The NFL dropped the hammer on Atlanta Falcons’ Calvin Ridley by suspending him for one entire season for betting on NFL games.
According to the NFL, Ridley placed bets five days in late November 2021, when he was away from the club’s facility on the non-football illness list. The former first-round pick played in just five games in 2021 before leaving the club to focus on his “mental wellbeing.”
“There is nothing more fundamental to the NFL’s success — and to the reputation of everyone associated with our league — than upholding the integrity of the game,” NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell wrote in a letter notifying Ridley of the suspension. “This is the responsibility of every player, coach, owner, game official, and anyone else employed in the league. Your actions put the integrity of the game at risk, threatened to damage public confidence in professional football, and potentially undermined the reputations of your fellow players throughout the NFL.
Following the news of his suspension, Ridley said on Twitter that he does not have a “gambling problem.”
The Falcons said in a press release that they are preparing for the 2022 season as if Ridley will not be with them. The earliest Ridley can apply for reinstatement is Feb. 15, 2023.
“We were first made aware of the league’s investigation on Feb. 9. We have cooperated fully with the investigation since receiving notice and support the league’s findings and actions,” the team said in a statement. “We are moving forward in the 2022 season with the decision that was made. With the decision that was made by the NFL, any further questions on the investigation should be directed to the league office.”
The NFL is sending a message to players and team members throughout the league that gambling in games is the number 1 cardinal sin.
Despite the hype surrounding his latest album release, Billboard magazine has announced that Kanye West‘s Donda 2 will be ineligible for placement on the Billboard charts.
The controversy stems from the Ye’s decision to exclusively release Donda 2 on his own proprietary Stem Player device. The bundling of the player and the album is in violation of Billboard charts’ merchandise bundle policy, which disqualifies albums that come bundled with physical merchandise.
Billboard announced the bundling rule back in 2020, stating that selling merchandise along with a physical album or digital album download (often a free download) as a way to boost album sales numbers would skew sales numbers. The practice had been a point of controversy for the chart-ranking publication for many years. Critics of bundling had suggested that bundling put newer (and less wealthy) artists at a disadvantage because they could only offer an album, not merchandise.
West’s Stem player has been a successful venture for the artist. The player, which comes pre-loaded with a variety of West’s albums (depending on what year the player was purchased), has reportedly sold 39,500 units for a total of about $8.6 million.
As of March 7, all Stem player owners can reportedly download Donda 2 to their devices.
The NFL is throwing the towel in when it comes to COVID-19 testing. The NFL and NFL Players Association have agreed to suspend all COVID-19 protocols and testing as of right now.
“Based on current encouraging trends regarding the prevalence and severity of COVID-19, the evolving guidance from the CDC, changes to state law and the counsel of our respective experts, the NFL and NFLPA have agreed to suspend all aspects of the joint COVID-19 Protocols, effective immediately,” the memo reads.
The memo added that even given the suspension of the league’s protocols, “clubs are required to remain in compliance with state and local law.”
Individuals are still asked to monitor themselves for symptoms daily. According to the memo, anybody experiencing COVID-19 symptoms must report them to the club and test negative before entering the team facility. Any individual who tests positive must isolate for five days after their test.
By the time training camps and the regular season gets underway again, the NFL is looking at the pandemic as a thing of the past. There is no telling yet if other sports leagues will follow the NFL’s stance on COVID testing. As the positivity rate continues to go down, we may very well be heading toward endemic status.
The New York Giants are in cap space hell. One way to get out of that situation could be trading away Saquon Barkley.
Giants general manager Joe Schoen indicated Tuesday at the NFL Scouting Combine that trading the former No. 2 overall pick is not off the table, though that’s the case for most players on the Giants’ roster.
“We’re still working through that, but I’m open to anything. Like whether it’s trading player for player. I’ll listen to anybody,” Schoen told reporters. “I’m not going to say we’re open for business on our entire roster. But if anybody is going to call and they’re interested in any of our players, I’ll certainly listen.
“We’re in a situation where unfortunately we have to get under the salary cap and we’re not in very good salary cap health. I’m not going to say yes to every deal, but I’m definitely going to listen and be open to situations that are best for the New York Giants.”
Barkley is owed $7.2 million in guaranteed cash in 2022, the fifth and final year of his rookie deal if the Giants don’t see Barkley helping an already struggling offense in 2022, moving off of him while he still has some value might be best for the long term reboot of the franchise.
It appears it will be a grand closing for Tyson Fury after his next boxing match in April. On Tuesday, the WBC heavyweight champion told reporters that he intends to retire following his April 23 match against mandatory challenger Dillian Whyte.
During the press event, Fury said: “This is the final fight of my career, I’m retiring after this, $150m in the bank, healthy, young, I’m gonna buy a massive yacht abroad. I’m retiring, I’m out, this is my final fight, I’m done.”
If Furry successfully defended his championship against Whyte and retired afterward, he would leave on top of the heavyweight mountain. Fury shocked the world back in 2015 when he beat Wladimir Klitschko.
After taking time off for mental health issues, Fury began a fantastic trilogy with former WBC champ Deontay Wilder. After the first match ended in a draw, Fury would dominate the second and third matchups.
As one right now, Fury isn’t thinking past April 23. If he changes his mind, a unification title fight would be the next logical goal for Furry.
Ja Morant already been putting the league on notice, but after two straight career scoring games, it might be time to put him in the MVP race.
Morant put up a career-high 52 points in the Grizzlies 118-105 win over the San Antonio Spurs. That also set a franchise record for points scored in a single game, and marked his second straight game in which he put up a career-high.
The 52 point showcase wasn’t even the best part of game. With 0.4 seconds left in the second quarter, Steven Adams delivered a perfectly placed pass down the full length of the court to Morant, who caught it and shot it in one motion while fading back along the baseline.
Morant, along with everyone else in the arena, was left speechless.
Morant finished with seven rebounds and two assists to go with his 52 points, and shot 22-of-30 from the field. He was a perfect 4-of-4 from behind the three point line. The Memphis Grizzlies in one short year, have come from NBA play in tournament darlings, to currently third in the Western Conference.
As the season is winding down, nobody will want the smoke with Morant and the Grizzlies.
As Black History Month comes to a close, the 2022 NAACP Image Awards cap off a month celebrating black contributions to society. After the ceremony on Saturday, February 26, the celebrating will continue in a big way with DJ Cassidy’s special Reggae edition of Pass The Mic following the 53rd NAACP Image Awards. The special, DJ Cassidy’s Pass The Mic: BET Afterparty 2022, brings together Reggae and dancehall icons, celebrating Reggae’s influence on hip-hop and global culture.
DJ Cassidy sat down with The Source to talk about the show, whose lineup includes artists such as Shaggy, Maxi Priest, Super Cat, Barrington Levy, Ini Kamoze, Sister Nancy, Junior Reid, Patra, and more.
The inspiration for the show came from his past experience DJing, the overwhelming success of Pass the Mic, and his passion for a wide variety of musical genres.
He describes how the overwhelming emotional response to the first Pass the Mic in July 2020 inspired him to continue and he immediately began envisioning future installments of the concept.
“Looking back, I see now that each vision was a derivative of my former record crates that I carried to each deejay gig around the world,” he explains. “Before technology changed the game, I loaded six to eight one hundred pound steel cases that each held about 100 pieces of vinyl into every New York City taxi and onto every airplane. I categorized each crate by some form genre or era of music. From the very beginning of my Pass The Mic journey, I dreamed about a Reggae edition, a manifestation of that coveted Reggae record crate. As a hip-hop kid growing up in New York City, incorporating Reggae into my deejay sets was second nature. Dancehall stars were also hip-hop stars.”
He explains how when he first began conceptualizing this edition, he “wanted to represent those iconic dancehall records that played a special role in that crate, in my repertoire, and in my life in general.”
He also emphasizes how he really wanted to represent the various diverse facets of Reggae music, unbound by era, year, or decade, stating that “each of the sixteen songs featured on this show not only holds a special place in my heart, but holds a special place in the history of Reggae music and its massive influence on hip-hop, R&B, and pop music. Some dominated the hip-hop airwaves of radio stations like Hot 97 in the 1990s, while others topped the Billboard Pop Charts in the 1980s. Some fused with R&B and achieved massive commercial success, while others remain the most sampled songs of all times. Simply put, each of these records changed the game.”
While the show will definitely have many of the Pass the Mic trademark staples, Cassidy is also quick to note that viewers are in for a special treat with some of the differences that this show promises.
“Sixteen iconic records are featured in this show, more records on one show than ever before,” he explains. “There were simply so many definitive songs I wanted to celebrate. This edition brings the rapid-fire pace of Pass the Mic to new heights.
Cassidy has also partnered with some major industry names to make the upcoming show a success. In addition to superstar television producer, Jesse Collins (who recently produced the iconic hip-hop Superbowl Halftime show) and legendary music impresario, Steve Rifkind (founder of Loud and SRC Records), Cassidy partnered with renowned Reggae renaissance woman Sharon Burke and her team of Judth Bodley and Debrina Smith. “As a producer, promoter, and manager, Sharon has been at the helm of countless iconic Reggae moments over a span of decades. I knew that with her by my side, we would create something truly special that would go down in music history”, says Cassidy.
As for the future, Cassidy has no plans to limit his Pass the Mic experience to the western hemisphere, especially since over the course of the first eight editions of Pass the Mic, one of his signature catchphrases has become, “passing the mic all over the world.”
“Through Pass The Mic, I’ve always sought to create global connections between artists and fans and build bridges between both genres and viewers. Never has that mission been more fulfilled than in this installment,” he says of the upcoming performance.
“Witnessing the massive global response that Pass The Mic: Volume One and Pass The Mic: Volume Two received, I was overwhelmed by the international influence of classic hip-hop and R&B,” he says. “I always sought for the series to connect people musically on an international level, and no edition represents that mission more effectively than this upcoming special. In the future, as Pass the Mic continues to grow both on television, the stage, and beyond, I hope to constantly expand on that mission. As Afrobeat and Reggaeton’s cultural influence continues to explode, I would love to pass the mic to the icons, past, present, and future, that shaped their global impact. During President Biden’s televised Inauguration, I passed the mic to Ozuna and Luis Fonsi in front of 40 million viewers with two records that dominated global music charts, “Taki Taki” and “Despacito.” The sky’s the limit. I’d also love to celebrate Brazilian music and pass the mic to one of my greatest musical heroes, Sergio Mendes.”
He concludes by saying that “at the end of the day, no matter the category, genre, or era of music, each installment of Pass The Mic celebrates the greatest artists and greatest songs of all time by connecting those artists to their fans in a more intimate way than ever before.”
After striking out to become a head coach in the NFL, Eric Bieniemy will officially return to be the offensive coach of the Kansas City Chiefs. The team’s offensive coordinator of the last four seasons is returning to the team on a one-year deal, according to NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero.
Eric Bieniemy will return to Kansas City on another one-year deal, source said. https://t.co/AGNT8vUlLN
The return comes as Bieniemy went through another NFL head coaching carousel without finding a new job, this time interviewing with the Denver Broncos, Houston Texans, and New Orleans Saints. However, this time, ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported that Bieniemy was also considering college jobs and taking a year off.
The Chiefs had already lost their likely top choice to replace Bieniemy had he left the team, quarterbacks coach Mike Kafka, who left to become offensive coordinator of the New York Giants.
Bieniemy is the only offensive coordinator Patrick Mahomes has ever known. During their time together, the Chiefs have reached the AFC Championship game four times, reached the Super Bowl twice, and won a championship one time.
Former boxing champions Wladimir Klitschko and Vitali Klitschko are ready for some action. The Klitschko brothers are ready to fight for their beloved country of Ukraine.
Wladimir enlisted in the Ukrainian reserve army three weeks before Russia’s invasion early Thursday, and Vitali – the mayor of Kyiv, Ukraine – said he’d also take up arms this week.
Wladimir Klitschko and Vitali Klitschko launch a joint video appeal after Vladimir Putin launched an invasion of Ukraine by Russia…
“I’m calling to all international partners to observe this tragedy that is happening nowadays in Ukraine,” Wladimir said. ” … I just want to tell you we must stay united against this aggression, against Russian aggression. Don’t let it continue happening in Ukraine. Don’t let it happen in Europe and eventually the world. United, we’re strong. Support Ukraine.”
The Klitschko brothers clearly love their country and feel that the invasion is cruel and unnecessary. In the ring, they were a combined 109-7. Their presence alone could go a long way with their fellow countrymen.
Capcom has announced Street Fighter 6, the next major entry in the iconic fighting game franchise, celebrating its 35th anniversary this year. This is the first Street Fighter game released since Street Fighter 5 in 2016.
The short teaser revealed a beefed-up Ryu as he faces Luke, the 45th and final character for Street Fighter 5, who was teased about being in the sequel. The announcement for Street Fighter 6 also coincided with the 35th anniversary of the franchise.
While no actual gameplay was shown, fans can’t wait to see which of their beloved characters from back in the days resurface in the latest installment of this beloved franchise.
