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Jon Gruden's loss could be Vince McMahon's gain ... 'cause "Last Chance U" star Ronald Ollie is getting an invite to join the XFL.

Ollie became a fan favorite on the Netflix docuseries ... which followed the East Mississippi Community College football team for the first 2 seasons.

The guy clearly has talent ... he showed that on 'LCU' and went on to ball out at Nicholls State from 2016-2018, earning 13.5 tackles for loss, 5 sacks and 2 fumble recoveries.

Ollie earned a Southland All-Conference honorable mention in 2018 ... which was enough to land him an invite to Oakland Raiders training camp earlier this season.

But, the 'Chance' star is getting another chance if he wants it ... 'cause XFL commissioner Oliver Luck has formally extended an invitation for Ollie to join the new league's player draft pool.

BTW -- Some notable ex-NFLers have already accepted their invite -- from Ryan Mallett to Landry Jones.

The 23-year-old's brief stint on the Raiders was documented on HBO's "Hard Knocks" ... which showed him skipping medical meetings and getting cut very quickly.

U.S. doubles tennis star Mike Bryan pretended to load his racket like a gun and shoot a line judge over an incorrect call ... and the guy was fined $10,000 for the gesture.

It all went down Sunday at the U.S. Open ... when Bryan challenged an "in" call during his doubles match against Federico Delbonis and Roberto Carballés Baena.

Turns out, Bryan was right to protest -- the replay showed the ball was out -- and as part of his celebration for the successful challenge, he pointed his racket at a line judge and pretended to shoot.

Bryan was immediately hit with a code violation for unsportsmanlike conduct ... with chair umpire Mariana Alves telling him, "I don't think that was appropriate."

The U.S. Open later fined 41-year-old Bryan $10k ... with U.S. Tennis Association spokesman, Brendan McIntyre, telling the New York Times, "We thought it warranted that amount."

When contacted about the gesture and the fine by the NY Times ... Bryan released a statement apologizing for the act.

"We won the point and the gesture was meant to be playful. But, given the recent news and political climate I understand how my gesture could be viewed as insensitive."

Bryan added, "I promise that I will never do anything like this again."

Lonzo Ball is admitting he KNEW his $500-per-pair Big Baller Brand ZO2 Prime sneakers were faulty -- and would explode on him during games -- but he continued to hawk 'em anyway.

"Those ZO2s I was playing in, they was not ready," Ball admitted on Josh Hart's 'LightHarted' Podcast.

Ball -- who was playing for the Lakers during the BBB shoe era -- says he would bring 4 pairs of the shoes to games because he knew they would break and he had to switch them out every quarter.

"If you literally had my shoes from those games, they just exploded, bro."

If you recall, BBB initially offered the ZO2 Prime shoes to the public for $500 a pair in 2017 -- but later announced they were scrapping the original design in favor of the ZO2 Prime Remix shoe, a completely different sneaker.

It seems obvious now why BBB made the change. Unclear if any of the faulty shoes were actually sent to customers.

When asked why he wore them -- even after he knew they were defective -- Ball explained, "Because they were my shoes, I had to debut 'em."

Ball says he actually HATED wearing the shoes and implied that his game suffered as a result.

"And, it's crazy," Ball says ... "Right when I switched my shoes, magically, I got good again."

Ball says he kept the secret about his crappy shoes to himself to protect the brand.

Things eventually went south with the Big Baller Brand -- with Lonzo's manager later telling customers to throw their shoes in the trash ... and Lonzo himself eventually covered up the BBB tattoo he had on his arm.

Still, LaVar Ball claims the brand is still alive and he's looking to relaunch at some point in the future.

Colin Kaepernick to Odell Beckham?!

Yeah, it happened during a private workout session back in July ... and it's all on video.

Colin and Odell connected at UCLA for some QB, WR work --  they ran routes, Colin worked on throwing on the run and flexed his arm strength.

And, get this ... Odell showed up to the workout wearing a Colin Kaepernick #7 jersey.

Kap has been trying to showcase his skills recently in the hopes an NFL team will give him a workout. So far it hasn't happened, but he's still trying.

Just this week, Houston Texans WR DeAndre Hopkins vouched for Kaepernick during an interview with GQ magazine -- claiming the guy is clearly good enough to help an NFL team win.

Hopkins says he was upset when the Texans passed over Kap when they needed a QB in 2017 following an injury to Deshaun Watson.

The promotional tour for the massive Andy Ruiz vs. Anthony Joshua rematch is officially underway -- the fighters faced off in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday ... guaranteeing another slugfest.

The reality is ... this was no trash-talking, expletive-filled, racist, ugly sideshow (a la Mayweather vs. McGregor), these guys showed nothing but class and respect for each other.

Of course, Ruiz upset Joshua at Madison Square Garden to win all of his championship belts when they faced off in June -- and Andy says he's motivated to show the world it was no fluke.

Ruiz essentially said he doesn't want to be known as a 1-hit wonder -- he wants to solidify a legacy as one of the greatest heavyweight fighters of all time!!!

Of course, Joshua says he's determined to get his belts back ... and warns Ruiz he won't get the benefit of home country advantage this time around.

So, how will the fight go? Ruiz put it best ... "Two big heavyweights punching each other in the face."

BJ Penn says he tried to WALK AWAY from the man he fought outside of a bar in Hawaii last month -- but claims the other guy snapped and attacked, leaving BJ to defend himself.

The UFC Hall of Famer is finally speaking out about that crazy incident outside of the Lava Shack on the Big Island where footage published by TMZ Sports showed Penn in a fist fight with another man. Penn was knocked down in the fight but eventually got up and smothered the man.

So, what happened? Penn told his side of the story to TSN ...

"I’m at a concert going to meet a friend that I’ve known since we were really young kids and I’m over there and an acquaintance of mine, he gets mad about something, you know something was said or it was an old past thing and then he wants to fight about it," Penn says.

"I was like, 'No, no, I don’t want to fight, we’re friends, everything is cool.' He even walks outside and I’m thinking, this is silly I’m going to go get him, calm him down and get him to come back inside and enjoy the concert, we’ve got some other friends there."

"I walk outside to go give the guy a hug and then he hits me twice and I’m like, 'No, calm down!'  I try to give him another hug and he hits me a couple more times and he hits me again."

"Finally my adrenaline picked up because he was hitting me so much so I said, 'Go ahead and hit me again.'"

Penn continues ... "I thought the guy would eventually just say forget it BJ, whatever, walk away, but he hit me -- and he hit me good and knocked me down -- and then when I got back up he tried it again and I just had to defend myself and that’s what you see in the second video."

Penn claims the videos were "edited" to cut out moments where Penn was trying to hug the other man. TMZ Sports did not cut a single frame out of the clips. We posted what we were able to obtain in its entirety.

During the TSN interview, Penn also touched on the OTHER recent bar fight he got into outside of a strip club on Oahu in June, another incident captured on video.

"There was another video on TMZ of me holding somebody on the ground ... I’m in the middle of a custody case right now and from that last one I already got a lot of flak from the custody evaluator, from their lawyer of course, from my lawyer."

"The last thing I want to do is get into any type of trouble, my custody case, me seeing my kids depends on all this stuff and it’s just really strange how things just happen and you never see this kind of stuff, but here I am in a custody case and this happened twice."

Kevin Federline claims Britney Spears' father abused one of his grandsons, which Kevin reported to cops ... and now there's an active investigation.

Law enforcement sources tell TMZ the alleged incident went down on Aug. 24 at Jamie Spears' home in Ventura County. We're told Federline claims his 13-year-old son and Jamie got into an argument, and at some point Jamie allegedly put hands on him.

Our sources say Jamie broke down a door to get to his grandson and grabbed him once he was in the room -- however, we're told there were no visible bruises or injuries to the child. Still, the incident was serious enough to Kevin that he reported it the next to day to the Ventura Co. Sheriff's Department. We're told investigators have already interviewed witnesses and turned over their findings to the D.A.'s Office.

The D.A. will decide whether to charge Jamie.

As we first reported, Britney and Kevin just formalized a shift in their child custody agreement -- he now has their 2 boys 70% of the time. We're told that's been their informal arrangement for a year now, but they filed docs to make it official with the court.

That filing came just 3 days after Kevin went to cops about the alleged abuse.

It appears Chris Jericho's AEW World Championship belt got SNATCHED ... 'cause the wrestling superstar claims his shiny new hardware was stolen over the weekend.

The 48-year-old filed a police report with Tallahassee PD in Florida on Sunday ... saying he landed at the airport and headed over to Longhorn Steakhouse for some food ... and somehow along the way the belt went missing.

It's confusing ... here's what the police doc says.

"The limo driver shuttled the victim to Longhorn for dinner. The victim remained at Longhorn while the limo driver returned to the airport. The victim had taken the wrong luggage from the airport and the driver took it back to the terminal. When the driver picked up the victim from the restaurant, the belt was missing."

It's unclear if the stolen (or lost) belt was the new AEW belt Jericho won on Saturday ... but it's likely it was.

According to the report, responding officers searched the limo and airport for the belt ... but couldn't come up with it.

In the report ... the victim is listed as Christopher “Jericho” Irvine, W/M, 11/9/70″

We've reached out to Jericho for comment ... so far, no word back.

Cris Cyborg has found a new home -- the MMA superstar has signed with Bellator after parting ways with UFC.

"Hey Cyborg Nation fans, I'm very excited to announce that I'm going to be partnering with Scott Coker and Viacom -- I'll be fighting Bellator," the fighting legend says.

"And, you guys know I have a lot of girls that want to fight at 145 pounds and this means you're going to have a lot of fights per year and I'm very happy about that."

The 34-year-old had clashed with UFC honcho Dana White earlier this year -- and White had said he was going to release Cyborg from her contract.

"I will not match any offers, she is free and clear to go to Bellator or any of these other organizations and fight," White said back in August ... adding, "We’re out of the Cyborg business."

Well, Bellator wasted no time snatching her up ... and it seems pretty obvious Cyborg -- who's 21-2 as a pro -- will get an immediate title shot against Julia Budd, the reigning featherweight champ.

Budd is 13-2 with her only 2 career losses coming from Ronda Rousey and Amanda Nunes.

Seems Cyborg has her eye on more after that, 'cause she says she's hoping to be one of the most decorated fighters EVER once she arrives in Bellator.

"My goal is going to be the only female fighter holding four different major tiles in the same division and I know with you guys I can do that. And, I just want to say, Cyborg Nation, Welcome to Bellator!"

The Logan Paul vs. KSI rematch is FINALLY SET -- it's going down at Staples Center on Nov. 9 ... and this time, it won't be counted as an amateur bout, this is a PRO fight!!!

Remember, the two social media superstars clashed in England back in August 2018 and fought to a draw in a pretty solid match on YouTube Pay-Per-View.

The fight did so well, even UFC honcho Dana White praised the guys for attracting a pretty big audience ... not an easy feat for people with no real fighting experience.

Clearly, the folks at DAZN took notice -- because they just inked a deal with Paul and KSI to stream the rematch on their app. DAZN is the same company that signed Canelo Alvarez to a 5-year, $365 MILLION deal last year.

As for the actual fight, KSI and Logan will NOT wear headgear this time around -- and it will be promoted by Matchroom Boxing, which is owned by boxing super promoter Eddie Hearn.

Hearn represents huge stars like Anthony Joshua and Daniel Jacobs.

In other words, this is the real deal.

TMZ Sports spoke with Logan over the weekend ... and he said he might literally kill KSI in the ring in "under 90 seconds."

"It's gonna be aggressive. It's gonna be violent. If you're not into violent sports, don't watch."

As for Logan's bro, Jake (who fought KSI's little bro, Deji, on the 2018 fight card)  -- he's been teasing a return to the ring as well but, so far, no opponent has been announced.

Kevin Hart is on the mend this morning after going under the knife Sunday ... less than 24 hours after he injured his back in that horrific car accident.

A source connected to Kevin tells us doctors completed successful back surgery on Kevin Sunday evening. Another source told us the comedian is expected to remain in the hospital for at least a couple of days while he recovers.

TMZ broke the story ... Kevin was miraculously able to walk away from the accident early Sunday morning on L.A.'s treacherous Mulholland Highway -- with assistance from a bodyguard -- but was rushed to a hospital with what cops called a "major back injury."

Jared Black, the man who was driving Kevin's vintage Plymouth Barracuda at the time of the accident, was pinned in the crushed vehicle and also seriously injured. He was airlifted to UCLA Medical Center and we're told he's surrounded by family members as he also recovers.

Cops say Jared's fiance, celebrity trainer Rebecca Broxterman, was pinned in the backseat ... but firefighters pulled her from the wreckage without major injuries.

Police in Texas say at least two active shooters in two separate vehicles -- one of which is a mail van -- are firing rounds at drivers on the road ... and 2 people are already dead.

The Midland Police Department are warning motorists between their city and neighboring Odessa to stay indoors, as someone in a gold and white Toyota truck and another person in a USPS postal van are shooting folks at random from within the vehicles. Authorities are saying the mail van was hijacked by at least one of the suspects.

The mayor of Midland, Jerry Morales, told the media that at least two people have already been killed and and possibly up to 20 others are injured, so far. The two suspects are said to have initially gone on a shooting spree at Home Depot near Odessa.

They are still at large, and clearly armed and dangerous.

One university has warned students to stay indoors as police deal with the situation.

Story developing ...

Dwight Howard is breaking his silence on Shaq's most recent barbs ... firing back at the big man's criticism by saying, "It's irrelevant to what I'm trying to do."

The Big Diesel has taken a couple shots at the newest Lakers center the past few days ... he shaded Howard to TMZ Sports on Monday and purposely misspelled his name in a tweet Wednesday. It's a beef that's more than 10 years old.

Howard finally responded in an Instagram Live post late Wednesday ... saying, "It's okay, I'm not here to talk about Shaq. What he said, what he did. It's irrelevant to what I'm trying to do."

"So, don't talk to me about what anybody else said about me. My focus is on one thing."

The two NBA superstars have had a history of going at each other's necks ... it all seemed to start in 2007 in an All-Star Game dance battle -- and continued with a feud over the "Superman" nickname.

Seems Shaq's all kinds of down for keeping the beef alive. As for Dwight, pretty clear the dude just wants to move on and focus on basketball.

It was like 1985 all over again when Dolph Lundgren and Carl Weathers came face-to-face in Venice Beach this week ... and we could only think one thing -- RUN, APOLLO!!!!!!

Remember, a juiced up Ivan Drago beat Apollo Creed to death during that exhibition bout in "Rocky IV" ... why didn't you throw in the damn towel, Rock!?!

But, here we are 34 years later ... Apollo died after secretly knocking up a woman who had a kid named Adonis ... and the rest is history!

There were rumors Carl Weathers was upset at Sylvester Stallone when the Rocky franchise came back with Creed ... and Apollo Creed wasn't a part of it -- but all of that seems to be overblown.

Of course, Lundren's Drago character DID come back to train his own gigantic Russian son in "Creed II" ... a movie that made more than $200 mil at the box office.

Carl is now 71, Dolph is 61 and they both still lift ... they ran into each other at the legendary Gold's gym in Venice!

Bug - 1, JaVale McGee - 0

The 7-foot-tall L.A. Lakers center posted hilarious footage of his battle with the flying insect in his driveway on Tuesday ... but he's insisting this wasn't no regular bug. Suuuuure.

"Got in a fight today w the biggest flying insect I’ve ever seen!" JaVale said. "I know you guys are gonna say 'your 7foot! Dont be scared of a bug!'"

He continued ... "Well this wasn’t some ordinary bug! This bug had timberlands on, and two cuban links... he was his own man and probably had a family to feed."

The vid is hilarious ... seriously, the guy BOOKS IT when the flying bug attacks.

Rory McIlroy got sick and tired of watching his Pro-Am partner Justin Timberlake getting stuck in the sand ... so he stopped down and gave the pop star one of the coolest personal lessons ever!!!

It all went down this week in Switzerland ... where Rory and JT were teamed up to compete in the Pro-Am event at the Omega European Masters tournament.

Timberlake is a VERY serious golfer (he's a 2 handicap) who has a reputation for being one of the best celebs on the links. So, when Rory decided to give him a little 1-on-1 bunker clinic, you can see Justin was all ears.

And, when it came time for Rory to demonstrate how a bunker shot SHOULD be hit ... man, HE ALMOST HOLED IT!!! Incredible.

Timberlake brought the whole family to Switzerland -- and was seen playing around with his kids on the course ... good times for everyone!!!