Jerry Jones and his storied football franchise, the Dallas Cowboys, are giving to the needy through the Salvation Army over the holidays, and hoping the team gets going in its traditional Thanksgiving Day game.
"Well it's called a 'W,' we want to win the football game," Jones said to Cheddar about the holiday contest with a laugh. "We're sitting in the end zone here at AT&T Stadium, and those red kettles really are going to be just a few feet away. And we've been practicing on it, and when we score, we want those guys over in that kettle."
The iconic red kettles, smaller than the ones that will be featured in Thursday's game, are utilized by the Salvation Army, the Christian church and charitable organization, to collect donations. They can often be seen accompanied by bell-ringing volunteers in public spaces from early November through Christmas Eve.
"I think of the most efficient way to take a dollar and have it immediately go to shoes for somebody that has none, go to food when they don't have anything to eat," Jones said. "The Salvation Army is how to do that through the red kettle, right there without any in-between. It is the efficiency which is really something you look at with football as well."
The red kettle received a windfall gift from what was, at first, a negative incident for the NFL team, when superstar running back Ezekiel Elliott held out for a bigger contract. Owner Jerry Jones dismissed the player with the remark "Zeke Who?" at the time during the acrimonious dispute.
"In 2016 we watched Zeke jump into the kettle and just a few months when we re-signed Zeke ... and we held up 'Zeke Who?' t-shirts, we sold all of those and the $150,000 that was raised, all of it went to the Salvation Army," said Charlotte Jones Anderson, executive vice president and chief brand officer for the Dallas Cowboys. "We hope to see what he does tomorrow."
The 8-3 Buffalo Bills will be taking on the 6-5 Cowboys at 4:30 p.m. on Thursday.
A new mobile app has launched just in time for Valentine's Day. Our.Love bills itself as an A.I.-powered, gamified, relationship wellness app for couples. The app is set in what the company calls the Coupleverse, a virtual world where each couple can build a virtual relationship home as they also build their real-world relationship. Founder and CEO Tal Zlotnitsky joined Cheddar to discuss how the app works. "The concept behind Our.Love is to give people the opportunity to understand where they stand in their relationship through very simple metrics that we provide within the app that will help them in real-time, see where they stand, see where their partner is, and be able to get closer together," he said.
The Super Bowl is just 48 hours away and things are definitely heating up in the social media space, especially on Twitter. Fans across the country are quickly engaging in color commentary as they call it, and actively sharing their views on who's expected to take the big win, which players they are looking forward to seeing. Senior Sports Partner Manager at Twitter, David Herman, joined Cheddar to discuss more.
Director and producer Ivan Reitman passed away over the weekend at the age of 75. The filmmaker was the mastermind behind some of America's favorite films such as "Ghostbusters". Reitman’s family released a statement explaining how they are comforted by the lives he has touched through his films.
The 21st Annual Food Network and Cooking Channel South Beach Wine & Food Festival (SOBEWFF), is returning to Miami on February 24 with proceeds to benefit the future leaders of the hospitality industry. Lee Schrager, the founder and director of the festival, and Food Network star Jeff Mauro joined Cheddar News to discuss what ticket holders can expect, how the festival benefits students, and how Mauro will be paying tribute to fellow food celebrity, Guy Fieri, by hosting a charity auction dinner. "I mean there's nobody bigger, nobody more magnetic right now in the food space than Guy," Maura said. "I mean the guy had a Super Bowl commercial on last night. That's a dream of mine, so I'm one step closer there just by doing a tight 20 minutes at his tribute dinner."
