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UPDATE: Kenny Stabler's ex-wife Rose Stabler confirms to Local 15 News that Kenny has passed away at the age of 69. ORIGINAL STORY Tuscaloosa News reported former Alabama star quarterback and Foley native Kenny Stabler's death and has since retracted the story, saying Stabler's death is unconfirmed. Local 15 News also reported this news at 5 p.m. after reaching out to the head of the Kenny Stabler's former foundation. A representative from the foundation tells Local 15 Stabler did die from prostate cancer. We will continue to stay on top of this developing story.

Kenny “The Snake” Stabler, who led the Oakland Raiders to a Super Bowl title in 1977, died Thursday at the age of 69. Stabler led Alabama to an 11-0 record in 1966 before turning pro. From 1968-75, the Oakland Raiders played in six AFL/AFC title games and lost each one of them to the eventual Super Bowl champion.

A federal judge has ordered the Patent and Trademark Office to cancel registration of the Washington Redskins' trademark, ruling that the team name may be disparaging to Native Americans. The ruling Wednesday by Judge Gerald Bruce Lee affirms an earlier finding by an administrative appeal board.

This time of year, there are always warnings about the risks and hazards involved with shooting off fireworks. Many listen to those warnings. Some do not. Jason Pierre-Paul did not, and it cost him, dearly. Pierre-Paul, the Giants’ 26-year-old star defensive end, suffered a serious but apparently not career-threatening hand injury Saturday night setting off Fourth of July fireworks at his South Florida home. While the full extent of the damage is not yet known, it is believed Pierre-Paul’s suffered significant burns on his palm and several fingers, and one finger may have sustained nerve damage, according to a source...

John Urschel plays football for the Baltimore Ravens. He's also a published mathematician. How does he stack up against the average millennial?

It’s really weird to see one of the more masculine and patriarchal professional sports keep making politically correct steps to convince America that it isn’t masculine and patriarchal. I guess this year they’re gonna ramp it up with the first ever LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender) celebration! And of course it had to be the Detroit Lions: The Detroit Lions are set to host what is believed to be the NFL’s first LGBT night, according to a report in the Detroit Free Press. The Detroit Regional LGBT Chamber of Commerce says it will hold a pride event during the Lions’...

The Obama Administration will not support a new Washington football stadium unless the team changes its name, according to Jonathan O'Connell of the Washington Post. Washington currently does not play in D.C., but there has been a push to get a new stadium approved and built there. RFK Stadium occupies the site where Washington has targeted a potential new stadium. However, a lack of support from the current administration would be a serious roadblock to the efforts. While the Obama Administration can't make the ultimate decision on whether a new stadium is built, it can put pressure where it's needed,...

They boost their teams from the sidelines and promote them by appearing in calendars and at fan events, but some sports cheerleaders say they are still not considered team employees and are paid what amounts to less than minimum wage. California legislation believed to be the first of its kind in the nation is set to change that. The bill approved by the state Senate on Monday and sent to the governor for his signature would require that cheerleaders be paid at least minimum wage and overtime and sick leave if they work for professional sports teams based in California....

Cue the backlash!Following this morning's history-making Supreme Court Decision on marriage equality, Vikings cornerback Josh Robinson took to Twitter to condemn gay marriage in a series of homophobic tweets. He event compared marriage equality to incest and pedophilia."Love is love? So what will we say when the 30yr old loves YOUR 10 year old. When the dad loves HIS 6 year old? It's different? Yea okay!" the 24-year-old football star wrote Friday. "The day one person makes that stand, some may support, but many will say that's sick! That day I will say ‘hypocrites.'""When did we start defining a word...

Patriots owner Robert Kraft arrives in Jewish state for a week of events with 19 football hall-of-famers. Nineteen members of the Pro Football Hall of Fame arrived in Israel on Thursday for a week of events as part of the "Touchdown in Israel – Mission of Excellence" program, including meeting local Israeli football players. Jewish philanthropist and New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft is participating in this week of festivities alongside Israel’s Ambassador to the US Ron Dermer. Kraft and the Kraft family have been sponsoring football in Israel since 1999, with the building of the Kraft Family Stadium in...

PHILADELPHIA >> There is one period each and every day of Eagles minicamp in which Tim Tebow leaves the other quarterbacks in his dust. It’s the zone-read drill. And you really don’t want to get in the way of the 6-2, 250-pound Tebow because he runs like it is “game on.” Tebow’s critics enjoy maligning his throwing mechanics, which still require extensive tweaking. They’ve totally missed the dimension he brought to the Denver Broncos, the skill that enabled him to register fourth-quarter comeback after fourth-quarter comeback and ultimately win a playoff game. Don’t underestimate the power of the mobile dimension...

LAS CRUCES, N.M. – Danny Villanueva, who was one of the NFL's first Latino kickers and a pioneer of Spanish-language television, has died. He was 77. Family members and officials at New Mexico State University, where Villanueva was a member of the athletic hall of fame, confirmed that he died Thursday after suffering a stroke earlier this week. Born to migrant missionary workers in eastern New Mexico, Villanueva went on to attend New Mexico State on a football scholarship. After graduating in 1961, he played for the Los Angeles Rams, where he was nicknamed "El Kickador." Bullfighting music was played...

There's a Gallup survey out, a Gallup poll out. Americans have lost confidence -- dot-dot-dot -- everything. And this piggybacks well with some of the cultural comments that I have been brilliantly making and pointing out all this busy broadcast week. In addition to Americans losing confidence in everything, they're losing confidence in religion. Confidence in religion has hit a new low. Everything's on the... Everything is bottoming out. The American people are losing faith in everything. The one element that's missing... They're losing faith in the economy, they're losing faith in the country. And this feeds, by the way,...

Investigators have uncovered evidence that Cardinals officials broke into a network of the Houston Astros that housed special databases the team had built, according to law enforcement officials. Internal discussions about trades, proprietary statistics and scouting reports were compromised, the officials said.

[...] Early reports on Tebow out of the Eagles' OTAs have been overwhelmingly positive. Tebow is throwing the ball better than expected, and he attributes his improvement to his offseason work with House. Tebow said the pair worked “from the ground up,” focusing on “balance, posture, sequencing, timing," per John Gonzalez of CSN Philly. [...] Reporters at practice are not the only ones who have noticed the improvements that Tebow has made throwing the football. Kelly is excited with what he has seen so far. “Watch him throw,” Kelly said, per CSN Philly. “I think he’s improved. He spent a...

Word on the street is Miami Dolphins reserve defensive tackle A.J. Francis has good acceleration, an excellent motor and a high ceiling in his 2014 Dodge Charger. He's an Uber driver. Francis is under contract to earn $510,000 this year in his third NFL season, but paychecks don't start coming until July, and it's uncertain he'll make the team. He wanted some extra spending money, so in April he became a driver for hire with Uber, making $40 to $50 an hour. "I'm not putting all my eggs in one basket," Francis said following the Dolphins' offseason practice Monday. "Where...

The Senate wants the Pentagon to stop paying the National Football League to publicly salute soldiers, hold pregame reenlistment ceremonies and perform on-field American flag rollouts. The chamber on Thursday approved an amendment from Sens. John McCain, Jeff Flake, and Richard Blumenthal to the annual defense authorization bill that would not only end this practice but require NFL teams to return the millions in past payments and give them instead to charities supporting troops, veterans, and their families. This practice, which has been dubbed "paid-for patriotism" by critics, has cost the DOD nearly $7 million over the last three years,...

[...] "He is actually getting better every day," offensive coordinator Pat Shurmur said on Wednesday. "He works extremely hard. He is getting comfortable in what we do. He is having more good plays than bad plays out here. He is doing a very good job." [...] Now with the Eagles, and after spending two years working on his throwing motion, quarterbacks coach Ryan Day said he can see the hard work Tebow put in paying off. "He is working hard out here just like everyone out. He has some good throws, some throws he wants to get back," Day said....

[...] He looks improved Tebow was not in the NFL the past two seasons because of two things — his accuracy and his throwing motion. The two are tied together, and through two practices, Tebow looks to have improved from the last time he played in the NFL with the New England Patriots two years ago. Breaking down the mechanics of Tebow's throwing motion is a job for a quarterback's coach, not a beat reporter, but to the naked eye, nothing stands out about Tebow's throwing motion. He gets the ball out as quickly as the three other quarterbacks on...

'True, football, or soccer as it is known here, is not as central to American as it is to European, African or South and Central American life. Nowhere near. Up until recently, the game has been unloved by the major US television networks, which have long bemoaned the lack of breaks in play, the paucity of goals and the glut of draws. Absent from the US game are big-name male stars and big-name clubs. The New York Red Bulls will never rival the New York Yankees. Real Salt Lake pales, rather risibly, alongside Real Madrid. However, football is no longer...