Former NFL linebacker Darron Lee will remain behind bars as he faces a first-degree murder charge in Tennessee.

Lee was taken into custody last week. In addition to the murder charge in the death of his girlfriend, Lee faces a charge of tampering with or fabricating evidence. 

On Wednesday, a Hamilton County Criminal Court Judge ruled that Lee, who spent the first three years of his professional football career with the New York Jets, would stay jailed without bond.

Lee is not scheduled to return to court until next month, but prosecutors on Wednesday signaled the case could qualify for the death penalty.

While Hamilton County District Attorney Coty Wamp made it clear there is no final decision concerning the pursuit of the death penalty, he did cite factors that could result in the case becoming eligible for capital punishment.

“Mr. Lee was in a home with a female (who) was, for lack of a better term, beaten to death,” Wamp said in court, arguing for the judge to withhold bond. “And the explanation that he gave doesn’t make any sense whatsoever.

FORMER NFL PLAYER DARRON LEE ARRESTED AMID ALLEGATIONS OF BEATING HIS OWN MOM, MOTHER OF 2-YEAR-OLD SON

“You walked in the door, there were boxes,” Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office Det. Brian Lockhart said, according to NewsChannel9. 

“A lot of stuff in the living room. The deceased was in the floor lying on her back. There was blood going up the staircase. On the hand railing there was blood. On the walls, there was blood. On the floor in the living room there was blood. On the floor in the hallway and the stairs.”

The victim in the case had been living in a rental home with Lee. The house is also believed to have been the site where Lee is alleged to have carried out the crime over an estimated 10-day period, Lockhart testified Wednesday.

The detective said he was present during the autopsy and learned the potential cause of death was blunt force trauma homicide. An autopsy report has not yet been released.

According to an arrest affidavit, first responders on Feb. 5 went to a home in the Chattanooga suburb of Ooltewah for a call of CPR in progress, where they found the woman already dead.

Lee told deputies the woman might have fallen in the shower, but, according to an arrest affidavit, there were extensive amounts of blood in different areas of the house that were inconsistent with Lee’s statement.

Authorities carrying out a search warrant found multiple types of trauma to the woman’s body, including a stab wound to her abdomen, an apparent human bite mark on her shoulder, a large bruise on her head, black eyes with heavy swelling and dried blood on her face and neck, according to the affidavit.

Investigators also found alcohol, narcotics and a gun, the affidavit said.

The affidavit said Lee had a facial injury, lacerations on his hands, wounds on his chest and blood inside the case of his cellphone.

Detectives also identified blood that someone attempted to clean up in multiple areas of the house, in addition to cleaning supplies near where testing confirmed there had been blood stains but no blood was visible, the affidavit said.

Wamp said Lee was on probation in Florida for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon in one county and battery in another and on probation in Ohio for attempted battery.

Mike Little, a deputy public defender representing Lee, told The Associated Press it was premature for him to make any statements.

The Jets selected Lee in the first round of the 2016 NFL Draft. He later played for the Kansas City Chiefs and Buffalo Bills, last appearing in an NFL game in 2020.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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PALM BEACH, Fla. — In 2012, an attorney for Major League Baseball told a bankruptcy court judge that the league might soon find itself divided into “the Dodgers and the other 29 teams.”

That time might be now, at least according to fans outside Los Angeles. The Dodgers are the first back-to-back World Series champions in 25 years, they are guaranteed hundreds of millions of dollars in local television revenue every year at a time some teams are guaranteed nothing, and they are the only team with a roster headlined by a pitcher/designated hitter/tourist attraction/marketing icon/cash machine.

For Dodgers fans, nothing could be better than a team that makes lots of money, spends lots of money, and wins unapologetically.

For other fans, not so much.

This time last year, Commissioner Rob Manfred talked about how his email reflected concern from fans across America about how their teams could not compete.

As major league owners meet here this week to consider a probable push for a salary cap, I asked one of those owners — one with a team that competes against the Dodgers in the National League West — what he hears from fans on that score.

“I think all of us recognize that fans are not happy when they see their team not being able to be as competitive as they would like,” Arizona Diamondbacks owner Ken Kendrick said. “That is a widely known situation.”

It is widely known in, say, Kansas City and Miami and Pittsburgh. It is more urgent in Arizona, where the Diamondbacks last won a division championship in 2011, the year before Mark Walter and Guggenheim Baseball bought the Dodgers.

To Arizona fans, the enemy is not the system, even if Kendrick says the Dodgers have mastered the system rather than skirted it. To Arizona fans, the enemy is the Dodgers.

“They are the 900-pound gorilla,” Kendrick said. “I think it’s obviously widely seen that way by everybody who has any interest in our sport. They are seen as that.

“I don’t mean that in a disrespectful way at all. They are playing by the rules.”

If competitive balance is the concern, the Diamondbacks could try to get away from the Dodgers and get out of the NL West. Kendrick did not think much of that idea.

“You have to beat everybody to win it all,” he said. “It doesn’t really matter. There is a legitimate opportunity. The last time I looked seriously at it, I think my club beat them to go to the World Series.

“They are beatable.”

In 2023, the Dodgers won the NL West by 16 games. In the postseason, the Diamondbacks eliminated the Dodgers in a three-game sweep.

“We’re in a competitive business,” Kendrick said. “I’m OK with competition. It’s all the better when you beat somebody who is more highly rated than you are.”

The Diamondbacks qualified for the playoffs that year with 84 victories, taking advantage of an expanded playoff system intended to enhance competitive balance. They did not need to spend at Dodgers levels, and they did not need to win the division. They got hot in October, and they got to the World Series.

So is Kendrick saying the Diamondbacks can compete against the Dodgers, or they cannot?

“We have competed against them,” he said. “I think, on a regular-season basis — and I’m trying to be honest about the competitive atmosphere — they are a more competitive team than we are.

“That doesn’t mean we can’t end up playing for the championship, because we just did it.”

Here is something the Dodgers just did: They signed outfielder Kyle Tucker for $60 million per year, for four years, to support Ohtani and Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman and Will Smith in their lineup.

The Diamondbacks try, which is not true of all teams. They signed ace Corbin Burnes last winter for $35 million per year, for six years. He made 11 starts and then underwent Tommy John surgery.

To say other owners should spend more, yes. To say other owners can sign Tucker for that kind of money to accent their starting lineup, well, no.

“I think they made a solid business decision, based on the rules that we have,” Kendrick said. “They have deferred a ton of that money down the road, so the economics are not as they might appear in the moment. It’s a very, very significant investment. He’s obviously earned his money.”

He is going to help the Diamondbacks earn money, too.

Of the Diamondbacks’ seven largest crowds last season, five came against the Dodgers. The average crowd in Arizona for games involving the Dodgers: 43,441; for games against every other team: 27,865.

“It is L.A. It’s fairly close,” Kendrick said. “We get a lot of L.A. people coming to our ballpark.”

And a lot more fans from Arizona too, right?

“No,” he said. “You’re an L.A. guy.”

The Dodgers led MLB in road attendance last season. People come out to see Ohtani and the Traveling All-Stars.

“Of course,” Kendrick conceded. “When you’re a sports fan, you want to see the very best players.

“And they have many of them.”

Kendrick and his fellow owners are here to discuss some way — a salary cap or otherwise — to stop the Dodgers from having so many of the very best players.

United States figure skating pair Madison Chock and Evan Bates secured the silver medal at the 2026 Milan Cortina Games, finishing with a total score of 224.39 after notching a 134.67 score in their free dance Wednesday night.

Chock and Bates, the married couple who have been skating together for over a decade, were beaten out for gold by French pairing Laurence Fournier Beaudry and Guillaume Cizeron, who scored a 135.64 in the free dance for a total of 225.82.

It was the pairing’s best score to date, and it was needed to edge out Chock and Bates, the pair who won the U.S. its 12th medal at the Games thus far.

Finishing in third place for the bronze medal was the emotional Canadian pair of Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier, who were ecstatic seeing their final score of 217.74 after a 131.56 free dance result to put them in podium position.

A second U.S. group of Emilea Zingas and Vadym Kolesnik, making their Olympic debut, finished fifth with a total 206.72 points.

Chock and Bates were trailing the French couple by 0.46 of a point entering the free dance Wednesday night, and they were searching for their first ice dance Olympic medal with hopes that it would obviously be gold.

Their matador routine, dancing to a rendition of The Rolling Stones’ “Paint It, Black” drew cheers from the crowd, and they finished with tears in their eyes.

Chock and Bates are two-time team gold winners after Sunday’s Team USA victory, but they had to watch one more routine to see if they could capture gold when Fournier Beaudry and Cizeron took the ice.

After a similarly brilliant routine, the judges decided the French duo did enough to defeat the Americans in the end.

Cizeron won the ice dance title at the Beijing Games in 2022, though it was with his former partner, Gabriella Papadakis, with whom he also won five world titles with.

Their split, though, was filled with controversy, as Papadakis accused Cizeron of an “unbalanced” relationship, where she felt she was “under his grip” in her memoir. She also claimed he was “controlling” and “demanding.”

Cizeron called it a “smear campaign” and “false information,” saying he will take legal action against his partner he had been skating with since they were children.

Fournier Beaudry dealt with her own controversy last year, when she was with Canadian skater Nikolaj Sorensen in a personal and professional relationship. Sorensen was hit with a six-year suspension after a sexual assault allegation from 2012, though it involved an American skating coach, not Fournier Beaudry.

Fournier Beaudry was rushed into French citizenship last year to partner with Cizeron. They won four of their five major title events together, though their one second-place finish was to Chock and Bates at the International Skating Union Grand Prix Final.

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