Football

Another monster entry into the NFT space -- this time, it's gaming legend Tfue, who's dropping his very own collection ... and hoping to cash in like Rob Gronkowski.

The 23-year-old superstar -- one of the most popular Esports athletes ever -- is launching his own "NFTfue King of Gaming" collection.

NFTs -- aka non-fungible tokens -- are the newest rage in digital collectibles, built on blockchain technology.

In other words, you can buy, sell or trade them like you would a baseball card ... and the blockchain attached to each NFT essentially certifies the token as authentic (and not a knockoff).

But, back to Tfue ... who tells TMZ Sports he's stoked about his NFT collection and thinks collectors will snatch them up in record time.

The collection features custom animated videos, which Tfue considers to be legitimate works of art.

"They're pretty sick. They're not like, just like a picture like normal people usually do. We put a lot of time into this, a lot of effort into it. We wanted to make sure it was right. It's gonna come out pretty sweet. I'm pretty excited!"

Tfue says he was inspired by Rob Gronkowski who recently launched his own NFT collection and reportedly made $1.7 MILLION in sales!

In fact, Tfue says he bought one of the Gronk NFTs and hopes the NFL star will return the favor!

Deshaun Watson's attorney claims accuser Ashley Solis -- who identified herself as "Jane Doe #1" on Tuesday -- demanded $100,000 in "hush money" before filing her lawsuit.

... and Watson's attorney claims he has the emails to prove it.

Solis was the first accuser to file a sexual misconduct lawsuit against the Houston Texans star back on March 16. She used a pseudonym to protect her identity.

She came forward in a news conference alongside her attorney Tony Buzbee on Tuesday and spelled out her case against Watson -- at one point explaining, "People say that I'm doing this just for money. That is false. I come forward now so that Deshaun Watson does not assault another woman."

But, Watson's attorney Rusty Hardin says this is absolutely about money -- claiming Buzbee approached one of Watson's reps back in February in an effort to "quietly settle the allegations the month before he filed the first lawsuit."

Hardin says he has emails sent by Buzbee associate Cornelia Brandfield-Harvey to one of Watson's representatives on Feb. 9 spelling out the demand.

"My client’s demand is $100,000" ... and ... "This offer remains open until Friday of this week."

Hardin claims Deshaun's representative pushed back against the demand in the following email response.

"We don’t believe that the alleged facts show that Deshaun did anything wrong with regards to Ms. Solis, but we are nevertheless happy to continue the conversation around a reasonable settlement figure because we believe he can learn a lesson about having put himself in this situation."

Buzbee's response to that ...

"We made a legit demand. You rejected it. We won’t be making another or bid against ourselves. We also won’t be having an extended dialogue about why you think your client did nothing wrong or how you want this to be a 'learning' experience for your 'high profile athlete,' as you refer to him. This is Houston, Texas. Perhaps you should find him a lawyer here so you can apprise both you and your client of the landscape here and who you are dealing with. Talk soon."

The lawsuit was ultimately filed on March 16 -- and 21 women have filed similar lawsuits against Watson since then.

A University of Tennessee student claims a linebacker on the football team badly injured her 6-month-old kitten ... and now, cops are investigating.

The player at the center of the probe is Aaron Beasley -- a former high school star who just wrapped up his sophomore season at UT.

Beasley played in 8 games in 2020 -- but is touted as a potential future star with a high ceiling.

The problem ... a UT student claims Beasley committed some horrific acts of violence against an innocent kitten -- injuring the animal so badly, he, required a trip to the emergency room.

The cat's owner described the situation in a GoFundMe page set up for her pet on Thursday.

"I came home this morning to find my 6 month old kitten under a dresser hiding and not letting anyone touch him."

"When I picked him up he screamed and couldn’t walk, come to find out my roomates boyfriend had hit and kicked him, locked him in the toilet bowl, and held him upside down by his tail."

"We rushed Nugget to the emergency room and he has brain damage and will now have a hard time walking, he has a bleeding hemorrhage on his kidney caused from internal bleeding from being kicked, clots in his bladder, and he is currently in an oxygen tank."

The Knoxville Police Dept. confirmed to WBIR that it received a report of animal abuse involving another student's cat and has opened an investigation into Beasley.

We reached out to the Univ. of Tennessee for comment but so far no word back.

As for the kitten, Nugget's GoFundMe has already raised more than $4,300 to help with the cat's medical care.

Minnesota Vikings cornerback Jeff Gladney -- the 31st overall pick in the 2020 NFL Draft -- was arrested Monday for an alleged domestic violence incident, police confirm.

The Dallas Police Dept. says 24-year-old Gladney is accused of getting physical with a 22-year-old woman during an April 2 argument over "content in a cell phone."

Cops tell TMZ Sports, "The altercation escalated, at which time Mr. Gladney physically assaulted the victim. Mr. Gladney left the location prior to officers’ arrival."

A warrant was issued for Gladney's arrest for "Assault – Family Violence."

According to an arrest affidavit obtained by CBS 11 News, the woman told police Gladney freaked out over something on her phone ... and at one point he tried shoving her face close to the screen to trigger the FaceID feature to unlock the phone.

The accuser claims Gladney escalated the violence ... hitting her with "closed fists causing pain in the side of her ribs, in the stomach and the back, and hitting her open hand across the head."

The woman says the violence continued at a nearby Dallas apartment complex -- where Gladney allegedly "began strangling [her] by the neck, which impeded her breathing for approximately five seconds."

After that, she told cops Gladney "grabbed [her] by her hair while the vehicle was still moving and dragged [her] across the ground."

The woman told officers she somehow escaped and ran into a nearby vehicle, despite the fact she didn't know anyone inside the car.

According to the affidavit, the responding officer noticed injuries to her head, ears and torso.

Cops say Gladney turned himself in to authorities on Monday, April 5 -- and he was booked at the Dallas County Jail where he posed for a mug shot and bonded out a short time later.

Kane Roush -- a high school football legend who beat out Joe Burrow for one of the area's top awards -- was shot to death in Ohio over the weekend and cops are now on the hunt for his killer.

He was only 25 years old.

Roush was one of the top running backs in West Virginia in 2013 --constantly making headlines as the leader of the Wahama High School White Falcons.

He led the school to a Class A state title in 2012 -- and famously beat out Joe Burrow for the highly coveted "Gridiron Glory" Player of the Year award in 2013 ... something Burrow even joked about to TMZ Sports right before he was drafted in 2019.

Roush went on to play at the college level for the Div. II University of Charleston Golden Eagles in West Virginia ... earning 2 TDs, 176 yards rushing and another 132 yards receiving during his redshirt junior season.

But, tragedy struck on Easter Sunday -- the Meigs County Sheriff's Department responded to a call regarding shots fired in Pomeroy, OH around 4:52 AM and found Roush on the ground with multiple gunshot wounds in his back, according to the Daily Sentinel.

Officials say Roush crawled to a neighbor's residence about 20 yards away to ask for help ... and was still responsive as cops arrived on the scene.

Roush was transported to a nearby hospital, where he ultimately succumbed to his injuries.

Sheriff Keith Wood believes the incident may have happened after some sort of argument. Officials are currently investigating the incident.

Roush was a human highlight reel on the gridiron -- he had 48 total touchdowns during his senior season at Wahama ... including more than 1,600 rushing yards and another 720 yards receiving.

The UCWV football team tweeted their condolences on Monday ... saying, "Extremely saddened by the loss of one of our own. Rest Easy, Kane."

Sam Darnold has a new home ... the Jets just officially gave up on their 2018 1st-round pick, sending him off to Carolina in a huge, pre-NFL draft trade.

The Panthers announced the move Monday afternoon ... explaining they traded 3 picks -- including a 6th-rounder this year and 2nd and 4th-rounders in 2022 -- for the QB.

Carolina's team site described the deal this way ... "The Panthers landed a first-round quarterback, without waiting to see if one fell to them with the eighth overall pick in this year's draft."

Darnold was originally taken by NY with the #3 overall pick in the 2018 NFL Draft ... but he was largely a disappointment in his 3 seasons with Gang Green, recording a 13-25 record.

The 23-year-old struggled with injuries -- missing at least 3 games in all 3 of his 3 three seasons in the league -- as well interceptions, throwing 39 in just 38 games.

Darnold, though, did flash talent from time to time ... and as a guy who could have easily been the #1 overall pick in '18 -- it seems Carolina is more than willing to take the gamble.

As for what it means for the two teams going forward ... the Jets will almost certainly take BYU star QB, Zach Wilson, with the #2 overall pick later this month.

Things Lincoln Riley is good at ... coaching football, drawing up plays and winning games.

Things the OU head coach is bad at ... brisket -- clearly.

The 37-year-old Sooners head man showed off his Easter dinner on social media Sunday ... and the meat he cooked was so dry, some questioned whether it was actually pumpernickel!!

Check out the photo Riley shared ... the meat was cooked to a crisp -- and the poor dude was ROASTED over it!!!

The comments were relentless ...

"Dear Lord, please see what real TX brisket looks like and never cook a brisket again.  Ever."

"If you drop your phone in water you could put it in a bag with this brisket to dry it out."

"This mf loves football so much he eats it for dinner."

"Did you pull that out of Jesus’s tomb?"

"I don’t know why everyone is roasting this. That pumpernickel looks delicious."

For his part, Riley seemed to defend the cooked cow in the wake of the backlash ... writing to one critic, "Haha ask @BwylieSTRONG if it was legit....."

That guy, OU's Director of Sports Performance Bennie Wylie, had Riley's back ... adding, "Unbelievable... Brisket tacos on point!"

Good news, bad news for Chiefs fans ...

The good ... hey! Patrick Mahomes' family is absolutely adorable!!!

The bad ... despite having surgery TWO MONTHS AGO, the K.C. star quarterback's foot/ankle is still in a protective boot.

Mahomes' fiancee, Brittany Matthews, posted an Easter Sunday family pic featuring herself, Patrick and their newborn daughter ... and it created quite the stir in the NFL world.

You'll recall ... Mahomes injured his toe at some point in the Chiefs' playoff run last season, and the 25-year-old needed surgery just a few days after K.C.'s Super Bowl loss to repair the damage.

Most thought Patrick would be good to go for workouts at this point ... but Matthews' photo shows the quarterback still clearly has quite a bit of recovering left to do.

Thankfully, Mahomes said on Twitter late Sunday he's not worried about anything regarding the injury ... despite still being in the boot.

"Lolol yeah," Mahomes said in response to Pat McAfee asking about the injury. "all good."

The Chiefs are set to begin Organized Team Activities in just 2 weeks ... and seems unlikely Patrick will be good to go by then.

With the season 5 months away though ... probably not the time to be sweating things too much in K.C. yet.

The Houston Police Department says it's now launched a criminal investigation into Deshaun Watson ... this after a complainant formally filed a report against the NFL star on Friday.

Cops did NOT say the nature of the allegations against the QB ... and it's unclear if they're related to the claims of sexual assault that Watson is facing in a multitude of civil lawsuits.

In a statement Friday, though, Watson's attorney implied they may be.

"We welcome this long overdue development," Rusty Hardin said. "Now we will learn the identity of at least one accuser. We will fully cooperate with the Houston Police Department."

A police investigation into Watson does NOT mean he's facing criminal charges at the moment.

The HPD will investigate the allegations and likely then turn over its findings to prosecutors, who will then need to make a charging decision. That all could take weeks, if not months.

The interesting part is now that law enforcement is involved ... will the NFL step in and put the Houston Texans star on the commissioner's exempt list and bar him from playing games until the probe concludes?

The league had previously said it was already investigating the QB over the allegations made against the 25-year-old in the civil cases.

As we reported ... Watson is accused of being sexually inappropriate with at least 21 female masseuses in at least four different states over the past few years.

The little girl who suffered a brain injury in the Britt Reid car crash incident in February has still NOT been released from the hospital ... but she's starting to make improvements.

5-year-old Ariel Young was in a coma for more than a week when Britt Reid -- son of K.C. Chiefs head coach Andy Reid -- allegedly slammed his car into the vehicle she was in during a Feb. 4 crash.

Young woke up from her coma in mid-February -- but doctors diagnosed her with a traumatic brain injury and expect a "long road to recovery."

Young's family, through her GoFundMe page, provided an update on her health over the weekend.

"Ariel remains in the hospital, she is getting a little better each day but she still has a long road to recovery."

As we previously reported, cops say Britt Reid admitted to drinking alcohol and taking Adderall before smashing into 2 parked cars that were pulled over on the side of a highway on-ramp.

Cops announced they were investigating the crash but so far no formal charges have been brought against Reid.

Young's family is clearly unhappy with the pace of the investigation -- saying, "Britt Reid is out everyday living his normal life while [Ariel] cannot, please don’t let her story be forgotten."

"Court will take a long time and we don’t know what will be the outcome of it all. So please keep sharing her story and praying for her and the family. Thank you."

Colts fans should probably just abandon all hope of an Andrew Luck comeback -- 'cause the QB is telling T.Y. Hilton he's having a BLAST in retirement.

Hilton -- who just signed a 1-year, $10 million deal with the Colts -- is still pretty close with his old quarterback ... despite the fact Luck hung up his cleats in 2019 at the age of 29.

There have been rumblings that Luck could change his mind and rejoin the Colts in the near future -- but Hilton told the media on Thursday the chances of that happening are slim to none.

"He's just enjoying his vacation," Hilton said with a big ol' smile ... "I probably have to stop calling him for a bit. He might make me want to retire!"

A reporter asked if he thinks Luck's "vacation" will be a permanent one -- to which Hilton responded, "Oh, permanent! He's having the time of his life! He's kinda making me jealous. So we’ll see."

In other words, Luck is wasting away in Margaritaville ... enjoying his family and friends without musclebound killers trying to take his head off every day.

Oh, and also worth mentioning Luck made more than $109 MILLION in contract money during his NFL career ... not including endorsements!

So, it's not like he'll be hurting for cash.

Dak Prescott's offseason just keeps getting better and better ...

Just weeks after the NFL star inked a MASSIVE 4-year, $160 MIL contract with the Dallas Cowboys ... he bro'd down with 2 country music stars on an epic fishing trip in Louisiana!

The 27-year-old joined up with Jimmie Allen and Chris Young, as well his brother Tad and his Cowboys teammate La'el Collins, for the adventure ... and it looked fun as hell!

Allen -- whose "Best Shot" tune is STILL crushing it on country music radio -- documented the trip on his IG ... showing he and the guys getting after it at a huge crawfish dinner Tuesday night.

They then hit the boat Wednesday morning for some fishing ... and after some jabs over who caught the most -- Jimmie showed off their haul, and it was a TON of fish!

The guys then posed for a pic on the boat ... and it seems like good times were had by all.

By the way, we know what you're thinking ... and yeah, Dak's ankle looked OK to us.

Urban Meyer knows talent when he sees it -- and the Jacksonville Jaguars coach was so impressed by an 11-year-old girl who scored her 1st TD, he invited her to training camp!

Meet Keilani Contreras ... who made history Saturday when she caught a TD for the Arlington Seminoles, a youth tackle football team in Jacksonville.

Keilani's coaches told Action News Jax she's the first girl to ever score a TD in Arlington Football Association history!

After the game, the extremely charismatic Keilani was even MORE impressive on camera during her post-game interview with the local news!!!

"Sometimes boys might be like 'Oh you can't do this because you're a girl' ... well, look at me! I'm a football player!"

"You should always go for your dream," Keilani told Action News Jax ... "it doesn't matter if it's a boy thing or a girl thing."

The footage went viral and eventually made its way to Urban Meyer -- who reached out on social media to offer his congrats and invite her to Jaguars training camp.

"What a story! Congratulations on your first touchdown, Keilani," Meyer said.

"You're right, you should always go for your dreams! If fans are allowed at training camp this summer I want you and your teammates to come out and be our special guests."

Oh, and get this -- Keilani is also a straight-A student and a talented artist!!!

Gronk's doing it. Same with Patrick Mahomes. Even Snoop -- and now L.A. Rams safety Taylor Rapp is launching his own NFT collection.

But what's cool about Rapp's foray into the world of non-fungible tokens -- he's donating part of the proceeds to the #StopAsianHate movement.

The 23-year-old free safety -- the Rams 2nd round pick in the 2019 NFL Draft -- is Asian-American (his mom is Chinese) and has been outraged by the recent wave of anti-Asian hate crimes across the country.

So, when Rapp was presented with the chance to jump into the NFT craze, he knew it would be an opportunity to help his community.

"I am Asian American, and this community means a lot to me," Rapp told CNBC.

"I wanted to help my people, and what better way to raise money right now to donate than through creating an NFT collection and using my platform."

An NFT is essentially a digital collectible built on a blockchain, oftentimes featuring a cool piece of art or video.

Rapp is launching 6 digital collections on Thursday -- and will auction off 90 total NFTs, according to CNBC.

Rapp says he will donate a "large chunk" of the auction proceeds to the #StopAsianHate GoFundMe page, which has already more than $4 million.

Deshaun Watson's attorney says 18 professional female massage therapists are going to bat for the QB -- saying they had nothing but positive experiences with him over the years.

Rusty Hardin says the women all worked with the Houston Texans QB at some point over the past 5 years -- completing more than 130 sessions without any sort of incident.

Hardin issued a statement saying, "These women say they are deeply troubled by the accusations made against Deshaun and that these claims are wholly inconsistent with their experiences with him and who they believe him to be."

"All of them stated that Deshaun never made them feel uncomfortable or demanded anything outside the scope of a professional massage."

"None of them experienced any of the behavior alleged by anonymous plaintiffs in the numerous lawsuits filed by the same Houston attorney."

Hardin says the 18 women he's been in contact with agreed to issue on-the-record statements supporting Watson.

"These statements show the other side to this story that has been so lacking in the flurry of anonymous complaints filed by opposing counsel.," Hardin says.

The first masseuse is Myah Roberson -- described as "a licensed massage therapist, who has been working in Houston for 10 years, primarily on athletes."

"I started working with Deshaun in December 2019 after being referred to him by another therapist. He sent me a screenshot of a diagram that the head trainer of the Texans gave him, highlighting the muscles that needed to be worked on, which included the groin and hamstrings. He asked if I felt comfortable working on those areas and I said yes, because I am used to working on athletes."

"During the massage, Deshaun was more comfortable using a towel than draping sheets over the table; this isn’t unusual at all. I have several clients that prefer using a towel over sheet. We began using a towel, and that became the norm. When I saw that the first lawsuit mentioned a towel, I chuckled because I gave him that idea. And it’s not inappropriate because they teach you in massage school that using a towel is okay. Some of these accusations are so ludicrous. I just can’t see him doing any of those things. He was never inappropriate with me. I never felt threatened in any way."

Most of the statements from the other 17 share similar experiences --Watson is described as a "professional and polite" client who's been "respectful."

Multiple therapists also point out that sometimes male clients will become aroused during a treatment -- but they're trained on how to handle that situation appropriately.

Norma Reyna -- described as board-certified in therapeutic massage and body work -- put it this way:

"When working the adductors and groin/pelvic area, it is not uncommon to accidentally graze the penis, but you don’t engage it. I teach my students to use a firmer touch or to move to a different area if a client gets aroused during a session, which sometimes happens."

Reyna did NOT say if that ever happened with Watson -- she was speaking in generalities.

As we previously reported, 21 women have filed lawsuits against Watson accusing the QB of sexual misconduct. All of the accusers have used a pseudonym to protect their identity.

Watson has denied any wrongdoing and claimed the accusers are liars looking to publicly shame him into a payout.

Deshaun Watson's alleged sexual misconduct against female masseuses now spans over FOUR states ... a new accuser in Arizona is claiming the NFL star was inappropriate with her during a session in 2020.

The woman -- using the pseudonym "Jane Doe" -- spelled out her accusations in a new lawsuit filed against the Texans QB late Tuesday ... claiming Watson has "a disturbing pattern of preying on vulnerable women."

In the suit -- which is now the 21st levied against Watson in the last two weeks -- the woman says Deshaun reached out to her over Instagram in July 2020.

Doe says the two eventually agreed to a Swedish massage in Scottsdale, but she claims just minutes into the session ... Watson became inappropriate.

In the suit, the woman says Watson asked her to massage him in a sexual way ... and after she declined his advances -- she says the quarterback put an end to the session.

The woman claims she felt "extremely uncomfortable and intimidated" by Watson ... and also felt "violated, degraded and disgusted."

In her suit, Doe is suing Watson for unspecified damages.

Watson has now been accused by female massage therapists of inappropriate behavior in Georgia, Texas, California and Arizona.

And, the attorney representing the accusers, Tony Buzbee, has intimated more suits could be on the way.