It was a dream matchup. The kind of fight that only could happen in a video game and never in real life. Could a UFC champion, Conor McGregor, hold his own against Floyd Mayweather, one of the greatest boxers ever? Turns out that he could. We think.
“I think that we bet 100 on 9-1/2,” Mayweather told ESPN’s Sal Paolantonio after the fight. “I gave my guy six figures to go bet. I have to make sure he bet because earlier today I went to the sports book to bet and they wouldn’t let me bet.”
Mayweather later told SportsCenter he gave a friend $400,000 to bet, but that the friend was only allowed to place a bet for $87,000.
So here’s the prevailing conspiracy theory as I understand it. Floyd Mayweather, one of the most skilled boxers in the history of the sport, basically put forth the minimal amount of effort he needed to give to make the fight with Conor McGregor, a man with a grand total of ZERO professional boxing fights, both look like a legitimate match-up as well as make it last long enough for people to feel like they got their money’s worth.
Then, we he decided that enough was enough and Conor was getting tired, thus making it harder for Floyd to prop McGregor up, he decided to end it and go ahead and collect not only his winnings for the fight, but also at the betting window.
Which, when you think about it and take into consideration the massive difference in the boxing skill levels and experience of the two fighters, this scenario is not even remotely out of the realm of possibility. The fight was, possibly, just reality TV at its finest.
As Mayweather said, “His punching power is solid but I’ve felt it before so I kept coming forward. It wasn’t the kind of power that stopped me coming forward.”
McGregor also commented after the fight, “He’s not that fast, he’s not that powerful, but boy was he composed in there.”
Of course he was, he was a 49-0 multi-time boxing champion taking on a guy in his first professional boxing match. Why wouldn’t he be composed as hell?
Spoilers ahead. The Season 8 finale of “Game of Thrones” was pretty fucking fantastic (You can read the recap and reactions of “The Dragon and the Wolf” HERE). That seven-episode season went faster than a carafe of Dornish Red in Tyrion’s chambers. The season finale left on a cliffhanger, quite literally, Beric Dondarrion and Tormund Giantsbane could be hanging off the newly created cliff after Viserion obliterated the Wall at the direction of the Night King. So when is the release date of Season 8 of “Game of Thrones,” which is the final season of the epic fantasy series? Turns out, a pretty fucking long time.
HBO has yet to announce an official “Game of Thrones” Season 8 premiere date yet. So we must speculate on the hints that we have been given recently and you’re not going to like the answer. You may have to wait until 2019 for the last season of “Game of Thrones.”
Casey Bloys, HBO’s head of programming, said that fans should prepare to go 18 months without their “GoT” fix in an interview with Entertainment Weekly from June. The EW interviewer asked Bloys, “So as of now, the final season could air in 2018 and/or in 2019 depending on their needs?” Bloys responded by saying, “Yeah. They have to write the episodes and figure out the production schedule. We’ll have a better sense of that once they get further into the writing.” Bloys wanted to give showrunners David Benioff and Dan Weiss the time to make sure that the final season is spectacular and cinematic.
Winter is coming, so that means extensive filming in Iceland and in locations that look like the long, dark night and icy weather has arrived. Also, the TV show will need plenty of time to make locations that are not snow-covered like King’s Landing in Croatia look snowy. Plus, they are expected to keep the Hollywood movie-quality of the past few seasons, and that means expensive and time-consuming CGI. Aerial combat scenes of fire-breathing dragons battling ice-breathing dragons takes a while to create.
So in the best case scenario, we are looking at Season 8 coming next summer, a year away. In a worst-case-scenario, we may have to wait until Spring of 2019. Waiting that long will be excruciating like Ellaria Sand rotting away in a dungeon as her daughter Tyene dies from a poisoned kiss. By the time the final season returns children are born and live and die, all in darkness.
As if this news wasn’t as depressing as your favorite “GoT” getting murdered, Season 8 will only have SIX episodes. They had all better be 2-hour-long episodes. The only promising news is that HBO is working on four “Game of Thrones” spinoffs. Bloys said a spinoff won’t premiere for “at least a year” after the final season. Your watch has ended for the foreseeable future, might as well make the best of it. Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.
It’s time for us to all check out the newest funny memes and photos on the Internet. The BroBible ‘Best Damn Photos’ is a twice daily pic dump. It brings together the funniest photos and memes from all across the Internet. You can check out previous editions of the morning and afternoon Best Damn Photospic dump by following that link, but don’t go anywhere without viewing today’s best funny photos! Make sure to follow us on Instagram at @brobible for more funny pics. And to see your pictures featured here on BroBible, consider sending them to me on Twitter HERE, and if the pics are good I’ll include them.
Soooo…that happened Sunday night on Game of Thrones. You know…that “thing” between Daenerys Targaryen and Jon Snow. If you have no idea what I am referring to then maybe you should come back here later after you’ve watched the episode. Though how you could be on the internet today and not know would be some kind of miracle.
Anyway, for those of you that do know that I am talking about – Daenerys Targaryen and Jon Snow committing incest without being aware of it – you will be very interested to read what the actors who portray those characters think Dany and Jon’s reactions will be in season 8 when they find out the truth.
One of Clarke’s predictions was especially priceless when she was asked what she thinks Daenerys will do once she finds out that her new lover also happens to be her nephew…
Clarke paused, considering. Then she loudly cried: “Ewwwww!” and laughed. “I think that’s how it’s going to go. I get the toothbrush–” she pretended to frantically brush her tongue.
It was a hilarious reaction that underscores the rather seriously emotional game-changing revelation that threatens to shake up the final season of Game of Thrones.
I pointed out that Daenerys has presumably long assumed she’ll avoid her family’s long predilection for incest. “Exactly!” Clarke says. “And then I walked back into it.”
As for the sex scene itself, both Harington and Clarke had some interesting takes…
“Usually you go into a movie and meet [your costar] for the first time and you develop that chemistry over that time,” Harington says. “But if you’ve known somebody for seven years and shared this incredible journey in your own lives together … we’re both kind of freaking out about it. I would be like, ‘What’s the sexual tension in this scene?’ and she’s like, ‘Stop talking about sexual tension!’ It’s a unique experience to be in as an actor and you know the world is watching.”
Concurs Clarke: “Yeah [I would say], ‘Would you just stop? Just give me some sexy eyes, don’t keep talking about sexual chemistry all the time,’” and added about the scene itself: “I love that when we get to the saucy stuff it’s a beautiful acceptance of a wordless … yep.”
As for how things will end up between the odd couple when all is said and done? Harington replied, ““That part of it, I can’t predict. It could be them walking off into the sunset. It could be them killing each other.”
Celebrities, they’re just like us. When they want to go out and crack a few cold ones with the boys they do the responsible thing and take an Uber so they don’t endanger anyone on the road.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. might’ve made a fortune racing in NASCAR but he still takes Uber rides like the rest of us, and just like you and me Dale’s hyper aware of his Uber passenger rating. My rating is currently at 4.75 which is pretty good, but obviously not perfect. It’s still a hell of a lot better than Dale Jr.’s Uber rating.
Nina Mandell over at ForTheWin managed to catch Dale Jr. having a bit of a meltdown on Twitter last weekend, and I don’t feel bad at all for laughing at Dale Earnhardt Jr. getting pissed off as his Uber rating continuously goes down.
It started on Friday:
I'm a 4.0 on @Uber rating? That's complete shit. Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.
After seeing Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s Uber rating dip down to a paltry 3.88 I’m suddenly feeling better about my 4.75. Am I better human being than Dale Earnhardt Jr. because my rating is higher? That’s not for me to say. I didn’t create the rating system that ranks human beings, I’m just a cog in the system and my number happens to be higher because I’m an exemplary passenger…Is Dale’s rating so low because he’s getting in cars with people who root for other drivers or is it something about his behavior? We’ll never know.
Saturday night’s fightt between Floyd Mayweather and Conor McGregor was easily the biggest sporting event of the year, and is trending to be the the highest grossing boxing event of all-time.
Despite threats of lawsuits by Showtime the May-Mac fight appears to be the one of the most illegally stremed events in the history of social media.
According to Irdeto, a digital platform security company, 239 illegal streams of the fight were watched by approximately 2,930,598 people: 165 were apparently made available through social media channels such as Facebook, YouTube, Periscope and Twitch, and 67 were available through illegal streaming sites. Kodi, a popular option for pirates, had six available as an add-on through the illicit streaming platform.
Despite all the illegal streams, the May-Mac sales are still projected to go over an insane 4 million buys.
“We want to thank the fans who are clamoring for more of Jon [Bernthal]’s stunning and powerful performance as Frank Castle from Marvel’s Daredevil,” Jeph Loeb, executive producer and head of Marvel Television, said in a statement back then. “Now combined with showrunner Steve Lightfoot’s compelling writing, we’re thrilled to bring Marvel’s The Punisher to Netflix.”
Yeah, that was cool, wasn’t it? Too bad it’s now August of 2018 and we still haven’t seen Jon Bernthal back on our TV screens as The Punisher except for a little snippet at the very end of The Defenders’ final episode. (Here are a ton more Easter eggs from that series if you’ve already binge-watched it.)
Until today!
Today Marvel finally let us see a little more than just a sledgehammer hitting concrete. In fact, they dropped not only the opening sequence, they also tweeted out a Morse Coded version of all 13 episode titles.
According to ScreenRant, who apparently know how to decipher Morse Code, they will be called 3 AM, Two Dead Men, Kandahar, Resupply, Gunner, The Judas Goat, Crosshairs, Cold Steel, Front Toward Enemy, Virtue of the Viscous, Danger Close, Home and Momento Mori.
The series will also star Ben Barnes as Billy Russo: Castle’s best friend from when he served in the United States Special Forces, Ebon Moss-Bachrach as Micro: A former NSA analyst, Amber Rose Revah as Dinah Madani: A Department of Homeland Security agent, with Deborah Ann Woll is back as Karen Page.
Unfortunately, we STILL do not have an actual premiere date other than “2017.” Someone really needs to punish them for that. Know anyone?
It’s a common trajectory: After years in the NFL, figure out how to successfully start a hustle of your own. For Chris Gronkowski, older brother to New England Patriots superstar Rob Gronkowski, that hustle is next all-time great Bro invention: The Ice Shaker, a vacuum-insulated, stainless-steel protein shaker that holds ice for over 30 hours. That’s even longer than a Yeti Rambler, RTIC Tumbler, or Ozark Tumblers.
As a fullback, Chris was a journeyman around the National Football League, with stints from the Dallas Cowboys, Denver Broncos, the Indianapolis Colts, and the San Diego Chargers before ended his career with an injury.
“So my story’s kind of crazy…” he tells me over the phone earlier this month.
“I was playing four years in NFL, bounced around. Started three years, three different teams. Fourth year, went into it, got hurt. But what ended up happening during that time was my wife — well, my now wife. At the time, my fiancee at the time and she was like, man, this sucks…”
I chatted with Chris for about 40 minutes as part of BroBible’s LIVING THE DREAM series of entrepreneurs, adventurers, and dreamers living their best lives. Gronkowski shared the story behind his adventure into entrepreneurship with the Ice Shaker. after leaving the NFL, which started with his wife’s custom laser engraving business for weddings.
“At that point, I started making more money than I was making in the NFL. I left the NFL and my salary increased. So I was kind of a good transition.
Read or listen to our entire conversation below. And as a special deal for the Bros of the world, Chris Gronkowski is offering BroBible readers 10% off their order via IceShaker.com. JUST USE THE CODE “BROS” UPON CHECKOUT.
“Every time you go to a new team, I got to get a new job. And so finally, after the second team, she’s like – ‘Yo, I’m going to figure out something I can do at home, because this is just not working. Every new city, new job, once a year — we move five times in five years since college ended.’
“So she started hand painting wineglasses at home and I kind of brushed it off and kind of laughed about it. But she started selling them like crazy. And at that point, it took so damn long to do each glass, you know, 15, 20 minutes to hand paint them that it wasn’t really worth the time. So at that point, I told her to try to find a way to scale this better, faster, and more efficiently.
And so she went out and got a vinyl cutting machine and she started doing bottles, tumblers, double tumblers, and pretty much personalized them for the wedding industry. And at that point, it really started to take off. She started making some decent money. And at the same time, I got hurt playing in the NFL and took an injury settlement from the Chargers.”
What year was that?
So that was in 2013.
At that point, I came back and I saw that the personalization market was just absolutely huge and pretty much limitless, especially with the wedding industry – People will spend whatever they have to spend on a wedding. So at that point, we took some of my money and started investing in industrial machinery so we could personalize gifts by laser engraving them. We bought a couple of machines to scale this company and then take it to the next level.
So at that point, I started making more money than I was making in the NFL. I left the NFL and my salary increased. So I was kind of a good transition.
That is crazy. This is all before you debuted the Ice Shaker bottle too, correct?
That’s correct. So what happened with that was we actually were doing a lot of other cups and these stainless steel vacuum insulated cups started coming out. And a lot of people were buying them from us for groomsmen gifts, wedding gifts, or just holiday gifts for Christmas and stuff like that. So I got introduced to them and I loved them, but I couldn’t bring them to the gym with me because they didn’t have the classic pop top or didn’t open up easy or they just didn’t have a top on them at all. And at that point, I was like, man, these are cool. I use one every day. But I’m going to the gym once or twice a day, so I want to bring the cup with me.
I was using the same plastic shaker that everybody else was using. I had cabinets full of them. I’ve probably had hundreds in my life. And finally, one day in the summer– about a little over a year ago now — I get to the gym and by the time I got there, my water was warm and my cup holders in my car were full of condensation. My hands were all wet. I was making little circles all over the gym floor. I’m like, man, there’s got to be an insulated bottle I could throw my pre-workout in or my post-work shake in and bring it to the gym with me and actually keep a cold and not sweat all over my hands and in my car.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.
So I went home. I looked everywhere. I went on Amazon, Google. I went everyone I possibly could, and there was no shaker bottles in the market that were insulated. So I’m like, ‘Man, this is crazy to me.’ I had connections already to a manufacturer from our other company because we were already importing a lot, manufacturing a lot.
So we used our contacts and I said, man, I’m going to make the best shaker bottle I can. So, from there, I used the same design as a classic shaker bottle because it’s a great design. It’s easy to fill. It’s easy to clean it. I went and made it with stainless steel because it’s a kitchen grade and it doesn’t absorb odors, same kind of materials you use with your forks, your spoons, any kind of kitchen grade material, or stainless steel is. So I went with that. And then we were able to vacuum seal it, which allows it to hold ice for over 30 hours in a 75 degree room.
So I actually took the cup that day and I put it next to other cups on the market. And it was 36 hours later, the first sample we got in. It still had a little bit of ice left in it.
I’m like, man, this is legit. So it’s topped– it’s capped off, unlike some of the other bottles, so it, will actually hold longer than the cups that are on the market.
At that point, I was pumped, man, and you think your product’s going to be there in the next week or two, and it’s a huge process. It takes months. And we were trying to rush it in before Christmas and it just didn’t happen. And we ended up launching pretty much the week of Christmas, but we missed all the sales.
Just another learning process, because you’re not going to get your product when they say you’re going to get it. You’re going to get it a couple of months or at least a couple of weeks later, so you have to prepare in advance and you got to be ready for that kind of stuff.
That’s wild. So did you originally have a Yeti Rambler tumbler?
Oh, yeah. That’s what it started with. We were engraving thousands of those at Christmas. And we weren’t just selling them for their $40 — We were getting them and then we were personalizing them and selling them. People were buying them for $120 a piece from us. And it was just getting crazy. And that’s kind of where I’m like, what is this thing you? You know, why is everyone bringing these into our store? You know, what– I don’t even know what it was at the time.
Right.
That’s when I started using one. I’m like — ‘Hey, those are legit.’ But I can’t bring it to the gym. Or it spills when I– so I started doing that, too, was– we have so much stuff on our counters at work and someone would throw something on the desk, would shake it, and it would spill. My keyboard would be there, my phone would be there, and all of that. I’m like, man, can’t they just kept this thing? Or could we get a bottle? And I just love the easy open pop top where you can just throw your favorite drink in there and sip on it all day.
It’s funny because really when you think about it, these are very similar just with a protein shaker cap on it.
Yeah! It’s just simplest idea that nobody did.
Right.
Everyone was like, man, I thought of that three years ago. I’m like, well, thanks for not doing it, you know? I mean, a lot of people think of it. It’s just it’s hard follow through on an idea, because you need money, you need the know how, you need the drive. I mean, it’s never easy. So at any point, you can easily give up if you don’t have that motivation or you just don’t have the drive to do
And it was frustrating. I mean, 20 prototypes later and we’re still having issues.Iit’s a lot harder than you think it is, to just come up with an idea. Everyone can think of ideas. The key is actually executing on that idea.
So your R&D took a total of 20 prototypes, then, all things considered?
Yeah, it was to the point where every time you shipped a new one, there was a new problem. And just with capping and sealing and manufacturing dents and polishing it and putting our logo on it, all kinds of just little problems every single time a new shipment came in. And I just want it to be perfect.
It just drove me crazy. We tried a whole bunch of different seals to try to find the perfect one that wouldn’t leak. So I couldn’t just go out there and launch with something that I couldn’t prove for myself, I didn’t use everyday myself. I wanted this product for myself because that’s the reason I created it, was so I could use it.
Right.
I wanted to make sure it was legit, because I wasn’t going to walk around with something that wasn’t legit.
How did you prepare for marketing the Ice Shaker? Because that’s a different beast on its own.
It is. It’s absolutely huge. And I thought it would be a lot easier for me because first off, my following. It’s not huge, but I have a decent following, just from playing in the NFL.
Having a brother that’s famous helps as well. So that helped as well. My brother definitely helped me launch it. He put a few posts up. I also sent the entire team the entire Patriots team during the Super Bowl run, I sent them all shaker.
Nice.
It didn’t blow up our sales, but it got the name out there and it put it in front everyone, and then, once we started marketing towards them, then they were like, ‘Oh, man, this is awesome.’ Now I know what it is. I heard about it, but now that it’s in front of me, now I know it is. And we started getting a lot of sales from that. Other than that, started– just a lot of teammates that I had in the past, even our friend that’s in the WWE. We sent him a bunch as well.
We approached all wrestlers. Mojo Rawley — yeah, man!
All right.
Yeah, so he was a teammate of mine. And we just kept in touch. And yeah, he’s a superstar now, man.
Yeah, Mojo’s stock is on the rise!
Mojo’s the man. So we got him to give us some shout outs, stuff like that, and then we did really well just on Amazon as well. It’s a huge marketplace for nutrition, supplement bottles, all of that stuff. So we targeted them early on because they have the customer base.
Right.
It’s not a long term strategy for us, but it was a great start for us. And we still sell a ton through them. We’re one of the top rated bottles on Amazon right now as well.
As an entrepreneur, why was it important for you to have inventory for fulfillment, et cetera, stuff like that right away, versus going the Kickstarter, crowdfunding route?
Man, I didn’t even look into the whole Kickstarter crowdfunding. I didn’t– the potential’s there. I’ve looked into it recently because we’re trying to get our second round of product going, but it’s more than– you think you just go on there and people find you.
You have to still advertise. You’re still paying a ton of money, you’re making professional videos, you’re given updates, you’re doing all kinds of stuff. It’s not just through your product on there and all of a sudden, a million people are going to give you money. You’re getting your name out there as well. So I mean, the thing– the reason I didn’t do that was because I had the money, so I didn’t need to go out there and say, ‘Hey, yo — I need the money to make this product.’ I had the money already saved up. So I don’t even think of it as an option at that time.
You said that SEO is big for you?
Absolutely. So we’re a new website, and it’s very hard to rank within your first year, any of the top pages. What I’ve been doing, though, is just trying to get as many back links as I can, trying to get as much PR as I can about the product. I’ve been pretty successful doing it lately. It’s something that just started about a month or two ago. Also, just making sure my web page is optimized for all the search terms that I’m looking for as well.
But in the last, I would say the last couple of weeks, we’re starting to get up there for the bigger search terms for us, that are like, shaker bottle, shaker cup, protein shaker. We’re now on the second page for all those terms, which are the three biggest terms for the exact product that we’re looking for. I also try to push my own name and my family’s name because it’s very highly searched as well.
I was able to get my name up there. It’s like 10,000 hits a month on it, and I got it up to, I think, number four in the rankings for a little bit. So it’s bouncing up and down. But I was on the front page for that as well. So I think SEO’s huge. I’m all about organic search, getting your name up there. And once you do it, so when has to come and beat you out, so you could be up there for years and years and years and it’s just all free traffic coming in for you.
Right. So in terms of next steps with retailers and distribution and stuff like that, do you want to– obviously, online is the big push right now, but are you trying to get in bigger retailers across the board?
Yeah, we’ve tested it a little bit. I’m in 14 GNCs right now in the Dallas area. I’m in a couple Nutrishops as well. So what we did with that was I wanted to get out there. I want to see how it did, so the guy that– they loved the idea of working locally with one of the owners here that owns 11 of them, one of them owns three.
They said — ‘hey, let’s try it out.’ We can help you push it to corporation, but let’s see how it does first. And I said, yeah, let’s take it slow and make sure it sells, because the last thing you want to do is throw a product in a store that doesn’t sell, because it’s just coming right back to you, then. You’re going to lose a lot of money. They’re going to lose money. It’s going to sit on a shelf and then they’re going to ship it back to you or ask you to buy it back if it doesn’t move.
So I wanted to make sure the demand was there first. I want to get the product out there. I wanted to make sure it sold before I went and made the big play on it. So as of right now, they’ve reordered four times, now, from me, and it’s only been a couple of months. So it’s doing pretty well.
But what I’ve found out so far is that it’s doing well in a store like GNC because their salesmen are pushing the product. I asked them to put a commission on it, to start it with, and they’re able to then go and push the product as you get the customer when they walk in. But if this went into a big box store where it was just sitting on the shelf, I don’t think our consumer base is educated enough about the product yet to really do well with it. So at this point, we’re still trying to get our name out there, and once we feel comfortable with that, we’ll start going after the big box.
Right. That’s when you put the three Gronkowski Brothers on the front of it.
Yeah. We’ll see that do well in the Northeast but anywhere else, we might get crushed for it.
Maybe not in Atlanta. It might not go over very well there.
No, not at all, man. Yeah, I’ve been asked that question a lot as well, like, why didn’t you name it the Gronk Shaker? Why didn’t you put your name on it? And for me it was — it does well in the Northeast. It does well in Boston and you’ll kill it. But this product isn’t– I wanted to make sure, first off, that it wasn’t just something that every time Rob posted it, it did well.
I wanted to make sure it was a legit company that I could actually spend time on it an go all in on before– you know, it wasn’t just, hey, Rob posted. I sold a couple of thousand. This is awesome. I’ve got a great company.
So that was one reason I didn’t do it. And then the second reason was it really does limit your customer base because a lot of people, they are die-hard Cowboys fans or they’re die-hard 49ers fans and they will not purchase a product that has another athlete’s name on it. I didn’t want it tied to a bad game or those fantasy gurus out there who get mad if, you know, he didn’t have 50 points that day and go ‘he sucks and I’m not going to buy his shaker.’ I’m going to go leave a bad review now because he didn’t win the game for me because he only scored 40 points.
Right, right, exactly.
So I think it’s the best of both worlds by naming it what I did and not putting our name on the box.
I think the customization is so cool. You know, the optional customization. Because that’s the thing about if you go to Dick’s Sporting Goods to buy Yeti, you’re not going to be able to get your company name or your name or something, whatever, etched onto it. How much of sales, currently, really want to have the customization aspect of it?
It’s a lot. So anyone that comes to our web site, it’s more than 50% of them ad customization on it. And I think it’s a huge selling point, because first off, we turn it around in two to three days.
Yeah, it’s super fast.
Sometimes same day, for the most part. And we can do pretty much anything, as long as not a colored logo, because the laser doesn’t print in color. But, I mean, it’s– we could do it all. I mean, we get pretty complex designs on there. They look great.
That’s fantastic.
It’s huge. I think it’s huge for the fitness industry as well, because people always are looking for that little extra motivation, or that quote on their bottle that’s just going to get them pumped up for the day when they kind of don’t feel like working out. So I think that helps a lot. And then, yeah, the logos, we do really well with the logos because people want to bring them to work with them and kind of just show them off. And go to a business meeting, they put their cup down, it has their logo on it, and everyone sees it. It just looks good and people remember it, then.
So last time I looked– let’s see. So we did in the first six months, we sold about $85,000 to $90,000 worth of product.
That’s awesome.
So it’s a pretty successful launch from going from zero to $90,000 in six months is pretty good for no one’s ever heard of it. We weren’t really spending a lot on marketing. So it’s been pretty successful so far.
Your career is fascinating to me because you went from being in The League to entrepreneurship. And a lot of athletes struggle with that in their post-professional careers. What do you think has helped enable you to be successful in this realm?
Well, first off, I never dreamed I’d even make it to the NFL. That was kind of — I didn’t even start till my junior year, and at that point, I had a couple scouts come in say, yo, we’re looking at your film. I’m like, yeah, all right, kind of deal. But for me, once I saw my three other brothers get drafted, I was like, oh, hell, yeah. I’m not going to be the only one that doesn’t play, you know?
Yeah.
Not going to be that one guy in the family that just didn’t make it. So that was kind of my motivation, and I just went ham after that, man, just whole new mentality, a whole new mindset, and I’m like, I’m making this team no matter what.
Yep.
And I had my shot. I took it, man, and ended up playing for three years, so I consider it successful. I mean, most people look at it and say, they would never know who I was if it wasn’t for my brother, really, but if you get pension, you get four years, most guys, they purposely set it at three years, because most guys don’t make it three years. So to me, going for getting four credit seasons, I consider it a success for someone that was pretty much a long shot.
That’s awesome.
But that, for me, so at the same time, I was sitting there thinking, this isn’t going to last forever. I’m not a superstar. So I already had game plans going in the back of my head of what I wanted to do after. I was actually looking to into more into accounting. I got an accounting degree, and I got in the NFL and I said, man, these guys have never filed taxes before. They never made money before. And then you go to a CPA and you have to file in every single state that you play in. So you end up filing it in eight, nine different states.
So these guys, they don’t know what to do. Some guys don’t even file. And it’s crazy because they take enough away where we always get a return in the NFL, because they hold from our checks a lot more than we need to pay. So some guys don’t even file thinking they’re doing something to stay away from the IRS like keeping some extra money, but really, they should be get thousands back.
So I was looking to go into that and use my experience in the NFL and pretty much pick up guys and say, hey, man, I know all the write offs. I did all my taxes while I was playing in the NFL. Kind of do a seasonal pick up, where just do a whole bunch of guys’ taxes and make some good money and then kind of do something else in the off time.
That was kind of my game plan going in, and then out of nowhere, my wife’s business pops up. Growing up, my dad was an entrepreneur. He started his own business 26 years ago. He’s the fourth leading supplier of fitness equipment now in the US. So we grew up with that background. We worked for him. He worked two jobs while he was setting up his business. So we had that whole experience. And our parents just taught us the value of a dollar when we were really young. So I had a paper route. We were umpires, worked for my dad, we did everything.
Just knew how to save and it was just something that your parents kind of taught you.
That’s awesome. So you really felt– so it was not really a struggle at all, that when you walked out, when you left the league, to be like, you know what? I’m going to start my own business right now.
Yeah, at the time, I mean, it wasn’t for my wife’s business, it would have been pretty tough. And I have a lot of friends that went through it. They still do. I mean, guys, even after 10 years they played in a league, you’re so used to that mentality, waking up, working out, getting after it, and they just don’t know what to do after. I mean, you were trained to do that since you were in high school, some kids, in Little League. So to walk away from the game’s hard.
And kind of at the same time, you’re like, what am I going to go work for $60,000 for when I was just making that in one game? Or it’s triple that in one game or 10 times in one game. So some guys, it’s just hard to get up in the morning to go work for pennies on what they were making before.
Yeah. And then I guess there’s also the always underlying issue of people just spending it while they’re in the league.
Yeah! when I got to Dallas, I call it the Dallas car show, man, because every day, there was a new car in that parking lot, man.
And in Dallas, what were you rolling up to Arlington with?
Oh, man. I bought my first car used. I think it was like $20,000. So I was rolling up and hiding. They were like, here comes the kicker.
I only had one car, man, and that was it. Everyone else had three.
But, hey, man, it was very economical and reliable and it got you there.
Hey, absolutely, man. I felt good. It was my first car.
I love it.
Felt like I did something right. I took a– I had a– well, I signed. I got $10,000 as my signing bonus, so I used that to get a car, and then I had money, I actually had money from my jobs as a kid, but I also played online poker when online poker was really big in college.
Throughout college, I got all my spending money from playing online poker. So it was crazy, man. I was just scrambling for money, man, looking everywhere.
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The BroBible team writes about gear that we think you want. Occasionally, we write about items that are a part of one of our affiliate partnerships and we may get a percentage of the revenue from sales.
Elon Musk was the co-founder of PayPal, he’s also the founder and CEO Space X and Tesla. You’d think that a man with so many irons in the fire wouldn’t have time to try and built out a new form of transportation for the world, but you’d be wrong. Elon’s also working on building the Hyperloop.
The concept for the Hyperloop was unveiled by Elon Musk back in 2013, and now there’s a working prototype after the idea recently received government approval. The idea is to use reduced-pressure tubes for high-speed travel and capsules large enough for people and cargo to be stored in will be pushed through these tubes using air compressors and motors.
Yesterday, Elon shared a video of the Hyperloop in action. In this clip, we see the Hyperloop WARR pod accelerate from 0 to 201 MPH in a 0.8-mile near vacuum chamber:
If this is the future of travel I’m totally on board with this. It’s not exactly feasible to have these tubes running underground everywhere in the nation, but from L.A. to Las Vegas this is totally an option, or from L.A. to San Diego…New York to Boston, Washington D.C. to New York…These are all feasible trip options for the Hyperloop that I can get on board with. (h/t DIGG Video)
Every day dozens and dozens of celebrities share pictures, videos, jokes, gear and other goodies to their Instagram accounts. There is literally so much going on with so many people that there’s almost no way the average bro can keep tabs on it all. So, because we care, we do it for you so you can waste your time at work, at home or wherever you may be in a much more efficient manner. After all, if you’re going to be wasting time, you want to do it right.
Here are the best celebrity Instagram posts we saw on the internet today…
We’ve seen the destruction that the remnants of Hurricane Harvey have done to cripple Houston. The area has already been swamped by 30 inches of rain since Hurricane Harvey touched down in Texas. The National Weather Service stated that the “unprecedented” storm may flood areas around Houston with more than 50 inches of rainfall, which would be a record for Texas. “The breadth and intensity of this rainfall is beyond anything experienced before. Catastrophic flooding is now underway and expected to continue for days,” the NWS said in a statement.
#Harvey in perspective. So much rain has fallen, we've had to update the color charts on our graphics in order to effectively map it. pic.twitter.com/Su7x2K1uuz
Latest reports find that the death toll is at eight people, which is actually remarkably low considering the catastrophic flooding that has submerged the city and the greater Houston area that has a population of over 2.2 million. The reason for the limited loss of life is because of the numerous courageous rescues that have been done by federal, state, and local employees, reporters, as well as Good Samaritans such as these brave Americans.
Coast Guard rescue workers pick up stranded people from rooftops in Houston, Texas, after massive flooding in the wake of Hurricane Harvey pic.twitter.com/ZUzmtyP0Pg
Our officers conducting rescue operations in our city around the clock. Please STAY OFF the roadways and help us by helping your neighbors. pic.twitter.com/xRTYiNvaRe
Based on these incredible photos and videos, it appears that the reports of America being divided are severely overblown. When a fellow American is in trouble, their fellow countrymen jump into action to save one another no matter what.
To report an emergency you can call the numbers below or 911 for assistance.
To report a #harvey emergency you must call numbers below or 911 for assistance. If busy keep trying. Do not report distress on social media pic.twitter.com/2YROOVWwDk
Most of our lives we’ve succumbed to accepting things at face value. Whether we trusted the source of the information or we were just too lazy to look into, I believed an obese man traveled around the entire world in one night breaking into houses and dropping off gifts for far too long. Forgive me for actually believing what my fucking parents told me. Hey dad, SCREW OFF MAN.
As we’ve gotten older, its become easier to decipher the bullshit from the real shit. Thank god I smoked too much weed to remember what I learned in high school or else I’d have to put my mind through a re-education process. Redditor _OxxO_ posed the question: What was a fact taught to you in school that has been disproven in your lifetime? And now I’m convinced we live in a totalitarian state.
During the height of the AIDS scare in the mid to late-80’s, one of my health teachers taught us that HIV could be spread by simply hugging or touching someone infected with it.
I know as much about HIV and AIDS as I do the surface of the moon.
You can see the Great Wall of China from the moon.
“The only thing you can see from the Moon is a beautiful sphere, mostly white, some blue and patches of yellow, and every once in a while some green vegetation,” said Alan Bean, Apollo 12 astronaut. “No man-made object is visible at this scale.”
When I was in 3rd or 4th grade we were taught cursive. The teacher insisted that all my high school teachers would automatically fail any papers that weren’t in cursive and that everything done in the “adult world” isn’t printed.
By the time I got to high school everything had to be typed and the only requirement for cursive I’ve seen in the “adult world” is things that require my formal signature.
Cursive is about as useful as a Blockbuster Membership card.
The reason so many women voted for the first time in 1960 was because Kennedy was good looking. Kennedy won because women couldn’t control their lusty desires. This was in public high school.
An estimated 3 million people tuned into an illegal stream of Saturday night’s fight between Floyd Mayweather and Conor McGregor, thanks in no small part to the technological nightmare that led to the main event being delayed. Some people who ordered the fight in HD were forced to watch it in standard definition (the horror!), while others were unable to view the bout at all.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Showtime is now facing a class action lawsuit filed by an Oregon man who is obviously not pleased with how Saturday night panned out. Zack Bartel said his stream was plagued by “grainy video, error screens, buffer events, and stalls,” and is seeking $200 in damages for each person who suffered a similar fate.
Attorney Michael Fuller went into a fair amount of detail in the complaint, saying:
“Instead of being upfront with consumers about its new, untested, underpowered service, defendant caused likelihood of confusion and misunderstanding as to the source and quality of the HD video consumers would see on fight night, Defendant intentionally misrepresented the quality and grade of video consumers would see using its app, and knowingly failed to disclose that its system was defective with respect to the amount of bandwidth available, and that defendant’s service would materially fail to conform to the quality of HD video defendant promised.”
Showtime wasn’t the only platform to suffer technical difficulties during the fight. Thousands of fans— including Dick Vitale— flocked to Twitter to voice their displeasure and demand refunds after a number of platforms failed to handle the overwhelming amount of traffic that literally every single PPV provider should have anticipated.
Leading up to Saturday night’s fight between Conor McGregor and Floyd Mayweather I didn’t think there as a shot in hell that Conor could win. We all know now that Floyd Mayweather won the fight, beating Conor McGregor just 1min5sec into the 10th round. There are some interesting conspiracy theories about when Floyd Mayweather won the fight because of the bet Floyd placed on himself. But, like I said, going into the fight I didn’t think Conor McGregor had any chance at all in winning. Then, after the bell rung in the first round and Conor McGregor started throwing punches I changed my mind.
Conor McGregor came out hot. He was landing punches and trying to win the fight, which is exactly what we all thought he’d try to do. I had assumed that Floyd would’ve been taking a more active roll in defending against those punches, but Conor was landing some shots. But, this was all part of Floyd’s plan and we can see that in this simple chart from Business Insider which shows exactly how Floyd’s strategy to let Conor McGregor tire himself out paid off:
Floyd Mayweather won the fight by allowing Conor McGregor to tire himself out. Halfway through the 6th round is when Floyd Mayweather started landing more punches than Conor and there was no looking back after that. It’s a simple strategy and one that worked, obviously. (h/t Business Insider)
I have to say, Olivia Munn breaking up with Packers QB Aaron Rodgers seems to have been the best thing she’s done in some time. No, I don’t mean for her, though that’s certainly possible, but I don’t claim to know how she’s been dealing with it emotionally and all that. I mean for us.
Back in the day Olivia Munn was one of the most fun people on the internet. You know, back in the old Attack of the Show days when she pretended to be a nerd who liked to dress up sexy – a.k.a. pandering to her audience. She used to put out funny videos, had a good sense of humor, and as I mentioned, she like to dress up sexy. Sue me for finding that appealing.
Anyway, while Munn was dating Aaron Rodgers her social media accounts, and Instagram in particular, went from great to almost 100% boring. I almost considered unfollowing her at one point because there was just nothing interesting to see.
I suppose it also doesn’t hurt that all of those photos could serve to show Rodgers what he gave up and is now missing, but that would be pure speculation on my part.
You know, kind of like this dress Munn wore to the MTV VMAs over the weekend. It too could be sending a message of some kind. The message I got out of it is that Olivia Munn has tremendous fashion sense, but it could be something else entirely. What do you think?
We have seen heroes make courageous rescues in Houston after Hurricane Harvey has made landfall and caused cataclysmic flooding in the area. The devastating catastrophe has already inflicted so much damage whether it be destroying houses, causing loss of life, or displacing hundreds of thousands of families. The unbelievable calmaity is estimated to cause $30-$100 billion in damage. J.J. Watt, Kevin Hart, and Robert Kraft are stepping up to make generous donations to help those in need.
Watt, who was drafted by the Houston Texans in 2011, announced that he has set up a fundraiser to help victims of Hurricane Harvey. Houston Texans defensive end posted a video on Twitter where he announced he will donate $100,000 to the people of Houston.
“I’ve set up a fundraiser so that we can raise as much money as possible to help our communities and the families of our great city rebuild,” Watt said. “Any donation that you can spare, no matter how large or small, no matter what city or state you live in, is greatly appreciated. We will come out of this stronger than ever. We are Texans.”
At time of publication, Watt had raised over $650,000, including $50,000 from new Houston Rockets point guard Chris Paul.
The generosity of @CP3's $50k donation is actually what put us over the $500k mark. Phenomenal stuff from donations both large and small.
Kevin Hart not only gave to the Hurricane Harvey relief effort, but also shamed fellow celebrities into giving money. Hart donated $25,000 and started the #HurricaneHarveyReliefChallenge, where he called out his friends Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Steve Harvey, Chris Rock, Dave Chappelle, Jay-Z, Beyonce, Justin Timberlake, and Jerry Seinfeld to donate to the victims of the disaster in Texas.
Robert Kraft uped the ante big time in Hurricane Harvey donations by making an extremely generous $1 million contribution to the relief effort. “Houston is a special city to our family and our organization,” Kraft said in a statement. “The New England Patriots and our fans have celebrated two of our franchise’s greatest and most memorable moments in Houston.” The New England Patriots owner gave $1,000,000 to the American Red Cross.
To help those affected by Hurricane Harvey, you can make a donation to the Red Cross by going HERE, call 1-800-RED-CROSS or text HARVEY to 90999 to make a $10 donation.
As they have done in the past, Anheuser-Busch and MillerCoors are ready to help those in need of clean drinking water in times of disaster. The Anheuser-Busch Brewery in Cartersville, Georgia has stopped canning beer so that they are able to can drinking water to help those in the Houston area who have had their lives ripped out from under them in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey. MillerCoors is also suspending the canning of beer to can water for victims of Hurricane Harvey.
MillerCoors is shipping 50,000 cans of drinking water from its brewery in Shenandoah, Virginia, to its Texas brewery to be distributed by trucks with the assistance of the Red Cross. In a statement, Anheuser-Busch said it is donating 150,000 cans of drinking water to help communities affected by Harvey in Louisiana and Texas. One truckload containing around 50,000 cans has already been delivered to the Red Cross in Baton Rouge, and two more truckloads with around 100,000 cans are expected to arrive by Wednesday in Arlington, Texas. The water will be distributed at Red Cross shelters.
“We’re currently shipping 50,000 cans of drinking water from our Shenandoah brewery to our craft partner, Revolver, where trucks are ready to mobilize under the direction of Red Cross to move supplies and help out in communities hit hard by Hurricane Harvey,” a MillerCoors spokesman said in a statement.
“Throughout the year, we periodically pause beer production at our Cartersville, Georgia brewery to produce emergency canned drinking water so we are ready to help out communities across the country in times of crisis. Putting our production and logistics strengths to work by providing safe, clean drinking water is the best way we can help in these situations,” said Anheuser-Busch Brewmaster Sarah Schilling.
Cans of water have been sent to victims of Hurricane Matthew, Superstorm Sandy, and to firefighters working wildfires in Washington state. Anheuser-Busch and MillerCoors are both also donating $25,000 to the Red Cross.
“Providing clean water to communities enduring a crisis will aid in recovery and hopefully give some sense of comfort to those in need,” said Karina Diehl, MillerCoors’ director of community affairs, in a statement.
Before the fight on Saturday night, Floyd Mayweather walked into the M Resort in Las Vegas at around 3:30 p.m. and attempted to place a $400,000 bet on the fight ending under 9.5 rounds at -200 odds. The deal was squashed due to the legality issues of a fighter betting on anything other than a straight win, ESPN reports. Mayweather then tried to bet on himself to win by knockout but stormed off after it he had to wait to place the bet.
No one has more confidence in Floyd Mayweather than Floyd Mayweather. Except maybe the dude who dropped $1.21 million (two $605,000 straight bets) on the 40-year-old to beat Conor McGregor in his first ever boxing match.
The bet turned out to be quite lucrative for the dude, netting $242,000, a 20% return on his investment. God damn. The rich get richer while I’ve been saving up for a haircut for two months.
These Contigo vacuum insulated stainless steel travel mugs just keep dropping in price. The price is so low it doesn’t seem possible, and yet here we are, starting at a number just south of $10.
This larger-capacity travel coffee mug works hard so you don’t have to — just snap the tumbler lid open and closed so it’s sealed shut when you’re done sipping. Enjoy a hot cup of java up to 5 hours after you poured it, thanks to THERMALOCK vacuum insulation.
It fits most cup holders, dishwasher safe and comes in a variety of colors. It’s the best thing to happen to your coffee since goat mugs.
The BroBible team writes about gear that we think you want. Occasionally, we write about items that are a part of one of our affiliate partnerships and we may get a percentage of the revenue from sales.
Editor’s Note: Welcome to Sports Finance Brief, a new daily column we’re running here at BroBible breaking down the day’s biggest stories in sports finance. It comes to us via our friends at John Wall Street, a new sports business e-mail newsletter worth subscribing to. Here’s what you need to know today…
MAYWEATHER/MCGREGOR CONTRIBUTES TO THE WORST BOX OFFICE WEEKEND IN 15 YEARS;
While August has been a predictably slow month for movie theatres, not since 2001 have U.S. weekend box office revenues been this low; with revenues totaling just $65 million. Lionsgate’s (LGF.A) “Hitman’s Bodyguard” finished #1, earning a mere $10.1 million. While hurricane Harvey may have contributed to the low figures coming out of Texas, it was Saturday night’s Mayweather/McGregor fight that likely had the bigger impact. The fight generated more than $600 million in revenue, one of the highest grossing PPV events in history. Fathom Events (AMC, CNK, RGC) which showed the fight in theatres across the country, had a big night. The one-night closed-circuit event would have placed in the Top 10 for weekend movies, earning $2.6 million.
Fan Marino: Had the fight even through 6 rounds. Far from the sham many were predicting.
NEULION SERVERS OVERWHELMED BY TRAFFIC; FANS WHO PAID $100 MISSED MEGA FIGHT
NeuLion (TSE: NLN), the digital streaming service who streamed Saturday night’s Showtime (CBS<) PPV event on behalf of the UFC, SKY Sports (LON: SKY) and Eleven Sports Network to over 180 countries around the world; experienced significant technical difficulties during its most watched event ever. Transaction volume overwhelmed servers in Florida and California causing widespread outages, a 20-minute delay to the main event and some very disappointed fans to miss the fight. Fans who ordered the PPV event through UFC.tv powered by NLN software, paid $100 for the Mayweather McGregor headliner, but were unable to log-in. Those individuals have since been directed by UFC.tv to email NeuLion for a refund.
Howie Long-Short: Not sure NLN is long for the streaming business with BAMTech coming on strong, but the company has a growing business licensing technology to consumer electronics companies. Samsung (KRX: 005930), Sony (SNE), LG (KRX: 066570), Panasonic (TYO: 6752), Sharp (TYO: 6753), Philips (PHG) and Toshiba (TYO: 6502) all use NLN video players within their TVs to ensure up to 4K clarity.
Fan Marino: Amateur move to wait until right before the main event to test the stream. You need to leave yourself time to get to the bar, in the event you encounter any issues.
JAWBONE PIVOTS FROM FITNESS WEARABLES TO MEDICAL DEVICES
Jawbone, the liquidated consumer technology turned fitness wearables company, is now rebranding itself as Jawbone Health Club and planning to enter the medical device market. While the new business plan and product line are yet to be released, according to the company’s investor presentation products under consideration include; sensors that track body metrics (hydration, respiration, blood pressure, alcohol level), a bracelet that can detect a heart attack or failure and applications to assist with diabetes, hypertension, heart rhythms and stress management. The company plans on pursuing a partnership with Microsoft (MSFT), where the tech giant would distribute the Jawbone Health Club’s devices and wellness software, and data collected would sync with MSFT email & calendar products.
Howie Long-Short:Medical grade devices are certainly the next generation of wearables, so from a conceptual POV, I like the pivot. However, to get insurance reimbursement, they will need FDA approval on products. R&D is expensive and they blew through $590 million the first time around. Are they going to be able to raise enough money to flush this business out?
Fan Marino: I always thought the idea of a “fitness tracker” to count steps was nonsense. Just a matter of time until we toss it in the same bucket with our shake weights, thigh masters and ab vibration belts.
FINISH LINE LOOKING TO CONNECT CUSTOMERS & SNEAKER CULTURE; SIGNS MIGOS AS CREATIVE DIRECTORS
The Finish Line, Inc. (FINL) has signed Migos to creative director roles with the retailer. The platinum award winning hip-hop trio will lead several marketing initiatives that will feature themselves along with other social media influencers. FINL is giving Migos the freedom to pick product and to style it, to develop the themes for upcoming product shoots and to direct their vision on the production set. The group plans to focus specifically on the shoe market, as FINL is looking to connect customers to sneaker culture.
Howie Long-Short:FINL has posted 2 straight quarters of annual revenue declines, so a shake up on the creative side is welcomed. While this partnership may provide a short-term boost as Migos has reach, it doesn’t solve the problems associated with the shift to direct to consumer selling.
Fan Marino:Woah kemosabe, I guess expect a lot of same color tee shirts. White.
CHICK FIL-A TO HAVE STAND IN FALCONS NEW STADIUM; STAND WILL BE CLOSED ON SUNDAYS
The highest grossing franchise in the U.S. ($4.4 million/store; $1.7 million more than #2 on list), Chick Fil-A, will in fact sponsor a stand in Atlanta’s new football stadium, despite being famously closed on Sundays. Company Founder, Truett Cathy, was a devout Christian who closed his restaurants on the 7th day to observe the Sabbath. Perhaps odd to some, no exceptions will be made for the location at Mercedes Benz (OTC: DDAIF) Stadium despite the Falcons hosting only one non-Sunday game in 2017. The sponsorship isn’t a total loss though for Chick Fil-A as the stadium is also home to MLS’ Atlanta United, concerts and college football games.
Howie Long-Short: Did you know that it only costs $10,000 to open a new Chick Fil-A franchise? Have that laying around? Don’t get too excited, only .4% of applicants are selected to become “operators”.
Fan Marino:Never understood the hype behind Chick Fil-A. Give me Wendy’s (WEN) spicy chicken sandwich all-day-long and twice on Sunday.
