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    Shannon Sharpe Settles Lawsuit Accusing Him of Rape

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    A lawyer for the woman, who had sought $50 million in damages, said both sides acknowledged a “consensual and tumultuous relationship.”Shannon Sharpe, the podcast host, sports media personality and former N.F.L. star who was accused of rape by a former sexual partner, has settled her lawsuit for undisclosed terms, according to the woman’s lawyer.The lawyer, Tony Buzbee, said on social media on Thursday that both parties agreed that the sexual relationship was consensual, and that the lawsuit would be dismissed.The woman, who filed the complaint anonymously, had sought $50 million in damages. Mr. Sharpe’s lawyer has said that before the lawsuit was filed, he had discussed offering her at least $10 million.“Both sides acknowledge a long-term consensual and tumultuous relationship,” Mr. Buzbee said in a statement. “After protracted and respectful negotiations, I’m pleased to announce that we have reached a mutually agreed upon resolution. All matters have now been addressed satisfactorily, and the matter is closed.”Mr. Buzbee did not respond to a request for comment. A representative for Mr. Sharpe, 56, declined to comment.The woman, who is described as being in her early 20s, filed a lawsuit in April claiming that Mr. Sharpe had raped her in her apartment on two recent occasions. Lanny Davis, a lawyer who was representing Mr. Sharpe at the time, denied the allegations and released graphic text messages that he said depicted a “consensual, adult relationship that included role-playing, sexual language, and fantasy scenarios explicitly requested” by the woman, whom he named.Mr. Sharpe won three Super Bowls as a tight end with the Denver Broncos and Baltimore Ravens and has become a media personality since his retirement after the 2003 season. His interview-based podcast “Club Shay Shay” grew in popularity after an episode last year with the comedian Katt Williams, and he is also a commentator on “First Take,” ESPN’s morning debate show.But Mr. Sharpe has not appeared on ESPN since April, when he announced he would step back until the start of the N.F.L. preseason to deal with what he called “false and disruptive allegations.” An ESPN spokesman declined to comment regarding Mr. Sharpe’s status.Throughout the legal process, Mr. Sharpe continued to host “Club Shay Shay” and his secondary podcast, “Nightcap.” More

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      ‘America’s Sweethearts’ Is a Compelling Sports Series

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      Season 2 of this docuseries about the Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders is an intense look at found families and all the healing and trouble that come with them.Season 2 of the documentary series “America’s Sweethearts: Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders,” on Netflix, is a bit less rah-rah than Season 1 — still full of tears, high kicks and sisterhood but also more attuned to the pain of it all, the sorrow and struggle of cobbling together one’s self-worth.One of this season’s leads is Jada, a five-year veteran of the team and among its best dancers and most thoughtful leaders. She lays out the season’s theme at the beginning: “Everyone’s going to say, ‘Well, they’re just cheerleaders,’” she says. “Well, we’re really good cheerleaders.”Her grin begins to spread. “Show us that you appreciate us,” she adds.Are the members of the team appreciated? Not with money, they’re not, and part of this season’s most invigorating arc is the cheerleaders’ quest for better pay. Season 1 brought additional fame and adulation to the team, and it also drew attention to the exploitation of the enterprise. As Kylie, another team veteran, explains: “The world was kind of telling us, ‘Girls, fight for more.’ And we’re like, ‘OK!’”As the women practice the grueling signature routine, we hear the opening strains of the AC/DC song “Thunderstruck,” over and over. But the true refrain of the season is the fretting about being in one’s own head. It’s the catchall term for all distress and self-recrimination, the explanation for any lack of confidence or lapse in perfection. Yes, performers can overthink things, especially in prolonged auditions, and rumination and anxiety are enemies to the wide smiles and sexy winks the Dallas cheerleaders’ routines require. The job is to make it look easy.But there’s an interesting tension. Your head is where the good ideas are, too — ideas like: “Hey, a lot of people are making a lot of money off my work; why doesn’t any of that go to me?” Or: “Even people who I believe have my best interests at heart can disappoint and hurt me.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Bill Belichick’s Girlfriend, Jordon Hudson, Shuts Down Question About Their Relationship

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      The legendary football coach has never shared much with the news media, but on Sunday it was Jordon Hudson who shut down a line of questioning.When Bill Belichick, one of the country’s most famous football coaches, appeared on “CBS Sunday Morning” over the weekend to promote his new book, “The Art of Winning: Lessons From My Life in Football,” he touched on a number of topics, including his apparent disdain for inspirational halftime speeches.Football, Mr. Belichick said in his interview with Tony Dokoupil of CBS, is really about strategy: What is his opponent doing? How does his team need to adjust?“Identifying a problem,” he went on, “figuring a solution and then executing that plan to make it work.”Jordon Hudson, Mr. Belichick’s 24-year-old girlfriend, tried to do exactly that at one point in the interview, when Mr. Dokoupil asked Mr. Belichick, 73, how they had met.“We’re not talking about this,” Ms. Hudson interjected off camera from the producer’s table.“No?” Mr. Dokoupil asked her.“No,” Ms. Hudson said.A spokesman for Mr. Belichick and the University of North Carolina’s football team declined to comment on the interview, but Mr. Belichick’s relationship with Ms. Hudson — and, of course, their nearly 49-year age difference — has been a source of intrigue since the couple went public last year.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Kendrick Lamar’s Super Bowl Halftime Show: The Peak of All Rap Battles?

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      The first rapper to headline the N.F.L.’s biggest stage solo made his Drake diss “Not Like Us” the centerpiece of his set at the expense of a larger statement.Of course he performed “Not Like Us.”In the lead-up to Kendrick Lamar’s headline performance at the Super Bowl LIX halftime show on Sunday night, most of the chatter focused on whether he would play the song that was effectively the knockout blow in his monthslong battle with Drake last year. The song that became Lamar’s signature hit, and a generational anthem. The song that won both record and song of the year at the Grammys just a week ago. The song that appeared to recalibrate hip-hop’s power rankings, perhaps permanently.So yes, Lamar played the song. Toward the end of the set, of course, building up anticipation with a couple of brief musical nods to it, toying with the audience’s emotions and thirst.Lamar leaned on songs from his most recent album, “GNX,” like “Man at the Garden” and “Peekaboo.”Doug Mills/The New York TimesBut what will always be remembered from this performance is not the musical choices Lamar made, or the aesthetics of his choreography, or the silhouettes of his outfit. What will remain is his grin when he finally began rapping that song. It was wide, persistent, almost cartoonish in shape. The grin of a man having the time of his life at the expense of an enemy.Lamar is perhaps the most sober of all of hip-hop’s contemporary greats, a ferocious storyteller who values tongue-tripping polemics and introspection; he is not exactly a beacon of joy. During the beef, he appeared to take on the dismantling of Drake as necessary homework.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      How Going to Commercial During the Super Bowl Works

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      Television commercial breaks are the bane of every N.F.L. fan. They interrupt a game already riddled with stoppages, bombard viewers with come-ons and force fans and players in the stadium to stand around for about two and a half minutes, sometimes in the freezing cold.Yet commercials are the lifeblood of the N.F.L. Without them, broadcasters could not afford to pay the league billions of dollars for rights fees, money that goes to paying players’ salaries and much more.Most games have 18 commercial breaks. A few timeouts, like at the end of the first and third quarters and at the two-minute warnings, are fixed. The league and networks avoid taking breaks if a team’s opening drive of the game ends quickly, because they want fans to settle into the broadcast. If all goes well, the last commercials run at the two-minute warning in the fourth quarter.Most commercial breaks, though, are chosen in real time as league executives, network producers and officials on the field look for natural breaks in the action. Finding them is more art than science because every game unfolds differently, with long drives, three-and-outs, injury timeouts and coaches’ challenges.League officials sit in the press box during games and help determine when to take commercial breaks.Caroline Gutman for The New York Times“Our fans know that the commercial breaks are coming,” said Mike North, vice president of broadcast planning and scheduling at the N.F.L. “The whole idea from where we sit is to try to use those breaks to cover downtime: resetting the field after a score; if there happens to be an injury, hopefully a minor one; or an instant replay review when the referee goes to the sideline.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      The Best and Worst Super Bowl Commercials, Ranked

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      Here is our critic’s evolving survey of this year’s Super Bowl commercials, from best to worst.Here is my annual critical ranking of the Super Bowl commercials. This is the pregame edition, with all the available national ads that I could track down; the list will be updated after Sunday’s game.The trends so far? Nothing controversial, as you would expect, but also — and perhaps for associated reasons — very little creativity. It’s a bad year for ads; the ones at the top of this list aren’t much better than average. More spots than usual depend entirely on the appeal of a relatable celebrity (who is almost certainly male). Concepts beat ideas — there is a lot of fussy, overly complicated silliness and not much in the way of simple, effective storytelling or mood setting.(You may not see every commercial listed here during the game, and you may see commercials not listed here. The various broadcast and streaming platforms will carry different selections of ads, and some ads will only be shown in certain regions.)No. 1National Football LeagueN.F.L.The N.F.L.’s own feel-good promo, “Somebody,” is affecting in a highly produced, can’t-we-all-just-get-along manner. Its implicit endorsement of diversity and inclusion offers a muted contrast to the league’s decision to forgo the “End Racism” end-zone slogan.No. 2Stella ArtoisWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      A Katt Williams Interview Made Shannon Sharpe’s “Club Shay Shay” a Hit

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      “Club Shay Shay” became a must-stop destination for Hollywood after Katt Williams aired his grievances. “This was our ‘Thriller’ album,” said the host Shannon Sharpe.Shannon Sharpe won three Super Bowls in a Hall of Fame career and once recorded 214 receiving yards in a game, the most ever by a National Football League tight end. Another crowning achievement came long after he was outmuscling bulky defenders, when he convinced a 5-foot-5 comedian to open up while sipping cognac on a brown leather sofa.When that comedian and actor, Katt Williams, aired his grievances against prominent Black celebrities, including Sean Combs and Kevin Hart, it instantly turned Sharpe’s podcast “Club Shay Shay” into a must-stop destination in Hollywood and beyond. In the months after the episode aired in January 2024, Sharpe secured interviews with the rapper Megan Thee Stallion and the Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris.“‘Club Shay Shay’ has become the modern-day talk show,” said Lillian Xu, a top podcast executive for Vox Media, which produces a handful of rival series.Sharpe has cut through in a saturated podcast ecosystem where Alex Cooper and the Kelce brothers command nine-figure contracts. In addition to “Club Shay Shay,” Sharpe makes twice-weekly appearances on “First Take,” ESPN’s popular morning debate show, and hosts a secondary podcast, “Nightcap,” with the former N.F.L. receiver Chad Johnson.Before a live taping of a “Nightcap” episode in New Orleans this week ahead of the Super Bowl, Sharpe exercised his vocal cords in a backstage greenroom as a makeup artist prepared to pat his face. Moments later, his voice, laced with a country-twang accent, soared throughout an auditorium. The friends debated N.F.L. award winners, Johnson’s relationship issues and other topics.In the past year, Sharpe has interviewed Megan Thee Stallion, Kamala Harris, Mo’Nique and Kai Cenat on his podcast “Club Shay Shay.”Emily Kask for The New York TimesWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

    • 150 Shares199 Views

      in Music

      The Super Bowl Finally Embraced Rap. Is There Also Room for Country?

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      Since Roc Nation’s partnership with the N.F.L., hip-hop stars like Snoop Dogg and Kendrick Lamar have been center stage at halftime.The Super Bowl halftime show was at a low point in 2019. Despite an unrivaled television audience, Rihanna turned down the National Football League’s invitation to perform, keeping solidarity with Colin Kaepernick, the exiled quarterback who had repeatedly knelt during the national anthem to protest racial injustice.The pop band Maroon 5 headlined instead, underwhelming nearly 100 million television viewers. Jon Caramanica, a music critic for The New York Times, called it “an inessential performance” that was “dynamically flat” and “mushy at the edges.”The N.F.L. was quick to respond, courting Roc Nation, the entertainment company founded by the billionaire rapper Jay-Z, in an attempt to strengthen its music and social justice initiatives. Over the past six years, Roc Nation has prioritized hip-hop and R&B, bringing rap to the Super Bowl spectacle for the first time with a celebratory 2022 performance by Snoop Dogg, Dr. Dre, Kendrick Lamar, Eminem, Mary J. Blige and 50 Cent. Sunday’s show will feature Lamar and the guest star SZA.“The N.F.L. needed to do something to bring life to what is supposed to be their signature event, and that was accomplished,” said Jemele Hill, a writer for The Atlantic who is producing an ESPN documentary on Kaepernick with the director Spike Lee.An overdue emphasis on hip-hop and R&B — Usher and the Weeknd have also headlined under Roc Nation — means that other genres have been sidelined. Country music is ascendant culturally but has rarely been part of the Super Bowl; halftime shows by Coldplay and Lady Gaga feel long in the past.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      in Movies

      Minnesota Vikings Celebration Dance Pays Homage to ‘White Chicks’

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      Not everyone loved the 2004 film “White Chicks.” But 20 years later, some N.F.L. players are paying homage to it in the end zone.If you don’t remember, “White Chicks” was a 2004 comedy in which the Black actors Marlon and Shawn Wayans donned heavy makeup to disguise themselves as white women.Its rating on the movie review site Rotten Tomatoes is 15 percent. Not good. Not even meh. The New York Times review of the film suggested viewers might want to prepare for it with “a full frontal lobotomy.”Yet somehow, 20 years later, “White Chicks” is still hanging around. An essay in The New York Times this past summer suggested that time had been kind to the film, hailing it as “a culturally, racially and sexually savvy tale” whose “spiky critique of white privilege has revealed itself to be far more incisive than its lowbrow humor would indicate.”On Sunday, the comedy somehow became a part of a National Football League game.After an interception by the Minnesota Vikings against the Atlanta Falcons, two players, Josh Metellus and Camryn Bynum, performed a celebratory dance. Aficionados of decades-old gender and race bending comedies recognized it as the one performed by the Wayans brothers at a dance-off in “White Chicks.”Perhaps inspired by the innovative dance, the Vikings won the game, 42-21. Bynum was proud of the celebration, posting on Instagram: “Best celly’s in the league.”In 2017 the N.F.L., which had once been so strict that it became known to fans and the news media as the “No Fun League,” relaxed its rules by allowing more elaborate celebrations. Since then players have become increasingly creative.Earlier this season, the same two Vikings performed a dance from the 1998 remake of “The Parent Trap,” starring Lindsay Lohan, in which a simple handshake turns into an elaborately choreographed routine. More