TMZ Sports - Page 50

Emmitt Smith says if he were still playing today, he'd take a knee for the national anthem ... saying he's been a victim of social injustice despite being an NFL legend.

The Dallas Cowboys all-time leading rusher spelled it all out in a lengthy interview with the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, saying he wishes he'd been more vocal about racial equality when he played in the '90s.

"I have been a victim of it," Emmitt said of social injustice. "It’s not like I am talking because something happened to George Floyd. Something happened to me more than one time, a couple of times it happened right here in Dallas."

Emmitt didn't elaborate on the alleged racist incidents, but continued ... "I’m talking from experience, not something I read in a book and saw on CNN.”

Emmitt once famously took a knee at Texas Stadium in 2000 ... but it was to defend the Cowboys' midfield logo -- which had just been celebrated on by then-49ers star Terrell Owens.

The move cemented Smith as a Dallas icon ... and Emmitt says he wishes he had done the same thing when it came to protests during the anthem.

“Why not?" Smith said when asked if he'd kneel if he were playing today. "If I can defend the star, I definitely can defend the right for everybody to have equal justice."

Smith's son, EJ Smith -- a star H.S. football recruit who's set to play at Stanford whenever the Pac-12 kicks off again -- has already knelt for the anthem during his H.S. career, and Dad seems proud as hell of that.

In fact, Smith is advocating for more players to take knees ... and he's sending a strong message to Cowboys owner Jerry Jones to continue to let it happen.

"Jerry needs to cut it out," Smith said of the owner's previous stance that kneeling disrespected the flag. "He needs to cut it out. Don’t distort the message because of the flag. It is bigger than the flag."

United front from Conor McGregor and fiancee Dee Devlin in the wake of some serious criminal allegations in Corsica ... posing together in a waiting room in Italy.

Neither Conor nor Dee look bothered in the pics -- they still seem to be in vacation mode, despite the police investigation over an alleged attempted sexual assault earlier this month.

Worth noting ... the sign above the couple says (in Italian) they're in a waiting room at a doctor's office (an ear specialist). Hopefully, everyone's okay.

The McGregor family has been busy over the past few weeks -- French officials say the UFC star was detained and questioned over the alleged Sept. 6 incident.

Just the other day, Conor declared in a social media message that the allegations against him are "bullish*t" and that he refuses to pay a dime "to anyone coming at me with vicious lies."

Conor and his family -- including his children and his parents -- have been sailing around the Mediterranean on his yacht.

He was supposed to participate in a water bike race with the Princess of Monaco this past weekend but backed out due to his legal issues.

Awesome Chadwick Boseman tribute from NFL star Jarvis Landry ... the Cleveland Browns receiver rocked a pair of custom "Black Panther" cleats with the late actor's face on them.

Landry donned the pieces for the Browns' game against the Cincinnati Bengals on Thursday ... and they were clearly good luck, 'cause Landry's squad earned a much-needed win.

The cleats were pretty amazing ... they were all-black Nikes with no laces that featured spikes and an image of Boseman in his Black Panther costume.

"Chadwick Boseman 1976-2020" was also inscribed on the left shoe near Boseman's face.

Landry commented on the footwear just before he took the field in them Thursday night ... writing, "Rest easy" and adding an emoji of the "Wakanda Forever" arm sign.

Jarvis is just the latest sports star to pay tribute to the actor -- who died last month at 43 years old after a battle with colon cancer.

Patriots QB Cam Newton threw up the "Wakanda Forever" sign after a TD last week ... and in the MLB, several players -- including Braves star Marcell Ozuna -- did the same after home runs.

Browns fans gonna Browns ... even during a pandemic!

Check out this footage of a brawl in the stands at the Cleveland Browns vs. Cincinnati Bengals game on Thursday night ... where the combatants don't seem to care about COVID-19.

Unclear what started the incident at FirstEnergy Stadium in Cleveland ... but you can clearly see security working like hell to try and break things up as quickly as possible.

The silver lining ... everyone seemed to be wearing masks! So, at least there's that!

Only 6,000 fans were allowed into the stadium to watch the game due to social distancing policies in place -- and all 6,000 reportedly had to sign a "health promise" saying they would not enter the facility if they were sick.

The "pledge" also says fans will wear masks, social distance, etc. Wonder if it said anything about fighting?!

The good news ... the Browns players seemed to channel that fighting spirit on the field -- defeating the Bengals in a 35 to 30 victory.

Kroy Biermann says he doesn't give a crap what "uneducated" people think about his daughter, Brielle, sitting on his lap in a photo, and his wife's reaction is even harsher.

We got Kroy, Brielle and Kim Zolciak-Biermann Thursday at LAX, and asked them about the recent online backlash to Brielle posting a pic of herself sitting on Kroy's lap while celebrating his birthday.

The disgusting comments were pretty swift, and typical for the Internet, with trolls wondering if Brielle slept with her stepdad. Ya couldn't blame Kroy if he's pissed about it, but watch ... he's surprisingly calm and cool. Kroy told us he knows its just "ignorant" idiots with too much time on their hands.

Brielle, though, was still visibly heated, and told their haters to "get a f**king job." She also wanted everyone to know -- Kroy's an incredible man and father.

Remember, Kroy -- who married Kim back in 2011 -- filed paperwork 2 years later to legally adopt Kim's 2 daughters from a previous relationship.

"Right now, this is an absolute disgrace!"

That's N.Y. congressman Max Rose going IN on Knicks owner James Dolan ... saying the dude should sell the team ASAP -- and adding he believes even our TMZ Sports camera guy could do a better job!!!

"They don't make the playoffs. Nothing's happening," Rose told us in an angry rant on Capitol Hill in D.C. "Every year that they don't make the playoffs, New York City loses out."

"We lose a piece of our soul. Sell tomorrow. Sell today. Do it for the good of all of us, brother!"

Rose continued, "Look, the Knicks got to stay. Dolan's just got to sell. Drives the team into the ground, man! It's disgraceful!"

Of course, Rose's remarks now beg the question ... will Dolan go after a congressman?!?!

You'll recall ... James does NOT take criticism lightly -- and has punted multiple fans recently from Madison Square Garden, including a "sell the team" heckler back in 2019.

Seems Rose's comments could put him in perma-ban territory as well ... which would make for an incredible storyline -- given, you know, Rose is a decorated war hero in addition to a congressman.

MMA star Michael Chandler has officially signed with UFC -- and Dana White says he's flying the guy to Fight Island to be a backup fighter for the big Khabib vs. Justin Gaethje match.

For years, 34-year-old Chandler [21-5] has been widely considered one of the best fighters outside of the UFC universe. He's been fighting with Bellator for the last decade.

But, his contract ended and Dana pounced -- telling TMZ Sports he's super excited to have Chandler on board.

"Very excited about him ... now that I've got to know him a little bit, he's a great guy. I'm happy for him.

As for Fight Island, Khabib Nurmagomedov vs. Justin Gaethje is set for Oct. 24 at UFC 254 ... and if you know anything about Khabib fights, there's always a chance of someone pulling out at the last minute.

So, Dana is essentially using Chandler as Plan B.

"He will be training, he will be cutting weight and he will weigh in ... in case anything happens to Khabib or Justin."

Meanwhile, Dana says he's flying back to Yas Island in Abu Dhabi on Sunday to gear up for UFC 253 featuring Israel Adesanya vs. Paulo Costa.

"I predict [this fight] will be the fight of the year," Dana says ... noting the two stars match up perfectly for an action packed main event.

"It is impossible for this fight not to be incredible."

We also asked Dana how he felt about Israel's habit of creating an entertaining ring walk on the way to the octagon.

"I don't love it," Dana says ... "I battle with him every time we do it!"

"But you know what, it works for Israel."

Tyron Woodley is trolling Colby Covington before their fight on Saturday -- mocking CC's trademark MAGA hat with a red cap of his own.

"Make Racists Catch The Fade Again"

38-year-old Woodley's fashion choice was no accident. Colby -- who's 32 years old -- has been a very vocal Trump supporter who was a VIP guest at the president's rally Sunday in Henderson, Nevada.

Before that, Trump has thrown his support behind Colby ... inviting him to the White House, and calling Covington to congratulate him after his 2019 victory over Robbie Lawler.

Tyron -- the former UFC welterweight champion -- is NOT a Trump supporter ... and has been very critical of the president for years.

Politics aside, Tyron and Colby -- have been beefing for a very long time.

Covington is 15-2 as a pro, and is coming off a loss to current welterweight champ, Kamaru Usman. Woodley -- the former 170 lb. champ -- is 19-5-1 and also coming off 2 tough losses to Gilbert Burns and Usman.

They are former teammates who had a bad falling out and have been trying to settle their issues in the Octagon since 2018.

Terry Bradshaw says he's the undisputed Kris Jenner of his family's reality TV show ... but he still wants to double-check on his alpha status with his wife!!!

The 4-time Super Bowl champion joined us on "TMZ Live" Thursday and we asked him who comes off as top-dog on "The Bradshaw Bunch," his family's new show, debuting tonight on E!.

Ya gotta see his answer because it's amazing ... Terry tells us he's probably going to be the alpha, but then looks off-camera to make sure his wife Tammy approves!

Hilarious, TB. Just hilarious.

'Bradshaw Bunch' follows Tammy, Terry, their 3 daughters and their significant others ... living on the family's Oklahoma ranch. The show is following in the footsteps of "Keeping Up with the Kardashians" -- which, as you know, is ending next year -- and the NFL legend told us he's fully aware his fam might be coming along at the perfect time

Terry says this new 'Bunch' is gonna be chock-full of humor and good times ... 2 things the country needs right now. As for who's really the alpha?

HOW ADORABLE IS THIS?!?!?

An animal shelter in Texas was so grateful for the Dallas Stars' epic run to the Stanley Cup Finals this month ... it named four puppies after the team!!!

Meet Jamie, Benn, Kivi and Dallas ... four cute little pups who will forever be tied to the hockey team thanks to the heroics of the real-life Jamie Benn and Joel Kiviranta.

TMZ Sports has learned the shelter -- Operation Kindness in North Texas -- just made the names official ... and is now putting the dogs up for adoption.

Check out some pics of the doggos (plus a bonus shot of Dobby!) ... THEY'RE SO LITTLE!!!!!!!!!

As for the real-life Stars ... we're sure they're flattered by the naming -- but they've still got some work left to do in the playoffs to finish everything off.

Raptors president Masai Ujiri says he really struggled mentally in the days after the cop shoving video was released ... even though the footage completely exonerated him.

"This was very hard for me," Ujiri told the media Thursday ... "When the video came out, I didn't sleep for a few days."

So, what bothered Ujiru -- who was clearly shoved by a white cop TWICE for no reason in June 2019 while trying to get on the court to celebrate his team's championship???

Two things ...

First, Ujiri says the false allegations that he was the instigator of that incident really started to mess with his mind.

"[After the incident] you question yourself and as time goes on you begin to doubt yourself. I doubted myself and what really happened there."

Obviously, the video clearly shows Ujiri calmly trying to show his ID badge to the officer -- and it was the officer who CLEARLY overreacted by putting his hands on Masai twice.

But, Masai says his mind would run wild about the incident -- especially while he was alone in the NBA Bubble -- and he began to wonder if he was misremembering how things really went down.

Secondly ... when the video was released, he started feeling horrible for other Black people who don't have the money, power, clout and other resources to fight back against false allegations.

"That began to bother me as a person."

Ujiri says the incident has not made him hate white people -- he says there are many white families he would trust with his own kids.

Sad news ... Bill Belichick's mother, Jeannette, died Tuesday of natural causes -- multiple media outlets confirmed. She was 98 years old.

The Patriots legend was close with his mom ... and in an NFL Films documentary back in 2017, she famously said she knew Bill would get into coaching when he was just 2 years old.

Jeannette met Bill's father, Steve Belichick, in the 1940s when the two worked together at Hiram College in Ohio. They married in 1950 ... and had Bill in 1952.

The New England coach, who was raised by Jeannette and Steve in Annapolis, MD, has often credited his parents for his success -- which includes 6 Super Bowl titles with the Pats.

Bill has helped carry on his parents' legacy over the years ... he made a donation to Hiram College in 2015, 10 years after his father's passing -- which led to the school renaming parts of the campus after Jeannette and Steve.

Two of the couple's grandkids, Bill's sons Steve and Brian, now work with Bill on his New England staff.

RIP

Jerry Harris -- one of the stars of Netflix's cheerleading docuseries "Cheer" -- has been arrested for child pornography.

Jerry was arrested Thursday morning in Illinois and is being hit with a charge of production of child pornography ... according to Assistant U.S. Attorney, Joseph D. Fitzpatrick.

As we reported ... Harris was under investigation by the FBI for allegedly soliciting minors for sex back in May 2019. However, according to the criminal complaint, we're told he's been arrested because he allegedly asked teens for photos, which they sent to him.

According to the feds … the parent of 2 male children, both 14, claims Harris had contacted both of the boys online and “repeatedly solicited child pornography images and videos.” Harris allegedly began contacting the boys in December 2018.

The minors provided law enforcement with multiple screenshots of communications with Harris via Snapchat and text messages, along with evidence of apparent FaceTime calls with Harris.

According to the complaint, Harris was 19 at the time and the boys were 13.

The feds allege Harris also attempted to solicit sex with the boys on multiple occasions, including at cheerleading events.

The criminal complaint says Harris was interviewed on September 14 and admitted to engaging in continuous social media conversations with the minors that were sexual in nature, attempting to entice them into performing sex acts with him in person, and to soliciting and receiving child pornography on Snapchat from at least between 10 to 15 other individuals he knew were minors.

On top of that, Jerry's 2 alleged victims have sued him ... claiming he groomed them into sending the nude photos -- and they also claim he demanded sexual acts.

Jerry is scheduled to appear in federal court in Chicago Thursday afternoon for the child porn charge.

Colin Kaepernick is still in very high demand -- at least when it comes to his jersey.

Nike offered up a special limited edition CK7 jersey on its website early Thursday morning -- and within seconds, they were sold out!!!

The jersey -- called The Icon 2.0 -- commemorates the 4 year anniversary of Colin's kneeling demonstration in the NFL.

If the jersey looks familiar, it's because LeBron James wore the "triple back" uni on his way to Game 5 of the Lakers' playoff series with the Houston Rockets last week.

The jersey retails for $150 a pop -- but minutes after they flew off of the Nike shelves, they were being offered up on resale sites like StockX and eBay for 3 times the original price!

In fact, one sold on StockX for $400 already -- several more are being offered up in the $400 to $500 range.

It seems like the type of sales blitz that went down for the special Colin Kaepernick Air Force 1 sneaks back in 2019.

Colin posted about the special Nike jersey -- saying, "Four years ago, I took a knee to protest against systemic racism and social injustice. It was that day that the number on my jersey would come to represent something greater than football, something greater than me."

"Since then, the number 7 jersey has become a symbol for advancing the liberation and well-being of Black & Brown communities. Thank you for staying True."

Kaepernick seems to be doing well off the field -- his Nike merch is in high demand and he's been ranked as the top free-agent QB in the Madden 2021 video game.

Cleveland Cavs star Kevin Love says talking about his mental health may have saved his life ... revealing he nearly died during a particularly dark battle with depression if not for some help from some close friends.

"If it hadn’t been for a couple of my closest friends, I don’t know if I would be here today telling my story," Love said in an article he wrote for "The Players Tribune."

Love's battle with mental health issues is no secret -- he's talked about it for years. But, in the wake of Dak Prescott being criticized for talking about his own depression, seems obvious Kevin feels it's more important than ever to share his experiences.

In his article, Love gets candid about being "paralyzed with depression" while recovering from injuries during his time with the Timberwolves ... saying he barely left his apartment to hide his feelings from the outside world.

"The future started to feel meaningless," Love said ... "And when it gets to the point where you lose hope, that’s when the only thing you can think about is, 'How can I make this pain go away?'"

"I don’t think I have to say much more than that."

Love credits his closest friends for helping him through that dark time -- saying it was super important to feel like he could talk with other people about his struggles.

He emphasizes that it's important to know those battling mental health issues are not alone ... and encourages people in need to talk with others, seek medication and therapy if necessary.

"You would be amazed at how freeing it is just to talk to somebody, and tell them the truth about what you’re going through."

"If you’re struggling right now, I can’t tell you that this is going to be easy. But I can tell you that it does get better."

"And I can tell you that you are definitely not alone."

Pittsburgh Steelers lineman Maurkice Pouncey is expressing remorse over wearing a helmet tribute to a 17-year-old who was shot and killed by police ... saying he didn't know the whole story.

"I want to personally clarify what transpired this past Monday night in regard to having Antwon Rose's name on the back of my helmet," Pouncey says.

"I was given limited information on the situation regarding Antwon, and I was unaware of the whole story surrounding his death and what transpired during the trial following the tragedy."

Remember, on Monday the Steelers announced the entire team and coaching staff would honor Rose on helmets and sideline hats for the entire 2020 season.

Here's the explanation from the Steelers official team website:

"On the night of June 19, 2018, the car Antwon Rose Jr., who is black, was a passenger in was pulled over by the East Pittsburgh Police. While the driver was being handcuffed on suspicion of being involved in an incident that happened earlier that evening, a frightened Rose fled from the car. The cell phone video a bystander captured showed Rose running, and then you could hear gunshots and see as he was fatally shot in the back three times by a white East Pittsburgh Police Officer."

The "incident" that occurred earlier that evening was a drive-by shooting -- and the victim who was shot told cops Antwon was the trigger man.

The officer who shot and killed Antwon was later found not guilty of all criminal charges that were filed against him -- including 1st-degree murder.

Pouncey is clearly uncomfortable honoring a person who may have been involved in a drive-by shooting ... and says, "I should have done more research to fully understand what occurred in its entirety."

Moving forward, Pouncey says, "I will make my own decision about what to wear on the back of my helmet."

"Make no mistake, I am against racism and I believe the best thing I can do is to continue helping repair relationships between the police and their communities. System racism issues have occurred in our country for too long, and that needs to stop."

Pouncey's teammate Alejandro Villanueva made headlines this week when he decided NOT to honor Antwon -- instead writing the name of an Army Sgt. who was killed while serving in Iraq.

Villanueva is an Army Ranger and felt it was more appropriate for him to pay tribute to Alwyn Cashe, who died while rescuing soldiers from a burning vehicle that was rocked by an explosive device.