TMZ Sports - Page 50

Brett Favre wouldn't allow it ... neither would Barack Obama, LeBron James and Adrian Peterson -- but Eric Decker WILL let his kids play football when they grow up -- so says his famous wife.

We got Jessie James Decker out in NYC this week when she didn't seem to have one bit of concern over letting her sons strap on the pads.

"I'd be alright with it," the country singer tells TMZ Sports.

There is a catch for the Decker's kids -- a 4-year-old girl, a 3-year-old boy and a newborn baby boy -- Jessie tells us her ex-Broncos star hubby HAS to show them the way first.

A lot of celebs seem to disagree ... everyone from Obama to LBJ to even Rodney Peete have said they'd be hesitant to let their kids play the sport 'cause of the long-term health effects.

But, Jessie tells us she's banking on Eric's 8-plus years in the league to help prevent those.

"[Their] daddy knows enough to help [them] through the process of what's healthy and what's not."

No pressure ...

Kurt Warner and Marshall Faulk ain't gonna like this ...

The ex-head coach of the original 'Greatest Show On Turf' Rams says this year's version is better ... AND more explosive!!!

"They're close," Dick Vermeil tells TMZ Sports. "But, I really think you'd have to say that this team overall might be a little better."

Of course, there were three versions of the 'GSOT' Rams ... coached by Vermeil in 1999 -- and then by Mike Martz in 2000 and 2001.

But, they were all badass ... with Warner and Faulk leading the way -- and potential Hall of Famers like Isaac Bruce and Torry Holt streaking down the sidelines too.

Yet when Vermeil crunched the numbers for us ... and compared them to Jared Goff, Todd Gurley and the guys in L.A. now -- he says this 2018 team wins.

Greg Hardy believes he can be a 2-sport athlete -- and says he's convinced he's exactly what the New England Patriots defense needs to get back to the Super Bowl.

In fact, Hardy -- who's been dominating in MMA -- is making his case to Bill Belichick as to why the organization should take a chance on him.

"Mr. Belichick, I would be under your regime, boss man. Following orders, doing whatever you need me to do, baby. I'm the ultimate team guy!!"

Hardy's NFL career was sidelined after his 2014 domestic violence case. His conviction was overturned but many people believe he got off on a technicality. Hardy has maintained his innocence.

He hasn't played in the NFL since the 2015 season -- but insists he's ready to go RIGHT NOW.

30-year-old Hardy says he's had a major impact on every team he's played for -- and he'd do the same exact thing for the Pats.

He also believes Tom Brady could use the help on the other side of the ball -- and wants to prove he's worthy of another shot in the league.

How's THIS for a party trick!?!

Pro tricking athlete Bailey Payne -- who's landed huge endorsement deals with brands like Red Bull -- is known for his insane parkour moves and other viral vids.

So, when we spoke with B.P. leaving Poppy in L.A. on Monday night ... he gladly put on a show for us -- IN THE STREETS!! -- and fired off 5 straight flips like it was nothin'.

BTW -- Payne has a huge following on Instagram ... with more than a quarter-million followers on his page.

The 22-year-old tells us how he got into flipping for a living ... and shares a horror story that involves playing in traffic.

Which reminds us -- DON'T DO THIS AT HOME. SERIOUSLY!!!!

DON'T!!!!!!!

Ryan Lochte has clearly been spinning out of control because after his drunken door kicking incident on the West Coast, he caused a bad car crash on the East Coast the very same day ... TMZ Sports has learned.

Lochte was driving in Gainesville, FL Thursday at around 9:45 PM when he rear ended a car.

Lochte had just landed in Gainsville after flying from Orange County, CA, where he drunkenly kicked in his hotel room door at around 3 AM. Cops were called, came to the hotel but no arrests were made. Lochte settled up with the hotel and smoothed things over.

As for the car crash, according to the police report, Lochte was driving his Porsche to his home when he realized he was about to hit the car in front of him and slammed on his brakes at the last minute ... to no avail.

The driver of the car Lochte hit was taken by ambulance to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. Lochte was okay and cited for "careless driving." There's no mention of alcohol in the police report.

Lochte's lawyer, Jeff Ostrow, told TMZ Sports Friday, "Ryan has been battling alcohol addiction for many years and unfortunately it has become a destructive pattern for him." Ostrow says Lochte realizes he needs professional help and will seek it.

In case you were wondering whose side Drake's on for the UFC 229 Lightweight Championship bout between Conor McGregor and Khabib Nurmagomedov ... this video should clear it up.

The "In My Feelings" rapper seemed to appear on the stage out of nowhere during Conor and Khabib's public weigh-in Friday night in Vegas ... draped in an Irish flag.

After Conor flaunted his fighter bod for the cheering crowd, he got a hug from Drake before the ceremonial face-to-face with his opponent ... which got a little heated.

McGregor clearly violated Dana White's "no touching" rule before giving a high-kick in Khabib's direction. Khabib seemed unfazed. Both fighters made weight earlier Friday.

Saturday night can't come soon enough.

By the way ... even though it looked like Drake was just all of a sudden onstage supporting Conor, he actually walked in with him.

There must not have been any major Kentucky Basketball events for him to attend instead.

Conor McGregor's manager, Audie Attar, is going to make millions of bucks Saturday night ... as a 10 percenter!

We got Audie at a bar at the T-Mobile Arena in Vegas, and he scoffed at reports stating Conor is only raking in $3 mil from Saturday's Khabib fight. There are other reports that Conor's pulling in closer to $100 mil. Our intel is that it's somewhere in the middle.

Audie teases our photog with a Mayweather/McGregor 2 fight possibly in the future.

Terry Bradshaw says Pittsburgh REALLY crapped the bed when it came to Le'Veon Bell ... telling TMZ Sports the Steelers shoulda offered him WAY MORE MONEY!!!

The Steelers reportedly gave their All-Pro running back a three-year, $47 million deal -- and Bradshaw says it's no wonder why Bell spit on that offer.

"He's worth a lot. He's worth a lot more," Bradshaw tells us. "There's nobody like him in the NFL."

Don't worry too much, Steelers fans ... Terry says Pitt should still make the playoffs without the RB. But, even if they don't ... Terry tells us don't blame it on Le'Veon!!!

Colin Kaepernick's star power is bigger NOW than when he was playing football -- and he doesn't need the NFL's platform to be effective in his off-the-field mission ... so says T.I.

There are some people who believe without being on an NFL roster, people will lose interest in Kaepernick -- and he'll eventually become irrelevant and fade away.

But, not T.I. -- who appeared on "TMZ Live" and explained why Colin's more influential now than ever ... and suggested going back to the NFL might actually take his focus away from the social justice issues he's been tackling.

Greg Hardy's had a nice run to start his fighting career ... but it'll all come crashing down as soon as he stops "fighting bums" -- so says ex-UFC star Brendan Schaub.

We got the UFC fighter-turned-MMA analyst out at LAX ... and he pulled no punches when it came to breaking down Hardy's fight career -- both present and future.

"There's other guys I would market over Greg Hardy for a number of reasons," Schaub says.

"He's not young, he's fighting bums."

Brendan says he sees Greg's run -- which has already featured 3 devastating knockouts in 3 bouts -- coming to an end as soon as he gets to "those real killers in the UFC."

In fact ... Brendan tells us if Shawne Merriman and Hardy go toe-to-toe in a scrap that they both want -- Schaub says he's got "Lights Out" in the match.

If LeBron James ever decided to quit basketball and hit the cheerleading game ... here's what he'd look like ...

Meet Chris Ethridge ... a University of Louisville cheerleader -- who USA Cheer Team tells TMZ Sports is undoubtedly the LBJ of their squad.

So ... what makes him the G.O.A.T. on the cheer mat??

"Just work hard," Chris says. "Some natural talent, but be in the gym a lot. Work hard."

Still skeptical he's The Chosen One?? Check him out tossing a chick into the air and catching her with his LEFT HAND ...

Yeah, king status for sure.

BTW ... in case you were wondering who the Serena Williams of the squad is -- the team pointed her out to us too.

AND -- they also showed us a dude who can bench 405 pounds!!!!

Jake Paul says he's 100,000% positive his bro, Logan Paul, would wreck CM Punk in a real UFC fight -- and now he's firing back at Dana White, who's been trashing the idea all over town.

"Dana White's thinking small," Jake told us outside Craig's with his GF, Erika Costell.

Remember, after Logan fought KSI in a wildly successful pay-per-view fight on YouTube in August ... the social media star told us his goal is to fight in the UFC Octagon -- and he's dead serious.

Enter UFC honcho Dana White who immediately shot Logan down -- warning he'd get "hurt badly."

But, Jake says Logan's no punk bitch -- he's a real athlete with legit combat training.

"My brother's an athlete and has a wrestling background, 5th place at Ohio Division 1 state wrestling (in high school). Has boxed for a year now, will get another year of boxing under his belt before his next fight with KSI."

"Dana White, you might watch this, Dana. You're thinking small. I know you're about the money. Let my brother fight!!"

Marcellus Wiley says Eric Reid's collusion case against the NFL NEEDS to continue ... even though the embattled safety has been signed by a team, because the people deserve answers.

Reid is now a member of the Carolina Panthers, and some people wondered if he'd drop his part of the collusion case against the league now that he's back playing football.

We got Wiley out in Beverly Hills and asked him if Reid should consider playing nice with the league now that he's back, and Marcellus ain't having it.

"Eric Reid was a good enough safety to be signed before this. And, I just want to know to what extent and what degree did they try to collude or interrupt his services."

Marcellus' point seems to be clear ... that no matter if Eric and Colin Kaepernick get jobs again, the collusion case still needs to proceed, because we have to know if the league acted unfairly.

UFC's "Platinum" Mike Perry is so confident Conor McGregor will beat Khabib's ass on Saturday -- he went to a Vegas sportsbook and plunked down hundreds of dollars on the Irish superstar.

"I got Conor McGregor ... by very exciting knockout. He's gonna f*cking kill it," Perry told us.

And, he's backing it up with cold hard cash -- telling us he put a couple hundred dollars on a parlay that includes McGregor over Khabib.

We don't think there's anything wrong with a UFC fighter betting on another UFC fighter -- we just don't hear about it very often.

That's not the only money Perry is looking to make -- he wants a $50 MILLION fight of his own one day and tells TMZ Sports he's willing to step into the boxing ring to get it.

In fact, he's calling out Canelo Alvarez -- and he already has a plan to beat the boxing champ!

"Imma cheat. Imma elbow his ass!"

Khabib Nurmagomedov mauled and violently submitted Michael Johnson when they fought 2 years ago ... and now he's out for revenge -- as in, he wants a rematch.

Johnson -- who's beaten badasses like Tony Ferguson and Edson Barboza -- landed a few clean punches (and arguably stunned Khabib) back in 2016 ... but the fight was pure domination by Nurmagomedov.

So, logic dictates MJ steer wayyyyy clear of Khabib, right?

Wrong.

Johnson tells TMZ Sports he's dead serious about running the fight back ... and this time, Michael says, he'll win.

"When I fought [Khabib] I was a little too nervous about his wrestling and my feet weren't under me. I was throwing wild punches."

But, he's learned ... "I wouldn't be so keen on getting held, and things would be a lot different."

Conor McGregor's world domination continues.

If $50-100 million and an escort from Drake weren't enough, the UFC superstar now has an epic mural outside an Irish pub ... 5,000 miles from Dublin.

Jonas Never -- the street artist behind the (vandalized) LeBron James mural -- started the project earlier this week ... utilizing a brick wall outside O'Brien's Irish Pub in Santa Monica.

Jonas tells us the super realistic mural took him about 18 hours in total to paint over the course of 3 days.

The best part ... Jonas says Conor's biz partner got word of the painting and sent over several cases of the impossible-to-get Proper Twelve whiskey ... which they plan to crack open Saturday night during UFC 229.