🚨🗣️New: Thierry Henry reacts to the USA vs Paraguay stoppage for TV commercials:
“I’ve spent my entire life in this beautiful game — as a player at the highest level, as a fan, and now as someone who analyses it every week — and what unfolded during that USA versus Paraguay match left me deeply frustrated. The fourth official standing there on the touchline, arm raised high, instructing the referee to hold the restart… not for any injury, not for tactical reasons, and not even primarily for player hydration in that scorching heat. No. It was because the broadcast team hadn’t finished airing all their commercials. That’s not football. That’s a television show pretending to be a World Cup match.
The beautiful game is being strangled by greed. Players are out there in the heat, ready to restart, momentum building like a storm about to break — and we pause everything so the sponsors can cash in. It’s like stopping a symphony mid-crescendo because the advertisers want their jingle heard. Football didn’t conquer the world by turning into American sports with endless timeouts and ad breaks. We had rhythm, flow, emotion that flowed like a river. Now? It’s dammed up for dollars.
This isn’t about hydration or player welfare anymore — it’s a slippery slope where the soul of the game is sold piece by piece. Fans deserve better. Players deserve better. The referee on that pitch looked like a puppet on strings controlled from some broadcast truck. Enough is enough. We need to protect what made this sport the greatest on Earth before it disappears completely.”
The World Cup should be football’s cathedral. Instead, we’re turning it into a shopping mall with a pitch in the middle.
And here’s the question nobody wants to answer: if the fourth official is waiting for commercials, then who is really running the game? FIFA? The referee? Or the broadcasters?
Because the moment football starts asking advertisers for permission before asking the players, you’ve crossed a line.
The World Cup is supposed to be the showcase of football. Not the showcase of who paid the most for airtime.”
Stateside, a gas station. I drank a frozen blue beverage too quickly, and was struck down by a punishment this entire nation knows, and accepts, and has named.
The drink is called a slush. Ice, sweetness, and a blue that does not occur in nature. The day was hot. I was thirsty. I drank like a soldier at a river.
The pain arrived in my skull like a war horn.
Behind the eyes. Above everything. Total. I gripped the roof of my car. I may have made a sound.
"Brain freeze," said the cashier through the door, with no urgency whatsoever.
It has a NAME. The affliction is so common it has a household name, like a cousin.
"Tongue on the roof of your mouth," called a man at the pumps. He did not look over. He prescribed the remedy mid-pump, casually, the way one mentions weather.
I pressed my tongue to the roof of my mouth. The war horn faded. The healer nodded at his pump, finished, and was gone in a Chevrolet.
In my land, punishment follows crime by way of courts and seasons. Here, the sentence is instant. Drink with greed, and the ice strikes the mind directly. No trial. No appeal. Perfectly fair.
And here is what moves me. EVERYONE has felt it. The cashier. The healer. Children. Elders. An entire nation united by the same small lightning, all taught the same cure, all passing it on to strangers at gas stations, free of charge.
You cannot fully distrust a country once you know it shares one pain.
The freeze does not punish thirst. It punishes haste.
I finished the slush slowly, like a scholar. Blue tongue. Clear mind.
Then at the door I forgot everything, drank deeply, and was struck down again.
"Tongue, hon," said the cashier, without looking up.
Discipline is a journey.
@EAMaddenNFL Do an Eras mode.
For god sakes please overhaul scouting. It’s been horrific for years.
You have all the answers in your old games and the ones surrounding you. You have every single fucking resource. You’ve been taking our money for years. Now use it properly. Please.
JUST IN: The Enhanced Games are set to debut this weekend in Las Vegas, with athletes allowed to use steroids, testosterone, HGH, & other banned substances.
Generations being segregated. As a teenager I had no idea what 30/40 years old cared about besides comedy and the news
and they did not care what we were up to
dear apple, the iPod needs to come back. not for nostalgia. for the parents who want their kids to love music and audiobooks without a browser, social media, and the whole internet attached to it
Something that breaks my heart as a Millennial is how fucking optimistic and fun our teenage years and 20s were. Like we envisioned a TOTALLY different world from the one that we've got and insanely divorced from what Gen-Z are experiencing. It's hard to put in words how fantastic we thought life was gonna be and how it seemed like we were making tangible social progress. We've had all of that ripped away from us
Ran up a $1500 dinner tab and when the receipt came back they had those cute little “suggested tips” printed like I’m supposed to casually drop another $300 just because someone carried plates from kitchen to table. I left $25 which honestly felt generous considering I already paid restaurant-level prices for the food itself.
Server immediately got weird about it, attitude switched, barely a thank you, just that tight smile people do when they think you violated some unspoken rule. I told her straight up tipping isn’t a percentage subscription service and I’m not funding someone’s rent just because the bill happened to be high.
Manager wandered over trying to smooth it out, hinting about “industry standards” like that magically obligates me. That only made me dig in harder because nowhere else do you get charged more for the exact same task just because the total went up.
So I signed it exactly how it was, stood up, and walked out while they all stared like I committed financial treason, and if they think I’m coming back there to play along with that system again they’re seriously confused.
Credit: Annie Perkins
Insane thinking back to when Bron was entering the league… never in a million years did I ever imagine that media would wager a disinformation campaign against him for practically his entire career, turning millions & millions of fans to despise him as he continued to do what literally NO ONE else did before him.
Even crazier is that not only did it not derail him, he somehow managed to destroy the highest expectations ever set for an athlete and continues to defy all logic in year 23, as millions continue to literally HATE him & not even know why.
That’s not nuts to yall?
If Bron passes better than MJ. Scores a similar ppg on less shots and more efficiently than MJ. Can defend more positions than MJ. Can PLAY more positions than MJ. Can take a mediocre team and make them a contender UNLIKE MJ.
What’s the debate?
MJ has 2 more rings, some undeserved defensive accolades, and scoring titles in which he took by far the most shots in the league. All against much weaker competition.
Nostalgia and old head “analysts” have yall in a VIOLENT chokehold. Just tap out already.