I thought it might be something new instigated by coach Kalani Sitake, but apparently not. If you know how, or why, this tradition of not wearing helmets to the coin toss began, I"d like to hear more about it. Send me an email drew@sltrib.com.
I wrote for Tuesday"s newspaper a story about how it appears that BYU is making a conscious effort to portray a more sportsmanlike, clean-playing football team than in the past. BYU players and coaches said Monday that they aren"t doing it on purpose, but it is probably a function of Sitake"s personalty coming out in the actions of his players.
Whatever the reason, it is refreshing.
I wasn"t able to include all the comments in one article, so here are a few more as they relate to the new behavior, and the push to represent the school better than they have in the past:
Sitake on how trash talk on the field can lead to poor behavior:
"Our guys don"t engage in a lot of trash talk. I think a lot of it is friendly banter. We don"t want to make anything personal. So, that"s just what we believe. We believe in great sportsmanship, and respecting the game, and what it is all about. This is a team game, and so the focus is all on the team and what we do as a group. I have been really proud of how they handle themselves. I can"t say anything about stuff in the past, except I am grateful for the things that have been established here, and the foundation that Bronco Mendenhall set here. We are going to keep building on that and that is what we believe as a program, and what I believe as a head coach."
Sitake on BYU presenting flowers to the families of fallen MSU players and whose idea it was, and why:
"There are a bunch of guys on our staff that are always thinking about things we can do as a team. We try to represent more than just football, as a program. We have a lot of guys involved and looking into things we can do to make the world a better place with the role that we have as a competitor on the football field. We had a bunch of guys in the administration and our coaching staff that brought it up. I think Chad Lewis was one and we had a lot of guys discussing what we could do to honor them, and they actually gave us a choice to come out for the national anthem, and also the moment of silence, and we gladly accepted. We thought it would be good for us to support them, and their loss, and give our condolences.
We were able to compete and have a great game, but there is more to life than just football. And sometimes, we lose sight of that. This was one moment where our players can understand that and be part of the whole process of honoring others and showing people that we care."
[News] Let"s talk about the media trying to destroy Ken Bone Dear TIME Reader,
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Miranda Kerrs Malibu mansion was the site of a violent confrontation on Friday, October 14. According to TMZ, the supermodels security guard was stabbed in the eye after being confronted by an intruder who had hopped the fence.
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After being stabbed, the guard reportedly shot the intruder multiple times.
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TMZ reports that both people were respectively airlifted to a hospital emergency room, and that theyre both expected to survive.
Thankfully, the site reports, Kerr was not home at the time. It"s unclear where her 5-year-old son, Flynn, was at the time. (Flynns father is Kerrs ex-husband Orlando Bloom.)
The Australian models fianc, Snapchat billionaire Evan Spiegel, recently gifted her with a $12 million mansion in L.A.s Brentwood neighborhood, Kerr revealed to Harpers Bazaar.
Us Weekly has reached out to Kerr and LAPD. Updates to come.
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Cest le jour des surprises dalbum ce vendredi. Gucci Mane a dcid doffrir ses fans Woptober, trois jours avant le jour prfr de tous les fans de Brick Squad (1017 Brick Squad est le nom complet du label de Gucci, ce qui correspond au 17 octobre. Bref). Anderson .Paak et NoWxrries ont sorti leur album Yes Lawd ! , une semaine avant la date prvue. Maintenant, cest au tour de Travi$ Scott de sortir un projet quon nattendait mais alors pas du tout. Il sappelle Days Before Birds et il est disponible sur Apple Music et Spotify. Aprs avoir adress son soutien Kid Cudi, Travi$ Scott sest donc remis au travail.
Un peu comme Days Before Rodeo, qui tait une mixtape avec des leaks sortis quelques semaines avant la parution de Rodeo lanne dernire, Days Before Birds est exactement la mme chose. Des bouts de chansons parus peu avant Birds in The Trap Sing McKnight, mais ces sons ne sont jamais sortis. Dans cette nouvelle mixtape surprise, on retrouve "Uber Everywhere" et aussi des chansons en collaboration avec Young Thug, PartyNextDoor, Migos, Wale et dautres. Petite polmique concernant cette mixtape : un reprsentant du rappeur a confi FADER que la sortie ntait pas prvue. A voir ce quil en sera En tout cas, ces sorties dalbum doivent rendre vert de jalousie Lil Wayne, qui ne peut pas sortir Tha Carter V cause de Birdman, selon son manager. Vous avez aim ce nouveau projet de Travi$ Scott ?
Joanna Krupa has dared to bare it all! The stunning Real Housewives of Miami alum posted a racy video to Instagram on Thursday, October 13, that left little to the imagination.
Joanna Krupa Appears n***d and Battered in PETA Campaign Skintastic! Pretty Much Everyone Went n***d Last Night Joanna Krupa on Baby Plans: "I Think I"m Going to Freeze My Eggs"
Leaning against a balcony overlooking the ocean in Florida, Krupa, 37, wore nothing but curlers in her hair as Rihanna and Calvin Harris hit This is What You Came For played in the background.
PHOTOS: Miss America 2017 Top 15: See Their Bikini Body Photos
Enjoying the view during my Cover shoot w, she wrote. @alessandrafioriniphotography and@nadjaatwal w @tonyyateshairface. Using@body_blendz new body oil.
She then added the hashtags: #loveyourself, #fitness, #confidence, #saynotohate, #allnatural, #joannakrupa, #n**e, #nofilterneeded.
Just a few days before her latest post, Krupa got cheeky on social media, posting a snap of her thong clad bottom in a mirror selfie.
The animal activist is proud of her physique, and appeared n***d for a PETA campaign in March this year and posed wearing only body paint for them last year.
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She also stripped down for the nonprofit organization Angels for Animals.
Check out the video above.
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CLEVELAND, Ohio -- In the end, the Cleveland Cavaliers and J.R. Smith are exactly where they wanted to be ... back together.
They never were really apart. Not when Smith was attending Indians games with LeBron James & Co. Not when he was at dinner and hanging out with his teammates, even while he was not in practice as his contract was being resolved.
The two parties needed, and wanted, each other.
Smith signed a deal that will guarantee him slightly more than $45 million -- although first reports were $57 million over four years.
Understand that this is a very good deal for Smith, who played for $5 million last season. It"s also very good for the Cavs -- yes, I use the exact same words. Smith fits with this championship team.
Here"s the money breakdown:
2016-17: $12.8 million
2017-18: $13.8 million
2018-19: $14.7 million
2019-20: $15.7 million with 25 percent guaranteed (about $3.8 million).
Smith is represented by Klutch Sports, the agency led by Rich Paul that also represents LeBron James and Tristan Thompson.
Smith hired Klutch to negotiate this deal. It was Klutch"s sports attorney -- Mark Termini -- who worked out the details.
FINDING VALUE
Consider the following:
1. Smith had turned 31 on Sept. 9, so he"s not ancient. But this will be his 13th NBA season. That"s a lot of miles on the legs of a 6-foot-6 guard who went straight from high school to the pros.
2. The issue was not the cash. Both sides had a general idea of what Smith should be paid each year. But what about the length of the contract?
3. Along with his 3-point shooting, a major part of Smith"s game is athleticism. If he loses some of that speed and jumping ability, that will take away from his defense. Yes, defense has become a very valuable part of Smith"s game.
4. For the agent, the goal when representing a player such as Smith is a contract with as many guaranteed years as possible.
5. For the Cavs, the question was: "How long can Smith continue to play at this level, especially defensively?"
6. Another factor is Smith"s history of fines and suspensions. He has been suspended 27 games in his career. He"s been fined about a dozen times by the NBA or his team.
7. With the Cavs, Smith has generally stayed out of trouble. He was fined for two games for what the NBA considered a cheap shot (an elbow to the head of Jae Crowder) in the 2015 playoffs against Boston. But that was it.
8. Smith has a strong relationship with James. The Cavs have a team with a lot of peer pressure to perform well. It starts with James, but several other veterans help the coaches keep order. It"s a good spot for Smith.
9. Smith"s troubled past and his age meant few teams were considering him as a free agent. Boston expressed a casual interest, but didn"t have the salary cap room.
10. There are reports about Philadelphia wanting Smith, but I have my doubts. The Sixers have a lot of salary cap room and they could have made a big push for Smith at any point. They also are a young, rebuilding team. He doesn"t fit their plan.
11. Smith is ideal here. They need his 3-point shooting. He can defend shooting guards and most small forwards. He is durable. Only once in the last nine years has he played fewer than 70 games. That was in 2011-12.
12. In his two years here, Smith has averaged 12.3 points, shooting .416 from the field (.391 on 3-pointers). General manager David Griffin values 3-point shooters to create openings for Kyrie Irving and James to drive to the rim.
13. In the end, the deal was going to be made. The question was: "For how much over how many years?"
SALARY CAP CONCERNS
1. Because the Cavs are well over the salary cap, Smith"s contract was going to cost more than $12.8 million for 2016-17. The penalty is the luxury tax, and the formula is complicated. Basically, it would cost about $3 million for every million the Cavs spend -- or about $39 million.
2. The luxury tax was why the Cavs didn"t match the four-year, $39 million offer sheet restricted free agent Matthew Dellavedova received from Milwaukee. They knew they had to sign Smith. They were not about to pay huge dollars for both.
3. From Smith"s point of view, the Cavs gave Iman Shumpert a four-year, $40 million deal in the summer of 2015. And then there was Dellavedova"s contract. Smith started in front of both of them. The Cavs won a title. He thought he should be paid more than those guys, especially in the age of the exploding salary cap.
4. This wasn"t like giving Tristan Thompson a five-year, $82 million deal in the summer of 2015. Thompson was only 24 when he signed. His best seasons should still be coming as he mentally and physically improves as an NBA player.
5. It was hard to find a comparable contract for Smith. Jamal Crawford signed a three-year, $42 million deal. But only $30 million was guaranteed, and he"s 36! Joe Johnson (35), signed for two years and $22 million with Utah. Both shooting guards are far older than Smith.
6. Portland signed 27-year-old Evan Turner for a mind-numbing $70 million over four years. The Ohio State product averaged only 10.6 points for Boston last season. So he really didn"t enter into the discussion.
7. For the last two summers, the goal of the Cavs and Griffin was to "bring back the band." He wanted to supplement the roster with a veteran such as Mike Dunleavy, and a promising rookie in Kay Felder. With Smith back, Griffin has had another good off-season.
ABOUT THE CAVS
1. The Cavs haven"t announced it, but Jordan McRae is going to make the team. Other teams have been asking about McRae in trade. So if they do anything with McRae, it would be a deal.
2. McRae is a pure scorer. He averaged 24.3 points in the Las Vegas Summer League. It was 23.4 in the D-League in 2015-16. In preseason, the 6-6 guard is averaging 15.4 points. His defense needs work, but he has a real talent for drawing fouls and piling up the points.
3. Mo Williams is still taking up a roster spot. The Cavs are trying to work out a contract settlement. Williams just had knee surgery. But that stalemate means DeAndre Liggins, Dahntay Jones and Toney Douglas are probably batting for the last spot on the roster. Liggins was the D-League Defensive Player of the Year. My guess is he has the edge.
Max Steel Official Trailer 1 (2016) - Superhero Movie
Locally shot and long-delayed action film "Max Steel" beautifully showcases the Port City but struggles to rise to the superhero occasion.
By Hunter Ingram StarNews Staff
The only thing lower than mainstream awareness of Max Steel, the Mattel toy action figure launched in the "90s, might be awareness of the live-action movie it"s spawned. "Max Steel," shot in Wilmington more than two years ago and released by Open Road Films, opened quietly in theaters Friday.
Although obscure, the Max Steel toy line has inspired comic books, two cartoon series and a handful of straight-to-DVD movies, most released internationally. In today"s superhero-drenched film market, a leap to the big screen for Max was inevitable.
But what fans and audiences who stumbled into the wrong theater get is a generic superhero film that could be scrubbed of Max"s name and bare-bones origin story and still be just as effective -- which is to say not very.
The film"s take on Max"s interchangeable story -- from Thor: The Dark World" scribe Christopher Yost -- unfolds with the complexity of two kids banging their action figures together in an imaginary backyard war.
Max (Ben Winchell) is a quiet teen forced to move with his mother (Maria Bello, in a thankless role) back to the town where he was born and within sight of the technology company where his father worked and mysteriously died. Barely 12 hours passes before the homecoming awakens something in the 16-year-old he cant explain.
In essence, the film is an unintentional 90-minute nod to a boy going through puberty, touching on everything from his accelerated heart rate when approached by the pretty girl (which is literally all poor Ana Villafae is there for) to his struggles to keep his excitement, er, powers, in check in public.
You see, Max can harness pure energy and a lot of it. It first manifests as a stringy substance emitting from his hands (another eyebrow-raising allusion to being a teenage boy) and quickly balloons from there.
Although the title would have viewers believe Max was gifted with an awesome last name, Steel is actually a floating alien orb voiced by Josh Brenner with a fondness for literal meaning (think Sheldon from The Big Bang Theory"). Steel is essential in containing and amplifying the teens powers.
From there, the film hits all the superhero-in-training basics: a not-so-surprising villain (Andy Garcia), a rift between hero and sidekick, and supporting women given little more to do than react.
Suffice to say Max Steel is never going to be the newest Avenger.
Even under the weight of a story thats both barely there and somehow convoluted, the modestly budgeted film boasts impressive special effects that only become more vibrant as Maxs powers diversify (stealth mode! flying! karate?) and his predicament worsens.
Director Stuart Hendler ("Sorority Row," TV"s "H+") clearly recognizes the asset it has in Wilmington and shows it off with long, sweeping takes of Masonboro Sound and a fondness for the dilapidated beauty inside Castle Haynes empty Ideal Cement plant.
Despite attempts to find the enormity in Maxs situation, the film never dreams big, instead maintaining its small-town, small-stakes trajectory. Unlike like every big-budget superhero movie flooding theaters, the fate of the world is never in Max Steel"s hands.
Maybe that"s for the best.
Reporter Hunter Ingram can be reached at 910-343-2327 or Hunter.Ingram@StarNewsOnline.com.
