Ty Watches "Is God Is"

Back when RD and I did our summer movie wager I went hard for the movie "Is God Is". I had seen a trailer by the time of recording and was all in on this movie. RD hadn't heard of it at that time. He told me on mic that he thought it was a christian movie. It most certainly did not look that way. Now it is streaming on Prime, which we subscribe to, so I watched it.

This movie was great. And it is not religious in the least. Sure there are mentions of god. The twins call their mom god. There is a great scene that takes place in a church. But this is a revenge movie. This is a gory movie. This is a funny movie at times. This is a story of family and the lengths some will go to to get their own revenge. Mallori Johnson and Kara Young play the main characters in this movie. They're twin sisters. Johnson plays Anaia and Young plays Racine. These two are so awesome in this movie. They crush their roles. I do not want to spoil the movie, but I will give minor details about what happens. I'll tell you a little about the story.

Vivica A Fox plays the twins' mom. The twins have some very visible scars on their bodies. It appears that they have been violently burned by someone in the past. When the movie starts we see the twins as young kids. Someone on the playground calls them ugly, so Racine goes and beats that person up. We then flash to them as adults, and we see the burns and everything. We also see a person in a working space that gives Anaia a look of disgust. Racine comes to her aid. We then get a little look into their lives. They have this ability to talk without saying words. They're so close that they don't need words, just looks, to have a conversation. One night at dinner they get a letter from their mom who they haven't seen since they were young. After a debate they decide to go see her to find out what she would like them to do. This is when the movie really kicks into gear.

As mentioned before, Vivica A Fox plays their mom. She is on her deathbed. She has been very clearly burned very badly. She tells her girls that her dying wish is for them to get revenge on their father. This is where we learn how they all got these bad burns. This is pretty much all in the trailer by the way. But after the story is told, after their mom gives them the mission, the movie breezes by, and it is a whole hell of a lot of fun. Fox is dynamic. She has one scene, but she crushes it. She is really good here. Johnson and Young are remarkable. They play two totally separate roles, but you know they're twins. They have this closeness that is easily identifiable as family. I had seen Young before on "I'm A Virgo", where she's great as well. I have never heard of Johnson before, and she is wonderful in this movie. Her quietness and shyness masks her true feelings. She is phenomenal. And in a wild twist, Sterling K Brown plays the villainous dad in this movie. I like Sterling K Brown a lot, but this is a role I never would have expected him to play, and he is awesome. He's sinister and wicked. He holds no prisoners. He is ruthless. I was fascinated with his performance in this movie.

I think the best way to go into this is knowing only the little bit I just wrote about. I didn't know much else and I was excited by what I saw. I also didn't expect this movie to make me laugh like I did. There are legit jokes in this movie. Some of the stuff is played for comedy. But in the end this movie is a revenge thriller and they nailed it. I couldn't take my eyes off screen while watching. I was enamored with what was going to happen next. Some stuff really took me by surprise and that is the sign of a good movie in my eyes.

I definitely recommend checking out "Is God Is". It is a cool and new and interesting way to tell this type of story. 

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

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Ben Simmons is Back

Ben Simmons is back in the NBA. Let’s discuss.

This felt like it was going to happen soon anyway. He was out of the league for a year, but he started posting workout videos, and his usual look at how good my jumbo shot is now type of stuff on social media. I didn't know where he was going to sign, but it felt like it was coming. He ended up with the Kings. And this feels like the right spot for him.

I heard that he may sign back up with the Clippers. That wouldn't have made much sense considering all of the heat they have going on right now. He wouldn't have been able to really show off for the other 29 teams in the NBA if he signed there. They also have Darius Garland and others who need the ball in their hands to be effective. Some people said the Lakers. That makes zero sense. He plays way too slow for what they're doing, he wouldn't help out the offense much, and it looks like this Lakers roster is very disinterested in playing any defense, which may be Simmons best attribute at this point. There was no way he was going back to Philly. It ended so poorly there, and they are clearly going in a different direction, signing LeBron James and all.

There were a few teams where I thought it could work other than Sacramento. The Wizards popped into my brain because, why not? They have such a weird roster, full of random dudes, so why not add Simmons into that mix? He could help Alex Sarr on the defensive end, and maybe take a little ball handling off of Trae Young's plate. He could use a break. Charlotte seemed like maybe due to them trading away LaMelo Ball. I feel like he could set up Kon Knueppel for threes and throw lobs to Brandon Miller. But they have Coby White for that, and Coby White is a far superior shooter to Simmons. I also looked at Cleveland, just for a flyer. He could run the second unit, replace some of the defense Dean Wade left when he signed with Philly and they could even put Simmons, Mobley and Jarrett Allen out there for a monstrous defensive front court. But they would have to give him very little money, and I don't know if Simmons would've accepted that.

I'm sure there's others that did their due diligence on Simmons, but the Kings make the most sense to me because of the state of the franchise. The Kings are going nowhere fast right now. They have let a bunch of good players go for next to nothing, they have missed more than they hit in the draft and they are in the space to take a chance on a guy, just to see what he has left, and if he shows anything, they can flip him for younger players or more cracks at the draft. Darius Acuff is going to get to run the show in Sacramento. They took him in the lottery for the sole purpose to let him score and score as much as he can. Acuff is not going to be asked to pass the ball much or play much defense. They want him to score and put up shots. I would be shocked if Domantas Sabonis is still on this team by the All Star break. He wants out, they want to trade him and I bet he will get his wish. Zach Lavine is untradeable and his best days are behind him. The Kings are giving what seems to be De'Andre Hunter's last shot in the NBA. I thought he was going to be a decent NBA player, but it just hasn't translated to the league. Alex Karaban looks slow and unplayable on the defensive end of the floor. Malik Monk can score, and has seemed to find a home in Sacramento. But he is only getting older, and I have to imagine that at some point in his career he wants to play in meaningful games late into the playoffs. They may still have something in Keegan Murray and Maxine Raynaud. But that is it. So why not take a shot on Simmons? If he can find some version of himself when he was making all NBA teams and winning rookie of the year in Philly, that would be a humongous win for Simmons and the Kings. If he can handle the ball a bit, find Acuff and Murray open for threes or throw a few lobs to Precious Achiuwa and Raynuad, that would be great. If he can step up on the defensive side of the ball and show any kind of true defensive pressure, maybe a contending team will give him a spot.

I know this is a lot of maybes and a lot of stuff he will have to show scouts, but it could happen. I don't think it will though. I think Simmons may have a few decent games here and there, but nothing will really stand out. I think that when he gets back on the floor, his shot will be nonexistent. I think he will be scared to shoot free throws. But I will be watching Simmons and kind of rooting for him. This is a former number 1 overall draft pick who fell off the face of the universe. I'm glad he's back, but he has a ton to prove. Maybe Sacramento is the exact place he should be right now. 

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing, the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast, and the greatest basketball writer on the internet.

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There Was a Time Tom Green Was My Thing

Earlier this week I went back and watched the movie "Freddy Got Fingered". I had never seen it before and when I was younger I used to think Tom Green was hilarious. I used to watch his MTV show all the time.

Well, "Freddy Got Fingered" is terrible. It is not even fun bad. It is just flat out bad bad. It is not very funny, there's far too much gross out humor and I felt like Tom Green decided he was going to let the curse words fly left and right since he was making a major motion picture. I have no qualms with any of these ideas, but it came off bad on screen for me. I found it gratuitous. But I'm not here to write a review of "Freddy Got Fingered". People have already done that to death at this point. What I want to talk about today is Tom Green as a performer and actor.

Green came around at the exact right time for his style of humor. Before he was on MTV, the only real "shock" comedian I knew of was Howard Stern. Stern had a radio show and he did his thing, and became quite successful at what he did and now does. But Green was different. He was childish. I think that is what got me onboard when I was younger. I liked his childish humor. I think a lot of that had to do with the fact that I was 16 when his show on MTV premiered. He was speaking to my comic sensibilities at the time. He would do pranks and stuff that seemed so out of left field, and it worked for me. I was all in on "The Tom Green Show". Hell, I even went out and tried to purchase his single for his song about putting his butt on stuff. The song was stupid, but it was the right kind of stupid for me.

He went on to have a, for me at the time, star turning role in "Road Trip". This is another in a long line of college road trip movies that came out in the early 2000's, and it was as cliche as they came. But Tom Green stood out as the older college student. I thought he was hilarious. He wasn't doing the gross out thing either. Sure, he put a mouse in his mouth during a scene, but immediately took it out and fed it to a snake. That part was really good for him. He got to make jokes, but didn't have to go to the extreme to make me laugh. I have not seen "Charlie's Angels", but I know he has a role in I believe the first one. This has to be due to his marriage to Drew Barrymore at the time. And the only reason I can think that he convinced Barrymore to marry him at the time was due to his fame in the early 2000's. Nothing else makes any sense to me regarding this relationship.

Green was also one of the first famous people I know who was diagnosed with cancer and openly talked about it on screen. He was very open about everything, including treatment and all. This was kind of eye opening for me. It is one of the first times I can remember hearing about a famous person getting sick and talking about it. This made me like him even more. I know some may have thought it was one of his bits, but he made sure to clarify any misheard or misunderstood information. My respect grew for him from there.

He did take a hiatus during his treatment, and to be honest, after he got healthy again I kind of forgot about him. He wasn't doing much and I kind of stopped watching his stuff. I know he wrote a book in 2004, but I never got around to reading it. He also appeared on "Jiminy Glick" during this time, but I have only recently watched clips from that show, and I have never seen Tom Green's interview. He has also dabbled in music since leaving tv, but I have zero interest in listening to any of that. And more recently he made his own documentary, which I have yet to see.

I think what Tom Green did best was capitalizing on his fame when he did. He got his chance and he ran with it. I think he also came around at the right time for his style. If he tried that nowadays it would not work. His schtick wouldn't have worked in the mid 2010's either. He used the shock comedy to the best of his ability during a time when not many could do what he did best. I have often thought about going back and rewatching some "Tom Green Show", but I don't think it will hold up.

Tom Green had his moment at the best time for him. My hat is off to what he achieved, but I have zero interest to go back and rewatch. Maybe that is for the best. 

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

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I Found the Worst Person on "90 Day Fiance"

As I have mentioned before on this site, I watch a good amount of trashy reality tv shows with my wife. I used to watch stuff like "The Real World" and "The Hills" when I still lived at my folks house, but after meeting my wife, that was when I got super involved with trashy reality tv. It is a nice way to turn my brain off and just sit back and, quite frankly, judge other people. I know that is not a good quality to have, but sometimes it is hard for me to control it when watching.

The one show that makes this happen most for me is "90 Day Fiance". That show aggravates me to no end and I will let the comments fly from time to time. I know there are many iterations of this show, but the most recent season, the original "90 Day", the American's have been downright unpleasant. The American's on this season feel like some of the worst of the worst. TLC must have decided they wanted to show how stupid we have become as a society, and they totally nailed it this time around. There's one dude that claims to have an allergy to perfume. I've never heard of such a thing in my life. There's another gentleman, who I believe is in his late 50's, who still goes out and parties with ladies in their 20's. One lady who lives in Alabama, has had to make concessions for her friends who claim immigrants need to be deported. Clearly they have decided to cast horrific people. And in some ways I think it is good for people to see how dumb our country has become. I am so distraught and disgusted by America right now, and "90 Day" makes me despise some people from America more than ever. But there's one person this season that takes the cake for the worst casting I've ever seen. I have been trying to be happier lately. I am trying to live my life being in a good mood as much as possible. I try not to come on this site and bash stuff like so many other modern bloggers do nowadays. But this person made me so angry and frustrated last night that I have to take some time and go off on them.

This person is named Catie, or maybe she spells it Cadie, I'm not sure, and she is, by a million miles, the most despicable person I have watched on this series. Catie is from Oregon and she marries a gentleman named Josh, who is from the UK. Right from the start things felt off about Catie. During one of her first interviews on the show, it may have been the very first one in fact, she claimed that she liked to drink and drinking tends to end with her making out with random people. That is all well and good. I have no problem with her doing this when she was single and living her life. But what she said next was what really frustrated me and started my anger towards her. She claimed that the excess drinking and making out is due to the fact that she has OCD.

Now, I'm a person who has living with OCD for as long as I can remember. The way my OCD manifests itself is by counting or doing the same thing multiple times until it "feels right" to me. This will come about by turning off a stove or lights in the house or making my kids lunches. It can be the simplest thing in the world, but it is also very frustrating. But, the one thing my OCD has never made me do is drink to excess or make out with random strangers. Now, I do notice that when she is interviewed that she can be twitchy from time to time. That happens to me too, but it is never due to OCD or the like. It is just a twitch or a tick. And after going to therapy for almost 25 years now, I have been able to really calm it all down. But, for this person to blame her alcoholism and infidelity on OCD, that's a bridge too far for me. The sheer fact of the matter is she is a child that doesn't take accountability. She is using OCD as a crutch and that is highly frustrating to me. OCD is a very real thing that very many people suffer from. But for Catie to use it to excuse her horrendous behavior, that is why people don't always believe others when they say they have OCD. People don't look at OCD as a serious thing because of people like this person on "90 Day".

Watching her this season it is clear that she has a drinking problem. She doesn't know when to stop. She over drinks and that's when the cheating starts. And yes, making out with strangers, right in front of her then fiance and now husband, is cheating to me. She has tried to explain away that she just wants to have fun and be young. The fact of the matter is that she is a cheater and she dragged this poor dude all the way from the UK just to marry him and then embarrass him on television.

Last night my wife and I watched part 1 of "Tell All", and Catie came off very, very bad. Even her close friends came on and tried to tell her that what she was doing was wrong. What was Catie's response you ask? She blamed her husband, laughed during uncomfortable moments and cried and cried until she stormed off stage. That, to me, is the sign of someone who knows what they did was wrong, but won't admit guilt. Her actions last night are not something that can be connected to OCD. OCD has nothing to do with her constantly cheating on her now husband. But, like a lot of people on shows like these, crying is the best way to walk off stage and hope that others will feel compassion for them.

After, and during the show, I kept telling my wife that Catie needs to get real, professional help. I even questioned if TLC should continue to film her. It felt gross and awkward that they kept her onscreen for as long as they did last night. And she is going to be back for parts two and three of "Tell All". I get that it makes for good tv, hell, I'm writing about it today. But this feels like a bridge too far. Catie continues to yell and scream at her husband. She continues to blame him for her misgivings. She refuses to listen to her friends. And all the while, she continues to use OCD as a crutch. For these, and many, many more reasons, are why I feel like Catie is the worst person that this series has ever put on screen, and I kind of wish they would stop filming her and convince her to get real help. She has way more than just OCD. But, as long as they will keep her on the payroll, I'm sure she'll continue to use excuses and make awful choices. 

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

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"Rocky" is Still a Stone Cold Classic

My son has been on a kick lately watching older sports movies. He told me awhile ago that he wanted to see the stuff that I used to watch when I was his age. I have shown him some of my favorites, and he has found some newer stuff, based on older sports movies, that he has gotten quite into.

One such series of movies is "Creed". He loves those movies. I've only seen the first one, which is great, and I plan on seeing the other two very soon. But since he has this newfound love of "Creed", his uncle and I decided he should see the original "Rocky".

We showed him the movie this past Saturday, which he loved, but I had a whole different experience watching this time around. I have seen all of the original "Rocky" movies a bunch. My mom loves the first one. My dad is into 2 and 3. "Rocky 4" is hilariously ridiculous, and 5 is just flat out awful. But my kid had to start at the top, and I'm glad he did. I have not seen "Rocky" in a long time, so I made sure this go round had my full attention.

This movie is so different from what I used to recall. The movie opens with a fight, and then we do not see Rocky box again until he fights Apollo Creed, at the very end of the movie. The in between is so different from my memories. I thought this movie was all boxing all the time. It most definitely is not. After the opening fight we get to see the everyday life of Rocky Balboa. We see him doing his job, which is working for a loan shark. We see his apartment. We see how he lives his life. We see him constantly hitting on Adrienne. I always thought they were already a couple when the movie kicked off. That is not the case. There's a whole courtship and everything. Rocky has to really work to get Adrienne to go on a date with him. He is very persistent, almost to the point of harassment. But this movie was made in a very different time. I'm not excusing it, but "Rocky" came out 50 years ago.

I also found that I liked the pacing of the movie. They really make you sit in this world. You really get to know everyone and everything they seem to do day to day. I also never remembered that Pauly was a flat out drunk. He drinks constantly and his mood swings come at you a mile a minute. I was always a fan of Mick growing up. I used to have to do impressions of him for my family when I was a kid. But now I really got an understanding of his character and why he talks to Rocky the way he does throughout the movie. Mick used to be a fighter. He used to have real feelings that Rocky could make it. But he also sees that he doesn't have the discipline or the knowhow.

What surprised me the most was Slyvester Stallone. I know Stallone as the guy that was in horrible 90's action movies. I did not like those movies at all. You can go check out our other podcast First Watch Rewatch and you can hear me talk about the movie "Cobra". His "Judge Dredd" movie is terrible. Any attempts he had at comedy all fell flat. But he is genuinely exceptional in "Rocky". He brings it. He acts the hell out of that role. I was all in on his performance. And throw in the fact that he wrote the movie, man the dude used to be incredibly talented. I wonder what happened along the way. When we get to that final fight, all the stuff leading up to it, it makes that final act all the better. You feel for Rocky. You see Apollo struggling because he didn't take the fight seriously enough, figuring he would steam roll Rocky. By the way, Carl Weathers is great in this movie as well. He was such a good actor and the fact that he's gone now really bums me out.

"Rocky" is a wonderful movie. They do not make movies like this anymore, and while I understand why, they should maybe go back to this slow, simmering style of a movie. That would be neat to see. And the fight choreography was second to none here. The fights looked real and I loved that about the movie. If you haven't seen "Rocky", or haven't watched it in awhile, go check it out. It is a classic for a reason. 

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

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September 11th Through My Eyes

There are certain moments in life when you remember exactly where you were. September 11, 2001, is one of those moments for me.

I was living in St. Louis at the time, 26 years old, and working for an event company. That morning, I was on my way to a professional golf tournament practice round in the region. Our company had activities planned at the tournament, and it was supposed to be a normal workday. Then I heard something on the radio.

A small craft, the announcer said, had hit the World Trade Center. At that point, it sounded like a terrible accident. Strange, certainly, but an accident.

I continued to a hotel, where I was meeting my boss so we could carpool to the golf course. The televisions were on near the hotel lobby. Breakfast was being served to guests, but people had begun gathering around the screens. There was a growing sense that something important was happening.

Then we watched the second plane hit the World Trade Center. Live. The room gasped. I can still remember the reaction. People who had been eating breakfast or talking quietly were suddenly frozen, staring at the television.

A stranger standing next to me said something I will never forget. “This is not an accident. This is something worse.”

He was right.

My boss and I eventually got into the car and headed toward the golf course. As we drove, we heard on the radio that the first tower had collapsed. It was difficult to comprehend. The World Trade Center was one of the most recognizable places in America. The idea that one of those massive towers could simply be gone seemed impossible. By the time we reached the golf course, we watched the second tower collapse live on television. Later we heard the news of the plane crash at the Pentagon, then the downing of United 93 in Shanksville Pennsylvania.

Not long after the United States realized that is was under attack, St. Louis police officers escorted everyone out of the clubhouse. We were told to leave and go somewhere safe. Nobody really knew what was happening. There were rumors. There was confusion. There was fear that more attacks could be coming. For the first time in my life, it felt possible that nowhere was completely safe.

I lived in downtown St. Louis then, in a small apartment on the 15th floor of a building with a view of the Gateway Arch. There was speculation that Arch could be a target. I would not go back to my apartment that evening.

That fear may be one of the things I remember most about that day. Not just the images of the burning towers or their collapse. Not just the terrible realization that thousands of people were in danger, and many had been killed. It was the uncertainty. We did not know what would happen next. The entire day became a blur of television coverage, phone calls, rumors and unanswered questions. Airports shut down. People tried to reach family members. Television networks repeated the images of the planes striking the towers and the buildings collapsing. It felt as though the entire country had stopped. In many ways, it had.

September 11 was a day of confusion, fear and sadness. It was also a day when Americans watched events unfold together in real time, trying to understand something that seemed impossible only hours earlier. For people who were alive that day, the memories are often deeply personal. Someone remembers being in an elementary school classroom. Someone else remembers being at work. Some were on airplanes. Some were in New York, Washington, D.C., or Pennsylvania. Others, like me, were hundreds or thousands of miles away but watched the attacks unfold on television and listened to the news on the radio. The details are different, but the feeling is often the same. You remember where you were when you realized the world had changed.

Twenty-five years later, the images and memories of that morning remain difficult to separate from what came afterward. America changed. The way we traveled changed. The way we thought about safety changed. The country went to war. Politics changed. Our relationship with the rest of the world changed. Maybe some things changed for the better. Maybe some did not. But there is no question that September 11, 2001, changed the world. For me, the memory begins with a radio report about a “small craft” hitting the World Trade Center. It continues with a crowded hotel lobby, a collective gasp as the second plane struck, and a stranger recognizing before many of us did that this was not an accident. Then came the drive to the golf course, the news that the first tower had fallen, and watching the second tower collapse. Finally came the fear. The police telling us to leave. Not knowing where to go. Not knowing if another attack was coming.

That is what I remember about September 11. A normal morning that became something else entirely. A day when the world suddenly felt much bigger, much more dangerous and much less certain. And a day that, for better or worse, changed everything that came after it.

 RD

RD is the founder and Head Editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

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Ty Watches "Untold Raygun: Breaking Badly"

Yesterday I sat down and watched the new Raygun mini documentary on Netflix. This is part of the "Untold" series, and boy oh boy, this may be the best one they have done yet. I have written about other "Untold" movies before, but none of them have had this kind of an effect on me.

For people out there that don't know who Raygun is, she is the Australian breakdancer that represented her country in the 2024 Paris Olympics. This was the first year that they made breakdancing an Olympic sport, and Raygun left quite the impression on the world. This doc tells us how she started, how she ended up in the Olympics and how, after the games, her life kind of unraveled a bit. Most people know who Raygun is due to her performance. It was pretty bad. She became a meme. Her performance went viral. She got roasted by a bunch of people. But this movie tells us how it got to this moment. We got the behind the scenes stuff. We see how she worked her way up to the top in Australia, and how she got herself into the Olympics. We also get to meet the people in her life who have helped her get there.

The first person we meet, and who leaves an everlasting impression on the viewer, is her husband Sammy, aka Sammy Sex. Sammy is her coach, but he was a breakdancer before he ever met Raygun. He has been into that whole world since he was a kid. Does that mean he is a great dancer? No. But he does have some small skills, and boy does he love Raygun. This guy is obsessed with her, but they are married, so no big deal. But the way he describes her dancing, especially in the Olympics, the words he uses, the beaming in his eyes, he thinks way too highly of her. Raygun has skills as well, but she is not some otherworldly dancer either. They both move so oddly. They look so much slower and less coordinated than the other breakdancers. They look stiff and just not that great. But man do they love one another.

We also meet some of the other breakdancers in Australia, and man do they have an opinion on Raygun. They always say something nice about her, but then button it with how much they despised her performance at the Olympics. I do also want to say, hearing white people with Australian accents call themselves "b-boys" and "b-girls" is one of the funniest things I have ever seen on tv. And the fact that they do that, with a straight face mind you, makes it all the more funny. And seeing some of the old routines, watching Raygun and Sammy dance back in the day, was one of the more cringe things you can see on tv. I had to look away a few times because I was embarrassed for them. I know they have no issues with it, they truly love to dance, but it just made me squirm on my couch.

The doc does go into some great detail about the toll and the aftermath of the Olympics as well. That's all well and good, but that was not why I turned this on. I do feel bad for what she and her husband and mom and dad had to endure, but I would have been better off not knowing all of that. I get that they have to do this, especially in a documentary, but it made this movie a bit more depressing than I wanted it to be. I was also not that big of a fan when they showed her working out after punching her ticket to the Olympics. It felt hollow and, while she got stronger, it did not help her all that much during the Olympics. And when they got to the Olympics, that was when the movie really started to groove. Seeing all of this again, but knowing about the backstory stuff, that made it even wilder seeing all this stuff. Raygun did not give a solid performance. She was pretty bad actually. Seeing her do the sprinkler, do a kangaroo walk, yawn at a competitor who is beating her ass, it was nuts. She didn't score a single point during her run. She was beaten by her three opponents by a score of 54-0. That's crazy. Raygun didn't score a single point. Not one of the judges deemed anything she did good enough to give her one solitary point. Yikes. And seeing where she is now, seeing how she kind of climbed out from the abyss was a good thing, I still wished they did more of the dance stuff.

I turned this on to laugh, as bad as that may sound. And while it got a good amount of laughs from me, I didn't need all the other stuff. I recommend checking this out if you have any memory of Raygun, but maybe skip all the stuff that feels like it is going to get emotional. 

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

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Nathan Fielder, Elizabeth Holmes, Creepy Doc, I'm In

If you have not seen the trailer for the new A24 documentary, "You Can See Everything", do yourself a favor and go watch it, then come back and read my blog.

For people who may not know, "You Can See Everything" is the new doc about Elizabeth Holmes and her partner, who allowed full access to filmmakers Lance Oppenheim and Nathan Fielder. They let these two into their home 34 days before she went to prison, and it turned into a three year project.

Now, I'm a big Fielder fan. He is one of the best tv and movie personalities out there right now. I loved "Nathan For You". That was one of the funniest and most unique shows when it was on. And while the show was on, Fielder seemed like another funny dude making funny stuff on Comedy Central. But, as the show progressed, it got a little different. That all came to a head with "Finding Frances". This was when Fielder decided he was going to start making something different, something interesting. "Finding Frances" is funny and creepy and distressing and endlessly watchable. This felt like the turn in Fielder's career.

After "Finding Frances", Fielder went on to do "the Curse" and "The Rehearsal". I liked "The Curse". It was not so comedic, but it still had the uncomfortableness that we have grown accustomed to with Fielder. He and Emma Stone went to some dark and eerie places and I found that the deeper they went, the more interested I became in the show. "The Rehearsal" is damn near a masterpiece. I loved both seasons of the show. I hope they make more. The stuff he accomplished in season 1 was wonderful. The way the show morphed from helping people rehearse for real life situations, into him moving in and living with a mom and her son, that was a sight to behold. Then, with season 2, he helped make major change in the piloting world. He started his focus on trying to figure out why the pilot and co pilot barely spoke to one another, and by the end of the season he was speaking in front of congress and got his pilot's license. Watching him fly that jumbo jet was very unexpected and very, very cool.

Now we have "You Can See Everything". This feels like a magnum opus to an extent. The fact that they have kept this quiet for this long is a feat all its own. How they have been able to not talk about this, how they got it into a film festival and had people put their phones in a bag so they couldn't talk about it, this was genius. The reactions coming out of Telluride have been pretty epic. I don't even care that the run time of the movie is damn near three hours. The fact that Fielder himself has talked about how much the experience of making the movie has changed him, and that he is still confused and kind of messed up makes me want to watch it even more. This is the movie I am most looking forward to in 2026, and yes that includes "Dune: Part 3". The trailer isn't very long, but it packs a punch. The one scene they show us is Holmes and Fielder sitting next to one another and she says to him something along the lines of, "why would I lie to you", in not so many words. And then the camera pans over to Fielder who has this look on his face that says so very, very much. I can't tell if he is worried, laughing, nervous, scared, or all of the above. People have said that it looks like Fielder has finally met his match. I have read that people are saying that Holmes is committing to the bit harder than Fielder, who is known to over commit to his bits. It looks like Fielder may have finally met his match. And I'm also stoked to see Oppenheim's work as the co-director. Oppenheim just directed "Primetime", which I cannot wait to see. And it seems he is following it up with this epic that is going to rule. I am interested to see how he directs Fielder when Fielder steps in front of the camera.

This movie is the exact type of movie that I love. It is going to make me uncomfortable in the best possible way. And only a person like Fielder is worthy enough an auteur to do something like that. This movie is going to rule so hard because the trailer is so short but so impactful. I cannot wait to see it. 

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

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This Michigan Win Does Not Feel Good

I am here today to discuss what happened in the Western Michigan-Michigan football game on Saturday night. I've been sitting with this game in my head ever since it ended.

Right away, I don't know what the rules say, I did not read the particular rule for the 1 second being left on the clock, I have no idea how there was any time left, but a win is a win. Do I think there was a second left? Do I think Michigan deserved a chance to win at the end? No. I thought the time had expired and I even went about my evening thinking about how this loss was going to affect the football program for the rest of the season. And then the refs put a second back on the clock, Underwood made his only decent pass of the night and JJ Buchannan came down with the ball amongst a crowd of players. The final score ended up being 13-12, instead of the 12-7 I figured it was going to be.

A lot of stuff can be said about this. Maybe Western Michigan should have batted the ball down. Maybe they needed everyone in the secondary. Maybe Michigan should have just blown the doors off of them. Maybe Michigan's defense was tired and that is why they couldn't get off the field in the third quarter. Maybe this appeal from the MAC will give Western Michigan a much deserved win. In the end, where we sit today, September 8th, Western Michigan is 0-1 and Michigan is 1-0. And I have so many, many issues and more worries about this team, the Wolverines, moving forward this season.

First off, the defense is solid. I don't have many issues. I was frustrated that they couldn't get off the field in the third quarter. And then my dad said to me that he was certain they were tired because they had been playing more than 70 percent of the game. I thought the d line did an okay job rushing the passer and stopping the run. Western Michigan didn't have too many explosive plays, even though that is not the type of offense they run. I thought the defense did bite on too many play action plays and that the secondary was playing way too far off of Western Michigan's wideouts. But, when you only give up 12 points, with zero touchdowns scored, I think the defense did their job.

This Wolverine offense though, boy oh boy does it look pretty bad. I don't really know what I expected, especially with an entirely new offensive staff for the most part, but this was not what I wanted to see. This was an offense that was anemic, timid, couldn't establish the line of scrimmage, made poor choices and got far too many penalties. They looked frightened and very under prepared. The majority of the blame goes to the coaches, but the players bear some of the brunt as well. I had, and maybe still have a little, hope for Bryce Underwood, but he looked like he took a massive stepback. He made poor decision after poor decision. There was a moment late in the game where he could have easily ran for a first down on third down, but instead he decided to throw the ball to a wideout being covered by four players. He threw a horrendous interception late in the first half that set up a field goal for Western Michigan. He fumbled the ball running late in the fourth quarter when Michigan was down one point. He made poor throws most of the night, and I take zero stock in the fact that he made one nice throw all night long. The running game, which is supposed to be the bread and butter, looked rough. Jordan Marshall looked timid and tried to jump cut far too often. Last season he would run a dude over if they were in his way. Saturday night he looked like he was more interested in juking someone. Savion Hiter didn't get a decent block all night, and when he would get going, he looked like a freshman, taking bad cuts or being taken down with ease by one tackler. Bryson Kuzdal got two carries all night, and while he had the best run of any of the backs, it was called back due to an unnecessary holding penalty. The receivers couldn't get much separation, they looked slow out of the gates and Andrew Marsh, who I adore, made some uncommon mistakes by simply just taking his eyes off the ball. And the o line was not good at all. They couldn't establish themselves all night long. They struggled to open running lanes and protect the QB.  The o line looked as bad as I have seen them play in a long, long time.

And the coaching staff really struggled. I had much higher hopes for this staff. I praised them as the saviors. They are supposed to turn this program back into a national power. They shouldn't need the refs to bail them out.

I don't know what is going to come from this game and from this team all year, but my expectations have drastically fallen off. Oklahoma is going to crush them this weekend. I said during my college football preview that I felt like Michigan's ceiling was 10 wins and the floor was 7. I'm struggling to find 6 wins with this squad now. They have one of the harder schedules in all of college football, and if the offense is going to be this bad all year, they may not win 4 games.

I'm going to root for Michigan like I always do. My fandom will never die for this football team. I love them. But I feel like we are going to be in for a long, long season, and maybe there will be some massive changes next year if this isn't figured out. Props to Western Michigan for how well prepared they were on Saturday night, and for how well they played. And I'm more nervous than usual for Michigan moving forward. This has the feeling of a tough and long season for the Wolverines. But, as always, Go Blue. 

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

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Better Late Than Never on "Don't Tell Larry"

The other day while I was searching for a movie to watch I came across a recent-ish indie comedy called "Don't Tell Larry". I had never heard of it before, so I watched the trailer attached to the movie. It piqued my interest. I also saw that Ed Begley Jr had a role in it and Patty Guggenheim was the main character. Guggenheim falls into the same territory with me as Johnny Pemberton. I enjoy both of their work, and feel like they should be starring in more content, be it tv shows or movies. So I hit play and sat back for the next 90 minutes and watched.

Right off the bat, I found myself enjoying the movie. It is by no means the best movie in the world. It isn't some kind of breakthrough comedy, but I still found plenty of laughs and had a good time with the movie. The movie stars Guggenheim who is the potential next CEO at a travel agency and she is just biding her time before getting the job. Ed Begley Jr is her superior, and he is about to retire, leaving the door open for Guggenheim to take over. We meet Kenneth Mosely at the beginning of the movie, and he plays Guggenheimn's buddy at the office. We also meet Larry, played by Kiel Kennedy. Larry is a weird dude. He eats raisins with his pencil. He doesn't know much about the business. He is too overzealous and needy. We quickly come to find out that he is Ed Begley Jr's long lost son. And Begley wants to make him the new CEO. Prior to this, Guggenheim throws him a retirement party, but doesn't invite Larry. She gets bad vibes from him. The party goes off without a hitch, but Begley notices and brings up that Larry wasn't there the day after the party. This is where we find out he is his son and that he wants to make him CEO. Guggenheim is obviously upset at this news, and goes off on Begley. It is so bad that she throws a rock at his window and Begley relieves her of her duties. But as she is about to pack up and leave, we hear a scream from Begley's office and we find out he has fallen out of his window to his death.

The movie kind of takes off from here. It turns into a crime caper type movie, but with a ton of jokes peppered throughout everything. It was kind of cool to see a throwback comedy like this. The movie never takes itself seriously. The people involved understood the assignment and they ran with it.  The scene with the drug tester is hilarious. We eventually meet Larry's Nana, played by Paula Rafferty. She doesn't have too many lines in the movie, but when she does speak it serves a purpose and this actor nailed it. We get a whole lot more from Mosley during the second half of the movie and I found him to be the funniest person in the whole thing. Dot-Marie Jones plays the detective that is sent to work on the case in the office, and she is wonderful. The scene between her and Guggenheim near the end is great, until some even crazier stuff happens. But it was Kennedy, playing Larry, who really stole the show. He is so off putting and creepy, but also funny. There were times when I really disliked him, but then would switch to feeling bad for him. The stuff between him and his nana was hilarious. And when Kennedy had to turn the creepy on, in the final act of the movie, he absolutely nailed it. The last image of him I found haunting and hilarious. He really pulled off something very intriguing here. And it was nice to see Guggenheim get to do her thing. She is so funny and easy to watch on screen. I hope this will get her more starring work soon.

In the end, "Don't Tell Larry" is a fun and easy movie to put on and enjoy. I recommend it to comedy fans who want to see something a little off beat, a little different and akin to a throwback comedy from the 80's. I say check it out. 

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

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The Hammer Comes for The Clippers

The NBA has levied their punishment against the Clippers, and boy is it big. The Clippers got crushed in fact. I didn't think they would get in much trouble, but I was very wrong.

For people who may not know, the NBA has been investigating the Clippers for about a year now due to some under the table payments given to former player Kawhi Leonard. Apparently this was a way to circumnavigate the salary cap so the Clippers could keep Kawhi on the team as long as possible, and try to build a title contending team around him.

This is very against the rules. It states in the NBA bylaws that stuff like this, namely circumnavigating the salary cap, is very against policy. The Clippers have denied it, and they are still denying it, but they just got their asses handed to them. The owner of the team, Steve Ballmer, has been suspended for a year. Lawrence Frank, the GM, is suspended for the year. Kawhi's uncle, Uncle Dennis, is banned from NBA activities for life, Kawhi has been given a 700,000 dollar fine and the Clippers have to forfeit five future first round picks.

This is brutal. This is a lot. I don't know that any other professional sports team in America has been levied a fine like this. This is right up there with some of the stuff the NCAA used to do back before NIL and when they actually had some kind of power. The Clippers were already in rebuild mode, and this will definitely speed up the process. They let Paul George walk in free agency a year ago. They traded Ivica Zubac during the season last year. They traded Kawhi before all of this stuff went down. They let Ben Mathurin walk in free agency. They are taking on younger players with boom or bust potential and they look to be in the process of trying stuff out. Now they kind of have to continue this for the next, at the very least, five years.

The fines and suspensions levied against the front office is bad enough, but the picks that are going to hurt the most. You can build through the draft. Teams have won doing that. The Bucks got a title out of drafting Giannis. But they also made trades for guys like Jrue Holiday and Brook Lopez. Those trades involved draft picks. The Lakers have always found a way to get a title, usually through trades. Those trades involve coveted future draft picks. They have also made trades on draft night, when picks are also available to move. The Warriors went on a generational run with a team build through the draft. The draft is important. The draft is where the most research happens. And picks are a known commodity and other teams want that. The Clippers now have zero leverage in any deal they may try to get involved in with another team. Let's say that, maybe next season, the Clippers want to offload guys like Brnadon Ingram, Gradey Dick or Rui Hachumira. They will have no power in any deal. They cannot attach those guys to picks. Other teams won't want to give them any picks either. They will just want to offload bad contracts or unhappy players. And those players will most likely be deep bench guys. How are they going to build around Keaton Wagler and Darius Garland now? They traded James Harden last year and took a big shot on Garland. When Garland plays he has some exceptional talent. But now he is going to have little to no help around him. And if they engage in trade talk, they are not going to be able to bring back any big time players.

I have big feelings that Garland is going to ask out, or when his contract is up, there is no way he is going to stay and re-sign with them. Wagler is an unknown commodity. He has skills, but he has a lot of growth that needs to be shown, and now he won't have as much time as he would have if the Clippers had stayed out of trouble. Brandon Ingram has shown flashes, but he is nowhere near the player people hoped he would be when he was drafted. Gradey Dick has proven nothing to this point. Brook Lopez is old. Bradley Beal is past his prime. Max Strus is always hurt. The Clippers are going to be bad this season, and it is only going to get worse from here. They need Wagler to hit and hit big. But they are not going to have any way of putting a solid, young team around him until he is in his mid 20's. Star players are not going to want to go there until this punishment is up. Any vet that hits is going to ask out. They won't have the benefit of building through the draft until 2032.

This is a mess and one that the Clippers seem not so fit to dig their way out of. This is also going to make other teams become very aware of shady outside dealings and shady family members. Time will tell what this actually makes the Clippers look like. But in the short term, the Clippers are going to be a moribund franchise with no way of getting out of their current state. 

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing, the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast, and the greatest basketball writer on the internet.

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Ty Watches "Mermaid"

I am a fan of Johnny Pemberton. I became a fan when I first saw him on "Superstore". He played Bo, Cheyenne's boyfriend then husband, and his character cracked me up. He was silly and made tons of jokes. I then saw he was cast in "Fallout". I like that show as well, and he is just as funny as he is in his other work. He brings comedic elements to a show that can be pretty intense from time to time. He has popped up in other stuff here and there, but it is usually just a small comedic thing. Then I listened to him on a bunch of recent podcast appearances and he kept talking about his new movie, "Mermaid".

I heard “Mermaid” described as a horror/comedy. When Pemberton was talking about the movie during these appearances, I could not glean how much he was going to be in it. Well, the other day I noticed that it was streaming for free on Prime, so I decided to watch.

Pemberton is the main character in this movie. He is the star and he drives the whole thing. First off, that made me happy. I feel like he has been around long enough, paid his dues and was bound to get a leading role sooner or later. But he is playing a totally different character here. Pemberton plays Doug, a divorced dad of one who gets fired from his job as a fish tank cleaner and is addicted to pills. And while there are some comedic elements in this movie and this role, Pemberton plays this character very quietly and makes him very odd. That is the consensus of all of the people who spend time with him in this movie. They are constantly asking him if he is okay or if something is wrong.

The first 45 minutes of this movie give us Doug's backstory after he gets fired. We see him spending time with his daughter, getting into a fight with his ex, drinking beers and taking pills. Then one of his dealers and his crony show up at his house trying to get paid. This is where Robert Patrick comes into play. He is the dealer and he is a bad, bad dude. After they rough up Doug, Patrick pours bleach into his fish tank. This really upsets Doug, as fish are the only thing he communicates with on a regular basis. From here on out the movie takes us on a wild ride.

Doug is in the process of trying to kill himself, and then he chances upon a mermaid in the ocean. We see this mermaid during the first scene of the movie, a chance encounter with Tom Arnold. Doug takes the mermaid into his home, it is injured, and he starts to care for it. The movie then kind of starts to go nuts when the mermaid shows up and has a starring role next to Pemberton. This mermaid is very scary looking. It's not like most mermaids we get to see on screen. The usual mermaids we see are beautiful, with great voices and a heart of gold. This mermaid is terrifying. The mermaid has super sharp teeth, its body looks like it has been mutated, the fin and tail look normal-ish, but the rest of the mermaid looks scary. I like that they go to these lengths to make this mermaid look different. And the relationship between Doug and the mermaid is well done here. Doug takes proper care of her and truly cares for her. But it is the stuff they add on here that makes this wild. The puking, the birthday party scene, the montage of them hanging out, it is crazy. We then have an auction in the final plot point of the movie. This is where the movie officially goes off the rails. It is truly nuts.

This movie was hit and miss for me. There was some stuff that I truly liked. As mentioned before, I thought Pemberton did a really good job with this role. He gets to do something different and he really goes for it here. I liked the design of the mermaid. I thought Tom Arnold had a great scene. I liked Kevin Nealon as well as his relationship with Doug's ex and his daughter. Robert Patrick plays a superb villain as well. But there was some other stuff that I just couldn't get into. I thought Kirk Fox was underutilized. Sometimes the movie got gross just to be gross. There was about 15 to 20 minutes that they could have easily cut out of the movie to make it a clean 90 minutes. And I wanted to see more with the other sea creature that came to help, or maybe hurt the mermaid and Pemberton. It kind of felt uneven. But my favorite thing in this whole movie was the opening credits had some writing on the screen that read, "this is my love letter to Florida". And Kevin Nunn goes out on a banger of a line, that you have to see because it rules.

"Mermaid" was fine, but I don't think I'll ever watch it again. And I'm glad that Pemberton is getting more work. I just read that he is going to be in another horror movie coming out sometime in the near future. Give it a watch if you're curious. That is my glowing recommendation for "Mermaid". 

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

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R.I.P. Tim Curry

Last week Tim Curry passed away. This one was almost as big a bummer to me as Dolly Parton's passing. Tim Curry left more of an impact on me than I realized.

After he passed I went and checked out all of his work online just to refresh my memory. He was in a ton of movies that I watched over and over again. The movie that I have gone back to time and again is "The Rocky Horror Picture Show". Dr Frankenfurter left an indelible mark on me. "Rocky Horror" was the first time I saw a musical and loved it. The music is second to none in that movie, but it was Dr Frankenfurter that I put most of my attention towards. That performance was truly unique and one of a kind. Every time I watch that movie I find something new that reminds me of how wonderful a performance Curry gave in that movie. That is probably his most iconic character he has ever played.

Pennywise from the original "It" has also stayed with me for other reasons. I used to adore clowns. They were my jam as a kid. When I was younger I even went as a clown for Halloween one year. Then my brothers showed me "It" and it changed me, for the worse. I have a fear of clowns to this day because of that movie. There are only a few that I can tolerate, Krusty is probably it to be honest with you. but Curry's performance here as Pennywise put a permanent fear in me too. He was so creepy and so scary. I still get spooked out whenever I see red balloons floating in the air. I cannot hear the phrase, "we all float down here" without picturing Curry as Pennywise.

But it didn't stop with those two characters. The "Scary Movie" franchise used to be a funny enough spoof series of movies. I enjoyed the first one, so of course I saw the second one in theaters. Tim Curry gives a hilarious performance here. Sure, Chris Elliot and David Cross do the brunt of the comedy, but it is Curry's straight man that makes me laugh harder with each rewatch. There is a scene where Cross and Elliot are going back and forth, ribbing one another, and Curry is there smiling and trying his hardest not to laugh. It is small, but I still think about it to this day. More recently,

RD had me watch the movie "Legend" for one of our Patreon shows. While the movie didn't do much for me, Curry played the Devil and he crushed it. When he was on screen in this movie I could not take my eyes off of him. He was scary and mean and loud and did some really solid work as the villain. "Legend" was kind of dull, but when Curry showed up, the movie sprang to life.

I can remember seeing the movie "Congo" in theaters as a kid. When I went to see it back then, I only remembered a lady saying, "this movie is so startling, I cannot even eat my Twizzlers". My friends and I dined on that quote for years. But I rewatched it during the lockdowns during the pandemic, and while it is not good, Curry is decent. He always brought the heat whenever he was cast in a movie. Even something that should have been great, like "Congo", but it doesn't live up to the hype, Curry makes his time on screen worth watching.

I will never, ever forget my first time seeing "Clue". That movie rules. I actually think it is kind of underrated. The fact that they took a board game and turned it into one of the best movies to come out in the 90's is a feat all its own. And Curry gives us yet another great performance as the butler. He is funny and sarcastic. He is great at being the straight man in these heavily comedic movies. He just nailed it in this movie, like he usually does.

A few other movies come to mind when thinking of Tim Curry. He's exceptional in "The Hunt for Red October". He lent his iconic voice to tons of cartoons and kids shows. He is the absolute best part of "Home Alone 2". I thought he was excellent, again playing a butler-esque character. My wife has been a fan of his ever since she saw him in "Muppets Treasure Island". She has always been a muppets fan, and I bet if I asked her, she would probably rank his performance in a muppets movie right up there with Michael Caine and Charles Grodin.

As he got older he stopped acting and got pretty sick. He was wheelchair bound not too long after he got sick, but he still went out there and gave interviews. He was an icon that kept going as long as he could. I watched an interview of his from a few years back where he talked about death and his feelings towards it. He was in his wheelchair and it was a very profound and enlightening interview. I was moved when I saw it.

It stinks that Dolly Parton and Tim Curry both passed just mere hours between one another. I hope wherever they are right now they are hanging out and having a laugh together. And wherever Tim Curry is right now, I hope he is singing some tunes from "Muppets Treasure Island" or "Rocky Horror". Rest In Peace. 

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

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R.I.P. Dolly Parton

Last week we lost two icons. I will be taking the next two days to write about them.

The first one that passed away was Dolly Parton. I was sitting down on my couch and my wife texted me to let me know. I didn't believe her at first. I had just read something that Parton had written about how she was sick, but she was going to fight it as long as she could. This was only a few days before her passing. Then I got the text and checked it out and found out it was real. Dolly Parton was officially gone.

This is such a bummer. Not only was Parton an icon. She did so many wonderful things in the world of country music and acting. "I Will Always Love You" is one of the greatest songs ever written. It is so beautiful, meaningful and elegant. "Jolene" is one of the best songs ever written about a scorned lover. "9 to 5" is fun and upbeat and so easy to sing along with. I could go on and on about her music. She was such an exceptional writer, she could play the hell out of a guitar and her voice was so ironically her own. No one else out there sounds like she did.

As far as acting, the first thing I saw her in was "9 to 5". She is more than up to the task with the other great performers in that movie. When she arrives on screen, she fully takes the whole movie over. It is all hers from there on out. "Rhinestone" is a terrible movie, but not because of her. She gives it her all and she tries everything she can to save that sorry excuse for a movie. She lent her voice to so many kids shows and cartoons. She had that voice that is instantly recognizable and she used it for some great work. She also did her own music videos, as well as appearing in tons of other artists, artists who idolized her, videos. She also had a theme park in her name, Dollywood. And she gave as much back to the community as possible.

And, as I mentioned before, she was so much more than just a musical artist and actor. She was a humanitarian. She tried and gave to any kind of non for profit or charity that she believed in. She was instrumental in helping get the Covid vaccine out there and running when it was needed most. She championed other artists. My brother showed me a letter that she wrote to Eminem years back and it was amazing to see how polite and kind she could be in a letter. She wanted equality for everyone. I read that she got into a Dolly Parton lookalike contest and was beat out by a drag queen. She cheered and was so happy for that person. She didn't begrudge them or say bad things, she was happy and made sure that the winner knew how happy she was. She would appear on talk shows and make jokes at her expense and others. I love the "Letterman" clip that has resurfaced online as of late where she mentions that people don't "recognize that she also has a great ass".

Dolly Parton never let the fame get to her head. She always knew and remembered where she came from. She never stopped working hard. That is what those close to her have been saying lately. She worked all the way up to her final days. She wanted people to be happy with what she did and did as much as she could. I've also read that she has a ton of unreleased music she was working on prior to her death, and that her estate is more than likely to release it when they feel ready. I cannot wait to hear it. I have been going back and watching some of her older clips too, and she was the same when she was young and new on the scene. She was always happy and bouncy and fun when she was on the tv or on a movie screen. She never let that die. She always had an upbeat spirit that was infectious in the best way possible. She was loved the world over. No one has come out and said anything bad about her or tried to take her down a peg since her passing. She was one of the few people that crossed borders and was loved by everyone she came in contact with, or was a fan of hers. It felt like she had so much more left to give. She was taken far too soon. She was only 80. She seemed like she was ready to fight the cancer, or whatever illness took her.

This one stinks. This one hurts. Dolly Parton was a big part of my life, but also hundreds of millions of other people. My niece, who is in her early 20's, is just as devastated by this as me, my wife and my folks. Dolly Parton is going to be severely missed. I wish she were still here. At least she is with her husband wherever she may be right now. I hope she is jamming with other music legends wherever she is now as well.

Rest In Peace Dolly Parton. Gone way too soon and you will be sorely, sorely missed. 

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

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Ty's 2026 College Football Preview

Wrapping up my two weeks of football, today I come to you all with my 2026 NCAA football preview and predictions.

College football is kind of messed up right now. I'm all for players getting paid for their name, image and likeness being used. They deserve as much. But NIL and the transfer portal are in a bad place right now. There have got to be some rules installed and reinforced or else it will only get worse. The fact that players who signed pro contracts, practiced and participated in professional games, and are trying to come back to college football, that's a massive issue that needs to change asap. But that's another topic for another day.

For my college football preview I will go through the major conferences, name a few group of five teams I like and a few surprises. I'll pick my title game, the top 12 teams that will make the playoff, and my Heisman winner. Let us tarry no further.

I'll start with the Big 12. The Big 12, much like most of college football, has a bunch of teams that were a parts of different conferences years ago. A bunch of the mainstays are gone and now they have teams like BYU, Arizona and Arizona State to name a few. ASU is good and has a solid coach. They'll be competitive. Arizona should be solid as well. Iowa State's coach left, as did most of the roster. Kansas is back to being mediocre at best. UCF is stuck in the mud. Houston has a five star freshman playing QB, and that will be fun to watch. West Virginia and Colorado are not going to be very good. Kansas State and Oklahoma State are looking like they are going to be much, much better than they were last season. Cincinnati and Baylor, while having some decent players, will be middling as well. This conference comes down to Utah, BYU and Texas Tech. Utah has a fun offense, but they have an entirely new coaching staff. Devon Dampier is awesome. BYU has a very good offense and a solid defense. They need to win when it matters most though. Texas Tech looks like the team to beat. They were in the playoffs last season, they returned some good players and they got another solid QB in the portal. BYU and Utah will make it tough, but I'm going with Texas Tech to win the Big 12.

Now to the ACC. The ACC has a ton of teams, but most are middling to bad. Wake Forest needs to figure some stuff out. They are stuck in the mud. Boston College has a magnitude of issues they need to figure out. Syracuse started super strong last year, but they really fell on their faces when their QB got hurt. Duke somehow won the conference title game last year, but the important guys from that team have moved on. Virginia has reloaded their roster and they could make some noise. Virginia Tech hired James Franklin, and while I love that decision, he needs a little more time to fully turn it around. North Carolina has to deal with Bill Belichek's ego. NC State will be a headache to play, but that won't amount to a ton. Stanford and Georgia Tech have to rebuild rosters. Louisville could be a sleeper in the conference. Florida State and Clemson's best days look like they're behind them. Pittsburgh will be a thorn in opponents sides. And California has a true threat at QB. But Miami is the team to beat in the ACC. They were in the title game last year, and while some of their best players left for the pros, they still have a ton of talent on the roster and they got the top QB in the transfer portal. Miami is going to be a true title threat again this season.

Let's move on to the SEC. The SEC is loaded. Vanderbilt has a new five star freshman coming in at QB. He is one of their highest rated recruits ever and he is going to get every opportunity to prove his worth. South Carolina has Lanoris Sellers and Nyck Harbor. They need to perform better, but damn those two dudes are great. Alabama has a new starter at QB, but Keelon Russell seems like he is wise beyond his years. Oklahoma has tons of talent and veteran talent on the roster. They should be highly competitive this season. Auburn has a new coach and a new roster. They have to figure some stuff out, but they look to be on the right path. Tennessee will have an explosive offense and a middling defense. Texas A&M has a great recruiting class coming in, and Mike Elko has been a superb hire as head coach. Ole Miss could be a surprise title contender. They have the best QB and running back in the country in their backfield. Mississippi State has to rebuild. Florida is in the same boat. Arkansas and Kentucky are going to be at or near the bottom of the conference. Missouri is going to be way more competitive than people are saying. Then we have Georgia, LSU and Texas. Georgia has the best coach in the conference and, probably, the best defense. LSU has a plethora of top end talent from the transfer portal. Their offense should be wildly explosive. And Texas has a great offense, an even better defense and they struck gold when Cam Coleman committed to them out of the portal. I'm going with Texas to win the SEC, but I will be watching Ole Miss and Georgia very closely all season long.

Now for the conference I watch most, the Big 10. Purdue is in full rebuild mode, but Barry Odom is a good coach and he is well equipped to handle a project like this. Rutgers is going to be an annoying opponent, but that won't make much of a difference in the win column for them. Northwestern is breaking in a new QB, but they always punch above their class and they play their butts off in every game. Wisconsin is in a world of struggle right now. I believed in Luke Fickell, but he is really struggling to put together a competent and competitive team. This may be his last shot as their head coach this season. Michigan State has a new coach and a relatively new roster. This rebuild will take time, but Pat Fitzgerald is no stranger to taking over a struggling program and turning them into a formidable squad. Minnesota has a great coach and a very good QB. They will play ferocious defense and the QB has first round talent. Illinois has become a very solid team and they play hard every week. They love their coach, even if he is a blowhard, and that shows with how they play on the field. Penn State has a new coach and a bunch of new players, but Matt Campbell turned Iowa State into a winner, and he has way more resources in Happy Valley. UCLA brought in the head coach from James Madison, and that worked out pretty well for Indiana. They also have a great QB, and that is always a good thing for a team trying to make a come up. Washington is very good, they have a solid offense and defense and a great home field advantage. USC has one of their more talented rosters since they joined the Big 10, and they should make some noise this season. I expect them to be very good. Nebraska has to replace their five star QB, but they do have a solid run game and an okay defense. Maryland seems stuck in some kind of mud, but they have an easy schedule. Iowa will run the ball well, play great defense, but they still need to find a capable starting QB. The university of Ohio State has some dudes to replace, but they still have a top tier QB, the best wideout in college football and an awesome, all world defense. Indiana is somehow still being slept on even though they just won it all last season. They have another great, veteran laden roster, the best coach for modern college football and another relatively easy schedule. I fully believe Oregon is the best team coming into the season. Their offense is absolutely loaded, they have the best QB prospect on their roster, their defense is one of the best they've had and they have a top tier coach. And then there's Michigan. As you all know, this is my favorite team of all time. They have a new coach, which I'm happy about, but they also have a very hard schedule and a bunch of unproven players. I hope Bryce Underwood shows some serious growth this year. I'm excited about Jordan Marshall and Savio Hiter, they just need to stay on the field. Andrew Marsh is awesome and I was stoked he didn't transfer out. The o line is an area of concern for me. I hope they figure it out. The d line should be one of the best in the nation. The linebacker corps concerns me as much as the o line. The secondary should be very good too. Michigan is in a peculiar spot this year. They got the type of coach they needed after the Harbaugh era. But that schedule is a beast. I say their ceiling is 10 wins and the floor is 7. I bet they win 8 games in the end. As for the winner of the Big 10, I'm going with Oregon.

Notre Dame is going to be very good this season. Yes, both of their running backs left for the pros, but they still have a top tier QB, great wideouts and a wonderful defense. Boise State should be in the playoff conversation all year. They may run the table. UNLV is going to have a wildly explosive offense, and they can definitely challenge Boise State as the group of five playoff representatives.

As far as the playoff teams go, from 12-1 I'm going with UNLV, Oklahoma, LSU, Notre Dame, Texas Tech, Indiana, Ole Miss, Georgia, Miami, the university of Ohio State, Texas and Oregon. The title game will have Ole Miss playing Oregon and I have Oregon winning it all. The time has come for them to finally live up to preseason expectations. As for the Heisman winner, I'm going with Dante Moore. He is primed for the award.

Okay that is all of my preseason football previews for the upcoming year. Take it with a grain of salt. Enjoy week zero. Football is upon us, everyone. 

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

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Ty's 2026 NFL Preview: Postseason and Awards

Welcome to the final day of my preseason NFL preview and predictions. Today I have the playoff and award predictions coming your way. We will wrap up the week tomorrow with my college football preview. But today is the last day for the NFL. Seven teams make the playoff from each conference. I'll rank them from 7-1, pick the winners of each until we get to the Super Bowl. There will be a few words about each matchup as well. And I will end it all with my award predictions. Let's get to it.

I'll start with the AFC.

In the AFC East I'm riding with the Bills. They are the best team in that division. The Patriots will be their main competitor, but the Bills are the clear cut favorites to me. The Jets and Dolphins will most likely be a non factor. The AFC North is going to be a true fight. This is one of the better divisions in all of football. They will most likely get two teams in the playoffs this year. The Bengals and Ravens are the top two teams. I'm going to go with the Ravens due to injury concerns I have with the Bengals. The Steelers are going to regress big time, and the Browns are going to be awful. I do think the Ravens will win the North, but the Bengals will also be in the playoffs. The AFC South is ripe for the Texans to take the crown. The Colts are going to take a big step back. The Titans are getting better, but they are still a few years away. And the Jags let their top running back walk out of the door. The Texans should walk with this division. The AFC West is another division that will be a fight to win. The Chiefs, Chargers and Broncos all have a legit shot at the playoffs. The Raiders are going nowhere fast. The Chiefs are on their last legs. This is their last shot. The Broncos are good, but Bo Nix is coming off a tough injury. And then we have the Chargers. I think they are the team to take this division this year. This is year three with Harbaugh, the team is in his image and they should have a good season.

As for playoff rankings, from 7-1 I have the Patriots, Broncos, Bengals, Chargers, Ravens, Texans and Bills. The Bills are the one seed and they get the bye. The 4-5 game features the Bengals facing the Chargers. I'll go with the Bengals here simply due to Burrow being better than Herbert. The 3-6 game gives us the Broncos going to Baltimore to face the Ravens. This is where Lamar Jackson will show he is different and put up big numbers. The Ravens will win this game. The 2-7 game gives us the Patriots playing the Texans. This game will be a fight, but in the end I think CJ Stroud will make a few more plays and the Texans defense will stifle the Patriots offense. Give me the Texans,

So in round two we will have the Bengals playing the Bills and the Texans playing the Ravens. I'm going with the Bills to beat the Bengals. They have home field, Josh Allen needs to get a signature win and who knows who will be hurt in Cincinnati. As for the Texans and Ravens, I'm going with Baltimore. Lamar Jackson is so good and even better when he plays at home. I think he out duels Stroud and makes a big play to seal the game.

So that means I have the Bills and Ravens in the AFC title game. The Bills will be going to the Super Bowl to represent the AFC. Both teams will squash some postseason demons this season, but it will be the Bills making the big break and going to the Super Bowl.

On to the NFC.

The NFC East will be competitive, but it may not be the best football to watch. The Eagles, Cowboys, Commanders and Giants all think they have a shot. I think the Eagles are the only team with a real shot. They still have a great offense and a wonderful defense. The Giants are still too far off and need a better QB. The Commanders look like they're going to be a good 9-8 squad, but not good enough to get in the playoffs. And the Cowboys will continue to underwhelm. I'm going with the Eagles here. The NFC North could have three teams in the playoffs. They will have three teams that finish over .500. The Bears are the cream of the crop. They are coming together nicely and they look very good. The Packers will get beat in games they shouldn't, then win games they have no business even being in. That is what they do. The Lions have a ton going for them, but they also rely too heavily on Jared Goff. The Vikings are clearly rebuilding. I'm going to pick the Bears due to talent, but the Packers and Lions will not go quietly into the night. The NFC South is a tire fire. The Panthers represented this division last season, and they were 8-9. They are still good, but not division winning good. The Buccaneers should easily walk away with this division. They have the most talent in the South by a wide margin. I don't trust Tyler Shough as a playoff QB. And the Falcons haven't even settled on a QB just yet. The Bucs are the clear favorites here. The NFC West is going to be a blast to watch. The Seahawks are the reigning champs, and outside of getting a new running back, they are pretty much coming back in full force. The 49ers will compete and play hard, but I still have doubts about their health and Brock Purdy. The Rams were my number 1 team in my rankings, and I think they are on a mission this season. And then we have the Cardinals, who will be very, very bad this year. I'm going to stick with the Rams, but the 49ers and Seahawks will be right on their tail all season long.

As for my playoff teams, again from 7-1 I have the Lions, 49ers, Seahawks, Buccaneers, Eagles, Bears and Rams. The Rams get the bye being the 1 seed. So my 4-5 matchup features the Seahawks facing the Buccaneers. The Seahawks are going to cruise in this game. It could be a blowout. My 3-6 matchup has the 49ers playing the Eagles. This game could be sloppy and messy and feel like it is grinding to a halt. It will be some ugly football. But I'm going to go with the Eagles due to home field advantage and the fact that some important 49ers players will be hurt and miss this game. The 2-7 game will have the Lions playing the Bears. This is an inter division game in the playoffs. I love it. And while the Lions are familiar with the Bears, I still think the Bears will win this game. It will be close, but in the end, Caleb Williams will do something spectacular to win the game.

This gives me the Rams playing the Seahawks and the Bears facing the Eagles. I'm going to stick with Chicago keeping the momentum going in their game. They have home field advantage, and knowing the Eagles, they will probably be at each other's throats by this time of the season. The Rams and Seahawks may be the best game throughout all of the playoffs. These two teams will fight all the way to the end, but I see the Rams winning on a late field goal.

My NFC title game has the Bears playing the Rams. The Bears are coming, but they are not at the Rams level just yet. The Rams are loaded with vets and really good players. The Bears have good players, but they don't have the experience just yet. I'm going with the Rams to represent the NFC in the Super Bowl.

That means I have the Bills and Rams playing in the Super Bowl and I'm going to stick with my preseason pick throughout all of this, the Rams. This team is tailor made to win it all this year and I believe they will do just that. And Matthew Stafford will most likely go out with the Super Bowl MVP.

As for my regular season awards, I'm going to do the important ones for me. MVP will go to Joe Burrow. I think he is going to put up insane numbers. As for Offensive Player of the Year, I'll take Ja'Marr Chase. Someone has to catch those passes and put the ball in the endzone. That person is Chase. Defensive Player of the Year will be Myles Garrett. He has a new team and a newfound love for this game. And he will finally be playing important football past November this season. Coach of the Year is going to Jesse Minter. He is going to keep the Ravens relevant. Hell, they may even look more explosive. Offensive Rookie of the Year will be Jeremiyah Love. While the Cardinals are going to be pretty awful, Love will be the reason to watch them. He is going to get to showcase all of his talents. And my final award, Defensive Rookie of the Year will be Ruben Bain Jr. I cannot wait to watch him wreck backfields all season long and watch him make the teams that passed on him in the draft regret that decision. He is going to be great.

That's it for my 2026 NFL preseason countdown and predictions. Do with this what you will and I cannot wait for the season to start. 

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

Come and support Ty and the podcast on Patreon.

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Ty's 2026 NFL Preview: "Once in a Lifetime" Division

Welcome to the final day of my preseason NFL countdown. These are the four teams that I think are the best going into the season. These are the true title contenders.

At number 4 I have the Baltimore Ravens. This feels like it is it for this team. This is the season they either announce themselves as a true threat, or if they're just paper champions. They moved on from John Harbaugh and brought in Jesse Minter. He is like a younger Harbaugh, and he even coached with his brother for a good long time. Minter looks ready and I'm excited to see how he performs as a head coach. Lamar Jackson is the best modern day QB in my opinion. He can do it all and he has the hardware to prove it. He just needs to do it in the playoffs now. He has shown what he is capable of in the regular season, now that needs to shift to the important time of year. I fully believe he can do that. Derrick Henry is awesome. He is still highly productive and a load to tackle. He has made the best run game in the NFL that much better. He is such a great compliment to Jackson in the backfield and he continues to be a great player. Zay Flowers has shown some nice flashes. He has very good hands and he is fast. Rashod Bateman hasn't fully popped off just yet. He needs to show something this year or they may move on from him. Jakobi Meyers made a good choice in coming here, but he needs to show that he is more than just a guy who has one or two good games a year. Mark Andrews has had some issues with dropping the ball, but he is still pretty darn good and Lamar Jackson trusts him. The Ravens need better wideouts, but Jackson can mask some of those problems. The o line is right up there with the Lions. They're mean and nasty and very good. The defense has always been the calling card here, but they need to be better this year. I like that they are bringing in Calais Campbell. He can still produce. Roquan Smith is such a steady hand at linebacker. He is a tackling machine. Kyle Hamilton is a ball hawking safety that loves to hit and Marlon Humphrey is a very solid cover guy. They need to play a bit better to be super dominant, and with Minter at the helm I think they can take it up a notch. The Ravens will be very good during the regular season, but they need to win when it matters. I think they can do that this year and I fully believe they can make a push to the Super Bowl.

At number 3 I have the Buffalo Bills. They're very similar to the Ravens. They have a new coach and they have a roster that is on its last legs as a super competitive team. Josh Allen is great. He is a true franchise QB. He makes some wild plays that still surprise me. He is very, very good. I feel like James Cook is one of the more underrated running backs in the league. He is so quiet about what he does, but what he does is rush for 1,000 yards a season, a handful of TDs and has decent hands out of the backfield. Khalil Shakir announced himself as a solid number 1 wideout on this team. He is already good and he should only improve from here. DJ Moore came over from Chicago, and he is a nice, shifty slow receiver for this team. Keon Coleman needs to show some improvement this year. Dalton Kincaid is a very good tight end and the o line is pretty darn good. This defense is ferocious. Ed Oliver is still a very productive d lineman. Greg Rousseau is great off the edge. Bradley Chubb is still a very productive linebacker. CJ Gardener Johnson and Damar Hamlin are very solid secondary players. The Bills have a great QB and a very good defense. They also have one of the best home field advantages in all of football. They should make a deep playoff run, and maybe they can finally break through and find themselves representing the AFC in the Super Bowl.

At number 2 I have the reigning champs, the Seattle Seahawks. They didn't have to change too much this offseason to still be a true title threat in the NFC. Sam Darnold has proven himself to be one of the best game managers in all of football. He showed that he can make plays when he needs to, and he has shed the bust label he may have gotten a few seasons back. Kenneth Walker is gone, and that will hurt. Zach Charbonnet is still nursing his injury and will miss some time to start the year. Jadarian Price will start out the year as the feature back, and I'm curious to see how he performs. Jaxson Smith-Njigba is great. He is steadily climbing the ranks as one of the best wideouts in the game. He is awesome. Cooper Kupp proved he still has something left in the tank last year. Rashid Shaheed might be the fastest player in the NFL, and he had a chance to make some humongous plays in the Super Bowl last year. AJ Barner is proving to be a solid tight end. The o line is great. They open up plenty of running lanes and can pass block very well. This defense is amazing. Leonard Williams and Demarcus Lawrence are menacing coming off the edge. Ernest Jones IV is a very good linebacker. This secondary is one of the best in the league. Devon Witherspoon is one of the best cover guys in the league. Nick Emmanwori is a great nickel corner. And they are taking a chance on Trevon Diggs, who is an interception machine at times. The Seahawks have all the ability to repeat as champs. They have all the players in the right spot and they have a great coaching staff. They also have the best home field advantage in all of football. The Seahawks are going to be very good for a decent amount of time.

And at number 1 I have the Los Angeles Rams. They have it all. Truly. They have a great offense, a defense that is about to get way better and the best coach in football. Sean McVay is truly a football genius. Matthew Stafford is coming off an MVP season and he just continues to put up very good numbers. Kyren Williams and Blake Corum are going to make for a very formidable 1-2 punch in the backfield. Davante Adams is a touchdown machine. He is always open in the end zone. Puka Nacua has some off field stuff he needs to deal with, but when he is on the field he is productive as hell. Cody Parkinson is a capable tight end and this o line is very, very good. This defense is on the precipice of bringing back Aaron Donald, and they traded for Myles Garrett this offseason. Garrett is the best edge rusher, by a million miles, in all of football and he will actually be playing important football later this season. I cannot wait to see how he performs this year. I'm almost certain that Donald will sign soon, and when he does, he and Garrett will be as dominant a d line duo as we have seen in a long, long time. Kam Kinchens is a very good safety. Trent McDuffie is right up there with some of the better secondary players in football. Omar Speights makes tons of tackles and Byron Young is good at tackling and covering backs out of the backfield. This team is loaded from top to bottom and they are, as they should be, the heavy favorites going into this season. If they don't make the Super Bowl I'd say it will be a wasted season.

That's it. That is my preseason countdown for the 2026 season. Come back tomorrow for my playoff and award predictions. 

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

Come and support Ty and the podcast on Patreon.

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SeedSing is funded by a group of awesome people. Join them by donating to SeedSing.

Ty's 2026 NFL Preview: "(Nothing But) Flowers" Division

Welcome to day seven of my preseason NFL countdown. We are inside the top eight and these are the best of the best in my opinion.

Coming in at number 8 I have the Chicago Bears. The Bears look like a true team on the come up. They may have all the tools in place to make a serious run this season. Ben Johnson looks legit and this team has made the right picks in the draft the past couple of seasons. Caleb Williams is legit. The dude can sling the ball. He also has this innate ability to get himself out of trouble and find an open receiver downfield. I think he is on his way to becoming one of the top QBs in the league and he will be a headache to opposing defenses for years to come. D'Andre Swift has proven his prowess to be an every down type of back. He can rush for good yardage and he has nice hands out of the backfield. I fully believe Luther Burden has star potential. He showed some nice stuff last year as a rookie and I think he only continues to get better from here on out. Rome Odunze also has some serious breakout potential. He started a bit slow last season, but he came on strong to close the season out and I bet he parlays that into a nice season this year. Colston Loveland looks legit too. I watched him a ton in college, and it looks like that talent is translating to the pros right now. They had some similar o line issues that the Bengals had when Burrow was first there, but it looks like the front office has shored that up and they are protecting Williams much better now. The defense made some nice strides last season, and they look like they could be even better this year. Montez Sweat is a very good edge rusher. I think they will get a decent version of Devin Bush on a prove it deal. Dillon Thiemann may have been one of the better safeties in the last draft and they snagged him right away. TJ Edwards is also a very solid linebacker. The Bears are in a good spot right now. They have tons of talent and they're still young, so they can only get better from here. It bums me out that they're in the same division as the Packers because it looks like the Bears will be the favorites for a solid amount of time in the near future.

At number 7 I have the Denver Broncos. Boy was I wrong about Bo Nix and Sean Payton. I thought Payton was too old and not willing enough to change his coaching style and update it. He has done that and it. has worked to this point. Nix is coming off a tough injury, but he is tough, can make the throws and can even escape the pocket if he needs to. JK Dobbins just keeps hanging on in this league and continues to put up numbers. He is solid when he is on the field. Courtland Sutton is a capable and reliable wideout. He is carving out a nice spot for himself with this offense. Getting Jaylen Waddle from the Dolphins last season was a humongous boost for the wide receiver room. He is one of the better wideouts in the league. Evan Engram is a very solid tight end and has thrived since leaving Jacksonville. The o line, as is usually the case, is top tier. They do a damn fine job. The defense is full of guys that do their jobs and do them very well. Patrick Surtain is an elite level safety. Nik Bonito is a tackling machine at linebacker. DJ Jones is a good interior d lineman. The Broncos have the goods to be highly competitive in the AFC. I bet if Bo Nix didn't destroy his ankle in the playoffs last season they would have made the Super Bowl. They can get back there, they just need to stay healthy.

At number 6 I have the Houston Texans. The Texans may have the most talented roster in all of football. This team has capable elite players at the most important positions. CJ Stroud may have taken a mild step back last season, but he's too good to not come back strong this season. He has every skill you want in a modern QB. They were able to bring in David Montgomery this offseason and he instantly makes this backfield so much better. He will get the bulk of the work this year and I think the Texans will benefit from that. Nico Collins is a legit number 1 wideout. He has more than proven his worth with this team and they're paying him as they should. Dalton Schultz is the perfect safety blanket for any QB at tight end. And the o line does their job very well. Will Anderson is an absolute freak of nature and he may be one of my new favorite players to watch in all of football. He is so menacing and terrifying coming off the edge. Danielle Hunter is a very awesome compliment at the other edge spot. Sheldon Rankins is a very good interior d lineman. Henry To'oTo'o is incredibly consistent at linebacker. Derek Stingley Jr has become a blanket at corner. Kamari Lasseter has the potential to be a great secondary player. And they have such an awesome coach, who really knows defense in Demeco Ryans. I don't know why they struggled a little last season, but they should more than make up for that this year. They should be in the title conversation all season long.

The final team for the day, coming in at number 5 I have the Los Angeles Chargers. Jim Harbaugh has built this team in his image, it is year three for him and they look like they are more than ready to make the leap. Justin Herbert is awesome. He has shown that he can make all the throws, scramble when needed and is tough as nails. Omarion Hampton is more than ready to take over as the starting running back. He had to wait two seasons, but now it is his time and he will grow from here. Ladd McConkey proved to me he is much better than I thought. Quentin Johnson may drop the ball a bit too much, but he has excellent separation speed and he should do better with less expectations. Bringing in David Njoku was a brilliant move. Harbaugh loves to utilize the tight end position, and Njoku has made himself into a top level tight end in the NFL. The o line, even after suffering an injury to one of their starters a few days ago, is one of the best in the league. They are mean and nasty and big. Jesse Minter left to take over the Ravens, but the defense here should still be really good. Derwin James is so good. He loves contact, is a hard hitter and has a nose for the ball. Tuli Tuipulotu has gotten better every year and I feel like he will become more of a known name this season. Denzel Perryman is mean and loves to hit. Khalil Mack is back again and he is the best kind of vet to have for this defense. Junior Colson has looked good this preseason. And Jamaree Caldwell is going to get every chance to prove himself this season. The Chargers look pretty damn good this season and they are the type of team that wants to grind their opponents down to nothing. This is what Jim Harbaugh does best, and year three is when his teams seem to pop.

That's it for today. Come back tomorrow for my top four teams heading into the season. 

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

Come and support Ty and the podcast on Patreon.

Follow Ty on instagram.

SeedSing is funded by a group of awesome people. Join them by donating to SeedSing.

Ty's 2026 NFL Preview: "Crosseyed and Painless" Division

Hello and welcome back to my preseason NFL countdown. We are on day six and this is the part of the list where the teams get real good. They should all fight for playoff contention, depending on health, and some are legit title contenders.

Coming in at number 12 I have the Cincinnati Bengals. This team has all of the talent in the world, but they can never seem to stay healthy when it matters most, and the head coach crumbles when he is needed most. Joe Burrow is an established franchise QB. The Bengals have done all they could, in the front office, to give him the team he needs to win. Chase Brown has become a very reliable and solid running back. He can also catch the ball out of the backfield too. Ja’Marr Chase is the best wideout in all of football. He runs the best routes, has the best hands, is one of the fastest players in the NFL and he is worth every penny that they're paying him. Tee Higgins is a great number 2 option as well. Mike Gesicki is a decent tight end. And, where the o line used to be the issue, they are now one of the better units in the league. This offense is one of the most elite when they have everyone they need on the field. Burrow has legit MVP talent, Chase is always open and Brown is a upper tier running back. The defense could be an issue. Trey Hendrickson is gone. Jessie Bates was let go in free agency a few years ago. They do still have Dax Hill, and he is a solid safety. They also traded for Dexter Lawrence, who is a very good interior d lineman. They also brought in DJ Turner from LA, and he is going to get every opportunity to start here. The linebacking corps leaves a ton to be desired. The rest of the d line is lacking, outside of Lawrence as well. The Bengals should be a top tier AFC team, but their injury history and head coach scare me a bit too much. I did have them in the Super Bowl in my preseason NFL predictor website I do, but that was with the assumption of good to great health. That also doesn't take into account who the coach is as well. Time will tell, but the Bengals have all the talent to be awesome.

At number 11 I have the Detroit Lions. This feels like the last best shot with this roster and this team. Dan Campbell is a good coach, but he needs to be great. Jared Goff is a very good game manager, but they need him to do a little more for this team to be truly elite and not fumble in the playoffs. Jahmyr Gibbs is awesome. He is such a versatile and amazing running back. They struck gold when they drafted him a few years back, and they made the right pick when they chose Gibbs over David Montgomery, who is still very productive. Amon Ra St Brown is very good. He has been solid and gotten better every season he has been in the NFL. He makes Goff look like a legit franchise QB. Jameson Williams is so fast and has very solid hands. Sam La Porta has been a nice replacement for TJ Hockenson. The o line might be the best in all of football, and they're led by Penei Sewell, who is probably the best tackle in football. The defense is okay, but not elite. Aidan Hutchinson is awesome. He is one of the better edge rushers in the NFL. He also fully came back from his torn ACL and looked like himself last season. Jack Campbell is a tackling machine. And DJ Reed is a decent corner. But they have let some good players go in free agency and they have not replaced them with superstar talent. The Lions should be very competitive. They do play in a very tough division, but this team feels like it is on their last legs. They need to have a good year or they may be making some massive changes next offseason.

At number 10 I have the Green Bay Packers. Jordan Love has been a fine starting QB, but he hasn't blown me away just yet. He can make some nice throws from time to time, but he also makes some wild decisions and throws some wild interceptions. Josh Jacobs is a good running back, even elite, but he has some off field stuff he has to deal with, and he has to deal with it quickly. The wideout corps is filled with number 2 and 3 wideouts. They do not have a true number 1. Christian Watson is good, but not great. Jayden Reed is a fine slot receiver. Matthew Golden is fast, but very small. Tucker Kraft is an okay enough tight end. The o line is always solid, but not as good as they have been in the past. I'm going to miss Rashan Gary. He was so good and I feel he is even underrated. He produced and had managed to stay on the field the past few seasons. They do still have Micah Parsons and he is the best edge rusher in the NFL. But he is also coming off a torn ACL, and it happened late last season. He might miss some extended time to start the season, and that stinks. The secondary is okay, but they tend to give up way too many passing yards and blow leads from time to time. I have no faith in Lukas Van Ness as Gary's replacement. Javonte Wyatt is an okay interior d lineman, but not elite yet. And I do like Edgerrin Cooper at linebacker. The Packers have overperformed the past few seasons, but that has only amounted to early playoff exits. I am curious to see how this season plays out, but I'm not very optimistic as of right now. I hope they prove me wrong again.

The final team for the day, coming in at number 9 I have the Kansas City Chiefs. I do think the Chiefs run is over. It was bad last year, but that was due to injuries. Now they have some off field stuff they have to deal with as well. Patrick Mahomes is a Hall of Fame QB. He has some of the best numbers ever for a QB. He is fun to watch. But he tore his ACL, he is not fully healed yet and he will need some time to fully recover before he comes back. They did bring in Kenneth Walker, and that was a great move by this front office. He is coming off a Super Bowl MVP and he will help take the load off of Mahomes and the wideouts. Xavier Worthy is awesome. He is the fastest player in the NFL and he is going to make plenty of highlight plays this season. Travis Kelce is back, newly married and has put up some nice highlight plays in preseason practice so far. But he should have retired a few years ago. The o line is still very good and constantly gets help from the refs, so they can do whatever they want it seems. George Karlaftis and Chris Jones make for one hell of a pass rushing duo. Those two dudes are legitimately awesome. Nick Bolton is such a solid linebacker. He is so consistent and reliable. L'Jarius Sneed is a solid secondary guy. But they are starting to look a little thin after that. The Chiefs had a great run. This version of the team will go down as one of the best to do it. But time comes for everyone, and that is what it feels like is happening right now. They still have it in them to do one more run, like the Golden State Warriors a few years back. But this is it for this team, and I do think that will make them play above their talent this season.

That's it for today. Come back tomorrow for the next  four teams. 

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

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Ty's 2026 NFL Preview: "Wild Wild Life" Division

Welcome to day five of my preseason NFL countdown. We are finally getting to the teams that should be competitive all season long.

At number 16 I have the Jacksonville Jaguars. Trevor Lawrence, while maybe not living up to the lofty expectations coming out of college, has been a serviceable starter in the NFL. He makes some solid throws, can run a little bit and his timing has gotten better every season. Sometimes you just have to be a little patient with rookie QBs, the Jaguars were, and now they have a guy they can trust behind center. I don't understand why they let Trevor Etienne Jr walk away. He and Lawrence made up for a nice duo in the backfield, and they have tons of camaraderie since they played college football together as well. Bhaysul Tuten is okay, but he was so much better as a backup, to give Etienne some much needed rest. I adore Travis Hunter. I love that he is good enough to play both ways in the NFL. That being said, I think he would be better served as a defensive back primarily, and maybe as a punt returner. They could put some packages for him on offense from time to time, but it feels like they want him to be a full time wideout. I don't know if that is where he thrives most. Brian Thomas Jr is legit. The dude can play. He is fast and has great hands. I also like that they brought in Jakobi Meyers. He's a solid number 2 wideout. The o line is decent as well. Hopefully they continue to protect Lawrence, and maybe they can turn Tuten into a 1,000 yard rusher this year. As for the defense, as mentioned above, I believe this is where Hunter would be best suited. He is so good at tracking the ball and making picks. He is a good tackler. He can cover most receivers. I think corner is his best position by a mile. Travon Walker seems to be figuring some stuff out and is a beast off the edge. Josh Hines-Allen has been the steady hand they need on that defense. I think Jourdan Lewis will help the secondary a ton. This team is going to be hard to pass for a lot of yards against this season. The Jags have some good things in place. They also seemed to have made the right hire for their head coach last year. They seem to be a team on the rise. They're not true contenders just yet, but they are a team that should finish above .500, and they can compete for the division title too.

At number 15 I have the San Francisco 49ers. I don't know what it is about this team, but I just can't get behind them being a Super Bowl contender, which means they'll probably win it all this season. I still don't believe the Brock Purdy hype. His game doesn't blow me away in the least. He is a game manager at best, and maybe that is all they need to win a bunch of games in San Francisco. I also feel like he opts to run far too often. Christian McCaffery is an all time player, but in a surprise to no one, he is hurt yet again. When he is on the field he is a total cheat code. He can do it all from the backfield. But he is too often injured now, and when he does suit up to play, he seems a little timid at the start. Getting Mike Evans was humongous for them. He is a 1,000 yard machine. He made Baker Mayfield look good. I don't know if he will produce like that with Brock Purdy. But if Purdy can get him the ball, he will make things happen after the catch. They brought Deebo Samuel back, they probably needed to with all the Brandon Aiyuk drama that has gone on, and I think he will be much better playing in a familiar system. Samuel is a nice gadget wideout. George Kittle is coming off an injury too. And, aside from Trent Williams, who is an all timer, the o line is not as dominant as years past. The defense should still be decent. I despise Nick Bosa the person, but the dude is a menace off the edge. Fred Warner is the legit best linebacker in all of football. That guy is a blast to watch. Dre Greenlaw is pretty good too. But the secondary has a bunch of new guys, and they have to prove themselves still. The 49ers made it to the divisional round of the playoffs last season, and then proceeded to get their faces stomped in by the Seahawks. The Seahawks and Rams are still in that division, and it is going to be a bloodbath. The 49ers will compete, but nine or ten wins feels like the absolute ceiling for this team.

At number 14 I have the Philadelphia Eagles. This is a team that seems to have drama follow them all the time. I think Jalen Hurts is a fine enough QB. But all that comes with him as your starter seems like a big headache. He is emotionless, which is good at times, but I never know what he is thinking. And the talk from the media out there is almost never positive. Saquon Barkley is one of the few current players that I think is a lock for the Hall of Fame. He is the prototypical 21st century running back. He is so good at everything you want a running back to do. He may be the best offensive player in all of football. AJ Brown is gone, I firmly believe everyone involved in that whole thing is happy, so now Devonta Smith takes over as the number 1 wideout. He is well suited and ready for that spotlight. I also like the Makai Lemon pick. He is going to be a good pro. Dallas Goedert is the perfect security blanket at tight end. And while the o line is still very productive and solid, you could tell they missed Jason Kelce a ton last year. The Eagles defense should be top tier. Jalen Carter is a monster on the d line. He eats up blockers. Jordan Davis may be even bigger. Nolan Smith Jr is finally making some leaps. Jihaad Campbell is a tackling machine. And Cooper Dejean and Quinyon Mitchell make for one of the best duos of corners in the league. The Eagles defense will win them some games this year. The Eagles should win their division and could make a deep-ish playoff run. But the Jalen Hurts and Nick Sirianni off field stuff could become a massive distraction. That being said, the Eagles should win double figure games yet again this year.

The final team for the day, and week for that matter, at number 13 I have the New England Patriots. I don't think there has been a team that competed in the Super Bowl the previous year that I believe in less than this team. Drake Maye is fine, but he is not an all pro. The Patriots didn't win because of him. The defense is what makes this team special. The Seahawks fully exposed all of Maye's flaws in last year's Super Bowl. Treveyon Henderson and Rhamondre Stevenson are going to split carries. This makes a ton of sense to me. They will form a nice 1-2 punch for a team that loves to run the ball. The aforementioned AJ Brown is now on the Patriots, and I bet he is going to miss playing with Jalen Hurts a lot more than he will let on. They also signed Romeo Doubs, and the thing with him, he never really lived up to my expectations when he was with the Packers. Hunter Henry is a solid and dependable tight end. The o line is very good and run blocks with some of the best teams in the NFL. The defense is this team's calling card. This is where they control the game. Christian Baramore is wonderful off the edge. The linebacking corps can tackle and cover guys out of the backfield. Christian Gonzalez is one of the best safeties in all of football. The secondary is young and mean and now experienced after playing in the Super Bowl. But the Patriots feel like a team that is going to take a big step back. Their coach is a sleazebag, I don't believe in Drake Maye and AJ Brown is most likely on the back end of his prime. I still think they will be competitive, but ten wins seems like the best they could hope for this season.

That's it for today and the week. Come back on Monday for my next four teams. We are getting to the true contenders now. 

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

Come and support Ty and the podcast on Patreon.

Follow Ty on instagram.

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