You Might Want to Rethink

Even though Cooper Rush has killed it as the fill-in QB1 for the Cowboys ... Dallas legend Daryl "Moose" Johnston tells TMZ Sports Dak Prescott ain't in danger of being supplanted.

"I'm a believer that you don't lose your job due to an injury -- especially if you were one of the starters, one of the best players at your position in the NFL," Johnston told us this week.

"It's going to be hard for Cooper Rush to create that type of controversy."

Of course, many believe that situation has already arrived -- as Rush has been great the past two weeks while Prescott has been out with a thumb injury.

Rush is 2-0 in his two starts, putting up QB ratings of 95.5 against the Bengals and 98.2 against the Giants -- leading some to think he's already done enough to keep Dak on the shelf even after the Week 1 starter gets healthy.

But Johnston told us he doesn't see that happening at all ... explaining he thinks this is an entirely different situation than the one Dak had back in 2016, when he formally took over for an injured Tony Romo.

The former Cowboys fullback, though, believes Rush -- an impending free agent -- has made some money for himself regardless ... showing he can be one of the premier backup QBs in the league going forward.

More troubling allegations surrounding Brett Favre ... the NFL legend's charity -- whose mission is to help underserved and disabled children and breast cancer patients -- reportedly gifted donated funds to his alma maters' athletic department.

Favre's charity, Favre 4 Hope, donated more than $130,000 to the University of Southern Mississippi Athletic Foundation between 2018-2020, according to The Athletic ... money meant for children and cancer patients.

The outlet reports tax records show Favre's charity gave the USM foundation $60,000 in 2018 and $46,817 in 2019. In 2020, the foundation received $26,715 from Brett's charity.

Other organizations received money, according to The Athletic, but those amounts were typically under $10K.

The donations all came while Favre allegedly tried to obtain $5 million from Mississippi's welfare fund, meant for the state's most vulnerable, to build Univ. of Southern Miss. a new multi-million volleyball facility.

Favre's daughter was a volleyball player at the university at the time.

Favre's attorney, Bud Holmes, issued ESPN a statement Wednesday night, saying, "He has been very generous to Southern Miss since he played ball there."

"Those particular things [the donations in question] I don't know, but I know he has always given back, something most athletes don't do."

Favre -- who is being sued by the state of Mississippi over the alleged funds -- claims he didn't know where the money originated ... though texts appear to show the HOF'er was worried about being caught.

While the state of Florida is waking up to total devastation, there's at least one woman who owes her life to some brave firefighters who pulled her from her submerged vehicle.

Hurricane Ian ravaged Naples Wednesday, and one woman clearly thought she'd be OK to drive, before getting swept up in the current. Wild footage from the rescue shows a firefighter smashing the rear passenger window -- as the water continues to rise over the hood of the woman's car.

You can tell from the video, the woman was unable to get her door open, so the firefighter almost certainly saved her life. Securing her with a lifejacket before moving her to safety.

Collier County officials announced half the streets in Naples weren't passable due to high water ... so unclear if the woman just hadn't gotten the warning, or thought she was good to go.

A fan at Tuesday night's Nationals game got so upset with a stadium usher that he hit the man in the face -- before biting him.

The wild altercation happened at Nationals Park during the ninth inning of the Nats' loss to the Atlanta Braves ... when several venue staffers appeared to try to boot a fan from his seat.

A video shot by a bystander shows fans near the guy chanting, "Get him out!" over and over again -- but the two staffers were having trouble getting him to leave.

Eventually, another usher came to the area to nudge the man away from his seat ... and that's when things took a violent turn.

You can see in the footage, the fan elbowed the usher in the face two times -- before he seemed to bite the man's hand.

Thankfully, two police officers arrived and separated the men before the situation escalated further.

Video shows the fan suffered a bloody head in the skirmish. It's unclear if the usher was injured.

We've reached out to both police and the Nationals for comment on it all, but so far, no word back yet.

Two men have been charged in connection with an alleged armed robbery that took place in the middle of a church service which was stopped short while two men allegedly jacked some jewelry from the bishop during their live stream.

2 men from Brooklyn -- Juwan Anderson and Say-Quan Pollack -- were charged with armed robbery for their roles in the July 24 incident ... according to Breon Peace, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York on Tuesday.

Peace's statement reads, "As alleged, the defendants brought guns into a place of worship, stealing from two members of the clergy, and terrifying the congregation in the process" ... adding, "to commit such an act during a religious service is incomprehensible."

Peace notes a 3rd suspect is still at large.

The incident was caught on camera during the service's live stream ... showing Bishop Lamor Whitehead stopping mid-service and quickly getting on the ground -- as two men begin to take items off his person.

Whitehead tells TMZ ... "Today is the start of healing. We will let the justice system continue to work as I continue to do what God has called me to do."

Mankind is doomed, except for Usain Bolt.

Oregon State University just unleashed the fastest bipedal robot in the world -- a machine that is faster than the speed of light your average mall walker ... which just clocked a 100-meter dash with the time of 24.73 seconds!!

The star robo-athlete is named Cassie ... which was invented by the OSU College of Engineering. OSU says Cassie was built with knees like an ostrich and has no cameras or censors -- so it is basically blind.

The big single-entry race went down at the school's Whyte Track and Field Center ... and while it may not outrun the average human, the accomplishment is incredible for a robot.

FWIW ... Bolt's 100-meter world record is secure at 9.58 seconds.

As it turns out, Cassie has another major feat on its resume ... after running a 5k in 53 minutes back in 2021.

"Cassie has been a platform for pioneering research in robot learning for locomotion," project leader Devin Crowley said. "Completing a 5K was about reliability and endurance, which left open the question of, how fast can Cassie run? That led the research team to shift its focus to speed."

Discussions are underway on how best to honor the victims of serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer ... but officials in Milwaukee are concerned a physical memorial site could attract the wrong folks.

On the heels of the new Netflix series "Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story" -- which has stirred plenty of controversies -- there's a swell of public support to erect a tribute to Dahmer's victims in Milwaukee. While Mayor Cavalier Johnson is on board with that concept, we've learned he's worried about the potential for a memorial to become a mecca for Dahmer fans. Creepy, but yeah, they exist.

Mayor Johnson's communication director, Jeff Fleming, tells TMZ ... the mayor wants to do something to honor the victims' families, but Milwaukee wants to avoid creating a "ghoulish destination for troubled fans" looking for any reason to celebrate Dahmer.

The concern, we're told, is putting the victims' families through more trauma.

It's a familiar problem in Milwaukee, where Dahmer was born and raised and where many of his murders were carried out ... mainly in an apartment building that's now an empty lot.

We're told there's been a conscious effort in Milwaukee over the years to essentially scrub any connections to Dahmer -- all his belongings were burned, and even the factory where he worked has been demolished.

While the mayor's office says most of the chatter on a potential memorial is coming from the public and not from victims' families, we're told Mayor Johnson is planning on memorializing the victims and wants to work with their families to make it happen, though this is all in the very early stages.

Some folks in the community believe Milwaukee hasn't acted on a memorial because of alleged homophobia surrounding the case -- but Fleming, who covered the Dahmer case back in the day, says the delay is more about giving the community time to heal.

A Montana woman is in hot water after she proudly displayed the carcass of a dog she killed, and then skinned ... thinking it was a baby wolf, and the public is irate.

Her name is Amber Rose (no relation to the famous one) and she announced her kill recently on Facebook, posting a series of very graphic photos where she showed off the dead pooch -- before and after it was reduced to a fur rug in the bed of her pickup truck.

She wrote, "So this morning I set out for a solo predator hunt for a fall black bear however I got the opportunity to take another predator wolf pup 2022 was a great feeling to text my man and say I just smoked a wolf pup. #firstwolf #onelesspredatorMT."

The horrifying kill went down somewhere in Montana's Flathead County, and the local Sheriff's Office, Animal Control and Fish and Game agencies all tell us they're aware of it ... and have launched investigations that are ongoing.

There's no word yet on what, if any, legal/criminal repercussions Rose might face ... but it's clear folks in the area are already up in arms and want her to pay. Several Facebook users say they've filed complaints demanding she be held accountable. The general consensus is how could she not know this was someone's Siberian husky, and NOT a wolf???

Rose is defending herself amid all the backlash ... insisting she was in the right here.

Rose took to FB to tell everyone she did, in fact, have a wolf tag -- licensing her to hunt the animal -- while also explaining ... yes, she made a mistake. Despite that admission, she says she'd do it all over again, because she claims the husky was acting wild, aggressive and charging her. From her POV, she had every right to protect herself -- wolf or not -- so she didn't break any laws.

Still, many who are doing comparisons between huskies and wolves note the latter tend to be much larger, and have a different look than your average husky.

A Josh Allen fan was roughed up badly outside of the Bills vs. Dolphins game on Sunday -- taking a foot straight to the face ... before he was kicked and punched repeatedly.

The incident all went down at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami at some point in the midst of Buffalo's 21-19 loss to the 'Fins.

It's unclear what started the melee -- but footage from the scene shows a couple Dolphins fans got into it with two Bills fans ... and the Buffalo tandem got the worst of it by far.

You can see in the footage, both Bills fans were thrown to the ground ... and while the man in the Allen jersey was trying to get up, he got kicked in the teeth. The other Buffalo fan was jumped on as well.

Another person in an Allen jersey attempted to break things up -- but as the Buffalo fan was down -- a man in a Tua Tagovailoa jersey punched him in the head. Another shirtless guy jumped in and kicked him multiple times as well.

Jerry Jeudy was so furious with Shannon Sharpe for criticizing his play on Sunday night -- he took to Twitter to fire away at the Broncos legend ... and his burn featured no chill at all.

Sharpe blasted the Denver wide receiver for dropping some passes in the Broncos' ugly win over the San Francisco 49ers -- at one point tweeting during the contest, "Jeudy does all this route running in the off season and can't catch a FCKING pass."

When Jeudy got wind of the criticism following the game -- he didn't take it lying down.

The 23-year-old quote-tweeted Sharpe's words ... and said, "And you be doing all that talking during the season while your breathe be smelling like your ass."

He added, "#BigWin."

Jeudy eventually deleted the tweet. He said in another post later Sunday night, "Lmao ima be the bigger man and let him have that lol good win today doe #GoBroncoz."

Sharpe has yet to respond -- but we're sure some sort of clap back from the now-polarizing TV personality is coming.

Jeudy, meanwhile, has not gotten off to the best start this season ... catching just seven of his 16 targets in three games for 130 yards and one TD.

R-E-L-A-X, fantasy football players ... Derrick Henry's big games are coming soon -- so says former Titans star LenDale White, who tells TMZ Sports the big tailback is NOT washed.

White joined Chris Johnson in the TMZ office this week ... and guaranteed Henry would be back to form sooner than later after struggling in the opening two weeks of the NFL season.

"I honestly don't believe Derrick has lost his step at all," White said. "I feel like once he gets on the right track and [head coach Mike] Vrabel gets those guys going, he'll be Derrick Henry of old -- King Henry."

The words are music to Tennessee fans' ears -- 'cause Henry really has not looked good so far this year. He only has 107 total rushing yards and 1 TD ... and is averaging a mere 3.1 yards per carry.

But White says there's a lot of factors that go into all of that -- including injuries and troubles in the passing game -- which he believes will all get worked out soon and allow Henry to thrive once again.

White and Johnson were also optimistic that their old Titans squad will flip around their season after starting 0-2.

Britney Spears says she may never perform again, but that doesn't mean she won't get in the booth anew -- proven with Elton John ... and maybe, soon, with Benny Blanco.

The award-winning record producer -- who's actually worked with Britney before -- spilled the beans about a possible collab while chatting with radio host Kannon of "Open House Party" -- a nationally-syndicated show famous for playing Top 40 pop songs/fan requests.

In this particular sit-down, Benny touches on the fact that he's recently reached out to BS -- about a month ago, he says -- to see if she might be interested in joining forces again.

Diehard Britney fans might recall ... BB actually helped write and produce her '08 hit record, "Circus" with Dr. Luke -- and it had a successful run at the time on the charts, and actually went on to become her second-highest selling digital single ever. So, yeah ... good results.

Anyway ... listen to what Benny has to say about linking up once more -- it sounds like he's holding his cards close to the vest here, but he makes it clear that both he and Britney have spoken about the possibility of doing something again. Whether she took him up on that, we'll just have to wait and see ... but we know she's not averse to crooning post-conservatorship.

Of course, she lent her vocals to a remix of "Tiny Dancer" recently ... and it did well, even though Britney could hardly be heard on it. So hopefully a Benny collab would just be all her ... assuming she's up for it, that is.

BS recently suggested she'd never hit the stage again ... out of spite, apparently. She says she's so traumatized by the conservatorship, that she wants to stick it to her dad and co.

Tekashi 6ix9ine knows he's on thin ice, legally, here in the States -- but it seems when he's overseas ... he lets it rip, just like he did on this poor guy here in the club.

Check out this video, obtained by TMZ, that shows the rapper in Soho Garden in Dubai ... where he approaches what appears to be the DJ for the night -- only to start swinging on the dude in what appears to be an unprovoked attack.

The DJ starts to scuffle with 69, that is ... before Tekashi's security swooped in and started separating the two, pulling their boss away -- but by then, even more people started flocking.

It actually looks like Tekashi gets wailed on by a few bystanders on the perimeter, and it also seems he was getting his chain yanked, his hair grabbed and his shirt pulled off toward the end as the fight evolved into an all-out mini brawl.

Now, as for what exactly might've caused this ... well, eyewitnesses tell us T69 was supposedly upset that the DJ wasn't playing any of his jams, and apparently felt the need to confront him about it. We've reached out to Tekashi ... so far, no word back.

O.J. Simpson has a solution to the Steelers' offensive struggles, and it starts with making a change at the QB position by benching Mitchell Trubisky and starting Kenny Pickett.

Simpson broke down why the Steelers' offense seemingly stalled all night against the Browns during their Thursday Night Football game (CLE won 29-17), saying Trubisky isn't the answer under center.

"I don't see these guys being inspired by their quarterback play," Simpson said. "I don't know what Kenny Pickett is able to do, but I'm willing to bet anybody that he'll score more than four touchdowns in the next three games."

"[The] problem is Pittsburgh isn't going to win any 14-10 games. They're gonna have to score points to win, and I just don't see that happening with Trubisky."

Steelers fans have been clamoring for Pickett -- who was selected in the first round of the 2022 NFL draft -- after watching Trubisky struggle to move the ball against Cincy and New England.

Juice said Trubisky -- who finished the game with 207 yards and zero touchdowns -- "wasn't that bad," but the body language of his receivers concerned the disgraced HOF running back.

"It just wasn't good, especially Diontae Johnson," O.J. said.

O.J. said he didn't realize how devastating the loss of T.J. Watt -- who tore his pectoral muscle in Week 1 against the Bengals -- was to the fabric and identity of the Steelers team.

Ray Allen went off on a famous YouTuber after the guy attempted to pull a fart prank on the NBA Hall of Famer ... telling him, "keep it moving!"

In the video, which was posted on YouTube, Allen was picking up a few things at Target when he noticed he was being followed by Lofe, a YouTube star with nearly one million subscribers.

Lofe is seen walking over to Allen and making incessant farting noises near him as someone recorded the prank, setting the former Celtics star off.

"My man! I know you hear me," Allen is heard saying in the clip ... "You following me around trying to do some bulls**t over here. I know you hear me. Keep it moving!"

Allen continued to scold the YouTuber ... blasting the guys for recording after he asked them to stop.

The guys told Allen they were simply taking pictures of him, but the NBA champ wasn't thrilled with the explanation, saying, "I'm not cool with that."

A man invaded the Laver Cup in London on Friday and set his arm on fire right next to the net -- just hours before Roger Federer will play his last-ever competitive tennis match on the court.

The wild scene just went down minutes ago during a match at O2 Arena -- when a guy wearing blue jeans and a T-shirt stormed the court with a lighter in his hand.

Video shot by witnesses in the stands shows the man sat down, made a fire -- and then let the flames crawl up onto his arm.

Security raced in to smother the blaze -- before they carried the guy off the court. No word if the man was seriously injured.

It's unclear what message the guy was attempting to send with the protest -- though his shirt did read, "End UK Private Jets."

Despite the scene, Federer's final match is still scheduled to go on later Friday -- when he's expected to team up with Rafael Nadal in a doubles event for the final match of his historic career.