Pittsburgh-based Bejeti has debuted a super-luxe wallet that’s a far cry from the cheap, overstuffed “Costanza Wallet” of yore.
The $29,500 Bejeti Planetesimal Wallet is made with meteorite — yes, meteorite — transforming thousands of years of natural planetary evolution into one insanely impressive addition to anyone’s everyday carry. (Another Pennsylvania-based company, high-end gunmaker Cabot Guns, also uses meteorites in their pricy products.)
The Planetesimal Wallet is the most eye-catching offering of a half-dozen new wallets from the luxury accessories brand, which blends the astute eye of fine art with intense craftsmanship unlike anything on the market.
It’s also fitting that Bejeti calls Pittsburgh its home, because The Steel City just makes perfect sense to forge wallets in a way no other brand would ever dare try.
Is it practical to own a wallet with meteorite in it? If you’re in the market to buy one, we’d say that’s hardly an issue. In fact, there are just eight of the Planetesimal Wallet available, and we’re more than willing to bet you’ll be jockeying with some guys named Musk and Bezos for one of the other six editions.
Founded by chemical engineer and industrial designer Eduardo Sante, the impressive array of wallets (including the much more affordable, recycled ocean plastic Endurvinna Wallet to the tune of $1,900), the brand debuted with an invitation-only pre-sale last fall before opening its virtual doors to a wider audience.
The rest of the company’s astonishingly cool offering comprises wallets made from legendary Damascus Steel (the Hephaestus Wallet) and Robert Eggerling Mosaic Damascus Steel, which blends carbon steels and nickel (the sleek and eye-catching Artificer Wallet).
In fact, no two wallets are alike, and the company even offers an authentication process to ensure you’re not getting a counterfeit item (to those attempting to counterfeit these wallets, we say good luck).
“We know there are people who relish rarity, ingenuity, luxury and sustainability and our wallets bring all of these together to truly commemorate personal achievement through design and stature,” Sande said.
The undeniably cool and impossible-to-replicate craftsmanship inherent in each Bejeti wallet makes each item an offering that goes above and beyond what you’d normally expect from a leather wallet, and that’s an understatement.
In fact, they’re more like a wallet Han Solo might use than something a mere Earth-bound human should buy. That doesn’t mean we won’t applaud you for trying.
The GOAT of NFL quarterbacks is leaving the football field.
Tom Brady is retiring at age 44 after 22 seasons in the NFL, ESPN reported on Saturday.
Brady finishes his career with seven Super Bowl championships, three MVPs and five Super Bowl MVPs. The future Hall of Famer won six of those rings across 20 seasons with the Patriots before winning another last year with the Buccaneers after leaving New England in free agency. More from ESPN.com:
Sources said that Brady’s decision to retire is based on several factors, including family and health. Although it’s less significant, Brady also recognizes that the Buccaneers are likely to undergo significant roster turnover, sources said.
Brady, 44, has been adamant for weeks that he never wanted a “farewell season,” and many who know him believed he desired a decision made without much drama leading up to it. He will shift his focus to new endeavors and believes this is the right moment to end his playing career, sources said.
It is unknown when Brady will formalize his plans to retire, but that move will be made with consideration to not upstage the NFL’s postseason games or Super Bowl. Brady’s company, TB12 Sports, sent a tweet that appeared to confirm his decision but later deleted the post.
https://mobile.twitter.com/MaximBetUSA/status/1487515968112783363
Brady’s quest for one more title was cut short last Sunday when the Bucs lost to the Rams in the thrilling NFC divisional round. He led what appeared to be one of his signature game-winning drives in the final few minutes before the Rams shockingly won with a field goal as time expired.
After the loss, Brady gave some hints about what would go into his decision to retire.
“My wife [Gisele Bundchen] is my biggest supporter,” Brady said on his “Let’s Go!” podcast earlier this week. “It pains her to see me get hit out there, and she deserves what she needs from me as a husband and my kids deserve what they need from me as a dad.
“I’m gonna spend some time with them and give them what they need, because they’ve really been giving me what I need the last six months — to do what I need to do and I said this a few years ago.
“It’s what relationships are all about. It’s not always about what I want. It’s about what we want as a family. And I’m gonna spend a lot of time with them and figure out in the future what’s next.”
Brady was a sixth-round pick (199th overall) of the Patriots in 2000 and often talked about playing until he was 45 — the age he will turn in August.
Since taking over for the injured Drew Bledsoe in 2001, Brady started 316 games out of a possible 335. He missed all but one game of the 2008 season after tearing his ACL in the opening game and then was suspended for the first four games of the 2016 season as a punishment for the Patriots “Deflategate” scandal.
Late, great good-ol’-boy Burt Reynolds made the Pontiac Firebird so damn popular in 1977’s classic road movie Smokey and the Bandit that people have paid nearly $200,000 for a recreation of the iconic car.
So the sole 1977 Pontiac Firebird Trans Am actually owned by Reynolds should fetch a pretty penny from car collectors at Barrett-Jackson’s Scottsdale sale.
The black-and-gold beauty wasn’t actually driven by Reynolds in Smokey and the Bandit, but rather a promotional vehicle gifted as a “thank you” for his part in making a movie a movie that grossed $126.7 million at the box office.
Power comes from a 6.6-liter 8 that channels 185 hp and 320 pound-feet of torque to the rear wheels via an M40 three-speed automatic transmission. The hot rod was optioned with a twin-hatch T-roof, black leather interior, and AC, according to Robb Report.
Reynolds only drove the retro ride occasionally, but enough to leave still-visible markings from his cowboy boots on the driver’s sill plate.
The second owner restored the vehicle to as-new, preserving the hand-painted bandit lettering over each door and golden bird decal surrounding the hood scoop.
And there are other Reynolds-related pieces of automobilia included with purchase, including a ’70s-style “Trans Am” jacket, “Bandit” cowboy hat, and an autographed copy of the leading man’s But Enough About Me autobiography.
Interested in owning a piece of automotive history? Head to Barrett-Jackson’s website to learn more.
Memo to Nets fans…you now have two favorite NBA teams: The one in Brooklyn, and whichever other one is playing the Washington Wizards.
Why that second one?
Because there remains a chance that Bradley Beal will finally pronounce himself fed up with the years and years of failure and frustration in Washington and will ask to be released from torture, perhaps prior to the Feb. 10 NBA trade deadline.
The Wizards blew a 35-point lead in a loss to the Los Angeles Clippers on Tuesday night, where they were 5-point NBA odds favorites at MaximBet, and that represented their fourth consecutive defeat. After the game, Beal started asking the type of rhetorical questions that Philadelphia GM Daryl Morey has been waiting for.
“What are we trying to achieve, honestly?” Beal said. “What kind of a team are we trying to be? I think that’s my biggest question to all of us as a unit.”
“I’m very well aware of how we’re playing and how other teams are playing and what my interests are,” Beal said. “And obviously I’m a big factor into that, too, in producing and playing well and performing. But I want to win. And we all know that. It’s just a matter of us doing it.”
But if the Wizards as presently constituted are simply not good enough to compete for a title, we must assume that it is only a matter of time before Beal or his agent approaches Wizards ownership/management and drops the bomb: a trade request.
If that happens, odds are that Beal goes to the Sixers for Ben Simmons, which would thereby remove one possible sign-and-trade destination for Harden over the summer if he decides he no longer wants to be in Kings County.
“Beal is still No. 1 on the Sixers’ list,” one Eastern Conference executive told Maxim. “And as far as the Harden thing goes, what everybody’s missing is that Philly could still get Harden without doing a straight up deal with Brooklyn. The Sixers just would need to go and get the guys that Brooklyn wants.”
Of course, none of this was supposed to be discussed this season because Brooklyn entered the season (and remains) the prohibitive favorite to come out of the East, according to the NBA futures odds at MaximBet.
But rumors have been circulating and getting stronger that Harden is dissatisfied with a) Kyrie Irving’s refusal to get vaccinated; b) the cost of living in the Big Apple with its country-high income taxes; and c) the state of the Nets on the court, where the rotations that coach Steve Nash uses change on an almost game-to-game basis depending on who is hot and who is not.
Harden tried throwing cold water on the discussion, to little avail.
“I don’t know about any reports,” Harden said after Bleacher Report published an article saying that the Bearded One’s frustrations with Brooklyn are mounting.
“Of course I’m frustrated because we’re not healthy, there’s a lot of inconsistencies for whatever reason: Injuries, COVID, whatever you want to call it. But yeah, it’s frustrating. I think everyone in this organization is frustrated because we’re better than what our record is we should be on the way up. That’s all it is.”
Frustrations have a way of boiling over, and that is what the Nets have to be wary about here at the relative midpoint of the season as sports fans devote most of their attention to staying warm and making it to this Sunday when the NFL Playoffs resume.
It is three long months until the NBA playoffs begin, and since the trade deadline has still not arrived and nobody has any idea yet exactly what the 10 or so contending teams will look like heading into the postseason.
And so, we find ourselves in an 82-game slog of a regular season in which every hiccup for the Nets and/or Lakers leads to a league-wide GI infection for the rest of the Association, especially for players on teams who would welcome the addition of a talent like Harden if he were to become available.
Remember, the Nets were enthusiastic and optimistic at the start of training camp that they would have their entire team vaccinated prior to Opening Night, and that Harden and Irving would sign long-term extensions that would keep them in Brooklyn for another four years, allowing for an accumulation of championship rings rather than just a single title.
But Irving never signed and neither did Harden, who becomes eligible this summer for a record $270 million contract if his current one expires. The Nets have shown themselves to be more than willing to extend Harden for three years for $161.1 million, and the lack of activity on that front has got to be a concern to fans of the Nets.
“KD wants to win now. He signed his extension,” the Eastern Conference exec said.
So if Harden decides to try his luck elsewhere, where might that be?
That is where it gets complicated, but we make the complicated fairly simple. And one thing that everyone can wrap their heads around is money, specifically how much of it a wage-earner gets to keep and how much he must fork over to federal, state and municipal authorities.
In Florida and Texas, there are no state or local income taxes, and athletes playing in those states are taking home roughly 20 percent more money than their colleagues in the high-tax states of New York and California.
If Harden wanted to go to Florida and win right away, only one team could accommodate him: The Miami Heat. But Miami is already committed to $131 million in player salaries for next season, which means they could only acquire Harden in a trade. Kyle Lowry and Duncan Robinson would work cap-side if that was the best the Nets could do.
In Texas, the only team that is currently contending or has a chance to contend in the next four years is the Dallas Mavericks, and Harden does many of the same things that Luka Doncic already does. So would that even work?
Naysayers would say no because Doncic needs the ball in his hands to be the perfect mix of scorer and facilitator. But the same things were often said about Irving, who moved off the ball when playing with Harden and did just fine without having to be a ball distributor.
The Mavs are also capped out for next season in large part because Doncic’s supermax extension kicks in, but if Dallas and Brooklyn really wanted to do a deal, it could get done. Kristaps Porzingis and Dwight Powell works cap-wise and would give the Nets a great deal of size on an already undersized roster that is about to get even smaller when Paul Millsap’s trade request is granted.
But those are only two of the possibilities, and when you think about it Harden can pretty much pick his preferred destination and see if Brooklyn will facilitate it … as long as he is prepared to ditch if it does not happen, which would mean signing with a team that has max cap room or something close to it.
Right now, that is a list that is limited to Cleveland, Chicago, Detroit, Orlando, San Antonio, Memphis and Oklahoma City.
The Thunder are likely not an option (they had their chance with Harden and blew it), but every other one of the aforementioned teams (with the exception of the Magic and Spurs) are theoretically one great player away from being the next prohibitive favorite.
Cleveland would have to jettison its backcourt pairing of Darius Garland and Collin Sexton/Ricky Rubio, but that has already happened this season because of knee injuries suffered by Sexton and Rubio.
The Bulls have an eclectic mix of young and old that Harden could fit in with seamlessly. The Pistons are a lot further away but have one of the top young talents in the league in Cade Cunningham playing alongside an established winner and veteran big man, Jerami Grant.
Memphis is sneaky good in the West and would have to find a way to get Harden and Ja Morant to feed off each other, which is not impossible.
Most importantly, of course, Harden would have to leave Brooklyn, which has not happened and may not ever happen.
“I just heard about these reports,” Nets coach Steve Nash said, “I haven’t spoken to him about any of these things. I’m not sure what to believe.”
Truthfully, though, Nash knows to believe what he hears. And until he hears the words “I want to be traded” come out of James Harden’s mouth, all he and the rest of the Nets can do is sit tight, hope for the best and pray that all three of their superstars are equal participants in whatever comes their way.
But time is running short in Brooklyn, a lot shorter than everyone expected when the operative thought was that Durant, Harden and Irving would spend a half-decade together in the County of Kings. It still might happen, but it is certainly not the mortal lock it once seemed. And that is one of the reasons why the NBA keeps us transfixed: If it is not interesting today, it very well might be tomorrow.
Here are MaximBet’s complete odds for James Harden’s next team, which you can wager on here.
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Aaron Rodgers‘ controversial COVID-19 takes are topical fodder for comedian Aziz Ansari in the trailer for his new Netflix standup special, Nightclub Comedian.
The clip opens with Ansari inquiring into the crowds’ thoughts on the COVID vaccine-averse Green Bay Packers quarterback. One responds, “Fuck that guy,” giving Ansari a segue into semi-sympathetic material on the 38-year-old QB.
“People hate that guy! They’re like, ‘He’s a fucking idiot!’” Ansari said. “It’s like, ‘Alright, calm down! He’s a football player! He read some articles, he got skeptical, he did some research… Are you stunned he came to the wrong conclusion?”
Rodgers was widely criticized when he tested positive for COVID-19 after claiming he was “immunized” against the virus. It was found that he had followed a vaccine-less protocol that was rejected by the NFL.
He also questioned the vaccine’s efficacy and implied that ivermectin isn’t being used in treatment because it’s not financially lucrative (experts currently have insufficient evidence to recommend its use in COVID-19 patients.)
“This poor guy!” Ansari continued. “It’s like we’re all in high school and we’re making fun of the quarterback for doing bad on the science test. ‘You’re a dummy, Aaron! You’re a dummy! You don’t know anything, do you? You’re a dumb-dumb!’ This guy makes a living getting hit in the head! Can we cut him a break?”
Rodgers may not want a break. He recently discussed his outspoken disposition in an interview with NFL Network’s Kay Adams that was recorded before the Packers’ were kicked out of the playoffs by the San Francisco 49ers.
“For a long time I think I was a little more of an enigma because I was quiet about my personal life and I think at some point you just stop giving a fuck about being quiet and say ‘enough is enough,’” Rodgers said per the New York Post.
“I’m going to use my platforms to speak more candidly and set the record straight on things that need to be straightened out. It’s just caring about the things that are important and my narrative is important.”
After Rodgers’ disappointing Divisional Round loss, he made his weekly appearance on The Pat McAfee podcast and described how people who are typically indifferent towards the Packers’ success rooted against the team because of his vaccination status.
“There was a ton of people tuning in, rooting against us for one reason and one reason only — it’s because of my vaccination status,” Rodgers told McAfee.
“Wanting to see us lose so they can pile on, enjoy and revel in the fact that my vaccination status was some sort of reason why we haven’t had success in the playoffs.”
“I realize that I’ve been divisive this season by my vaccination status and by my willingness to talk about it — to talk about the research that I’ve done and my own opinions — I take accountability for that.”
As they say, that’s life in the NFL.
Elizabeth Hurley isn’t letting a hurt ankle stop the stream of bikini pics that keep 2.2 million followers engaged with her Instagram feed.
The 56-year-old actress, model, and Elizabeth Hurley Beach swimwear proprietor has been nursing an ankle injury sustained on a Caribbean movie set since December, the Daily Mail reports.
But while a recovering Hurley presumably hasn’t been able to pose for new bikini pics lately, she’s still dropped a couple cached snaps in 2022—see the first above.
“Yes, I could be in a swimming pool with a pink flamingo,” she captioned her latest. “Or I could be snuggled up with my doggies in Blighty, eating a Terry’s chocolate orange and about to watch the final season of Ozark….. you decide.”
Over 186,000 fans liked the post. Looking at her Instagram activity in 2022, it’s second in popularity only to another bikini pic that racked up over 203,000 likes in the first week of January.
“Got this shot whilst on location filming Christmas in the Caribbean – just before I sprained my silly ankle,” she revealed in the caption of the above image. “Now, still on crutches and lying on the sofa, eating chocolates and feeling sorry for myself.”
Both are a long way off from Hurley’s most-liked post of 2021, in which she dons only a fur coat and a white bikini bottom from her eponymous swimwear line.
That one garnered close to 315,000 likes—250,000 of which came in under 24 hours.
Surely Hurley will crack that record by year’s end.
I’m writing this on a Friday morning still perplexed at how I’ve yet to get a notification on my phone that the Dallas Cowboys have fired Mike McCarthy. They are the most popular and valuable NFL franchise.
Our industry, as a whole, does better when they’re pretty good and I believe sincerely that Jerry Jones cares about his team’s fortunes, even if you can’t see it on his mannequin-like plasticized face.
But it still hasn’t happened. McCarthy makes the dumbest play call in NFL playoffs history (I’m not fact checking that) and continues to be employed while other teams are actively wooing both of his assistants.
I don’t love the Cowboys, but I don’t hate them. I hate the San Francisco 49ers. But because I love the NFL, it’s better when these teams are good. I’ll go ahead and grudgingly say the same for the New England Patriots now, though it hurts me to even type it.
These teams, along with the Green Bay Packers, Pittsburgh Steelers, New York Giants and Denver Broncos are kind of the good NFL starter set. The league is better if they’re all contenders.
Mike McCarthy shouldn’t be the head coach of the Dallas Cowboys. He shouldn’t be a head coach at all. With his skillset and football acumen, he’s obviously meant to be the night manager at an IHOP in Iowa. There’s still time to make that dream real.
We can’t continue to look back to last week or wish Jerry Jones wasn’t driven mad by too many botox injections. Instead, we need to take a gander at the NFL odds, lines and totals over at MaximBet with an eye toward the future.
And making some money on remainder of the NFL Playoffs.
Last week, we had two teams display near perfect performances in blowout victories over division rivals and neither of them are favored Sunday.
This line has dropped half a point since the odds opened at MaximBet, which means bettors are getting excited at the prospect of a Rams upset. There’s good reason to think it. Los Angeles is 2-0 against the Brady Bucs over the last two seasons and one of those games was with Jared Goff at quarterback.
Earlier this season, the Rams dominated Tampa Bay, winning 34-24 in a game that really wasn’t that close. The Buccaneers added a TD in garbage time.
Von Miller made a career out of ending Tom Brady-playoff runs while he was in Denver. Tampa’s receiving corps is depleted and they could be down two starting offensive linemen. I see it just like you. The Rams are my team. The stage is set for the upset we all, as a civilization, want.
And that’s exactly why it won’t happen. Tom Brady has been ruining my fucking life for two decades and there’s no reason for him to stop now.
Take the Bucs at -3 or the Bucs moneyline at -145.
While the Rams put forth maybe their best performance of the year against the Arizona Cardinals, the Bills were legitimately perfect. They scored touchdowns on every possession but their final one, in which they took a knee to end the game. You literally can not do better than that.
If that was a game of Madden 21, Bill Belichick would have hit the rest button and planted his controller into the drywall at halftime.
The Chiefs, not used to playing in this “Wild Card Round” thing with the rest of the plebes, needed a quarter to get warmed up before tossing the Pittsburgh Steelers into the woodchipper.
This line has ticked down too, with more people putting money on the Bills. This is easily the best weekend of football on the planet and the final eight teams here, should all be here.
They are the legit NFL Elite Eight and any one of them could beat the other. It’s the beauty of the sport. No upset this week could shock me. All that would surprise me is if any of the games were blowouts.
That being said, I picked the Bucs to face the Chiefs in The Most Boring Super Bowl Pick in NFL History to open the season and I’m sticking with it.
Take the Chiefs at -1.5 or the Chiefs moneyline at -125.
Adam Greene is @TheFirstMan on Twitter.
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Kendall Jenner is channeling her inner Wym Hof in a chilly new Instagram post.
The 26-year-old supermodel stepped into snowy conditions at Aspen while wearing just a stringy black bikini and faux fur boots. A trio of photos preserved frigid moment for Jenner’s 214 million Instagram followers.
“Wim Hof said ice baths,” Jenner captioned the daring pics in reference to the Dutch extreme athlete, who’s been nicknamed “The Iceman” for his conquering of many freezing feats.
Jenner wore more appropriate winter kit in her previous Instagram post—a carousel showing snowboard highlights, including a video of the stunner popping multiple ollies before taking a light fall.
The powdery prowess caught the attention three-time Olympic champion snowboarder Shaun White, who responded with approving “fire” and “clapping” emojis.
In unsurprising news, the bikini photos have 9.8 million likes and counting, versus the snowboard gallery’s 5.1 million.
