Before the Minnesota Vikings and Detroit Lions kicked off Thursday's slate of Thanksgiving games, legendary singer Aretha Franklin delivered the national anthem.
It was a tad lengthy, and Twitter was quick to pounce. Some of the tweets:
"I cooked my whole turkey, ate and did the dishes during Aretha Franklin's National Anthem performance." @BlaiseInKC
"Aretha Franklin gonna take up the whole 3hrs. Lions game canceled." @JRSportBrief
"Bad news: Football is cancelled. Good news: 13-hour Aretha Franklin concert. Leave it on through dinner. Everybody will love it." @ringer
"Delay of game: Aretha Franklin." @MachinesPicks
CBS poked fun at Franklin's rendition with a time of possession graphic showing a picture of the 74-year-old alongside logos of the Vikings and Lions. It read:
TIME OF POSSESSION
Vikings 10:48
Lions 14:37
Aretha Franklin 4:35
That's a rap
Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt can rap as well as he runs.
OK, that's not even close to being true, but he's still pretty good at it. Good enough to take down Late Late Show host James Corden this week in a freestyle battle.
Corden may have lost, but he definitely held his own. He got off to quite the start with a powerful Michael Phelps punchline.
"Athletes aren't great at math, so I hope this helps ... You have 14 gold medals less than Michael Phelps," Corden rhymed.
That was followed by: "It must be bittersweet to achieve your dreams, but still live in the shadow of a bobsled team."
The nine-time Olympic gold medalist came back strong by rapping about his gold medals, then clinched the battle with this one:
"So you saw Cool Runnings on your couch one night ... while I was in the gym making that movie my life ... I'm the fastest human being in the history of racing ... You're the host of the lowest show in the history of ratings."
Kids got skins
J.R. Smith is inspiring our youth.
How? He "made it cool" to rip off your shirt.
Smith went the days after the Cleveland Cavaliers won the NBA championship over the Golden State Warriors without a shirt and again went without one earlier this month when he tried to rally the Cleveland Indians in the World Series against the Chicago Cubs.
During the Cleveland Cavaliers' 137-125 victory over the Portland Trail Blazers on Wednesday night, two young fans followed in Smith's footsteps by flexing shirtless during a break in the action. They inspired Cleveland's mascot, Moondog, to ditch his jersey, too.
After the timeout, Smith hugged and high-fived the kids. He finished the victory with eight points while connecting on all three of his field-goal attempts.
Holiday joy
The Washington Redskins and Dallas Cowboys continued to jostle for NFC East supremacy Thursday in Arlington, Texas.
But ahead of the Thanksgiving Day showdown at AT&T Stadium, Washington tackle Ty Nsekhe gave out 10 tickets to police officers and families affected by the July shooting in Dallas.
"I'm just hoping to just bring some light," Nsekhe, 31, told Master Tesfatsion of the Washington Post. "One day of joy. I don't know if they've been able to see a Cowboys game before. If they haven't, hopefully it's a great experience for them."
QUIZ
What year was the movie Cool Runnings released?
ANSWER
1993
Sports on 11/25/2016