It's our first show of the 2022 season! Pierce and Scott break down the AFC & NFC East divisions and project every team's win total for the new year!
Triple H is putting his stamp on HIS WWE. Pierce Rob and Chris talk about the adjustments he's making to the product, plus THREE weeks of shows from 2006, including Booker T's sixth heavyweight title win.
It's been one week since SummerSlam and the roster surprises have not stopped! This week we talk about the return of Karrion Kross and if some of the past releases and departees are regretting their decision, now that Triple H is the head creative. Liv Morgan got booed out of the arena in SC. Is it time for a heel turn or is this proof that Liv just ain't ready yet? We talk about it all as well as what are our hopes, thoughts and GuaranDAMNTee's with Steph and Paul in the driver's seat on this week's #FBCPod
On this weeks episode of RAOP what exactly is that shit AB put on, Kelis need to slap the Arbys hat off Pharrell's head, thoughts on BeyondSay's new album, the yacub versions of our biopics, paranormal activity and a lot more. Also we answer voicemails and questions from the listeners. Remember to send in your listener questions, #TheyNeedTheirAssBeat or #RealNiggaOfTheWeek submissions, email us at MAIL@RAOPodcast.com or call 424-260-RAOP to leave a voicemail
Scott & Flows breakdown the first 2 weeks in Bears camp, updates on Roquan Smith's contract negotiations, Tevin Jenkins finally speaking to the media & much much more
I want Justin Fields to succeed. Even more so, I want him to be the best player in the league, full stop. I want him to be the Most Valuable Player every year for the next ten years. I want his career stats to make Tom Brady’s look like he was a quarterback for a Pop Warner team. The reasoning behind this is not simply because he’s the Chicago Bears starting QB. In fact, it’s probably not even the primary reason for me. This feeling and wanting is one that I feel deeply about on several levels. I’m a Buckeyes fan and have been since I was a child. They were the first football team I ever watched, in fact, the first football game I can ever remember seeing featured them. It was my birthday on November 21st, 1998, and the Buckeyes (the team in red as I called them) were playing a team with oddly colored blue and yellow striped helmets. I watched in joy as the team in red (that I just found out about) came out with a win. Family and friends around me were mostly annoyed at the Buckeyes winning as a few of them turned out to be fans of that team in the weird colors. Seeing them dislike this team in red incited something in me. This red team seemed like the underdog, and I love underdogs. I immediately became enamored with this “red” team and continued to watch them on Saturdays. To this day, I’m still a fan of that team in red and I can’t stand that team with the oddly colored helmets.
So, what does that mean for my attitude towards Justin Fields? It’s that I want him to succeed more than the average Bears fan does. I remember watching Troy Smith take the football world by storm in 2005 only to fail to attain similar success in the National Football League. The same goes for Terrelle Pryor, Braxton Miller, J.T. Barrett, Cardale Jones. The list is full of players whose careers at tOSU ranged from solid, good, great to legendary like the late and great Dwayne Haskins. I want Justin Fields to rise above the belief that Buckeyes’ QBs can’t succeed in the NFL. On an even deeper level, I want this young black man to succeed. My ethnicity, like everyone else’s, is sacred to me. The waters that my people were forced to cross, the violence we were forced to endure is something that never leaves my mind. My ancestors fought for the right for us to exist and to thrive in spaces we were originally not allowed in. So, when I see black players in fields that are typically dominated by white men, I feel a sense of happiness and otherworldly bias towards them…especially in football. I want to see them do more than be good enough to maintain a starting job. I want to see them compete at the highest levels. I want every black quarterback to compile stats that rival Russell Wilson’s. I want the world to know that black quarterbacks are here to stay, and it is no different for Justin Fields. I’ve watched him since he was at Georgia. Anxious to see how great of a player he would become only to be completely shocked to find him transferring to my favorite school. I watched with glee as he dominated the Big Ten and took the Buckeyes to the College Football Playoff each year he was the starting QB. Even getting them to the National Championship game after a thrilling performance vs. Clemson in the 2020-2021 season.
Wanting him to succeed is an understatement for me. It’s something I hope for every night. After his draft day, I found myself kneeling before God during my nightly prayers and asking Him to bless Justin with the ability to play at the highest level possible. I’m as “obsessed” of a Bears fan as everyone, and I understand the hype and anxiety that Bears fans live with. I might have been blessed with covering this team and following their journey closer than I was before, but this doesn’t take away from what I know at heart; that I love this team to an unhealthy level. That withstanding, what are we to take away from reports at Bears training camp of Justin having an “okay” to “bad” camp? Do we ignore it and assume that its apart of the maturation process? Do we give up hope and call him a bust because that just what we’re used to seeing from the QB position as Bears fans? I say neither.
We treat this with a balanced approach. Yes, in the practices since pads came on, Justin Fields has had good snaps and bad snaps. He’s done well with eluding pressure in the pocket and has improved his footwork tremendously when compared to last year. He’s throwing with even footing and trusting his players to make secure catches. On the other side, he’s tended to hold onto the ball longer than necessary. He’s waited for his primary target to get open when he should be going through his progressions, and he’s had balls repeatedly batted down in camp. The reality is that he is growing as a young QB and there has been some bumps in the road. Having all this information at our disposal should not rush us to panic nor should it rush us to jubilee that the Bears finally have a franchise QB. They might…they also might not. What I do know is this: he has the potential to be a star in this league. His arm strength and accuracy rivals anyone’s in the league and his athleticism is second to only someone like Lamar Jackson. When he’s in the zone, there are very few, if any, defenses that can stop him. The only question remaining is will he rise to the occasion? The answer? Who knows. I’m a small speck of dust, on a blue marble floating in nigh-infinite space. If you’re looking for prophecy, you’re on the wrong site. However, if you’re looking for an honest opinion on the team that we all love, you’ve come to the right place. So, depress the panic button and put a hold on your celebration. Wait and watch for this 23-year old’s career to unfold without unnecessary pressure on yourself. Trust me, it’s better this way.
- Flows
On this weeks episode of RAOP we bring on upcoming media talent Breyonna Bryant. She sits in with us as we chop it up about our techniques with interviewing, DVSN dropping a terrible single, where did R&B music go wrong and more. Also we answer voicemails and questions from the listeners. Remember to send in your listener questions, #TheyNeedTheirAssBeat or #RealNiggaOfTheWeek submissions, email us at MAIL@RAOPodcast.com or call 424-260-RAOP to leave a voicemail.
The #FBCPod hit SummerSlam at Nissan Stadium and the whole weekend was an experience you had to be there for. We run down the card, what we expect to see next and we detail the sights, sounds and reactions at our very first Premium Live Event as the First Black Champ Podcast!
This article was originally published January 12, 2018
Dave Chappelle might actually be a magician, because “He rapes, but he saves,” should not be funny.
Yet there it is: the full crowd barrel laugh. And there it is: my own laughter, at home, watching on Netflix.
What are we really laughing at? On its face, that line is a brutal, violent sentiment. And yes, if you haven’t seen “The Age of Spin,” the first of Chappelle’s four — FOUR??!! — standup specials on Netflix in 2017, I recommend that you stop reading this now, watch the special, and then return, because that line has to be seen to be believed. It’s the comedy equivalent of a David Blaine illusion, where you stare at his mouth the entire time yet he keeps on barfing up frogs.
That line is one of several times where Chappelle took heat in 2017 for his standup material. It came from both political parties, both genders, all orientations, and all races. Most famously, there was blowback for his jokes about the LGBT community, specifically transgender people, in the first two specials of 2017 — “The Age of Spin” and “Deep In the Heart of Texas” — and then in “Equanimity,” which was released New Years Eve (along with “The Bird Revelation”) and addressed the backlash for the trans jokes.
His routines about Bill Cosby, Emmett Till, Louis CK, Harvey Weinstein, and poor, white Trump voters also drew heat from various directions and various groups, including from ones that are politically opposed to each other.
My own take? Some of his LGBT routines in the first two 2017 specials were poorly conceived, because they included instances of the words “fag” and “dyke” in the same way that Chappelle uses the n-word or “bitch.” He wasn’t in character saying that particular f- or d-word. He was literally just saying them to refer to gays and lesbians. Not funny.
And then there were his routines about his dislike for “poor whites.” Unlike other groups he jokes about — and Dave jokes about EVERYONE — the odds that people who consider themselves “poor whites” would attend his show, watch his special, or in any way feel like they are inside the tent are unlikely. That was the unusual case where I agreed with the logic of his point but opposed the execution of that portion of the joke.
But artists take chances, and sometimes they make mistakes. I’ve seen it before with many groups at the receiving end, my own included, and I tend to chalk it up to a misfire within good art and move on.
Which is not to say that I subscribe to the notion that “You just don’t have a sense of humor,” or “Man, why is everyone so sensitive?” — I don’t. If a work of art contains content that you find offensive — or, more specifically, threatening — then you’re going to have the reaction that you naturally have, and that’s cool.
The reason I am willing to forgive Chappelle for the gay jokes that I don’t like is the same reason I don’t get too upset with, say, Clipse for a lyric about Jews on “Wamp Wamp,” in which they say that while cooking cocaine, “it cools to a tight wad, the Pyrex is Jewish.”
I love Clipse! So I shook that one off, and did so even when seeing them live at the Metro in 2007, and being just a tad freaked when I heard a room full of people rap that line in exuberance. It was a much different experience than hearing it on the CD, but that’s the nature of live art, and I moved past it.
Much worse than that is Quentin Tarantino dropping the N in “Pulp Fiction” four times in 30 seconds to Samuel L. Jackson, which to this day makes me grimace for two reasons, one being that it’s way more offensive than it is clever, and the other that I just don’t believe that Jules Winnfield would be so nonchalant about that language, even taking the circumstances of the scene into account.
What I could not abide from Tarantino, ultimately, was much of the content of “Django Unchained.” I walked out of the theaters the first time I saw that and did not watch to completion until a few months later. And yet, most of my black friends LOVE Django and thought Tarantino was on point with the script — listen to Dick Gregory for a beautiful summation — whereas I’ve gone from hatred of the film to mere distaste.
Unlike Tarantino, Chappelle writes his mea culpa into his material. He’s done it a few times. In a set at the Laugh Factory in 2010, while talking about Michael Richards’ racist meltdown also at the Laugh Factory, Chappelle said his reaction to Richards taught him that he was “20% black, 80% comedian.”
In “The Bird Revelation,” he challenges his fellow comics in the room to not be afraid to speak “recklessly.” In “Equanimity,” when he discusses the backlash to his transgender jokes, particularly from a trans fan who wrote him a letter to say that his jokes left her “devastated,” he explains that, “As a policy, you gotta understand, I never feel bad about anything I say up here.”
But perhaps his best explanation about the risk in art comes in “The Age of Spin,” when he describes his approach to comedy as analogous to motorcycle stunts.
“I’m like Evel Knievel,” he says. “I get paid for the attempt.”
He calls this idea something to the effect of “thrill of being wrong.” The idea, I think, contains two parts. The first is that real art, in any form, is inherently risky, and people have to be willing to give artists the benefit of the doubt based on their history, their intent, their content, their execution, and the possible payoff of their work. The payoff in that deal is that the artist will take us to a special place we cannot go on our own.
The second part of the “thrill of being wrong” is that artistic expression adheres to an art form, and the art form of standup comedy stipulates that you try to make people laugh, and the only true judgment on your attempt is whether or not they did, and that as comedy fans, we can’t hold statements made in standup routines to the same standard of truth and taste as we would a statement made in normal conversation.
Take Dave’s Mac Mittens bit, for instance, also from “Equanimity.” For me, this had the opposite effect of the “poor whites” bit. In this case, Dave said he disagreed with some of the reasons the media bashes Trump, and he used as an example Jared Kushner’s inclusion as a senior advisor.
As a Washington outsider, Dave says, Trump would want family members among his advisers because they would make him feel comfortable. The point is way off — people aren’t mad about Kushner’s inclusion because he’s an “outsider,” but because he was given loads of responsibilities for which he was not qualified, along with security clearances inappropriate for his needs.
But as a segue to an extended bit about Chappelle’s friend “Mac Mittens” who joins him at meetings, it was hilarious. The joke works, even if the real world logic that sets it up fails.
And that, in a way, brings us back to “He rapes, but he saves.”
When Dave delivers that line as the final knockout punch of “The Age of Spin,” it comes on the heels of an extended, rather serious segment on Bill Cosby’s legacy. “He rapes, but he saves” is a line that he sets up earlier in the show in a much sillier segment. That juxtaposition is part of the audacity that makes us laugh.
Because here’s the thing: as audience members, when we hear that line, we are not laughing at the idea of Bill Cosby raping, nor are we absolving Cosby of the alleged rapes because of the “he saves” portion of the line, which refers to Cosby’s decades of charity, education, and community uplift.
Our laugh is the result of Dave’s Evel Knievel moment. It’s the “attempt,” as it were. It’s the audacity to take such a sad, serious subject like Cosby’s alleged rapes and everything surrounding his probable guilt and attempt to turn it into an opportunity to feel just a bit better. And it works because the object of the joke is not the victims and not even Cosby, but rather our own conflicted human emotions about a real life hero who likely committed heinous crimes.
The pain Cosby’s probable victims feel can never be erased. The pain that people feel for many reasons when they learn about Cosby’s acts — that pain is real too. And Dave, through the boldness and courage of his comedy, is offering relief. He is giving people a safe space to laugh, and in doing so inviting them to bask in the magnitude of the attempt. The barrel laugh he gets on the line is the audience’s realization mixed with gratitude: we didn’t know we were going to see the attempt. And we didn’t know he would land it.
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Jack M Silverstein is a sports historian covering the Bears for Windy City Gridiron. He is the author of “Our President” about Barack Obama supporters and “How The GOAT was Built: 6 Life Lessons From the 1996 Chicago Bulls.” Say hey at @readjack.
A new era in professional wrestling has begun. Vince McMahon is no longer in charge of WWE. Insert Chairman Stephanie McMahon, Co-CEO Nick Khan, and head of creative, Triple H.
Pierce, Rob and Chris talk about the changing of the guard in WWE and the instant ramifications of Vince's retirement. Plus, a jam-packed Summerslam card filled with shocks, surprises, and a never-before-seen thriller to culminate Roman Reigns and Brock Lesnar's rivalry.
This week on Summer Sessions Scott, Pav & Jr Bang discuss Joe Biden playing with the trade machine, artists not having their paperwork right plus a legendary version of Story Time with Pavito
The guys Scott, Dante & Mikey start the pod off with an epic rant following the White Sox's 6-5 loss to the Colorado Rockies, they go on to explain why no non Juan Soto trade will help this team plus they go around the rest of the league & discuss the state of the current season.
Scott & Flows breakdown the MCU’s Phase 5 & Phase 6 schedule plus talk about the new trailers for Wakanda Forever & She-Hulk
Scott & Flows are back to kick off the 8th season of the pod as they discuss Roquan Smith's contract holdout, what to look for during camp, what would be a successful season for Justin Fields plus the homie Jay Westbrook of Haymarket Pub & Brewery stops by to discuss 79th & Halas 200 Live on August 18th.
79th & Halas 200 Live tickets available now the site.
Scott & Pierce discuss first half superlatives, trade deadline rumors, the premiere of Randy Wilkins' 'The Captain', and lots more from the world of baseball
Vince is WILD DUDE and that's been facts; But Kurt Angle let us know exactly what liking, dating and doing black women could get you if Vince finds out about it. We question the logic and "ribbing" on this episode as well as talk extensively about the future of Wrestling and who might have played themselves out of position by the way things look today. Mercedes wants 30 Bands and we respect that and We got NEW BLACK CHAMPS in AEW!!! All that and some life talk on this week's #FBCPod.
On this weeks episode we talk about our experience at EXXXOTICA, the Donkey that got it back in blood, Kevin Gates vs Deshaun Watson in a Freakbul Off, making your Opps twerk for their freedom and a lot more topics. Also we answer voicemails and questions from the listeners. Remember to send in your listener questions, #TheyNeedTheirAssBeat or #RealNiggaOfTheWeek submissions, email us at MAIL@RAOPodcast.com or call 424-260-RAOP to leave a voicemail.
Listen to RAOP Ep.421 on Spotify
Scott & Flows review Ms.Marvel season in full, Thor Love & Thunder, the hate Phase 4 has been getting plus they make predictions for next week's San Diego Comic Con
Scott & Flows review Season 3 of Amazon’s hit show The Boys
It's the 5 year anniversary of the First Black Champ Podcast! We talk about our journey's and changes over the last 5 years, the high's, low's, consistencies and what we want to see in the very near future for the pod. Then we get into Vince and his wild behavior and why he may need to go, but be very careful about what you wish for. It's a nostalgic celebration of the #FBCPod! Thank you.