TMZ Sports - Page 50

Kanye West isn't easing up off his push for Black ownership in enterprise, or his gripes about not getting a chance to own the masters to his songs.

Ye was going off again early Wednesday about African-Americans, by and large, not getting their fair share of the pie -- instead, he says they're mostly used by companies run by whites. He again points to the NBA and the music biz as examples.

In his new Twitter rant, he says, "We sat back and watched Nick Cannon get canceled and we go to play ball in a bubble with black lives matter on our backs ... brothers let’s stand together for real ... there is no NBA or music industry without black people ... fair contracts matter ... ownership matters."

Insisting he's made "multi billions," Kanye says he's one of the few who can openly speak on this issue without repercussion -- the implication being he's rich enough to where he doesn't have to worry about a record label trying to muzzle him.

Speaking of that ... Ye brings the convo back to himself and his own fight for ownership of his master recordings, blasting Universal Music Group and alleging they won't even give him a chance to buy them outright -- because he feels they know he can probably afford them.

Of course, this is the same argument his nemesis, Taylor Swift, made not too long ago ... as one of Kanye's associates pointed out to him on Tuesday morning.

Ye and Taylor on the same page??? 2020 strikes again.

Former Ohio State football star Anthony Gonzalez is FIRED UP for the Big Ten's return to the gridiron ... telling TMZ Sports another year of the sport could change kids' lives!!

The ex-Buckeye -- who became a congressman after a successful NFL career -- told us out on Capitol Hill in D.C. on Wednesday he couldn't imagine where he would be today if something had canceled his last year of the sport.

"I'm thrilled for the players, honestly," Gonzalez said. "Look, my last year at Ohio State, honestly, it changed my life."

Gonzalez played three seasons at OSU from 2004 through 2006 ... and used a big final season on campus to become an eventual first-round pick in the 2007 NFL Draft.

Gonzalez says without that last year ... he might not have had an awesome pro football career -- let alone be a congressman now.

Anthony says the fact that the Big Ten is now allowing its players to have the opportunity to follow down a similar path really brings a smile to his face.

"We've got a lot of kids who are going to get an opportunity to live out their dream," Gonzalez said.

The conference announced Wednesday it's officially targeting Oct. 24 for its opening weekend of games.

Daniel Cormier is figuring out life after his UFC fighting career ... revealing he's been in talks with WWE!!

The former heavyweight champ is famously a die-hard WWE fan who has been watching pro wrestling for decades ... so it seems a move to the squared circle would be a perfect fit with Cormier.

In fact, the UFC legend told Sports Illustrated the conversations have begun.

"We’ve been talking," Cormier told SI. "We’ve spoken to some of the people over there in very, very early conversations. WWE is a company I’ve watched and loved my entire life."

DC says his skills as a UFC commentator would transition perfectly with WWE.

"Put me at the commentary table," Cormier added. "Let me call the matches for six months and tell you how great these wrestlers are in the ring. I would love that, and I wouldn’t be faking it. WWE is something I’ve loved my entire life."

The feeling is mutual ... WWE honcho Triple H recently told us they're huge fans of Cormier "we'd love to do something with him if the time is right.

Triple H made a point to say that he would be respectful of DC's professional relationship with UFC and would work with Dana White to make sure everyone is on the same page.

"He doesn’t want to hit anybody!"

Tiki Barber just went OFF on Saquon Barkley ... ripping the New York Giants star for his poor pass blocking ability -- and wondering out loud if it's going to cost the RB playing time in the future.

Tiki -- speaking on his "Tiki + Tierney" show this week -- said after watching Barkley and the Giants over the last few seasons ... it's become clear to him Saquon doesn't want to pass protect.

And, according to the ex-NYG star, that's a HUGE problem.

"He might not be an every-down back," Barber said. "He cannot pass protect, and it is starting to become glaring."

It's pretty shocking commentary from Tiki ... given Barkley is considered the best player on the Giants' roster by far -- but Barber says if Saquon doesn't shape up, he could see his minutes cut.

"I learned this early on in my career, because I was a third-down back before I was a star running back," Barber said. "If you can’t block, you can’t be on the field on third down."

"You just can’t, because you know those are high blitz and dog downs."

For Barkley's part ... New York coaches might not mind he's not the best blocker in the world -- dude has 23 total touchdowns in 30 career games.

JLo and A-Rod are leaving Malibu, at least for now, because we've learned they just sold their beach house.

The house is right on the sand, smack dab in one of the best areas of the 'Bu. They sold the house for $6,775,000.

The house is 4,400 square feet with 5 bedrooms and 4.5 baths. When they bought it in January 2019, they did some renovations. We believe they initially planned to live in the house, but they had a change of heart and decided to sell.

They bought the property for $6.6 mil so they pretty much broke even. It wasn't long after they bought it when we got photos of JLo outside the home with "Fixer Upper" star Joanna Gaines. Gaines was allegedly brought on to help renovate the home and get it ready to sell.

"Would you look at that? It's the first time Paul George has been on fire all night!"

One angry L.A. Clippers fan was SO heated over his team's epic collapse in the 2nd-round of the playoffs ... he took a flame to his own Paul George jersey!!

It's no secret -- losing to the Denver Nuggets is NOT what the Clips had in mind this season ... with many expecting Kawhi Leonard and PG13 to lead the team to its first title.

This fan decided he'd had enough of repping George on Tuesday night ... destroying his jersey and ripping the baller in the process.

FYI -- Playoff P had just 10 points and 4 rebounds in the loss.

This isn't the first time we've seen George jerseys set ablaze ... some angry Indiana Pacers fans did the act back in 2017 when their All-Star announced he would be leaving in free agency the following season.

This reaction is CLEARLY a bit of an overreaction ... but the frustration is understandable -- after all, Kawhi and George combined for 0 points in the 4th quarter as the Clips were eliminated from the playoffs.

But hey, there's always next year!!

Saints WR Emmanuel Sanders says Drew Brees cried HARD during his apology to the team in the wake of his controversial anthem comments ... and now, Sanders says N.O. players have moved on.

The 33-year-old revealed on ESPN's "First Take" on Wednesday that he was initially pissed back in June when Brees said anthem kneelers were "disrespecting the flag."

But, Sanders claims the Saints had a team meeting over it all shortly after the QB's comments ... and he says Brees apologized vehemently through a mountain of tears.

"As he talked, the more and more he talked, you just see a guy with just tears rolling down his face," Sanders said.

"I mean, I've never seen that. You could just tell that he was hurt by his comments and the things that people were saying about him because he was unaware of it."

Emmanuel added, "I mean just tears flowing down his face."

Sanders says after that team conversation ... Saints players knew that Brees understood his mistake -- and have since moved on.

"We understood where he was coming from and we were able to move past it," Sanders says. "I don't see any weird energy going on in the locker room."

Dez Bryant is calling out Mike Ditka for his latest anti-protest rant ... saying the legendary football coach's hatred of national anthem demonstrations is "feeling entitled at its finest."

Ditka has been EXTREMELY outspoken about NFL players' protests ... initially telling TMZ Sports back in July that anyone who does anything other than stand for the song should "get the hell out of the country."

The former Chicago Bears head coach doubled down on those comments to Newsmax TV this week ... still saying he wants to give the boot to players who protest.

Enter Dez ... who says somebody needs to have a conversation with Iron Mike ASAP to break down for him what the protests are really all about.

"Somebody need to go have a sit down with Mike Ditka," the former Dallas Cowboys star said., "no arguing But explain to him what’s going on...feeling entitled at its finest."

Of course, players who have been demonstrating during the anthem have long said the protests have nothing to do with the flag or the military ... but rather the social injustices in America.

Dozens of athletes continued the protests in the first week of the NFL season this past weekend ... with the first-ever Dallas Cowboys player, Dontari Poe, taking a knee for the song.

Caitlyn Jenner is angry at a joke Joe Rogan told about her transition, claiming it's simply transphobic and hurtful to the entire trans community.

Caitlyn's on "TMZ Live" Wednesday ... talking about Rogan's podcast last week, in which he recounted a bit he once told in 2016 about her transition ... and likened it to her being driven crazy by living with the Kardashian women, whom he calls "crazy bitches."

Joe broke down his joke-writing process to Tim Kennedy about the Caitlyn bit that he used in his Netflix special, "Triggered," explaining in his eyes some people are born trapped in the wrong gender, while and others become that due to their environment.

He joked Caitlyn might be the latter ... using the "he" pronoun and calling her "Bruce." Caitlyn's upset at that, but even more upset at Joe's characterization of her daughters.

Caitlyn takes her own shots at Joe -- who is super successful -- saying her daughters have done better in every department.

BTW, Caitlyn just launched her own YouTube channel. It's seriously worth a watch.

WNBA star Maya Moore just dropped a bombshell -- she MARRIED the man she helped free from prison!!

Moore -- considered one of the greatest WNBA players EVER -- had stepped away from the league in 2019 and 2020 to focus on social justice issues ... starting with freeing Jonathan Irons.

40-year-old Irons was serving a 50-year prison sentence stemming from a 1998 burglary and assault conviction in Missouri, despite no real evidence proving his guilt. Irons was only 16 at the time of the conviction.

Moore says she met Irons when she was 18 through a prison ministry program and grew close over the years while fighting for his freedom.

When he was released from prison in July, Moore was there waiting for him ... and they tied the knot shortly after.

"We wanted to announce today that we are super excited to continue the work that we are doing together, but doing it as a married couple," Moore announced on "Good Morning America."

"We got married a couple months ago and we're excited to just continue this new chapter of life together."

Moore explained the growth of their relationship ... saying, "Over the last 13 years we have just developed a friendship and just entered into this huge battle to get him home and just over time it was pretty clear what the Lord was doing in our hearts and now we're sitting here today, starting a whole new chapter together."

Irons told GMS it became clear he wanted to marry Moore while he was still locked up at the Jefferson City Correctional Center, but didn't want to make a move until he was free.

"I wanted to marry her but at the same time protect her because being in a relationship with a man in prison, it's extremely difficult and painful," Irons said.

"I didn't want her to feel trapped and I wanted her to feel open and have the ability any time if this is too much for you, go and find somebody. Live your life. Because this is hard."

Irons says he eventually proposed in a hotel room after hanging out with some close friends.

"It was just me and her in the room and I got down on my knees and I looked up at her and she kind of knew what was going on and I said, 'Will you marry me?' She said, 'Yes!'"

As for the wedding reception, Moore and Irons say they had special COVID protocols -- including guests in masks and social distancing.

The Big Ten WILL play football in 2020 after all -- the schools and conference leaders have agreed on a plan to resume in mid-October, according to multiple reports.

Remember, it was just back in August the conference -- which includes teams like Ohio State, Michigan, Michigan State, Penn State, Nebraska and more -- decided to press pause on the 2020 season due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

But, the University leaders met again and were apparently impressed by new daily rapid testing, which would make things safer for everyone ... according to ESPN.

In fact, ESPN says the Big Ten Council of Presidents and Chancellors voted unanimously to resume the season.

Now, the plan is to green light football programs to begin practicing ASAP so they can start playing games by October 24.

Sources told ESPN the conference is looking at an 8 or 9 game season, with the conference championship going down on Dec. 19 -- one day before the college football bowl selection special.

Obviously, the hope is that a Big Ten team would be considered for the college football playoffs so they could compete for a national championship.

Several college football conferences are already playing -- including the SEC and the ACC.

The PAC-12 is still on hiatus -- but there seems to be a movement to follow the Big Ten's lead and resume in the fall as well.

THIS LEAGUE!!!!

Trailblazers stars Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum took the ultimate low road and clowned THE HELL out of the Clippers for their early playoff exit ... and it's saaavaagggeeee!!!

In case you weren't aware ... Lillard and McCollum have big beef with the Clips -- and it all stems from a non-playoff bubble game back in early August.

During the Portland-L.A. matchup ... Lillard wasn't his usual clutch self -- and Clips star Patrick Beverley let him hear it -- chirping and laughing at the guard as L.A. won the game.

Afterward, Lillard, Beverly and Paul George all got into a spat on social media ... with Beverly and George believing at the time Lillard wasn't going to make the playoffs.

In one of Beverly's comments toward Lillard ... the Clippers guard said "Cancun on 3" -- insinuating Damian would be off to Mexico instead of chasing a world title.

Turns out, Lillard and McCollum DID get into the playoffs ... and despite losing in the 1st round to the Lakers -- they never forgot the smack talk, and returned the favor BIG TIME after L.A. was shockingly bounced by the Denver Nuggets in the conference semi-finals Tuesday.

"I guess I should extend this Cancun invite since I haven’t made my arrangements yet," Lillard shot at Beverly.

"I’ll bring the wine," McCollum added. "Weather nice as ever too."

McCollum continued, "My last tweet before I finish this glass. They did vote they ain’t wanna play no more. . . But I didn’t think they was gonna go out like that."

DO NOT INSULT THIS MAN'S FAMILY!!!

German soccer player Toni Leistner was so furious with a trash-taking fan after a loss Monday, he climbed into the stands and manhandled the dude ... and it's all on video.

Leistner and his Hamburg squad had just lost to Dynamo Dresden in a 4-1 shellacking in the German Cup when he heard someone spewing insults from the crowd.

The 30-year-old stopped a live TV interview and jumped into the stands, walked right up to the man he believed to be the trash-talker ... grabbed the dude by the shirt with both hands and shoved him to the ground.

Fans and security broke up the altercation -- and Leistner went right back to his interview and picked up like nothing happened.

The soccer star later went to social media and explained why he blew up ...

"After the match in my hometown, I was verbally abused from the stands," Leistner said.

"I can usually cope with it. But this was extremely and massively below the belt, against my family, my wife and my daughter."

"That's when I lost it, even more so because it was already an extremely emotional match for me."

He continued, "Regardless, this should have never happened to me. I am a father who wants to serve as a role-model. I apologize in all forms and can only promise that -- no matter what insults are thrown my way -- this will never happen again."

As for the COVID component -- roughly 10,000 fans were allowed inside the stadium to watch the game ... but were all required too wear masks and engage in social distancing.

The platers were tested before being cleared to play -- but the fans were not tested.

Boxing rising star Ryan Garcia says he's completely SHOCKED legends like Oscar De La Hoya and Mike Tyson making a comeback ... telling TMZ Sports those guys are straight-up "nuts!!!"

54-year-old Mike and 51-year-old Roy Jones Jr. are dusting off the cobwebs and facing off on Nov. 28 ... which seemingly started a trend.

We spoke with King Ry out in L.A. and since he's signed with Oscar's Golden Boy Promotions -- we wanted to know how he felt about ODLH getting back in the ring at 47-years-old.

"Aw man, Oscar, shoot. Let him do whatever he wants!" Garcia tells us ... adding, "If Mike did it, why not?"

Oscar does NOT have an opponent lined up yet but insists he's still got the skills to beat a real opponent in the ring.

So, how does Ryan feel about comeback season?!

"They're nuts, that's what I'm saying. They're nuts! I can't believe it."

"Get on your knees you f**king slave."

That's only part of an insanely racist and disturbing message NFL star Budda Baker says he received after his game Sunday ... and the text to the Arizona Cardinals player was absolutely vile.

Baker received the message apparently as a response for his low hit on SF star George Kittle over the weekend ... and it was so awful, Baker wrote of it, "All you can do is pray for ppl like this."

In the message, which Baker shared publicly on social media, a fan with the username "niners8" called the NFL safety a "monkey" and directed the n-word at him 3 times.

In the message, the fan also appeared to threaten Baker ... writing, "Yo gon get a bounty on yo f**kin monkey ass head you f**kin dirty n****r."

Baker was clearly disturbed by the text ... saying of it all, "Im all good with opposing fans talking trash. But This right here man..."

Baker has yet to speak with media members over the message ... but it's a clear reminder of why the NFL and its coaches and players have participated in so many demonstrations this season.

The league has written "end racism" in all of its teams' endzones ... while dozens of players have continued to kneel during the national anthem to bring attention toward racial inequality.

In fact, the Pittsburgh Steelers held up a massive banner during the anthem before their game on Monday night that read, "Steelers Against Racism."

Baker -- a 2-time Pro Bowler -- is one of the best players in the NFL ... who just signed a mega, 4-year, $59 MILLION contract extension with Arizona.

Conor McGregor says he will dig in and fight the "bullsh*t" allegations against him in Corsica -- and refuses to pay a dime "to anyone coming at me with vicious lies."

The UFC superstar unleashed on his private Facebook page (which a source close to Conor confirmed to us is legit) ... addressing several allegations that have made against him over the years, including the most recent situation in Corsica.

"Try set me up all yous f*cking want over and over and over the truth will always set me free! Be it baby father claims, rape, indecent exposure, bullsh*t WhatsApp group sh*t. You f*cking name it. Never will I fold!"

He continued, "The truth is the truth and it gives me wings. I know my character!"

"God bless DNA! God bless Cctv! God bless Eye witness! God bless the truth! The truth is power! I am free!"

"Never will a dime be paid to anyone coming at me with vicious lies! Not now not f*cking ever! I will fight! And I am only beginning my fight!"

"All these past incidents you will see! They will not be forgotten! I will not allow these people to just accuse me and then disappear into the dark to attempt to ruin someone else life! No f*cking way!”

He also added this line -- "I will never kill myself no matter how many wish for it."

As we previously reported, McGregor is facing allegations of attempted sexual assault and indecent exposure in Corsica. Reports out of France say he's accused of exposing himself to a woman at a bar on Sept. 6.

Additionally, McGregor has reportedly been questioned over two alleged sexual assault incidents in Dublin ... but not much is publicly known about those cases.

What we do know ... Conor has been captured on camera breaking the law multiple times -- from throwing a steel dolly at a UFC bus to punching an older man at a pub in Ireland.