Tennis champion describes pay discrepancy between male and female squads as ‘ludicrous’
Serena Williams and other prominent past and present American tennis players have expressed their support for a lawsuit filed by the US women’s national soccer team against their federation alleging gender discrimination in wages and conditions.
All 28 members of the US squad were named as plaintiffs in a federal court in Los Angeles on Friday, International Women’s Day.
Continue reading...The NFL and attorneys for Colin Kaepernick and Eric Reid jointly announced on Friday afternoon they have settled a complaint of collusion by the players, who claimed the league’s owners blackballed them because they had protested by kneeling during the pre-game playing of the national anthem.
Related: Did the NFL manage to silence Colin Kaepernick's protest at the Super Bowl?
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And here come the Rams. The Patriots came out to Ozzy Osbourne while the Rams came out to T.I.’s “Bring ‘Em Out.”
The crowd seemed to be on the Patriots’ side here, so this could be a home game type feel for them.
The New England Patriots are taking the field now, we’re getting closer to the kickoff.
Continue reading...In an interview broadcast on the biggest day in the NFL calendar, Donald Trump said he would have a 'hard time' letting his son Barron play American football.
The president made the statement during an interview set to be broadcast on CBS’s Face the Nation on Sunday, hours before Super Bowl LIII kicks off in Atlanta.
Asked if he would be comfortable letting 12-year-old Barron play a sport that has been repeatedly linked to brain trauma injuries, he described it as a 'tough question'.
Continue reading...Cardi B turned down an offer to perform at the Super Bowl, she said, in order to “stand behind” the former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick, who “stood up” for minorities by kneeling down during playings of the pre-game anthem.
Related: Super Bowl half-time show won’t reflect Atlanta’s music industry
Continue reading...The Oscars have no host, Rihanna turned down the Super Bowl, and the White House dinner will be MC’d by a historian. What’s behind the sudden demise of entertainment’s biggest jobs?
The loss of the Oscars’ latest host is, on the one hand, just another mishap to add to the list. From 2016’s #OscarsSoWhite to 2017’s wrong delivery of the best picture award, the ceremony now seems like a particularly slow bloopers reel. Yet the loss of Kevin Hart – who quit after old homophobic tweets resurfaced – is also a sign of something else. The fact that no one has replaced him, and that it’s difficult to think of many people who could, or would, reveals a much deeper malaise: a scary loss of nerve across showbiz’s top-tier events.
Within weeks, the Super Bowl half-time show will air. In the past, the American football final has been an epic showcase for the likes of Madonna, Prince and Beyoncé, a 20-minute, legacy-defining megamix. This year, though, with Rihanna and Cardi B having turned it down in solidarity with the activist NFL player Colin Kaepernick, we will be left with the hardly epochal sounds of Maroon 5.
Continue reading...Cristiano Ronaldo’s lawyer has confirmed authorities in Las Vegas have issued a warrant to collect DNA from the football star in the wake of allegations he raped a woman in the city in 2009.
“Mr Ronaldo has always maintained, as he does today, that what occurred in Las Vegas in 2009 was consensual in nature, so it is not surprising that DNA would be present, nor that the police would make this very standard request as part of their investigation,” Ronaldo’s lawyer, Peter S Christiansen, said in a statement to the BBC. The Wall Street Journal reports that the warrant has been sent to courts in Italy, where Ronaldo plays for Juventus.
Continue reading...Rich Alati had a six-figure sum in his sights. As long as he could survive 30 days in the dark with no human contact
Three – or was it four? – days after he shut himself in a pitch-black bathroom, Rich Alati started to hallucinate. He saw little white, bubble-like balls, floating around the room. To calm himself he imagined he was in a magical cloud, cozy and relaxed. Embracing the visions was key. “Or else,” he says, “you might get a little scared.”
Alati was in the dark for a bet, which makes a little more sense once you know he is a professional poker player. On 10 September last year, the American was sitting at a poker table at the Bellagio in Las Vegas, when he was asked a question by a fellow professional player, Rory Young: how much would it take for him to spend time in complete isolation, with no light, for 30 days? An hour later a price had been agreed: $100,000.
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