly the proper angle under a light so you could jot down your appointments for the week.

All joking aside, it’s amazing this beauty was discovered after all these years.  This kind of tech would have been revolutionary when it was originally supposed to release back in 1992.

(DidYouKnowGaming?)

The one who gets credit for finding the WorkBoy and actually getting it to work is game historian enthusiast Liam Robertson of DidYouKnowGaming?.  Robertson spent months researching this long, lost hardware, and it definitely paid off.

During Robertson’s investigation, he was able to track down Eddie Gill, the architect of the WorkBoy and founder of Source Research and Development.  Gill said there were only two WorkBoy prototypes left in the world that he knew of and that one was most likely “deep in the vaults of Nintendo,” while the other was in possession of Frank Ballouz, the founder of Fabtek.

Robertson got in touch with Ballouz and as luck would have it, Ballouz did have a WorkBoy prototype.  What Ballouz didn’t have though was a Game Boy to test it out on, so he actually sent the WorkBoy prototype to Robertson in the hopes that he would be able to get it working.  Unfortunately for Robertson, it turned out that the WorkBoy needed a cartridge inserted into the connected Game Boy to fully function, and no one had one.

With a little ingenuity (and the unfortunate Nintendo ‘Gigaleak’), Robertson was able to find a ROM for the WorkBoy software online.  After burning the ROM to a blank cartridge,  Robertson was able to get it to work.

It really is fascinating to see the WorkBoy in action, so if you want to watch Robertson’s investigation, discovery, and messing around with all its features, definitely check out his video down below.

I still have my original Game Boy (albeit, in very poor condition) and it had a huge impact on me when I was a kid.  The Game Boy had a lifespan of 14 years (1989-2003) and it’s crazy to think about how far the tech could have gone if this WorkBoy had released as intended.  Maybe in some parallel universe, the WorkBoy released and we’re all carrying around WorkBoys in our pockets and we can talk on our Game Boys like cell-phones.