Money

Washington Commanders star Brian Robinson's big hat resulted in some BIG sales for the company behind the massive lid ... 'cause TMZ Sports is told their business saw a whopping 2,000% increase in orders!!

Robinson's hat quickly went viral after Sunday's 19-13 win over the Atlanta Falcons ... and the running back hilariously told reporters -- "If you want a big hat, let me know."

Noggin Boss -- the company that sells big hats starting at $75 -- tells us the impact was immediate ... with Monday being one of the biggest days in the brand's history.

As it turns out, NB says a bunch of major television networks hit them up to get Noggins for their on-air talent following Robinson's appearance ... but ESPN's Scott Van Pelt was one of the lucky ones who got one "years ago" -- and he wore it on "SportsCenter" Monday night!!

If the look seems familiar, Noggin Boss co-founders Gabe Cooper and Sean Starner appeared on "Shark Tank" earlier this year. The guys were seeking $50k for 25% of the company ... and ended up sealing the deal with Daymond John for 30%!!

Robinson's hat -- customized with the Commanders' logo -- was a gift from a family friend ... and the dude almost certainly started a trend in the sports world, with teams even photoshopping big hats onto their players.

A fan had the time of his life at the Lakers game on Monday night -- he hit an epic half-court shot, won $75,000 ... AND got a hug from L.A. superstar Anthony Davis!!!

It all went down at Crypto.com Arena during the Lake Show's contest with the Pacers ... when L.A. officials invited a man wearing a black Lakers-fitted cap to shoot his shot at a $75K cash prize during a break in the action.

The fan took one dribble, got a running start -- and then heaved up the basketball that somehow found nothing but the net!

The dude then did his best Justin Jefferson impersonation, hitting "The Griddy" all over the court ... while high-fiving courtside fans.

AD was so happy the guy got the cash ... the Lakers big man had to join in the celly too -- throwing his arms around the fan near center court.

Unfortunately for the guy and the rest of the Lakers supporters in attendance, the half-court shot was just about the only highlight of the evening ... as L.A. blew a 17-point lead to lose the game 116-115.

Tommy Lee's dealing with a new break-in at his crib ... no sex tape was taken this time, but the suspects did make off with some strange items and left his home looking like a hotel room after a Mötley Crüe party.

Cops alerted the Crüe drummer there had been a break-in at his Calabasas area home last week ... according to our L.A. Sheriff's Dept. sources. Tommy hasn't been living in this house, he's actually selling it, but he rushed over to check out the damage once he got wind of the burglary.

We're told, someone got in through a back glass door, and absolutely trashed the inside of the home.

LASD says the thief, or thieves, broke glass, lamps and even one of Tommy's side gates. As for what they stole -- just a bathroom mirror and some cabinet handles.

Remember, way back in 1995 ... a contractor infamously stole a sex tape -- yes, that one -- from Tommy and his ex-wife Pamela Anderson's home.

So far, there's been no arrest in last week's burglary, but the total damage/loss is estimated to cost the rock star drummer around $5K.

As we've reported, the rock star drummer listed the beautiful home back in September for a second time ... after having no luck with a sale in May of 2020.

Unfortunately for Tommy ... he's in good company when it comes to recent celeb burglary victims. TMZ broke the stories of Megan Thee Stallion and Nas' homes being hit while they were out of town, and Arsenio Hall's pad was hit twice while he was home.

Babyface is hoping with a lower price, he'll be able to get his longtime L.A. home off his hands and to a new owner.

The R&B legend relisted his Bel Air Crest estate for $7.495 million Monday, a decent discount given the house was first listed at $8 million. The home sits in a private and gated neighborhood -- so there's plenty of security for the new potential buyers.

The 5-bedroom, 6-bathroom beauty features a gourmet chef's kitchen, premium appliances and a primary suite with a fireplace. A spa-like bathroom overlooks the backyard.

The lower level has a temperature-controlled wine room -- that looks like it's straight out of Italy -- two gym areas, a theater with seating for over 15 people ... and if you don't feel like taking the stairs, there's an elevator.

There's also a music studio in the home -- which makes a lot of sense for the star.

As we've reported, Babyface and his ex-wife Nicole Pantenburg split in July of 2021, after 7 years of marriage -- and the home was listed shortly thereafter.

The Big Ten has fined Michigan State University $100,000 and suspended a Spartans cornerback for eight games in 2023 ... after concluding its investigation into the wild tunnel brawl at Michigan in October.

The conference handed down the punishment on Monday ... saying officials found that seven MSU players did indeed kick, hit or use a helmet to strike Wolverines players during the Oct. 29 incident.

In addition to the fine, the conference revealed MSU corner Khary Crump will have to sit out the first eight contests of next season due to his role in the brawl.

The other six players involved in the fracas were all hit with four-game bans, though they've all since served that punishment, the conference announced.

Big Ten officials also issued a public reprimand to the University of Michigan for not providing "adequate protection for personnel of both home and visiting teams when entering and leaving playing arenas."

As we reported, Crump, linebacker Tank Brown, defensive end Zion Young, safety Angelo Grose, defensive back Justin White, defensive end Brandon Wright, and pass rusher Jacoby Windmon were all hit with criminal charges from the Washtenaw County Prosecutor's Office for their roles in the brawl.

While Kanye West insists Alex Jones is a good Christian man, Alex's ex-wife begs to differ -- she says Jones is coming up short on supporting his children.

Kelly Jones is going off on her ex-husband on social media, claiming Alex is behind on child support payments ... despite "conning" Ye to believing he's a Christian.

In a series of tweets, Kelly alleges Alex hasn't paid child support for the past 2 months, and won't even help buy braces for their youngest daughter ... even though she says he has plenty of money to spend on himself.

Kelly even included what she claims is an email she sent to Alex last week, begging him to help her and their daughter with bills, and asking for him to, at the very least, settle up on the $2,000 of support she claims he owes.

TMZ has not seen any court records that support Kelly's allegation, but we've reached out to Alex for his response to her claim. So far, no word back.

Alex's ex-wife started blasting him online after we reported on Kanye's latest rambling interview, where Ye says Elon Musk should let Jones back on Twitter because he's a Christian ... and America's a "Christian country."

Jason Momoa's new series is not a hit in Hawaii ... folks there are upset a local farmers market is being shut down due to filming, and they're taking it out on the actor.

Jason's filming an Apple TV+ production called "Chief of War" on Hawaii's big island, and the Kaimu Farmer's Market appears to be one of the casualties.

The farmer's market is only open on Saturdays and the 76 vendors were informed the market area will be closed for two consecutive Saturdays in December ... with the market saying it's because Jason's film crew requested the area for filming.

The Facebook page for the Kaimu Farmer's Market is being flooded with comments about the announcement, with vendors expressing frustration about being unable to sell their goods because of the movie, especially so close to the holidays.

Folks are ripping Jason, blaming him for taking away their livelihoods during the biggest time of the year and blasting him for being "out of touch."

Vendors are also seeking compensation, with some wanting the film crew to pony up some dough for lost revenue. It's unclear if the studio or production company is compensating the owners of the market, but typically they would get something.

We've reached out to Jason's camp, the studio and Kaimu Farmer's Market.

A 26-year-old man is the new Anna Delvey Sorokin ... because he assumed the role of an oil baron heir and chartered a slew of private jets, rented homes that went for $30k a night and a lot more ... until he was nailed by authorities.

Nicholas Bryant defrauded 50 people and maybe more, stealing around $1.5 million in his criminal scheme.

It was humming along nicely for Nick, until he stiffed one of the jet charter companies to the tune of $76k. The company called authorities and Nick was nailed. He pled guilty earlier this month to wire fraud, which carries a maximum of 20 years behind bars.

Bryant says he feels remorse for what he did, and admitted he never intended to pay his victims.

Bryant told The Daily Beast the allegations "are pretty much true."  He went on to say, "I took private jets and stayed at the most expensive AirBnbs and hotels. Went deep sea fishing and toured everything that was possible. I bought and drove five different high-end cars. By far my most favorite trip was to [Turks] and Caicos. I spent two weeks on the island from fishing to sailing yachts. I stayed in a $30,000-a-night house. It was amazing."

And he makes a pretty stunning confession ... "The serious consequences had zero impression on me."

Tina Knowles tells TMZ Sports Jay-Z would crush it as an NFL owner ... adding to the ever-growing list of celebs who think the rapper has a real shot at success if Daniel Snyder would sell his Commanders.

We got Beyoncé's mom out at LAX earlier this month just after her son-in-law and Jeff Bezos had a secret meeting to discuss a potential bid for the Washington franchise.

And, while she didn't have any inside information for us regarding the meeting or a possible sale -- she did say she was confident her son-in-law would do a great job if Snyder opted to sell him the team.

"I have no doubt that anything that they put their minds to, they can do it well," she said.

Knowles is now the third celeb to share that opinion with us ... Mark Cuban and Shannon Sharpe both said in November that they, too, believed Jay-Z would be a great NFL honcho.

In fact, Sharpe said he thinks it'd be huge for the league as a whole -- not just the Commanders' org.

BKFC attempted to sign the biggest star in boxing, literally and figuratively, recently making a run at Tyson Fury ... offering the 6'9" heavyweight champion a piece of the company to sign with the promotion.

TMZ Sports talked to David Feldman, Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship's president/CEO, about some of the big names he's trying to lure to his fighting organization ... including the undisputed best heavyweight boxer in the world.

"Look, we made a play for Tyson Fury," Feldman said, "But, he has three more boxing matches that he's definitely slated to do."

David says the deal could've included an ownership stake for the Gypsy King ... but it's a deal Feldman isn't abandoning.

"It was a different kind of deal. I mean it was a deal where [Fury would] be involved in the growth of this thing and maybe get a piece of the company. At this time he can't do it right now, but we're gonna revisit that."

There's another combat sports star Feldman has his eye on ... Nate Diaz.

Of course, Diaz won his final UFC fight, beating Tony Ferguson at UFC 279 in September ... and is now a free agent.

"Realistically, I want Nate Diaz. We weren't allowed to make a play for him yet because he was in that UFC [exclusivity] window," Feldman explained.

As for his dream matchup for Nate ... Feldman likes Diaz vs. UFC-fighter-turned-BKFC-brawler, Mike Perry.

FYI, in addition to Perry, they've also signed fighters like Paige VanZant, Chad Mendes and former boxing champ Austin Trout.

BKFC struck a deal with Triller earlier in the year, and Feldman said there's going to be an influx of cash in their business very soon ... money he wants to use to sign big-name talent.

"The funding is gonna be available. I want everybody, and I don't mean to sound that cocky, but I want everybody. I will be in the business for every single free agent that ever comes to market now."

Feldman believes his org. has made a lot of headway with fans around the world ... and could be one legit superstar away from really popping.

Ron DeSantis just got a major endorsement from the world's richest man.

Elon Musk says he's throwing his considerable support behind DeSantis if the Florida governor decides to run for President in 2024. Elon's message was an obvious slap in the face to Donald Trump, who recently announced his candidacy to win back the White House.

Musk started the ball rolling Friday night when he responded to a question from a Twitter user, asking if he would back DeSantis. The new Twitter CEO simply stated, "Yes. But Twitter as a platform must be fair to all.”

Elon later posted another tweet ... “As a reminder, I was a significant supporter of the Obama-Biden presidency and (reluctantly) voted for Biden over Trump. My preference for the 2024 presidency is someone sensible and centrist. I had hoped that would [be] the case for the Biden administration, but have been disappointed so far.”

It's interesting ... Musk claims he's not a conservative ... but he directed his millions of Twitter followers to vote Republican in the last midterm elections. He has also come under attack from Democrats, including President Biden, who has asked the Justice Department to investigate Elon's foreign business practices.

Meanwhile ... DeSantis has shown Elon some love, too, publicly praising Musk for giving his Starlink internet satellite technology to Ukraine in its war against Russia. Elon was blasted on social media after he toyed with the idea of stopping the free-of-charge service, which was costing him a fortune.

There's a massive problem with food going to waste in America as millions of people with food insecurity suffer, but some Brown University grads have figured out an awesome way to turn things around.

The Farmlink Project is connecting farms with massive oversupplies of food with food banks around the country. It's lightyears more effective than finding a restaurant here and there that is throwing away perfectly good food.

Co-CEO Ben Collier tells TMZ ... he and his pals from Brown shelved big careers in investment banking and other areas to find a better way to help the hungry.

Ben says farms routinely throw out millions of pounds of extra food, but he and his cohorts are changing that.

He cites one example of a farm that had 40,000 extra pounds of onions ... which Farmlink moved to an L.A. food bank.

The org. had 35 truckloads of avocados in Pennsylvania quickly shipped to an area food bank. The word "quickly" is the key, since avocados spoil quickly.

So far Farmlink has moved 85 MILLION pounds of food and provided 71 MILLION meals.

The org is seeking donations ... a buck provides 20 meals -- 24 pounds of food.

FTX might be doomed, but Mark Cuban isn't giving up on crypto just yet ... telling TMZ Sports there's still a ton of value in the digital currency, despite the exchange's massive crisis.

We spoke with the billionaire Mavs owner out in NYC this week ... and he told us that even amidst difficult times, he believes cryptocurrency still has relevance when appropriately used.

"Separate the signal from the noise," Cuban said. "There's been a lot of people making a lot of mistakes, but it doesn't change the underlying value."

Cuban said that as long as consumers have viable options in the crypto world, he doesn't foresee the currency going into the tank.

As we reported, Tom Brady, Gisele Bündchen, Steph Curry, Shaquille O'Neal, Udonis Haslem, David Ortiz, Trevor Lawrence, Shohei Ohtani, and Naomi Osaka are all part of a lawsuit claiming FTX honcho Sam Bankman-Fried enlisted their help to scheme people.

We asked Mark about Bankman-Fried, who's accused of creating the fraudulent cryptocurrency scheme intended to take advantage of investors, and the billionaire thinks jail time is imminent for the 30-year-old.

"I don't know all the details, but if I were him, I'd be afraid of going to jail for a long time," Cuban said. "I talked to the guy and thought he was smart."

"I had no idea he was going to take other people's money and put it to his personal use."

There's a super rare piece of Bob Dylan history going up for sale ... the original lyrics to one of his most famous songs, "Desolation Row" ... and it's got a six-figure price tag.

Bob scribbled the poetic lyrics on a couple sheets of paper way back in 1965, and now the manuscript is hitting the open market for the first time ever. The parchment also has a few of Bob's edits.

The good folks over at Moments In Time are handling the sale ... and the asking price is a staggering $425,000 ... so ya gotta have some pretty deep pockets.

As Bob's fans know, "Desolation Row" is generally considered one of his top five songs of all time. The sprawling song features a ton of lyrics -- the track is over 11 minutes long -- with Bob flexing his skills as a poet with tons of literary imagery.

"Desolation Row" is the last track on Bob's famous 1965 album, "Highway 61 Revisited," which opens with his biggest hit, "Like a Rolling Stone."

The iconic home from "The Goonies" appears to be changing hands ... TMZ has learned the owner already has a buyer for the property.

Our real estate sources say owner, Sandi Preston, accepted an offer Friday for the Oregon estate ... which went on the market just 5 days ago with a $1,650,000 asking price.

The Victorian-style home is 2,336 square feet with 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms and sweeping views of the Oregon coast.

The house was built way back in 1896 in Astoria and it skyrocketed to fame after being featured in the 1985 Steven Spielberg coming-of-age film. Now, it's a mecca of sorts for movie buffs, with tons of daily visitors flocking to the property.

Sandi lived there for the past 21 years ... but we're told she's ready for the next phase of her life and decided to sell.

Conor McGregor's close friend and training partner claims the UFC superstar screwed him out of millions over his Proper No. 12 Irish Whiskey ... and now, he's suing to get what he believes he deserves.

MMA fighter and boxer Artem Lobov filed the suit ... claiming he was the mastermind behind Conor's successful Irish whiskey brand. Lobov says he was promised a 5% cut of the company for his efforts ... but when McGregor and his partners sold their stake for $600 million in 2021, he was left with nothing.

Conor reportedly raked in around $150 million as a result of the deal ... and Lobov previously claimed McGregor offered him $1 million, but he declined.

Lobov's attorney, Dermot McNamara, released a statement on the lawsuit ... saying, "My client is a retired professional fighter with a master’s degree from DCU in Finance and Capital Markets."

"We have issued High Court proceedings on his behalf to enforce an agreement with Mr. McGregor regarding the Proper No. Twelve whiskey brand."

"My client was the initial creator and co-founder of the concept to launch an Irish whiskey brand associated with Mr. McGregor."

Karen J. Kessler, a spokesperson for Conor, refutes Lobov's claim ... telling TMZ Sports, "Proper No. Twelve Irish Whiskey was created, developed, branded and tirelessly promoted by Conor McGregor."