Darren Rovell is known most for being a sports memorabilia junkie and annoying people on social media, which is why the gift Johnny Manziel recently sent him seems absolutely perfect.
Manziel, like many others, does not get along with Rovell. Their issues date back to Rovell’s reporting on Manziel’s autograph scandal in college.
The former Texas A&M star has tweeted his disdain for the reporter in the past, and he has found a new way to show Rovell how he feels about him. On Thursday, Rovell revealed that Manziel sent him an autographed Cleveland Browns helmet that says ‘F— you!’ on it.
Now that’s personalization.
We don’t know if Manziel was joking or if he’s still angry with Rovell. However, Rovell tried to buy a playing card last year that Manziel wrote “F— Rovell” on, so this has been going on for a while. Manziel has also called Rovell a “b—h” on Twitter.
Manziel has done a lot of self-reflection lately and even recently revealed his biggest career regret. It’s possible he was trying to bury the hatchet with Rovell rather than adding more fuel to the fire, but Rovell haters are undoubtedly hoping it was the latter.
H/T UPROXX
Tom Brady has mastered just about everything on the football field during his legendary career, but high-fiving has never been his strong suit. The seven-time Super Bowl champion was modest enough to acknowledge that once again this week.
Thursday was National High Five Day, which Brady felt was a great time to call attention to one of his most noteworthy flubs with the celebratory gesture.
For those who don’t know, that photo was taken after Brady scored a rushing touchdown in the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ playoff win over the New Orleans Saints earlier this year. Brady tried to high-five a referee after the play, and the official remained professional and was not having it. Brady was quick to troll himself over the snub at the time.
Of course, that was not the first time Brady was been snubbed with a high-five attempt on the field. His inability to find a teammate to high-five him with the New England Patriots years ago (video here) became a wildly popular meme.
Brady is a perfectionist, so you know he wants to master the art of the high five before he retires. With the way he played in 2020, he may have several more seasons to work on it.
The Tom Brady and Rob Gronkowski Tampa party continues! Treat yourself or a friend with this great Tampa Fiesta shirt. You can buy it here.
Charles Barkley wants the Brooklyn Nets to lose in the playoffs and has a good reason for feeling that way.
Barkley and the TNT crew members were talking after the Boston Celtics-Los Angeles Lakers game on Thursday night. Barkley was talking about how the Washington Wizards could be a dangerous early opponent if they make the playoffs. He then mentioned that he would root for anyone who is facing the Nets.
“I’m always going to root against Brooklyn,” Barkley said. “I don’t like the way they put the team together. You know I’m never going to be a proponent of guys teaming up. Never going to be for it. I’m rooting for anybody to beat Brooklyn.”
Why?
Because Barkley doesn’t support players who join up to form superteams.
Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant teamed up (along with DeAndre Jordan) on the Nets prior to last season. The team has since only gotten stronger. They added former MVP James Harden, who forced a trade there; former 6-time All-Star Blake Griffin; and LaMarcus Aldridge, who just retired.
Barkley has long espoused this anti-superteam view. He didn’t like LeBron James teaming up with Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh on the Miami Heat. He also urged Adam Silver to step in when Anthony Davis forced his way to the Lakers.
Not only is Barkley fundamentally against these superteams, but the Nets have two players whom Chuck specifically dislikes.
James Wiseman had some rotten luck during his rookie season, but if listens to Steph Curry, he can turn things into a positive.
Wiseman on Thursday underwent surgery to repair his right meniscus. The injury and surgery will end Wiseman’s season. The 20-year-old, who was the No. 2 pick in the draft, only got to play in 39 games in his rookie season.
Curry played in 80 games as a rookie but only 26 in his third season as he dealt with ankle issues. He knows what it is like to have the early part of your career derailed by an injury.
He offered some great advice to Wiseman on how to handle the disappointment of the season-ending surgery. He suggested Wiseman should use the time to work on his body and perhaps add strength to his frame. He also advised Wiseman to work on his mind as well.
“I hit him earlier today to let him know he has to think bigger picture. He’s 20 years old. He’s got a lot of basketball ahead of him. He has an opportunity now to flip a terrible situation on its head and work on his body, work on his mind,” Curry said Thursday.
Wiseman averaged 11.5 points and 5.8 rebounds in 21 minutes per game this season. He didn’t immediately stand out on the floor, but maybe he can follow Curry’s advice to work on other things while he’s recovering.
DeVonta Smith was the runaway Heisman Trophy winner thanks to the monster season he had for Alabama.
Smith caught 68 passes for 1,256 yards and 14 touchdowns as a junior. Then he exploded as a senior with 117 catches for 1,856 yards and 23 touchdowns. He saw more action last season in part because of Jaylen Waddle’s injury, and also because of the quarterback change to Mac Jones.
There is little doubt about what a weapon Smith was for Alabama. There are high expectations for him entering the NFL. The one question that does come up when people discuss Smith as a prospect is his weight.
Smith is listed at 6-foot-1 and 175 pounds. He appears to be skinny on the field and looks nothing like, say, this guy.
Smith believes he has proven himself on the field and doesn’t focus on the weight talk as much anymore.
“In high school, I used to feel some type of way when people tell me that, but now I really don’t care. I mean, somebody say that, I’m just gonna look at ’em and laugh. But, I mean, it is what it is. At the end of the day, I know that when I get on the field and I line up, I’m gonna do what I gotta do,” Smith told Bleacher Report’s Master Tesfatsion.
Smith also believes that his non-imposing figures works to his advantage. He speculates that some defenders have low expectations of him due to his size, and they end up getting burned.
There could be something to that, because Smith does not look intimidating, even though his numbers definitely are. As we have been taught before, sometimes looks don’t mean a whole lot.
Andre Drummond is off to a slow start with the Los Angeles Lakers, and new teammate Kyle Kuzma thinks lousy coaching over the years is to blame.
Kuzma spoke this week on Drummond’s struggles to begin his Lakers career. In the process, Kuzma got in a shot at Drummond’s former coaches.
“I mean, it’s just a process, man, “said Kuzma, per Dan Feldman of NBC Sports. “It’s not going to happen overnight. Rome wasn’t built overnight.
“I think that for him, it’s a big adjustment,” Kuzma added of Drummond. “When you think about it, he’s kind of really never really been coached in his career. Playing in Detroit, in Cleveland, and then coming here into a championship organization, it’s tough. It’s tough.”
The 27-year-old Drummond had seven coaches in ten seasons before joining the Lakers last month. He was coached by Lawrence Frank, Maurice Cheeks, John Loyer, Stan Van Gundy, and Dwane Casey in Detroit as well as by John Beilein and JB Bickerstaff in Cleveland. Of those seven, four are no longer head coaches in the NBA.
If anything, Drummond may have been affected by the constant turnover rather than by the ability of the coaches themselves. But this is still a brutal shot from Kuzma, who has already shaded small-market teams before.
Rudy Gobert seems to have taken note of Ben Simmons’ recent attempt to posterize him.
The Utah Jazz big man appeared to respond to Simmons with a post to his Instagram Story this week. Gobert’s cryptic post read, “Confidence is silent. Insecurities are loud.”
Simmons, the Philadelphia 76ers star, went at Gobert in an interview while hyping himself up for Defensive Player of the Year. Namely, he mentioned Gobert’s supposed inability to defend all five positions. Simmons also emphasized that he scored 42 in an earlier matchup against the Jazz.
Gobert is not too much of a trash-talker, and he doesn’t really need to be as a two-time DPOY winner on the team with the NBA’s best record this year. But he was not going to let Simmons get away with the diss entirely.
Giovani Bernard signed with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Monday and will be joining the defending Super Bowl champs. The former Cincinnati Bengals running back says the decision to join the Bucs was very easy.
Bernard is close friends with James White, who was one of Tom Brady’s favorite targets in New England. White raved about Brady to Bernard, which made the decision a “no brainer” for the former Bengal.
Bernard feels that the Bucs aren’t done after winning the Super Bowl last season. He believes they are still in the process of building something special.
Bernard, 29, has spent his entire career with the Bengals. He is very productive in the passing game and caught 47 passes for 355 yards and three touchdowns last season. He should fit in well with Brady’s passing style.
The Tom Brady and Rob Gronkowski Tampa party continues! Treat yourself or a friend with this great Tampa Fiesta shirt. You can buy it here.
One of Lamar Odom’s final acts towards the sad end of his career involved a totally unprofessional tenure with the Dallas Mavericks.
Odom was traded to Dallas ahead of the 2011-2012 season against his wishes. He literally cried when he heard the Lakers were trading him. Odom reportedly abused drugs while a member of the Mavericks, didn’t play anywhere near his previous levels, and actually got booed. He eventually was benched by the team and then they severed ties before the season was up.
During his time with the Mavs, team owner Mark Cuban tried to motivate Odom. Odom says that included Cuban putting his foot on Odom one time, which the former forward did not appreciate.
“Only way that could have possibly worked is if he was like my father, or uncle … where I was f—ing up that bad where he kicked me. It wasn’t a karate kick, just a little nudge to my shin. But he did it with his foot,” Odom recalled in a recent interview with Vlad TV.
Odom acknowledges how poorly he played with Dallas and says he could apologize to Cuban for it.
“I was playing so bad and playing so bad for the marriage at that time I could possibly say to Mark Cuban, ‘I’m sorry, I could see where you had to prove your point. Because you’re paying me a lot of money. And I was performing way under where I should have been. So I could excuse you for that,'” Odom said.
But Odom warned Cuban about his conduct with the foot move.
“But don’t ever do that to a black man again. Because he might f— you up,” Odom said he would tell Cuban, via VladTV.
No other players have had similar complaints about Cuban in the past, so this may have been a 1-time thing with a player who was a colossal disaster, not that it excuses the owner.
The incident may have been part of the halftime confrontation we learned about that led to Odom’s ultimate departure from the team.
Baker Mayfield was a pretty happy guy after learning about the big move his Cleveland Browns made on Wednesday.
The Browns signed Jadeveon Clowney to a 1-year deal worth up to $10 million.
Mayfield, who turned 26 on Wednesday, wrote on Instagram that the signing was a “nice birthday present.”
You bet it was.
Clowney only had 19 tackles in eight games for Tennessee last season. But he was a much more disruptive force in previous seasons, which he spent mostly with Houston. He also played for Seattle in 2019 and had 31 tackles and three sacks in 13 games.
Clowney should be able to benefit from playing on the same line as Myles Garrett, who attracts extra attention from opposing offensive lines.
The Browns went 11-5 last season and made the second round of the playoffs. Adding Clowney should help them improve as they look to have an even better season.
Browns fans! It’s Baker’s team in Cleveland. This Cleveland Bakers shirt is a perfect gift for you or a friend. You can buy it here.
