TMZ Sports - Page 31

Gisele Bündchen admitted she had "concerns" over Tom Brady's unretirement this offseason ... saying she expressed them to her NFL star hubby "over and over again."

The supermodel told ELLE in a recent interview that she was worried about the violence of football. She said she also wanted Brady to "be more present" around the house and their kids.

"I have definitely had those conversations with him over and over again," she said to the outlet. "But ultimately, I feel that everybody has to make a decision that works for [them]. He needs to follow his joy, too."

ELLE reports Gisele made the comments several weeks before she and Brady reportedly entered into a "rough patch" in their marriage -- a rift that supposedly got so bad, she briefly stopped living with the football player.

The outlet claims it reached back out to Gisele this month over the reports, but she "declined to comment on the speculation."

Of course, Gisele has said publicly that she's wanted Brady to call it quits for at least the last half-decade -- wishing he'd spend more time with the family. She's also said she doesn't believe he has anything left to prove on the field.

She did, though, appear to extend an olive branch to the quarterback before his season-opening game against the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday, tweeting, "Let's go @TomBrady ! Let's go Bucs !"

"Call Cam. Call Kaepernick. Call anybody out there!"

Drew Pearson tells TMZ Sports the Cowboys are in BIG trouble following Dak Prescott's thumb injury -- and they need to give Cam Newton, Colin Kaepernick and any other veteran QBs out there a ring ASAP in order to potentially salvage this season.

Dallas lost its star signal-caller in the fourth quarter of the team's blowout loss to the Tampa Bay Bucs on Sunday night -- and after surgery on Monday, Prescott is expected to miss the next six-to-eight games.

Drew tells us the blow is brutal ... and there's now really only one solution to fixing the problem -- get on the phone and acquire someone like Newton or Kaepernick.

"We got to have somebody there with some experience, some game experience," the legendary Dallas wide receiver said.

"I'm not talking about coming in and mopping up for somebody after the game's already won or already lost. I'm talking about somebody that's been there, been in the big time, knows how to be a starting quarterback in the National Football League."

For now, there's been no murmurs of potential free agent pickups for the Cowboys ... who appear to be poised to ride things out with backup Cooper Rush.

Pearson seemed to be upset with Dallas' front office over the situation -- sounding off on the team's brass for letting go of receivers Amari Cooper and Cedrick Wilson as well as offensive tackle La'el Collins this offseason.

"That's what I'm disappointed in is that the offseason didn't produce what we needed to produce to surround Dak with the protection and the receivers he needed," Pearson said.

Jake Paul isn't duking it out with Anderson Silva 'til next month, but he's already got his eyes on his next opponent after Spider ... telling TMZ Sports he wants to "slap the Stockton out of" Nate Diaz!!

37-year-old Diaz hinted at making the switch to boxing after his big win over Tony Ferguson on Saturday ... which certainly got Jake's attention, considering Nate's UFC contract has ended.

We spoke with Paul at his news conference on Monday ... and asked if going up against the California native was a real possibility after his Oct. 29 bout.

"100%, 100%," Jake said. "I'll slap the Stockton out of him."

Paul says he's not looking past Silva, though ... adding he's a "crazy tough opponent" who he respects a ton.

Jake has been super complimentary of Diaz as well ... tweeting out praise for him over the weekend.

"Nate Diaz is a muthuf***in legend and would have slapped the s*** out of Khamzat [Chimaev]."

There are other guys Jake name-drops ... and they all sound like pretty good matchups.

Jermall Charlo just scored a big win in his assault case ... prosecutors tell TMZ Sports they're dropping the felony charge against the star boxer.

According to court documents, Charlo was accused of roughing up a family member during a Sept. 5, 2021 incident in Fort Bend County, Texas. He was eventually arrested over it all back in February, and charged with felony assault.

But a spokesperson for the Fort Bend County District Attorney's Office tells us they filed a motion to dismiss the case on Monday "based on the reason that we cannot prove the case beyond a reasonable doubt."

"Evidence developed in a way that did not support the charge to conclusion," the spokesperson said.

Charlo's attorney said in a statement Monday the 32-year-old was "very happy" with the decision.

"Nine witnesses came forward to say Charlo never hit his 21-year-old nephew," said Charlo's lawyer, Kent Schaffer. "Jermall is very happy. He can concentrate on preparing for his next fight now that this distraction has been removed."

Another Charlo -- Jermall's twin brother, Jermell Charlo -- is still facing legal troubles related to the case, however.

Prosecutors tell us Jermell -- who was hit with a misdemeanor charge after he was accused of telling the alleged Jermall victim during the incident, "I will kill you with my bare hands" -- is still facing a misdemeanor charge of making a terroristic threat.

Anthony Edwards should NOT be canceled for the homophobic remarks he recently made -- and that's coming from one of the biggest LGBTQ organizations in the world, which tells TMZ Sports it wants to sit down with the NBA star and believe he can be an ally going forward.

PFLAG -- the leading organization for LGBTQ+ people, families and allies -- tells us it saw the IG video posted by the Minnesota Timberwolves guard, where he made offensive comments about a group of shirtless men hugging each other on a sidewalk.

"Look at these queer ass n****s, man," Edwards said in the clip posted this weekend, adding ... "Look at the world I came to."

Edwards apologized after the video circulated on social media ... saying his actions were "immature, hurtful, and disrespectful, and I’m incredibly sorry."

Some have accepted the apology ... while some haven't.

Jean-Marie Navetta -- Director of Learning and Inclusion for PFLAG National -- says while the video is "an unfortunate reminder that equality and inclusion are still an elusive goal," there's a partnership that can now be formed that benefits all.

"The impact that public figures like professional athletes have is tremendous, and in this case, the message that was sent was of shame and ridicule. But, PFLAG believes that allies are all on a journey, and we hope this will be the beginning of a journey towards allyship for Anthony Edwards -- and we're here and ready to help."

It's not that what 21-year-old Edwards said wasn't bad ... it clearly was homophobic. In fact, Navetta calls the behavior "disappointing and hurtful," but there's nothing to be gained by cutting Anthony off.

The group would also like to see the NBA step up and make clear it values the LGBTQ community.

"While no organization can possibly manage the beliefs and behaviors of everyone employed, when situations like this one arise, it's a powerful opportunity for organizations to step up and affirm their values, contrast them with what transpired, and spotlight the work happening inside the organization."

Jake Paul says Dana White still owes him a million-dollar check for beating Ben Askren, but the Problem Child is once again proposing a friendly wager with the UFC honcho ... saying he's willing to put $5 MILLION on the line when he fights Anderson Silva.

Jake and Spider were holding a news conference in L.A. on Monday ahead of their October 29 bout in Arizona ... when Paul mentioned how his nemesis thought he'd never take on the challenge ahead of him.

"Dana White did not think I'd take this fight," Jake said minutes ago. "And Dana, I know you're watching, bro. You still owe me a million dollars from when you bet against me on Ben Askren."

"I want you to come out of hiding, stop being a bitch and make a bet against me and Anderson and actually pay up this time because you didn't think I would take this fight."

"So let's make a bet," he added. "Let's put a mil, let's put two mil, let's put 5 mil on it. But I bet you won't, Dana, because you're a bitch."

As for a bet between Jake and Anderson ... Spider says he hates tattoos, so a body ink bet is off the table. With that being said, Jake says he'll get clever and figure something out.

Don't expect Dana to respond to Jake's offer -- 'cause as he told TMZ Sports last week, he's sick of talking about the guy.

Halloween may be next month ... but the Dodgers celebrated early with some of their biggest superstars like Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman wearing costumes for the team's annual dress-up travel day.

The team posted pics of the players following their 11-2 victory over the Padres on Sunday ... and they're pretty good!

The tradition dates back a few years ... the Dodgers typically made rookies dress up in silly outfits, but a few vets decided to expand the practice to include all players on the team.

Betts -- one of the best players in baseball -- paid homage to the golf G.O.A.T. Tiger Woods, wearing TW's signature red Nike shirt and black pants.

Mookie's caddy was none other than teammate, Freeman, who looked the part ... and even had a golf bag full of miniature golf clubs at Mookie's disposal.

Of course, the best outfit has to go to Andre Jackson, Justin Turner, Joey Gallo and Cody Bellinger ... who dressed up as Chippendales dancers.

(Who says baseball players are out of shape?!)

Jackson, Turner, Gallo and Bellinger took the assignment to heart ... they were all shirtless and wore black bow ties with black pants and cuff links.

Trae Turner dressed up as Jordan Belfort, who was busted back in the day for financial crimes. JB was played by Leonardo DiCaprio in the movie 'Wolf of Wall Street.'

In fact, Trae's infatuation with 'Wolf' led him to create a celebration the team uses now ... where he hits his helmet like DiCaprio did with the mic during one of the movie's famous scenes.

A bunch of the players, including second baseman Gavin Lux, dressed up as characters from the classic baseball movie "The Sandlot."

Infielder Max Muncy dressed as a beer keg.

Aaron Rodgers is livid Novak Djokovic was not allowed to compete in the U.S. Open tournament ... highlighting the absurdity of some of the COVID-19 regulations that simply make no sense.

Rodgers sat down with Bill Maher for an episode of his 'Club Random' podcast ... where the two had a candid conversation about Djokovic being kept out of the high-profile tourney for remaining unvaccinated.

"The best f***ing player on the men's side can't play," Rodgers said of Djokovic. "One of the most fit guys in the f***ing world whose had covid at least once, if not twice, can't f***ing come to New York?"

Rodgers then brought up Kyrie Irving's long, drawn-out saga with the Nets ... which saw the star point guard miss a bevy of games during the season over his refusal to get vaccinated.

"Kyrie Irving attended a basketball game courtside but couldn't play for his team."

"How is that f***ing possible?" Rodgers asked. "He attended a basketball game and got to watch it in the stands but couldn't play f***ing play on his team because he wasn't vaxxed."

"Make it make sense. Make it sense. You can't," Aaron continued.

Rodgers and Maher accused the Nets, who told Irving he could play in road games but not home games, then said he couldn't play for the team at all ... of changing their tune once the team started struggling.

AR and BM were dumbfounded that Bradley Beal, who is unvaccinated like Irving, was allowed to play in games at Barclays Center and Madison Square Garden, despite the NYC mandate.

Britt Reid has just formally entered a guilty plea to felony DWI in his car crash case after cutting a deal with prosecutors ... and the attorney for the victims tells TMZ Sports they are not happy with the situation.

The former Kansas City Chiefs assistant coach -- wearing a suit with a yellow tie -- made the plea during a hearing in a Missouri courtroom on Monday morning ... nearly two years after he was accused of getting drunk and then causing a car crash that severely injured a 5-year-old girl.

Reid, according to KCTV5's Angie Ricono, told the courtroom while making the plea, "I regret what I did. I made a huge mistake. I apologize to the family. I didn’t mean to hurt anyone."

Prosecutors agreed not to seek a sentence longer than 4 years behind bars for Reid, the son of Andy Reid, in exchange for the guilty plea -- something that attorney Tom Porto says he and his clients are absolutely appalled by.

"The five victims of this crime are outraged the prosecuting attorney is not seeking the maximum sentence allowable by law," Porto said in a statement. "The defendant is a prior offender whose actions caused a five-year-old girl to be in a coma and seriously injured three others."

Reid was facing a maximum of seven years in prison.

Reid allegedly caused the car crash back on Feb. 4, 2021 ... after authorities say he slammed his pickup truck into the back of a car. Officials say he was going 83.9 MPH in a 65 MPH zone just seconds before the collision, and had a .113 BAC 2 hours following the wreck.

There was a ton of action on the court at the U.S. Open men's final on Sunday ... but there was even more in the stands, 'cause Kendall Jenner couldn't keep her hands -- or lips -- off her NBA star boyfriend, Devin Booker!!

The couple has been inseparable recently -- they hit up the NBA 2K23 launch party in Los Angeles on Thursday, before jetting off to New York City for the weekend.

Jenner and Booker hit up a bunch of New York Fashion Week events throughout the weekend ... sitting front row in multiple flashy outfits.

Amid all the fashion week fun, KJ and DB showed up in Flushing Meadows as Carlos Alcaraz took on Casper Ruud ... and throughout the match, you can see they were passionately into each other.

At one point, the two even lean in for a kiss ... and Kendall caresses her man's chin.

But, they weren't just focused on themselves -- Kendall was spotted yelling in support as the match unfolded.

A huge fire broke out in the parking lot at the Dolphins vs. Patriots game on Sunday -- destroying several cars -- and according to at least one witness, it all started after someone left a tailgating grill on.

A spokesperson for Miami-Dade Fire Rescue tells TMZ Sports ... firefighters were called to Hard Rock Stadium at around 1:28 PM after multiple people had seen flames pouring out of cars just outside of the venue.

Thankfully, according to the spokesperson, "firefighters immediately worked to contain and place the fire under control" and there were no reported injuries.

Video shot by multiple people at the arena showed the inferno was massive -- causing huge amounts of black smoke to pour into the stadium.

One witness says the owners of the cars had no idea their rides were destroyed until they returned to the parking lot. Another said the blaze appeared to start after someone had failed to properly extinguish their BBQ.

The MDFR spokesperson said the cause of the fire is still under investigation.

One of the car's owners, Scott Dellorfano, told NBC Miami that his Mercedes S63 -- plus $3k he had in the vehicle -- were destroyed in the fire.

Robert Kraft had a champion in his corner as New England kicked off its 2022 season ... with the Patriots owner hosting none other than Mike Tyson in his suite.

Iron Mike was on hand at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, FL. ... where he watched as the Pats fell to the division rival Dolphins, 20-7.

Mike had a seat right next to Kraft, who was sitting next to his son, Jonathan, -- and the two appeared to be chummy throughout the game as the Pats and 'Fins duked it out on the field.

No word on what exactly led to the meetup ... but Mike and Kraft seemed to have a lot to talk about throughout the duration of the game.

The day didn't go without an awkward moment, though -- At one point, Tyson went to give Kraft a fist bump, who missed the cue, but the two managed to clean it up at the end.

Former UFC fighter Elias Theodorou died Sunday following a battle with cancer. He was only 34 years old.

Theodorou had been courageously fighting stage 4 liver cancer ... but chose to share the diagnosis with only select people who were close to him.

Elias -- an outgoing and personable dude outside the cage -- was a heck of a fighter inside it. During his years in the UFC, Theodorou posted an 8-3 record with wins over Eryk Anders and Sam Alvey.

ET was also an advocate for the use of medical marijuana in combat sports ... believing the herb to be safer and more beneficial than prescription drugs.

Elias last fought in December 2021 ... against Bryan Baker at Colorado Combat Club 10, where he won by unanimous decision. Overall, ET was 19-3 professionally.

Back in 2018, Theodorou became the first "ring boy" ... when he worked the Invicta FC (all women's MMA promotion), strutting around the cage like Arianny Celeste.

We spoke to Elias at the time (March 2018) ... and he couldn't have been cooler.

Several Dallas Cowboys fans ganged up on a man during their game against the Buccaneers on Sunday night -- repeatedly punching the guy in the head before throwing him to the ground.

The wild altercation happened at some point during the Cowboys' loss to Tampa Bay at AT&T Stadium ... when several people wearing Dallas jerseys began heaving haymakers at a man wearing a black and yellow shirt.

It's unclear what started the brawl -- but video from the scene shows at least four people, including one woman, whaled on the guy before security stepped in to halt the action.

We've reached out to police to see if any arrests were made, but so far, no word back yet.

Fighting was seemingly commonplace at NFL games during the league's opening weekend -- because in the Falcons vs. Saints contest in Atlanta, one New Orleans fan threw a flurry of punches at a guy's face in the concourse.

The series of swings all appeared to land flush -- and it eventually led to a huge fracas in one of the corridors at the stadium. It's unclear here, too, if anyone was arrested over the commotion.

Meanwhile, in the Raiders vs. Chargers game, a fight got so out of hand, a woman was actually socked in the face.

NFL officials have yet to publicly comment on all the violence in the stands at games.

F1 driver Alex Albon had a serious health scare after being treated for appendicitis this weekend ... suffering respiratory failure and spending the night in the intensive care unit -- but luckily, he is expected to get back to 100% soon.

Williams Racing released the update minutes ago ... saying Albon had successful laparoscopic surgery on Saturday. But, things changed dramatically when the 26-year-old had post-operative anesthetic complications -- including respiratory failure.

The team says Albon had to be re-intubated and transferred to the ICU, where he spent the night.

Albon's condition improved overnight ... and he was taken off medical ventilation Sunday morning. The team adds he is slated to return home on Tuesday.

Despite the terrifying experience, Williams says Albon's focus is set on getting ready for the Singapore Grand Prix at the end of the month.

With Albon out, reserve driver Nyck de Vries -- a Formula 2 and Formula E champ -- stepped into the Williams car ... finishing 9th on the day.

Gisele Bündchen appears to be back in Tom Brady's corner -- just not, at least for Sunday night, physically ... 'cause the supermodel showed love for the QB on her social media ahead of his season-opening game, but skipped being there in person for it.

Gisele penned the sweet message to the 45-year-old on her Twitter account just minutes before he kicked off his 23rd NFL season against the Cowboys in Dallas.

"Let's go @TomBrady !," she wrote. "Let's go Bucs !"

The note, while short, is a pretty big deal -- considering multiple reports stated she was so furious with Brady's decision to unretire for this season, she temporarily stopped living with him recently.

Gisele, though, did not make the trip to the game -- a rare occurrence for the 42-year-old, who's often spotted celebrating the QB's success in luxury suites at stadiums.

Brady has yet to publicly address the reported rift between him and his wife ... but he did say when talking about his training camp absence last month that he had "a lot of s*** going on" at the moment.