NFL

A superhero movie featuring NFL superstar Vernon Davis in the title role is a FINALIST for HBO's "Project Greenlight" show ... TMZ Sports has learned.

As we previously reported, the San Francisco 49ers star played Captain Torpedo in a recently produced short film by French Mustache ... a comedy production company.

In the 2 minute and 4 second flick, Captain Torpedo finds himself in a tough situation ... being held captive by a deranged military guy with an inconsistent accent.

SPOILER ALERT: The Capt. takes a slug to the dome.

Turns out, the head producer behind the flick decided to enter the movie into the HBO competition -- famously started by Ben Affleck and Matt Damon -- and the movie made it all the way to the final 20.

FYI -- the previous round contained 200 movies!

If "Captain Torpedo" wins (based on voting on the official website with ends on 9/26), the filmmaker will get the chance to direct a real-life feature film.

It's huge for Davis -- considering the producers LOOOVE him and believe he can be a major Hollywood star one day. In fact, one of the producers tells us, "This is not the last we will see of Vernon Davis."

Stay tuned ...

Rihanna's defending herself after the NFL and CBS pulled her musical open from Thursday Night Football ... amid the Ray Rice domestic violence scandal.

The heart of her message is pretty clear -- Queen RiRi is nobody's pawn.

Arian Foster is GOING OFF on Anheuser-Busch for daring to criticize the league's handling of the domestic violence crisis -- saying the beer giant is, "Selling poison on that high horse."

The Houston Texans running back's blood was clearly boiling when he read AB's statement ... which said it was "not yet satisfied with the league's handling of behaviors that so clearly go against our own company culture and moral code."

Foster's response -- "Lol ok, alcohol company."

"Selling poison on that high horse," he wrote ... adding, "Domestic violence and alcohol damn near synonymous."

Foster was challenged on Twitter, with someone saying, "Finally a BIG time company taking a public stance AGAINST and you rip them? Huh?"

His response? "You need a company to tell you dv is wrong?"

Rihanna is livid at the NFL and CBS ... claiming the league and the network had no right to make it look like she was part of the Ravens/Steelers Thursday night pre-game show ... and had no right to single her out when it was scrapped.

Sources connected with Rihanna tell TMZ ... the singer was pissed when someone sent her the joint NFL/CBS press release last week, with the headline, "CBS & NFL Network 'Run This Town' for Thursday Night Football Open with Music Featuring Rihanna & Narration by Don Cheadle."

In fact Rihanna never did anything special for the game ... all CBS/NFL did was license a Jay Z song that featured Rihanna.

Rihanna's rep tells TMZ, "Due to the misuse and misrepresentation of Rihanna's name and participation in connection to CBS TNF, CBS was not allowed to license and utilize the song 'Run This Town.' Roc Nation made the decision to not grant the song’s usage."

Translation: Because her name was used to promote the show, she felt she then had the right to block the production.

Rihanna also made it clear on social media Tuesday ... she is also angry that CBS yanked the production and insinuated it was because she was the victim of domestic violence.

CBS's plan was to use the Jay Z song along with a voiceover by Don Cheadle that would be customized for each match up -- but CBS said today the song will NOT be used.

Former NFL superstar Darren Sharper has been locked up in an L.A. jail for 201 days ... and despite the fact he hasn't been convicted of a crime, he ain't gettin' out anytime soon.

Of course, Sharper is behind bars because he's accused of drugging and raping two women he met at a West Hollywood nightclub back in October 2013.

He's also been charged with raping two women Arizona -- after allegedly drugging them as well ... and he's being investigated for similar crimes in Louisiana and Nevada.

Arizona is seeking extradition to try him for the alleged crimes in Tempe, but prosecutors will have to wait until L.A. is done with him.

But that could be a while ... because Sharper was due to appear in court today for a preliminary hearing -- but it was postponed until October and a trial date has yet to be set. He's currently in an L.A. jail and -- because the Arizona judge has ordered him held without bail -- the cell door remains locked.

For his part, Sharper has pled not guilty to the crimes in L.A. and his lawyers have denied the allegations in the other cases.

Cleveland Browns superstar Josh Gordon plead guilty to driving while impaired in North Carolina this morning ... and if he stays out of trouble for 12 months, he'll stay out of jail.

As we previously reported, the WR was pulled over on July 5 in Raleigh after cops say he was speeding -- and during the stop, officers noticed he was boozed up (blew a .09).

Gordon was sentenced to a 60-day suspended sentence -- with 12 months unsupervised probation ... which means if he does anything stupid during the next year, like break the law, he'll have to serve the 60 days.

Accused child abuser Adrian Peterson wants to remind you -- he's still one of the faces of Nike ... emerging from his home today decked out in Swoosh gear.

The embattled Vikings running back was leaving his pad in Minnesota Tuesday morning -- where he's expected to rejoin the team for practice this week ... and ya gotta think, he's clearly testing his relationship with his sponsor.

It was just yesterday that the Radisson hotel chain suspended its relationship with the Vikings following a news conference in which a team rep announced Peterson's reinstatement in front of a banner featuring the hotel's logo.

So now, with AP so proudly sporting the swoosh -- while legal proceedings continue in the child abuse case from May -- it'll be interesting to see if Nike stays with him or follows Radisson's lead.

Just a few days ago, Nike issued a statement saying it's "aware of the allegations" and will "closely monitor the situation."

24 hours after a dominant TWO touchdown performance, Washington Redskins running back Alfred Morris was already back to work ... as a waiter a fancy steak restaurant.

Morris -- and several of his teammates strapped on some aprons for "Celebrity Waiter Night" at Ruth's Chris in Arlington, VA ... where the guys served up appetizers to raise money for charity.

On his way into the steak joint, Morris told us being a waiter is CAKE compared to his job on the gridiron ... saying, "All you do is smile and be polite!"

The gang raised money for the Blitz for the Better foundation -- which helps out families in need in the D.C. area ... especially families with children who are ill, have special needs or are physically challenged.

Tickets went for $350-a-pop ... hopefully, the guy (who's one of the most underpaid players in the NFL) made out with a few tips.

7:53 AM PT -- CBS released a statement saying they will NOT use Rihanna's performance going forward, saying, "Beginning this Thursday, we will be moving in a different direction with some elements of our Thursday Night Football open. We will be using our newly created Thursday Night Football theme music to open our game broadcast."

It took a few days, but Rihanna is finally lashing out about CBS' decision to yank her musical opening from "Thursday Night Football" last week and air it this week instead ... and let's just say she's not happy.

With the Ray Rice scandal still fresh, and the Ravens set to play the Steelers, CBS opted not to run a taped musical segment featuring Rihanna ... seeing as she had been the victim of high-profile domestic violence.

But with the segment now set to air this week, Rihanna took to Twitter to blast CBS, writing, "CBS you pulled my song last week, now you wanna slide it back in this Thursday? NO, F*** you! Y'all are sad for penalizing me for this."

As for what she means by "penalizing" ... it's pretty clear she feels CBS will not allow her to move on from getting beaten by Chris Brown 5 years ago.

She followed that up by writing, "The audacity ..."

Rihanna was in Barbados Monday ... looking extremely good.

Deion Sanders is completely underwater after his pool emptied into his Dallas penthouse apartment ... and now he wants millions from the company he blames for drenching him.

The NFL Hall of Famer had been trying to sell his $6.5 million Dallas pad in the ritzy Azure tower -- where Terrell Owens and Jason Kidd have also lived -- when he hired WWPS, Inc. to work on the pool back in 2012. Mind you, the pool is INSIDE Deion's home. Baller style.

According to the docs ... 2 days after the work was done, Deion's realtor stopped by and found the place flooded. This all went down while he was in the middle of a nasty divorce ... so the cash flow would've come in handy.

5:05 PM PT -- Sources close to the investigation tell TMZ the reason the case went nowhere is because Adrian did NOT strike the boy in the forehead -- but instead the child accidentally hit his head on a carseat while Adrian was punishing him.

We're also told the form of discipline was "not impermissible." Under Texas law parents are allowed to administer reasonable punishment.

Peterson's attorney tells us an adult witness backed him up, saying Adrian "did nothing inappropriate with his son."

Adrian Peterson is under investigation for a SECOND child abuse case involving one of his other children.

This new investigation involves an incident that allegedly went down in June 2013 ... and the probe was launched after the then 4-year-old boy went home to his mother with a scar on his forehead.

The station says Adrian sent the mother a text message saying the child hit his head on a carseat -- but when the mother questioned him further ... Peterson eventually admitted hitting the child.

The mother reported the incident to Child Protective Services, but no charges were ever filed against Peterson.

Earlier today ... Peterson issued a public apology for the other case -- for which he's been indicted -- saying he was sorry for hurting the child during a visit in May.

Vince Young is firing back at allegations he took out -- and never repaid -- a $700k loan ... telling TMZ Sports his crooked ex-financial advisor signed the papers behind his back -- and Vince never saw one single dime.

We broke the story ... Vince is being sued by Triton Financial ... which claims VY took the loan out in 2011 and never paid it back.

But Vince tells TMZ Sports ... he's the "real victim" of a scheme concocted by his former financial advisor Ron Peoples.

"He was doing things without my approval -- getting big loans out," Vince says ... "He never had my authority."

Vince notes that when the loan was taken out, he was still on the Tennessee Titans and rollin' in NFL dough -- "Why do I need the loan? I'm out playing ball, making money at the time."

Young admits he does have financial problems because he "trusted the wrong people" -- but says he's working his ass off to "clean up the mess."

Besides working with the students through the Division of Diversity and Community Engagement at the University of Texas, Young has also started his own management company.

"It's called Access Brand Management ... we go in and help athletes who get in trouble and work with them to get them back on the right track."

Adrian Peterson has just released the following statement ... asking everyone to "understand how sorry I feel about the hurt I have brought to my child."

Peterson also says he has met with a psychologist and is learning there are other ways to discipline a child other than with a "switch."

The statement reads:

"My attorney has asked me not to discuss the facts of my pending case. I hope you can respect that request and help me honor it. I very much want the public to hear from me but I understand that it is not appropriate to talk about the facts in detail at this time. Nevertheless, I want everyone to understand how sorry I feel about the hurt I have brought to my child.

The NFL contacted Texas prosecutors Monday ... asking for all available information on the Adrian Peterson child abuse case ... TMZ Sports has learned.

An official from the Montgomery County D.A.'s Office tells us ... prosecutors only turned over what they have already made public. We're told the NFL is not entitled to the case file since it is not a law enforcement agency.

The D.A. official tells us the Minnesota Vikings organization has NOT made contact with prosecutors.

Adrian Peterson will RETURN to the Minnesota Vikings this week -- and will play against the New Orleans Saints Sunday ... the team has announced.

The Vikings deactivated Peterson in the wake of allegations he abused his 4-year-old son by beating him with a "switch." Peterson had been indicted for felony child abuse.

But now, the team says it will allow Peterson to come back to work while the "judicial process" moves forward.

Team owner Zygi Wilf issued a statement explaining his decision ... saying, "On Friday, we felt it was in the best interests of the organization to step back, evaluate the situation, and not rush to judgment given the seriousness of this matter. At that time, we made the decision that we felt was best for the Vikings and all parties involved."

"To be clear, we take very seriously any matter that involves the welfare of a child. At this time, however, we believe this is a matter of due process and we should allow the legal system to proceed so we can come to the most effective conclusions and then determine the appropriate course of action."

"This is a difficult path to navigate, and our focus is on doing the right thing. Currently we believe we are at a juncture where the most appropriate next step is to allow the judicial process to move forward."

"We will continue to monitor the situation closely and support Adrian’s fulfillment of his legal responsibilities throughout this process."

Roger Goodell has reportedly just hired 3 women as "senior advisers" ... in an effort to shape the NFL's domestic violence and sexual assault policies.

The women -- Lisa Friel, Jane Randel and Rita Smith -- will be tasked with "making a real difference on these and other issues" ... so says the NFL Network's Ian Rapoport.

Friel was the head of the Manhattan D.A.'s sex crimes unit for almost a decade ... but was reportedly asked to step down in 2011 after appearing in an HBO documentary and discussing details about a pending case.