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President Donald Trump on Wednesday referred to his voters advocating for the release of the Jeffrey Epstein files as “weaklings” whose support he no longer wants.

The president referred to the files as one of many Democrat “Scams and Hoaxes.”

“Their new SCAM is what we will forever call the Jeffrey Epstein Hoax, and my PAST supporters have bought into this ‘bullshit,’ hook, line, and sinker,” Trump posted to his Truth Social account Wednesday morning.

Speaking of the supporters who have broke with him on the Epstein files, Trump said: “They haven’t learned their lesson, and probably never will, even after being conned by the Lunatic Left for 8 long years.”

Trump lamented that the Epstein scandal has overshadowed what he called the “success” of his presidency.

“I have had more success in 6 months than perhaps any President in our Country’s history, and all these people want to talk about, with strong prodding by the Fake News and the success starved Dems, is the Jeffrey Epstein Hoax.

“Let these weaklings continue forward and do the Democrats work,” Trump continued, “don’t even think about talking of our incredible and unprecedented success, because I don’t want their support anymore!”

Trump has been dogged by the Epstein case since July 6, when the Department of Justice and the FBI issued a joint memo saying there was “no incriminating ‘client list’” and “no credible evidence” that Epstein blackmailed co-conspirators who sexually abused underaged girls provided by him, Axios first reported.

The memo contradicted Attorney General Pam Bondi’s claim in a February interview with Fox News that the client list was on her desk.

Some of the president’s most staunch backers turned on him over the memo’s release, angering them after posting to Truth Social that they should ignore the Epstein files.

Trump’s post was “ratioed,” meaning there were more replies — 45,800 as of Monday morning — than likes — 40,900 as of Monday morning. The ratio indicates that the post was extremely unpopular.

While introducing Kalen DeBoer at SEC media days, the league’s commissioner, Greg Sankey, noted that Alabama football’s head coach had achieved the school’s best first season in charge since Frank Thomas. Still, the nine-win 2024 campaign disappointed Alabama football fans.

That’s a sentiment DeBoer shared. On Wednesday, speaking to reporters in Atlanta, he was asked whether his first year had met Alabama’s standard.

“If you internally ask us, no,” DeBoer said. “We fell short of making the playoffs. It’s as simple as that, right? Giving yourself a chance to go compete for a championship. I think there’s a lot of things that I’m super proud of that have happened within the program that are part of the progression. Yeah, we want it right now, too.”

2024 was the first time Alabama failed to win at least 10 games since Nick Saban’s first season, 2007. The Crimson Tide had plenty of chances to make the College Football Playoff, but losses to Vanderbilt, Tennessee and Oklahoma caused UA to fall just short of inclusion.

Instead, DeBoer and company played in the ReliaQuest Bowl, where they lost to a depleted Michigan team.

“Yeah, we fell short,” DeBoer continued at SEC media days. “Our guys, again, I’m proud of them and the way they’ve responded to us not realizing the goals that we set out to have, getting back to work, focusing on the main thing. I feel that’s always been the case.

“Sometimes there’s ups and downs that you have to go through unfortunately that we had to experience. But in the end, we’re going to take advantage of the failures we’ve had and be better because of it.”

DeBoer revealed at media days that the Crimson Tide will begin preseason camp on July 30, exactly two weeks from Wednesday. Alabama will open the coach’s second season in charge with an Aug. 30 trip to Florida State.

Alabama football never lost at home in coach Kalen DeBoer’s first season in Tuscaloosa.

The same can’t be said for the road.

The Crimson Tide finished 9-4 in 2024, and that includes losses to Vanderbilt, Tennessee, Oklahoma and Michigan away from Bryant-Denny Stadium. The loss to the Wolverines occurred in the ReliaQuest Bowl.

“Being on the road and playing better on the road has certainly got to be a point that happens this year in our program,” DeBoer said Wednesday at SEC Media Days.

Alabama won’t have to wait long to improve in its road-game endeavors. The Crimson Tide kickoff its season in Tallahassee against Florida State on Aug. 30.

“We know that they’re going to have something to prove, as well,” DeBoer said. “That’s going to be a great environment to get tested early on. We don’t need to look anything beyond that as far as our preparation or what might lie because none of it matters unless we take care of business and do what we’re doing, being our best in that week one game against Florida State.”

Nick Kelly is an Alabama beat writer for AL.com and the Alabama Media Group. Follow him on X and Instagram.

Cliff Simon has made cakes for Diana Ross, Madonna, Pee-wee Herman, Liberace, Ella Fitzgerald, KISS and many other celebrities.

Now he’s making them for you.

This Alabama man whips up fabulous desserts in his home kitchen, then gives them away for free to people in Birmingham. It’s a community project, a way for him to be of service, and a means for spreading joy in the Glen Iris neighborhood and beyond.

“There’s no money exchanged, and it it works,” Simon, 74, said in an interview with AL.com. “It’s been wonderful.”

Simon, an artist and former professor of scenic design at UAB, uses his formidable skills to make cakes that are visual knockouts — with whipped cream, chocolate ganache, gold powder and other decadent ingredients — but he wants to tantalize the tastebuds, too.

“When people see my cakes, they say, ‘How can I cut that?’” Simon said. “Or ‘It’s too beautiful to cut.’ But please, do me a favor, and cut it, because it’s a cake, and cakes are meant to be eaten.”

(See photos of Cliff Simon and his cakes in the gallery at the top of this post.)

In the past, when Simon created personalized desserts for stars playing at Radio City Music Hall in New York City, his cakes were showcased by backstage caterers at concerts and other events. Simon rarely knew for sure if the famous folks simply admired his cakes — or his cream puffs, truffles and other confections — or if they were inclined to dig in.

“I don’t suppose Diana Ross would have eaten the cake. She was watching her weight and everything,” Simon recalled. “But I know that John Cougar Mellencamp, when it was brought to his dressing room, he had a napkin over it when he went on stage. There were crumbs on the napkin and the note said, ‘Do not touch this.’”

Indulge with gusto, then, and you’ll make this baker happy. Express satisfaction on social media after devouring one of his cakes, and Simon will be even happier.

“I feel as though I have won the lottery today!” Greg Smith of Birmingham said in a June 25 post on Facebook. “After finally managing to reach Cliff Simon in a timely manner, I successfully secured the most delectable sweet treat on a sweltering summer Alabama afternoon. The cake is truly a masterpiece, and I felt a pang of guilt when cutting into it, until I savored its delightful flavor! It is utterly heavenly!!!!”

Facebook has been important to Simon as a method for sharing his cakes, via posts on his personal page and one linked to the Glen Iris neighborhood in Southside. True, things have changed a bit since December 2023, when Simon made his first giveaway post, sharing part of a huge apple turnover he’d made for Christmas.

That dessert, from a Julia Child recipe, initially was part of a holiday dinner for Simon and his husband, artist Julian Hazlett, and Hazlett’s sister. But when Simon decided to share the treat with others, a community baking hobby was born.

“Julian told me about a woman who started baking sourdough bread and decided to put loaves on the front porch, and for anyone to come by and pick up the bread as a free gift,” Simon said in a Facebook post on Dec. 26, 2023. “That was so inspiring to me, and I love giving people cakes. So, from yesterday, here is the remainder of the apple turnover for Christmas which will go on my porch in about ten minutes. Whoever gets here first, just come, take and eat. More tomorrow.”

After the turnover disappeared, Simon moved on to a flourless chocolate torte. Then a Linzertorte, a Torta di Cioccolata, a Budapest coffee cake, an almond cake and more. He’s been sharing yummy desserts ever since, experimenting with different cakes and perfecting his distribution methods.

“I started doing it by leaving a cake, in the box, on an upside-down black garbage can,” Simon said. “And people would come and pick it up. Most times, I didn’t meet them. Then last summer, I couldn’t put the cakes out anymore because it was so hot, and a lot of my cakes are covered in whipped cream. I had no way to handle that. And that’s really how (the current system) came about.”

These days, Simon usually posts cake giveaways on Facebook three times per week, offering two cakes to the public — first-come, first served — on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, for six cakes total.

The Facebook alerts mention Simon’s home address and tell visitors to call a phone number posted on his front door. Simon then brings a boxed cake to the person waiting on his porch, chatting for a few minutes and sending them on their way.

As each cake is claimed, Simon posts updates on Facebook, so hopefuls won’t arrive on his doorstep and be disappointed.

“B.J. Melton just picked up the first Paris-Brest,” Simon posted on May 7, 2025, referencing a classic French pastry. “As he was walking down the steps with the cake, he said ‘I feel so happy now.’ And I told him, Everyone is always happy on this porch! There’s one more left for someone who wants to be happy for a moment, too.”

Simon can’t predict how long it will take for the cakes to be scooped up, so he encourages folks to watch for his public Facebook posts and act promptly.

“It seems to work really well,” Simon said. “Different people have wanted to give me money or help with the cakes or even buy ingredients and bring them to me. But I don’t want that. I just want to do it myself, so that I feel in control. We talk for a while, then they leave. And it really helps me feel like I’m being of service.”

At first, Simon’s cakes went to neighbors in close proximity to his house in Glen Iris. But as the word has spread, cake fans have made the pilgrimage from other parts of the city. One Birmingham couple showed up at Simon’s door, for example, after their daughter messaged them from out of state, urging them to pick up the last cake of the day.

How does Simon decide on the type of cakes he makes each week?

“It’s whatever my whim is,” he said. “I make cakes that I like. I just choose whatever I feel. If I want to make an orange and chocolate cake, I try to find some sort of recipe for it, or I use my intuition. … I have an idea of what will appeal to people. I know that if I make a pound cake, let’s say, it’s not going to appeal to as many people as a beautiful European torte with something beautiful on top. They have to be special, so when people come up on the porch, they’re really excited.”

Simon is a talented painter as well as a skillful baker, so it’s no surprise to hear that he excels at painting images, portraits and scenes on his cakes.

“They are painted like canvas, tactile like clay and, just like Tinkerbelle, they sparkle,” Simon wrote in a self-published memoir, “They Ate My Cake.” The book is no longer in print, but Simon sometimes pulls excerpts and posts them on Facebook.

Examples of his painted cakes can be found on Simon’s website and social media, and those colorful desserts were popular when he lived in other cities. (Simon moved to Birmingham in 2002, but previously made his home in San Francisco, Santa Fe and Austin, after his early years in New York City.)

Still, his current baking aesthetic leans toward rich and fluffy instead of precisely painted. “I don’t make many painted cakes anymore, because there’s not an audience for that in Birmingham,” Simon said.

He does branch out occasionally, giving away boxes filled with decadent brownies, chocolate cookies, cream puffs, truffles or pastries such as rugelah.

Simon’s admirers have called him an expert baker, masterful with ingredients and capable of combining flavors into a harmonious whole. He tends to be a tougher critic of his own abilities, however, and Simon emphasized that he’s entirely capable of making mistakes.

“I can’t tell you how many cakes in my life I have screwed up, because in some ways I tend to be not detail-oriented,” Simon said. “Or I’m too fast, and that screws things up. Or I don’t read the recipe or directions. So then I learn a lot from that, from what I did wrong.

“I will make these big mistakes, like leave out the butter. That doesn’t happen much, but I get so quick with everything. I’ve had some cakes slide off and fall on the floor,” Simon continued. “I remember I was taking a cake to Pee-wee Herman at Carnegie Hall, and I was holding this cake and going up a flight of stairs. I was running because I was excited, and I just dropped it. But it remained OK.”

Simon is serious about baking cakes for the community, but that doesn’t mean he lacks a sense of humor. His social media posts offer ample proof, whether it’s a celebrity anecdote — how he messed up Diana Ross’ wedding cake, for example, then made a quick save — or a reflection on life, art and cake consumption.

“I have heard that Australian aborigines believe that only the process itself, of art, is all that matters,” Simon said in an April 9 Facebook post. “They feel that the creating of it is what nourishes the soul and makes one happy and that once a piece of art is made, it is then time to destroy it. So my cakes, then, seem to fit pretty well into their philosophy, because I bake the cake, I paint the cake, you look at the cake, you eat the cake and we all knows where it goes tomorrow morning.”

We’re a little more than six weeks away from the opening of Alabama’s football season, but the post-mortem examination of 2024 continued on Wednesday.

Crimson Tide head coach Kalen DeBoer took the stage at SEC Media Days in Atlanta, acknowledging that his team’s 9-4 finish a year ago — which included road losses to Vanderbilt, Tennessee and Oklahoma and a bowl game defeat to Michigan — didn’t live up to the program’s lofty standards. Following DeBoer’s Q&A with the media, SEC Network analyst Paul Finebaum hypothesized during SEC Now that Alabama’s biggest problem in 2024 might have been that it never quite got past its stunning victory over top-ranked Georgia in late September.

“Not to sound like a guy who’s covered every Alabama coach since Paul Bryant, but … I have seen this movie every single time,” said Finebaum, who first covered the Crimson Tide for the Birmingham Post-Herald in 1980 and has done so in newspapers on radio or on television each year since. “Every Alabama coach has lost four games or more (in Year 1), and the reason is very simple — they don’t understand the magnitude of the job. They can get up there at the opening press conference (and say), ‘It’s an honor to be here where Nick Saban and Bear Bryant and all these other guys have been,’ but they don’t know what they’re doing in certain situations.

“And what happened to him last year was classic. (DeBoer) beats Georgia in one of the great wins in Alabama history, and you know what he was doing four days later? … He was appearing on the Paul Finebaum Show talking about the Georgia win, and the Vanderbilt game never came up. And I’m not staying he misread it, but he couldn’t stop talking about it because everybody was talking about it.

At Vanderbilt, you saw what happened. Why did they lose three times on the road or at neutral sites as a two-touchdown favorite? Because they just weren’t locked in. … And that is why they failed.”

Finebaum also noted the addition of new offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb, who fielded one of the top offenses in the country during DeBoer’s tenure at Washington, but spent last season in the NFL. He also said the departure of quarterback Jalen Milroe — who was “as bad as he was at times as he was good” — might make a positive difference.

Fellow SEC Network analyst Roman Harper — a former All-SEC safety at Alabama — also weighed in. He said, the 2024 Crimson Tide team will always be remembered for its “up and down” nature — something that was rarely an issue in the Nick Saban era.

“When you look like probably the best team we’ve seen in college football in the last 15 years, the first half of Georgia, everybody was like ‘Wow, who is this unbelievable. Nick who?,’ and then you followed up by losing the Vanderbilt on the road when you haven’t lost to Vanderbilt in 40 years,” Harper said. “But then also LSU, you look like world-beaters versus LSU on the road at night in Death Valley. You couldn’t believe it. And then you lose to Oklahoma, who couldn’t score.

It’s just back and forth, back and forth. And then, ‘OK, well at least you’ll have Michigan to finish it off on a good note. Michigan is not even playing their starters.’ … And you lose that game too because you can’t (score). These are the things that have you so frustrated, but the Michigan loss really just signed the deal for exactly who this team was last year — that they were the ups and downs, the peaks in the valleys. You can’t have them. You’ve got to have something in the middle, but they weren’t.”

Valerie Mahaffey, known for her Emmy-winning role in Northern Exposure, died at the age of 71.

Her husband, Joseph Kell, confirmed the news to People. Mahaffey was previously diagnosed with cancer.

“I have lost the love of my life, and America has lost one of its most endearing actresses,” Kell said. “She will be missed.”

Mahaffey jumped into acting in the late 1970s and landed a role on the Daytime NBC soap “The Doctors.”

Best known as Eve in the CBS’ “Northern Exposure,” she won an Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actress in 1992.

Mahaffey had stints on “Desperate Housewives,” “Young Sheldon” and Netflix’s “Dead to Me,” as well as ABC’s “Big Sky.”

Her acting was not limited to the small screen. Her movie roles includes films such as “Senior Trip,” “Seabiscuit,” “My First Wedding” and “Jungle 2 Jungle.”

Mark Heim is a reporter for The Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @Mark_Heim. He can be heard on “The Opening Kickoff” on WNSP-FM 105.5 FM in Mobile or on the free Sound of Mobile App from 6 to 9 a.m. daily.

This column originally appeared in Kyle Whitmire’s newsletter, Alabamafication. Sign up here to get it in your inbox for free.

Imagine someone knocked on your door with $1 million in a briefcase — money you were free to spend on your personal career advancement.

Wouldn’t you want to know where it came from?

Wouldn’t you want to know if someone expected something for it?

This sort of thing might not happen to regular folks, but it does happen in politics, where dark money appears out of nowhere to tilt the odds. And we voters are supposed to believe the mystery givers want nothing in return.

Just ask Katherine Robertson.

For nearly a decade, Robertson has served as chief counsel for Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall, and now that he’s term-limited, she’s running for that office — Alabama’s top law enforcement officer.

Robertson recently reported a $1 million campaign donation from an out-of-state dark money group. That’s a lot of money, especially for a down-ballot candidate.

It’s also the sort of thing her party once tried to stop in Alabama.

In 2010, Republicans won control of the Alabama Legislature on a promise to clean up corruption in Montgomery. In the style of Newt Gingrich’s Contract with America, they called their version the “Handshake with Alabama.”

Maybe Alabamians should have been watching the other hand.

Among their package of proposals — which they swiftly passed into law — was a ban on a political money laundering scheme called PAC-to-PAC transfers. Until then, political action committees (PACs) could shuffle money back and forth, rendering it all but untraceable.

They say what you pay for is what you get, but in politics, we get what someone else pays for. Who pays for a campaign will often tell you much more than what candidates say about themselves on their campaign websites. The PAC-to-PAC ban was built on a reasonable argument and made for a righteous purpose.

The trouble was, the new law worked in voters’ interests but not so much for the politicians or the special interests who supported them. Politicians, including some of the same people who supported the “Handshake with Alabama” began looking for ways to sneak money from untraceable sources.

In 2018, Robertson’s current boss, Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall, accepted a $735,000 PAC-to-PAC transfer across state lines. The Alabama Ethics Commission came one vote shy of referring him for prosecution over it, but gave him a pass. However, when the Alabama Democratic Party asked the Commission if it could do the same thing, the Commission said that would be a crime.

Then, in 2022, Gov. Kay Ivey did something to put Marshall’s wiliness to shame. Her campaign accepted $2 million from Get Families Back to Work, a 501(c)4 nonprofit — or as they’re more commonly called, a dark money group.

Under federal law, 501(c)4s don’t have to disclose the sources of their funding. They’re allowed to keep their donors secret so long as financing political campaigns is not their “primary purpose.” The IRS and the Federal Election Commission have long been absurdly squishy on what “primary purpose” is, but most lawyers in the field have interpreted it to mean they can’t spend more than half their money on campaigns. In recent years, however, the IRS and FEC seem to have given up on even nominal enforcement of this mushy standard, to the point that federal campaign finance law might as well not exist.

As Ivey’s campaign showed, a candidate in Alabama can rake in millions this way and suffer no legal repercussions. And as long as voters don’t care either, they can get away with it.

Which leaves us with Robertson.

Robertson accepted the $1 million from a group called First Principles, which appears to be less than one year old. Based in Tennessee, it’s run by a former executive director of the Republican Attorneys General Association and that’s about all there is from public records to know about it.

When Alabama Political Reporter columnist Josh Moon asked Robertson’s campaign where the money came from or whether that mattered to her, their answer was, in not-so-few-words, don’t know/don’t care.

“Alabama’s Fair Campaign Practices Act doesn’t prohibit accepting contributions from 501(c)4 organizations,” her campaign told Moon. “Numerous other candidates and elected officials have accepted similar contributions and we are proud to have the support of this organization.”

I had questions, too, and left a message on Robertson’s cellphone, but I haven’t heard back yet.

If we’re to believe her campaign’s explanation, that money could have come from anywhere — Russia, the Klan, George Soros — it doesn’t matter to her. (And if you’re wondering why I’m lumping Soros in with the Kremlin and the KKK, it’s only because that actually happened to Kay Ivey once.)

Either Robertson knows where it came from and she doesn’t want to say, or she doesn’t want to know, which is … better?

Because who needs PAC-to-PAC money laundering when you have mystery money from groups that didn’t even exist on paper until sometime after last Christmas?

Ultimately, though, Robertson might be right. This loophole in our law may make dark money like this legal.

In which case, PACs are for suckers, as are campaign finance rules and public disclosures of any kind.

We’re all left to vote in the dark.

The law isn’t going to stop this sort of thing from happening. No judge. No prosecutor. Certainly not the IRS, the Ethics Commission or the FEC.

No, the only folks who can call an end to it are voters. The only person who can say, “Enough!” is you.

First: Tell me what you think. How should we fix this?

Then: Subscribe to ‘Alabamafication.’ It’s free.

THIS WILL BE ON THE TEST

🚀 NASA buyouts cut deep. More than 2,000 senior staffers have elected to leave under the American space program, including 279 at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama.

Over 2,000 senior staff set to leave NASA under agency push

[Politico]

😮 Coming soon. AL.com columnist John Archibald and Becca Andrews revisit the lethal attacks of a homegrown terrorist, the manhunt that followed and an anti-government culture that looked the other way. The first podcast episodes drop in two weeks, but you can sign up through Apple Podcasts today.

American Shrapnel

[AL.com]

🫠 Case closed(minded). The US Attorney General said she had Jeffery Epstein’s client list on her desk but now she and the FBI say there’s no such thing? What could have happened to it? U.S. Senator Tommy Tuberville blames Democrats. Don’t ask me to explain. I don’t get it either.

Tuberville claims Democrats may have ‘destroyed’ Epstein files evidence

[AL.com]

Kyle Whitmire is the Washington watchdog columnist for AL.com and winner of the 2023 Pulitzer Prize. Subscribe to his newsletter, Alabamafication. It’s free.

A brand new season of the hit dramedy Tyler Perry’s Sistas premieres on BET Wednesday, July 16 at 9/8c.

Those hoping to catch the highly-anticipated return of the hit BET series can stream the Tyler Perry’s Sistas season nine premiere even without access to traditional cable through Philo (free trial), Fubo (free trial), DirecTV (free trial) or Sling (50% off first month).

What is Tyler Perry’s Sistas about?

Written, directed and executive produced by Tyler Perry, Sistas follows a group of single black women as they navigate the ups and downs of modern life, which includes careers, friendships, romances and even social media.

The comedy-drama series features Andi Barnes, an ambitious divorce lawyer, Danni King, a funny and fearless airport employee, Karen Mott, a street-smart hair salon owner, and Sabrina Hollins, a smart and stylish bank teller.

The beloved BET series takes viewers on a roller coaster ride of emotions and moments that epitomize “squad goals.”

What to expect from Tyler Perry’s Sistas season 9

According to a recent BET press release, season nine of Tyler Perry’s Sistas “pushes the ladies further to the edge than ever before in their friendships and personal lives, and hardships and huge changes will rattle them.”

The press release also hinted that despite the ladies’ ability to handle tough situations life throws at them, this season will bring them to a near-breaking point where they’ll “really need to lean on one another to make it through this season.”

The season nine premiere episode kicks off with a bang as The Sistas must put their current individual problems and traumas aside when they learn something is wrong with Karen’s pregnancy. Viewers tuning into the premiere episode will follow the ladies as they make a mad dash to the hospital in a city recovering from a blackout.

How to watch Tyler Perry’s Sistas season 9

Those interested in watching the latest season of Tyler Perry’s Sistas can stream season nine through the streaming platforms listed below.

Philo: 7-day free trial ($28/month after free trial ends)

Fubo: Free trial ($84.99/month after free trial ends)

DirecTV: 5-day free trial ($86.99/month after free trial ends)

Sling: 50% off first month ($45.99/month after first month)

What is Philo?

Philo is considered one of the most affordable streaming platforms on the market. Known as an entertainment-focused streaming service, Philo offers its subscribers access to over 70 top-rated TV channels such as TLC, MTV, BET, AMC, CMT, Investigation Discovery and more.

New users can enjoy Philo’s 7-day free trial and continue to stream top channels, hit TV shows and movies on-demand for just $28 a month once the free trial expires.

Those looking to customize their flow of content even further on Philo can consider including add-ons such as MGM+, STARZ, and AMC+ in their subscription.

What is Fubo and DirecTV?

Fubo and DirecTV are two of the top streaming services steadily replacing traditional cable services. Both offer free trials to new subscribers, a plethora of popular live TV channels, on-demand streaming options and helpful features such as unlimited DVR storage.

Fubo considers itself a sports-focused live streaming service, but with over 100 live TV channels available through its base package at just $84.99 after its free trial, it offers much more to its subscribers.

Popular TV channels available through Fubo include ABC, FOX, BET, MTV, CNBC, MSNBC, USA and much more.

DirecTV mirrors Fubo by offering many of the same live TV channels and useful features. The base package starts at just $86.99 a month after its 5-day free trial and includes popular channels such as HGTV, ESPN, Bravo, CMT, CNN, BET and much more.

Two other DirecTV packages are the Choice package (original price $114.99) and the Ultimate package (original price $129.99), both of which are part of an ongoing promotion that offers new subscribers $10 off the original price for the first three months of their subscription.

Those interested in comparing all DirecTV’s channel packages can check them out here.

What is Sling?

Sling is another streaming service to consider if you want to access top rated TV channels like BET. Though no free trial is available to new subscribers, those who commit to a paid plan get half off the first month.

Both the Sling Orange plan and the Sling Blue plan are normally $45.99 a month, but with the current promotion, Sling users will pay just $23 a month for the first month.

For those who wish to access channels from both the Sling Blue and Sling Orange plans can do so by signing up for the Orange + Blue plan, which combines the best of both plans for just $60.99 a month ($30.50 for the first month).

With practice set to begin in 19 days, 111 teams will be competing in two classifications for the Alabama High School Athletic Association flag football championship this season. According to a member of the Flag Football Hall of Fame, the sport is poised for even more growth.

Doug Rogers is the head coach for Shelton State Community College’s debut season after spending four years as offensive coordinator for Vestavia Hills High School. Rogers helped head coach Debra Broome lead the Rebels to a 61-12 record and a state runner-up finish in 2023.

When the Alabama Community College Conference added flag football to its scholarship sports beginning this fall, Rogers was the choice to lead the Bucs. The prospect of earning a college scholarship, he said, will spark increased focus on the sport in high school.

The ACCC will have seven teams competing in 2025. Wallace-Hanceville, Snead in Boaz, Calhoun in Decatur and Northwest-Shoals in Muscle Shoals will make up the Northern Conference with Shelton in Tuscaloosa, Bishop State in Mobile and Lurlene B. Wallace in Andalusia in the Southern.

Rogers is not new to being a flag football pioneer.

“My first professional job was as intramural coordinator at Pensacola Junior College in 1987,” he said. “One of our biggest programs was flag football. Florida is a football state and the kids who didn’t get scholarships still wanted to play.”

RELATED: Can Central-Phenix City continue dominance?

The self-described “Navy brat,” who was born in Japan and grew up mostly in Pensacola, started playing flag football seriously after graduating from high school. “I was a sandlot quarterback,” Rogers said. “I went to Florida State for a year and played in their league and I played when I went to (the University of) West Florida.”

At Pensacola Junior College – now Pensacola State College – Rogers oversaw club sports. Player-coaches were legal in flag football and in 1993 he led his team to the National Intramural and Recreational Sports Association championship. In 2004, he was an NIRSA All-American and the Pirates were the national runner-up. In 2005, he was the tournament MVP as Pensacola captured a national championship.

“I coached the guys and played and started a regional tournament with West Florida. We probably had the largest regional in the nation with 106 men’s teams,” he said. “The national tournament was in New Orleans over New Year’s, so everybody wanted to go there. Some should have been in the ‘Bourbon Street League.’ They would show up after partying and couldn’t play. We would go and get serious about it. We’d traditionally get to the final eight or the final four.

“I let my knowledge of the game level the playing field to a degree. Some college teams we played had players from their freshman year to graduate school. Some had ex-NFL players and ex-college players. It was a lot of talent, not a lot of backyard football by any means.”

When Rogers, who was inducted into the NIRSA Flag Football Hall of Fame in 2008, decided to retire from Pensacola State, he reached out to a former intern of his at the college. “Brian Davis was the director of Vestavia’s park and rec and he hired me to come in and start adult programming. He told me, ‘By the way, I volunteered you to be an assistant for the girls team at Vestavia High School.’ That’s how I got involved.”

Davis was hired in 2023 to lead Tuscaloosa Park & Recreation Authority and when Shelton State decided to start a flag program, he suggested Rogers.

Shelton’s administration set a roster limit of 15 players. Rogers has signed eight, so far, and said he expects to get 10 on scholarship with five walk-on players. Two of his signees are from two-time AHSAA state champion Central-Phenix City – Shabreia Brannon and Janiyah Garrett. Others include quarterbacks from Tuscaloosa County and Northside and Merritt Kelley from the 2023 state runner-up Vestavia Hills team.

Flag football is emerging in college in NAIA and in NCAA Division II and Division III. Alabama State University launched a Division I team in February and D3 Huntingdon College in Montgomery fielded a team in 2025.

“I think the sport is still growing and it’s got room to grow,” Rogers said. “A lot of schools (in Alabama) are not playing, but it is exploding. The talent in Alabama is really good. I will say this from watching the Florida (high school) state tournament in Tampa: Our top teams are competitive with them, but our lower ranked teams aren’t. Watching their top 16 teams play, there is talent and they are flying around.”

Rogers said as college opportunities expand, he expects more girls will decide to devote all of their energy to the sport. He pointed to AL.com’s first Miss Football, Central-Phenix City quarterback Gerritt Griggs, who also starred in softball and basketball. “Griggs signed with Alabama to play softball. In Florida, for the best players flag is their only sport. They aren’t pulling the trigger on another sport. It helps them as a team, having seven on a team just killing it. I think that’s coming for Alabama.”

The veteran coach praised the AHSAA’s state championship game atmosphere – “two years ago, that was stellar” – and the NFL FLAG program that begin in the early ’90s and now has more than 750,000 boys and girls participants from age 4 to 17 across the country.

Alabama’s Deontae Lawson sent a clear message to Florida State’s Tommy Castellanos on Wednesday during Day 3 of SEC Media Days in Atlanta.

Last month, the Seminoles transfer quarterback talked about his eagerness to face the Crimson Tide.

“I’m excited, man,” Castellanos said in June. “People, I don’t know if they know, but you go back and watch every first game that I played in, we always start fast.

“I dreamed of moments like this. I dreamed of playing against Alabama. They don’t have Nick Saban to save them. I just don’t see them stopping me.”

Fast forward to Wednesday, and the Alabama linebacker was asked during an appearance on “SEC This Morning” about those comments.

“It definitely ignites us a little bit,” Lawson said, per On3. “We can’t really think too much on that, because it’s just going to come down to what we do, and how we prepare that week.’

At that point, Lawson sent a simple message: “All disrespect will be addressed accordingly.”

Castellanos spent two seasons at Boston College, starting 20 games overall. He started his college career at UCF when Gus Malzahn was still the coach in Orlando. Now Malzahn is Florida State’s offensive coordinator.

The Crimson Tide will face the Seminoles at 2:30 p.m. CT on Aug. 30 at Doak Walker Stadium.

Mark Heim is a reporter for The Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @Mark_Heim. He can be heard on “The Opening Kickoff” on WNSP-FM 105.5 FM in Mobile or on the free Sound of Mobile App from 6 to 9 a.m. daily.