Terry Jones died last week. He was a founding member of Monty Python, as well as a director, an author, a legitimate historian, and dozens of other multihyphenate occupations beyond. A Renaissance man, in the most traditional and idyllic meaning. I’ll miss him terribly, and I am hardly alone. So, in tribute to the man on this glorious Super Bowl Sunday, here he is headlining one of Python’s greatest sports sketches (and they had a LOT of them) as Ron Obvious, who attempted to become the first man to EVER jump the English Channel. Let’s see how Ron did!
Archives (page 8 of 13)
The Eagles won the Super Bowl two years ago. I’ve been thinking about it ever since.
I think a lot of Eagles fans share my habit of occasionally pondering back and thinking about how much fun Super Bowl 52 was for the Philadelphia area. I experienced it in a different way than a lot of fans, though: Somehow I convinced my bosses we needed to do a Mall of America video, so I saw the Eagles win the Super Bowl in person.
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Art: Kelsey McKinney
There was likely a point in Brad Wanamaker’s career when he had given up on making it to the NBA. Undrafted after graduating from Pitt in 2011, Wanamaker spent most of the last decade all over Europe, playing in France, Germany, Italy, and Turkey before finally making his NBA debut for the Celtics on Oct. 16, 2018 at age 29.
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Last year, this weekend, my sister and I made seven dips. This is the best weekend of the year for dips and we would not be stopped. We made guacamole, layered bean dip, harissa hummus, and a nice labne. We planned ahead and were actually on time. When the Ginormous Football Game began, we were seated happily in front of the television.
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Illustration: Chris Thompson
There are many good Pool Boys, but there is only one Roberto Firmino. Liverpool’s No. 9 has long been the team’s attacking linchpin, the most versatile and hard-working member of the vaunted trio that has blitzed England and Europe ever since Mohamed Salah joined the crew in the summer of 2017.
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Image by Tom Ley
If you run a baseball team, it’s never been easier to project competence. The Astros just got caught in the corniest, most brazen cheating scandal in recent history; the Red Sox are inexplicably hellbent on not employing Mookie Betts; the Mets still exist. It feels like half the teams in the league can’t stop stepping on rakes, and all any franchise needs to do to look good in comparison is walk in a straight line.
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So, full-on brawl in the Battle Of Alberta including a goalie fight, or Damian Lillard? The choice is yours.
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Courtesy of Netflix
As the final scenes roll through Cheer, the six-part Netflix documentary on the many-times-over-championship cheerleading squad at Navarro Junior College, the camera closes in on the squad’s official coach and unofficial mother Monica Aldama. Aldama is back where our series began, sitting in a nondescript college gym, watching young women cheer and tumble, taking notes with a pen. She tells another coach, “You’re looking for potential.” The song “Snowqueen of Texas,” the suggestion as subtle as a sledgehammer, plays right before the credits roll.
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Mascots have a law among themselves that no one is to see them without their heads on. The person who embodies a mascot is not important; they are simply the bones necessary to make the mascot flesh. This is usually fine and acceptable, except for in this specific situation where I am absolutely convinced that the person inside the Gritty suit is hot in real life.
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Perhaps the greatest single strength the 49ers will have in today’s Super Bowl is their imposing defensive line. One of those key players is Arik Armstead, a Sacramento native who has an opportunity to stand out on the big stage, just like Christine “Lady Bird” McPherson, the protagonist of the 2017 film Lady Bird, when she finally left Sacramento to attend NYU, realizing her dreams to break free from her dreary hometown.
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