TMZ Sports - Page 50

It didn't take long for NFL receiver Kalil Pimpleton -- one of the stars of "Hard Knocks" -- to find new work with the New York Giants ... and he tells TMZ Sports he can't wait to join his new team and hit the ground running.

The 23-year-old former Central Michigan standout's experience with the Detroit Lions was one of the main storylines of this season of the HBO series ... but when it came time to cut the roster down to 53 players, Pimpleton was one of many who were cut at the end of training camp.

We spoke with the fan favorite about the Lions going in a different direction ... and he says he remained positive throughout the situation.

Kalil says he quickly switched his focus to the next opportunity ... and as it turns out, that came after a workout with the G-Men on Thursday.

Kalil says his dream remains the same -- he wants to be on a 53-man roster in the NFL ... but until then, he will do whatever it takes to help his teammates with his role on the practice squad.

Pimpleton tells us he believes "Hard Knocks" helped put a spotlight on his character and work ethic ... which led to his fresh start in NY.

Serena Williams -- the greatest woman to ever step foot on a tennis court -- has played the last match of her career ... after losing in the third round of the U.S. Open.

Friday's matchup was an epic thriller ... with her opponent, Ajla Tomljanović, taking the first set, 7-5, but Serena bouncing back in the second with a 7-6 (7-4) comeback.

Unfortunately for Williams, the magic ended there -- she fell 6-1 to Tomljanović in the third.

Serena was emotional in her final post-match interview ... tearing up as she thanked her parents for their leadership so early in her career.

Williams says she wouldn't be Serena "if there weren't Venus" ... giving a special tribute to her sister

The GOAT also thanked her fans ... saying, "It's been a fun ride. It's been the most incredible ride and journey I've ever been on in my life." Serena seemingly kept the door open on a return to the court ... saying it's possible she could compete again.

It was a monumental run for the 23 Grand Slam winner -- with celebs like Tiger Woods, Russell Wilson and Ciara, Spike Lee, Zendaya, Mike Tyson and more showing up for support.

Williams finishes her career with seven Australian Open victories and seven Wimbledon titles.

Serena also won the U.S. Open tourney six times ... and the French Open three times.

Williams has been the #1 ranked women's player for a large part of her career.

Williams is one of the the most influential tennis player to ever live ... and it was evident in the praise she received throughout her last dance.

Jane Fonda has a lot of people rooting for her, after just revealing she's been diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma.

The 84-year-old Hollywood legend made the announcement Friday, saying she's already started chemo treatments, and that she feels very lucky, as it's treatable and about 80% of people diagnosed survive.

In true and incredible Jane fashion, she also took a moment to bring awareness on the importance of health care and as an advocate for it to be affordable to everyone, saying, "Almost every family in America has had to deal with cancer at one time or another and far too many don’t have access to the quality health care I am receiving and this is not right."

Jane says she'll be doing chemo for 6 months, and is handling the treatments quite well ... letting everyone know she won't let the diagnosis interfere with her climate activism.

She says, "We also need to be talking much more not just about cures but about causes so we can eliminate them. For example, people need to know that fossil fuels cause cancer. So do pesticides, many of which are fossil fuel-based, like mine."

Continuing, "We’re living through the most consequential time in human history because what we do or don’t do right now will determine what kind of future there will be and I will not allow cancer to keep me from doing all I can, using every tool in my toolbox and that very much includes continuing to build this Fire Drill Fridays community and finding new ways to use our collective strength to make change."

She finishes with a call to action, "The midterms are looming, and they are beyond consequential so you can count on me to be right there together with you as we grow our army of climate champions."

Jon Gruden is hoping to get one more chance at leading an NFL team, and his former player Andre Rison says he deserves that opportunity ... telling TMZ Sports he would not defend the coach if he truly believed he was not a man of character.

The former Raiders coach recently opened up about the email scandal that led to his departure in Las Vegas ... saying his words were "shameful," but hoping his mistakes wouldn't permanently keep him out of the league.

Rison -- who played for Gruden on the Raiders in 2000 -- tells us he believes his old coach is sincere about his regret and accountability ... and says if he were in charge of a team right now, he'd be giving Jon a call.

"No one is God," Rison said. "For some reason in today's time, everybody think they're God now because social media and whatever other platforms that they can voice their opinions."

"God gave him the gift to coach and it's up to him and God if he repents, and forgives for his negatives and his faults and his defaults, I have no problem with it."

Rison says he knows firsthand Gruden is not racist ... adding, "For him to be a racist, if he was a racist, he darn sure gave a lot of black athletes chances and opportunities to put food on the table for their families."

Gruden has been out of the league since 2021 ... when his emails including homophobic and racist language were made public.

Rison says Gruden should get the benefit of the doubt.

Kanye West is back to taking shots at his family on Instagram, targeting Kim and the rest of the Kardashians in a flurry of posts that touch on everything from where his kids go to school to labeling himself, Scott Disick, Tristan Thompson and Travis Scott "c** donors."

Ye put up a bunch of now deleted posts Thursday night, including a text exchange with Kim where Kim begged Kanye to stop, writing, "From my mom- PLEASE ... Tell him to please stop mentioning my name. I'm almost 67 years old and I don't always feel great and this stresses me to no end."

That didn't phase Ye, who replied, "Y'all don't have so so over my black children and where they go to school. They will not do playboy and sex tapes. Tell your Clinton friends to come get me. I'm here."

Kanye recently opened up his Donda Academy, and apparently believes his kids should attend the academy for school. He's clearly also taking shots at Kim's sex tape and her and Kylie's posing for Playboy years ago. At one point, he even revealed his porn addiction ruined his family.

However, Ye wasn't done there ... he also posted the names of Travis, Tristan and Scott -- who all have kids with Kardashians -- and the caption, "Calling my fellow c** doners. We in this 2gthr."

He also took shots at Pete Davidson, who got Kim and Kanye's kid's initials tattooed on his neck, and who Kim recently split from, saying, "Ask Pete how those tattoos of my kids doing in the trauma unit."

The series of Instagram posts is just another attack Ye has laid out this week on social media. He also called out GAP and Adidas for allegedly leaving him out of business meetings and copying his designs.

Purdue Football player Chris Jefferson was the hero of the team's defense, but it didn't come without a nasty price ... as evidenced in the massive pile of puke he produced after scoring a pick six.

Check out the video, Jefferson intercepted a pass for the Boilermakers late in the game Thursday against Penn State. He takes it 72 yards for a score ... and it's clear to tell he gave it his all once he hits the sidelines.

Jefferson's stomach unleashes a fury of liquid. Joking about the incident after the game, Jefferson wrote, "I been tryna eat too healthy all week."

The good news ... the score gave Purdue a 31-28 lead over Penn State, but the team would go on to lose 35-31 after a late touchdown from PS.

Serena Williams can absolutely close out her career in fairytale fashion -- so says ex-tennis star Tommy Haas, who tells TMZ Sports he believes she's no longer the underdog in the U.S. Open.

Williams -- considered the greatest women's tennis player of all time -- is calling it a career at the conclusion of this month's major tournament in New York ... and most didn't give her much of a chance to go out with a win.

But, after she beat No. 2 seed Anett Kontaveit on Wednesday night, Haas told us at LAX on Thursday he now thinks Serena could possibly be the favorite to earn the trophy.

"She's looking very good," the one-time No. 2-ranked men's tennis player in the world said. "I think now it's a matter of if she's feeling good physically. I mean, obviously, she's feeling great mentally."

"It's going to be tough to beat her."

Haas also spoke with us about the court advantage the 40-year-old has received -- everyone from Tiger Woods to Bill Clinton to Zendaya has showed up to cheer her on -- and he noted it's all going to be tough for her opponents to overcome.

"Just being on court, seeing how the crowd is loving it, pushing her, motivating her," Haas said, "Anything's possible in those moments."

Austin McBroom and AnEsonGib are both focused on beating the brakes off each other next weekend ... but they've also got an idea of who they wanna face next -- telling TMZ Sports they're going after KSI and Jake Paul, respectively.

McBroom and Gib are the main fight at the Social Gloves 2 event at Banc of California Stadium on September 10 ... and stopped by the TMZ office earlier this week to talk some serious trash.

Gib says his plan is to "dismantle" McBroom next Saturday and then go for the best ... who he considers to be the Problem Child right now.

Of course, Gib and Jakey P already met in the ring in 2020 ... when both guys were still pretty inexperienced fighters. Paul came away with the TKO win in the first round.

As for McBroom, he says it's only a matter of time before he gets a piece of KSI ... who after his two recent victories, claimed he'd be interested in taking the winner of the Social Gloves bout.

"Oh that fight's gonna happen," McBroom said. "After this, after he sees that easy work, for sure it's gonna happen."

Dionne Warwick's got no hard feelings towards the broadcaster that was accused of mistaking her for Gladys Knight on live TV ... callin' it an honest mistake!!!

Dionne tells TMZ ... she doesn't think Chanda Rubin, who caught some serious flack for the flub, would've intentionally mixed the two up.

The singer's buying the broadcaster's explanation for what went down, too.

In case you missed it, Dionne was front and center on TV during the U.S. Open, but was instead referred to by Chanda and Mary Carillo as Gladys -- obviously, the Internet had a field day.

Chanda took to Twitter to put out the flames -- saying she saw Gladys while looking at the court and announced the celeb, instead of looking at her monitor that showed Dionne ... and the singer finds that to be a reasonable excuse for the mix-up.

Of course, not everyone's sticking to Chanda's story ... with many thinking the time between Dionne popping up on screen and Gladys getting name-dropped is telling.

Ex-NFL player Stanley Wilson Jr. has been arrested once again for breaking into a home -- this time, he is accused of taking a bath in an outdoor fountain after ransacking the place.

LAPD sources tell TMZ Sports the former Detroit Lions cornerback broke into a $30 million Hollywood Hills property on two separate occasions -- most recently on August 24, when he is accused of moving and damaging items.

During his second alleged break-in at the residence, we're told Wilson took a bath in the outside fountain with soap he found from inside ... causing $5,000 worth of damage.

LAPD arrested Wilson both times -- he was charged with two felony counts of vandalism and one count of second-degree burglary

We're told there are no ties between Wilson, the property, or the homeowners.

This isn't the first time Wilson broke into someone's home ... in June of 2016, he was shot in the abdomen while trying to break into a Southwest Portland residence while naked. He was also arrested again in Portland in January 2017 for allegedly walking around a neighborhood naked.

One month later, Wilson was sentenced to 10 days in jail for the 2016 incident ... plus three years probation and mandatory drug treatment. He also had to pay restitution for damages to the home and write an apology letter.

Just five days after his sentencing, he was arrested again in February of 2017 for breaking into another home while naked.

Wilson Jr. -- the son of former Bengals RB Stanley Sr. -- was a 3rd-round draft pick by the Lions and played two seasons before tearing his Achilles in 2008, ending his NFL career.

Arizona Cardinals cornerback Antonio Hamilton suffered second degree burns all over his lower body ... in what he described as "literally a freak accident" in a kitchen.

According to NFL Network insiders Ian Rapoport and Mike Garafolo, the 29-year-old football player was cooking a meal recently ... when he accidentally spilled hot oil all over himself.

Hamilton says he suffered burns on his thighs and feet in the incident ... but he was grateful it wasn't much worse.

"I had an accident that could've ended up deadly for me & my family," Hamilton said on his Twitter page. "But instead I got the short end of it by having my feet severely burned."

The Cardinals put Hamilton on the reserve/non-football injury list Thursday -- which means he's out of Arizona's lineup for at least the first four weeks of the season while he recovers.

It's a super unfortunate break for the defensive back -- because he had just crushed Cardinals training camp and earned a starting job. In fact, Hamilton called it "the greatest camp of my career."

No word on how much time Hamilton will ultimately miss ... but he said in his social media post Thursday, "God spared me to only have these injuries."

Hamilton broke into the NFL as an undrafted free agent in 2016. He bounced around the league for several years after that, but latched on with the Cardinals last season.

Donovan Mitchell's days in Utah are over -- the NBA star has been traded to the Cleveland Cavaliers in a huge deal on Thursday.

ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski tweeted out the bombshell news just minutes ago -- the face of the Jazz franchise is officially on the move to northeast Ohio.

Mitchell -- who was drafted by the Nuggets out of Louisville -- spent all 5 of his seasons with the Jazz after being traded on draft night ... where he established himself as one of the game's best young stars.

The Cavs are sending Collin Sexton, Lauri Markkanen, Ochai Agbaji and three first-round picks to Utah ... and the rights to swap two other future picks in the deal.

The Knicks had been floated as a potential landing spot for Spida ... but their dreams were officially squashed after the Cavs -- who made the play-in tournament last year -- sealed the deal.

Utah appears to be in complete rebuild mode -- the team traded away Rudy Gobert, a 3-time Defensive Player of the Year, and now have shipped Donovan out of town as well.

Singer and actress Cassie Ventura celebrated her 36th birthday big ... as in Texas big inside a new Houston nightclub with some super famous pals.

The vibes and drinks seemed to be flowing Wednesday at "Finish Your Champagne" and Cassie was spotted having a ball with a bubble gun, the perfect party weapon of choice.

Plenty of Cassie's famous friends turned out to help her pop the cork off the bottle ... which included NBA stars James Harden and Ja Morant, as well as industry pals Terrence J, Pleasure P, J Mulan, Alaric J. Klaos and Serayah.

A newly-single Ne-Yo was also spotted in the building ... weeks after his estranged wife revealed their marriage was done for good following cheating claims.

The R&B superstar did look unbothered though, especially as the DJ dropped plenty of Ne-Yo songs onto the party ... allowing for the birthday girl to bask in the moment.

Speaking of marriages, Cassie got married back in 2019 to Alex Fine ... who wasn't in the mix for his wife's birthday bash.

He did, however, wish her both a happy birthday and 3rd anniversary on Instagram, so all appears to be good.

Russell Wilson's wife, Ciara, showered her man with love, calling him her "greatest inspiration," after the QB received a massive 9-figure contract extension from the Denver Broncos!!

Ci tweeted, "Baby @DangeRussWilson, I am so proud of you! You’re the most dedicated and hardworking person I know! It’s been so beautiful to see you become a Bronco!"

"So excited for the journey ahead!" she added

Wilson -- who was a part of a blockbuster trade that sent him from the Seahawks to the Broncos -- agreed to a five-year, $245 million extension on Thursday ... which includes $165 million guaranteed, according to ESPN's Adam Schefter.

Russ tweeted Thursday morning before his extension was announced, "ALL THE GLORY TO JESUS!!! #HEisKING."

The couple has fully leaned into being a Bronco. In fact, Ciara teased that Russ got her an adorable puppy as a Mother's Day gift, and fittingly, they named it "Bronco."

The pup joined Russ, Ci, and their three children in a new $25 million home in Englewood, Colorado in April ... which sits on 5.34 acres..

The Wilson's new 20,060 square foot crib has four bedrooms, 12 bathrooms, a nine-car garage, and a large fireplace.

Even before they became local homeowners, the power couple made an immediate impact in the Denver community, visiting patients at the Children's Hospital in Colorado.

It's nothing new for Russ ... who has been one of the most charitable athletes in the world since joining the NFL in 2012 -- whether it be in Seattle or the Mile High city.

New Orleans Saints starting safety Marcus Maye was arrested on Thursday and booked on a charge of aggravated assault with a firearm, TMZ Sports has confirmed.

According to jail records, Maye was booked into Jefferson Parish Correctional Center in Louisiana at 12 AM ... and is still in custody.

The allegations against the 29-year-old are unclear, we're working on it.

Maye just signed a huge contract with the Saints back in March, inking a three-year, $28.5 million deal. He spent the first five seasons of his NFL career with the New York Jets, starting 60 games and recording 6 interceptions.

New Orleans had listed Maye as its starting strong safety in its pre-Week 1 depth chart.

Story developing ...

While Serena Williams continued to shock the world with her incredible play at the U.S. Open, TV announcers showed celebs who came out to support the G.O.A.T., including Dionne Warwick -- the only problem -- broadcasters mistook her for Gladys Knight.

And, it was just as cringe as it sounds.

Mary Carillo and Chanda Rubin were behind the mic for ESPN ... when during the third game of the first set, two women appeared on screen between points.

Chanda: Got some more stars ...
Mary: Gladys Knight ...
Chanda: Gladys Knight ...
Mary: Hello!

The problem ... it wasn't Knight, but 5-time Grammy Award winner and fellow legend, Dionne Warwick. In fairness, Gladys was in the building, too.

Shortly after the match, Chanda went to social media to explain what happened during the flub.

"Too bad I was initially looking at the court (where Auntie Gladys was in the stands) and not our program monitor that showed Ms. Dionne... mistake was immediately corrected.🤦🏽‍♀️," the former player-turned-broadcaster clarified.

It wasn't the first time a star has been mistaken for another celeb during this year's U.S. Open. During Serena's first-round match, a short video posted online went viral after the poster confused actress and advocate Laverne Cox for Beyonce.

On Wednesday, there were a ton of other stars in the building, too ... including Tiger Woods, Gigi & Bella Hadid, Spike Lee, Anna Wintour, Seal, La La Anthony and many more.

They were all in the building to watch Serena ... who after winning on Monday, went on to defeat #2 seed Anett Kontaveit. Williams now advances to the third round, where she'll face Ajla Tomljanović.

As for the flub, neither Dionne nor Gladys have addressed it.