ESPN

Barry Melrose —considerado por muchos como el mejor analista de la NHL en la televisión— ha sido tristemente diagnosticado con Parkinson y se alejará de ESPN mientras lucha contra la enfermedad.

John Buccigross, personalidad de ESPN desde hace mucho tiempo, acaba de hacer el desgarrador anuncio hace unos minutos en X, revelando que Melrose estará fuera de las cámaras y pasará tiempo con su familia en el futuro inmediato.

"He trabajado con Barry en ESPN durante más de un cuarto de siglo", dijo Buccigross. "Cervezas frías y carcajadas en bares llenos de humo. Ingenioso, siempre llegaba a tiempo y es sin duda un gran tipo. Lo quiero y lo voy a extrañar".

"Wayne Gretzky en una vida dedicada al hockey", añadió.

Melrose jugó y entrenó en la NHL durante años, antes de empezar a desglosar partidos para ESPN a partir de 1996. Hizo una breve pausa en la cadena para entrenar a los Lightning, pero regresó poco después.

Desde entonces se ha convertido en un pilar de las transmisiones de la NHL, tanto así, que el comisionado Gary Bettman dijo el martes: "Hockey en ESPN no será lo mismo sin él".

"La gigantesca personalidad de Barry y su estilo característico han hecho nuestro juego más grande, más emocionante y más entretenido", dijo Bettman.

"Su amor por el hockey es obvio y contagioso. Y es imposible mantener una conversación con él sin una sonrisa en la cara".

Malika Andrews says a man has been terrorizing her and other ESPN on-air talent -- including Stephen A. Smith -- and things apparently got so scary ... she filed for a restraining order against the guy last week.

Andrews claims in court documents, obtained by TMZ Sports, that Ahmed Abubakar, a 41-year-old New Jersey resident, is the guy who has made her and some of her colleagues' lives a living hell for much of the past year.

She says Abubakar initially began messaging her on X in Sept. 2022 ... and while it at first seemed like actions from just an overzealous fan -- it turned into threatening and harassing behavior quickly.

She says it all grew even more disturbing when he somehow got a hold of her unlisted phone number over the summer and called her numerous times.

What's worse ... she claims Abubakar acted similarly toward Smith and "First Take" host Molly Qerim.

In fact, Andrews says Abukbakar was actually arrested in August for allegedly showing up to Qerim's Connecticut home unannounced.

In her temporary restraining order request, she also noted Abubakar had recently traveled to ESPN's Los Angeles facility looking to make contact with her, Smith and Qerim ... causing her to fear for her safety.

She asked a judge to order Abubakar to stay at least 100 yards away from her and others, including Smith and her fiance, ESPN reporter Dave McMenamin ... and hours after her filing, the TRO was granted.

The NFL got animated this weekend -- the shield teamed up with none other than Disney to broadcast a simultaneous version of a game that saw everybody reimagined as a toy.

Of course, we're referring to the Jags facing off against the Falcons in London ... the kickoff for which was super early. That doesn't mean Disney/ESPN wasn't ready with their big "Toy Story" skin, though -- as soon as the game started, their own cartoon stream was live.

It's exactly how it sounds ... basically, while the real game was playing out on everyone's TV, a different part of the screen was showing Disney's carbon copy universe -- where all the players were turned into toys and their on-field play was translating moment-for-moment.

The "Toy Story" stream wasn't on the main screen the entire time -- it sounds like they cut away to it during different parts of the match ... including replays/highlights, etc.

It was pretty cool to see, and the reactions online certainly reflected that ... as people were somewhat mesmerized by the technology -- not to mention all the other "Toy Story" characters being incorporated into the background and on the sidelines.

With that said, the new feature wasn't without its issues -- there were moments when the "Toy Story" would glitch up and/or not cut back to the main action in time ... and it PO'd some.

Still, it was way more good than bad ... and considering how much the "Toy Story" stuff got talked about, you can almost guarantee the NFL will try doing this again in the near future.

BTW, this isn't the first time the league has done something like this ... they've partnered with Nickelodeon in the past and had AR visuals superimposed over portions of the game -- including "slime" moments after touchdowns.

Vince Vaugh definitivamente estaba en "modo película" este fin de semana, en la previa de algunos importantes partidos de fútbol universitario, y se puede notar por las icónicas referencias que hizo durante su aparición en televisión.

El legendario actor fue la celebridad invitada el sábado en el programa de ESPN, "College Game Day", lo que tiene sentido considerando que hicieron el programa desde el campus de Notre Dame, donde la universidad estaba lista para enfrentar a Ohio State.

Vince se presentó con una chaqueta de Notre Dame mientras se sentaba en el escenario junto a Pat McAfee, Lee Corso, Desmond Howard y los demás. Por supuesto, la razón por la que llevaba esa chaqueta era importante, era por "Rudy".

De hecho, Vince protagonizó la famosa película deportiva allá por 1993, junto a Sean Astin y Jon Favreau. Por supuesto, interpretó al jugador universitario Jamie O'Hara, y se aseguró de que todo el mundo lo recordara cuando eligió a Notre Dame para ganar a los Buckeyes en directo por televisión.

Mira cómo lo dijo Vince: "Los Buckeyes son de verdad, siempre. Nunca puedes dudar de ellos. Dicho esto, yo jugué para Notre Dame. Lancé un pase. Si tuviera la mitad del corazón de Rudy, habría sido All-American en vez de elegir partidos aquí con ustedes".

Vince no terminó de soltar frases populares de sus películas, y dijo que otra de sus favoritas era "Wedding Crashers".

Esta no está exactamente relacionada con el deporte, pero sin duda capta la mentalidad de un campeón. De eso no hay duda.

Vince Vaughn was definitely in movie mode this weekend ahead of some big college football games -- and you can tell by the iconic references he made during his televised picks.

The legendary actor was the featured celebrity guest Saturday on ESPN's "College GameDay" ... which made sense considering they did the show from Notre Dame's campus, this as the university was set to face off against Ohio State.

VV showed up locked and loaded ... rocking a ND letterman jacket as he sat up on the stage alongside Pat McAfee, Lee Corso, Desmond Howard and the others. Of course, the reason him wearing the Notre Dame jacket was relevant was because of ... "Rudy."

Indeed, Vince starred in the famous sports flick ... way back in 1993, opposite Sean Astin and Jon Favreau. Of course, he played college QB Jamie O'Hara -- and made sure everyone remembered that when he picked ND to win over the Buckeyes on live TV.

Check out how Vince put it. He said, "The Buckeyes are for real, always. You can never doubt them. That being said, I played for Notre Dame -- I threw a pass. If I had half the heart of Rudy, I would have been All-American instead of picking games up here with you guys."

Vince wasn't done dropping famous lines from his movies, though ... he snuck a quick one in from another fan fave of his -- and that would be "Wedding Crashers."

Not perfectly sports-related, but certainly captures the mentality of a champion. No question about that.

Shannon Sharpe believes he was a pawn in Selena Gomez's game of hide and seek with the paparazzi ... laughing off his viral moment and playfully accusing the singer of using his celeb status to her advantage.

The Hall of Famer shared his side of Wednesday's infamous interaction outside Giorgio Baldi with former Cincinnati Bengals star Chad Johnson ... and he seems to think Selena's team concocted a master plan to make a mad dash to her car without getting captured by the cameras -- using Shannon as a distraction.

Sharpe reckons Selena's party realized he was famous at some point in the night ... so when he got up to leave, they followed right behind -- hoping the photogs would be too focused on the Broncos legend.

Of course, it only half-worked -- the guy interviewing Shannon bolted from their conversation mid-sentence to get a shot of Selena ... before eventually getting back to the ESPN host.

Shannon admits he doesn't know much about the former Disney actress ... but said had he known it was her at the time, he probably would've asked for a selfie anyway.

Shannon Sharpe is a Hall of Famer, Super Bowl champion, and on TV every day, but the NFL legend is learning a lesson in Hollywood hierarchy ... 'cause his convo with cameras outside an L.A. hotspot got derailed by Selena Gomez.

The former Broncos tight end was choppin' it up with photogs after his dinner Monday night at Giorgio Baldi ... when out of nowhere, the singer and actress showed up behind him to make her way to her car.

The camera guy quickly shifted his focus to Selena ... asking Shannon to hold his thought on Team USA's performance at the FIBA World Cup so he could get his shot of the former Disney star.

After securing his footage of Selena, the photog made his way back to Shannon and apologized for the interruption .... but the ESPN host took it like a champ, saying, "Nah, bro. You good."

The two finished their chat about sports ... with Shannon praising Deion Sanders' successful season with the Colorado Buffaloes and how he handled the death threats surrounding Colorado State player Henry Blackburn.

The clip is the perfect example of the levels of Hollywood fame -- Shannon's massive in the sports world, but Selena is undoubtedly the bigger fish overall. No one's immune to it ... except for maybe Beyoncé, Taylor Swift or Barack Obama.

Shannon Sharpe está en televisión todos los días, es parte del Salón de la Fama, es campeón del Super Bowl, pero a pesar de eso, la leyenda de la NFL está aprendiendo una lección de jerarquía en Hollywood ... pues su conversación con las cámaras fuera de un hotspot en Los Ángeles se descarriló por culpa de Selena Gómez.

El ex jugador de los Broncos estaba conversando con los fotógrafos el lunes por la noche, después de su cena en Giorgio Baldi, cuando de la nada, la cantante y actriz apareció detrás de él para dirigirse a su carro.

El chico de la cámara rápidamente cambió su enfoque hacia Selena, pidiéndole a Shannon que esperara un momento para comentar el rendimiento del equipo de EE.UU. en la Copa Mundial de la FIBA. Todo, para poder obtener una foto de la ex estrella de Disney.

Después de asegurar sus imágenes de Selena, el fotógrafo regresó donde Shannon y se disculpó por la interrupción, pero el anfitrión de ESPN se tomó todo el asunto como un campeón y le dijo: "No, hermano. Está todo bien".

Los dos terminaron su conversación de deportes, con Shannon elogiando la exitosa temporada de Deion Sanders en los Colorado Buffaloes y cómo manejó las amenazas de muerte que rodean al jugador de Colorado State, Henry Blackburn.

El clip es un ejemplo perfecto de cómo funcionan los niveles de fama en Hollywood. Shannon es súper popular en el mundo del deporte, pero Selena está a otro nivel. Nadie es inmune a ella... excepto quizás por Beyoncé, Taylor Swift o Barack Obama.

Prime Time's team is doing wonders for primetime television -- Deion Sanders and Colorado's comeback win over Colorado State had a ton of eyeballs on it ... becoming one of the most-watched regular season games in college football history.

ESPN -- which broadcasted the 43-35 double-overtime thriller -- just announced the record-shattering stats from Saturday night ... reporting a whopping 9.3 million viewers checked out the matchup.

Despite the game ending two and a half hours into Sunday morning on the East Coast, the outlet states it was the fifth most-watched regular-season matchup in the network's existence.

To compare, ESPN says CFB games in that time slot last season averaged 1.7 million viewers.

Coach Prime has helped skyrocket the program into relevance in his first season in Boulder ... with big names like Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, Offset, Key Glock and Lil Wayne showing up for Saturday's contest.

Colorado -- led by Deion's son, Shedeur, and Travis Hunter -- is 3-0 through three games ... and is currently ranked 19th in the nation.

Colorado State defensive back Henry Blackburn is on the receiving end of death threats after laying a controversial hit on Travis Hunter during Saturday's game ... and now, university police tell TMZ Sports an investigation into the hateful messages is underway.

Blackburn received a ton of heat for his massive late hit on the Colorado receiver in the first half of the Rams vs. Buffaloes matchup... which left Hunter sidelined for weeks with a lacerated liver.

Some looked at Blackburn's tackle as targeting ... including LeBron James, who went on X to say, "That was blatant and uncalled for IMO!"

Shortly after the tackle went viral on social media, the safety and his family were singled out by furious fans ... and we're told cops are taking the interactions seriously.

"CSUPD is aware of death threats against CSU football player Henry Blackburn, and the investigation is ongoing," a university police spokesperson told us on Monday.

"The police department will continue to monitor the situation, and the university is actively supporting the player and his family."

CSUI athletic director Joe Parker told Pete Thamel of ESPN he's concerned for Blackburn ... saying Henry never meant to hurt Hunter or anyone on the field.

"It's not what we teach or coach," Parker said. "We hope that the irrational vitriol directed at Henry stops immediately."

Ezekiel Elliott's got a new home and a new number ... the former Dallas Cowboys star said Monday he's signing with New England -- and he'll wear No. 15 when he gets there!!

Elliott announced the move on his X page just minutes ago ... writing, "One Five, all the way live ! @Patriots."

Adam Schefter reports Zeke's getting a 1-year deal with his new team that could be worth up to $6 million.

The tailback had been one of the best runners in the league after Dallas took him with the No. 4 overall pick in the 2016 NFL Draft -- leading the NFL in rushing yards twice and earning three Pro Bowl selections.

His production, though, waned over the past couple years ... and following Tony Pollard's emergence as a lead back in the 2022 season -- the Cowboys parted ways with Elliott this past offseason.

But the 28-year-old seems very open to the new start -- he even revealed Monday he's going back to the short hairdo he rocked during his rookie year in Dallas for the occasion.

"Blame it on the a-a-a-a-a-alcohol" -- Jamie Foxx, T-Pain, and now, Paul Pierce ... 'cause the Celtics legend is opening up on his infamous stripper video that led to his ESPN firing -- saying he was boozin' hard the night he accidentally streamed his scandalous party on Instagram.

Pierce gave Lance Armstrong the lowdown on the whole controversy in the latest episode of the hit Fox celebrity competition show, "Stars on Mars" ... and he downplayed the whole incident -- even though he lost his TV gig over it.

The Truth explained he was playing poker at his friend's birthday party ... and there was "a lot of alcohol" involved.

"It was a big whole controversy," the Hall of Famer told Lance. "I mean it wasn't nothing illegal, but it was just girls ... girls shaking their ass."

Lance somehow knew nothing about the controversy ... so when he asked how the video even saw the light of day, Paul had to admit it was all his doing.

"I accidentally did, my dumb ass."

Lance hilariously scolded the hooper ... saying, "Bitch, how old are you?!"

Pierce enlisted fellow contestant Tinashe to vouch for the harmfulness of the clip ... and she said it wasn't all that bad on its own, but context had her understanding why it was such a big deal.

Of course, ESPN quickly parted ways with Pierce after the video went viral ... but he's seeing the silver lining in getting the boot, saying, "Maybe I wouldn't be on Mars if that didn't happen. See? Everything happens for a reason."

D.J. Hernandez -- the older brother of Aaron Hernandez -- has been arrested after missing a court date in his ESPN brick-throwing case ... TMZ Sports has learned.

The 37-year-old former Division I football player turned himself into the Bristol Police Department at around 7 AM on Friday ... after authorities issued a warrant for his arrest following his no-show in court earlier this month.

According to police documents, D.J. was placed in handcuffs at the station ... before he was booked on a charge of failure to appear.

At one point during processing and fingerprinting, he took a mug shot ... where he was seen smiling ear-to-ear.

We broke the story, D.J. was originally hit with one misdemeanor charge of breach of peace in the case back in March ... after authorities alleged he threw a brick at ESPN's headquarters.

Officials accused D.J. of writing a note on the object that read, in part, "It's about time you all realeyes the affect media has on all family members."

"Since you're a world wide leader maybe you could lead how media and messages are delivered brick by brick. Clean it up!"

Doc Rivers says he has no idea if he'll ever return to an NBA sideline ... the coaching great tells TMZ Sports his future in the sport is completely up in the air.

We spoke with Rivers -- who was recently let go from his gig with the Philadelphia 76ers -- outside Jon & Vinny's in LA this week ... and he made it clear his main focus is enjoying his recently-cleared schedule.

"I don't know what I'm gonna do," Rivers told us. "I'm just gonna enjoy life."

The championship-winning coach was fired back in May after going 154-82 through three seasons in the City of Brotherly Love ... and if a coaching job isn't in the cards, there are rumblings he could put on the headset for a broadcasting role with ESPN.

Rivers didn't tip his hand on what's next for him ... but certainly seemed to be in great spirits as he deflected questions about whether teams were calling his line.

"I just enjoy life," he told us ... adding he was having a "phenomenal" summer.

The 61-year-old former NBA star is one of the most successful coaches in league history ... leading the sideline for the Magic, Celtics, Clippers and Sixers through the years.

Aaron Hernadez's brother, D.J. Hernandez, could get hauled to jail in Connecticut once again ... TMZ Sports has learned a re-arrest has been ordered for him after he failed to show up last week for a hearing in his ESPN brick-throwing case.

According to court records, D.J. was supposed to be at a courthouse in New Britain for proceedings on Friday ... though an official tells us he didn't appear.

As a result, the rep said, a re-arrest for D.J. was ordered.

We reached out to D.J. for comment on the situation ... but so far, we haven't heard back yet.

D.J. is currently facing one misdemeanor charge of breach of peace in the case ... after authorities accused him of throwing a brick at ESPN's headquarters back on March 23.

During the alleged incident in Bristol ... cops say D.J. -- Aaron's older brother and a former Division 1 football player -- attached a note to the object which read, in part, "It's about time you all realeyes the affect media has on all family members."

"Since you're a world wide leader maybe you could lead how media and messages are delivered brick by brick. Clean it up!"

D.J. was also hit with criminal charges in a separate incident that authorities said happened just days prior to the one in Bristol. In that case, D.J. was arrested after being accused of leading cops on a wild car chase after they attempted to pull him over for a routine traffic stop.

D.J., though, reached a deal with officials in April to close out that case ... pleading guilty to one count of failure to drive in a proper lane and one count of failure to use traffic control signals. In exchange, prosecutors dropped the other charges against him -- which included reckless driving and engaging police in pursuit.

Dick Vitale has to go under the knife once again ... the legendary college basketball commentator just announced he needs two more surgeries on his throat this summer, but believes he'll be ready to go by basketball season!

"Rec’d some bad news, but when I realize it is minor to what some face daily I will fight to recover. Dr Zeitels acclaimed vocal cord surgeon has informed me my past issues on my vocal cords have returned," the 84-year-old tweeted on Thursday.

"I must have 2 surgeries this summer-1st July 11 need ur prayers."

FYI, Dr. Steven Zeitels is arguably the most renowned vocal cord surgeon in the world ... who has not only operated on Vitale in the past (in February 2022), but he's also cared for some of the biggest names in music and entertainment.

Unfortunately for Vitale, he'll have to rest his voice (no talking) in preparation for the July 11 surgery, and for 6-8 weeks after the procedure.

It's unclear when the second surgery will take place.

Despite the uncertain timetable for recovery, Vitale says the doc told him there's a good chance he'll be ready for the start of the college basketball season in the fall.

"That part is so frustrating as I feel trapped not being able to express myself," Vitale said. "The positive news Dr Z is optimistic to have me ready for my 45th yr on ESPN."

Of course, Vitale's been through a lot medically over the last few years. In 2021, he received two cancer diagnoses. Thankfully, after chemo and other treatments, Dickie announced he was cancer-free in August 2022.

Vitale -- who's been the voice of college basketball for decades -- returned to the broadcast booth in November 2022.