After months of speculation after parting with the New England Patriots following the team’s loss in the 2026 Super Bowl, NFL wide receiver Stefon Diggs finally finds a new home with the Washington Commanders for the upcoming season, per a report from ESPN reporter Ian Rapoport. The deal signed is allegedly a one-year contract worth up to $12 million.
This is a big move for both Diggs and Washington. For Diggs, he’s had a bit of an interesting offseason. Not only has he been without a team since March 11, but he’s unfortunately been battling off-the-field legal issues. And for Washington, Diggs adds depth to a team that finished third in the NFC East last season and is hoping to make a bigger impact come this fall.
Why Steffon Diggs for the Washington Commanders Makes Sense
Dedham, MA - May 4: Stefon Diggs . (Photo by Pat Greenhouse/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)
Let’s start with the obvious. Diggs returning home makes perfect sense for someone with ties to the Washington, DC metro area. Diggs is from Gaithersburg, Maryland, which is about 27 miles from the nation’s capital. Additionally, he played college football at the University of Maryland. So he’s well-versed in the area.
From a team standpoint, the Commanders beefed up their roster prior to the addition of Diggs, but plenty of analysts still had concerns surrounding the wide receiver options. Sure, they had wide receivers like Treylon Burks, Van Jefferson, and Jacoby Jones, but Diggs gives quarterback Jayden Daniels a more dynamic option. (Terry McLaurin is also a tough wide receiver for the Commanders who shouldn't be overlooked.) Last season, Diggs received 1,013 yards, had 85 receptions, and scored four touchdowns.
But what do you think? With Diggs, do the Commanders move up in the standings in the NFC East, and overall NFC?
In bourbon, few brand names carry the weight of Jim Beam—and few families have carried that weight longer than the Beams. For a long time it was said that you couldn’t have a distillery in Kentucky without a Beam working there. Now, the Noes who are direct descendants of James Beauregard Beam continue that legacy and help guide the bourbon that bares their famous ancestor's name.
Currently, Fred Noe is the seventh‑generation master distiller of the company and his son Freddie is the eighth. Fred is the steward of the world’s best‑selling bourbon. Freddie is the innovator behind Little Book and Hardin’s Creek lines of whiskey. He is the one rethinking what Beam whiskey can be.
For Fred, the path into whiskey was almost geographic destiny. He is Jim Beam’s great-grandson and he grew up next door to his relative's house. “Going to the distillery with my father was my happy place,” said Fred. “It just seemed like it was the natural thing to do.” Back then, bourbon wasn’t glamorous. It was simply what his family did for a living.
Booker Noe was Jim Beam's grandson and helped launch the rebirth of American whiskey.
Courtesy Suntory Global Spirits
Booker Noe, Fred’s father, was a towering figure in the industry, the man who helped revive small‑batch bourbon in the 1990s, introducing Booker’s, Baker’s, Knob Creek and Basil Hayden. But he never pressured Fred to follow him. “Dad always stressed be yourself,” Fred says. “He said, ‘it’s your ride. Do it your way.’” Booker even tried to push him toward other careers when bourbon sales cratered in the 1970s. While Fred tried out a few different jobs, including working on Hank Williams Jr.’s touring crew, he ultimately came back to the family business. When Booker died in the winter of 2004, Fred's sense of responsibility sharpened. “I can’t rely on Dad anymore,” Fred remembers thinking. “It’s on my shoulders to carry the legacy.”
Freddie also didn’t start out aiming for the distillery. He had other plans, and for a while they seemed pretty far from whiskey. As a kid, he wanted to be a lawyer. “My dad said I had expensive taste,” he jokes. But when he shadowed a lawyer in high school and realized law school meant many more years of classes, the dream evaporated. He went off to college still unsure of what direction to take in life.
At Booker’s wake, Freddie heard story after story about how his grandfather and the Beam family had shaped people’s lives. “I figured out I didn’t want to be in school anymore,” he said. “And I thought, well, maybe this is what I’m supposed to do.”
Freddie Noe brings a new focus on innovation to Jim Beam.
Courtesy Suntory Global Spirits
He also remembered walking the distillery’s grounds with his grandfather and seeing how employees lit up when Booker walked through the gate. “Everyone there is so proud of making Beam whiskey,” Freddie says.
Shortly after Booker passed, he traveled with Fred to Miami for an event about small‑batch bourbon and saw his father lead a tasting. “I’d never heard him do that before,” he says. “It solidified that this was something special.”
But Freddie didn’t want to simply be given a job. He wanted to understand it—and then make it his own. His personal whiskey philosophy starts with preservation: protecting the Beam way of making whiskey. But layered on top is inquisitiveness, a trait he credits to both Booker and his maternal grandmother Annis Noe. “They kept me being a kid longer than most kids can be,” he says. “They kept me curious.”
Freddie and Fred Noe share a whiskey together.
Courtesy Suntory Global Spirits
That curiosity led to Freddie creating Little Book, which is blended whiskey series that has become his signature. The idea for the line was sparked when he read American Still Life by spirits expert Paul Pacult, which is about the Beam family. Freddie started thinking about how corn, rye, and malted barley each express flavor when cooked individually. “Hell, why wouldn’t we individually cook these grains?” he remembers thinking. “Would it taste like Jim Beam or totally different?”
Traditionally, in the United States distillers combine all of the grains together during the mashing process and they get cooked together. When he mentioned this idea to Fred, his father told him bluntly: “You’re talking about blending. That’s a whole new landscape.”
Blending isn't exactly a celebrated word in Kentucky. “Back when Booker was around, blend was a cuss word,” Fred says. Historically, blended American whiskey was a mix of straight whiskey and essentially vodka. It is a cheaper alternative to bourbon or rye and is understandably looked down upon by aficionados.
But what Freddie was thinking about doing was completely different and in fact similar to how blended whisky has been made in Scotland and Canada. So he pushed ahead, experimenting with prototypes, failing, recalibrating, and eventually creating a bourbon‑esque blend that opened a new lane for American whiskey.
Hardin’s Creek, another major project of Freddie’s, digs even deeper into the family’s past. Named for the place where his ancestor Jacob Beam first made whiskey in 1795, the brand explores the effect of age and terroir on bourbon. “It’s a journey of learning,” he said.
Not every experiment works. Freddie laughs when he talks about a hyper‑technical fermentation project that collapsed after a minor chemistry issue. “It taught me nothing within the moment, but a lot holistically,” he said. The lesson: even the smallest details—grain truck schedules, setback levels, pH—can derail a batch. And sometimes the distillery’s schedule and natural rhythms remind you that you’re not the one in control of every detail.
Fred has watched all of this with a mix of pride and amusement. Years before Freddie started pushing boundaries with Little Book, Fred weathered his own innovation storm in 2009 when Beam released Red Stag, a line of flavored bourbon. “Some people thought we were crazy,” he says. “Some thought we were smart.” The product ended up pulling new drinkers into whiskey — a dynamic he now recognizes in Freddie’s blends. “He’s taking straight whiskeys and blending them like it should be done,” Fred says. “Some of those products he’s created amaze me.”
Both men are navigating a bourbon landscape that’s shifting again. Freddie sees consumers becoming more mindful with their dollar—and more curious about how whiskey is made. “It bodes well for us,” he says, pointing to Beam’s transparency and unique process.
Through it all, the Noes remain grounded in the human side of whiskey. Fred still enjoys bourbon with a little ice and water, or a cocktail — when someone else makes it. Freddie tests new products at home while cooking dinner, trying to capture real moments, and not just under sensory lab conditions.
The legacy continues, and Freddie is clear about the part he plays in it. “I’m doing what I’m supposed to do as a Beam,” he says. “To continue the legacy and share our whiskey with the world.”
It may be a brand new day for Peter Parker, but it's a brand new era for the Marvel franchise and the box office.
Spider-Man: Brand New Day, the fourth instalment in the Tom Holland-led Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) franchise, has surpassed Avengers: Endgame (2019) to become the biggest opening weekend in box office history. The blockbuster, which co-stars Zendaya, Jacob Batalon,Mark Ruffalo, Michael Mando, Sadie Sink, Jon Bernthal, and Tramell Tillman, grossed $360 million domestically over its first weekend, outpacing Endgame's $357 million weekend opening (per Variety).
Globally, Brand New Day swung in with a $927 million opening, with only Endgame having a better worldwide first weekend, at $1.2 billion. Both Marvel films are the only movies in box office history to gross over $300 million domestically in their opening weekends.
These numbers are particularly impressive, given that Endgame, along with its predecessor, Avengers: Infinity War, was a groundbreaking crossover event for Marvel's A-listers and the culmination of over a decade of storytelling. Brand New Day follows Holland's original MCU trilogy, and, according to the actor, will likely be the start of a new series of films, most likely its own trilogy.
Even Spider-Man: No Way Home, which brought back Andrew Garfield and Tobey Maguire to reprise their own versions of Peter Parker/Spider-Man, along with the villains from their respective universes, did not make the same splash at the box office in its opening weekend as Brand New Day.
“Wow! 360 million thank-yous to all the filmmakers, actors, producers, and to my colleagues at Sony, who created such a fantastic film and an exceptional marketing and distribution campaign,” Tom Rothman, chairman of Sony Pictures, said in a statement following the announcement of the new record (per Variety). “Records are made to be broken, but we will take great pride in this one, for as long as we hold it.”
Aside from financial success, Brand New Day has been a smash with audiences critically, breaking the Rotten Tomatoes record for the highest audience score for MCU's Spider-Man franchise.
Much like many top-tier Hollywood directors, M. Night Shyamalan traces his roots to independent films. The Indian-American filmmaker made his directorial debut with the 1992 indie flick Praying With Anger, which he created while still at NYU.
He broke into the mainstream with the 1999 box office hit The Sixth Sense, which starred Bruce Willis. The horror movie was a massive success, establishing Shyamalan's status as one of Hollywood's biggest breakout filmmakers.
Building on the momentum of his first blockbuster hit, Shyamalan collaborated with Willis again for the 2000 thriller Unbreakable.
The film follows David Dunn, played by Willis, who is the lone survivor of a tragic train crash. As David comes out of the wreck unscathed, he comes across Elijah Price, played by Samuel L. Jackson, who puts David on a path to unearth his superhuman abilities.
While it is far from Shyamalan's most successful movies, the director himself considers it his "personal favorite" among all the films he's made.
M. Night Shyamalan's Unbreakable Named His Best Film of All Time
The critics met Unbreakable with mixed reviews. While others praised the movie for its cinematography and its deconstruction of the traditional superhero narrative, others found it lacking under the immense pressure of The Sixth Sense.
Over the years, however, Unbreakable has risen to the top of Shyamalan's remarkable filmography. In fact, British GQ named it as the director's best movie. Unbreakable ranks No. 1 on the publication's definitive ranking of Shyamalan's films, beating out the likes of Signs, Trap and even The Sixth Sense.
"Like a lot of great films, Unbreakable feels both prescient about similar movies that followed it, and, from a certain upside-down angle (a recurring visual motif throughout the film), a far better version of what it previsions," British GQ's Jesse Hassenger wrote.
While not entirely in the same mold as the more modern superhero flicks, Unbreakable also made its mark in the genre. It is widely considered one of the greatest superhero films ever made.
Unbreakable is far from Shyamalan's most successful movie at the box office, but the way it has emerged as one of his best creations validates his personal affection for it.
The San Francisco 49ers have placed wide receiver Ricky Pearsall Jr. on season-ending injured reserve. This comes just days after Pearsall Jr. was sidelined with swelling in his knee. The swelling stems from an injury to his Posterior cruciate ligament (PCL), which occurred in a game last season against the Jacksonville Jaguars.
Per Mick Shlain of NBC Sports. “49ers GM John Lynch told reporters Pearsall would have surgery on his PCL. A year after knee injuries limited him to nine games, Pearsall will miss the entire 2026 season.”
Earlier this week, it was reported that the 49ers had some “concern” about Pearsall’s knee swelling up, and they were “exploring all options”. It now seems the team has decided the best course of action is surgery, which will cause the third-year player to miss the entirety of 2026.
Pearsall has dealt with injuries throughout his short career after being selected in the first round of the 2024 NFL draft with pick 31. He was shot in the chest just days before the start of his rookie season during an attempted robbery, which caused him to miss the first six games of his career. He would go on to have a solid rookie season, all things considered, as he posted 31 receptions for 400 yards and 3 touchdowns in 11 games.
His sophomore season was once again derailed by injuries, as he only appeared in 9 contests. He was able to set career highs in receptions with 36 and receiving yards with 528, but he failed to find the endzone.
San Francisco signed receiver Deebo Samuel on Thursday to a one-year, $7 million deal. With Christian Kirk dealing with his own injury, the team reacquired Samuel to bolster a receiving corps headlined by Mike Evans, who is entering his 13th NFL season.
As hunters begin preparing for the fall season, several states are rolling out new firearm laws that could affect everything from buying ammunition to carrying certain firearms in public.
While most of the new laws took effect in July, additional changes are still on the way in some states, creating a patchwork of regulations that gun owners should be aware of.
Beginning in July, the state raised the minimum age to purchase ammunition from 18 to 21, except at licensed shooting ranges. Retailers must also keep ammunition behind counters or in locked displays rather than allowing customers to access it directly.
The state also expanded restrictions on so-called "ghost guns," limiting the use of 3D printers and other computer-assisted equipment to manufacture firearms and firearm parts.
Another major change arrives August 1, when most buyers of certain semi-automatic rifles and handguns with detachable magazines will first need to obtain a Firearms Safety Course Eligibility Card after completing a background check and state-approved safety training.
Rhode Island and Virginia Expand Restrictions
Rhode Island's new Assault Weapons Ban Act prohibits the manufacture, sale, purchase, and possession of many semi-automatic rifles, pistols, and shotguns that meet specific feature and magazine-capacity requirements. The law took effect July 1 and is among the broadest firearm restrictions enacted this year. The initial fact sheet for the law stated, "If enacted, this bill will prevent unnecessary bloodshed without hindering Rhode Islanders’ ability to hunt, shoot recreationally, or protect themselves."
Virginia also implemented new restrictions on certain semi-automatic firearms while expanding the state's legal definition of assault weapons. In addition, lawmakers approved limits on carrying certain firearms in public places, although enforcement of that provision has been temporarily blocked while legal challenges move through the courts.
Kentucky Moves in the Opposite Direction
Not every state is adding restrictions.
Kentucky has expanded concealed-carry rights for adults ages 18 to 20 who complete the required training and background checks. Previously, most residents in that age group could openly carry a firearm but generally could not obtain a concealed-carry license until turning 21.
What Hunters Should Know
Many hunting regulations remain separate from general firearm laws, but changes affecting ammunition purchases, firearm eligibility, or carrying rules could impact sportsmen traveling across state lines this season.
With dove, waterfowl, and big-game seasons approaching in many parts of the country, hunters are encouraged to review the latest regulations in any state where they plan to hunt, particularly if they'll be transporting firearms or purchasing ammunition during their trip.
REI recently unlocked a treasure trove of Arc’teryx deals, including some of the biggest discounts on the brand’s products I’ve personally ever seen (like the Rho LT base layer for 41% off or the Gamma MX jacket for nearly 40% off). While this discounted gear is selling out quickly, there are still a select few pieces available, including this lightweight, sun-blocking hoodie that is perfect for summer’s chillier moments.
The Arc’teryx Sima Hoody is on sale at REI for just $120; that’s a 25% discount from its $160 MSRP. REI not only has the best price and size selection for this hoodie, but it’s one of the few online retailers that even sells it. It’s no longer available at Arc’teryx, and major retailers like Dick’s Sporting Goods and Backcountry don’t have this item listed at all.
“Hoody” might make you think of fall and winter gear, but this is actually an awesome layer for summertime. Why? Its 100% polyester Diem fabric provides excellent sun protection—it’s rated UPF 50+, the highest UPF rating—and great breathability, too. The hood provides crucial coverage over your neck, and it’s designed to fit under a helmet, so it’ll play nice with your other gear.
The Sima is a great choice to wear during fishing trips, boat excursions, beach hangs, bike rides, or any scenario where you’ll be outside and active in the sun. You don’t have to worry about applying sunscreen or losing your sun protection as you sweat, and the Sima’s breathable fabric will keep you comfortable in warm weather.
Here’s how the Sima stacks up against more familiar Arc’teryx layers. It can function as a base layer like the Rho LT, but it’s lighter and more breathable—the Rho has a fleecy interior lining that traps some warmth. And while the Sima lacks the weatherproofing of true jackets like the Gamma MX and Beta SL, it’s a much better choice for summer activities. Those other jackets can’t match its breathability; they will feel way too hot.
Shoppers are swarming over REI’s stash of Arc’teryx deals, and sizes are selling out quickly. Just one colorway of the Sima Hoody has a complete size range, so there’s not much time left for this 25% deal. Get one in your cart before they’re all gone.
