Lincoln Riley wanted the Jimbo Fisher contract without following in Jimbo Fisher’s footsteps. — Donald Trump may no longer be in the White House, but the recurring detonation of bombshell news stories that marked his presidency now defines the college football news cycle in 2021. On Sunday, several sports news outlets reported that Oklahoma Sooners head football coach Lincoln Riley would be leaving the…

Urban Meyer is a brilliant football coach. He’s also a terrible person who has depended on his well-placed former players in the media to hide just how terrible he is. — Last Saturday a video clip surfaced on Twitter that appeared to show Jacksonville Jaguars head coach Urban Meyer receiving a lap dance by an unknown woman at a bar. …

To Nicki Minaj, even racists like Tucker Carlson can seem like allies so long as they are defending the same people — namely, her. — During the summer a number of high-profile Black musicians and professional athletes either voiced skepticism or skirted questions about receiving the covid-19 vaccine. Rapper Busta Rhymes was at the center of an expletive-filled anti-mask and anti-vaccine speech that went viral on Twitter. L.A. Lakers star Lebron James, normally outspoken on…

There never really was a constituency among the MAGA faithful for anti-war politics. — Perhaps the only thing more predictable than the swift wagon-circling of Beltway news outlets around Never Trump Republican commentary on the U.S. troop withdrawal from Afghanistan are the attacks on Biden from Republicans who once lauded former President Trump’s anti-intervention “America First” doctrine. Even Trump himself, whose administration negotiated the…

I’m not too ‘woke’ or wise to end up in an abusive friendship. — Sometimes when I’m facing a dilemma and need advice, I picture myself as a columnist or one of those call-in radio show shrinks from my favorite rom-com (Sleepless In Seattle) and TV show (“Frasier”), lending an ear to a stranger in need. …

The latest victory for college student athletes comes at the cost of elevating bad economic theories espoused by the American right. — The public consensus is clear — college student athletes should be able to make money using their name, image, and likeness (NIL) while participating in NCAA sports. Much like the fight over Obamacare and same-sex marriage, the U.S. Supreme Court’s unanimous decision in NCAA vs. …

President Biden has won the approval of voters with legislation that boosts education and childcare funding for working parents. But the GOP hopes the backlash to critical race theory proves voters crave protest politics even more. — In the five months since Democrats took control of the White House and both houses of Congress, critical race theory has been the locus of political agitation for their Republican opponents. At least four states have passed bans targeting the teaching of critical race theory in K-12 public schools, and…

Once understood to be a critique of society’s overreliance on smart technology, this “Black Mirror” classic turns out to have much more to say about our current fixation with cultural reckonings. — In the third episode of “Black Mirror,” Netflix’s futuristic anthology series about the dangers and unintended consequences of new technology, humans are implanted with a chip that records everything they see, hear, and do. The chip, known as a grain, allows humans to access their recorded memories anytime they wish…

In the early 2000s, genre-bending in music was all the rage, as artists like Kid Rock and Linkin Park contributed to a record number of chart-topping singles for the rap-rock genre. So why wasn’t Black fusion rock artist Res a part of the success story? — It seems every decade has a group of artists known for taking over the music charts with their genre-bending sound— and in the late 2010s, 19-year old singer and songwriter Billie Eilish was that artist. …