title: Deflategate

text: Commentary on the initial punishment was mixed. Bleacher Report referred to the penalties as "brutal." Various commentators also expressed that the Patriots' reputation as a team that bends rules appeared to factor into the harshness of the punishment. Others described the punishment as "firm but fair."


title: Deflategate

text: On May 14, the National Football League Players Association (NFLPA) filed an appeal of Brady's four-game suspension. The NFL also announced that Roger Goodell would preside over Brady's appeal, despite objections from the NFLPA, which requested a neutral arbitrator.


title: Deflategate

text: On May 19, Kraft told media at an NFL owners' meeting that he did not plan to appeal the penalties. Kraft's decision had no impact on the NFLPA's appeal on behalf of Brady. Patriots fans held a "Free Brady" rally at Gillette Stadium on May 26, 2015.


title: Deflategate

text: On June 23, Brady appealed his suspension before Goodell at the NFL's offices in New York City in a 10-hour-long hearing.


title: Deflategate

text: On July 28, Goodell announced that he had upheld the four-game suspension, citing Brady's destruction of his cell phone as a critical factor: "On or shortly before March 6, the day that Tom Brady met with independent investigator Ted Wells and his colleagues, Brady directed that the cell phone he had used for the prior four months be destroyed," the league statement read. "He did so even though he was aware that the investigators had requested access to text messages and other electronic information that had been stored on that phone. During the four months that the cell phone was in use, Brady had exchanged nearly 10,000 text messages, none of which can now be retrieved from that device. The destruction of the cell phone was not disclosed until June 18, almost four months after the investigators had first sought electronic information from Brady." Despite these claims, the league was offered the opportunity to recover all text messages in question, stating in a footnote of the ruling, "After the hearing and after the submission of post-hearing briefs, Mr. Brady’s certified agents offered to provide a spreadsheet that would identify all of the individuals with whom Mr. Brady had exchanged text messages during [the relevant time] period; the agents suggested that the League could contact those individuals and request production of any relevant text messages that they retained." The NFL declined to pursue these records, stating in the footnote that following up on those records was "not practical." On the afternoon of the 28th, the NFL filed papers in Manhattan federal court seeking to confirm Goodell's decision.


title: Deflategate

text: On July 29, the NFLPA announced that it had filed an injunction that would prevent the NFL from enforcing the four-game suspension. On July 30, a Minnesota judge ordered the lawsuit be transferred to the Southern District of New York.


title: Deflategate

text: On July 29, Brady released a statement on his Facebook page criticizing Goodell's decision to uphold the suspension, stating in part: I am very disappointed by the NFL's decision to uphold the 4 game suspension against me. I did nothing wrong, and no one in the Patriots organization did either. Despite submitting to hours of testimony over the past 6 months, it is disappointing that the Commissioner upheld my suspension based upon a standard that it was "probable" that I was "generally aware" of misconduct. The fact is that neither I, nor any equipment person, did anything of which we have been accused. I also disagree with yesterdays narrative surrounding my cellphone. I replaced my broken Samsung phone with a new iPhone 6 AFTER my attorneys made it clear to the NFL that my actual phone device would not be subjected to investigation under ANY circumstances. As a member of a union, I was under no obligation to set a new precedent going forward, nor was I made aware at any time during Mr. Wells investigation, that failing to subject my cell phone to investigation would result in ANY discipline.


title: Deflategate

text: Most importantly, I have never written, texted, emailed to anybody at anytime, anything related to football air pressure before this issue was raised at the AFC Championship game in January. To suggest that I destroyed a phone to avoid giving the NFL information it requested is completely wrong. To try and reconcile the record and fully cooperate with the investigation after I was disciplined in May, we turned over detailed pages of cell phone records and all of the emails that Mr. Wells requested. We even contacted the phone company to see if there was any possible way we could retrieve any/all of the actual text messages from my old phone. In short, we exhausted every possibility to give the NFL everything we could and offered to go thru the identity for every text and phone call during the relevant time.


title: Deflategate

text: He dismissed my hours of testimony and it is disappointing that he found it unreliable...I will not allow my unfair discipline to become a precedent for other NFL players without a fight.


title: Deflategate

text: Kraft stated at a news conference that "I was wrong to put my faith in the league" and apologized to the team's fans for accepting the "harshest penalty in history of NFL for an alleged ball violation" because he thought that cooperating would help exonerate Brady.


title: Deflategate

text: The Patriots released email exchanges between the team and the NFL on July 31, 2015. The emails, beginning in February 2015, show the Patriots' frustration over the NFL's failure to investigate the source of leaks that were proven to consist largely of incorrect information. Mike Florio of ProFootballTalk.com later contrasted Wells' lack of concern regarding these leaks with his "outrage" over leaks from Columbia University after it was asked to consult on the investigation.


title: Deflategate

text: On July 31, 2015, Tom E. Curran of Comcast SportsNet New England reported that NFL vice president of game operations Mike Kensil was the "main source" of the report regarding the underinflation of the Patriots' footballs.


title: Deflategate

text: On August 4, as part of the appeals process, the transcript from Brady's appeal hearing was made public. Analysts pointed out that the transcript raised numerous issues regarding both Goodell's ruling and the Wells Report. For example, Goodell's decision upholding the suspension stated:"The sharp contrast between ["sic"] the almost complete absence of communications through the AFC championship game undermines any suggestion during the three days following the AFC championship game that the communications addressed only preparation of footballs for the Super Bowl rather than the tampering allegations and their anticipated responses to inquiries about the tampering."Dan Wetzel of Yahoo! Sports notes that this claim directly contradicts Brady's testimony:"While preparing for the Super Bowl was a primary concern – is that surprising? – Brady couldn't have been more clear that other topics were broached, including the scandal, and that they didn't ONLY discuss football prep for the Seattle game."


title: Deflategate

text: This, along with other issues raised, led Wetzel to ask "how does anyone in the NFL – owner, coach, player or fan – possibly trust the league office to investigate and rule on anything ever again?" Sally Jenkins of the "Washington Post" asked on Twitter whether this " that other disciplinary hearings be unsealed, given how NFL misconstrued testimony?" The transcript also showcased that league officials such as Troy Vincent were ignorant of the ideal gas law and natural changes in PSI.


title: Deflategate

text: The independence of Wells and Paul, Weiss & Co. has been questioned, notably by Mike Florio, as has an apparent conflict of interest: Lorin Reisner, who worked on the Wells Report, served as the attorney who cross-examined Brady at the appeal hearing on behalf of the NFL, and Wells asserted attorney–client privilege during the hearing.


title: Deflategate

text: On August 12, the NFL Players Association and Tom Brady met the NFL in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York at the Daniel Patrick Moynihan United States Courthouse in Foley Square to discuss a possible settlement. No settlement was reached, and the next scheduled court date was August 19. The judge asked to know what exact evidence linked Brady to deflating footballs, and NFL lawyer Daniel Nash responded that there was "no direct evidence Mr. Brady clearly knew about this," including records of text messages and phone calls between Brady and one of the two Patriots employees implicated. He also indicated that there was no "smoking gun" showing that Brady had direct knowledge that the balls were deflated.


title: Deflategate

text: It was reported that judge Richard M. Berman had pushed the NFL to settle during the August 19 hearing. While he could not force either side to settle the case, Berman was critical of the NFL's argument with questions of fundamental fairness and impartiality. It was also reported that Berman did not wish to decide on the case and preferred a settlement, and that by highlighting the most egregious flaws in the NFL's case, he might encourage the league to settle. The next settlement hearing occurred on August 31 with no change in position by either side. Judge Berman indicated that a final decision would be rendered within a week.


title: Deflategate

text: On September 3, Judge Berman overturned Brady's suspension, citing a lack of fair due process for Brady. The NFL announced that it would appeal the decision.


title: Deflategate

text: On October 26, 2015, the NFL filed a 61-page court brief to appeal Judge Berman's decision. Goodell stated that the appeal was not related to Brady's culpability but rather was a matter of the commissioner's current power that had been negotiated into the 2011 collective-bargaining agreement.


title: Deflategate

text: At a March 3, 2016 hearing in New York City, the three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit scrutinized NFLPA lawyer Jeffrey L. Kessler more intensely than it did NFL lawyer Paul Clement, and circuit judge Denny Chin stated that "the evidence of ball tampering is compelling, if not overwhelming."


title: Deflategate

text: On April 25, 2016, the Second Circuit reinstated Brady's four-game suspension for the 2016 regular season. Circuit judge Barrington Daniels Parker, Jr., joined by Chin, wrote that they could not "second-guess" the arbitration but were merely determining that it had "met the minimum legal standards established by the Labor Management Relations Act of 1947." Circuit chief judge Robert Katzmann dissented, writing that the NFL's use of fines for using stickum was "highly analogous" and that here "the Commissioner was doling out his own brand of industrial justice."


title: Deflategate

text: On May 23, 2016, Brady petitioned the court of appeals, requesting an "en banc" rehearing by the full court, but the petition was denied on July 13, 2016. "Boston Globe" columnists Bob Hohler and Ben Volin wrote: "Patriots great Tom Brady suffered a resounding defeat in a federal appeals court Wednesday, leaving him with the daunting option of a last-ditch plea to the Supreme Court in his arduous quest to clear his name. More than 14 months after the National Football League punished Brady for allegedly conspiring with Patriots employees, including an aide who dubbed himself The Deflator, to tamper with the air pressure of footballs in a conference championship game, the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit flatly rejected Brady's appeal of his four-game suspension. Not a single judge on the 13-member panel issued a dissent." Two days later, Brady announced that he would not appeal further and would serve his four-game suspension at the start of the 2016 NFL season.


title: Deflategate

text: Initial media reaction to the incident was extremely strong. After the reports emerged before the completion of the NFL's investigation, several media outlets had already called for Belichick–or even the entire Patriots team–to be disqualified from participation in Super Bowl XLIX. Dan Wetzel of Yahoo! Sports strongly criticized the league for deferring much of the investigation until after the Super Bowl so as not to interfere with the Patriots' preparations. Former quarterback Troy Aikman asserted that Deflategate was worse than Bountygate, and that Belichick should receive a harsher penalty than the one-year suspension New Orleans Saints coach Sean Payton had received. Other voices in the press took a strident but opposing view, calling it a "phony scandal" or "the dumbest sports scandal ever," and accused the media generally of overhyping the issue. Factors that may have helped fuel media interest in the incident included:


title: Deflategate

text: The strength of the initial media reaction to the incident contrasts with the superficial coverage that media outlets afforded to allegations that Cleveland Browns staff sent prohibited text messages or that the Atlanta Falcons may have secured an unfair advantage by generating artificial crowd noise during opponents' offensive snaps; some argued that if those accusations were true, "that's a far more serious offense than any deflated footballs could possibly be." In a November 2014 game between the Minnesota Vikings and Carolina Panthers, with a wind-chill temperature of , both teams used sideline heaters to warm the footballs during the game in violation of league policies, but no penalties were issued in that case and the media reaction was superficial.


title: Deflategate

text: The controversy was not only the dominant topic in the buildup to the Super Bowl, but was discussed beyond sports media. "National Review" and Rush Limbaugh provided social commentary. Limbaugh and fellow talk host Mark Levin compared the amount of attention devoted to the controversy to the amount devoted to the death of King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia and the change of government in Yemen, a commentary on the priorities of the American public.


title: Deflategate

text: Deflategate continued as a major news item following the Super Bowl and during the offseason, as the NFL issued its report and penalties were imposed and then appealed. As the story became increasingly less about football and more about scientific and legal processes, it became common for the media to mention "Deflategate fatigue." Eventually the media began to mock itself in relation to the reporting of Deflategate fatigue. Brady's successful appeal shortly before the start of the regular season reduced coverage while media attention returned to the games themselves, although coverage increased again for the prime-time game between the Colts and the Patriots in Week 6 of the 2015 NFL season. Media coverage increased again following the Second Circuit's decision on April 25, 2016 to reinstate Brady's four-game suspension. "Boston Globe" sports columnist Dan Shaughnessy concluded: "Bottom line: The Patriots were doing it. They had a system of deflating footballs after the balls were inspected by officials. Any agenda-less person who reads the Wells Report would come away with no other conclusion. The texts were unexplainable."


title: Deflategate

text: On January 24, 2015, "Saturday Night Live" parodied the scandal in a cold-open sketch with Beck Bennett as Bill Belichick and Taran Killam as Tom Brady.


title: Deflategate

text: On September 16, 2015, "South Park" parodied the Deflategate scandal in its Season 19 premiere episode "Stunning and Brave."


title: Deflategate

text: In the fall semester of 2015, the University of New Hampshire offered a 400-level course on Deflategate.


title: Deflategate

text: On May 12, 2015, David Portnoy of Barstool Sports and three other Barstool employees protested Brady's suspension by handcuffing themselves in the lobby of NFL headquarters. They were arrested for trespassing.


title: Deflategate

text: In April 2016, seven Patriots fans filed a lawsuit against the NFL, claiming that the loss of draft picks constituted fraud.


title: Deflategate

text: On February 17, 2015, ESPN reporter Kelly Naqi reported that Patriots ball attendant Jim McNally had tried "to introduce an unauthorized football"—lacking the markings found on approved footballs—into the game during the first half. Naqi's report did not indicate why or when this event had happened but alleged that NFL vice president of game operations Mike Kensil had visited the officials' locker room at halftime to inspect the game balls "in part because of the suspicions McNally's actions raised." Naqi later aired a report on ESPN's "Outside the Lines" in which she interviewed an Indianapolis-based former referee who claimed that NFL officials had been "aware" of McNally for years and had raised concerns about him. The football that McNally was alleged to have introduced into the game was a "K" ball, normally used for special-teams plays.


title: Deflategate

text: Naqi's report was immediately contradicted by ESPN reporter Adam Schefter, whose report cited sources stating that a "K" ball had gone missing and that an NFL employee in charge of collecting game balls for charity had handed the unmarked ball to McNally. Those sources also claimed that the NFL employee was fired after the game, as he had been taking footballs intended for charity and selling them at a profit "over a period of time."


title: Deflategate

text: Tom Brady served a four-game suspension. He was not allowed to have any contact with the New England Patriots, including players, coaches or facilities, during the suspension. The Patriots began the season 3–1 with backups Jimmy Garoppolo and Jacoby Brissett.


title: Deflategate

text: The Patriots finished the regular season 14–2, with an 11–1 record after Brady returned as starting quarterback. Brady's only loss of the season came at the hands of the Seattle Seahawks, the team that he had defeated in the 2014 Super Bowl two weeks after the alleged incident. In the playoffs, the Patriots defeated the Houston Texans 34–16 in the divisional round and the Pittsburgh Steelers 36–17 in the AFC Championship Game. In Super Bowl LI the Patriots defeated the Atlanta Falcons 34–28, and Brady was named Super Bowl MVP for the fourth time.


title: Deflategate

text: The NFL rules committee changed the inspection rules for the 24,960 footballs used during the season:


title: Deflategate

text: On December 4, 2016, the New York Giants took possession of two Pittsburgh Steelers footballs after turnovers. They were tested on the sidelines by the Giants' staff and found to have 11.4 and 11.8 pounds of pressure. The NFL declined to investigate because the chain of custody of footballs from the locker room to the field was not compromised and no formal complaint had been lodged.


title: Mazel tov

text: "Mazel tov" or "mazal tov" (Hebrew/Yiddish: , "mazál tov";"mázl tov"; lit. "good fortune") is a Jewish phrase used to express congratulations for a happy and significant occasion or event.


title: Mazel tov

text: The word "mazel" comes from the Biblical Hebrew "mazzāl", meaning "constellation" or (in Mishnaic Hebrew) "astrological sign" and may be related to the verb נ-ז-ל meaning "to flow down". The phrase "mazel tov" first appears in Geonic Hebrew, where it means "positive astrological sign" or simply "good fortune." The Medieval Hebrew song "siman tov u-mazel tov, yehe lanu ulkhol yisrael" "A good sign, a good omen! Let it happen for us and for all Israel" was used to congratulate, and the phrase itself acquired a congratulatory usage in Yiddish and Hebrew by the early 19th century and was later incorporated into Modern Hebrew. The Yiddish and Ashkenazic pronunciation of "mazel" has the stress on the first syllable while the Modern Hebrew word "mazal" has the stress on the last syllable. Mazel-tov is also used as a personal name.


title: Mazel tov

text: The phrase "mazel tov" is recorded as entering into American English from Yiddish in 1862, pronounced . The word "mazel" was lent to a number of European languages, meaning "luck", such as: German, as "Massel"; Hungarian, as "mázli"; Dutch, as "mazzel" and the verb "mazzelen" ("to be lucky"). The word "tov" also entered Dutch as "tof/toffe" ("nice" or "great") and German as töfte/dufte.


title: Mazel tov

text: "Mazel tov" is literally translated as "good luck" in its meaning as a description, not a wish. The implicit meaning is "good luck has occurred" or "your fortune has been good" and the expression is an acknowledgement of that fact. It is similar in usage to the word "congratulations!" and conveys roughly, "I am pleased this good thing has happened to you!" A common Hebrew phrase for "wishing" "good luck", is "b'hatzlacha" (), literally meaning "with success".


title: Mazel tov

text: Throughout the Jewish world, including the diaspora, "mazel tov!" is a common Jewish expression at events such as a bar or bat mitzvah or a wedding. For example, In Israel, at a Jewish wedding, it is shouted by the couple's friends and family after the ceremonial breaking of the glass. In Israel, the phrase is used for all sorts of happy occasions, such a new driver's license, a birthday, or getting a new job.


title: Around the Fur

text: Around the Fur is the second studio album by American alternative metal band Deftones, released on October 28, 1997, by Maverick Records. The songs "My Own Summer (Shove It)" and "Be Quiet and Drive (Far Away)" were released as singles with accompanying music videos. The album was certified Gold by the RIAA in June 1999, and was eventually certified Platinum in 2011.


title: Around the Fur

text: "Around the Fur" has been described as alternative metal, nu metal, post-hardcore, and alternative rock. Guitarist Stephen Carpenter has since reflected, "We didn't really pay much attention to that. I remember when these subgenre names didn't exist. It was just metal. So I don't think we made a decision to step away [from nu metal] – we've never paid attention to what anyone else was doing. We just did what we thought was right, and tried to make a killer album." Producer Terry Date stated that the band wanted to become "more sophisticated" with "Around the Fur". Lyrically, much of the album addresses topics such as juvenile perception, existential angst, sex, romance, violence, the death of loved ones, and break ups.


title: Around the Fur

text: It was the second album to feature Frank Delgado under additional personnel; he eventually joined the band officially in 1999. The song "Headup" featured additional vocals by Max Cavalera of Soulfly. It was written by Cavalera and Deftones singer Chino Moreno as a way of venting some of their pain over the loss of Dana Wells, Cavalera's stepson and Chino's friend. The band name "Soulfly" was taken from a portmanteau invented for the song. While the album's lyrics were included in the booklet, not every single word was printed. A good example is the song "Lhabia": In the verses, Moreno whispers statements that are hard to decipher. There is also one verse missing from the song "Headup".


title: Around the Fur

text: The album cover was shot by photographer Rick Kosick during a late-night party in Seattle where the band was recording. Upon seeing the candid photo of a woman, the band decided that they wanted to use it as the album cover. Kosick was unsure who the woman was, so the band had to find and track her down to obtain permission to use the photo, which she eventually granted. The woman appearing on the cover is Washington State resident Lisa M. Hughes, a friend of Stephen Carpenter. Hughes spoke publicly about the cover for the first time during the album's 20th anniversary in 2017. Moreno has since expressed his dislike of the cover, calling it "horrible".


title: Around the Fur

text: "When we went in to make this record, we really didn't have a set idea of what we wanted to come out with," said Moreno in a 1998 interview with "Chart" magazine. However, he felt that the album "fell into place" once the band had settled into the studio. The band expanded its sound, spending more time with producer Terry Date, and giving more thought to the album's production. Abe Cunningham varied his drum sound and experimented by using different types of snare drums on almost every track. The album was praised for its loud-soft dynamics, the flow of the tracks, Moreno's unusual vocals, and the strong rhythm section grooves created by Cunningham and bassist Chi Cheng.


title: Around the Fur

text: The album opener, "My Own Summer (Shove It)", was written in 1994 by Moreno during an excessively hot stretch of the summer in Seattle. The frequent sleeping led him to cover his windows and frequently envision a post apocalyptic world where people would disappear off the streets. The second track, "Lhabia", expresses the frustration of a woman forced into prostitution, while simultaneously being exposed to a drug-defendant lifestyle. The third track, "Mascara", depicts the effects of domestic abuse, while also taking influence from Moreno's own tension within his marriage with his then-wife Celeste Schroeder. The album's title track takes aim at the materialistic feelings brought by fame and the superficial sense of shallowness brought on by multiple women. "Rickets" is an aim at parental type figures who constantly criticize others while expressing a lack of desire to absorb their advice.


title: Around the Fur

text: The album was highly anticipated, and propelled the band to fame in the alternative metal scene on the strength of radio and MTV airplay for the singles "My Own Summer (Shove It)" (released December 22, 1997) and "Be Quiet and Drive (Far Away)" (released March 9, 1998). The album's title track was also released as a promotional single.


title: Around the Fur

text: "Around the Fur" sold 43,000 copies in its first week of release, and entered the "Billboard" 200 at No. 29 (its peak position), remaining on the charts for 17 weeks. "Around the Fur" went on to reach RIAA gold status on June 24, 1999, and platinum status on June 7, 2011.


title: Around the Fur

text: When the album was released on Spotify, it contained an alternate version of "Headup" running a full minute longer than the original release.


title: Around the Fur

text: In May 1997, while "Around the Fur" was in the process of being recorded, the band performed two concerts at Bojangles in Sacramento. These were their first shows since December 1996, with the band debuting several "Around the Fur" songs that were still in the demo stages. Their next performance was on September 11, 1997, at The Press Club in San Francisco. This concert saw the debut of live staples "Be Quiet and Drive (Far Away)" and "My Own Summer (Shove It)". Following the album's release in October 1997, Deftones toured North America/Europe with Sacramento bands Far and Will Haven. The tour continued into early 1998. Later in 1998, they made appearances at the Warped Tour (in the United States, New Zealand and Australia), Pinkpop Festival, Roskilde Festival and Ozzfest, as well as releasing a live EP on April 10, 1998. In September 1998, Deftones toured with Red Hot Chili Peppers, who were playing their first shows in over 6 years with guitarist John Frusciante.


title: Around the Fur

text: The album generally received positive reviews from music critics. Greg Corrao of CMJ New Music Monthly remarked in November 1997, "this hard-hitting noise-fest finds the band once again furthering the cause of riff-heavy, bludgeoning rock also championed by the likes of Soundgarden, Helmet and Kyuss", further adding that, "those heavy sensibilities are paired with vocalist Chino Moreno's yearning whine, allowing the band to create [their] own kind of sub-metal." He concluded his review by asserting that, "with "Around the Fur", Deftones have carved out their own place in heavy music's hard beaten path toward the year 2000." In a retrospective review, AllMusic critic Stephen Thomas Erlewine wrote: "Deftones tap into the same alternative metal vibe as Korn and L7, and while they don't have catchy riffs or a fully developed sound, "Around the Fur" suggests they're about to come into their own". James P. Wisdom of Pitchfork described the songs from the album as "intense, harsh tunes", while Punknews.org thought that the album "showcased a band aware of their flaws, structure and lyrical approach, and thus achieved an overall great improvement in said areas". Robert Christgau was less receptive, dismissing it as a "dud".


title: Around the Fur

text: In 2015, critic Saby Reyes-Kulkarni of Diffuser stated that "[o]n their landmark second album, Deftones infused elements of new wave and shoegaze to define their future direction. Alt-metal would never be the same." Reyes-Kulkarni observed that the album "captures the first full blossoming of the duality that has come to define the Sacramento quintet's musical identity" and "set a new standard for '90s alt-metal and opened doors to what's possible when bands find the motivation to get heavy away from the brutish impulses that typically drive aggressive music." He further noted that, while the album "sounds undeniably thicker and heavier" than the band's debut album "Adrenaline", Chino Moreno's new wave and post-punk influences became increasingly evident: "On "Around the Fur", Moreno's love of new wave groups like Depeche Mode and The Cure began to rear its head in earnest."


title: Around the Fur

text: "Louder Sound" included it as one of the ten best albums released in 1997. They also listed it as being one of the best metal albums released between 1996 and 1997. When "Consequence of Sound" ranked the eight albums Deftones had released as of May 2020, "Around the Fur" was placed at number four.


title: Around the Fur

text: "MX" is followed by two hidden tracks. After "MX" there is 14:40 of silence, then the next track "Bong Hit" (19:32–19:55) begins. Then an additional 12:41 of silence happens again, with the next track "Damone" (32:36–37:18) ends the album. On vinyl editions of the album, neither of the hidden tracks on "MX" are featured. The hidden track "Bong Hit" was initially a joke recorded message taken from Carpenter and Cheng's answering machine from their former apartment.


title: SK Slavia Prague

text: Sportovní klub Slavia Praha – fotbal (Sports Club Slavia Prague – Football, ), commonly known as Slavia Praha or Slavia Prague, is a Czech professional football club in Prague. Founded in 1892, they are the second most successful club in the Czech Republic since its independence in 1993.


title: SK Slavia Prague

text: They play in the Czech First League, the top division in the Czech Republic. They play the Prague derby with Sparta Prague, the most important and heated rivalry in Czech football. Slavia has won 21 titles, several Czech cups, and the Mitropa Cup in 1938. The club has won seven league titles since the foundation of the Czech league in 1993. They have also reached the semi-finals of the 1995–96 UEFA Cup and qualified for the 2007–08 UEFA Champions League group stage for the first time in their history. In 2019, Slavia reached the quarter-finals of the 2018–19 UEFA Europa League and also qualified for the 2019–20 UEFA Champions League group stage for the second time in their history. They once again reached the Europa League quarter-finals in 2020–21. In the title-winning 2020–21 Czech First League season the team completed an entire season undefeated and set a Czech record for the longest top-flight unbeaten league run at 54 games between 2020 and 2021.


title: SK Slavia Prague

text: Slavia was founded on 2 November 1892 by medicine students in Vinohrady, Prague, as a sport club aimed at increasing sport activity among students. Initially the club focused on cycling, and expanded to football in 1896. On 25 March of that year, Slavia won their first match against AC Prague 5–0. The captain of this team was Karel Freja. Four days later, Slavia played against Sparta Prague, with the match finishing 0–0, this match being the start of the rivalry between these two clubs. In 1905, Scottish manager and former Celtic player Johnny Madden brought new tactics and views on football from his home country to the club. He managed to set up an early golden age for the club that lasted 25 years. Under Madden Slavia won 134 domestic matches out of a total of 169, and 304 internationals out of 429 between the years 1905 and 1930. In 1930, Madden retired from Slavia and professional football at the age of 66, though he remained in Prague for the rest of his life.


title: SK Slavia Prague

text: In the 1934 World Cup, the Czechoslovak national team included eight Slavia players. The second golden period came when Slavia bought Josef Bican from Admira Vienna. Slavia with Bican won titles in 1940, 1941, 1942 and 1943, while many football players were at war. In 1951 Slavia finished in 11th position in the league. Poor results continued during the 1950s and 1960s when Slavia were relegated twice, in 1961 and 1963. They next played in the top level of football in 1965.


title: SK Slavia Prague

text: In 1996, Slavia won their 14th title after 49 years. During this season, Slavia played in the semi-final of the UEFA Cup and four players of this team had big importance for the silver medal-winning Czech team from UEFA Euro 1996.


title: SK Slavia Prague

text: Slavia participated in the qualifying rounds for the UEFA Champions League five times (1996, 2000, 2001, 2004 and 2005), being eliminated each time until finally qualifying for the group stage in the 2007–08 season following a 3–1 aggregate victory over Ajax in the third qualifying round. For the group stage, Slavia were drawn in Group H along with Arsenal, Steaua București and Sevilla. They started with a 2–1 win at home against Steaua and a 4–2 loss to Sevilla. Next came two matches against Arsenal; Slavia lost 7–0 at the Emirates Stadium, but in the second leg they managed to draw 0–0. In Bucharest came a 1–1 draw, which qualified the Czech team for the UEFA Cup round of 32, from third place in Group H, in spite of a home 0–3 defeat against Sevilla.


title: SK Slavia Prague

text: In October 2006, the construction of the new and long-awaited stadium at Eden for 21,000 spectators began. The stadium was opened on 7 May 2008 with an exhibition match against Oxford University.


title: SK Slavia Prague

text: In the 2007–08 and 2008–09, Slavia were back-to-back Czech champions, although they did not play in the Champions League group stage due to elimination in the qualifying rounds by Fiorentina (0–2 on aggregate in 2008–09) and Sheriff Tiraspol (1–1 on away goals rule in 2009–10). In the 2009–10 season the club managed only 7th place in the league.


title: SK Slavia Prague

text: In the autumn of 2010, the club found itself in crisis due to its economic problems. It was discovered that Slavia owed 112 million Czech koruna to the club's former owner, ENIC Sports Ltd (English National Investment Company). As a result of this, major cost-cutting was needed to service this debt and it was confirmed that the squad would need to be purged. In addition to the players sold, midfielder Petr Trapp left the club mid-season, claiming that Slavia had not paid his wages for three months.


title: SK Slavia Prague

text: On 5 May 2011, the first leg of the cup semi-final against Olomouc was suspended after the first half at a score of 1–1 due to Slavia fans invaded the pitch in protest against the deteriorating financial situation of the club. As a result of this action, Sigma were awarded a 3–0 win.


title: SK Slavia Prague

text: In September 2015, CEFC China Energy Company bought the team. Since November 2018, the club owners have been the Sinobo Group and CITIC Group.


title: SK Slavia Prague

text: The club's colours, red and white, were chosen as standing for the heart and blood, and fair play and sportsmanship respectively. The inverted five-pointed star was intended to symbolise "new hope, forever strengthening the mind and uplifting the spirit." The name "Slavia" is a Latin term used in older literature to denote the lands inhabited by Slavs.


title: SK Slavia Prague

text: Slavia's greatest rivals are Sparta Prague, with whom they contest the Prague derby. A local Vršovice derby is also contested between Slavia and Bohemians 1905, whose stadium is situated a kilometre from Eden.


title: SK Slavia Prague

text: Slavia is widely misconceived as being a Jewish club among other fans, particularly Sparta fans, and its fans and players are often subjected to anti-semitic abuse. However, the club was not founded by Jews nor did it have any Jewish history. Football historian Vladimír Zapotocký commented in an interview that were this the case, the Nazis would have shut the club down during the wartime occupation, as they did with DFC Prag. The association stems from a friendly match played against West Ham United in 1922, when Slavia insured the match against adverse weather conditions, and the match was later cancelled due to rain. They then agreed with West Ham to play the fixture the next day, while also collecting money from the insurance company for cancelling the fixture. A week later in a Prague derby fixture, Slavia were greeted onto the pitch by chants of "vy židi!" ("you Jews!") from the Sparta fans.


title: SK Slavia Prague

text: In May 2018 a strategic cooperation with Chinese club Beijing Sinobo Guoan for both professional and youth level football started.


title: SK Slavia Prague

text: The best known Slavia player of all time is perhaps forward Josef "Pepi" Bican, one of the most prolific goalscorers in the history of football. Other famous players include forward Antonín Puč, goalkeeper František Plánička (both of them members of the Czechoslovakia national team in two World Cups) and midfielder František Veselý. Other big names in club history are Karel Jarolím, Ivo Knoflíček, Vladimír Šmicer, Karel Poborský, Patrik Berger, Vladimír Coufal and Tomáš Souček.


title: SK Slavia Prague

text: Under the Czech jurisdiction the club's legal form is a joint-stock company (updated 1 August 2020) with the largest shareholder being the Chinese real estate Sinobo Group, which has on 11 November 2018 purchased a majority stake from CITIC, at the time holding 99.98% of the 212,074 stocks worth of CZK 1.514 billion (Annual report from 30 June 2018). CITIC remains to be a minority shareholder and the companies did not reveal the distribution of the shares.


title: SK Slavia Prague

text: According to their chairman Jinhui Zhou, the Sinobo business model is a combination of real estate development and sports activities. In a similar business model, Sinobo owns 64% of the shares in the Chinese club Beijing Guoan where the 36% minority belongs to CITIC. Sinobo also holds the naming rights of the arena, the Sinobo Stadium.


title: SK Slavia Prague

text: The Chinese investment activity in Slavia has firstly started in September 2005, when a private conglomerate CEFC acquired 59.97% shares of the club through its Czech subsidiary CEFC Group (Europe) Company a.s. from Aleš Řebíček for CZK 27 million. Through the course of the years, the share has increased to 67% and 80%, and on 22 November 2016 CEFC has capitalized its loan into the equity and increased their shares to 99.96% which made them the sole owner. In early 2018, it turned out that CEFC had serious financial problems and CITIC bought the club and arena. In late 2018, CITIC transferred Slavia's majority stake to the Chinese company Sinobo Group.


title: SK Slavia Prague

text: Slavia's financial results for the 2017–18 season show group revenue of CZK 837.4 million, with a profit before tax of CZK <366.7> million.


title: SK Slavia Prague

text: The club's current manager is Jindřich Trpišovský, who joined the club in December 2017 from Slovan Liberec. He replaced Jaroslav Šilhavý, who was appointed in September 2016 and moved on to manage the Czech national team. There have been 65 managers in Slavia's history. The club's first professional coach, Johnny Madden, was appointed in 1905, serving in that position until 1930. He remains the club's longest-serving coach in terms of both length of tenure and number of games overseen.


title: Little Diomede Island

text: Little Diomede Island or “Yesterday Isle” (, formerly known as Krusenstern Island, , "Ostrov Kruzenshterna") is an island of Alaska, United States. It is the smaller of the two Diomede Islands located in the middle of the Bering Strait between the Alaska mainland and Siberia.


title: Little Diomede Island

text: Little Diomede's neighboring island, Big Diomede, is about to the west, but is part of Russia and west of the International Date Line. Unlike its larger Russian neighbor, Little Diomede retains a permanent native population. As of 2022, Little Diomede had a population of 77, down from its recorded peak of 178 in 1990. The entirety of the island is in the City of Diomede (named as well). The island is not part of any organized borough, so some services are provided directly by the state. For census purposes, it is included in the Nome Census Area.


title: Little Diomede Island

text: During the Cold War, the section of the border between the U.S. and the USSR separating Big and Little Diomede became known as the "Ice Curtain". In August 1987, however, Lynne Cox swam from Little Diomede to Big Diomede (approx. ) and was congratulated jointly by Mikhail Gorbachev and Ronald Reagan.


title: Little Diomede Island

text: The Diomede Islands are named after Saint Diomedes. Danish-Russian navigator Vitus Bering (after whom the Bering Strait is named) sighted the Diomede Islands on August 16 (O.S., August 27 N.S.), 1728, the day on which the Russian Orthodox Church celebrates the memory of the saint.


title: Little Diomede Island

text: According to the United States Census Bureau, the island has a total area of , all of it land. On the western shore of the island is the village of Diomede, also known as "Iŋaliq".


title: Little Diomede Island

text: Little Diomede Island is located about west from the mainland, in the middle of the Bering Strait. It is only from the International Date Line and about from the Russian island of Big Diomede.


title: Little Diomede Island

text: The highest point on Little Diomede Island is (about halfway along the west coast, about southeast of the village, facing the southern tip of Big Diomede).


title: Little Diomede Island

text: There is a heliport, the Diomede Heliport, with regular helicopter flights. During the winter, the villagers carve a runway into the thick ice sheet so that bush planes can deliver vital products, such as medicine. Due to annual variations of the ice sheet, the runway changes position every year.


title: Little Diomede Island

text: Summer temperatures average . Winter temperatures average from Annual precipitation averages , and annual snowfall averages . During summer months,


title: Little Diomede Island

text: cloudy skies and fog prevail. Winds blow consistently from the north, averaging , with gusts of . The Bering Strait is generally frozen between mid-December and mid-June.


title: Little Diomede Island

text: The Little Diomede island is composed of Cretaceous age granite or quartz monzonite. The location of the city is the only area which does not have near-vertical cliffs to the water. Behind the city and around the entire island rocky slopes rise at about 40° up to the relatively flattened top in . The island has very scant vegetation.


title: Little Diomede Island

text: Little Diomede was featured in the first episode of "Full Circle with Michael Palin", a 1997 BBC documentary series in which the broadcaster Michael Palin traversed many of the countries of the Pacific Rim. The Diomede Islands are also featured in the novel "Further Tales of the City", by Armistead Maupin, and the miniseries based on the book. In addition, Alexander Armstrong visited the island as part of his 2015 series "Land of the Midnight Sun".


title: Frasers Group

text: Frasers Group plc (formerly known as Sports Direct International plc) is a British retail, sport and intellectual property group, named after its ownership of the department store chain House of Fraser. The company is best known for trading predominantly under the Sports Direct brand which operates both physical outlets and online. Other retailers owned by the company include Jack Wills, GAME, Flannels, USC, Lillywhites and Evans Cycles. The company owns numerous intellectual property, including the brands Everlast, Lonsdale, Slazenger and No Fear. The group also expanded into operating fitness clubs, launching the Everlast Fitness Club chain in 2020.


title: Frasers Group

text: Established in 1982 by Mike Ashley, the company is the United Kingdom's largest sports-goods retailer and operates roughly 670 stores worldwide. The company's business model is one that operates under low margins. Mike Ashley has continued to hold a majority stake in the business, and his holding has been 61.7 percent since October 2013. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and it is a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index.


title: Frasers Group

text: The company was founded by Mike Ashley in 1982 as a single store in Maidenhead trading under the name of "Mike Ashley Sports".


title: Frasers Group

text: In late November 2006, a number of business newspapers reported that Ashley was looking at an IPO of Sports World International. He hired Merrill Lynch, who valued the group at up to £2.5bn ahead of a possible flotation on the London Stock Exchange. The group debuted on the exchange on 27 February 2007.


title: Frasers Group

text: By December 2006, Sports Direct had built up a 29.4% stake in Blacks Leisure Group, the owner of Millets. In 2007 Ashley held talks with John Hargreaves, founder of Matalan on both taking a 25% stake in the troubled retail business and installing mezzanine floors in larger Matalan stores, on which SportsDirect.com outlets could be operated. In June 2007, the company acquired Everlast for £84 million.


title: Frasers Group

text: By July 2008, Sports Direct was also holding a 12.3% holding in the John David Group, parent of JD Sports. The stake amounted to 11.9% of JD Sports in November 2013. Sports Direct formerly held 5% of Amer Sports. In 2012 Sports Direct purchased rival retailer JJB's brand name, website, 20 stores and all of their stock in a deal for approximately £24m. The deal saved around 550 jobs.


title: Frasers Group

text: In February 2013, after fashion retailer Republic went into administration, Sports Direct bought 116 Republic stores, the brand name and the company's head office from the administrator for an undisclosed sum. In July 2013, more than 2,000 full-time staff were awarded around £70,000 each under the company's bonus share scheme. On 13 January 2014, Sports Direct bought 4.6% of Debenhams shares. The stock market purchase of 56.8 million shares (worth around £46m) was made without the prior knowledge of the Debenhams board. Sports Direct stated at the time it intended to be a supportive share holder. The Debenhams board responded by stating they were open-minded with regard to exploring operational opportunities to improve its performance. Sports Direct sold its shares on 16 January 2014, although they took out an option to buy further shares up to a total of 6.6%.


title: Frasers Group

text: In December 2016, Sports Direct agreed to sell the remaining international rights to its Dunlop brand to Sumitomo Rubber Industries for £112 million ($137.5 million). Sumitomo already own the rights to the brand in Japan, South Korea and Taiwan. The sale was due to be completed by May 2017. In July 2017, the company acquired a 26% stake in Game Digital.


title: Frasers Group

text: Between 2013 and 2014, ambulances were dispatched to Sports Direct HQ's facilities more than 80 times, including one concerning a woman who gave birth in the facility's bathroom.


title: Frasers Group

text: In October 2015, the chief executive of Sports Direct, David Forsey, was charged with a criminal offence for consultation failures over USC staff who only had 15 minutes notice of redundancy. In December 2015, an investigation by "The Guardian" found that the company fines staff for late clocking on, does not award overtime for late clocking off, relies on zero hour contracts, and regularly makes staff wait unpaid for a security check at the end of shifts. A union official suggested that these practices were illegal as they brought workers' earnings below the minimum wage. The company responded by saying there were unspecified inaccuracies in the reports. A representative from the charity ShareAction claimed that workers are "jeopardising their health" for fear of being dismissed while another shareholder said the company's reputation as an employer was "atrocious".


title: Frasers Group

text: Late in December 2015 Sports Direct announced a 15 pence per hour increase for staff currently receiving less than minimum wage, taking them above minimum wage, the annual cost of this was said in the announcement to be ~£10 Million (GBP); however it was immediately noted that £0.15p × 37.5 hours × 19,000 staff × 52 weeks = 5,557,500 (~£5.5 million), this and other factors resulted in many (including Unite) calling it a "PR Stunt". Workers on zero-hours contracts are not included in the rise and neither are those already paid more than minimum wage (management/supervisors etc.) therefore the 19,000 staff above is actually substantially fewer.


title: Frasers Group

text: In August 2016, Sports Direct admitted breaking the law and agreed to disburse unlawfully withheld wages totalling about £1m to the affected workers. As of March 2017, some Sports Direct workers were yet to receive backpay for their time worked, because of a disagreement regarding how contracts changing between employment agencies should be handled. In November 2016, six MPs from the Business and Skills Committee visited Sports Direct, and reported that while there, Sports Direct attempted to place them under surveillance. In February 2017, it was reported that Sports Direct had failed to inform its workforce of a data breach of their personal information after an attacker gained access to its internal systems in September 2016. The Information Commissioner's Office stated it was aware of "an incident from 2016 involving Sports Direct" and would "be making enquiries."


title: Frasers Group

text: The company announced on 16 December 2019 that it would change its name from Sports Direct International plc to Frasers Group plc effective from 17 December 2019.


title: Frasers Group

text: It was announced in September 2021 that Michael Murray was to be the incoming CEO of Frasers Group, taking over Ashley's role, in May 2022.


title: Frasers Group

text: In July 2022, chief operating officer David Al-Mudallal announced in a memo that the company will stop allowing its office staff to work from home on Fridays, as had been practice for the last few years. The reason behind this decision was the fact that many workers did not take working from home seriously enough and were often non-contactable.


title: Frasers Group

text: The group has over 470 UK stores including the chains Sports Direct (Sports World prior to 2008), Lillywhites, House of Fraser, Flannels, Evans Cycles, Sofa.com, Field & Trek and USC. Sports Direct-branded stores exist under a franchising agreement in South Africa and the Middle East. In 2006 it overtook JJB Sports as the UK's largest sportswear retailer.


title: Frasers Group

text: In February 2004, the company acquired Dunlop Slazenger for around £40 million, which included the Dunlop, Slazenger and Carlton brands. This was followed by the acquisitions of outdoor gear manufacturer Karrimor in March for a reported £5 million. In 2006 he acquired Kangol for an estimated £12 million. Most of these brands were bought from distressed sellers. After looking at a takeover, Sports Direct took a £9 million stake and signed a lucrative long-term deal in August 2005 with troubled brand Umbro, which was subsequently sold to Nike.


title: Frasers Group

text: The brands themselves are an increasingly important part of the business, and Sports Direct made £10 million, from selling the intellectual-property rights to the Slazenger Golf brand to arch-rival JJB in 2005.


title: Frasers Group

text: In 2016, Sumitomo Rubber Industries, a global tyre, sports goods, and industrial rubber products manufacturing company based in Kobe, Japan, filed for regulatory approval before the Philippine Competition Commission in connection with its planned acquisition of Dunlop-related wholesale, manufacturing, and licensing business from Sports Direct.


title: Frasers Group

text: Sumitomo Rubber intended to acquire the entire issued share capital of Dunlop Brands Limited, Dunlop Slazenger 1902 Limited, and Dunlop Australia Limited, and the Dunlop-related business of Dunlop Sports Group Americas, Inc. which are subsidiaries of Sports Direct.


title: Frasers Group

text: The Philippine Competition Commission approved the regulatory filing for the said acquisition. The acquisition allowed Sumitomo Rubber to consolidate the Dunlop brand across various products including sports goods worldwide.


title: Frasers Group

text: On 10 August 2018, the House of Fraser entered administration. Later that day, Sports Direct agreed to buy all House of Fraser UK stores, the House of Fraser brand, and all of the stock in the business for £90 million in cash, converting all old House of Fraser stores into Sports Direct. Prior to the company entering administration, Sports Direct's Mike Ashley held an 11% stake in the company.


title: Frasers Group

text: On 5 August 2019, Sports Direct purchased Jack Wills out of administration for £12.7 million after winning a competition against Edinburgh Woollen Mill.


title: Frasers Group

text: On 24 August 2020, it was announced that Frasers Group would buy "certain" assets from DW Sports Fitness for £37m, but would not be using the firm's brand name. Also in August 2020, during the Covid-19 pandemic, Ashley threatened landlords with House of Fraser store closures.


title: Frasers Group

text: In December 2020, Debenhams announced it was going into liquidation, putting 12,000 jobs in 124 UK stores at risk unless the administrators could find buyers for all or parts of the business. Frasers Group was reported to be in talks to acquire Debenhams, though it was later reported that Ashley was mainly interested in using empty Debenhams stores to expand his other chains, including House of Fraser, Sports Direct and Flannels; taking 'vacant possession' would avoid redundancy costs for existing staff.


title: Frasers Group

text: In January 2021, it was announced that the Jenners House of Fraser store in Edinburgh was closing for good and 200 jobs would be lost.


title: Frasers Group

text: In April 2021 the group announced it had doubled the hit it expects to take from the coronavirus pandemic to £200 million.


title: Frasers Group

text: In February 2022, the group announced it had purchased some of the assets of the Studio Retail Group from administration.


title: Frasers Group

text: On 1 June 2022, it was revealed that the group had bought the intellectual property of Missguided and its sister brand Mennace for about £20 million, after they went into administration the previous day.


title: Frasers Group

text: In November 2022, it was announced Frasers Group had acquired one of London’s oldest bespoke tailors, Gieves & Hawkes.


title: Ulster Scots people

text: The Ulster Scots (Ulster-Scots: "Ulstèr-Scotch"; ), also called Ulster Scots people ("Ulstèr-Scotch fowk") or (in North America) Scotch-Irish ("Scotch-Airisch"), are an ethnic group in Ireland, who speak an Ulster Scots dialect of the Scots language, a West Germanic language, and share a common history, culture and ancestry. As an ethnicity, they diverged from largely the same ancestors as those of modern English people, and Lowland Scots people, native to Northern England, and Lowland Scotland, respectively.


title: Ulster Scots people

text: Found mostly in the province of Ulster, and to a lesser extent in the rest of Ireland, their ancestors were Protestant, mainly Presbyterian, settlers who migrated from the Scottish Lowlands and Northern England during the Plantation of Ulster. The largest numbers came from Dumfries and Galloway, Lanarkshire, Renfrewshire, Ayrshire, Scottish Borders, Northumberland, Cumbria, Yorkshire, and to a much lesser extent, from the Scottish Highlands. Northern Ireland is one of the four countries of the United Kingdom. The majority of people living in Northern Ireland are British and/or Irish citizens.


title: Ulster Scots people

text: The Ulster Scots migrated to Ireland in large numbers both as a result of the government-sanctioned Plantation of Ulster, a planned process of colonisation which took place under the auspices of James VI of Scotland and I of England on land confiscated from members of the Gaelic nobility of Ireland who fled Ulster, and as part of a larger migration or unplanned wave of settlement.


title: Ulster Scots people

text: Ulster Scots emigrated onwards from Ireland in significant numbers to the American colonies, later the United States, and elsewhere in British Empire Scotch-Irish (or Scots-Irish) is a traditional term for Ulster Scots who immigrated to America.


title: Ulster Scots people

text: The first major influx of border English and Lowland Scots into Ulster came in the first two decades of the 17th century.


title: Ulster Scots people

text: First, before the Plantation of Ulster and even before the Flight of the Earls, there was the 1606 independent Scottish settlement in east Down and Antrim. It was led by adventurers James Hamilton and Sir Hugh Montgomery, two Ayrshire lairds. Montgomery was granted half of Lord of Upper Clandeboye Conn McNeill O'Neill,'s land, a significant Gaelic lordship in Ulster, as a reward for helping him escape from English captivity. Hamilton forced himself in on this deal when he discovered it and, after three years of bickering, the final settlement gave Hamilton and Montgomery each one-third of the land.


title: Ulster Scots people

text: Starting in 1609, Scots began arriving into state-sponsored settlements as part of the Plantation of Ulster. This scheme was intended to confiscate all the lands of the Gaelic Irish nobility in Ulster and to settle the province with Protestant Scottish and English colonists. Under this scheme, a substantial number of Scots were settled, mostly in the south and west of Ulster, on confiscated land.


title: Ulster Scots people

text: While many of the Scottish planters in Ulster came from southwest Scotland, a large number came from the southeast, including the unstable regions right along the border with England (the Scottish Borders and Northumberland). These groups were from the Borderers or Border Reivers culture, which had familial links on both sides of the Anglo-Scottish border. The plan was that moving these Borderers to Ireland would both solve the Borders problem and tie down Ulster. This was of particular concern to James VI of Scotland when he became King of England, since he knew Scottish instability could jeopardise his chances of ruling both kingdoms effectively.


title: Ulster Scots people

text: During the Irish Rebellion of 1641, the native Irish gentry attempted to extirpate the English and Scottish settlers in revenge for being driven off their ancestral land, resulting in severe violence, massacres and ultimately leading to the deaths of between four and six thousand settlers over the winter of 1641–42. Native Irish civilians were massacred in return. By 1642, native Irish were in "de facto" control of much of the island under a Confederate Ireland, with about a third under the control of the opposition. However, many Ulster-Scots Presbyterians joined with the Irish in rebellion and aided them in driving the English out.


title: Ulster Scots people

text: The Ulster-Scottish population in Ireland was quite possibly preserved from complete annihilation during the subsequent Irish Confederate Wars, when a Scottish Covenanter army was landed in the province to protect the Ulster-Scottish settlers from native Irish landowners. The war itself, part of the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, ended in the 1650s, with the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland. At the head of the army, Oliver Cromwell conquered all of Ireland. Defeating the Irish Confederates and English Royalists on behalf of the English Parliamentarians, he and his forces employed methods and inflicted casualties among the civilian Irish population that have long been commonly considered by contemporary sources, historians and the popular culture to be outside of the accepted military ethics of the day (see more on the debate here). After the Cromwellian war in Ireland was over, many of their soldiers settled permanently in eastern Ulster.


title: Ulster Scots people

text: Under the Act of Settlement 1652, all Catholic-owned land was confiscated and the British Plantations in Ireland, which had been destroyed by the rebellion of 1641, were restored. However, due to the Scots' enmity toward the English Parliament in the final stages of the English Civil War, English settlers rather than Scots were the main beneficiary of this scheme.


title: Ulster Scots people

text: There was a generation of calm in Ireland until another war broke out in 1689, again due to political conflict closely aligned with ethnic and religious differences. The Williamite war in Ireland (1689–91) was fought between Jacobites who supported the restoration of the Catholic James II to the throne of England and Williamites who supported the Protestant William of Orange. The majority of the Protestant colonists throughout Ireland but particularly in Ulster, fought on the Williamite side in the war against the Jacobites. The fear of a repeat of the massacres of 1641, fear of retribution for religious persecution, as well as their wish to hold on to lands which had been confiscated from Catholic landowners, were all principal motivating factors.


title: Ulster Scots people

text: The Williamite forces, composed of British, Dutch, Huguenot and Danish armies, as well as troops raised in Ulster, ended Jacobite resistance by 1691, confirming the Protestant minority's monopoly on power in Ireland. Their victories at Derry, the Boyne and Aughrim are still commemorated by the Orange Order into the 21st century.


title: Ulster Scots people

text: Finally, another major influx of Scots into northern Ireland occurred in the late 1690s, when tens of thousands of people fled a famine in Scotland to come to Ulster.


title: Ulster Scots people

text: It was only after the 1690s that Scottish settlers and their descendants, the majority of whom were Presbyterian, gained numeric superiority in Ulster, though still a minority in Ireland as a whole. Along with Catholics, they were legally disadvantaged by the Penal Laws, which gave full rights only to members of the Church of Ireland (the Anglican state church), who were mainly Anglo-Irish (themselves often absentee landlords), native Irish converts or the descendants of English settlers. For this reason, up until the 19th century, there was considerable disharmony between Dissenters and the ruling Protestant Ascendancy in Ireland. With the enforcement of Queen Anne's 1703 Test Act, which caused further discrimination against all who did not participate in the established church, considerable numbers of Ulster-Scots migrated to the colonies in British America throughout the 18th and 19th centuries. In fact, these 'Scots-Irish' from Ulster and Lowland Scotland comprised the most numerous group of immigrants from Great Britain and Ireland to the American colonies in the years prior the American Revolution, with an estimated 150,000 leaving northern Ireland at the time.


title: Ulster Scots people

text: Towards the end of the 18th century, many Ulster-Scots Presbyterians ignored religious differences and, along with many Catholic Gaelic Irish, joined the United Irishmen to participate in the Irish Rebellion of 1798 in support of republican and egalitarian ideals.


title: Ulster Scots people

text: Just a few generations after arriving in Ulster, considerable numbers of Ulster-Scots immigrated to the North American colonies of Great Britain. Between 1717 and 1775, an estimated 200,000 migrated to what became the United States of America. Around the same time, the British took control of the territory of New France, allowing many Ulster-Scots to migrate to these areas as well. These people are known as the Scotch-Irish Canadians.


title: Ulster Scots people

text: In the United States Census of 2000, 4.3 million Americans (1.5% of the population of the United States) claimed Scotch-Irish ancestry. Author and former United States Senator Jim Webb suggests that the true number of people with some Scots-Irish heritage in the United States is more—over 27 million—possibly because contemporary Americans with some Scotch-Irish heritage may regard themselves as either Irish, Scottish, or simply American instead.


title: Ulster Scots people

text: Over the centuries, Ulster Scots culture has contributed to the unique character of the counties in Northern Ireland. The Ulster Scots Agency points to industry, language, music, sport, religion and myriad traditions brought to Ulster from the Scottish lowlands. In particular, the origin of country and Western music was extensively from Ulster Scots folk music, in addition to English, German, and African-American styles.


title: Ulster Scots people

text: The cultural traditions and aspects of this culture including its links to country music are articulated in David Hackett Fischer's book, "". In 2010's documentary "The Hamely Tongue", filmmaker Deaglán O Mocháin traces back the origins of this culture and language, and relates its manifestations in today's Ireland. The film's title refers to James Fenton's book, "The Hamely Tongue: A personal record of Ulster-Scots in County Antrim."


title: Ulster Scots people

text: Most Ulster Scots speak Ulster English as a first language. Ulster Scots is the local dialect of the Lowland Scots language which has, since the 1980s, also been called "Ullans", a portmanteau neologism popularised by the physician, amateur historian and politician Dr Ian Adamson, merging "Ulster" and "Lallans"—the Scots for "Lowlands" —but also an acronym for "Ulster-Scots language in literature and native speech".


title: Ulster Scots people

text: The North American ancestry of the X-linked form of the genetic disease congenital nephrogenic diabetes insipidus has been traced to Ulster Scots who travelled to Nova Scotia in 1761 on the ship "Hopewell".


title: Dave (film)

text: Dave is a 1993 American political comedy film directed by Ivan Reitman, written by Gary Ross, and starring Kevin Kline and Sigourney Weaver. Frank Langella, Kevin Dunn, Laura Linney, Ving Rhames, Charles Grodin, and Ben Kingsley appear in supporting roles.


title: Dave (film)

text: Dave Kovic runs a temporary employment agency in Georgetown, Washington, D.C. and impersonates President Bill Mitchell as a side job. Secret Service agent Duane Stevenson recruits him to impersonate Mitchell after a speech, ostensibly as a security precaution, but in reality to cover up Mitchell’s affair with a staffer. Dave’s appearance goes well, but Mitchell suffers a major stroke while having sex, leading White House Chief of Staff Bob Alexander and Communications Director Alan Reed to ask Dave to continue in his role. Bob’s scheme is to force Vice President Gary Nance, a good man, to resign after purposefully embroiling him in a savings and loan scandal, and then have Dave, acting as Mitchell, appoint Bob as vice president, whereupon they will reveal Mitchell’s incapacity and Bob will become president. Alan is initially reluctant to agree to the plan, but eventually acquiesces and tells the press corps the stroke was minor. Dave agrees to keep impersonating Mitchell and Nance is sent on a good will tour of Africa.


title: Dave (film)

text: Dave's charm and enthusiasm for life changes Mitchell’s previously grumpy image and increases his popularity. First Lady Ellen Mitchell, who has been privately estranged from her husband for years, is initially convinced that Dave is her husband and treats him with contempt on the few occasions they see each other. When Dave accompanies her to a homeless shelter, for which she is a staunch advocate, she sees his empathy towards a shy boy and begins to soften towards him. Her fury returns, though, after Bob forges Mitchell’s signature on the veto of a public works bill that included funding for the shelter. Dave, after consulting his accountant friend Murray Blum, works with the Cabinet to restore the funding. A furious Bob threatens to destroy Dave, but Alan vows to expose their scheme if he does.


title: Dave (film)

text: Ellen, having witnessed Dave's considerable efforts to save the shelter, confronts Dave and he admits he is an impostor. Dave has Duane escort them to the secret hospital room beneath the White House, where Mitchell remains in a coma. They both resolve to leave the White House, but become closer after spending a night out alone together. Ellen tells Dave she's gone along with the charade of being happily married to Bill because she thought she could help people as First Lady. Dave tells her he wishes he could do the same. They begin to fall in love and choose to stay.


title: Dave (film)

text: The next day, Dave calls a press conference and, when Bob fires him, threatens to tell the press corps the truth about Mitchell. He orders Bob to resign and announces a plan to provide a job to every American who wants one.


title: Dave (film)

text: Nance returns from Africa and pleads his innocence of the scandal to Dave, who hears about Bob’s plot from Alan. To get back at Dave, Bob reveals evidence implicating Mitchell in the scandal, which Alan admits is true. Despite talk of impeachment, Dave refuses to back off his jobs plan.


title: Dave (film)

text: During a joint session of Congress, Dave admits that Bob’s allegations are true and takes responsibility for the scandal. He produces proof, furnished by Alan, that shows Bob was directly involved and Nance is innocent. As he continues his speech, he fakes another stroke and switches bodies with Mitchell on the way to the hospital, enabling him to resume his previous life. The hospital pronounces the "second" stroke as major and Mitchell continues to lie in a coma for several more months before dying. Nance becomes president, Bob and several administration officials are eventually indicted, and the jobs plan becomes law.


title: Dave (film)

text: Dave runs for city council with the help of Murray and his staff at his employment agency. Dave is surprised one day when Ellen visits. He escorts her into his office where they share their first kiss. Dave closes the shades to give them privacy and Duane steps in front of the door, wearing one of Dave’s campaign buttons.


title: Dave (film)

text: Senators Al D'Amato, Lloyd Bentsen, and Daniel Patrick Moynihan were scheduled to make cameo appearances in the film but withdrew in protest of Warner Records's decision to release Body Count's song "Cop Killer." NBC also prohibited Andrea Mitchell from making a planned appearance in the film.


title: Dave (film)

text: Producer Lauren Shuler Donner and screenwriter Gary Ross had known each other since taking a Stella Adler class in the 1970s, and in 1988 Ross told Shuler Donner his idea for "Dave". Ross wrote the script while working on the Michael Dukakis presidential campaign during the 1988 election, and he was inspired by the Iran-contra affair. Ross also received advice from First Lady Barbara Bush's press secretary Anna Perez. Shuler-Donner approved it, but her employer Walt Disney Productions refused to release it while a conservative such as Ronald Reagan or George H. W. Bush held the presidency. Warner Bros. bought the project with the intent to have it directed by Shuler-Donner's husband Richard Donner, but he decided against continuing with the project in 1990. Production was delayed by three years to wait for Shuler Donner to be released from her contract with Disney and for director Ivan Reitman to become available.


title: Dave (film)

text: According to Reitman, Warner Bros. wanted a box office star to portray the lead role and that one executive even suggested Arnold Schwarzenegger to play the part. Michael Keaton was briefly cast in the role but had to drop out. Both Warren Beatty and Kevin Costner were also considered for the role. In fact, it was Beatty who brought "Dave" to Reitman's attention. Kevin Kline almost turned down the role because he thought he would be playing the same character he played in "A Fish Called Wanda".


title: Dave (film)

text: Nevertheless, Kline was hired to play the protagonist, as Reitman considered him to have a presidential look and be an actor "who was both dramatically strong and was light on his feet," as Kline would not only be playing a double role but the film was a comedy that dealt with very serious subject matter. Reitman then called Sigourney Weaver, with whom he had worked in "Ghostbusters", for the First Lady role. Ross was present for production, as he was interested in starting a directing career as well.


title: Dave (film)

text: Filming began on August 13, 1992, in Los Angeles and Washington D.C. White House interior sets were filmed at Warner Bros. Studios, Burbank while exterior scenes were filmed at the Los Angeles Arboretum in Arcadia, California. The film's Oval Office set was constructed based on a replica at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and would be reused more than 25 times, for television shows and films like "The Pelican Brief", "In the Line of Fire", "Hot Shots! Part Deux" and "Absolute Power".


title: Dave (film)

text: "Dave" debuted at number 2 at the US box office, behind "". It later jumped to number 1 in its second weekend. In total, "Dave" made $63.3 million in the United States and Canada and $28.5 million internationally for a worldwide total of $91.8 million.


title: Dave (film)

text: "Dave" was met with critical acclaim and has a 95% rating based on 55 reviews collected at Rotten Tomatoes. The consensus on the site states: "Ivan Reitman's refreshingly earnest political comedy benefits from an understated, charming script and a breezy performance by Kevin Kline."


title: Dave (film)

text: Roger Ebert of the "Chicago Sun-Times" gave the film three and a half stars out of four. Ebert praised the film's acting and wrote, ""Dave" takes that old plot about an ordinary person who is suddenly thrust into a position of power, and finds a fresh way to tell it. [...] When I first heard this story line, I imagined that "Dave" would be completely predictable. I was wrong. The movie is more proof that it isn't what you do, it's how you do it: Ivan Reitman's direction and Gary Ross's screenplay use intelligence and warmhearted sentiment to make "Dave" into wonderful lighthearted entertainment. [...] Both Kline and Weaver are good at playing characters of considerable intelligence, and that's the case here. The movie may be built on subtle variations of the Idiot Plot (in which the characters skillfully avoid tripping over obvious conclusions), but they bring such particular qualities to their characters that we almost believe them."


title: Dave (film)

text: Then-President Bill Clinton approved of the film, and gave Ross a framed script, which Clinton had autographed, writing that it was a "funny, often accurate lampooning of politics." Clinton also gave Ross a picture of himself holding a "Dave" mug.


title: Dave (film)

text: A musical based on the movie opened at the Arena Stage in Washington, D.C., in July 2018. The book is written by Thomas Meehan and Nell Benjamin, with music by Tom Kitt. The production is directed by Tina Landau and stars Drew Gehling as Dave and Douglas Sills as Chief of Staff Bob Alexander.


title: Al Snow

text: Allen Ray Sarven (born July 18, 1963) is an American professional wrestler better known by his ring name Al Snow. He is best known as a wrestler for Smoky Mountain Wrestling, Extreme Championship Wrestling, and World Wrestling Entertainment. Snow has also held various backstage positions for professional wrestling promotions. Snow worked as a road agent for Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA, later Impact Wrestling) from 2010 to 2017 and has owned Ohio Valley Wrestling since 2018 (first as majority owner, and a minority owner since 2021).


title: Al Snow

text: Sarven attended a professional wrestling tryout camp held by Ole and Gene Anderson. There he met Jim Lancaster, promoter of Ohio's Midwest Championship Wrestling, who agreed to train him. Lancaster later described Sarven as "a leader in the ring" who "had drive and natural ability". He made his debut on May 22, 1982. Sarven defeated Lancaster on May 5, 1985, for the Midwest Championship Wrestling title.


title: Al Snow

text: Sarven wrestled in various independent promotions throughout the 1980s and early 1990s, capturing both tag team and singles titles, but failed to make any big breaks. In 1993 he competed in the WWF as a jobber losing to Marty Jannetty and The Undertaker under the name Steve Moore.


title: Al Snow

text: He gained a reputation as "the best-kept secret in wrestling". Sarven helped train future Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Hall of Fame member and NWA World Heavyweight Champion Dan Severn. During this time he would sometimes wrestle as Shinobi, a ninja-style masked gimmick. He wrestled in the November 19, 1994, tournament for the vacant NWA World Heavyweight Championship, but he lost to Chris Candido, the eventual winner of the tournament.


title: Al Snow

text: From 1995 to 1997, Snow operated a professional wrestling school called "Body Slammers" in Lima, Ohio, hiring D'Lo Brown as an assistant trainer. It has since branched out with one of his trainers running "Bodyslammers" in Ottawa.


title: Al Snow

text: After a tour of Japan, Sarven wrestled a match in Michigan against Sabu, an Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) regular, who suggested he try ECW. After making his debut against The Tazmaniac and losing via pinfall on February 4, 1995, Sarven faced Chris Benoit as Al Snow, in a 15-minute match that was hailed as one of the best of the year.


title: Al Snow

text: Sarven was also being courted by Jim Cornette for his Smoky Mountain Wrestling federation. ECW booker Paul Heyman agreed to let him work for both companies. Sarven soon found that he was not being utilized by ECW and went to Smoky Mountain full-time. In Smoky Mountain Wrestling, Snow teamed with Unibomb (Glenn Jacobs, later to be known as Kane) as The Dynamic Duo and defeated The Rock 'n' Roll Express for the SMW Tag Team Championship. Both wrestlers caught the attention of the World Wrestling Federation and were signed by the end of 1995.


title: Al Snow

text: Sarven began working for the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) when he signed a contract in August 1995. During his tenure in the company, Sarven wrestled under numerous gimmicks, such as Avatar, which saw Sarven come to the ring unmasked, putting on a mask to wrestle, then removing it afterwards. The gimmick was based on "Mighty Morphin Power Rangers" whose popularity the company wanted to capitalize on at that time. During his particularly short run under this gimmick, Sarven's WWF debut as Avatar took place on the October 23, 1995, episode of "Monday Night RAW", defeating Bryan Walsh. About a month after his debut, he was scheduled to be the third man for The Underdogs at Survivor Series but for reasons unknown, was replaced by Bob Holly. After this, he started teaming with Aldo Montoya. His two final matches as Avatar were against Sycho Sid & 1-2-3 Kid. He was also to partake in the 1996 Royal Rumble match but once again, due to unknown reasons, never appeared. His final match in February was against Isaac Yankem. On February 20, 1996, Sarven wrestled as Shinobi, a "ninja assassin" hired by Jim Cornette to dispose of Shawn Michaels, who defeated Shinobi in quick fashion. Avatar returned for one last appearance against Justin Bradshaw at a house show on March 17, 1996, at MSG in a losing effort.


title: Al Snow

text: Sarven received his first mainstream exposure with the WWF as Leif Cassidy, the tag team partner of Marty Jannetty in February 1996. The duo were promoted as The New Rockers, a throwback to the original Rockers team of Jannetty and Shawn Michaels. Eventually, Jannetty left, and Sarven was reduced to jobbing for mid-carders in January 1997. In the late 1990s, WWF and ECW began to cross-promote their organizations to counteract the success of World Championship Wrestling (WCW); Sarven was one of the wrestlers sent to Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW). His last appearance in WWF in September 1997 was a loss to Tiger Ali Singh at WWF One Night Only.


title: Al Snow

text: Sarven found success back in ECW, billed once again as Al Snow. Sarven developed a new character gimmick after reading about abnormal psychology and finding a mannequin head on the street near the ECW Arena during a Mummers Day parade. He got the idea to portray an individual with a schizophrenic disorder using the head as a prop for projection. In this role, Sarven received a lot of fan and management support for his J.O.B. Squad storyline, which promoted him as being driven insane by his years as a jobber for the WWF.


title: Al Snow

text: In the storyline, Snow, upset at his lot in life, asked Cactus Jack what he had to do to get anywhere in wrestling. Jack said to Snow that to become famous he had to "get a little head" (meaning he had to be willing to sleep with/have sex with the booker). Snow, however took this literally, and thus he started coming to the ring with the mannequin head (with the words "Help Me" written backwards on its forehead, an action Snow himself began to do) whom he talked to as if it were a real person, which prompted ECW crowds to chant ""We want Head"", an intentional double entendre. ECW promoters handed out styrofoam mannequin heads at wrestling shows, and audience members started waving them and shouting, "Head! Head! Head!" in time to "Breathe" by The Prodigy, his entrance music. The entire audience would then throw the heads into the ring before the match started. The biggest match of his ECW career came when he wrestled for the promotion's World Heavyweight Championship, losing to Shane Douglas at Wrestlepalooza in 1998.


title: Al Snow

text: Sarven was then recalled to the company, where he continued his gimmick of talking to "Head," creating some of the more memorable humorous skits of "The Attitude Era" including fighting himself in a hardcore match (which he won by putting himself through a table) and his short lived comedy tag team with Steve Blackman.


title: Al Snow

text: Snow received some mainstream publicity in 1999 when Wal-Mart pulled his action figure from their shelves after Sabrena Parton, a professor at Kennesaw State University, complained that "Head" was a "decapitated woman's head" that sent an inappropriate message about violence towards women. Parton was quoted as saying "What kind of message would this toy send children about brutalization of women?" Sarven used the story as part of an angle in which the controversy caused Al Snow to develop depression.


title: Al Snow

text: At WrestleMania XV, Snow lost a WWF Hardcore Championship triple threat match involving Hardcore Holly and Billy Gunn. During the summer of 1999, at the conclusion of a storyline where Head was impaled with a spike by Prince Albert, Snow replaced Head with a chihuahua named Pepper, who he claimed talked to him. A variety of segments were broadcast showing Snow's interactions with the dog, including bringing Pepper to the ring to either "participate" in matches or be held by the broadcast team. This led to a storyline where Big Boss Man kidnapped Pepper. Boss Man agreed to return the dog if Snow defeated him in a match for the Hardcore title; however, after losing the match he reneged and kept the dog. Later, in a segment on "SmackDown", Boss Man invited Snow to his hotel room to discuss the situation, before serving Snow dinner which was then revealed to be Pepper. (In a 2008 interview, Snow said that this angle had been based on a story of Mr. Fuji having done something similar with his partner Professor Tanaka's dog.) The feud culminated at a "Kennel from Hell" match at Unforgiven, which consisted of a regular cage which was surrounded by a Hell in a Cell structure, with "a trained pack of wild dogs" in between the two, and the objective was to escape both cages without being attacked by the dogs. Al Snow won the match.


title: Al Snow

text: Snow would later team with real life friend Mick Foley and became tag team champions with him for a short amount of time, but turned heel by betraying him due to Foley's jokes about him in his autobiography, "", and his growing jealousy of Foley's tag team partner, The Rock. He would later turn face again due to fan reaction. Snow was often the butt of Foley's jokes during Foley's tenure as the Commissioner in 2000. However, they are close friends in real life. Foley continued to use Snow as the butt of many jokes in his second book, "".


title: Al Snow

text: In early 2000, he began to team with Steve Blackman as an "odd couple" tag team called Head Cheese (the "cheese" part being given various explanations, including Snow's claim that Blackman was a voracious eater of cheese and later his attempt to force him to wear a Green Bay Packers "Cheesehead" hat). At WrestleMania 2000 the two suffered a loss against Test and Albert. Also in the same year, Snow won the European Championship from Perry Saturn. He then began a tongue-in-cheek gimmick of entering the ring to various European countries' native music, with his theme song sung in the language of the country, and wearing attire which would suit the stereotype of that country. This continued until he lost the title to William Regal.


title: Al Snow

text: In 2001, Snow tried to rally support from the fans to vote for him as the new Commissioner of the company following Foley's on-screen firing by Vince McMahon in December 2000. By March 2001, a match was set up between Snow and Regal to determine the new Commissioner, which resulted in Regal winning. Snow then took some time off from the ring in order to commit more time for the reality show "Tough Enough". He made his return to the ring in October 2001 during the InVasion era and challenged Christian for the European Championship at Survivor Series, which he lost.


title: Al Snow

text: Snow's last championship reign came on March 11, 2002, when he defeated Goldust to win his last Hardcore Championship. He lost the title to his former "Tough Enough" student, Maven, a few days later. He was drafted to "SmackDown!" as part of the 2002 Brand Extension, where he teamed up with Maven. After taking time off again for another season of "Tough Enough", Snow returned as a member of the "Raw" roster and eventually became a commentator for "Sunday Night Heat" alongside Jonathan Coachman. When Coachman sided with Eric Bischoff, Snow followed suit, turning heel. The two feuded with Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler, and briefly replaced them at the "Raw" announce table after a victory at Unforgiven in 2003. When "Tough Enough IV" came to "SmackDown!", Snow was on the scene and turned face once again.


title: Al Snow

text: On April 12, 2004 episode of Raw, Snow dressed up as the Five Star Ninja a portray of Shinobi which he lost to Tajiri.


title: Al Snow

text: In September 2004 Snow left "Sunday Night Heat" as a commentator and went to "Velocity". In June 2006, Snow returned to wrestling full-time as a member of the new ECW brand. His first appearance in the new brand was in the WWE vs ECW Battle Royal at the "WWE vs. ECW Head to Head" special, where he was accompanied by Head. He was eliminated from the match. On the June 13, 2006, debut of "ECW on Sci-Fi", Snow participated in an Extreme Battle Royal, which was won by Sabu. Over the next six months, he was used sporadically, mostly as a jobber, losing to people such as Test and Kevin Thorn.


title: Al Snow

text: Snow then returned with the company as a trainer at Ohio Valley Wrestling in 2007. On the February 3, 2007 OVW TV tapings, Snow was named the new OVW Troubleshooter by Danny Davis in response to Danny Basham's WWE release. On Raw XV, the 15th-Anniversary special on December 10, 2007, Snow participated in the 15th Anniversary Battle Royal. After WWE ceased affiliations with Ohio Valley Wrestling in February 2008, Sarven was released from his position as a trainer.


title: Al Snow

text: Prior to returning to WWE's active roster in 2006, Snow was allowed to compete on the independent circuit. In 2006, Snow was pinned by the Millennium Wrestling Federation (MWF) Heavyweight Champion "Sudden Impact" Dylan Kage of Paul Bearer's Trifecta stable at "MWF Fireworks On The 4th".


title: Al Snow

text: Since early 2008, Snow has regularly competed in several independent promotions in the U.S. and Europe, especially in the U.K. and Germany. In March 2009, he made an appearance in Chikara's King of Trios tournament, teaming up with Glacier and D'Lo Brown.


title: Al Snow

text: On October 21, 2022, Snow and Kal Herro won the OFE Tag Team as the New Rockers. Snow attire he wore was the one of Leif Cassidy.


title: Al Snow

text: In the lead-up to the December 7, 2008, TNA show Final Resolution, Mick Foley assigned himself as the special guest enforcer for the match between Kurt Angle and Rhino. Angle said he had hired "another former World Champion" and someone who had co-held a world tag team title with Foley. This person would debut during Angle's match to "take care of Foley". And on the night in question, Al Snow revealed himself to be the mystery ally of Angle, who interrupted the match by slapping Foley. The distraction allowed Angle to beat Rhino.


title: Al Snow

text: In March 2010, Sarven received a tryout as an agent for TNA Wrestling. He made his return to television on the July 15, 2010, edition of "Impact!", aligning himself with fellow ECW alumni Tommy Dreamer, Raven, Stevie Richards, Rhino, Brother Devon, Pat Kenney and Mick Foley in their invitation by Dixie Carter to TNA. The following week, TNA president Dixie Carter agreed to give the ECW alumni their own reunion pay–per–view event, Hardcore Justice: The Last Stand, as a celebration of hardcore wrestling and a final farewell to the company. At the event Snow was defeated by Rhino in a three-way match, which also included Brother Runt. After that, he appeared onscreen in his real-life role as company agent on multiple occasions, often alongside fellow agents Ace "D'Lo Brown" Conner and Pat Kenney. Sarven currently holds the title of producer for the company. In Spring 2011, Snow returned to OVW, dividing his time between his TNA duties and work as a show producer for OVW. In November of that year, OVW became TNA's official developmental territory.


title: Al Snow

text: In May 2012, Snow began appearing as a judge in the monthly Gut Check segment on "Impact Wrestling". The following July, Snow started a storyline rivalry with Joey Ryan, who had been denied a spot on the TNA roster, following his appearance on TNA Gut Check. After Snow tricked Ryan into signing a contract for a match, the two met on October 14 at Bound for Glory, where Snow wrestled only his second match for TNA, losing to Ryan, following interference from Matt Morgan.


title: Al Snow

text: On January 12, 2013, Snow took part in Joker's Wild (which aired May 3, 2013), teaming with recent rival Joey Ryan, in a loss against Matt Morgan and Robbie T.


title: Al Snow

text: On the August 7, 2014, edition of "Impact Wrestling", Snow returned to team with Team 3D (Bully Ray and Devon) and Tommy Dreamer against Ethan Carter III, Rhino, Big Rycklon and Gene Snitsky in an eight-man Hardcore War in a winning effort.


title: Al Snow

text: On the February 13, 2015, edition of "Impact Wrestling" (which was taped on January 29), Snow returned to TV as a heel, where he was seen in the SSE Hydro, calling out Scottish wrestler and British Boot Camp 2 contestant, Grado. Grado would come out to the ring where Snow would give him the opportunity to retire from wrestling, Grado would not take the offer. On the February 20 edition of "Impact Wrestling" (also taped January 29) Snow would face Grado in a losing effort, after which he would then go on to shake Grado's hand turning face in the process. Afterwards, the Beat Down Clan (BDC) would go on to attack both Snow and Grado, but were saved by the debuting Drew Galloway, would fend off the BDC and who would then stand tall in the ring alongside Al Snow and his friend, Grado. At Bound for Glory 2015 Snow competed in the Bound for Gold Gauntlet. On the March 29, 2016 "Impact Wrestling" Snow returned as a heel attacking Grado backstage.


title: Al Snow

text: On the April 5, 2016 "Impact Wrestling" TNA Management Director Billy Corgan suspended Al Snow for the week without pay and said next week he must apologise. When Al Snow returned from his suspension week, he entered the ring and said the ease new talents get today with earning respect and a name in the professional wrestling business, drove him crazy as he and others of his and generations before him needed to get some for quite a long time and fight hard to prove themselves worthy back then. He invited Mahabali Shera to the ring and apologized to him for attacking him and Grado, breaking Grado's arm in the process. Shera shook hands with him, only for Al Snow to betray and attack him once they went out of the ring. At a backstage segment, Al Snow said angrily he doesn't need to apologize and explain himself to rookies and if they want his apology and respect they need to defeat him in a match.


title: Al Snow

text: A week after, Al Snow had a match with Shera in which before and a bit during the match he has blamed the wrestling changes on the fans and said they are cowards for sitting behind the barricades and not coming to the ring to face him. Shera gave a good fight, but Al Snow eventually won the match. In the May 10 episode of "Impact!", Shera and Snow had a rematch where Al Snow played games and almost won with his cheating tactics, however, he eventually failed to win due to Grado involving himself in the match, making sure Shera wins. At backstage, a bit later, Al Snow was interviewed and talked angrily, cursing Grado and Shera in the process. On May 24 episode of "Impact!", Al Snow went on to win a back and forth street fight against Grado with the help of the debuting Basille Baraka and Baron Dax, thus forming the tag team faction known as The Tribunal. On November 10, episode of "Impact", The Tribunal attacked him until Shera made the save, turning face once again in the process. On December 8 episode of "Impact Wrestling", Snow and Shera defeated The Tribunal in a Double Strap Match to end the feud. On June 19, 2017, Al Snow was released from Impact Wrestling.


title: Al Snow

text: In January 2021, Snow sold a majority interest in OVW to a group led by radio host Matt Jones and former 21c Museum Hotels CEO Craig Greenberg. Snow continues to run the promotion's day-to-day operations.


title: Al Snow

text: He had a cameo as the Nome King in the feature film "Dorothy and the Witches of Oz" (2012) with Christopher Lloyd, as well as starring in the action film "Overtime", and the comedy film "Agua Caliente". He had an uncredited role in the drama film "Rudy" (1993). Snow also appeared in "They're Just My Friends" (2006) and co-stars alongside Tiger Chung Lee in "Mountain Mafia" (2009). In 2006, he played himself in the independent feature film "The Still Life".


title: Al Snow

text: Snow can also be seen as the brutal serial killer Grim, also known as "The Reaper's", in "Feathered Italian Films" latest slasher films "The Legacy" and "Hell House". Head also cameos in "The Legacy". He was one of the leads in the sci-fi/action/comedy film "Overtime" (2011) by director Matt Niehoff.


title: Al Snow

text: Snow had a quick line in the wrestling documentary "Beyond the Mat". He also participated in the wrestling documentary, "Bloodstained Memoirs".


title: Al Snow

text: Al Snow also appeared as a coach on "WWE Tough Enough" (then called "WWF Tough Enough") during the show's first three seasons.


title: Al Snow

text: On November 10, 2012, Snow, along with several other TNA workers, was featured in an episode of MTV's "Made".


title: Al Snow

text: Snow completed his work as the "Man in Black" for the independent horror film "Lake Eerie" on October 23, 2013. The film stars Lance Henriksen, Betsy Baker and was released in Summer 2015. Snow also played "Henchman" in Jessica Sonneborn's horror film "Alice D".


title: Al Snow

text: Near the end of 2015, Al Snow and Simon Van Der Wolf started a training academy, originally based in the UK but since expanded to include branches in many other countries. They along with other professional wrestlers (including Joe E. Legend, Doug Williams (wrestler), Phil Powers, Jonny Storm, John Klinger, and many more) held tryouts in February 2016. In April 2019, local media in Louisville reported that the academy had applied to the Kentucky Department of Education for formal accreditation as a vocational school. The academy has developed a two-year, 60-credit hour program (on the semester system) in all aspects of the wrestling business, ranging from in-ring performance to writing and TV production. Assuming state approval is received, the Louisville academy will start accepting applications for the vocational program in May 2019 and start accredited instruction that August.


title: Al Snow

text: Their Facebook page has various wrestlers that are current/former WWE, or TNA wrestlers cutting promos to tell people to come to the training academy to become professional wrestlers.


title: Al Snow

text: Snow has been married three times. He married Pam Sarven in 1986 and the couple had two children. They divorced in 2004. His second wife was fellow wrestler Cynthia Lynch who wrestled under the name of Bobcat. They married in 2009 and divorced in 2015. In 2017, he married his third wife, Jessica Gousha.