Professional athletes and performers in New York City no longer have to comply with the private sector coronavirus vaccine mandate. Mayor Eric Adams says he’s making an exemption because hometown teams had an unfair disadvantage because visiting players who weren’t vaccinated were allowed to play.
This now means unvaccinated Nets star Kyrie Irving no longer has to sit out home games and Yankees and Mets players who have not gotten the shot can play at Yankee Stadium and Citi Field once baseball season starts.
The mayor is getting backlash from some who say this is unfair to other employees who were forced to get the shot. Hundreds of city employees were fired for not getting the vaccine and Adams says they will not be re-hired.
Councilman Joe Borelli took to Twitter saying it’s unfair to exempt basketball players from the city’s private sector vaccine mandate but not arena ushers or janitors.
This is appalling. We are firing our own employees but allowing exemptions for the fancy ones. https://t.co/rKfugRO3hM
Adidas is announcing a new “name, image and likeness” network that’s open to student-athletes at NCAA Division One schools sponsored by the company.
The new network allows 50-thousand students throughout 23 sports and 109 schools to be come paid spokespeople for the brand.
Adidas says the program is set to launch in phases over the next 12 months, starting with historically Black colleges and universities and also Power Five conference partners in the fall.
“The adidas NIL network embodies our belief that sport has the power to change lives by upskilling athletes and giving them the ability to begin to experience an entrepreneurial path that will carry them beyond their college years,” Jim Murphy, Adidas NCAA program lead, said in a statement.
It will be available to other participating schools by April of next year.
Student athletes will initially be paid a percentage of the sales they drive at adidas.com or the adidas app, as well as the ability to be paid per social media post. The company didn’t disclose how much the student athletes would be making if they choose to participate in the new program.
Two of the most common reasons behind athletes going broke after their professional career: bad investments and money management. On last month’s “I Am Athlete” podcast, guest and retired NFL linebacker D.J. Williams revealed his former financial advisor invested $1.2 million dollars in various bad investments early in his career that included an investment of $300,000 dollars into the music career of former Bad Boy Records artist, Sara Stokes.
“Remember when Puffy Daddy had ‘Making The Band’? Ya’ll remember Sara Stokes? The one … the light-skin girl, ” Williams begins to explain the investment at the podcast’s 22:06 minute mark of season 3 episode 21. “Puffy Daddy had ‘Making The Band,’ there was a young lady on there named Sara Stokes. She was a singer. She was like young, like I don’t want to throw her age out there but she had like three four five kids. All I knew was I invested $300,000 dollars into her music career.”
Williams would claim the investment was in result of leaving his finances to a power of attorney given to his financial advisor while he focused on playing professional football.
“What I’m saying was because of the amount of time and energy that I put into football,” he continued. “I’m going into these meetings and I’m sitting across from this man and I’m taking his word. And I’m just … Okay, yeah, that sounds good, that sounds good. What I’m saying is is if you already a million, relax, chill. Stop trying to rush to become a billionaire.”
Drafted in 2014 – 17th overall by the Denver Broncos – D.J. Williams received a $2.4 million dollar signing bonus his rookie year after signing a five-year deal valued at $9 million dollars – according to Spotrac.com. The linebacker would play ten seasons with the Broncos, earning over $35 million dollars. Williams played 12 seasons in the NFL before retiring in 2014 with the Chicago Bears.
It was never revealed throughout the interview if Williams was ever reimbursed for his investment. Stokes was signed to Bad Boy Records from 2002 to 2005.
Sara Stokes, 44, is a Detroit, Michigan recording artist, actress, journalist, best known as the singer in the former Bad Boy Record’s group Da Band. Formed in 2002, Da Band released their gold-selling debut album, Too Hot For TV, in 2003, which spawned hit songs “Bad Boy This, Bad Boy That” and “Tonight.” The six-member group had their journey documented on reality television for three seasons aired on MTV 2.
After Da Band, Stokes, mother of three, released multiple solo singles, independently, throughout the years, like 2015’s “Sneak Peek” featuring Babs Bunny and 2016’s “Fragile Heart.” Outside music, Stokes embarked in an acting career, known for roles in recent films, The Many (2019), The Enemy (2019) and Facade: Chapter 4.
News of the investment comes during a slew of other trending stories going viral right now surrounding Sean “Love” Combs with old clips from the popular 2000s MTV rap competition series Making the Band, which Combs executive produced, and several former music mogul’s artists releasing public criticism about the harsh treatment they endured their time on the reality show and under Diddy’s Bad Boy Records.
Freddy P, who was Diddy’s first choice when putting together former group Da Band, took to Instagram last week to criticize his former mentor and revealed him responsible for the Florida native’s multiple suicide attempts, all stemming from recounts of his time under Diddy’s tutelage.
“This year alone I’ve contemplated suicide three or four times,” he says in the video. “I done pictured my brother walking in and finding me dead. I cried a few times thinking about leaving my son because I just get tired of life. But no matter what you gotta do you just gotta keep at it … there’s n-ggas that wanna see you fall.”
He added: “Like this n-gga Puffy is the main muthafuckin’ reason why I hate fucking life, dawg. People don’t even understand. Like, I don’t even give a fuck. I’ve never been to a point where I thought of suicide my whole life, never. I mean, I’m a gangsta. I don’t even know how I started thinking like that. I done had it all and I fell to the bottom. How do you come back from that when you battling a giant? It ain’t got nothing to do with your skill no more ’cause your skill is 90 percent better than any n-gga that’s out there right now and the world knows it. But it ain’t your skills … the world is built on relationships.”
Freedy’s rant sparked reactions from fellow Da Band member Babs Bunny, who simply responded in an interview that the group just signed a “shitty contracts,” and Willie Taylor, formerly of the Making of the Band-created R&B group Day 26, who chimed in with the belief that the show and group was set up to “fail.”
The 52-year-old billionaire with ownership in Ciroc and his own television network, Revolt, addressed the claims of his former proteges last Monday via social media. On an Instagram Story, he writes, “STOP ALL YOUR CRYING, BITCHING & MOANING. HUSTLE HARDER OR GET THE FUCK OUT OF OUR WAY. – LOVE.”
All parties involved have not issued a statement on Williams’s revelation at press time.
Watch the latest episode of the I Am Athlete podcast below.
A little over a decade ago, Puerto Rican boxing champion Hector “Macho” Camacho was shot and killed while sitting in a car in his native country. Today(March 10), four of the five assailants who were wanted in connection to the shooting were flown to San Juan, Puerto Rico to stand trial for his murder.
“Justice! Justice has been done,” shouted the former WBC Featherweight champion’s mother María Matías. “They gave me justice..I can sleep in peace. I can eat and drink a little cup of coffee in the morning.”
William Rodríguez Rodríguez, Luis Ayala García, and Joshua Méndez Romero were already behind bars in Florida for other unrelated crimes while Jesús Naranjo Adorno was arrested in the same city where the other three suspects were being held.
The fifth suspect, Juan Figueroa Rivera, was already locked up in Puerto Rico on another charge. According to the authorities, two other suspects were killed in unrelated events in 2013 and 2015.
According to several police reports, Camacho was killed while sitting in a car with friend Adrián Mojica Moreno, who possessed nine small bags of cocaine in his pocket and a 10th bag that was open at when they were both shot and killed.
Public prosecutor janet Parra says that she cannot reveal the motive hehind the Camacho killing.
NFL Hall-of-Famer and current Jackson State University Football head coach Deion “Prime Time” Sanders reveals he’s had two toes amputated due to foot surgery complications in an emotional Instagram post on Tuesday afternoon (Mar 8). The viewer’s discretion advised post on his verified profile showed the removal of his big toe and second toe on his left foot immediately after surgery several weeks ago. The revelation comes in promoting Sanders’ new episode of his Barstool Sports presented docu-series called “Coach Prime.”
I told y’all we were gonna show it all in this documentary and that’s what this is. I got to warn ya This ain’t a pretty sight! I may have lost a couple soldiers in the battle but I never lost my faith in God! @barstoolsports@SMACpic.twitter.com/dkjD83IAnL
“I told y’all we were gonna show it all in this documentary and that’s what this is,” Sanders captioned with the preview of the documentary’s episode 5 on Instagram. “I got to warn ya This ain’t a pretty sight! I may have lost a couple soldiers in the battle but I never lost my faith in God! I endured a lot while I was in the hospital during our historic season but I am so thankful for GOD being there to help pull me through. I am so thankful for those who sent messages of faith and those who visited me during this troubling time. This episode of Coach Prime is an emotional one and you all deserve to know what went down so that’s exactly what we gon show you! I Love y’all and am elated to be on my way back. Episode 5 tonight at 7 PM CT on barstools YouTube.”
Last September, Coach Prime reportedly had foot surgery, initially, to fix a long-time injury. But, ultimately, after eight surgeries and months needing a wheelchair and scooter to get around, Sanders had to have two mangled toes from the left foot surgically removed. Doctors initially feared that the legend would lose the entire left leg due to complications.
Sanders and his family promised to reveal more on the new episode. “Coach Prime” originally premiered in August 2021, following Sanders’ becoming Head Coach at Jackson State University, which he accepted that same year. The series is currently on its second season with Barstool Sports and SMAC.
Before the release of episode 5, check out episode 1 of season 2 below, and watch the complete series, available now on Barstool Sports’ official YouTube channel.
Jim Jones adds high-fashion runway model to his multi-hyphenate profile as he hits the runway with an all-star cast as part of this year’s Off-White show on Monday (February 28) at Paris Fashion Week.
The Harlem native surprised fans of his involvement in the Fall-Winter 2022/2023 by Virgil Abloh (In memoriam) show with a series of Instagram posts that ranged from the entertainer eating in Paris to sitting in the make-up chair, preparing to walk to walking the runway in an all-egg plant Off-White outfit with a lavender undershirt. Jones walked with icons in both fashion and sports like Serena Williams, Cindy Crawford, and Kendell Jenner.
“Talkin bout my walk told u I’m a #RunwaySteppa I’m back on my DiddyBop had to put that shit a n real quick,” Jim Jones wrote in an Instagram caption with video of him posing in front a chandelier, in the center of the Off White showroom. “yal mad cause I’m a runway model a rapper and a trainer lol Came to the @off____white fashion in my @off____white turn it to a splashin show.”
It was a proud moment for Jones and Hip Hop as well. The Harlem native was showered with praise by peers and fans alike in the hip hop community on social media throughout the entire fashion show. Commentary ranging from celebratory to comic relief.
“I’m just gonna say this you get it from your mama! Do the damn thing! You got to love him! Because I love him all the way up to God,” Mama Jones, Jim Jones’ mother, comments.
“Legendary sh*t,” Yella Beezy comments. “1 time for Harlem @jimjonescapo,” Kanye West captioned soon after in an Instagram story showing Jim Jones walking the runway. “Walking like you had it on you and the boys was getting close,” followed media correspondent Wayno, who wrote on Jim Jones’ Instagram post.
“Gooooooooo jimmy,” Fat Joe commented with fire emoji.
“cat walk capo!” commented Angie Martinez with three fire emojis.
“I never saw you walk like that before? Lol,” Maino comments with wide-eyed face emoji.
“The Artist Formerly Known As Capo,” Dave East comments with six hilarious laughing-faced emojis.
In other news, several days before the show, Jones shared that he was in the studio with the Migos working on new music. The two acts recently collaborated on Jim Jones’s latest project Gangsta Grillz: We Set The Trends, hosted by DJ Drama. “@djkhaled voice another one wit @Migos in the studio layin down #WeSetTheTrends youtu.be/BPxO1JkTXXs,” he tweets.
Want to see all the pieces in the OffWhite Paris Fashion Week show? Watch the whole show below.
in the studio layin down #WeSetTheTrends youtu.be/BPxO1JkTXXs,” he tweets.