Tag: Daily Trends Hunter

Google unveiled a “ride” at CES…because why not?

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Pizza Hut’s beer delivery service to grow exponentially

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Turkey plans debt restructuring for top football clubs

Ankara, Turkey – Turkish football has been dominated by Istanbul’s Big Three for decades.

As a result, this week’s revelation that Galatasaray, Fenerbahce and Besiktas had been forced to seek help in paying off crippling debt sent a shiver through the recession-threatened country.

The trio, as well as the Black Sea club Trabzonspor, make up the bulk of the $2.6bn debt owed by Turkey’s top clubs. These four clubs have won all but one Super Lig title since the league was formed in 1959.

The Istanbul clubs also have huge support across the country, where their fans often outnumber those of local clubs even in the capital Ankara.

For many followers of the Turkish game, the deal to give the clubs a “chance to breathe” through debt restructuring, as Turkish Football Federation (TFF) Chairman Yildirim Demiroren put it on Monday, was the culmination of years of financial mismanagement coupled with a bleak economic outlook in Turkey.

“Turkey is a country that is very passionate about football,” said Ferda Halicioglu, an economics professor at Istanbul Medeniyet University who has done research on Turkish football.

“In the past, we turned a blind eye to what was happening on the financial side, but it was always going to come to a point where it was not sustainable. It has come to that point now because of the financial crisis and an accumulation of bad management.”

Tumbling lira

Top-flight clubs have been particularly hard-hit by the tumbling lira – which lost nearly a third of its value against the dollar last year – 20 percent inflation and a sharp rise in interest rate as they struggle to pay big-name foreign stars signed to please their fanatical supporters.

These overseas players command hefty transfer fees and wages paid in foreign currency.

The clubs’ falling balances have seen them jettisoning some of their marquee signings. Besiktas recently released Portuguese defender Pepe six months before the end of a two-year deal reportedly worth $11m.

During last summer’s transfer window, most Super Lig teams looked to cheaper homegrown talent to refresh their squads rather than emulate the big-money deals of seasons past which saw stars such as Didier Drogba and Robin van Persie come to Istanbul.

In part, these expensive foreign players were hired by club presidents elected by members often numbering in the tens of thousands for terms of a few years.

Critics say this, coupled with a lack of transparency, encourages presidents to opt for headline-grabbing signings to secure re-election.

Galatasaray, Fenerbahce, Besiktas and Trabzonspor make up the bulk of the debt [Orhan Cicek/Anadolu]

If the deal fails to produce results on the pitch, the problem of paying the wages falls to their successor.

“Nobody’s responsible for the money. They leave it to the next guy to clear up,” said Murat Yildiz, a Fenerbahce member.

Halicioglu added: “If you’re one of the top three teams, you always want the championship that season and that puts a lot of pressure on those in charge. They’re not prepared to wait a year or two for success.”

According to Tugrul Aksar, a banker and newspaper columnist who has written several books on football, the 18 Super Lig clubs have combined debts of $2.6bn against the league’s annual income of $600m and club assets of around $1bn.

“The financial structure we’re in is unsustainable,” Aksar told the Futbol Ekonimisi website. “We’re dealing with a league that can’t create financial income with its own dynamics.”

Turkish clubs have also come under the spotlight of UEFA’s Financial Fair Play regulations which, since 2011, have sought to keep football clubs’ spending in line with their income.

In October, UEFA ordered further investigation of Galatasaray’s finances after the club had earlier paid a $7m penalty for breaching the rules.

Turkey’s most successful side was banned from European competitions during the 2016-2017 season for previous offences.

Enhanced oversight

This period of enhanced oversight has seen the clubs that took their positions at the top of the table for granted drop down the pecking order with just Trabzonspor and Galatasaray currently in the top five.

Besiktas lie seventh while 19-time champions Fenerbahce are just one spot of the bottom with threats of relegation for the first time.

At the top of the table, six points clear of Trabzonspor, sit Basaksehir, a club founded in 1990 as the team of the Istanbul municipality.

They were promoted to the Super Lig for the first time in 2007 and recently competed in the Europa League.

The club’s management points to its status as a joint-stock company to explain its success as well as its ability to scout young Turkish players such as Cengiz Under, now a hot talent at Roma.

Its detractors, however, point to ties to the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), saying sponsorship by public companies has enabled Basaksehir to retain foreign players such as former Arsenal and Manchester City duo Emmanuel Adebayor and Gael Clichy and Brazilian Robinho despite drawing crowds of just a few thousand.

Many remain unconvinced that anything will change unless the clubs are overhauled [Murad Sezer/Reuters]

Club President Goksel Gumusdag is linked by marriage to the family of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, himself a former semi-professional footballer who played in a match to mark the opening of Basaksehir’s new stadium in 2014.

“The current ruling party wants new clubs to reflect its New Turkey ideal but these clubs don’t have a supporter base,” Halicioglu said. “They have small capacity stadiums that they can’t fill.”

“The financial situation is not transparent so we don’t know how they generate their money, but they seem to get a lot from sponsorship from companies close to the ruling party, which is unfair competition. They are artificial clubs.”

Although Basaksehir is on course to become just the sixth club to win the Super Lig, it is questionable whether it can achieve the long-term success of its established rivals given its limited fan base in a country where team support is usually passed down in the family.

‘Financial burden’

The Banks Association of Turkey, which arranged the restructure with the TFF, said that the clubs would not see their debts written off or restructured at reduced rates. They would not be offered further loans either, it said.

Instead, they would be run under a strict financial regime to strengthen their structures under the TFF’s supervision.

But, like many commentators, economics professor Halicioglu questioned the terms of the agreement.

“This financial burden is not going to go away, even if it is deferred for five or 10 years at a lower rate of interest,” he said. “I don’t think restructuring will resolve the problem because they will probably accumulate new debts.”

The deal has been also criticised by opposition politicians amid suggestions that the help for the clubs is linked to local elections in March.

Orhan Saribal, an MP for the Republican People’s Party (CHP), queried the public benefit in helping football clubs rather than farmers suffering under the AKP’s “incorrect agricultural policies”.

For all the debate around the effort to save Turkey’s biggest clubs, many remain unconvinced that anything will change unless the clubs themselves are overhauled and subjected to oversight, including measures such as independent audits.

“Like many things in Turkey, the rules and regulations are there but in practice, there’s no enforcement,” said Yildiz.

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Trump says he will almost ‘definitely’ declare a national emergency for border wall


Donald Trump

If funding for a border wall does not pass through Congress, President Donald Trump said on Thursday that there is “no doubt” he will call a national emergency. | Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images

President Donald Trump on Thursday gave the strongest signal yet that he will declare a national emergency in an effort to secure billions of dollars for a border wall, as negotiations on Capitol Hill to reopen the federal government continue to flounder.

“I have the absolute right to declare a national emergency,” Trump told reporters outside the White House on his way to McAllen, Texas, adding that his lawyers advised him that he could. “If this doesn’t work out…I would almost say definitely,”

Story Continued Below

The president’s demands for $5.7 billion for a barrier along the southern border thrust the government into a partial government shutdown that is on the verge of becoming the longest in U.S. history. With Democrats refusing to give in to his demands, Trump has increasingly floated the idea that he may declare a national emergency to secure the wall funds and deliver on one of his earliest campaign promises.

Some critics and legal experts, however, has questioned whether Trump has the authority to use such a declaration to build his wall.

Trump’s latest comments come a day after negotiations between Democratic leaders and the White House dramatically fell apart.

Top Republican and Democratic leaders briefly met with Trump at the White House on Wednesday afternoon to restart discussions on legislation to reopen the government. But Trump abruptly ended the meeting after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said that she would not give in on border funds in the foreseeable future.

If funding for a border wall does not pass through Congress, Trump said on Thursday that there is “no doubt” he will call a national emergency. The president also said that he will then fund his wall “through the various mechanisms,” but did not expand on what that includes.

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Lady Gaga Apologizes For 2013 R. Kelly Collab, Pledges Support For His Accusers



Mike Coppola/FilmMagic

Since it aired last week, Surviving R. Kelly — Dream Hampton’s probing Lifetime docuseries into the artist’s history of alleged abuse against women and girls — has given a megaphone to Kelly’s victims and may have even roused a Georgia D.A. to open a new investigation into their claims. Another key takeaway is the reaction of the music community itself, made up of many artists who continued to work with Kelly despite persistent rumors of abuse.

John Legend, on one hand, readily appeared in the series and denounced Kelly, tweeting, “I believe these women and don’t give a fuck about protecting a serial child rapist.” Hampton herself revealed that she’d asked artists like Lady Gaga, Erykah Badu, Jay-Z, and more to appear in the series, but they all declined.

Early Thursday morning (January 10), though, Gaga — who collaborated in Kelly in 2013 for the song “Do What U Want” — took to Twitter to clarify her stance: “I stand behind these women 1000%, believe them, know they are suffering and in pain, and feel strongly that their voices should be heard and taken seriously.”

Gaga called the allegations against Kelly “absolutely horrifying and indefensible” and after acknowledging that she, too, is the victim of sexual assault, she went in detail about the genesis of their joint song and video, which she said was created “at a dark time in my life.” “My intention was to create something extremely defiant and provocative because I was angry and still hadn’t processed the trauma that had occurred in my own life,” she wrote. The song’s single artwork and its unreleased video were both shot by Terry Richardson, who also has a long history of troubling sexual abuse allegations against him.

Gaga said she’s grown since then, in part because of therapy, and pledged to keep supporting “women, men, and people of all sexual identities, and of all races, who are victims of sexual assault.” The first step, for her, is removing “Do What U Want” from “iTunes and other streaming platforms.” She concluded her note with a vow to never work with Kelly again, and a message of love.

Elsewhere in the note, she writes, “Til it happens to you, you don’t know how it feels.” In 2015, she co-wrote and performed “Til It Happens To You” with Diane Warren for The Hunting Ground, a documentary about rape on college campuses. Kesha later covered it.

Read Gaga’s entire note above.

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The approach to filming sex scenes in ‘Sex Education’ marks a new chapter for the teen genre

Hollywood’s #MeToo reckoning not only shone a light on the industry’s toxic culture of predation and sexual violence. It also underscored the critical need for an overhaul of the way sex and consent are portrayed on our screens, and a major change in the way cast and crew members are treated on and off set. 

SEE ALSO: How to improve sex scenes after Hollywood’s big reckoning

In Netflix’s new teen comedy Sex Education, that change is palpable in the way the writers’ tackle the topic of sex, but also in how sex scenes were filmed. 

Netflix hired an “intimacy coordinator” to ensure both cast and crew felt comfortable when filming sex scenes and responsible for making sure actors agreed to be touched during intimate scenes. 

Director Kate Herron told Mashable at an advanced screening of the first episode that the intimacy coordinator helped cast members with the sex scenes, but her main function was “making it clear that everyone’s comfortable with what’s going on”. 

“It was about making it a safe, comfortable working environment.”

“So, things like agreeing touch, but also other things like everyone being on board with what the scene’s about,” said Herron. The intimacy coordinator wasn’t just tasked with liaising with the actors engaged in the intimate scenes, she also worked with the crew. “That’s equally just as important for crew as well. No one should have to go home after filming a sex scene and feel like what they’ve done is like something really wrong,” said Herron. 

“It was about making it a safe, comfortable working environment, particularly because, not all the sex scenes I did, but quite a lot of them were for comic effect and you cant really make something funny if people don’t feel comfortable,” Herron added. 

Ita O’Brien — the intimacy coordinator — says she works to ensure that intimate scenes are rehearsed to the same extent you would a fight or stunt scene and that everyone involved is consulted throughout. “I give a structure and process to get through sex scenes,” said O’Brien. “So instead of a director saying: ‘this is what I want, get on with it’, or ‘you two go away and work it out yourselves’, both of which can leave people in compromising situations.

Otis with new friend, an resident 'bad girl' Maeve.

Otis with new friend, an resident ‘bad girl’ Maeve.

Image: Jon Hall/Netflix

O’Brien talked about how she goes about making sure everyone involved isn’t dreading the sex scenes and feeling uncomfortable. “I’m there to help them choreograph it clearly, ensuring everyone was okay with both the physicality and the nudity,” she said. “You agree the scene step-by-step, including where people have consented to be touched, so they can be freer to tell the story and further their character through the scene.” The same rules apply to supporting artists, who according to O’Brien are often “overlooked” and “told to go off and make it up themselves.”

Before the filming even began, the entire cast and crew took part in a day-long intimacy workshop. “We started with people sharing experiences of intimate scenes and sexual content at work, both good and bad,” said O’Brien. “Actors said to me that was groundbreaking, to have that connection as an opener and a leveler.” It was also important to help the actors keep their “personal self private” during sex scenes. “You don’t want to bring who you are into a sex scene, so how else can you explore sexual rhythms? We looked at footage of dogs, cats, lions, gorillas, slugs and snails, then physicalised them so they had the rhythms at their fingertips and could apply them to different characters,” said O’Brien.  

Created and written by Laurie Nunn, Sex Education is the story of 16-year-old Otis, a “very shy, awkward, quite neurotic teenage boy” who lives with his mum Jean, a sex and relationships therapist. “Because of this he has this weird secret superpower, he has this incredible theoretical knowledge of sex and relationships even though he himself can’t even masturbate,” Nunn told Mashable. 

Otis and his best pal Eric.

Otis and his best pal Eric.

Image: Sam Taylor/Netflix

Nunn’s exploration of the universality of being an awkward, sexually inexperienced 16 year old is inspired by her love of iconic teen movies and TV shows and the YA genre. “We really wanted to pay homage to the John Hughes films of 1980s,” said Nunn. Netflix’s commissioning editor Alex Sapot described the series as “a real homage to John Hughes, the ’80s” and “an interesting intersection” of the John Hughes aesthetic and Laurie Nunn’s modern voice. Nunn added that their aim was to harness this inspiration and “take tried and tested tropes and subvert them and look at them from a new perspective.” 

In light of the criticism John Hughes‘ movies have faced for their depiction of teen sex, this subversion of tropes is, it’s safe to say, necessary if Sex Education hopes to achieve its goal of being the next iteration of the teen drama. In the wake of the Harvey Weinstein allegations, Molly Ringwald — who starred in Hughes’ The Breakfast Club, Pretty in Pink, and Sixteen Candles — spoke about how she now feels about the sexualised scenes in light of the #MeToo movement. 

In an op-ed in the New Yorker, Ringwald wrote that her mother “spoke up during the filming” of the scene in The Breakfast Club in which “bad-boy character” John Bender hides under the desk of Ringwald’s character Claire and seizes the opportunity to look at her underwear. “Though the audience doesn’t see, it is implied that he touches her inappropriately,” wrote Ringwald, who was a minor at the time of filming the scene. 

My mom also spoke up during the filming of that scene in The Breakfast Club, when they hired an adult woman for the shot of Claire’s underwear. They couldn’t even ask me to do it—I don’t think it was permitted by law to ask a minor—but even having another person pretend to be me was embarrassing to me and upsetting to my mother, and she said so. That scene stayed, though. 

Three decades on, and this homage to Hughes’ teen films is distinctly different in its approach to sex both on and off screen. 

O’Brien thinks the show has the potential to change attitudes towards sex in the #MeToo era. But, the work behind the scenes, can and should spark change within the entertainment industry. HBO took the decision in late 2018 to “staff every one of its television shows and films” that feature sex scenes with an intimacy coordinator. 

“There has been a seismic shift this year,” said O’Brien. “Apart from this for Netflix, I’ve done a series with Amazon, and Sky have said they’ll be using intimacy guidelines. It’s all really positive for the industry.”

Sex Education‘s approach to navigating sex scenes with a cast of young actors — many of whom are on their first big break — is a positive one. But, hiring intimacy coordinators shouldn’t be something unique to the teen genre. This move sets a valuable precedent and should be adopted industry-wide.

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Ranking the Top Quarterbacks from the 2018 NFL Season

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    Maddie Meyer/Getty Images

    In 2018, we saw running backs take back some of the glory in the NFL. Marlon Mack and Ezekiel Elliott have carried their teams into the second round of the playoffs, while rookies like Saquon Barkley and Nick Chubb took the league by storm.

    It’s still a quarterback-driven league, however, and teams with legitimate franchise quarterbacks under center are best-suited for sustained success. With this in mind, we’re eager to take a look back at the 10 best quarterbacks of the 2018 regular season.

    Defining which quarterbacks are the best can be tricky because everyone has an opinion about what makes a quarterback great. For this list, we’ll look at statistics as well as factors like physical talent, performance in key situations and the ability to elevate surrounding talent.

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    Marcio Jose Sanchez/Associated Press

    Jared Goff, Los Angeles Rams

    You know we’re in a golden age of quarterbacking when Los Angeles Rams quarterback Jared Goff passes for 4,688 yards and 32 touchdowns and doesn’t even crack our top 10.

    Goff was tremendous at times in 2018, but he also struggled when asked to put the offense on his shoulders in losses to the Chicago Bears and Philadelphia Eagles. His success may be dependent on Sean McVay’s offensive system, but Goff is excellent at running that system.

    Derek Carr, Oakland Raiders

    Oakland Raiders quarterback Derek Carr was asked to do a lot in 2018. He had to learn Jon Gruden’s offense, play behind an inconsistent offensive line and work with a receiving corps that parted with Amari Cooper midseason. It didn’t help that a poor Raiders defense often left Carr trying to play catch-up.

    Yet Carr still finished with 4,049 yards passing and 19 touchdowns. Those aren’t tremendous numbers by today’s standards, but the adversity Carr overcame cannot be overstated.

    Dak Prescott, Dallas Cowboys

    Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott is a game manager and is unlikely to rack up gaudy stats or get a ton of credit. However, he is very good at what he does, and his ability to make plays with both his arm and his legs makes him dangerous.

    Prescott finished the season with 3,885 yards passing, 305 yards rushing and 28 total touchdowns. He would have made our top 10 if he hadn’t struggled to push the ball downfield as much as he did before the acquisition of Cooper. Remember, the ability to elevate talent is an important quarterback trait.

    Aaron Rodgers, Green Bay Packers

    It’s been fashionable to bash Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers this season, and it’s true that we’re leaving him off our top-10 list. His play has taken a hit—he missed open receivers and was too quick to get rid of the ball—but Rodgers still played like a quality franchise quarterback.

    He finished the season with 4,442 yards passing, 25 touchdowns and two interceptions. If the Packers improve any in 2019, he should be back in the top 10.

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    Gene J. Puskar/Associated Press

    Statistically, Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger was the top quarterback of 2018. He passed for a league-leading 5,129 yards with 34 touchdowns and 16 interceptions. Roethlisberger still has plenty of ability, and there are few quarterbacks teams would rather have.

    However, Roethlisberger is at the bottom of our list for a few reasons. His leadership style is questionable at best, and it’s not like he needs to elevate receivers like Antonio Brown and JuJu Smith-Schuster. Roethlisberger has openly criticized teammates, and his friction with Brown could well lead to the star wideout’s departure.

    Roethlisberger also made his fair share of mistakes in 2018. His three interceptions in the season opener against the Cleveland Browns likely kept Pittsburgh from securing a win. His late-game interception against the Denver Broncos in Week 12 cost the Steelers another.

    One could argue that if not for some of Roethlisberger’s mistakes, Pittsburgh would have made it into the postseason. At the same time, Roethlisberger is a big reason why the Steelers got close.

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    Eric Christian Smith/Associated Press

    Along with the rest of the Houston Texans, Deshaun Watson performed poorly in the playoff opener against the Indianapolis Colts. However, his play in the regular season was remarkable and perhaps the biggest reason Houston got into the postseason.

    Watson is a dual-threat quarterback in every sense of the word, but unlike unpolished players like Josh Allen and Lamar Jackson, Watson is also lethal throwing from the pocket. He finished the regular season with 4,165 yards passing, 551 yards rushing and 31 total touchdowns.

    He also lost receivers Will Fuller and Demaryius Thomas to injury, leaving DeAndre Hopkins as the lone reliable target on the roster. Hopkins is an elite receiver, but Watson was able to get the most out of other pass-catchers as well.

    If not for a propensity to take sacks—he had 62 of them in the regular season—Watson would be higher on our list.

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    Maddie Meyer/Getty Images

    No, Tom Brady has not reached the cliff yet. Sure, he’s missed some throws we aren’t used to seeing him miss, and he’s been uncharacteristically rattled by pressure. However, he’s also passed for 4,355 yards with 29 touchdowns and 11 interceptions—not that Brady cares about those numbers.

    “I’m not a big stat guy,” Brady told reporters in December. “I’m into wins.”

    Brady helped deliver 11 wins to New England this year and got the Patriots a first-round bye. With one more win, he’ll be back in the AFC Championship Game.

    We also have to give Brady credit for elevating the players around him. While he did have Josh Gordon for part of the season—plus whatever is left of Rob Gronkowski—he’s done a lot more with the likes of Chris Hogan, James White and Cordarrelle Patterson than most other quarterbacks would have.

    Even at 41 years old, Brady will be on equal footing with virtually any quarterback he faces from here on out in the postseason.

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    Patrick Smith/Getty Images

    The only rookie on our list, Baker Mayfield didn’t just elevate the talent around him. He put the entire Cleveland Browns organization on his back and nearly led it to the postseason. In just 14 games and 13 starts, Mayfield passed for 3,725 yards, a rookie-record 27 touchdowns and 14 interceptions—and it’s not like he was playing with a star-studded supporting cast.

    Mayfield also deserves credit for weathering a midseason coaching change and the ascension of a first-time offensive play-caller. Despite plenty of turmoil and the foul stench of the Browns’ losing culture, Mayfield brought confidence to the franchise and produced one of the great rookie campaigns of all time.

    Not only did Mayfield break a touchdown record held by Peyton Manning and Russell Wilson—in just 13 starts, no less—he also set a new Browns rookie passing-yardage record and was named NFL Rookie of the Week a remarkable seven times.

    Mayfield has a great chance to beat out Saquon Barkley as the Offensive Rookie of the Year, and he’s deserving of the award. If he continues to improve, Mayfield will find himself near the top of this list in future seasons.

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    Nick Wass/Associated Press

    The Los Angeles Chargers have one of the most balanced rosters in the NFL this season, so it may be easy to overlook the job quarterback Philip Rivers has done.

    Yes, he’s benefited from a strong rushing attack and a cadre of talented receivers—including Keenan Allen, Mike Williams, Tyrell Williams and Travis Benjamin. However, he’s been great in pressure situations for most of the season.

    Rivers’ late-game heroics against the Kansas City Chiefs in Week 15 showed exactly why Los Angeles is a dangerous postseason team.

    While Rivers isn’t likely to garner MVP consideration because of his surrounding talent, he’s still a truly elite signal-caller. He has a passion for the game rivaled by only his talent and on-field ability. He finished the regular season with 4,308 yards passing, 32 touchdowns and 12 interceptions. He is one of the few quarterbacks who won’t be intimidated by a quarterback duel with Brady in the postseason.

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    Michael Ainsworth/Associated Press

    In a year highlighted by remarkable quarterback play, Russell Wilson’s raw numbers may not be all that impressive. He finished the regular season with 3,448 yards passing, 376 yards rushing and 35 touchdowns with just seven interceptions.

    Let’s not forget, though, that Wilson led a run-oriented offense—one that averaged 160 yards rushing per game in the regular season.

    Wilson was efficient as a passer, and his ability to escape pressure behind Seattle’s inconsistent offensive line helped sustain many drives. His ability to thrive in pressure situations won several contests for the Seahawks.

    In fact, as Wilson lamented, Seattle’s refusal to lean on him against the Cowboys may have led to the team’s early playoff exit.

    “I think that when you reflect back on it, we were throwing it pretty well in the game,” he told reporters. “I think we could have kept doing that some more.”

    Wilson remains one of the best in the game, and that isn’t likely to change anytime soon.

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    Butch Dill/Associated Press

    Like Russell Wilson, New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees remains one of the best signal-callers in the game. While detractors will point to his average play during the Saints’ three-game road stretch late in the season, Brees did indeed perform at an MVP level in 2018.

    He finished the season with 3,992 yards passing and 32 touchdowns. More impressively, he tossed just five interceptions. That’s exceptional.

    We shouldn’t act like Brees works with an all-star receiving corps either. There is little to be excited about aside from Michael Thomas. If Brees didn’t benefit from a dominant rushing attack and one of the better offensive lines in the league—ranked eighth by Pro Football Focus—he’d belong even further up this list.

    Still, what Brees has done at 39 years old—including breaking his own single-season completion-percentage record and becoming the NFL’s all-time passing leader—is incredibly impressive.

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    Jason Behnken/Associated Press

    Atlanta Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan isn’t going to get much, if any, MVP love for two big reasons. For one, the Falcons went just 7-9, and quarterbacks who don’t make the postseason are rarely seen as MVP-caliber.

    The second reason is that Ryan benefits from passing to guys like Julio Jones, Calvin Ridley and Mohamed Sanu.

    Still, Ryan was brilliant in 2018. He passed for 4,924 yards with 35 touchdowns and just seven interceptions. He did so while regularly playing from behind thanks to a suspect defense. It isn’t Ryan’s fault that the Falcons defense was injured and ineffective in 2018, and it isn’t his fault that the Falcons missed the postseason.

    If the Falcons had slipped into the playoffs, we would absolutely be talking about Ryan as an MVP candidate.

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    Michael Wyke/Associated Press

    Indianapolis Colts quarterback Andrew Luck missed the entire 2017 season while recovering from shoulder surgery. It was fair to wonder if he’d be able to play again at a high level, let alone an MVP level.

    Yet that’s where we are with Luck after the first round of the postseason. An emerging rushing attack and a strong defense have played their roles in Indianapolis’ success this season, but Luck has had to go out and win games several times this season. He brought Indianapolis back for victories against the Houston Texans, Miami Dolphins and New York Giants. Heck, he led the Colts back from a 1-5 start to the season.

    Luck has been phenomenal in critical situations this season. He’s also produced an impressive stat line, passing for 4,593 yards with 39 touchdowns and 15 interceptions.

    There are few quarterbacks who can outduel the next entry on our list, but Luck is one of them.

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    Charlie Riedel/Associated Press

    Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes is going to be your 2018 NFL MVP. After he got 45 of 50 first-place votes during All-Pro selection, anything else would come as a shock.

    Mahomes is deserving of the MVP award too. The second-year pro—and let’s not forget, first-year starter—has been brilliant. He has physical tools we haven’t seen at the quarterback position before, including the ability to throw from multiple angles, on the run and even while not looking.

    These abilities have helped produce gaudy statistics. Mahomes passed for 5,097 yards, rushed for 272 more and scored 52 total touchdowns. These numbers are beyond impressive for any quarterback, but for a guy who’s still adjusting to the speed and nuances of the pro game, they’re unbelievable.

    While we have yet to see how he handles his first playoff action, Mahomes has been without a doubt the most impressive quarterback in the NFL this season. There’s a good chance he remains that for the foreseeable future.

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‘Brooklyn Nine-Nine’ Season 6 thrives in unexpected spotlight

The story of Brooklyn Nine-Nine is now part of eternal television lore. The whip-smart and big-hearted cop comedy was canceled by FOX and picked up by NBC in May 2017, and now it’s poised to present its sixth season with a lot of new attention.

But before all that, Brooklyn Nine-Nine was – since its very first episode – a truly excellent show. It busted open the stale and serious genre of cop procedurals and fit seamlessly into the extended universe of Michael Schur comedies about coworkers who become family.

SEE ALSO: If only this ‘Brooklyn Nine-Nine’ and ‘Law and Order: SVU’ crossover were true

That family was the reason fans returned season after season for modest but not insignificant ratings, that juggernauts like Mark Hamill and Lin-Manuel Miranda count themselves among the show’s diehards. Jake, Amy, Captain Holt, Charles, Gina, Terry, Rosa – even Hitchcock and Scully – became symbols of the chivalry, righteousness, and empathy absent from most of the TV landscape.

Season 6 kicks off with the gang separated, as they have been for the past few openers (Jake and Holt in witness protection, Jake in prison). Jake and Amy set off on their honeymoon, where they’re met with the unexpected (and somewhat unwelcome) sight of Holt. In the Captain’s absence, Terry questions his interim leadership ability with Rosa’s support, while Charles, in peak Boyle form, investigates his and Gina’s parents’ crumbling marriage.

It’s not new for Brooklyn Nine-Nine to focus on family, but the motif resonates differently after everything the cast, crew, and fans went through in May. New viewers drawn in by the FOX/NBC madness will find something steadfast in the Nine-Nine and in seeing these characters support each other in every permutation and combination.

Episode 2 provides Hitchcock/Scully backstory we had all but given up on by now, and which is welcome nonetheless for shedding light on two characters whose own peers regard them as dead weight. It seems like a silly standalone but it’s a sneaky introduction to the Nine-Nine dynamic and proficiency in solving local crime.

In a testament to Schur’s growth as a force of television comedy, the characters on Brooklyn Nine-Nine have always been three-dimensional and uniquely weird – a quality that endears us to fan favorites on The Office and Parks and Recreation as well. But on those shows, the characters had to grow into their personas. Here, we start with the gold standard. The pilot doesn’t feel like a different show to highlight how far it has come, but like a deliberate introduction to this world and its inhabitants.

The new season is in no way revelatory, but more of the same – it’s just that the same was already so damn good. The standard here is inclusivity and warmth. Brooklyn Nine-Nine, like its Schur-verse predecessors, is more than a show – it’s a home. It has been a kind, funny sanctuary for its viewers since 2013 and welcomes new blood on a new network. We’re just happy to be back.

Brooklyn Nine-Nine airs Thursdays at 9 p.m. on NBC.

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This video of a voice assistant reading emoji out loud is honestly glorious

2018%2f10%2f17%2f52%2flauraps.2264fBy Laura Byager

Having a voice assistant read your texts aloud for you while you drive is really convenient, not to mention safer than trying to read them yourself.

But if your texts were sent to you by a child or anyone else communicating exclusively using emoji, you’re in for a wild ride.

SEE ALSO: Aquarium points out Apple’s squid emoji isn’t quite right

On Twitter, creative director Aaron Reynolds shared a video of an assistant — which sounds like Siri, although it isn’t specified — reading out a text from his daughter. It’s basically just one comically long thread of emoji. 

After concluding that the text consists of no less than 35 emoji, the assistant puts on a brave face and reads them all aloud. 

Here’s a transcript of that glorious text. “A grinning face, a sunglasses face, a crazy face, seven smiley faces, a face crying with laughter, two faces with tongue out, two faces with monocles, two smirking faces, three party faces, a goofy face, three kissing faces, an upside-down face, two faces rolling on the floor laughing, a sad face, an unamused face, two nerd faces, three winking faces, and a worried face.”

Beside the fact that “nerd face” is a surprisingly savage burn from a virtual assistant, the ability to narrate emoji like this is honestly impressive.

Another Twitter user pointed out that there’s one emoji that’s particularly joyous to hear read aloud. 

I only ever send smiley poo face for car to read out 😄😄😄

— JupStorm (@Jupstorm) January 9, 2019

A smiley face, a sunglasses face, a face with tongue out. 

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Ken Jeong and James Corden team up for hilarious spoof ’90s commercials

Frankly, all TV commercials should be set to the sound of “No Scrubs.” 

And, thanks to James Corden and Ken Jeong, we now know what ’90s commercials would have been like had they been set to TLC’s iconic pop banger.

The two teamed up for a sketch on The Late Late Show where they acted in parody commercials for a hot tub shop, a reptile expo and a law firm. 

These spoof commercials really makes you miss bad ’90s lighting and terrible graphics, don’t they?

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