DEADLINE.com's Nellie Andreeva reported actors DWAYNE JOHNSON and MARK WAHLBERG's half-hour pilot, "BALLERS," has been "picked up" by HBO. The pilot, written by STEVE LEVINSON, explores the "lives of a group of former and current football players." Production will start "later this year" (DEADLINE.com, 2/13). Characters in the pilot "include a highly spiritual pro athlete, financial adviser, sports agent, ESPN sideline reporter and ex-wife of a pro football player" (VARIETY.com, 2/13).
CHARITY STRIPE: A tribute to victims, survivors and first responders of the Boston Marathon bombings "will be held on the anniversary" of the tragedy. The April 15 tribute at the Hynes Convention Center "will be hosted jointly" by Boston Mayor MARTIN WALSH and Massachusetts Gov. DEVAL PATRICK "in coordination with One Fund Boston" (AP, 2/13)....Celtics Managing Partner & CEO WYC GROUSBECK and his wife, CORINNE, paid for 12-year-old New Zealand resident LOUIS CORBETT, who has a condition called retinitis pigmentosa, to fly to Boston with his father to watch the team play the Warriors on March 5. Bank of America is opening its luxury box to them for the game (BOSTON GLOBE, 2/14)....Redskins QB ROBERT GRIFFIN III "donated more than $100,000 worth of athletic gear" to Copperas Cove Independent School District in Texas (WASHINGTONPOST.com, 2/13).
NAMES: Flyers Chair ED SNIDER is "ready to trade his Manhattan pied-a-terre at 50 Gramercy Park North" for $8.75M. He picked up the 2,873-square-foot, three-bedroom apartment three years ago for $7M (N.Y. DAILY NEWS, 2/14)....Fox NASCAR analyst DARRELL WALTRIP underwent “a minor surgical procedure on Thursday and could miss" Saturday night’s broadcast of the Sprint Unlimited at Daytona Int'l Speedway (CHARLOTTEOBSERVER.com, 2/13).
IN MEMORY: Braves Special Assistant and former MLBer JIM FREGOSI died on Friday at age 71 (TWITTER.com, 2/14). Fregosi, who on Sunday “suffered multiple strokes,” was “taken off life support” on Thursday night (AJC.com, 2/13)....Univ. of Memphis Head Athletic Trainer EDDIE CANTLER “died in his sleep at his home Wednesday night” at the age of 61 (Memphis COMMERCIAL APPEAL, 2/14)....Longtime Boston College Sports Information Dir DICK KELLEY died Thursday at age 48 after "a near-three year battle with ALS." Kelley graduated from BC in '87 and joined the sports information department in '91 (ESPN.com, 2/14).
