It’s human nature to laugh when you see another human being eat s***. Something primal unlocks in you. You don’t want them to be hurt, of course. But you can’t help but chuckle a little if someone, say, flips over their handlebars and lands on their butt. It can also be funnier if the thing they screw up involves them trying to show off. You’re watching a person attempt something super cool, and they just blow it in the most brutal way possible. But, like, if they nailed it, you would have cheered just as easily as you laughed. I’m talking about the dude from the Savannah Bananas who botched a backflip on CNN.

His name is Robert Anthony Cruz, and he is known as Coach Rac on the Savannah Bananas. The Bananas are a traveling baseball team that is more like the Harlem Globetrotters than the New York Yankees. They play baseball filled with dancing, acrobatics, stilts, and some impressive social media stunts. Retired MLB players and celebrities, such as John Cena, will make surprise appearances. It’s a good time and brings more attention to a game that I love. As does attempting a backflip and landing right on your face.

I was rushing up the main stairs in my Freshman year of high school and fell right at the top, as classes were getting out, and “everyone” saw. There were laughs, but I immediately pumped my fists in the air, as if I had done it on purpose, and was able to control that laughter. People were ready to be on my side because I had owned my mistake. That’s what’s going on with Coach Rac as well. Below, you can watch the video, which he has posted to his own Instagram like a boss.

Ouch! Like, that’s a brutal fail! Still, telling everyone that they “have [his] permission to laugh” is the way to roll with it. Coach Rac even took it a step further by releasing a second video where he discussed the incident, showed off his wounds, and noted that he felt bad for the anchors. “I was pretty confused. My mic pack fell out of my pocket, my shoe flew off of my foot. I don’t even know how that happened. I feel bad for the news anchors because they just sat there like, Ok, we’re not supposed to laugh, but oh my gosh, that was funny,” Cruz told his fans in the video. “They just had to carry on.”

I was familiar with the Savannah Bananas, but Coach Rac has turned me into a fan. He could have easily tried to pretend this whole thing didn’t happen! Instead, he’s leaning in and making the most of his moment. May every backflip he hits going forward get the recognition it deserves.

There’s fame in the NBA, and then there’s Stephen Curry. The four-time NBA Champion went from a Warriors point guard who can shoot the 3-ball like no one else to an international icon overnight. The Chef is more than just a basketball superstar. He’s transcended the sport.

Curry’s success on the court changed the way the game is played in the NBA. He ascended to near god-tier levels by going viral nonstop for in-game moments or practice time trick shots. Winning a gold medal for Team USA in 2024 only grew his basketball career even further.

But the fact that he’s also a loving husband and a terrific father, who gives back to the community and stays out of trouble, only helps his public image. Steph currently has 58 million followers on Instagram, making him one of the most followed athletes in the world.

And with that amount of fame comes the end to your privacy. Curry was asked during an interview on Complex about the negatives of this, and how he was once compared to the King of Pop, Michael Jackson.

“Spooky T tells me you’re like Michael Jackson. I’m sure that feels good, but some points it has to be like a logistical nightmare?” asked host Speedy Morman. “It is,” responded Curry, who broke down the lengths he has to go to just to do something simple, like go to dinner.

“And then you don’t want to overcomplicate something simple. Like, ‘Hey, we just want to go to dinner in an hour, and I got to make like 7 phone calls just to make sure I can get where I need to go.’ I do hate that part,” admitted Steph.

It’s something that people without Steph’s level of fame take for granted. Someone will claim that “it must be so cool” to be that well recognized, but forget that your entire life changes in a flash. Curry later said that he doesn’t take for granted how much he is loved, but acknowledged that his life has been entirely different ever since.

That being said, a comparison to Michael Jackson? The now deceased musician’s fame wasn’t just a cultural movement; it was a near-religious experience. MJ’s stardom could never be replicated, for better or for worse.

This also isn’t the first time The Chef has opened up about his life being forever altered because of his success. Back in 2019, he told The Athletic that the first time he was ever bombarded was one of the worst experiences of his life.

“One of the worst experiences of my life. Getting bothered left and right from the time we showed up at the airport to the time we got to the house in Charlotte. That was probably when it was like, OK, this is crazy. And, yeah, it’s got even crazier from there.”

It wasn’t just Curry saying this either. Curry’s old teammate, Shaun Livingston, was involved in the same interview and had this to say: “He’s an A-list celebrity. A-plus. Another tier. Think of the hottest movie star. It’s probably even more than that.”

“It’s uncomfortable at times, for sure. Because I’m not that important. I’m not,” added Curry, whose tone probably couldn’t have been truly known due to the interview being in print.

Steph has arguably only gotten more famous since then, too. However, with time comes experience. The future Hall of Famer may not like certain aspects of his life, but he’s gotten used to the hecticness by this point.

However, few probably handled it with the humility and cool demeanor that Steph has. He truly is one of the rare examples of someone who deserves everything he got. The NBA will be a much quieter place without the magical noise that Curry creates.

Dexerto – LeBron James has sent a Cease & Desist letter to an AI company that went viral for its ability to make “brainrot” videos of the NBA star.

Throughout most of 2025, TikTok videos showing an AI version of Lebron James took over the FYP of millions of users on the app.
One video posted in February shows James as a mermaid, swimming through the ocean to the tune of ‘Under the Sea’ from The Little Mermaid. The viral videos quickly gained the NBA star’s attention, prompting him to take legal action in order to keep them from using his likeness in AI videos.

According to 404Media, users on the Interlink AI Discord server were actively learning how to create AI videos of LeBron James that they could post on TikTok – with many of them going viral after doing so.

However, in late June, mods told members that they decided to remove all “realistic people models” from the AI platform.

“This change comes after we ran into legal issues involving a highly valued basketball player, and to avoid any further complications, we’ve chosen to take a proactive approach and fully remove all realistic likenesses from the site,” one mod said in a Discord post.

The publication confirmed with Jason Stacks, the founder of Interlink AI’s parent company, FlickUp, that the basketball player in question was in fact LeBron James. He also shared the news in a post on Instagram.

I’m going to slap a big ol’ ALLEGEDLY on this entire blog. Seeing that LeBron James is actively sending cease & desists to some random internet company who’s posting AI slop, I’m not trying to get Barstool caught up in Non-Pregnant LeBron James ALLEGED crusade against Pregnant LeBron James videos. Pregnant LeBron James videos that I will NOT be posting here, because I’m told those can get us sued. But trust me… they are not hard to find.

God damn it LeBron. I’m as big of a LeBron James defender as it gets. In my own head at least. I suppose I’m not out in the internet trenches replying to every @LeMickeyMouseJames troll bot on Twitter like a truly dedicated Bronsexual. But I like LeBron. I think he gets a bad rap from NBA fans at large. And he’s had a better overall career than Michael Jordan. I’m sorry if that offends. But when I see headlines of him allegedly filing cease & desists against this guy…

Thinking that would somehow make the AI pregnancy videos stop… I understand why people are so quick to jump down LeBron’s throat with the, “God damn it LeBron. You big fucking dummy. Why do you do the things you do?”

But LeBron James is not a dumbass. Sure, he didn’t attend college. He’s not a Mensa candidate. But as far as athletes go, he’s not a complete idiot. You can’t possibly be a complete idiot and be successful in the way LeBron is. He’s also been actively online pretty much his whole career. He’s not just pawning off all his socials to a professionally trained PR team either. I’m sure does with parts of it. But those tweets LeBron sends with #JustMyThoughtsComingFromASportsJunkieRegardlessMyOwnSportIPlay… those are coming straight from LeBron’s remarkably gifted thumbs. 

Even when he goes ZeroDarkThirty-23, he can never fully keep himself away. The man is chronically logged on. He must have developed the slightest bit of internet literacy by now. And anybody who’s spent 10 minutes online should know that the #1 surefire way to make sure people NEVER stop doing something you don’t like, is to make it known that you do not like that thing. 

It’s a tale as old as time. Every time an athlete or celebrity does this to themselves, every person on Twitter makes the same joke. I personally had to fight back the urge to write the same blog that’s been written at Barstool a hundred times before. 

“Whatever You Do, DO NOT POST ANY AI Videos of Pregnant LeBron James!”

Followed by a litany of examples of what NOT to post. It’s such a well-known concept that the joke has become played out. 

Filing a cease & desist might force the person profiting off the videos to stop. But revealing to the world what gets under your skin is worth so much more than anything a few popular Instagram accounts can produce. Internet trolls alone will yield more pregnant LeBron James content for the love of the game than money can buy.

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It almost has to be that LeBron thought that the news of him filing a cease & desist would never see the light of day. I’m not sure why anybody who’s spent time on the internet would think that, but it has to be the case. Or maybe filing the cease & desist wasn’t even LeBron’s doing. Maybe somebody working for him took the initiative to try and scrub all instances of pregnant LeBron James from the internet. If it’s the latter, he’s gotta fire that employee. But I can’t help but think (not accusing you of anything LeBron, just giving my educated guess) that this cease & desist is coming from LeBron himself.

In some ways I don’t blame him. People are willing put up with a lot of shit on the internet. Lot’s of insane, psychotic shit that’s objectively WAY worse than some stupid, harmless AI pregnancy content. But I gotta imagine there’s something about seeing a realistic looking video of yourself as a pregnant man, basically giving birth, that just makes your skin crawl. It’s not even close to the meanest thing an Instagram account has done or said to LeBron, but there is something uniquely unsettling about it. I don’t enjoy watching them. They’re bizarre. They make me feel uncomfortable. Clearly the smart thing to do would have been to turn the other cheek and wait for people to move onto the next trend. But I can kinda get how constantly seeing AI pregnancy videos of yourself might illicit this type of a reaction, while other more inflammatory things would not.

But fuck, LeBron… Do you realize what you just did to yourself? What you just did to me? The world? Pregnant LeBron James is about to take over the internet. Under every LeBron James related tweet, we’re about to be inundated with the weirdest, most unnerving pregnant dude videos that AI is capable of cooking up. And underneath each one will be replies that say “Why the buddy pregnant?”, ten-to-twenty times over. 

I hope I’m wrong. I’m probably exaggerating things a bit for the sake of a blog. But it never fails to blow my mind when I see an athlete announce to the world that he’s personally bothered by something fans are doing. And of all people… as online as LeBron is… for him to be one to come out and file a cease & desist over pregnancy videos (allegedly)… I just thought LeBron knew better. Now that I’ve typed out that sentence, I realize how stupid I sound. Egg on my face. 

Allegedly. 

By WILL WEISSERT, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Thursday signed an executive order mandating that federal authorities clarify whether college athletes can be considered employees of the schools they play for — attempting to create clearer national standards for the NCAA’s name image and likeness program.

The move comes amid a dramatic increase in the money flowing into and around college athletics. It also follows key court victories won by current and former athletes angry that they were barred for decades, both from earning income based on their celebrity and from sharing in the billions of revenue they helped generate.

Facing a growing number of state laws undercutting its authority, the NCAA in July 2021 cleared the way for athletes to cash in with name, image and likeness deals with brands and sponsors.

That came mere days after a 9-0 decision from the Supreme Court that found the NCAA cannot impose caps on education-related benefits schools provide to their athletes because such limits violate antitrust law.

Trump’s action directs the secretary of labor and the National Labor Relations Board to clarify the status of collegiate athletes through guidance or rules “that will maximize the educational benefits and opportunities provided by higher education institutions through athletics.”

The NCAA’s embrace of NIL deals set the stage for another massive change that took effect July 1: The ability of schools to begin paying millions of dollars to their own athletes, up to $20.5 million per school over the next year. The $2.8 billion House settlement shifts even more power to college athletes, who have also won the ability to transfer from school to school without waiting to play.

The NCAA has been lobbying for several years for limited antitrust protection to keep some kind of control over this new landscape — and avoid more crippling lawsuits — but a handful of bills have gone nowhere in Congress.

The 1,100 universities that comprise the NCAA have insisted for decades that athletes are students who cannot be considered anything like a school employee.

This stance has long been a part of the amateur model at the heart of college athletics, but that model is rapidly being replaced by a more professional structure fed by money that is coming from donors, brands and now the schools themselves.

Some coaches have even suggested collective bargaining is a potential solution to the chaos they see.

It is a complicated topic: Universities would become responsible for paying wages, benefits, and workers’ compensation and schools and conferences have insisted they will fight any such move in court (some already have).

While private institutions fall under the National Labor Relations Board, public universities must follow labor laws that vary from state to state and it’s worth noting that virtually every state in the South has “right to work” laws that present challenges for unions.

Originally Published: July 24, 2025 at 2:09 PM PDT

Oregon is facing its second lawsuit in a month over the issue of biologically male trans athletes competing in girls’ high school sports. 

Two of the state’s girls’ track and field stars, Alexa Anderson and Reese Eckard, filed a lawsuit against the Oregon School Athletics Association (OSAA) after an incident on May 31 when they refused to stand on a medal podium with a transgender competitor at a state title meet. 

Footage of the stunt went viral, as Anderson later told Fox News that officials instructed them to step away from the podium and get out of the shots of photos. 

CLICK HERE FOR MORE SPORTS COVERAGE ON FOXNEWS.COM

Their lawsuit alleges that the OSAA not only excluded them from official photos, but also withheld their medals. The suit argues that the girls’ First Amendment rights were infringed upon by the officials.

“I recently competed against a biological male at my state track and field meet, another girl and I decided to step down from the podium in protest to the unfair competition environment,” Anderson told Fox News Digital. “I am fighting to keep women’s sports XX and prevent biological males in women’s sports from becoming normalized. By doing this, I hope that all future generations of female athletes will have a safe and fair opportunity to excel within their sports.”

Fox News Digital reached out to the OSAA for a response. 

The girls are being represented by the America First Policy Institute (AFPI). 

“These young women earned their place on the podium – and the right to express themselves,” said Jessica Hart Steinmann, executive general counsel at AFPI. “Instead of respecting their viewpoint that girls’ sports should be for girls only, Oregon officials sidelined them. The First Amendment protects the right to dissent – school officials don’t get to reprimand students who refuse to agree with their beliefs.”

TRACKING THE TRANS ATHLETE HIGH SCHOOL SPORTS CONTROVERSIES SHAKING THE NATION OVER THE LAST YEAR

AFPI is also representing fellow Oregon girls’ track and field athletes Maddie Eischen and Sophia Carpenter in a separate lawsuit against the Oregon Department of Education for its policies that allow biological males to compete in girls’ sports. 

Carpenter and Eischen cited their experience in withdrawing from a meet that featured a trans competitor on April 18.

“For [Carpenter] the psychological and emotional weight of that moment became overwhelming—she felt helpless, demoralized, and betrayed by the institutions and adults charged with protecting her equal opportunity for fair play. Ultimately, she realized that she was unable to participate in the high jump that day and withdrew from the event,” that lawsuit alleges. 

Both Carpenter and Eischen previously told Fox News Digital the experience was “traumatic.” 

“My experience at the Chehalem track meet and scratching myself from the meet was traumatic, something I never imagined ever having to do,” Eischen said. 

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Carpenter added, “It was emotionally traumatic trying to know what I should do and how I should respond to competing with [the trans athlete].”

Carpenter said she found herself so overwhelmed with emotion from the experience, that she cried on the ride home after the meet. Now, despite being faced with “fear” of potential retaliation for filing a lawsuit, the two girls are officially in it and charging ahead with a legal battle that could garner plenty of national attention. 

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