TMZ Sports - Page 50

Damar Hamlin is pulling for the team that booted the Buffalo Bills from the playoffs on Sunday ... telling TMZ Sports he believes the Kansas City Chiefs will win their second-straight Super Bowl.

But, don't get it twisted -- #3 says he's rocking with Bills Mafia for life ... and he'll be right off that bandwagon after a brief three-hour run.

25-year-old Hamlin weighed in on this weekend's matchup with Babcock on the "TMZ Sports" TV show on FS1 this week ... and he gave us his exclusive take on who he'd like to see hoist the Lombardi Trophy.

It may be a bit surprising to hear ... considering the Chiefs have had the Bills' number in the postseason since 2020.

But, the safety explained Patrick Mahomes is the main reason behind his allegiance ... as it's truly hard to see the two-time Super Bowl MVP not coming out on top against the San Francisco 49ers.

We talked to Hamlin about much more than the Big Game -- he also chopped it up about his incredible return to the football field after nearly losing his life during "Monday Night Football" in Jan. 2023, his appreciation for NBA superstar LeBron James, and his newest partnership with the Don't Quit nutrition brand.

Las Vegas is the center of the sports universe as it hosts the Super Bowl ... but it's not just football fans flocking to Sin City, 'cause TMZ Sports has learned countless beautiful ladies are in the desert to work the pole!!

Several gentlemen's clubs tell us women have been lined up outside their doors in hopes of getting a spot on their stages this weekend ... and many strip joints are increasing staff just to meet the demand.

In fact, Hustler -- one of the most popular strip clubs in Vegas -- expects it to be busier than the Las Vegas Grand Prix last November ... which was the first time the city hosted an F1 race in more than 40 years.

"This is an exciting time for Las Vegas, especially for businesses due to the economic impact of the Big Game," Hustler Club LV's general manager Brittany Rose said.

"We have seen out-of-town audition numbers in the hundreds leading up to the week of Super Bowl LVIII."

We're told there's also an influx of male entertainers for the Kings of Hustler Male Revue ... which is located on the 3rd floor of the strip club.

"Everyone is excited being that the club is just steps away from all the action at the stadium," Rose added.

Other clubs like Spearmint Rhino and Crazy Horse III are also expecting a record-breaking weekend ... with both saying they have no choice but to add more dancers each night.

"We will have double to triple the entertainers all week (about 300 entertainers nightly)," Nando Sostilio, owner of Crazy Horse 3, said.

"Since the teams have been announced, we have a ton of VIP reservations already input for football players, musical artists, and tech billionaires from Silicon Valley, and the reservations are continuing to pour in."

No matter what happens on Super Bowl Sunday, Brock Purdy and the San Francisco 49ers will have some shiny, new hardware ... 'cause the whole squad just got hooked up with some brand new team-themed chains!!

TMZ Sports is told ... the NFC champions received new bling from The GLD Shop's private popup outside their Levi's Stadium locker room last weekend ... right before flying out to Sin City for their matchup against the Chiefs.

We're told "Mr. Irrelevant" and Co. got pendants of either the classic SF logo or 49ers helmet ... each plated in 14k white gold.

The dope ice also came with rope chains or upgraded diamond tennis necklaces -- like the one Purdy has on his neck in the pic above.

We're told the players loved their gifts so much ... some of 'em purchased more at the popup shop -- from diamond watches to iced-out chains ranging from $1K to $50K!!

The GLD Shop founder Christian Johnston -- who has worked with A-list celebs including Rihanna and Kevin Durant -- also gave fans a chance to get the same 49ers items (as well as other teams) this Super Bowl weekend at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center in LV.

"We're excited to be back at the Super Bowl," Johnston said.

"Being part of this major sporting event in the entertainment capital is a genuine honor. We're ready to rise to the occasion, bringing the ice to Las Vegas with NFL Crown Jewels -- an immersive experience that lets fans across the nation rep their favorite NFL team with style."

Michael Irvin tells TMZ Sports he believes the Pro Football Hall of Fame robbed Antonio Gates by bypassing him for the 2024 class ... but he's now offering some advice for the tight end to get through it.

Irvin said at the "A Night Out With Legends" party in Vegas that the ex-Chargers superstar can't get too down on himself after he didn't make the cut for the HOF's '24 class on Thursday ... explaining that if he does, he'll allow the committee to "steal" from him twice.

Instead, he recommended Gates put this behind him quickly ... so when he ultimately gets his gold jacket, he can enjoy it.

Irvin, of course, would know a thing or two about the situation ... after all, it took him three years to finally get into Canton despite being one of the most prolific receivers of all time.

"I didn't get in on the first ballot," the former Dallas Cowboys receiver said. "But, I promise you I got in on the third ballot and when I got there, and I got to that podium, straight joy was waiting on me. It didn't even matter that I didn't go in on the first ballot, once I got there, I just saw joy."

Irvin tells us he's got plans to relay the message to Gates himself ... saying, "that's my guy."

Talk about charm-ing ... Braxton Berrios and girlfriend Alix Earle turned their super cute pet names for each other into shiny bling, copping two diamond-filled panda bear pendants!

TMZ Sports has learned the Miami Dolphins receiver recently hit up Sean Salci for matching necklaces for him and his TikTok star GF, whom he started dating in 2023.

"My boyfriend just got me the best present I've ever gotten in my life," Earle said on social media.

"We call each other panda and he got us matching panda diamond necklaces!"

We're told each piece contains solid, 14-karat yellow gold with 5 carats of VVS1 F diamonds. Top notch.

"The eyes, nose, and mouth all have custom-sized and shaped diamonds to really enhance the panda look we were going for," Salci said. "It was extremely important to keep the all-diamond look while maximizing the panda face concept."

We're not sure if Berrios rocked the piece to the NFL Honors show in Las Vegas on Thursday, but another athlete did wear a Salci piece to the event ... New York Giants QB Tommy DeVito.

We're told the 25-year-old quarterback copped a custom cross and necklace ... and you can clearly see the massive chain on DeVito's neck while on the red carpet and on television during the show, even prompting Keegan-Michael Key to make a "Goodfellas" joke.

Salci -- who also happens to be Tommy's marketing guy (he makes the jewelry through his family-owned jewelry business) -- told us DeVito's iced-out piece contains a total of 55 carats of diamonds.

It's unclear how much dough Berriors and DeVito dropped on the pieces.

Berrios signed a $3.5 million contract with the Dolphins last March and DeVito -- who went undrafted in 2023 -- signed a bunch of endorsement deals since becoming a star last year in Daniel Jones' absence.

Aside from Travis Kelce falling in love and holding hands with music's hottest star this year, he and his fellow Kansas City Chiefs have had quite the season! Put one foot forward and see if you can tackle the discreet changes in these two images.

In preparation for tomorrow's big game, the tight end was loosening up this week in Vegas during practice -- and was lookin' swift sporting some red-hot short shorts 😜.

There's no way you can mess with #87 ... but what about the others??

Jason Kidd lit NBA Twitter/X on fire for saying Luka Doncic is better than Dirk Nowitzki ... but Shawn Marion is coming to his defense -- telling TMZ Sports the Mavs coach's comments were simply based on skill set, not accolades.

ICYMI, Kidd -- who started coaching the Mavs in 2021 -- recently said Doncic has surpassed Nowitzki in his eyes ... as the 24-year-old "does things that Dirk could never do."

Kidd was ripped for his comment ... especially since Dirk -- a 7-foot forward who can drain threes -- led the Mavs to their first NBA Finals title in 2011.

But Marion -- who was on that championship squad with Dirk and J. Kidd -- said people were mixing up what Jason truly meant ... and he doesn't think it was meant to downplay all Nowitzki did for the franchise.

"He's talking about the whole package," Marion told TMZ Sports. "He's talking about his skill set."

"He's not approaching [Dirk] in the accolades. There's no comparison [there]."

Marion is not taking anything away from Doncic ... pointing out the Mavs guard has amazing highlights at just the age of 24, including his recent 73-point game -- his career-high and franchise record.

Of course, old-school NBA fans would say Doncic can get so many points up because of the lack of defense in today's game ... but Marion -- who played 16 seasons -- says the game is just evolving at a faster pace.

"Layups are almost becoming null and void," the 45-year-old said. "They're making a conscious effort to get shots up within two passes."

"We ran systems, we had sets [in our era]. It's a big difference when you just running to score."

Time to settle into the weekend, and what better way than to catch up on what we talked about TMZ???

Kicking things off on 'TMZ Live,' we talked about Kanye West's latest listening event for his new album, 'Vultures,' which didn't get released digitally ... but did get played live.

Of course, there were some controversial things said during the performance -- in lyrics, no doubt -- and some of it touched on antisemitism ... which got Ye censored at his own show.

Over at 'TMZ on TV,' it was the battle of the Brads at the Santa Barbara Film Festival.

Brad Pitt presented Bradley Cooper an award and heaped on praise for his A-list counterpart -- delivering some bad jokes to get his point across ... although, he looked great doing it.

Travis Kelce already hosted 'SNL,' and now ... his brother says he'd be down to give it a go. Jason Kelce talked to us on camera and communicated as much -- he wants his turn!

Check your local listings for when TMZ is on in your area or catch up on past episodes!

Before the world's greatest athletes get padded up and hit the grass of Allegiant Stadium to battle out in this year's highly anticipated Super LVIII in Las Vegas ... the hottest players on the Chiefs and 49ers showed off their bulked-up bods on social media, so get in the game and see if you can tackle who's behind the ballin' bod.

Showin' skin for the win ... Big-shot quarterback Kansas City's Patrick Mahomes took off his pads and posed for a shirtless shot, and in a position you've never seen 'em in before ... while San Fransisco's Trent Williams, Kyle Juszczyk and Christian McCaffrey showed off their game day-ready physiques!

Put your game face on and test your skills on these peak physical forms off the field!

New Hollywood bromance alert ... Glen Powell and Johnny Manziel are apparently buddies, because they partied their faces off together in the desert.

TMZ obtained video of Glen and Johnny hanging out last night at Casa Amigos Tacos and Tequila in Scottsdale, where Johnny Football had a VIP section.

Folks who were there say Johnny was already in the club when Glen showed up and joined the group.

We're told this wasn't a coincidence ... Johnny and Glen clearly planned to hang out, and their group of about a dozen were mostly hot chicks.

As you can see, Glen is chatting up a woman in one of the videos ... and we're told they stayed close throughout the night.

Johnny meanwhile, was talking to several different ladies ... and we're told there was no drama and everyone seemed to be in good spirits, with JM and GP partying for at least a few hours.

Glen was in town to play golf in Wednesday's Pro-Am at the WM Phoenix Open ... Johnny wasn't golfing, but he's never turned down a good time.

It's an interesting pairing ... Johnny won the Heisman Trophy at Texas A&M and Glen studied at the University of Texas at Austin before heading to Hollywood. The schools are big rivals, but it's more of a big brother-little brother type deal.

A 4.6-magnitude earthquake just hit L.A. ... and disrupted the hectic TMZ newsroom -- and while some of our staffers knew just what to do, not everyone hit the deck immediately.

According to the CDC ... the first thing to do during an earthquake is to drop to the ground before it knocks you down and crawl underneath a sturdy desk or table to protect yourself from falling objects.

If no such structure is available, get near some low-lying furniture and cover your neck and head. Then, hold on to your makeshift shelter until the shaking stops ... and pray for dear life!

Our own Charlie Neff stood out as a model earthquake expert by the CDC's guidelines ... dropping to the floor and rolling under her desk as soon as the building started to shake.

Charlie, an L.A. native, credits dozens of elementary school earthquake drills for preparing her for exactly this moment.

Her deskmate, Brendon Geoffrion, could probably have used a few more of those drills himself ... 'cause he decided to start wandering around and investigate the ceiling. Pretty much the opposite of the suggested guidelines!

Charles Latibeaudiere didn't hit the ground ... but nearly hit the ceiling with how high he jumped when the quake started. The scary shake definitely gave him a startle --- though he quickly regained composure and checked on everyone to make sure they were OK.

Another camera angle will give you a pretty good idea of how badly the building was shaking ... and our man John Brix knew what was up. Check him out on the right side of the screen, brown beanie on. He disappeared under the desk about as quickly as he could.

The ordeal definitely gave the whole office a jolt ... but don't worry ... everybody's fine, and nothing major seems to have been broken. So all's well that ends well!

Remember ... earthquakes can feel differently to everyone. One of our staff members said she thought someone was shaking her chair while another could've sworn the earthquake was just a heavy gust of wind.

If you're not sure ... the best thing to do is drop, cover and hold -- better safe than sorry.

Nike's "Just Do it" days are gone ... the Swoosh has a new and improved tagline, "TOUGH S***"

Okay, not exactly ... but this is pretty cool.

The day after Kobe Bryant was honored at Crypto.com Arena with just the 7th statue in the organization's ridiculously rich history, the sportswear giant hooked Vanessa Bryant up with a hoodie bearing her quote from the emotional ceremony.

Remember, Vanessa warned fans who might be thinking about complaining about the statue, saying, "Kobe picked the pose you’re about to see, so if anybody has any issue with it, tough s***."

The clip went viral ... and on Friday, Nike sent Bryant a 1-of-1 hoodie with the phrase.

"Lol. Thx for my new hoodie @nike 😃💜💛," Bryant said in the IG caption on Friday, posting a photo of the garment.

It's unclear if Nike plans to sell the design ... wouldn't be a bad idea -- they'd sell like crazy.

NLE Choppa has unlocked the code to prevent being bored in bumper-to-bumper Los Angeles --- stage a fan meet-and-greet on the spot!!!

TMZ Hip Hop obtained video of Mr. Cottonwood posing for pics and signing autographs for his adoring public from the backseat of a car in DTLA at the let out of the Lakers game last night ... after they got smacked by the defending champs Denver Nuggets.

The fans were geeked to get up close and personal and NLE's giving them more than enough reasons to stay excited in 2024.

On Friday, the Memphis rapper released his new "City Lights" single -- a tribute to his slain friend Deonte' "Tae Grape" Fletcher and hits the road later this year with A Boogie Wit da Hoodie for the 'Better Off Alone' tour in May.

Travis Kelce's ex, Kayla Nicole, might have had a falling out with Patrick and Brittany Mahomes ... but there's clearly still plenty of love between her and Jackson Mahomes -- 'cause TMZ Sports has learned they rubbed elbows in Vegas.

Eyewitnesses tell us ... Kelce's former flame -- who he dated for years before Taylor Swift -- and the Chiefs QB's younger bro came together at the Aria's High Limit Lounge around 10:15 PM Thursday, and they didn't leave each other's side for about an hour.

Sources with direct knowledge tell us this meetup wasn't planned -- it was more of a bump-into sitch, apparently -- although folks at the casino say it seemed coordinated, as we're told Kayla joined Jackson at the hotel's fancy bar after he'd been waiting around for a minute.

So, to some, it appeared Jackson might've been waiting for her.

Regardless, witnesses say Jackson and Kayla -- who became good friends during the years the model dated Kelce -- were warm toward each other while they talked, appearing jovial throughout their entire conversation ... which, we're told, was an engrossing one for both.

Of course, this is notable because Kayla has recently attempted to distance herself from Patrick and Brittany ... after the latter struck up a bond with Kelce's new bae, Tay Tay.

ICYMI ... Kayla unfollowed the famous couple online -- later explaining she did it to "protect" herself amid the tight end's new romance and his obvious continued bond with Patrick.

While Kayla seemingly shook off any connection to Mahomes/Kelce -- she's clearly still cool with Jackson, which makes sense based on what else we know.

Sources tell us there's no bad blood between any of the parties, and just because Brittany and Kayla's friendship fizzled after she and Trav ... there was never an expectation anyone else surrounding them would cut ties, including Jackson.

Trav, of course, has moved on ... and Kayla seems more than ready to do the same -- saying last month she's no longer interested in dating athletes, wanting a man with power instead.

On its face, her run-in with Jackson doesn't appear to have been romantic. But it is interesting Kayla is in Vegas at all right now ... suppose we'll see what happens.

Usher had a lot of celebs in his teaser promo ahead of his Super Bowl Halftime Show, including J Balvin -- but despite speculation he'll be in the mix ... we now know otherwise.

Sources with direct knowledge tell TMZ ... the Colombian singer will not be participating in the halftime show with Usher and co. come Sunday, even though a lot of people assumed that might be since he showed up in the short film that Apple dropped Thursday.

As it turns out ... we're told Balvin is actually in Brazil right now and will be performing at Carnival on Super Bowl Sunday -- so he'll be far away from the action going down in Vegas.

Not only is he technically booked on the same night of the SB ... our sources say his focus right now is on his upcoming international tour -- "Que Bueno Volver a Verte" -- that kicks off in April in Germany. Plus, we're told he's in the middle of rehearsing for Coachella too.

Now, if you're wondering why JB was even featured in the Apple promo to begin with -- which also had Ludacris, Lil Jon and Taraji P. Henson in there -- we have an answer.

Our sources say the point of the promo was to highlight Usher's biggest collaborators over the years -- and Balvin is one of those lately ... they have their song 'Dientes' together.

In terms of who will actually come out for Usher's performance ... it's almost a given that Luda and Jon will join him at some point -- and we first reported ... Alicia Keys is for sure going to be onstage with Ursher.

Another person we know has been spoken to about potentially coming on as a special guest in none other than Justin Bieber -- but it's unclear if he'll actually perform or not for now.

Alicia Keys will be a featured guest at Usher's Super Bowl Halftime Show, TMZ Hip Hop can reveal ... the latest development in the highly anticipated performance!!!

Sources close to the production confirm eyewitness accounts that AK rehearsed with Usher inside Allegiant Stadium on Thursday. Now that we know she'll be in the mix -- the first confirmed guest of his BTW -- all signs pointing to them doing one big song together.

Of course, we're talking about their 2004 mega duet "My Boo" -- which will undoubtedly be at least one of the tracks she performs.

The song topped the Billboard Hot 100 for 6 weeks when it came out -- and became the soundtrack to high school slow dances worldwide. It'll be interesting to see where the slow jam is included in the track list ... but he'll have plenty of time to squeeze it in.

Remember ... Usher negotiated to have a 15-minute set as opposed to the originally allotted 13 minutes ... 'cause it's the only way he knows how to rock, it seems. Considering how many famous collaborators Usher has had over the years ... it makes sense he needs the extra time.

His Apple Music commercial to promote the big event also heavily featured his "Yeah!" collaborators Ludacris and Lil Jon. Most everyone assumes these two guys will also be special guests during his performance ... although, they technically haven't confirmed yet.

As you know ... Usher has also been talking to Justin Bieber as a potential guest onstage -- although we haven't locked down whether the Biebs will actually be in attendance or not.