Maxim – New video has surfaced that appears to show Conor McGregor punching an older man after an apparent dispute over whiskey shots at a Dublin bar.
A quick prologue: Props to me for being the first blogger here to link to Maxim, and in a relevant fashion (hah) at that!
So let’s address the point at hand: Yes, another Conor McGregor outburst that is a loss in the PR column. No, Conor McGregor did NOT punch an old man in the face.
Conor McGregor throws a punch at an old man for seemingly not wanting to drink whiskey with him. pic.twitter.com/29R3vUP7rb
McGregor is seen either promoting or drinking whiskey, one can assume his own Proper 12 brand.
He is seen clearly getting offended by the old man.
Then, one of two things happens depending on how many brain cells you have:
-Either Conor McGregor, noted skilled martial artist and breaker of orbital bones, threw some sort of non-upper cut punch that sort of phased said old man.
-Orrrr he shook a shot of said whiskey at the old man before throwing it in his face.
Ya, the latter happened. You can see the shaking, the motion, and Conor pulling just short of the guy’s face. The geezer barely turned, which needless to say would not be the level of consequence if Conor McGregor’s left hand made contact with his jaw. Conor’s management/crew jumped in to pull him away and other than that nothing happened. I think if a punch was thrown in a bar in Dublin there’d be more of a to do about it, no?
So TMZ is doing TMZ things. And ya, Conor was a jackass again. But maybe the next time there is a hotheaded MMA fighter doing a promo next to him at a bar, that old timer will pipe down. I’ve gotten whiskey in the eyes, it stings.
The Washington Post – “I feel like Colt, obviously, has the edge because he has the knowledge and ability as well,” Peterson said. “He’s been shown to have a really strong arm and been consistent as well.”
ProFootballTalk – “My feet is pretty much getting circumcised, right? Right? For real,” Brown said to the NFL Films cameras after pulling off his socks. “It’s kind of like a pull back right now. I’m [expletive] circumcised on my feet. Hopefully my feet are born again, and I figure to run faster. Feel sorry for me later.”
A couple of stories here to get you through the doldrums of Pats camp when you’ve read all you can that day. Sure, we all care most about what is happening with our Patriots, but it is never a bad idea to check in elsewhere. Actually, it is a cautionary tale, a reminder to savor the fact that we’ve had it so good for two decades. We could easily be part of the stories above.
Contestant number one has to come with the qualification that I am indeed a Colt McCoy fan. I think if he never got bumblefucked in the National Title Game to the point where he couldn’t feel his own damn arm and then was brought along gradually in the NFL he could have been a top 20-15 QB. Alas, it wasn’t to be. So now this headline is funny instead of tantalizing. The best part is of course we have AP inserting himself into a conversation he has no business in. If you weren’t aware, AP is kind of just an asshole like that. A bit of a pot stirrer. So now poor rookie Dwayne Haskins, from THE Ohio State University, has to look at his D-End sized RB every time he breaks and the huddle and know that the guy would rather have Ol’ Aw Shucks over there under center. Ain’t that a bitch?
And contestant number two features Antonio “The Biggest Diva Wide Receiver Since Keyshawn” Brown having no respect to ancient Jewish traditions. Circumcised feet? Never! Keep in mind this is a millionaire athlete who did not know how to properly insert the body he inhabits that is worth said millions into a cryo-therapy chamber. Nor did he think to ask the staff how to do it in order to not break said million dollar body. So he just said, “hey, how hard could it be?” and cost himself and his team 10 practices where he could have been building chemistry with Derek “I may now have too much trauma to succeed” Carr under the guise of notably batshit head coach Jon Gruden. AB, you’re a role model for every “scrappy” WR just “trying to make the team”.
ESPN.com – Ohio State is seeking a trademark on one of the most common words in the English language.
The school, formally known as The Ohio State University, is seeking a trademark on the word “The” for use on clothing and hats. According to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, the filing was made Thursday.
I guess….Ughh…I guess I could just add my “Idiocracy” introduction to every blog I write now. Certainly to this one.
We’ve all heard it. Some love it and feel it encapsulates the pure spirit and bonds of college sports. Some hate it and see it as a pretentious thumb of the nose from a school that has a number of very solid programs but only reaches truly great heights once a decade or so. Personally I’m just not bought into college sports (save hockey) enough to give a fuck.
I am of course talking about THE Ohio State University.
For the life of me I can’t imagine how this got started. I suppose there was Ohio State and Ohio University. Maybe way back when there were a couple of different state school systems in Ohio and one decided to stick it’s tongue and/or denoting article out at the other. Who knows (probably every fucking rabid Ohio State fan).
Anyway, it would seem Ohio State sees it as such an important part of their identity that they now wish to copyright the word “The” in order to financially capitalize on what is probably the most used word in the English language.
There are just too many questions to get into with this but my main ones are:
1.) Did Ohio State really think they were going to get away with this?
2.) …Wait are they?
It SHOULD NOT be possible for Ohio State to own the word “the.” I get that they are sort of trying to protect their signature propensity to add it douchebaggedly to the beginning of their name, but let’s be reasonable. If Washington State realllly wants to start going by THE Washington State then go ahead and let then. They’ll be ridiculed and derided into stopping the practice faster than Drew Bledsoe and Ryan Leaf’s average 40 time. It’s Ohio State’s thing, and, begrudgingly or not, people get that.
But you have to imagine that such a huge school has a team of lawyers, etc. who know this stuff. So do they actually have a shot? Are we in danger of losing the word the? No other school or semi-competing entity could use that on merch etc.? What a bonkers thing to think about.
Anyway, we’ll see how this plays out. Hopefully US Patent law has sections dedicated to, idk, colleges copyrighting extremely popular words used in titles and beginnings of sentences. If not I might have to hate Mike Vrabel.
NY Post – There never has been more information available when it comes to arguments with umpires, players and managers — and Joe Torre isn’t thrilled with that fact in his role as MLB disciplinarian.
“That’s a little concerning,’’ said Torre, the former Yankees manager and now the league’s chief baseball officer, a job which includes overseeing on-field discipline and umpiring. “You take what you can get, but it wasn’t supposed to be that clear. It shouldn’t happen.”
The preponderance of that information has become more common lately, as microphones have picked up what’s said on the field, leaving little to the imagination. Torre will take the information, but he’d rather it wasn’t available to anyone with a Twitter account.
“That’s not the way I want to hear it, for everybody else to hear it,’’ Torre said Tuesday at Yankee Stadium. “I wish I could hear it, only. It makes it easy to make my decision.”
Typical, typical baseball. God forbid we let the managers and players have any type of personality. Between the Aaron Boone “savages” rant this year and the epic confrontation between Terry Collins and umpire Tom Hallion that resurfaced last year, we’ve got two viral clips that had everyone on social media actually talking about baseball in a positive way. What’s the harm in letting these clips go public? The umpires’ reputation? Do a better job and you won’t get berated. They already are shielded enough, as only a select pool reporter from the media can even talk to an umpire after the game. I’d even argue that in the Hallion/Collins confrontation, I gained a better respect for why Hallion and the umpires did what they did (we also of course got the famous “ass in the jackpot line.) Hallion seemed composed and calmly explained that they were directed
So while ratings are down and games routinely go past the four-hour mark, perhaps Joe Torre and the rest of Major League Baseball should lighten up and just embrace little moments like these.
P.S. I’m sure Joe is glad the mics weren’t hot for this confrontation.
Washington Post – The NFL is forming a partnership with music mogul Jay-Z in a deal that allows him to help manage entertainment ventures tied to league events and is closely connected to the league’s community activism efforts.
The partnership will make Jay-Z, whose given name is Shawn Carter, and his Roc Nation agency a co-producer of the Super Bowl halftime show. It does not contain a provision for him to be the halftime performer, he and NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said.
“He was very quick to say that he does not want this to be about him performing, that it was broader than that,” Goodell said in an interview. “It quickly went beyond that. Do I hope he’ll perform in the Super Bowl sometime in the next several years? Yes. But I think we’ll all know if that time comes. He’ll know in particular.”
Roc Nation will choose entertainers who will perform in televised NFL promotional spots throughout the season. Carter said he believes Roc Nation will have freedom under the partnership to produce the kind of entertainment that it wants.
The Super Bowl halftime show has been a snoozefest since Janet Jackson threw her titties into Justin Timberlake’s hand all those years ago.
Ever since then the NFL basically overcorrected and trotted out some of the most boring halftime shows ever. In the years post titty-gate we got Tom Petty, Bruce Springsteen, the Rolling Stones, and The Who, which are all good, wholesome bands, just not anyone I want to see headlining the biggest entertainment night of the year. At least in recent years they’ve started to bring back artists that are under 50 years old again.
Last year though was definitely some old white producer trying to appease everyone with Travis Scott, Big Boi, and Maroon 5 while still somehow pleasing no one.
So this morning I hear the news that the NFL has gone back to the big guns (and probably dumped an 18-wheeler full of cash on his front lawn) and partnered up with Jay-Z for this year’s halftime show. While it makes it pretty clear he won’t be performing any time soon, getting S Dot Carter to produce the league’s halftime show and its musical entertainment as a whole is a HUGE win for the NFL. Reasonable Doubt, The Blueprint 1/2/3, The Black Album, Kingdom Come, hell even the American Gangster soundtrack still BANGS to this day. Thats not even counting all the collabs he’s done over the years like Collision Course and Watch the Throne, which are all-time albums. Now obviously I left out most of his more recent work…but those albums aren’t without their mega hits. I actually went to the Jay-Z/Timberlake show at Fenway a few years back and the Holy Grail beat drops just as hard today. To be perfectly honest I never heard a ton of 4:44 because I’m not a schill and I’m not paying for Tidal just to get Jay’s album, but The Story of OJ is without a doubt a jam. Long story short, I have high hopes for Jay-Z and Roc Nation leading the entertainment wing for the NFL moving forward.
Although it does sound like HOVA has been paying close attention to the Ginger Hammer’s actions in recent years (i.e. Supreme Court cases for equipment violations, but wife beaters and child abusers getting off scot free) and doesn’t expect completely smooth sailing.
“I anticipate that there will be a lot of — with any big organization, in this building right here we have internal problems. Anything that’s new is going to go through its growing pains. We put what we want to do on the table. The NFL agreed to it. So we’re going to proceed with that as if we have a partnership.”
I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt though that he wants to make some real changes by getting inside the NFL, rather than just criticize it on twitter, but at the end of the day Hov isn’t a businessman, he’s a business, man.
There’s been one brewery on my mind ever since I checked out their new taproom two weeks ago: Aslin Beer Company. Many people in the Boston area may not be familiar with these guys; I certainly wasn’t when I first moved to the DC area. Once I did move, I kept hearing the name Aslin again and again when trying to find the best brewery around.
Aslin Beer Co. houses their original location in Herndon, VA. Recently they opened up a second, much larger facility in Alexandria, VA that will house the bulk of production one it’s fully functioning.
Lucky for me, they just opened up a new taproom 15 minutes away from my apartment not even a month ago, and I was quite impressed. They make NEIPA’s as good as anyone actually in New England, mouth-puckering sours that leave you making faces well into the fourth and fifth sips (a sign of a great sour in my opinion) and some downright killer stouts. When it comes to what grabs your attention in the beer world these days, those three boxes are all you really need to check to stand out.
Although the new location doesn’t have a ton of can stock, I do like their labels.
The top rated beers from Aslin are almost exclusively IPA’s and stouts, no surprise there. If you can get your hands on them, Single, Double and Triple Orange Starfish, Master of Oranges, Master of Karate and Mind the Hop are some of their highest rated beers on Untappd, but it seems like every IPA they make has above a 4 rating on the app. For stouts, they have a bunch of amazing styles featuring all sorts of flavor additives, while their line of sours beers does the same.
So what do I actually recommend? Here’s a quick run down:
–Glamping Imperial Stout– Probably the best stout I’ve ever had. Made to mimic a s’more, this beer features marshmallows, graham crackers, chocolate, and the added bonus of…peanut butter! This is the first beer with peanut butter I had where I could really smell and taste the PB. Incredible. Oh yeah, it’s 15% alcohol and drinks like it’s less than half that, so watch out. –Pisghetti Western Stout– Another 15% imperial stout that doesn’t taste like it, this is conditioned on chocolate, hazelnuts, coffee, vanilla and cinnamon. I thought this had a touch too much cinnamon, which accentuated the heat from the alcohol just a bit more than I preferred. However, all the other flavors are delicious, and it’s still a great beer. –Master of OrangesDIPA– It’s pretty hard for me to be impressed by IPA’s these days. NEIPA’s can easily disguise off-flavors or a weak malt base by adding more dry-hops, more citrusy hops, more more more. On top of that, most people use the same four or five hops, so the difference from beer to beer is minute. That being said, this beer was fantastic, easily the best IPA I’ve had in DC. This beer is a combo of Double Orange Starfish and Master of Karate, and it blew me away. –El Frutero Sour Ale- A light, easy going sour at first taste, every sip seems to pack more flavor. Brewed with watermelon, lime, habanero peppers and salt, this beer is a perfect pairing for fish tacos. As a matter of fact, I would actually prefer this beer with food because the habaneros really punch you in the tongue.
I don’t play the games, but anyone who is a fan of Elder Scrolls will be excited to see Aslin came out with an entire line of beers to celebrate 25 years of Elder Scrolls games.
I really only have one beef with Aslin to this point, and it has nothing to do with the beer. The new spot is tinkering with the food menu, and we found out the hard way that it is overpriced. Much to our chagrin, the $8 deviled eggs we ordered was actually one egg, cut in half, with a sliver of jalapeno and a fried oyster on top. Considering all over Boston you can find $1 oysters and I can go to the grocery store and buy an 18-pack of Nellie’s Free Range Eggs for $5.69, that price is a rip off. I was assured they would be changing that, so I now have nothing more to complain about.
Although they don’t make it up to Boston, I highly recommend anyone traveling down to DC or Virginia stop by their locations and drink up. You won’t be disappointed.
