TMZ.com Home

Colton Underwood says he would literally hide from his teammates in the locker room during his football playing days ... admitting he was terrified he would get turned on and be outed as gay.

29-year-old Underwood -- who played in the NFL from 2014-16 -- opened up about being in the closet throughout his athletic career in an interview with "Call Her Daddy" ... claiming he went through extreme measures to make sure no one knew about his sexuality.

"I wouldn't shower after practice because I was afraid of getting turned on in the locker room or in the shower," Colton told Alex Cooper.

"I never really was attracted to anybody who I played with, or coaches. So, it's sort of silly to even say that. But, I wanted to avoid any chance of being outed, so I would not shower with the rest of the team."

Instead, the former Bachelor star said he would change clothes in a corner or in a bathroom stall ... or just leave the locker room entirely.

"There was just a lot of things that I sort of did differently than other players because I felt like I had to, because I didn't want questions to start being asked."

The caution remained through college as well -- Colton says he'd even sleep through his own house parties out of fear of revealing his sexuality while drunk.

Colton says his excuse would be that he's too focused on his career to party ... which is also the same reason he said he was famously a virgin late into his 20s.

Jenifer Lewis is calling on Congress to open an investigation into the death of Kendrick Johnson -- a 17-year-old black boy -- whose body was found rolled up in a gym mat years ago.

"The Mother of Black Hollywood" author and exec producer of the Starz documentary "Finding Kendrick Johnson" joined us on "TMZ Live" Wednesday and shared why she thinks his case is so important.

Jenifer told us, "This is the most important film I’ve ever worked on. What this family has gone through is unspeakable but we must speak it so the public knows the truth."

The controversial death was ruled "accidental" by the state of Georgia, although Kendrick's family hired a forensics specialist who said his death was caused by "non-accidental blunt force trauma." The case was closed, but reopened in March ... we're told the doc sheds light on new evidence in the case.

Jenifer's clearly outraged by the lack of action on the part of law enforcement, saying, "You know how much evidence the FBI has to have to storm somebody’s house with guns AK- 47s out? And then when they got in there and saw that it was an FBI agent, it was just pushed under the rug, just pushed under the rug. Another Black kid. So what?”

The actress also talked about her special connection to filmmaker Jason Pollock after his 2014 Michael Brown doc, since she grew up in a small town just outside of Ferguson ... and she now wants the people in Washington to do something about it.

Travis Scott's Astroworld stage is finally being broken down and hauled away after the tragedy in Houston.

Crews were hard at work Wednesday, dismantling the stage that continued to stand tall for 40 days after the deadly concert. There's a ton of crew members removing everything from lighting to the video screens and structure of the Houston event.

As for why it stayed up so long, law enforcement likely needed everything in place while they continued their investigation into what happened and what went wrong with the show's logistics and apparent lack of a safety plan.

As you know, the death toll from the Astroworld festival reached 10, and there's massive lawsuits pending against Travis and the concert promoters.

The NFLPA is going after the NFL ... saying the league's decision to take away daily COVID-19 testing for players has resulted in widespread outbreaks across the league.

"The NFL decided to take away a critical weapon in our fight against the transmission of COVID-19 despite our union's call for daily testing months ago," the PA said on social media.

"We're talking to our player leadership & to the NFL about potential changes to the protocols so that we can complete the season."

As of Wednesday, the league’s COVID reserve list skyrocketed to nearly 100 players -- including several big names like Odell Beckham Jr., Jalen Ramsey, and Browns QB Baker Mayfield.

Of course, that number is expected to grow over the next few weeks -- with the holidays approaching -- a scenario the NFLPA says the NFL could have avoided if they had just listened to them in the first place.

Back in September, JC Tretter -- NFLPA prez -- released a statement on the potential ramifications of not testing daily and what kind of issues that move could present for the league.

Well, now the PA's doubling down on Tretter's initial stance ... expressing disappointment over the league's decision to stop testing players daily.

NFL commish Roger Goodell and NFLPA Executive Director Demaurice Smith haven't had the best relationship over the years ... so it'll be interesting to see how the NFL responds.

The PA did tweet they were in discussions with player leadership, as well as the NFL, about potential changes to the existing protocols.

Ben Affleck says his marriage to ex-wife Jennifer Garner helped kickstart his alcoholism -- claiming he turned to booze to cope with feeling "trapped."

The actor -- who's now with Jennifer Lopez -- didn't hold back while talking to Howard Stern about his drinking problem and his time with JG, which he made sound pretty damn miserable.

He says if they would've stayed together, they would've been "at each other's throats," and not just that -- but he even speculated if he was still married to her, he'd still be boozing.

Here's another telling quote from the Tuesday interview ... "Part of why I started drinking was because I was trapped." He adds, "I was like, 'I can't leave because of my kids, but I'm not happy, what do I do?' And what I did was like drink a bottle of scotch and fall asleep on the couch, which turned out not to be the solution."

On the surface, it's a pretty galling statement for Ben to make, considering how supportive Garner was through his bouts with the bottle. She famously took him to rehab in 2018, and remained a pillar for him.

Which is why Ben's comments are NOT being well-received online. A lot of people are slamming him for even trying to connect his personal demons to her individually, noting Jen has time and again been there for him when he's relapsed.

Ben added that despite their best efforts, they simply couldn't salvage their relationship and didn't want that to be the model of marriage for their children.

Ben also mentioned their kids while talking about rekindling things with J Lo, telling Stern he thought twice about getting back with her -- all because he feels his kids are his highest responsibility and was concerned about the inevitable headlines.

One last thing ... while it might sound like Ben totally trashed his ex-wife, he ended on somewhat of a sweet note, saying ... "We did our best. I knew she was a good mom, and I hoped she knew I was a good dad. I had to get sober, and I acknowledge that."

Anyway, as we said ... it sounds like he and his ex are on good terms now, and have been for a while. Even with J Lo around -- which she was for Halloween -- there doesn't seem to be much animosity there these days.

The referee who was violently stabbed by a wrestler in the ring on Saturday actually agreed to take $75 to bleed during the match ... this according to cops.

A spokesperson for the Irving Police Dept. tells TMZ Sports ... officers spoke with the ref, Lando Deltoro, shortly after Devon Nicholson -- aka "Hannibal" -- repeatedly jammed an iron stake into his head at an independent wrestling event in Texas over the weekend.

The spokesperson says Deltoro told them he cut a deal with Nicholson prior to the match -- agreeing to dress up like a referee and then take hits to the head and gush blood in the squared circle.

The spokesperson says Deltoro told police, however, that the bit went too far ... and Nicholson actually ended up hurting him badly with the stake.

But, according to cops, Deltoro told them he did not want to press charges.

We also spoke to Deltoro on Wednesday, and he confirmed with us he was paid for the match, though he did not specify the amount. Deltoro also told us he did not agree to Nicholson's "extra" spiking.

As we previously reported, Deltoro suffered major head injuries as a result of the match, requiring sutures to close the open wounds in his head.

For his part, Nicholson says Deltoro gave him no indication during the match that he was being injured.

An independent witness told cops they saw Megan Thee Stallion and her female friend, Kelsey, fighting just moments before Meg was shot in the foot ... a piece of evidence Tory Lanez's team feels cast serious doubt on what Meg said about him being the shooter.

During Tuesday's preliminary hearing a detective testified this independent witness -- who allegedly saw the shooting happen -- claimed the gun's muzzle flash went off closer to Kelsey than Tory.

Tory's attorney, Shawn Holley, says that muzzle flash detail is "corroborated by the gunshot residue found on the other female's hands." She also tells us, "It was further established that Megan gave several inconsistent accounts of what happened that night and that she omitted key information to the police."

Holley is almost certainly referring to what Meg first told responding officers, she had glass, and not a bullet, in her foot. Meg later claimed she only said it was glass because she was afraid if she told cops there was a Black man in the car with a gun, Tory could get shot.

Remember, this was the month after George Floyd was murdered.

Still, Holley adds, "We look forward to the opportunity to cross examine her at trial about the numerous inconsistencies in her story.”

Jim Bob Duggar won't be serving as an Arkansas state senator anytime soon, because he got crushed in the Republican primary ... just days after his son, Josh, was convicted in his child porn trial.

The "19 Kids and Counting" star got clobbered during Tuesday's special election ... which saw him going up against other Republicans for an open state senate seat. The numbers are brutal ... Duggar only raked in about 15% of the vote, while former Springdale City Councilmember Colby Fulfer ended up the victor, with a decisive 46%.

Timing of the election couldn't have been worse for Duggar ... coming the week after Josh was found guilty of possessing tons of child pornography. Hard to say how much of a factor that was for voters, but this is exactly what his own son-in-law predicted would happen.

You'll recall ... Derick Dillard, who's married to Jim Bob's daughter, Jill, told us he thought Josh's conviction would hurt his father-in-law's chances -- and sure enough, he seems to have been right. Derick also happened to endorse Fulfer.

Abel Osundairo was proudly rocking a red MAGA hat while celebrating a big moment in his boxing career ... but he says he's not throwing a jab at Jussie Smollett.

Ya gotta see this video TMZ obtained of Abel and brother Ola celebrating Abel becoming the top amateur boxer in his weight class ... they're partying it up at a Chicago club, with some eye-catching hats.

Abel's got a red hat that says MAGA ... which, of course, plays like a reference to Jussie claiming his attackers yelled "this is MAGA country" during the hoax attack.

While some think he was gloating over Jussie, who was just found guilty of lying to Chicago cops, Abel's attorney, Gloria Rodriguez tells TMZ ... the hat is not a shot at Smollett or show of support for Donald Trump.

Instead, Abel's lawyer says he customized the MAGA hat with an outline of Africa as the letter "A" because he wants the hat to be a reflection of his Nigerian heritage. It's more like Make Africa Great Again ... than anything else.

The celebration went down Sunday night at Chicago's Sage nightclub after he won a boxing tournament in Louisiana, vaulting him to the No. 1 amateur boxing ranking in the 189-pound division.

Remember, we've seen Abel show off his boxing prowess before ... so it's no shock he's climbing the ranks.

Ola's got an interesting hat too -- his red lid says, "Free Larry Hoover," which is timely considering Kanye West and Drake just squashed their beef with a benefit concert for the notorious Chicago gangster ... who Ola believes was wrongly imprisoned.

Sonya and Dell Curry's relationship is still clearly fractured, 'cause Steph's parents sat in completely opposite sections for their son's record-breaking night Tuesday.

Dell had a seat near the hardwood at Madison Square Garden in NYC for the Warriors star's big game against the Knicks -- while Sonya sat in a different part of the arena several rows back.

The two never appeared to speak to each other, or even look at each other for that matter, despite Steph breaking Ray Allen's mark for most 3-pointers in a career early in the evening.

To his credit, Steph was able to find both of his parents following the record-setting shot ... handing the game ball to his pops and then going in another direction to share a long embrace with his mom just off the court.

As we previously reported, Sonya filed for divorce from Dell earlier this year ... and court docs showed the two did not have a clean breakup at all.

Both parties accused each other of cheating ... with Dell saying Sonya began dating a former New England Patriots player while they were still together.

And, if their actions toward each other Tuesday were any indication, it's obvious things still haven't been repaired between the two.

It's a long since cold case that's suddenly been solved -- human remains discovered back in the 80s in a garbage bag have finally been identified as Frank "Frankie" Little Jr. ... the guitarist and songwriter for the O'Jays.

In 1982, police found the bag behind a business in Twinsburg, Ohio. At the time, they could tell the person had been stabbed to death several years prior, but they were not able to figure out his identity.

It was only 2 months ago when a breakthrough came courtesy of DNA technology and a non-profit org. Police explained, "In October 2021, the DNA Doe Project provided the names of potential living relatives, who were able to provide Frank's name."

Police say, that a close relative [of Little's] provided a DNA sample, which was analyzed by a crime lab, and sure enough ... Frank's identity was confirmed.

Frank played with the O'Jays in the R&B group's early days ... writing several songs including "Pretty Words" and "Oh How You Hurt Me."

It wouldn't be until after his tenure that the group scored its biggest hits, including "Back Stabbers," "For the Love of Money" and "Love Train."

After his run with the O'Jays, he joined the U.S. Army, served 2 years in Vietnam and eventually went back to his hometown of Cleveland ... his last known residence.

Kathy Hilton is finally back in front of 'RHOBH' cameras -- after holding out for more money -- getting a deal done just in time to guarantee she'll appear on season 12.

Kathy had previously refused to film anything for the franchise's new season because she felt she was being undervalued by show producers. It took several weeks, but both sides were able to come to an agreement that will see Kathy as a friend of the cast, making regular appearances on the show.

We spoke with Kathy's sister, and full-time cast member Kyle Richards last month about KH's absence as the rest of the women were seen shooting across town. Kyle told us Kathy had just been busy planning her daughter, Paris Hilton's wedding -- but our sources say the real hang-up was money.

Kathy is expected to begin filming with the Bev Hills cast just after the holidays. As we reported, production had been suspended late last week when 3 members -- Lisa Rinna, Erika Jayne and Garcelle -- tested positive for COVID-19. Fortunately, we're told all women were vaccinated and have had mild symptoms.

As for everyone else who tested negative -- we're told production will resume at some point this week.

Boosie Badazz's destructive brawl during a performance was a planned attack that ended up costing the promoters a crap ton of money -- at least according to the promoters who are now suing him over it.

MN2S Corp. and We Are Live Entertainment -- booker and promoter, respectively, for the "Legendz of the Streetz" tour -- just filed suit against the rapper, claiming he caused all the mayhem that unfolded in October at Atlanta's State Farm Arena.

You'll recall ... there was a massive brouhaha that went down in the middle of the show, which resulted in equipment getting damaged, and the entire production getting shut down early. Boosie, as seen in the video, was right in the middle of the fracas.

In their lawsuit, obtained by TMZ, the companies say Boosie was initially booked for a total of $150k for five different appearances alongside guys like 2 Chainz, Rick Ross, Jeezy and others. They even say they gave him a $50k deposit in good faith before night #1.

Welp, the companies claim before the show Boosie contacted We Are Live president, Leonard Rowe, demanding more dough than what was agreed upon. Rowe declined to pay more, and they allege Boosie threatening to torpedo the whole thing ... and then followed through.

They claim Boosie slipped past security and destroyed a bunch of pricey equipment before fighting with security. They say the show ended early as a result -- before Ross, the headliner, could even take the stage.

Admittedly, it's a very L.A. rite of passage, but actor Devin Druid's achieved it -- his first million-dollar home, a suburban pad he just sold for nearly $1.5 mil... TMZ has learned.

As you can see in the photos, the gated equestrian home just north of L.A.'s San Fernando Valley is quite elaborate, with 5 bedrooms and a guest house -- and while it's hardly a Hollywood Hills luxury mansion ... keep in mind the "13 Reasons Why" star was only 20 when he bought this place.

Pretty sweet starter home, with just over 4,200 sq. ft., for Devin, who paid $940k for it back in 2018 ... so, he'll probably turn a small profit too.

L.A. real estate guru, Roger Perry of Rodeo Realty Beverly Hills, had a hand in the sale, repping Devin.

Of course, this sort of thing is right up Roger's alley... he was previously featured on 'Million Dollar Listing' and racked up a long list of exclusive clientele in L.A. and Bev Hills.

Devin's giving up his backyard oasis, which we're told is the epitome of "peace and quiet with the conveniences of city life."

The Miz says the wrestler who repeatedly stabbed a ref in the head with an iron spike should NEVER be hired again ... telling TMZ Sports the dude should be perma-banned from the squared circle.

"You don't do that stuff," the WWE superstar told us out at LAX on Tuesday ... "That didn't look like a mistake."

If you missed it ... Devon Nicholson -- aka "Hannibal" -- badly injured a ref during a match at an independent event in Irving, Texas on Saturday.

In footage from the event, you can see Nicholson pounded on the guy's forehead with a stake over and over and over again -- 'causing the man to bleed severely in the ring.

The ref, Lando Deltoro, was eventually hospitalized over the incident ... though, thankfully, he's expected to make a full recovery.

When we asked The Miz about it all in Los Angeles just three days after the incident ... he said he'd be in favor of a lifetime ban for the wrestler.

"Accidents happen," The Miz said, "but I don't get stabbed with like a knife or whatever the hell the guy had."

For his part, Nicholson says he wasn't aware that he was injuring the ref ... saying Deltoro never gave him any indication that he was being hurt in the show.

As for Deltoro, he claimed he had no way of telling Nicholson to stop ... saying the wrestler was too big and too powerful to get any words out before he eventually slipped out of consciousness.

Before this superhero sweetie was one of the biggest heartthrobs on television, he was just another little Spiderman fan getting all dressed up to save the day in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

This cute kid's spidey senses were tingling to get on the big screen, and when he was cast alongside the Olsen twins, that is exactly what he did. He always had fairly small roles in feature films, but it wasn't until he scored a reoccurring role on "One Tree Hill" that he finally rose to stardom.

Since then, he's appeared on numerous other popular television series.