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Former NFL DB Captain Munnerlyn -- who started 85 games in his 10-year career -- was arrested last month ... after he was accused of getting violent with a woman.

According to court documents, obtained by TMZ Sports, Munnerlyn allegedly roughed up a woman in North Carolina back on Jan. 3.

In the docs, officials say Munnerlyn struck a female in the face with his foot. They also say the ex-Carolina Panthers cornerback strangled her, resulting in bruises and scratches.

Further details surrounding the alleged incident were not made immediately available ... but the docs show Munnerlyn was arrested and bonded out of jail just days after the allegations were made.

The documents show Munnerlyn was hit with two charges, assault on a female and assault by strangulation. He's due in court for a hearing on the matter on March 1, the docs show.

We reached out to Munnerlyn for comment, but so far, no word back yet.

33-year-old Munnerlyn had an excellent career in the NFL after being picked in the 7th round of the 2009 draft. He played in 154 career games for the Panthers and Minnesota Vikings, logging 12 total interceptions, before he left the league following the 2018 season.

The Atlanta Braves won the World Series last season -- in big part thanks to a few massive home runs in Game 6 -- courtesy of Freddie Freeman, Jorge Soler and Dansby Swanson ... and now all three balls are on the auction block.

The Braves were up 3 games to 2 heading into a potential series-clinching Game 6 at Minute Maid Park in Houston, TX on November 2, 2021.

In the 3rd inning, with the score tied at zero, 29-year-old Soler -- the eventual World Series MVP -- stepped to the plate with a man on first and second, 2 outs. The count was full at 3-2 ... and that's when Jorge hit a 446-foot BOMB that literally went out of the stadium.

The ball landed on an awning outside Minute Maid ... near where the baseball fans Ramos brothers were having a World Series watch party at their home. They knew where the ball landed thanks to the TV broadcast ... so they decided to go retrieve it.

Now, that ball is on the auction block at SCP Auctions ... and already has 6 bids with a top price over $44k.

But, Jorge's home run wasn't the only long ball Atlanta launched. In the 5th, shortstop Dansby Swanson pulled a ball to right field, and padded the Braves lead, putting them ahead 5-0.

That ball ... up for auction.

Last but not least, Braves star 1st baseman Freddie Freeman delivered the final nail in the coffin ... hitting a king home run to almost dead center, putting Atlanta ahead 7-0.

You guessed it ... that ball's ALSO on the block.

The 'chip was the Braves first since 1995 ... when Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine, John Smoltz, and Chipper Jones led the team to a WS victory over the Cleveland Indians.

The Beijing Olympic Winter Games are officially underway ... kicking off with an elaborate opening ceremony at Beijing National Stadium.

Chinese President Xi Jinping officially declared the games open ... marking the start of the historic sporting event.

The Olympics are being held in China -- across three different time zones -- as various athletes from all over the world compete for medals in 15 different sports.

These games mark the second time China is hosting the Olympics -- they previously held the Summer Games back in 2008 -- and won the bid for the 2022 Winter Games in 2015.

Beijing -- where the games are being played -- is the first city to host both the Summer and Winter Olympics.

Of course, Team USA will be there ... and is expected to perform well. But, they'll have to do it without the support of their govt. officials -- at least, in person, that is.

President Biden and his administration are imposing a diplomatic boycott of the Winter Games ... due to China's "ongoing genocide and crimes against humanity."

The move from #46 is a deviation from the norm -- it's tradition for the U.S. to send high-profile delegates to represent the country and support America's athletes.

The boycott, however, does not stop the athletes from competing ... and the White House still supports Team USA in their endeavors. In fact, a "record number" of 177 US athletes walked during the opening ceremony, according to CNN.

Nothing gets in the way of Anthony Edwards and his McChickens -- not even work -- 'cause the NBA star paused his postgame presser Thursday night so he could place a McDonald's order!

It all happened after the Timberwolves knocked off the Pistons in Michigan -- when Edwards told media members to hold their questions while he pounded away on his phone.

"Hold on y'all," the 20-year-old Minnesota guard said. "Don't ask no questions yet. I'm trying to put an order in."

The scene was hilarious ... Edwards sifted through the menu on his phone -- suggesting he was getting McChickens and a drink with no ice -- and the reporters were all good sports about it.

In fact, one reporter joked with Edwards asking if his $44.27 million, 4-year rookie contract is forcing him to eat off the fast-food chain's Value Menu -- and he played along.

"Yeah, yeah, cheap dude," Edwards replied. "I ain't gon' say cheap dude 'cause I like cars and jewelry but, yeah. Cheap dude, man. I'ma wait until my other contract hit. For sure."

McDonald's isn't the only food spot Edwards has brought up in his pressers -- last season, he literally brought Popeyes chicken to one of his postgame interviews.

Gotta hand it to Lindsay Lohan ... she's killed it in a Super Bowl commercial!!!

It's an ad for Planet Fitness, and the theme is that the gym has turned Lindsay's life around from train wreck to the picture of mental and physical health.

The voiceover is hilarious ... Lindsay has gone from DUI to DIY. She's so mentally acute she destroyed on "Jeopardy!" And the turnaround has left the paparazzi in tears!!!

There's a pretty amazing supporting cast in the 30-second ad -- William Shatner, Dennis Rodman, Buzzy Cohen and Danny Trejo ... all touting the virtues of exercise and fitness.

BTW ... NBC said Thursday all the Super Bowl ad slots have been filled, and it ran companies that advertised between $5.8 million and $7 million for 30 seconds of airtime.

Lindsay's been under the radar for a few years now, so the ad is actually more effective because of it. It's kind of like a reveal on "Extreme Makeover" ... except a lot more cerebral. It's actually a great P.R. move for her, because it's believable ... somewhat.

Mac Etienne -- a forward on the UCLA men's basketball team -- was reportedly cited by cops Thursday night after he appeared to spit on fans following the Bruins' game against Arizona.

Just after UCLA fell to the Wildcats, 76-66, at the McKale Center ... cameras appeared to capture Etienne, a 6-foot-10 redshirt freshman, getting into it with U of A fans.

In the video, Etienne can be seen exchanging words with people in the stands ... before he appeared to spit at them twice. The footage shows officials then grabbing Etienne and hurrying him away from the scene.

According to the L.A. Times, University of Arizona police found and cited Etienne a short time later. The outlet reported Etienne was not detained, though, and was allowed to leave the city with the rest of his team that same night.

"UCLA Athletics is committed to and expects the highest level of sportsmanship," a spokesperson for UCLA men's basketball said in a statement to the Times. "We are aware of the incident involving a student-athlete at tonight's men’s basketball game, and the matter is under review."

We've reached out to cops for comment, but so far, no word back yet.

Etienne is sitting out this season because of an injury. He played in 13 games for the team last season, starting one.

Former Bills GM Doug Whaley is hopeful Brian Flores' lawsuit brings about changes in the NFL ... but he tells TMZ Sports he's sure the only way the league's infrastructure will change quickly is if players boycott.

We spoke with Whaley following the filing of Flores' lawsuit ... and he told us in order to really see change, he believes it's going to take much more than the ex-Miami Dolphins coach's legal documents.

"[Flores' lawsuit] will hopefully move the needle," Whaley said. "But to really make change and affect change is when players stand up and start talking about withholding their services."

Whaley tells us if media companies and sponsors -- the ones that help pay billions of dollars to the NFL -- follow suit ... he then could see the league altering its way of thinking.

"To really affect change with billionaires," Whaley said, "you hit them where they really are concerned. It's not people's feelings. It's their bank accounts."

"When that starts getting affected," he added, "I bet you change will happen a lot sooner."

Doug also tells us he thinks Flores should get another shot at a head coaching gig in the NFL ... though, after the lawsuit's filing, he's now uncertain that will happen.

Boxing legend Oscar De La Hoya is celebrating his birthday early this year ... by droppin' trou and doing an underwear photoshoot with his smokin' hot GF, Holly Sonders.

The Golden Boy's 49th birthday is on Friday ... and instead of leading up to his cake day with some presents and blowing out candles, he decided to put his modeling skills to the test and go nearly nude with his ride or die.

TMZ Sports is told ... Holly wanted to make ODLH's day so special, she enlisted photogs Collin Stark and Allen Henson to take some iconic images to make the day even more unforgettable for the couple.

If you didn't notice, some of the shots give off Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt "W Magazine" vibes ... which was not by accident.

The pics are pretty steamy -- displaying both Holly and ODLH showing off some skin in their skivvies as they enjoy some cake.

But the sexy fun isn't the only way the couple is enjoying Oscar's special day -- we're told he's spending his actual birthday helping those who have been affected by COVID-19.

Law enforcement officials are facing serious backlash ... after failing to inform the public about a 49ers fan who was allegedly assaulted in the SoFi Stadium parking lot during Sunday's NFC Championship game.

According to the L.A. Times, it took 3 days for authorities in Inglewood to acknowledge the incident even took place ... and Thursday, officials were met with skepticism over why they didn't tell the public sooner.

40-year-old restaurant owner Daniel Luna is believed to be the man who was the victim of the heinous assault, according to the report.

Police Lt. Geoffrey Meeks said Los Angeles County Fire Dept. paramedics found Luna wearing a Niners jersey 30 minutes after the game started ... but it's unclear when the attack actually happened.

Of course, the timing is inauspicious for Los Angeles County -- the area is set to host Super Bowl LVI in the coming weeks -- which leads many to believe that authorities weren't as quick to release information surrounding the event out of fear of a PR nightmare.

Law enforcement sources tell TMZ Sports no suspects have been identified in the case ... but police launched an investigation into the matter sometime around 7 PM Sunday night, according to the report.

Officials at SoFi Stadium did, however, say they were "aware and saddened by the incident," and they were working with law enforcement officials throughout the course of their investigation.

"Our thoughts are with Mr. Luna’s friends and family during this difficult time."

The Giants are adamant Brian Flores is flat out wrong -- insisting they did NOT decide to hire Brian Daboll before the ex-Dolphins coach was interviewed -- and claiming Bill Belichick had no idea who NY was hiring.

"After we interviewed six exceptional and diverse candidates, the decision on who we would hire as head coach was made on the evening of January 28, one day after Mr. Flores spent an entire day in our offices going through his second interview for the position, meeting with ownership and other staff members, and receiving a tour of our facility," the team said in a statement.

The date's important because the crux of the lawsuit is ... did Flores have a legit shot at landing the G-Men job, or was he given a sham interview to satisfy the NFL's Rooney Rule (it says teams must interview a minority candidate in person prior to making a hire.)

The 40-year-old former Dolphins head coach filed a lawsuit on Tuesday, alleging the league's hiring practices were racist.

And, Flores says he has proof ... a text from Belichick.

We broke the story ... BB sent a message to Flores on January 23, telling his former assistant coach the NYG liked him for the job.

Unfortunately for BF, Bill either texted the wrong person (he meant to send to Daboll, the man who was ultimately hired), or he misunderstood the info he was told.

"The allegation that the Giants' decision had been made prior to Friday evening, January 28, is false. And to base that allegation on a text exchange with Bill Belichick in which he ultimately states that he 'thinks' Brian Daboll would get the job is irresponsible."

The team continued ... "The text exchange occurred the day before Coach Daboll's in-person interview even took place. Giants’ ownership would never hire a head coach based only on a 20-minute zoom interview, which is all that Mr. Daboll had at that point."

Not to mention, the Giants say Belichick has no affiliation with the organization, and played no part in the hiring process.

"Mr. Belichick does not speak for and has no affiliation with the Giants. Mr. Belichick’s text exchange provides no insight into what actually transpired during our head coaching search."

In other words, it doesn't matter what Bill texted, according to the team.

Bottom line -- the Giants are adamant they did absolutely nothing wrong.

There's new alleged video proof that supports a man's claim he was injured during a Jet Ski stunt gone wrong involving "Jackass" stars Steve-O and Chris Pontius.

TMZ broke the story, Michael Vicens-Segura is suing the veteran stuntmen for an incident he says, left him badly injured, suffering a gash on the side of his head.

In the video, you can see Vicens-Segura in the water between the vessels just before they take off, once the Jet-skis moved, Vicens-Segura was allegedly struck by the cable connecting the two when it snapped.

The aftermath is intense, and Michael is clearly in a lot of pain.

Michael says the whole thing happened in Puerto Rico in 2018 when the two guys and movie producers planned to do some kind of "Jet Ski Tug of War" ... which basically meant two guys would operate the jet ski in opposite directions.

Michael's attorney, John Phillips, now says ... "We provide this video looking for witnesses and people who know about the creation and execution of this stunt. If you have information, please contact us."

Vicens-Segura says he had to get a metal plate in his head and his life has been completely changed by the incident ... he is asking for more than $12 mil in damages.

Scary moment during a WWE NXT UK match Thursday ... Blair Davenport suffered a gnarly leg injury after she jumped off the top rope and landed on the ground awkwardly.

Davenport was competing against fellow wrestling star Meiko Satomura in a Japanese Street Fight for the NXT UK Women's Championship ... when disaster struck.

During the match, Blair climbed to the top of a ring post, jumped, and then slammed her feet onto the back of Meiko, who was outstretched on the apron.

But, when Davenport hit the ground just after that, you can see in video, her ankle and knee crumpled below her body.

Davenport was hurt so badly, she screamed in pain. The ref then immediately ended the match.

"This is really hard to see," one announcer said. "When any competitor gets hurt, regardless of how physical this match was, it's tough to watch."

Satomura -- the reigning champ -- looked concerned the entire time while Davenport received assistance from the medical staff.

Blair posted an update on her Twitter account following the match ... showing a picture of her on crutches and in a walking boot.

"Whoops😬 BRB ✌" she said.

Super Bowl party season is right around the corner ... and one of the most hyped events of the weekend is looking to one-up itself -- with a nearly $3 million budget!!

TMZ Sports spoke with David Spencer of Talent Resources Sports, which helps put on the annual Sports Illustrated bash during Super Bowl Weekend ... and he tells us the S.I. bash will live up to its reputation this year -- especially after COVID-19 prevented the party from happening in 2021.

"We've been known to throw some premiere events in our 15-year history, and super honored to be back in L.A. and doing something bigger than ever," Spencer tells us.

This season, the event is slated to have names like Kygo, Jack Harlow, Frank Walker and more on board to get the vibes going ... and the crowd will be filled with the biggest celebs, athletes and models like years past.

With all that being said, tables for the party come with quite the price tag -- we're talking 5 figures -- but it's for good reason.

"It's an expensive event to produce," Spencer adds. "We're almost up to the $3 million mark for that event alone, so it's a tough ticket."

On top of the S.I. party, Spencer tells us about the Super Bowl viewing party at Jimmy Goldstein's iconic L.A. mansion ... and he says the event (which comes with a $1,500-$2,000 ticket) will be super COVID-19 safe ... and catered by local hotspot Craig's!!

Like Stephen Ross, John Elway is now firing back at Brian Flores ... saying he was NOT hungover during their 2019 interview and was simply just tired from flying to speak with the coach.

Flores, in a lawsuit filed Tuesday, accused Elway and the Broncos of conducting a "sham interview" with him 3 years ago ... saying Elway and others at the meeting "looked completely disheveled" and were "obviously" "drinking heavily the night before."

Elway, though, refuted those claims in a lengthy statement on Thursday ... calling the allegations "false and defamatory."

"For Brian to make an assumption about my appearance and state of mind early that morning was subjective, hurtful and just plain wrong," the Denver exec said. "If I appeared 'disheveled,' as he claimed, it was because we had flown in during the middle of the night -- immediately following another interview in Denver -- and were going on a few hours of sleep to meet the only window provided to us."

Elway continued, "I interviewed Brian in good faith, giving him the same consideration and opportunity as every other candidate for our head coaching position in 2019."

Elway added that he and his team were "prepared, ready and fully engaged" during the interview, which he said lasted 3 and a half hours.

"It's unfortunate and shocking to learn for the first time this week that Brian felt differently about our interview with him," Elway said.

Elway's strong denial came just hours after Ross, the Miami Dolphins' owner, issued his. As we reported, Ross called the Flores claims that he offered money to the coach to tank "false, malicious, and defamatory."

New name, same horrifying allegations for the Washington Commanders -- Dan Snyder was accused on Capitol Hill of inappropriately touching a female employee at a work dinner, but the owner is vehemently denying the allegation.

A group of former employees was in D.C. to speak with the House Committee on Oversight and Reform on Thursday ... and several women broke down in tears describing the harrowing experiences within the organization.

Melanie Coburn -- who worked as a cheerleader and in the marketing dept. -- claims Snyder hand-picked women to join the team based on their looks, and not talent.

Coburn also claims she was invited to Snyder's Aspen, Colorado home with other colleagues for an "awards trip" ... and after a night out, she was forced to go in the owner's basement and stay there. She claims another colleague later told her it was due to the men bringing back prostitutes.

Tiffani Johnston -- another former cheerleader, who had not previously spoken out -- claims Snyder touched her inner thigh under the table, as well as her lower back, during a team dinner ... and attempted to convince her into his limo at the end of the evening. Johnston said she tried to report the interaction to a supervisor, but was instructed to keep her mouth shut.

A former video production manager -- Brad Baker -- claims Snyder ordered employees in 2008 to put together an X-rated highlight reel of cheerleaders called the "good bits" ... which featured uncensored footage that had not been retouched to exclude accidental nudity.

During the meeting -- which was not under oath -- a Congresswoman pressed Baker on some offensive Tweets he'd allegedly posted, one of which included a crude comment about a female sports reporter "dressing like a whore." Baker responded ... whatever he'd tweeted had nothing to do with his experiences working with the team.

Ana Nunez -- the former coordinator of business development -- says her 8 years with the team was filled with fear of being sexually harassed.

As we previously reported, the NFL conducted an investigation into multiple claims of sexual misconduct within the organization ... which resulted in a $10 million fine. The league, however, did not make the findings public.

Snyder, in a statement to TMZ Sports, says the claims made on Thursday are simply not true.

"While past conduct at the Team was unacceptable, the allegations leveled against me personally in today's roundtable - many of which are well over 13 years old - are outright lies," Snyder said.

"I unequivocally deny having participated in any such conduct, at any time and with respect to any person."

"Tanya and I will not be distracted by those with a contrary agenda from continuing with the positive personnel and cultural changes that have been made at the Team over the past 18 months, and those that we continue to make both on and off the field."

The Super Bowl is just 10 days away and health officials in Los Angeles are warning all you sneaky fans plotting a way around the mask mandate ... don't even think about it!!

L.A. County -- where the game will take place on February 13 -- requires everyone over 2 years old at large scale events over 5,000 people, regardless of vaccination status, to mask up ... except when chowing down.

"That doesn't mean buy a bucket of popcorn and eat it for two hours. Actively eating and drinking," a SoFi Stadium executive said according to Fox 5 in San Diego, adding, "We are on to you."

Officials say they're ready to crack down on any of the 70,000+ fans who will ascend on the $5.5 billion stadium next Sunday ... but admitted it's a monumental task.

"It's a challenge. It's a very large building but we are prepared and ready to go," the NFL's head of live events said, continuing ... "We have had two years of experience of planning under COVID and we're extremely confident in the plans that we have in place."

Now, let's be honest ... this is a rule that is virtually impossible to enforce. How do you determine who's eating slow? What's even considered slow? And, how do you deal with the sheer number of people?

In fact, just last weekend during the NFC Championship Game against the 49ers at SoFi Stadium, California governor Gavin Newsom landed in hot water when he was caught taking a photo with Magic Johnson -- without a mask.

Los Angeles mayor Eric Garcetti also took a maskless photo with the Lakers legend ... but don't worry, he said he was holding his breath (he said this with a straight face).

In addition to requiring the masks, event staff will also require fans to show vaccination proof prior to entering the stadium. The stadium has also been outfitted with hundreds of hand sanitizers.