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NFL Exploring Virtual Fans and Crowd Sound Effects for Broadcasts

By Mark Chalifoux
Virtual NFL Fans
(EA Sports)

Sports is trying to find a way back. The UFC held a card in an empty arena, and CEO Dana White is looking into buying a private island to host future fights. The NBA is looking at finishing the season with everyone at DisneyWorld, and MLB is proposing a shortened, 82-game season. The NFL is also making contingency plans for the upcoming season, as is their TV partners.

FOX, in particular, has an interesting plan for how to handle the weirdness of two world-class football teams playing in a completely empty stadium. According to Joe Buck, they are planning to pipe in crowd noise and use virtual fans for the crowd shots.

There are many advantages to this. For the average TV viewer, the final product wouldn’t be that different. Other than red-zone plays, where you might have a running back celebrating by jumping into the arms of shirtless drunks in the first row, you could probably trick yourself into thinking there’s a crowd. It would make the viewing experience a lot easier to adapt to.

Another advantage would be for teams like the Cincinnati Bengals, who are used to playing in front of a mostly-empty Paul Brown Stadium. This little gimmick would finally make it seem like they are playing in front of a raucous, sold-out crowd.

On the other hand…it’s going to be weird.

Joe Buck mentioned this as a certainty during an interview on SiriusXM:

“In fact, I know they will do it. It’s pretty much a done deal. I think whoever is gonna be at that control of that will have to be really good at their job and be realistic with how the crowd would react depending on what just happened on the field so it’s really important.”

So, yeah, it’s gonna be weird. Still, weird NFL games are better than no NFL games, even if the viewing experience is a cross between something real and something that more resembles a game of Madden.

Ryan Reynolds Releases Aviation Gin Home School Edition, for E-Learning Support

By Yael Meshulam
Ryan Reynolds Aviation Home School Gin
(Twitter/VancityReynolds)

So uh, how’s virtual learning going? You know what, don’t answer that. Father of three and big-hearted goofball Ryan Reynolds feels your pain, and he’s here to help. Aside from his passions for acting and philanthropizing (just go with it), Reynolds takes his gin very seriously.

After acquiring a stake in Aviation Gin in 2018, Reynolds has become the face and the smartass behind the popular gin company. Reynolds is one of the rare celebrities who uses both his money and influence for good, and unsurprisingly, he’s doing the same with Aviation Gin. He donated 30% of his gin proceeds for over a month to bartenders suffering income loss due to COVID, and now, he’s got a little something for the parents.

Reynolds announced that Aviation Gin would be releasing a new product to give parents a little – uh – boost, while helping guide their kids through virtual learning.

“Aviation Home School edition. Official sponsor of Parent-Gin conferences,” Reynolds’s posted on Twitter, along with the special-edition gin’s commercial.

The commercial opens with Reynolds seated at a desk, staring at the camera with the powerful intensity of a dad who was just asked “what’s for dinner?” right after he threw a steak on the grill.

“It’s back to school time, which this year, has a whole new meaning,” Reynolds begins. “That’s why today, I’m introducing Aviation American Gin-” he says, slamming a huge freaking bottle down on his mahogany desk, “-Home School edition. It’s just like the classic delicious Aviation Gin that you love, but with more ounces.” Nearly 60 ounces, which should last, you know – a little while.

“It can help with a variety of subjects,” Reynolds continues, “Fourth-grade geography, whatever the f*** new math is. And revisiting your own long-forgotten middle school traumas.”

The commercial concludes with the hauntingly-familiar sound of a school bell, as Reynolds voices what we’re all thinking – “Middle school is the f****** worst.”

Sitting down with your kids to help them through virtual learning can leave you feeling like Billy Madison but without the cool hat. School was tough enough the first time through, but at least this time we can legally drink. Just, you know, save it for after class.

Disneyland Unveils Stunning Chadwick Boseman Mural

By Mike Julianelle
Chadwick Mural Disneyland
(Instagram/nikkolas_smith)

It’s only been a few weeks since Chadwick Boseman tragically, and unexpectedly, for the general public, succumbed to colon cancer and passed away after a four-year fight with the disease.

In the days and weeks since his passing, the tributes have hardly stopped. His friends and coworkers eulogized him with touching remembrances of his kindness, dignity, and work ethic, while fans praised him for being a role model to their children, especially to the young black children who’d finally had a superhero of their own to look up to.

Now, many of these children will have a chance to pay tribute again, should they visit Disneyland in the coming years.

The park just unveiled a stunning mural of the star in the Downtown Disney shopping district portion of the park. The mural depicts Boseman kneeling and making the Wakanda salute to a young child in a hospital gown and Black Panther mask.

“This one is special. My King Chad tribute is now on a wall on display at Downtown Disney,” the mural’s designer, Nikkolas Smith wrote in the caption to his Instagram post of the mural. “It is a full circle moment for me: my final two projects as a Disney Imagineer last summer were working on the children’s hospital project and the Avengers Campus.”

The mural is titled “King Chad” and pays tribute to the star’s work with children, specifically his visits to young cancer patients on St. Jude’s campus, even while secretly suffering from the disease himself.

“To millions of kids, T’Challa was a legend larger than life, and there was no one more worthy to fill those shoes than Chadwick Boseman,” Smith continued. “I’m so thankful to be able to honor Chadwick’s life and purpose in this way. I am grateful to the Disney family for being so supportive of my journey as an artist.”

Boseman has left a huge legacy in his short career, and his memory will live on via the films he appeared in and the many people he inspired and touched along the way. Now, at Disneyland, thousands will get reminded of that every day when they walk past Smith’s stunning mural that captures the kindness of the star that extended past his performance and into his daily life.

Ryan Gosling Teaming With John Wick Director for Fall Guy Movie

By Mike Julianelle
Gosling is The Fall Guy
(Getty/Elisabetta A. Villa)

Sometimes it seems like every TV show from the 80s and 90s is getting rebooted or remade or turned into a movie.

The Fresh Prince is coming back as a drama, Who’s the Boss is coming back with much of the original cast, Roseanne came back, even Twin Peaks had a sequel. At one point Mark Wahlberg was supposed to star in a movie version of The Six Million Dollar Man.

That project is stalled somewhere in Hollywood development hell, but a new movie based on a Lee Majors show just got announced, and with Ryan Gosling and the director of the John Wick movies involved, it’s sure to get made.

The movie is about a stuntman, and it’s at least going to be loosely based off of the 80s show The Fall Guy, that starred Majors and the other big Heather from the 80s, Heather Thomas.

The show, which was created by Glen Larson, the producer behind the 80s shows Battlestar Galactica and Magnum P.I. (both of which were remade this century), was about a Hollywood stuntman who moonlighted as a bounty hunter to make ends meet. Hollywood has tried to make this movie a few times, most recently with Dwayne Johnson, but it seems like this it’s finally going to happen.

With David Leitch, the former stuntman and coordinator who co-directed the John Wick movies and handled Atomic Blonde by himself, behind the camera, Gosling may be our next unlikely action star especially when you pair this with the spy thriller he’s doing for Netflix.

No word yet on when this will be out – the deal was only just struck, so it will be a while – but it seems to me that turning a fun but largely forgotten TV show with a cool premise into a movie is a decent bet. Especially with this team.

Hospice Nurse Helps Dying Dad Fly to See His Son Play One Final Football Game

By Mark Chalifoux
Sick Dad Sees Son Play Football
(Facebook/hospicelc)

A dad, his son, and one final football game. That was the dying wish for a Kentucky dad who was diagnosed with an extremely rare and aggressive cancer in August. He wanted to see his son play one more time. His nurse at the hospice facility knew his son’s high school football game was too far away to drive, so she found a local pilot who could fly all of them to see his son on the gridiron.

50-year-old Scott Sullivan was diagnosed with a rare cancer that spreads to the membranes surrounding the brain and spinal cord and was given a life expectancy of two to four months, according to CNN. He was discharged to the Hospice of Lake Cumberland, where Sullivan told his nurse his dying wish; to see his son Cade play football at least one more time.

His nurse, Jerree Humphrey, said she knew the drive would be too much for him to handle (it would’ve been about 8 hours in the car). So she looked to the sky and found a local pilot who volunteered to fly all of them to the game on September 11th. The group flew 200 miles on game day to see Cade, a sophomore, playing his first game of the high school football season.

For Scott, it was possibly the last time he’d see his son play. They sat on a hill overlooking the stadium to be socially distanced, but as soon as his son spotted them he ran over and gave his dad a hug.

“You could just not help but cry,” Humphrey told CNN. “He just embraced him so hard and was just so thankful for him to be there.”

“Words could not be put into sentences or phrases to describe how I felt at that time,” said an overwhelmed Scott. “I was just so happy to see my son.”

A tragedy like that is incomprehensible. One day you’re fine, the next your world is turned completely upside down. But for one last game, a dad got to see his son play football, and everything was good again, if only for a few hours.

Father Figures: No Clue

By Mike Julianelle

“I never met my real father. My mom always told me he was a bad guy, that he loved Jack Daniels and died of a drug-induced seizure in his late 30s.

My stepfather was a monster of a man who beat me so badly that at 6 years old, I was placed in short-term foster care.

It goes without saying that I was terrified to become a dad. I thought that all those bad traits lived somewhere in me and I would continue a negative cycle.

Recently, I took a DNA test to try to find out more about my ‘father’s’ family. To my absolute shock, the man I thought was my father wasn’t! My father is alive and well and has lived only 20 minutes away from me my whole life.

After 36 years, I met my father for the first time in mid-June, and since then he has not only accepted me into his life, but my two wonderful sons as well.

He had no clue I existed, and he has gone out of way to be a part of our lives.”

– John Brophy

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

NBA Star Dominating the Bubble With Coffee Business Out of His Hotel Room

By Mark Chalifoux
Butler Coffee
(ESPN/Twitter IraHeatBeat/ClutchPointsApp)

Jimmy Butler has had a fantastic run in the NBA bubble. Not only has he been the go-to star for the Miami Heat, leading them to an improbably tear through the NBA playoffs, Butler has also taken advantage of the unique situation to run his own thriving coffee business out of his hotel room. And now, he’s filed trademarks for his biz to take this out of the hotel room and into the free market.

The NBA bubble has been a massive success. The league found a way to safely resume their season and have their playoffs, and they’ve done it without a single outbreak of COVID-19. The situation, derided at the time, involves keeping all the players stuck in hotels at Disney World. They even have a snitch hotline to allow people to anonymously report bubble violators.

With strict regulations, players can’t even have food delivered from certain restaurants. So Jimmy Butler took advantage of supply and demand and opened a coffee business out of his hotel room. He brought a French press with him to Florida and has been using it extensively apparently. Earlier in August, the first image of his “menu” board popped up on social media.

He’s tagged his “business” as Big Face Coffee. He sells it for $20 a cup for any size and had plenty of business as teammates and coaches were unhappy with the quality of coffee in the bubble.

And now it seems like Big Face Coffee could be coming home from Florida. Butler filed for a trademark for BFC and for his trademark slogan, “NO I.O.U.’s” While it’s only been the NBA elite that’s been able to enjoy Big Face Coffee, maybe it’ll become the next Starbucks (probably not). Either way, it’s been a funny side story from the bubble, to see the side hustle of Butler blossom just as his star rises on the court.

And who knows, maybe it’s been the Big Face Coffee that’s fueled the shocking tear the Heat went on through the playoffs.

12 Funniest Parenting Tweets of the Week 9/25/20

By Yael Meshulam
Funniest parenting tweets week of 9-25-2020
(Twitter/RobertManchild Getty/ LumiNola)

It’s officially fall, but we are still in the middle of a pandemic – so I guess that means everything is more or less the same, but the leaves are changing colors, so that’s nice. The thrill of being a parent isn’t bound by the seasons, which means the hilarious parents of Twitter haven’t missed a beat. Here are 12 of the funniest parenting tweets of the week – but like, imagine that they’re pumpkin spice-scented or something.

Make it a quiet celebration

If it works, it works

That’s just science

What I mean when I say “yeah, I read a lot”

And it’s always true

How do they all know it works every time

No reason for both of us to go

Why not “Toilet Tot” or “Little Latrine?” Really missed the mark.

*Sweating*

HOW ABOUT EVERYONE STOPS YELLING

Internal investigation

At least it wasn’t a dog biscuit

Did you miss last week’s funniest parenting tweets?

Keanu Reeves Was “Mauled” While Adorably Reporting on Teddy Bears In 1984

By Yael Meshulam
Keanu Reeves Teddy Bear Convention
(Twitter/CBC)

A lot of unsavory things have come back to bite celebrities in the butt lately – poor decisions from their pasts resurfacing, forcing them to face the repercussions of their actions. In the least surprising turn of events, a vintage video of Keanu Reeves has made its way back to the public eye, and as it turns out, he’s even more pure than we previously thought. Before there was John Wick, before The Matrix, even before Bill & Ted, Keanu Reeves turned his attention to the world of Teddy Bears.

After decades in the spotlight, Keanu Reeves has demonstrated time and time again that the only thing as massive as his talent is his heart. He goes above and beyond for his fans, is generous with both his time and money – overall, he is a most excellent human being. Somehow, through all of it, he’s managed to stay incredibly humble.

Completely in keeping with his character, an adorable video from 1984 recently resurfaced, showing a Keanu that looks about five years younger than he does now. Nearly four decades ago, Reeves worked for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation show “Going Great” as a kids news correspondent. Reeves really went for it, throwing himself into the mission at hand-deliver the most pressing info about the first-ever Canadian International Teddy Bear Convention.

The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation dug up this gem in early September for National Teddy Bear Day (forgot to mark my calendar again), and we’re so happy they did. Little Keanu hits the convention-goers with hard-hitting questions right from the start, asking head-scratchers like, “Why are all the bears’ first names Teddy?” which is a thing that will absolutely keep me up at night.

Keanu digs deep, finding out the koalifications of the bears attending the convention. He approaches a woman asking, “what college did he go to?” which she answers without missing a beat. In fact, the bear is even repping his alma mater with a Paws Preparatory School t-shirt (but he didn’t flash a diploma, so we’re skeptical).

This simple yet delightful video is exactly the palate cleanser we need right now. Incredibly, even four decades after he ventured into the world of teddy bear conventions, Keanu Reeves is still bursting at the seams with a lighthearted youthfulness – congratulations, Keanu, on nearly 40 years of being pawsitively endearing.

Puma Celebrates Super Mario’s 35th Anniversary With Leveled-up Nintendo Sneakers

By Yael Meshulam
Nintendo Super Mario Puma Shoes
(Puma.com)

35 has been quite the year for our favorite star-powered Italian plumber. Mario has become so deeply ingrained in the world of video games that even non-gamers can’t help but love the goomba-hopping hero. Nintendo is celebrating Super Mario’s 35th anniversary with a slew of events from September of 2020 to March of 2021, making sure this coin-grabbing hero is properly appreciated after decades of hard work. There will be in-game events, new merch, and exciting Super Mario news released throughout. Even Hasbro joined the party, releasing Mario-themed Jenga and Monopoly games, proving that Mario is a force to be reckoned with in the real world, not just on screens.

The latest brand to jump on the Mario Kart is none other than the shoe giant, Puma. For a while, there were whispers of a collaboration between Nintendo and Puma, but these iconic shoes were only recently confirmed. Nintendo took to Twitter in early September to show off these colorful kicks, captioning the photo, “Ready to Super Jump for #SuperMario35? The RS-Dreamer #SuperMario 64 from @PUMAHoops is available for purchase starting tomorrow!”

You could run, jump, collect coins, and crush goombas all day in these bad boys. The RS-Dreamer Super Mario 64™ Basketball Shoes boast lightweight cushioning, full-coverage grip, and a snug fit. Oh yeah, and they look cool as hell.

The Puma website states, “When it comes to dreaming, Nintendo takes first place. Name a bigger legend than the red-hat-rocking, bad-guy-stopping Mario™ – you can’t. That’s why we’ve teamed up with Nintendo to bring you the RS-Dreamer Super Mario 64™. They’re court ready with PUMA Hoops tech like ProFoam and high-abrasion rubber, and feature Super Mario 64™ design straight out of the iconic game. Put up video-game numbers while paying tribute to one of the biggest dreamers in the world. Never sleeping. Always dreaming. The game is never over.”

The RS-Dreamer Super Mario 64™ Basketball Shoes are available in both adult ($125) and Junior sizes ($100) directly from Puma’s website. No word on how long these brightly-colored pumps will be available, so if celebratory shoes are your thing, collect your very own pair today (if you have enough coins, that is).