Fayetteville in a Pickle, as Pickleball Soars in Popularity

I’m really late to the party on this one, but it seems everybody is into this thing called pickleball!

Even some major sports stars, like – Tom Brady, LeBron James, and many more that are investing in the sport. Country stars like Dierks Bentley and Jimmie Allen are playing in televised tournaments.

Yes, we have a bigtime sport here, as there's even a pro league with 12 teams. We have a coworker here who plays it all the time in Fayetteville, and loves it.

I think it sounds simple you play with a paddle and a plastic ball with holes. Played as doubles or singles. It's basically like if table tennis, wiffle ball and regular tennis had a baby.

The cool thing is, it’s great for any age! It’s about time for me to jump right in and play.

You can play for free at these locations around Fayetteville: Myers Recreation Center, Massey Hill Recreation Center, Eastover Ballpark, and others. There's a North Carolina Pickleball group on Facebook that you can join for more information as well. You can also download the TeamReach app on your phone and there are a couple local pickleball groups on there too.

If you need a little more of the basics, here's all the info on getting started with pickleball.

Radio has been an incredible career and I’ve met so many stars from singers, actors, political figures and so many more - but I have met a few rude celebrities.

I've had the good fortune to meet George Jones, Toby Keith, REM, Taylor Swift, Eric Church, The Judds, The Beach Boys and last but not least, Jennifer Flowers. (You might remember her from the Bill Clinton mess.) She and I had a great friendship. Jennifer was my guest many times on my morning show in New Orleans.

Most of these stars where really nice, and some, not so much. That's all I'm gonna say.

Speaking of “rude celebrities” our friends over at Buzzfeed did a little research, and tried to figure out who some of worst offenders in the not-so-nice column were.

Here's some of their worst.

Surely the Austin Powers guy isn't actually rude???

She's played some not so nice characters in her day, but she can't be really rude, can she?

OK, this one actually isn't surprising.

We refuse to believe the Criminal Minds guy is rude.

Yeah, Clark W. Griswold has proven many times he's not the nicest guy.

You'd be rude too if you had to save the world in the infamous Christmas nightmare at Nakatomi Plaza. Oh, and if you got blown up on an asteroid saving the world.