Early Thursday morning, a former student of LaShonda Carter asked the Chicago teacher for help. A few hours later, Carter had rearranged her day so she could sit in a car and watch the new mother’s baby as mom searched for a job.
On Saturday, Carter told USA TODAY that the outpouring of support has been amazing. “I have watched the world become that ‘village that it takes to raise a child,’ ” she wrote in a Facebook message.
Carter said she is currently a teacher at Chicago Excel Academy. The woman who was in need is Larresha Plummer, an 18-year-old a student who had spent two years in Carter’s class at a different school.
Around 2 a.m. Thursday, Plummer connected with Carter on Facebook: “She recently just had a baby … she was kinda going through some things, going through some struggles, and she needs to get to a job fair today.” Carter described in her video. “And so you know me, no matter what I had going on, I stopped it.”
That’s just part of being an educator, Carter said in the video, labeled “The Heart of Educator Pt.2 (I need your help).”
In an earlier “Heart of an Educator” video, Carter encouraged more communication and collaboration between parents and teachers.
“Most educators, we love children. We can’t wait to see them come in our classroom, we can’t … wait to meet their needs, we can’t wait to be whatever they need us to be for them. But we need the parents. We need the help of the parents,” Carter said in the Tuesday video.
On Thursday, Carter said she was doing what she could to aid her former student, but she needed help. She wanted to provide the mother with necessities like formula and baby clothes.
Apparently, the new way to settle YouTube beefs is to punch each other in the face and make a whole bunch of money off it.
After months of hype, shit talking, and petty drama, YouTube has made its final descent into the gutter. Disgraced vlogger Logan Paul faced off against fellow YouTuber Olajide “KSI” Olatunji for a sold out boxing match in Manchester, UK on Saturday, while their respective brothers, Jake Paul and Oladeji “Deji” Olatunji, traded blows in an undercard.
We know why you’re here. Please enjoy this GIF of Logan getting punched in the face.
We can tell you, however, that Jake won in his fight against Deji and Logan’s fight against KSI ended with a majority draw.
Jake vs. Deji
Jake, who entered the ring with a plastic muzzle and “Fuck Jake Paul” bling around his neck reeked of confidence, which comes as no surprise from the cocky YouTuber.
Image: Scfreenshot/YouTube
Deji, on the other hand, bumbled his way to the ropes with his face covered.
Image: screenshot/YouTube
By the end of round one, Jake’s face was bloodied from a blow to the face. Deji’s white gloves were stained red.
Image: screenshot/YouTube
Jake maintained a slight upper hand on Deji through the fourth round, though Deji managed to hold him off well. But at the end of round five Jake rocked Deji with a series of punches, enough for the latter’s team to throw in the towel and forfeit the match before the final sixth round.
Image: screenshot/YouTube
“Deji fought an amazing fight,” Jake said afterward. “I respect him. I hope he learned a lesson about the things that he said, ’cause he said some shit about my family that wasn’t cool … but much respect to Deji, no hard feelings.”
Jake then used the opportunity to announce the launch of his new clothing line. He plugged the website, the crowd booed.
Logan vs. KSI
Logan was calm and focused on his walk out to the ring after legendary boxing announcer Michael Buffer called his name for the main event of the evening.
Image: screenshot/YouTube
KSI chose an intimidating black skeleton mask as he milked his slow walk to the stage.
Image: screenshot/YouTube
Logan boasted in the first round, laughing at KSI, often taunting him with his hands down and his face unprotected. He managed to take the round with a series of punches at the end.
In round two, KSI was visibly angry and took wild swings but was unable to land many substantial hits. KSI threw a cheap shot at Logan after the bell, and Jake briefly entered the ring. Regardless, Logan took the second round, too.
KSI managed to land a few big punches in round three, and clearly took the round. Logan seemed to tire a bit, and continued to look sluggish in round four while KSI ramped up his energy. Both of the YouTubers swung wildly, and failed to show any strong defense.
Logan seemed to amp up his energy at the start of round five, and managed to land a series of explosive punches on KSI. Both were exhausted by the end of the round, as KSI landed a strong right hook. At this point there is no clear winner.
In round six, KSI connected with multiple strong punches against Logan, who seemed defeated with a minute to go. KSI’s stamina kept him above water.
In the end, the judges landed with a “majority draw,” giving the YouTubers another chance to settle the score and profit off the drama. The two already have a rematch in the works in Los Angeles.
Image: screenshot/YouTube
“Let’s give them a motherfucking rematch,” Logan said. He later said he felt like he won the fight, the crowd booed.
The two appropriately left the stage with more shit talking.
Regardless of the outcome, the months-long buildup to the event, along with the over 780,000 accounts that shelled over $10 and tuned in, helped line the pockets of the already rich YouTubers. Using their massive platforms fueled by clickbait-y drama, the Paul and Olatunji brothers did what they do best: take money from children — or, really, parents willing to open their wallets for merch and PPV.
After directing and starring in one of the year’s most successful and acclaimed film’s, A Quiet Place, John Krasinski’s career continues to thrive.
The actor has followed up the horror hit by appearing as the titular character in Jack Ryan, a new Amazon show based on Tom Clancy’s book series — allowing him to take over the reins of a coveted role previously played by a string of leading men, including Harrison Ford and Alec Baldwin.
According to the 38-year-old, the credit for his success can be attributed to his wife and A Quiet Place co-star Emily Blunt.
“I honestly feel I wouldn’t have this career if I hadn’t met her, because she’s taught me so much about how to go about the business,” he tells The Independent U.K. “She’s been my secret ingredient.”
Krasinski recalls it was Blunt who encouraged him to direct the project, which he initially only planned to be in front of the camera for.
“I was originally just going to star and Emily told me I had to direct it,” he adds. “She knew it was a huge opportunity for me, and in the madness she just let me be myself.
Not only did Krasinski lean on Blunt during shooting, he also saw their relationship become stronger over the course of the collaboration.
“It without a doubt made our marriage stronger,“ he tells the publication. “I think we were both surprised by that. Not that I thought it would get worse but we were much more in love after the movie. We leaned on each other in a way we never had.”
The former The Office cast member explains that working on one of the film’s most gripping scenes would have been difficult to approach with another actress he was not as close to, adding, “I also certainly wouldn’t have felt as comfortable watching someone else pretend to give birth in a bathtub.”
Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan is set to premiere on Aug 31.
U.S. Sen. John McCain has a long and storied public political career, but he’s also a father to seven children who is fiercely protective of his family’s privacy.
“Our family is immensely grateful for the support and kindness of all his caregivers over the last year, and for the continuing outpouring of concern and affection,” the statement read in part.
McCain’s children, all adults now, are from two marriages. More than three decades span between the oldest and the youngest.
Throughout his political career, interviews with the McCains have characterized John as the silly one with his kids.
“The more he teases you, the more he loves you,” Cindy told People magazine in 2008.
In multiple interviews, he has emphasized his family’s independence and privacy.
In 1965, while McCain was still in the U.S. Navy, he married model Carol Shepp in Philadelphia. He adopted her two school-age sons from a previous marriage, Doug and Andrew, and in 1966 they had a daughter, Sidney.
Just a year later, as the McCains were building their new family in Florida, he was pulled away, sent as a bomber pilot on an aircraft carrier to fight in the Vietnam War.
He was shot down over Vietnam on Oct. 26, 1967, captured and kept away from his life, his country and his family for almost six years.
CLOSE
In 1967, John McCain was a Navy pilot on an aircraft carrier. He was shot down during the Vietnam War and held as a prisoner of war. By 1973, he would return to the U.S. a hero and eventually find himself at the U.S. Capitol.
When he returned in 1973, his daughter didn’t remember him.
“I remember my dad just squeezing me and not wanting to let me go,” Sidney told the New York Times in 2007. “It was very overwhelming at the time.”
McCain stepped back into his role as a father by fostering both discipline and independence.
“We didn’t have a problem knowing who was in charge. If you wanted to deviate from expected policy and he said no, he never felt an obligation to give you a reason,” Andrew told the Times.
“I kind of figured out pretty quick in high school if you make good grades and play sports and were willing to follow a few basic rules you can pretty much do what you want,” Doug said.
Despite their efforts, John and Carol’s marriage suffered and they eventually separated.
“I was responsible for the break-up of my first marriage, due to my immature and very bad behavior,” McCain later told Larry King during a 2002 interview.
“She is wonderful — Carol McCain is a wonderful person, and we are really good friends. And we have three wonderful children.”
A second chapter in Arizona
In 1979, while he was attending a military reception in Hawaii, John met a glamorous former cheerleader, Cindy Hensley.
Hensley was an heiress to a Phoenix beer distributorship and 17 years younger than John, though neither knew it at the time.
“Schmaltzy as it sounds, it was love at first sight, and so we started dating,” McCain told King.
Less than a year after John and Cindy met, he sought to divorce Carol. A month after their marriage was dissolved, he married Cindy in Phoenix in 1980. None of his children attended the wedding.
John was elected to the House of Representatives in 1982 and won his bid to become a U.S. senator in 1986.
During that time, Cindy and John started a family of their own with the birth of their daughter Meghan in 1984 and, shortly after, sons John Sidney McCain IV, known as Jack, and James, who goes by Jimmy.
In many interviews, Cindy has described a 1991 humanitarian trip to Bangladesh, where nuns asked her to help a newborn orphan with a cleft palate. Without asking John, she brought the girl home to Phoenix. They adopted her as their final child, Bridget.
Even though he would be away in Washington D.C., during the week, the couple decided to raise their children in Cindy’s childhood home in central Phoenix, anchoring their family in Arizona.
“We wanted them to have a well-rounded life, and we gave them that out West,” Cindy told People.
John and Cindy make disciplined parents
John has often credited Cindy with raising their children while his career kept him away.
“My mother was the one doing the heavy lifting of child rearing,” Jack told The Arizona Republic in January.
She was the enforcer, ensuring that the kids watched TV only on weekends and received allowances if their “chore chart” was completed, according to a 2008 People magazine profile.
“If the kids wanted a big-ticket item, they had to come to me and defend why they needed it,” Cindy told People.
We are a ride or die family. I am, always have been, and always will be insanely proud of my the man my father is. pic.twitter.com/CzFD7V5dzQ
“She was very much a mother — she always relished that designation,” Cindy’s friend and a former county supervisor and secretary of state Betsey Bayless told the New Yorker in 2008. “She was always driving her carpool, up and down Central Avenue. She really maintained the home fire.”
Jack said that although his dad was away, John McCain was still a constant presence in the home, ensuring the kids were focused on school.
“I always knew, even from a very young age, the level of effort that he was going to to make it home almost every weekend,” Jack said.
Growing up in Arizona was a gift their father gave them, Jack said.
“By the time I was 14, I was able to put a backpack on and go hike into the Arizona wilderness for a couple of days at a time and have no problem,” he said.
“He was having us live very much the same way he lived himself. So, fierce self-reliance, fierce independence, the appreciation for nature, an appreciation for the poetry life.”
A premium on privacy
McCain told the New York Times in 2007 that his desire to deflect attention from his family was “intentional.”
“I just feel it’s inappropriate for us to mention our children. I don’t want people to feel that, it’s just, I’d like them to have their own lives. I wouldn’t want to seem like I’m trying to gain some kind of advantage. I just feel that it’s a private thing,” he said.
In that sense, the family has been burned before. In 2000, when Bridget was 9, she was the victim of a smear campaign against her father, who was then fighting George W. Bush for the presidential nomination.
After McCain won the New Hampshire primary, people in South Carolina received phone calls asking, “Would you be more or less likely to vote for John McCain if you knew he had fathered an illegitimate black child?”
Shortly after losing the election, McCain said, “We tried to ignore it and I think we shielded her from it.
“A lot of phone calls were made by people who said we should be very ashamed about her, about the color of her skin. Thousands and thousands of calls from people to voters saying, ‘You know, the McCains have a black baby.’ I believe that there is a special place in hell for people like those,” he said in 2000, according to dadmag.com.
Success for the McCain children
Among the seven McCain children are a number of success stories.
Last year, Andrew McCain was named president of Hensley Beverage Co., the beer distributor to which Cindy McCain is an heiress.
Sidney McCain was a former music industry executive and is now the promotions director of a Milwaukee radio station, according to Milwaukee magazine.
The two sides of the McCain brood eventually melded. Jack remembered a rafting trip with Sidney and Andrew when he was in high school. Doug was there when Jack graduated from pilot school, and gifted Jack his own set of wings.
Meghan has long acted as something of the unofficial spokeswoman for the McCains, ever since she started the blog “McCain Blogette” in 2007 to document her dad’s presidential run.
“We’re both very strong-willed and ambitious, and I think we have a similar sense of humor,” Meghan told the Times. “I think we both live our lives kind of fearlessly and without apologizing.”
In the People magazine story from when McCain was running for president, Meghan described her younger brother Jimmy as “the peacemaker” and Jack as “the clown.”
Jimmy and Jack followed in their father’s and grandfather’s footsteps, with Jack joining the U.S. Naval Academy and Jimmy the U.S. Marines.
“There was always an unspoken expectation,” Jack said. “I was never forced to join. But there was always sort of this, ‘Well, first-born sons of the McCain family are named John and first-born sons of the McCain family go to the Naval Academy and join the Navy.’ “
Much to his family’s surprise, Jimmy enlisted at the age of 17. During a luau the McCains hosted before Jimmy’s deployment to Iraq, John hugged him and cried in “a mixture of pride and concern,” Jimmy told People in 2008.
“My brother ended up going the quicker route and going the significantly more dangerous route and I think it took quite a few years for my mom to really come to grips with it,” Jack said.
My Army boy Jim McCain, in Afghanistan. Proudly serving and safely home a few weeks ago. pic.twitter.com/MFBIzJ4OiX
Bridget started college at Arizona State University in Tempe in 2010 and, according to Jack, had an interest in special education, but it is not clear if she graduated or is still enrolled.
While the family is now spread apart, they still make an effort to get together.
“Because we are all gone so frequently, every time we get the whole family together, it’s this huge ordeal,” Jack said. “It’s a huge outpouring of happiness and excitement.”
Now, the family gets together for weddings and holidays, especially its favorite, the Fourth of July. John always makes his signature back ribs with a garlic and lemon pepper dry rub.
“We will mostly congregate around the grill and it will be the whole family,” Jack said. “Now that we’re old enough, we’ll all have a drink, and just catch up on what seems endless miles of space in between us.”
The cancer, glioblastoma, was discovered during cranial surgery to remove a blood clot above his left eye. It is a typically malignant and aggressive cancer, with a median survival rate of 14.6 months.
“We as a family will face the next hurdle together,” Cindy posted that day. “One thing I do know is he is the toughest person I know. He is my hero and I love him with all my heart.”
CLOSE
Dr. Joseph Zabramski, a neurosurgeon at Barrow Neurological Institute in Phoenix, talks about Sen. John McCain’s cancer. Thomas Hawthorne/azcentral.com
“He is a warrior at dusk, one of the greatest Americans of our age, and the worthy heir to his father’s and grandfather’s name. But to me, he is something more. He is my strength, my example, my refuge, my confidant, my teacher, my rock, my hero — my dad.”
They call it “the cabin.” It’s where the family goes to hike, play outdoors and reconnect.
“He’ll probably be mad at me for admitting this: He loves birdwatching,” Jack said of his father. “There are a couple of endangered hawks that have built nests there. It’s almost a family joke that when we first get there we have to see how the hawks are doing.”
When he’s there, John can be found walking the property to check on the cottonwood and fruit trees or firing up the grill.
“It is the one place in the world he truly relaxes,” Jack said.
It has been the site of many family dinners with John and his guests.
“I thought the guests were just these men who hung out at our cabin,” Meghan told People. “Then I got older and realized it was Bob Woodward and Henry Kissinger.”
A few weeks after John revealed his diagnosis, he hiked nearby Oak Creek Canyon with Meghan and Jimmy.
In November 2017, the cabin was the site of Meghan’s wedding.
Shortly after John was diagnosed with cancer, Meghan and her fiancé, conservative commentator Ben Domenech, decided to organize their wedding swiftly.
“This brought into focus how important it was for Meghan to have her dad see her get married, and to have that happen while he was still fully there and fully able to participate. This was something that she needed,” Domenech told People magazine.
Another source of joy has been Jack’s baby son, John Sidney McCain V, who goes by the nickname Mac.
“Every time he’s with Mac, he lights up in a way that I had never seen before in my whole life,” Jack said of his father. “I had never seen him truly giddy until he saw my son.”
When he’s at the cabin, John “never is without a book in his hand,” Jack said, and is more sentimental than people may know, especially about poetry.
One of John’s favorites has always been “Requiem” by Robert Louis Stevenson, Jack said, which John read at his own father’s funeral.
ESPN Brazil reported the midfielder had an argument with Emery on Friday and refused to be in the squad after finding out he was on the bench.
“Why is this information out there? It isn’t true,” said Emery.
“He left training because he was going to his home because he is sick.”
Emery told Match of the Day that he sat down with German Ozil and the team doctor on Friday and decided he would not play.
He said he told Ozil to attend the match if he was feeling better and that the German was “with the team” before the game but later left due to his illness.
“He is bad with sickness. There is no problem with the player, speak with the doctor he can explain better,” Emery added.
Issa Diop’s own goal and Danny Welbeck’s late strike helped an unconvincing Arsenal secure their first victory under Emery since the former Sevilla and Paris St-Germain boss replaced Arsene Wenger in May.
Ozil, who started the defeats by Manchester City and Chelsea, quit international football after Germany exited the World Cup in the group stages, citing “racism and disrespect”.
Thousands of people fleeing Venezuela’s deepening economic crisis have rushed towards the Peruvian border before the introduction of new rules making it harder to cross into the country.
As of 05:00 GMT on Saturday, Venezuelans are required to show valid passports instead of national ID cards to enter – although Peruvian authorities are reported to be “flexible” with children, the elderly and pregnant women.
Up to 4,000 people have been arriving daily in Ecuador, Peru, Colombia and Brazil, heading south to escape Venezuela’s political turmoil and economic crisis which has seen inflation skyrocket and public services fail amid chronic food and medicine shortages.
Peru, one of the region’s fastest growing economies with 4.7 percent growth projected for next year, is a particularly popular destination, with an estimated 400,000 Venezuelans already living there.
But a rising backlash to Venezuelan migrants prompted this week the introduction of the tougher border controls in Peru – as did Ecuador, though a judge there on Friday rolled back the passport regulations.
As Saturday’s deadline approached, thousands – some carrying small children – poured into Peru’s border with Ecuador by any transport means possible, with many travelling on foot.
“This is very sad,” Joander Perez, a 15-year-old Venezuelan who travelled more than 4,000km with members of his family, told Al Jazeera at the border.
“We were at the best time of our lives, with friends, school, family but we have to leave to find a better life,” he added.
“In Venezuela we were hungry.”
The United Nations has described the exodus of Venezuelans to neighbouring countries as a “crisis moment” comparable to events involving refugees in the Mediterranean.
And although numbers are alarming, this is not a new phenomenon, experts said.
“This started in 2002, when only the wealthy people migrated from Venezuela,” Ronal Rodriguez, a professor and researcher at the Venezuelan Observatory, a think tank at the University of Rosario in Colombia, told Al Jazeera.
“In 2007, we saw the migration of the middle class. But from 2015, onwards, we have seen the migration of the popular sectors,” he added.
“The ones that take the roads – even risking their own lives.”
‘Humanitarian corridor’
Ecuador opened a “humanitarian corridor” on Friday and lifted its own entry restrictions to facilitate the Venezuelans’ travels to Peru.
Interior Minister Mauro Toscanini said that 35 busloads of migrants were on the move along the route authorities had opened to Peru.
More than 2,500 migrants swamped the small Aguas Verdes crossing on Friday – 10 times the usual daily traffic.
“People keep on pouring into this border,” Al Jazeera’s Mariana Sanchez, reporting from Peru’s border with Ecuador, said on Saturday.
“Many believe that the Ecuadorean government does not want [Venezuelan people] to stay in Ecuador, because they were forced onto the busses – and even if people want to stay back there, they are being forced to come all the way here,” she added.
“Authorities [however] have said they will be flexible with people that have small children, elderly and pregnant women to allow them in without a passport,” she added.
Sanchez said on Saturday that those at the border without a valid passport were applying for asylum, “the only option that they have to be able to enter the country legally”.
The pace of departures has accelerated in recent days [Douglas Juarez/Reuters]
Colombia says it has already given temporary residence to 870,000 Venezuelans but it can barely cope.
It has pleaded with its southern neighbours to agree to a combined migration strategy, while Ecuador has called a meeting of 13 Latin American countries next month to discuss the crisis.
“From all countries, Colombia is the one that is taking the worst hit, we cannot ask the population to go back,” Rodriguez, the professor, said.
“Every day we receive pregnant women that require medical assistance. Turning them back is sentencing them to death, we need to respond and find spaces in societies that are feasible for them,” he added.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres will set up a special team to ensure a coordinated regional response, his spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.
Jorge Gonzales and his wife Kenia, carrying their boys, wait in line for breakfast, after crossing the border into Peru [Martin Mejia/AP Photo]
Venezuela is in a fourth straight year of recession, with double-digit declines in its gross domestic product. The inflation rate is expected to reach an astonishing one million percent this year, according to the International Monetary Fund.
Under President Nicolas Maduro’s leadership, industry is operating at only 30 percent, hit hard by the crash in oil prices since 2014 in a country that earns 96 percent of its revenue from crude.
In efforts to boost the economy and tame the rampant hyperinflation, Maduro and his government on August 20 rolled out a new currency, slashing five zeroes from the bolivar.
The new bolivar, which will be in circulation alongside the old currency during a transitional period, will be pegged to the country’s state-backed cryptocurrency, the petro.
“This change has generated huge uncertainty among Venezuelans, and people are not having easy access to the new currency,” Rodriguez said.
“All the paper money [new and old] look very similar, creating huge confusion, all of them are labelled as Bolivares, so now the citizens don’t know if they are using the right money or not”
“This situation has made incredibly difficult for Venezuelans to receive the remittances, creating huge chaos, this change is what ultimately motivated people to flew the country,” he added.
Maduro, who says that he is the victim of a US-led “economic war” designed to sabotage his administration through sanctions, said that using the petro will abolish the “tyranny” of the dollar and lead to an economic rebirth in Venezuela.
Other measures recently introduced by the government include a loosening of foreign capital rules and a massive increase in the minimum wage.
But despite these moves, the pace of departures has accelerated in recent days.
“It’s sad – I graduated with a bachelor degree, now I can’t begin my career in law,” Zenalis Rodriguez, a Venezuelan at the Peruvian-Ecuadorean border, told Al Jazeera.
“We all gave up our future – in Venezuela we don’t have a chance.”
As the exodus continues, many fear the crisis will not end any time soon.
“Even if Maduro falls tomorrow, that doesn’t mean people will go back – people won’t go back to a country that is highly unstable,” said Rodriguez.
“This situation will transform Latin America, and it will last many years. A joint response will be required, Latin America will need to work as a region,” he added.
“These people will need to be absorbed and assumed, and the countries will need to come up with instruments that aid them and regulatory mechanisms to sort this crisis out.”
Hurricane Lane may have looked like a monster storm earlier this week, but it petered out by Friday thanks to strong wind shear. Now a tropical storm, Lane still poses a threat to Hawaii in the form of flash flooding.
The National Weather Service in Honolulu extended its flash flood warning Saturday morning. It may be extended again, beyond Saturday at 11:00 a.m. Hawaii Standard Time, if heavy rain persists. The warning was issued for the northeast and southeast sides of the Big Island from Hawi to Hilo to South Point. The tropical storm warning remained in effect.
The National Weather Service said runoff levels remain high and an expected band of heavy rainfall moving onshore could overwhelm ground that is saturated from the rain that preceded Lane’s arrival. The storm already resulted in “life-threatening flooding and landslides,” according to the National Weather Service.
Some weather experts posted images on Twitter of Hurricane Lane breaking apart once it encountered wind shear.
This is what a major hurricane getting torn apart looks like…
What you’re seeing here is Hurricane Lane being ripped apart by the wind blowing in different directions and speeds at different heights in the atmosphere – known as wind shear. https://t.co/KvgIwb6m48
Perhaps they’ve quelled their rocky marriage in death.
The two characters have been absent in AHS after their starring roles in season 1, probably due to the fact that their dwelling has a pretty strict supernatural ruleset: what happens in Murder House, stays in Murder House… except on Halloween. So when the Harmons died in Murder House, that’s where their ghosts remained.
Their daughter, Violet Harmon, will also be back for AHS: Apocalypse by way of Taissa Farmiga. We’ll see how the actress swings playing both her Murder House and Coven characters.
From Chargers camp, NFL insider Jarrett Bell details their joint practice with the Saints and discusses who got the better deal: Rivers or Brees. USA TODAY
The next installment of Hard Knocks just got a little more interesting.
The Cleveland Browns transferred Josh Gordon to their 90-man roster Saturday, clearing the way for the gifted but oft-troubled receiver to return to practice and potentially play on opening day.
However he will first have to overcome a tender hamstring that coach Hue Jackson said would likely prevent Gordon from playing in Cleveland’s preseason finale at Detroit on Thursday. Jackson said Gordon tweaked the hammy a few days ago while ramping up his conditioning.
“A little minor setback, but we will get him out there soon,” Jackson said Saturday.
“I do not want to stick him out there if there is a chance that we will not have him for the opener. I want to make sure that he is ready to go. … It is not a major pull. We will get him back here soon.”
After missing the early stages of training camp while taking additional time to ensure his addiction issues are in check, Gordon was moved to the active/non-football injury list last weekend so he could rejoin the team. But now the 2013 all-pro can begin reintegration into an offense that managed just three points in Thursday night’s 5-0 defeat of the Eagles.
WR Josh Gordon has been officially moved to the active list and will be involved in walk throughs pic.twitter.com/iHx7DLAO7M
“He is into the second phase of where I want him to be,” Jackson offered Friday. “He will definitely be involved in walk-throughs now, out there and be involved. How much he does will be in proportion of what I see and where he is.”
Gordon led the NFL with 1,646 receiving yards in 2013 (in just 14 games), but drug suspensions have limited him to 10 appearances over the past four seasons.
“I want to see him excel,” Browns linebacker Christian Kirksey said of Gordon. “He is a talented young man. He has God-given ability. We are fully behind him.
“I am just excited to see him get the opportunity to showcase his talent and take whatever proper steps he needs to take to be fully healthy and fully ready to play.”
Veteran Jarvis Landry started Thursday alongside younger wideouts Rashard Higgins and Damion Ratley. Rookie Antonio Callaway also remains in the mix, and the Browns have not shut the door on potentially signing free agent Dez Bryant.
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