Usually in this post I try to design some (not-so) clever competitive framework that allows the various streaming services to compete against one another based upon what shows they add or lose in a given month. The kind of thing where I say that Amazon getting Small Wonder is a bigger win than Netflix debuting Stranger Things, for example. (The degree to which one agrees with these takes can vary depending on age or taste, except for this example which is empirically correct because everybody knows that a terrible 80s sitcom about a robotic girl is way better than one of Netflixs best shows in years.)
This month, however, theres not really a need to go through that kind of breakdown. There are shining moments here and there Netflix is getting The African Queen and Boyhood for example, while HBO Now will be getting the original two Tim Burton Batman films but the competition is pretty much over once you see Amazon Prime"s list. It doesnt just include movies like Fletch and Creed, which would be pretty big gets in a normal month. Amazon Prime Streaming is also getting Rocky I through IV, and more importantly, the entire pre-Daniel Craig James Bond library. That includes Sean Connery classics like Dr. No, where you can uncomfortably shift in your seat at the regressive and sexist portrayals of women, A View to a Kill, where you can shiver at the dated (but undeniably catchy) synth flair of Duran Durans theme song, or Goldeneye, which you probably know better as the inspiration for a video game you use to play a lot.
Just as simple cultural artifacts, the Bond films are worth visiting, both as a (sometimes mind-boggling) reminder of what was once considered totally acceptable behavior in populist, popcorn entertainment and for the context to understand how todays Bond could even be considered slightly progressive.
Coming to Netflix
November 1st
The African Queen
Alfie
Bob the Builder: White Christmas
Candyman 2: Farewell to the Flesh
The Confessions of Thomas Quick
Cujo
The Doors
The Heartbreak Kid
Jetsons: The Movie
Kings Faith
Love, Now
Norman Lear: Just Another Version of You
Pervert Park
Ravenous
Stephen Kings Thinner
Tales from the Darkside: The Movie
Thomas & Friends: A Very Thomas Christmas
Thomas & Friends: Holiday Express
Thomas & Friends: Merry Winter Wish
Thomas & Friends: The Christmas Engines
Thomas & Friends: Ultimate Christmas
November 2nd-15th
Dough
Food Choices
Meet the Blacks
The Crown, season 1
Dana Carvey: Straight White Male, 60
The Ivory Game
Just Friends
World of Winx, season 1
Danger Mouse, season 2
All Hail King Julien, season 4
Case, season 1
Estocolmo, season 1
Roman Empire: Reign of Blood, season 1
Tales by Light, season 1
True Memoirs of An International Assassin
Under the Sun
Take Me to the River
Chalk It Up
Carter High
Dieter Nuhr: Nuhr in Berlin
K-POP Extreme Survival, season 1
Men Go to Battle
The Missing Ingredient: What is the Recipe for Success?
WH tries to tell Americans Donna Brazile has integrity
ATLANTA, Oct. 31 (UPI) -- When political commentator Donna Brazile assumed interim leadership of the Democratic National Committee in July, she went from full-time to part-time contributor on CNN. Now, she won"t work for the network at all.
CNN said in a statement Monday that Brazile resigned from her role with the network on Oct. 14, three days after WikiLeaks published an email indicating she received a question for a March 13 Democratic primary town hall event in advance -- and passed it on to the Clinton camp.
CNN"s clarification followed more electronic communications published by WikiLeaks on Monday alleging Brazile did the same thing for another debate on March 6.
"On October 14th, CNN accepted Donna Brazile"s resignation as a CNN contributor," CNN spokeswoman Lauren Pratapas said. "CNN never gave Brazile access to any questions, prep material, attendee list, background information or meetings in advance of a town hall or debate.
"We are completely uncomfortable with what we have learned about her interactions with the Clinton campaign while she was a CNN contributor."
Brazile responded on Twitter by saying, "Thank you CNN. Honored to be a Democratic Strategist and commentator on the network. Godspeed to all my former colleagues."
Regarding the debate questions, the acting DNC chairwoman on Monday pointed to a statement she made earlier this month after the first WikiLeak email was released that appeared to show she"d given the Clinton campaign the heads up on question about the Second Amendment.
"It"s sad to get undermined by CNN who didn"t ask me to appear yesterday on air. But, they released emails without giving anyone of us info," she said on Twitter Oct. 12.
Democratic presidential candidates Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton participate in the party"s eighth presidential debate at Miami Dade College in Miami, Fla., on March 9. DNC chairwoman Donna Brazile has taken fire recently for accusations stemming from leaked emails that purportedly indicate she received at least one question in advance of a town hall primary debate four days later. File Photo by Gary I Rothstein/UPI
"In good conscience, I called CNN to discuss this terrible episode. But the rush to distract has been too great," she said in another.
At that time, Brazile claimed that she had been fair to all Democratic candidates involved in the primary process and did not favor Clinton -- a claim substantiated by Bernie Sanders senior adviser Tad Devine.
"Donna Brazile reached out to me and the Bernie camp consistently during the primaries. She was fair and square with us," he tweeted on Oct. 12.
"Thanks Tad. Even if no one believes it now, I reached out to everyone, everyday and asked for advice and counsel during the primary," Brazile replied.
On Monday afternoon, Brazile tweeted a quote from Michelle Obama.
Netflix and iTunes are piling on the new titles for November.
One of the most-anticipated project of the year, the "Gilmore Girls" reboot, finally premieres Nov. 25, and star Lauren Graham has promised that fans won"t be disappointed.
"The thing one might worry about is, does it feel like just nostalgia or was there really reason to go on?" she told ABC News this past summer. "I think they were some of the most wonderful episodes we"ve ever had and it feels brand new but still the same show. So it"s very satisfying."
For those who aren"t fans of the series, though, there are plenty of others to look forward to. The complete list of new titles -- as well as those leaving Netflix this month -- is below.
Netflix
Nov. 1
"The African Queen"
"Alfie"
"Bob the Builder: White Christmas"
"Candyman 2: Farewell to the Flesh"
"The Confessions of Thomas Quick"
"Cujo"
"The Doors"
"The Heartbreak Kid"
"Jetsons: The Movie"
"King"s Faith"
"Love, Now"
"Norman Lear: Just Another Version of You"
"Pervert Park"
"Ravenous"
"Stephen King"s Thinner"
"Tales from the Darkside: The Movie"
"Thomas & Friends: A Very Thomas Christmas"
"Thomas & Friends: Holiday Express"
"Thomas & Friends: Merry Winter Wish"
"Thomas & Friends: The Christmas Engines"
"Thomas & Friends: Ultimate Christmas"
Nov. 2
"Dough"
"Food Choices"
"Meet the Blacks"
Nov. 4
"The Crown": Season 1 - NETFLIX ORIGINAL
"Dana Carvey: Straight White Male, 60" - NETFLIX ORIGINAL
"The Ivory Game" - NETFLIX ORIGINAL
"Just Friends"
"World of Winx": Season 1 - NETFLIX ORIGINAL
Nov. 9
"Danger Mouse": Season 2 - NETFLIX ORIGINAL
Nov. 11
"All Hail King Julien": Season 4 - NETFLIX ORIGINAL
"Case": Season 1 - NETFLIX ORIGINAL
"Estocolmo": Season 1 - NETFLIX ORIGINAL
"Roman Empire: Reign of Blood": Season 1 - NETFLIX ORIGINAL
"Tales by Light": Season 1 - NETFLIX ORIGINAL
"True Memoirs of An International Assassin" - NETFLIX ORIGINAL
"Under the Sun"
Nov. 12
Nov. 13
Nov. 14
Nov. 15
"Dieter Nuhr: Nuhr in Berlin" - NETFLIX ORIGINAL
"K-POP Extreme Survival": Season 1
"Men Go to Battle"
"The Missing Ingredient: What is the Recipe for Success?"
Nov. 16
"The 100": Season 3
"Burn After Reading"
"Jackass 3.5: The Unrated Movie"
"Paddington"
Nov. 17
"Lovesick": Season 2 - NETFLIX ORIGINAL
"Paranoid": Season 1 - NETFLIX ORIGINAL
Nov. 18
"The Battle of Midway"
"Beat Bugs": Season 2 - NETFLIX ORIGINAL
"Colin Quinn: The New York Story" - NETFLIX ORIGINAL
"Divines" - NETFLIX ORIGINAL
"Prelude to War"
"San Pietro"
"Sour Grapes"
"Thunderbolt"
"Tunisian Victory"
"Undercover: How to Operate Behind Enemy Lines"
"Why We Fight: The Battle of Russia"
"WWII: Report from the Aleutians"
Nov. 22
"Mercy" - NETFLIX ORIGINAL
Nov. 23
"Penguins: Spy in the Huddle": Season 1
Nov. 25
"3%": Season 1 - NETFLIX ORIGINAL
"Boyhood"
"Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life" - NETFLIX ORIGINAL
"Michael Che Matters" - NETFLIX ORIGINAL
Nov. 29
Nov. 30
"Ghost Team"
"I Dream Too Much"
"The Jungle Book"
"Level Up"
"Traded"
The following titles that will be leaving the service in November:
Nov. 1
"The Addams Family"
"Almost Famous"
"Angel Heart"
"Barnyard"
"Bratz: The Movie"
"The "Burbs"
"Can"t Hardly Wait"
"Chuck": Seasons 1-5
"The Core"
"Deliverance"
"E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial"
"Echelon Conspiracy"
"Eight Crazy Nights"
"Empire State"
"Equilibrium"
"Escape to Witch Mountain"
"The Family Man"
"Fatal Attraction"
"Fresh"
"Get Rich or Die Tryin""
"The Holiday"
"Into the Wild"
"Kangaroo Jack"
"Legally Blonde"
"Legally Blonde 2: Red, White & Blonde"
"Major League"
"Mansfield Park"
"Meet Joe Black"
"Mel Brooks: Make a Noise"
"Open Season"
"Open Season 2"
"Open Season 3"
"Patton Oswalt: My Weakness Is Strong"
"Powerpuff Girls": Seasons 1-6
"Rounders"
"Scream 2"
"s*x: My British Job"
"Shameless": Series 1-10 (UK)
"Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow"
"Something"s Gotta Give"
"The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie"
"Spy Game"
"The Sum of All Fears"
"Total Drama World Tour"
"Underground: The Julian Assange Story"
"Urban Cowboy"
"Varsity Blues"
"What Women Want"
Nov. 2
Nov. 4
Nov. 5
Nov. 11
Nov. 14
"Seal Team 8: Behind Enemy Lines"
Nov. 15
Nov. 16
"The American"
"Let"s Go to Prison"
Nov. 22
Nov. 23
"The Boxtrolls"
"Scenic Route"
"Ultimate Spider-Man: Web Warriors"
Nov. 24
"The Boondocks": Seasons 1-4
"Chowder": Seasons 1-3
"Courage the Cowardly Dog": Seasons 1-4
"Uncle Grandpa": Season 1
Nov. 25
Nov. 30
iTunes
MOVIES
Nov. 1
"Sausage Party"
"Tickled"
"Anthropoid"
Nov. 8
"h**l or High Water"
"Kubo and the Two Strings"
"Don"t Breathe"
"Hands of Stone"
"Mechanic: Resurrection"
Nov. 11
"Dog Eats Dog"
"Don"t Look Down"
"Dog Eats Dog"
"Dont Look Down"
"Dreamland"_
"Absolutely Fabulous, The Movie"
"War Dogs"
Nov. 15
"Jason Bourne"
"Suicide Squad"
"Army of One"
"Mia Madre"
"Love Everlasting"
Nov. 18
"The Take"
"The Officer Downe"
Nov. 22
"Secret Life of Pets"
"Our Little Sister"
"The Wild Life"
Nov. 25
Nov. 28
Nov. 29
"Bridget Jones"s Baby"
"Southside With You"
"Florence Foster Jenkins"
"The BFG"
"Pete"s Dragon"
TV
Nov. 3
"Salem" Season 3 (Free Season Premiere)
Nov. 4
"Good Behavior" (Free Pre-Air Series Premiere)
Nov. 6
"Who Killed JonBenet?"
"Traffickers"(Exclusive Free Pre-Air Series Premiere)
Nov. 7
"Real Housewives of Atlanta"
Nov. 8
Nov. 14
Nov. 15
"Mars"
"Soundbreaking" (Free Series Premiere, All Episodes Now + Exclusive Bonuses w/ SP)
Fans at the 17th annual Day of the Dead event at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery, were witnesses to a hologram of the late singer Jenni Rivera.
According to Billboard, Juan Rivera, Jenni"s younger brother, took the stage to reveal the hologram. He nervously introduced his sister, who became the first regional Mexican singer and Latin artist to have a hologram.
"This is where I was born, in Los Angeles. This is where I first sang, where the audience first applauded me, launched my career and believed in me," the crowd heard a recording of the late singer say. "It"s the same audience that is still here with me. Thank you for your love. I hope you guys all have fun tonight and are satisfied and that this party that we have here in L.A. every year is also unforgettable."
Jenni"s oldest daughter, Chiquis Rivera, was in tears and said that she felt like running to the stage to give her mom a hug when she saw the hologram. "I felt like it wasn"t long enough. I wanted more," she explained.
The special hologram was created by Hologram USA, according toBillboard. They are the same company that worked with the estates of iconic late stars like Whitney Houston.
#JENNIVIVE
A video posted by Jenni Rivera (@jennirivera) on Oct 29, 2016 at 9:20pm PDT
Jenni"s five children now have their reality show, The Riveras,on NBC Universo airing every Sunday at 10PM/9C.
Have shares ofChipotle Mexican Grill (CMG) finally bottomed?
Those holding shares of the fast-food chain or who have been waiting for a chance to buy in, no doubt hope so. Since an E.coli outbreak sickened hundreds of Chipotle Mexican Grill customers a year ago, the stock has nosedived some 42%.
That includes a 9% drop last Wednesday to $368.02, after the company reported its fourth straight quarter of year-over-year sales declines. The stockis down another 1%-plus percent on Monday.
What gave investors indigestion? In the third quarter, the 2,178-store chain saw its sales plunge 14.8%, to $1.04 billion, missing the $1.09 billion consensus forecast.
Same-store sales dove 21.9%, way worse than the 18.9% drop analysts expected, despite a new loyalty program and enhanced marketing. Adjusted earnings slumped 88%, to 56 cents a share, a full dollar below consensus forecasts.
The question for investors is this: Is the worst over, or is Chipotle Mexican Grill still a stock to avoid?
To be sure, the chain is far from the first to fall victim to a food safety scare. Jack in the Box,McDonald"s,Yum! Brandsand others have been tripped up by food safety issues in the past and all have recovered.
But with Chipotle Mexican Grill there are other factors at play both inside and outside its business that suggest that the company"s turnaround is still a long way off, if it happens at all.
Management"s recovery plan includes a move into selling burgers and pizza using the same fresh, hormone-free ingredients for which Chipotle Mexican Grill is known. The company opened itsfirst burger outlet, called Tasty Made, in Lancaster, Ohio, on Thursday.
Standing Rock: Police Arrest 120+ Water Protectors as Dakota Access Speeds up Pipeline Construction
Scores of people marched on the Army Corp of Engineers in Northeast Portland on Monday to show their support of the ongoing protests of the Dakota Access Pipeline on the Standing Rock Indian Reservation in North Dakota.
Tweets and photos from the protests show peaceful demonstrators singing and chanting while holding up signs that say "Water = life" and "People over pipelines."
People on the scene estimated there were between 100 and 300 people at the protest, which began at Holladay Park and ended at the Army Corps of Engineers Building, nearby.
Several people tweeted pictures and video from the event.
Near the end of the protest, a group of children brought a black snake into the Army Corps building.
According to an alert tweeted out before the event, the protest was staged at the Army Corps of Engineers office because "the Army Corps office in Portland is in fact the location that has the power to make the decision to stop the Dakota Access pipeline. The Portland and Seattle offices share employees and hold federal jurisdiction over the Missouri River."
The person who answered the phone at the Army Corps office acknowledged that the Portland office does hold jurisdiction over the Missouri River but said the decisions over the Dakota Access Pipeline are being made at the office in Omaha.
We reached out to the Omaha office but a call had not been returned at the time we published this story.
Zach Miller"s 21-Yard Grab Sets Up Jordan Howard"s TD Run! | Vikings vs. Bears | NFL
This story appears in ESPN The Magazine"s November 14 Pain Issue. Subscribe today!
THE MEN WHO agree to talk about what happened do so reluctantly. Their eyes invariably drift to the spot in question: the grass practice field, somewhere near the 30-yard line, right hash. It happened with the offense heading north, 22 men on the field, no contact allowed.
They won"t talk about what the injury looked like, out of respect. These are men who long ago came to terms with the inhumanity of their game. They laugh about concussions and broken bones as a defense mechanism, the way an electrician might laugh with his buddies about getting a jolt from a faulty circuit. Occupational hazard.
But this is different. They close their eyes and wince, the image flashing in their minds. They shake their heads reflexively, as if they can dislodge the memory and evict it from their brains. They watched Teddy Bridgewater go down on that field on Aug. 30, his left leg separating at the knee, during the first minutes of a Vikings preseason practice. Every time they think about it, every time they stand near this field and close their eyes, they see it again.
INJURIES IN THE NFL are commodified, sloganized, reduced to transactions. They"re interchangeable, disposable, devoid of pain. They"re dehumanized, disembodied, such an expected part of the game that they"ve got their own capitalized catchphrase: Next Man Up.
Check the injury report, adjust your fantasy team. See how easy this is? How painless? One goes down, another pops up.
"I hate that exact saying -- "Next man up,"" Vikings guard Alex Boone says. "That"s f---ed up because it makes it sound like we"re barbarians. Like we don"t care: "F--- it, he"s hurt, move on." It"s terrible to say that. A guy gets hurt and all of a sudden everyone is like, "Oh, who was that guy?" "
In a sense, Next Man Up is an essential and ordinary part of the lexicon. In a sport with so many injuries, a coach has no choice but to rely on a cut-rate, impersonal slogan to motivate and distract. While he"s telling his players to step up, team personnel are scanning the waiver wire, pulling up reports on practice-squad players and making calls on trades. It"s impossible to ignore statistics like this one: In 2015, NFL players missed 1,639 games -- almost 100 per week -- because of injury. Those three words -- Next Man Up -- have become such a vital part of the culture that many players hear it with the same anesthetized indifference.
"Even when we watch other games, it gets lost," Vikings safety Harrison Smith says. "We react the same way. There"s a human part of it that gets lost."
But sometimes an event changes all that. Whether through proximity or sheer gruesomeness, the collective pain of a group of men rises up to relegate Next Man Up to a heartless clich.
"It was very surreal," Boone says of Bridgewater"s injury. "Sometimes you forget how brutal this game can be."
Minnesota"s coach, Mike Zimmer, canceled practice. NFL teams never cancel practice. The game never stops. In a way, it"s a repudiation of Next Man Up to send everyone home -- an acknowledgment that some injuries transcend the transactional. Sometimes, even in such a brutal world, circumstances dictate that the next man can"t reasonably be expected to step up, at least not right away.
"It happened at the beginning of practice, and obviously Coach made the right call to cancel," Vikings quarterbacks coach Scott Turner says. "We weren"t going to get anything done that day."
At his first news conference after the injury, a still-shaken Zimmer said his team would mourn for a day and move on. If anything, this meant his players needed to recommit to the mission. "No one is going to feel sorry for us, or cry," he said. "I"m not going to feel sorry for us either." He said he"d spoken with his mentor, Bill Parcells, for advice on how to deal with the trauma his team experienced. He said he spoke with his deceased father "in spirit." As he continued, the coach in him drained from his eyes. He transformed from functionary to human being, and when he was asked a question about grieving -- a question that somehow seemed utterly appropriate -- Zimmer paused and looked down. After a deep breath, he looked to the sky as his lower lip quivered. "My wife passed away seven years ago," he said. "It was a tough day. The sun came up the next day, the world kept spinning, people kept going to work. That"s what we"re going to do."
Bridgewater in training camp this summer, before the injury.Zach Tarrant/Minnesota Vikings
HARRISON SMITH WAS running downfield with his back to the play, making sure he didn"t get beaten on a deep route. Even in a practice, and a noncontact drill, that"s important. It"s six weeks later, and he"s standing next to that field running the calculus through his head. He concludes that he must have been the person farthest from the injury. He pauses a moment to give thanks. When it happened, he heard a scream from a receiver who had turned back toward the play. It was an expletive that carried an unmistakable pitch: pain.
You play this game long enough, you learn to recognize it.
He must have pulled a hammy, Smith thought.
Smith swung around to the receiver and saw that he was looking toward the backfield. He was reacting to someone else"s pain. Smith followed his eyes to see helmets flying and teammates jumping away like the grass was on fire. He heard them screaming, and Bridgewater screaming, and he saw powerful men rendered powerless.
EARLIER IN THE summer, a barbecue at Boone"s house. Bridgewater arrived two hours late, and Boone confronted him.
"I"m so sorry," Boone said. "The food"s overcooked."
Bridgewater laughed. "Dude, don"t worry about it. I"m two hours late."
"No, it"s my fault," Boone said.
Boone mocks himself now, apologizing for something that wasn"t his fault. "I remember thinking, "Yeah, you were late. Why am I apologizing?""
Bridgewater"s coaches, from Charlie Strong at Louisville to Zimmer in Minnesota, consider the quarterback an honorary son. The worst thing his teammates can say about him is that he"s the closest thing the locker room has to a teacher"s pet. They laugh at the way he tends to parrot Zimmer"s philosophy.
"I swear he"s the nicest guy I"ve ever met in my life," Boone says. "He"s a sweet guy -- and that"s not a word you usually associate with football players, but he really is. His genuine sincerity toward everything is just ... you"re like, "Wow, he"s really a good person." He never says a bad word, he"s never mad."
Wide receiver Adam Thielen says, "Across this league, everyone has respect for Teddy," and he cites Sam Bradford as proof. Bradford texted get-well wishes to Bridgewater the day after the injury -- about the same time the Vikings" front office started asking tight ends coach Pat Shurmur, once Bradford"s offensive coordinator in St. Louis and Philadelphia, for a detailed scouting report on his former quarterback. Three days after that, Minnesota traded a first-round and a conditional fourth-round pick to the Eagles to turn Bradford into its Next Man Up.
Nobody knows when Bridgewater will play again. The team says he"ll be back next year, but there"s no guarantee. His knee dislocated, and the impact tore multiple ligaments connecting the patella to the tibia and fibula. When the Vikings traded for Bradford, back when nobody expected Minnesota to start the season 5-1, it was noted that Bridgewater is under team control through 2017.
"Everyone still loves Teddy," Bradford says. "Teddy"s the guy. There"s no moving past Teddy. That"s just how it is, and how it should be."
Vikings coach Mike Zimmer speaks to reporters for the first time after Bridgewater"s injury.Carlos Gonzalez/Star Tribune/AP Photo
MATT ASIATA WAS maybe 10 yards away from the 30-yard line, right hash, when he heard a burst of noise he couldn"t identify. He looked back and saw Bridgewater on the ground, and saw the bodies scatter, and saw the helmets popping off his teammates" heads like so many bottle caps. They all remember the scattering bodies and the flying helmets, no matter where they were. The next thing Asiata heard was the voices, all the voices, people going crazy, with Bridgewater"s a few registers above the rest.
Asiata couldn"t quite comprehend it. He had just seen him in the huddle, had lined up behind him at running back for a play in a noncontact drill. Nobody ever gets badly hurt in a noncontact drill. Asiata listened to the screams and thought: He must be faking it. It"s a prank, something Teddy thought up with the linemen. This can"t be real.
But the noise kept coming, and the trainers filled the void left by the scattered bodies. Asiata ran back toward Bridgewater and then veered off. He and a couple of teammates took a knee and said a prayer. They closed their eyes to pray for their teammate. They closed their eyes so they wouldn"t have to see.
"Everything happens for a reason," Asiata says, without much conviction.
YOU"RE PHOTOGRAPHED WALKING into a store and driving through an intersection and standing in an elevator. There"s video of you paying for gas and boarding a plane and ordering a burrito. Someone goes missing, there"s always a photo from a last known location. Have you seen this person? Someone commits a crime. Help find this man.
There are no available images of Bridgewater"s injury. They exist, no doubt -- every NFL team records every second of practice, from the moment players begin stretching until they leave the field. And yet it seems nobody outside the organization has seen the moment Bridgewater went back to pass in a noncontact 11-on-11 drill, tripped in some fashion and landed in a way that caused his left leg to dangle in an anatomically impossible way nobody wants to talk about.
What remains is an incomplete, and reluctant, oral history.
"It was kind of a freak deal," Thielen says. "He was dropping back and got tripped up and just awkwardly stepped on his knee. It"s hard to talk about. It was bad."
Running back Jerick McKinnon shakes his head slowly when asked to describe what he saw that morning. He looks toward the practice field, to the 30, right hash.
"I saw it all," he says. "I ain"t going to go into it. I don"t have any words to describe it."
Three weeks after Bridgewater"s injury, Vikings running back Adrian Peterson tore a meniscus in his knee during the team"s Week 2 game against Green Bay, possibly ending his season. Peterson left the field with the help of trainers, partially under his own power, and the route to the locker room took him past a field-level restaurant at the Vikings" slick new U.S. Bank Stadium.
Those in the Delta Sky360 Club (which, in 16,455 square feet, "elevates the sports bar concept to a magnificent VIP experience") were forced to witness a man"s private agony. It disturbed the reverie, intruded on the fantasy that we are somehow not complicit in the game"s brutality. A player goes down while you"re watching on TV and they cut to a commercial. When they come back, he is miraculously gone, and the attention moves to the inadequacies of his replacement.
Or, in more serious cases, a player gets wheeled off, strapped to a gurney, to polite applause. Usually, the player raises a hand, maybe gives a thumbs-up, and the cheers rise with a mixture of happiness and relief. He can move, the applause says, therefore our guilt is assuaged. We understand the bargain, but we"d feel really bad if someone died for our amusement.
Injury reports are transmitted to fans at U.S. Bank Stadium through two huge video screens that hover above each end zone. A generic model of the human anatomy appears below a player"s name and number. The body rotates to create the illusion of three-dimensionality while a target circle wanders the body to create suspense -- where will it land? -- until it rests on the spot of the injury. The injured player is off somewhere, safely out of sight. Words appear:
Brandon Fusco, Concussion, Will Not Return.
It"s the great injury game show, sponsored by Twin Cities Orthopedics.
Bridgewater signing autographs just a few weeks before he got hurt.John Minchillo/AP Photo
HE JUMPED AWAY, scattering with the rest of them. He thinks he threw his helmet, but his memory isn"t trustworthy on this subject. Alex Boone"s first thought was, Holy f---, did that really happen? It felt like an electrical surge traveled up his spine, the way you feel when helplessness collides with empathy. He yelled. Everyone who was in Bridgewater"s immediate vicinity yelled, and the yells emanated outward, to the linebackers and receivers and defensive backs, like echoes. The ones closest looked down and saw Bridgewater"s left leg bent at an unnatural angle and let their screams mingle in the summer air, right along with his.
Boone"s second thought was, There"s my friend. My friend is in pain. He considers this now, how the people close to the sounds and the pain didn"t see it as a transaction or a line on an injury report. "I didn"t think, "Our quarterback"s injured," " he says. "It was, "My friend is injured." " A thousand thoughts swirled through his mind. He thought about the barbecue, and how protective he"d become of Teddy, on and off the field. He thought about Bridgewater"s mom. It sounds crazy, but he did. His mom. Boone looked at the helmets popping off heads and spinning into the air, and he heard someone yelling to call 911, and he thought about how nobody ever calls 911 for an injury at an NFL practice, and then he looked down at Bridgewater"s left leg and thought, Who"s going to tell his mom?
Boone saw that the human scattering served a practical purpose: It cleared a path for the trainers and first responders, the people who could do more than scream and swear and think about Bridgewater"s mom. They went to work the way they"re supposed to: quickly and with expertise. The buzz up the spine, the helplessness, dissipated some. When a knee dislocates and the ligaments tear free of the bones, leaving the fibula and tibia to their own devices, the next concern is nerve damage that might lead to amputation. In the coming days, after Bridgewater undergoes extensive surgery, the Vikings" trainers and the local first responders will be credited for saving his leg.
The Vikings walked quietly to the locker room and gathered as a team to say a prayer.
THE INJURED MAN recedes, quietly and respectfully. One minute you"re the man, rounding into your prime, bonding with your receivers and fighting through overcooked meat at a lineman"s barbecue, and the next it"s Sam Bradford"s time.
The screams wax and wane. The injured man Dopplers in and Dopplers out.
Bridgewater is around the facility, they all say. He helps Bradford understand the offense. He is upbeat, working out, still a part of the team. Perhaps his car is parked in one of the reserved for injured player spots in the team lot, not more than 50 yards from the grass practice field where everything in his life suddenly changed. His presence is mostly spectral. He is not visible when the media are allowed in the locker room, and he does not watch the games from the sideline. He has not spoken publicly. To the outside world, he is invisible.
It"s what passes for decorum inside a merciless culture, a way of ensuring a peaceful transition of power. It seems there"s a corollary to Next Man Up: the necessary disappearance of the Last Man Down.
