People in Sports Revered in Death or Retirement Wo Were Jerks

I was at a charity event a few months ago where Herschel Walker and Bo Jackson were the featured speakers.

Herschel was friendly, gracious, told old football stories and talked at length about this year's Georgia team. He hung around afterward and shook hands and took pictures.

Bo was out of the room and headed out of town before the applause even died down at the end of the program. He also said he doesn't watch football and goes to two Auburn games a year, and only because his wife makes him.

That's awesome Bo, but probably not what the folks who paid $100 a pop to come hear you speak signed up for.

 

Bo doesn't care Diddley.

 

I read a book by Steve Wright, who was the third offensive tackle on the mid-60's Packers, and also played for Bryant at Alabama.

Lombardi got so mad at Wright once he attacked him. But Wright seemed to like Lombardi. He said about twice a year Lombardi would come around and reinflate you. On the other hand, he said Bryant was just a tower coach.

Was Lombardi a jerk with the public?

 

According to maraniss’s book, Lombardi was a jerk to his wife, kids, his assistants, the local press and his players. Bawled out the host at his favorite restaurant once because the wrong piano player was there. Seemed to like military guys, priests and the Kennedys.

 

If I'd known I'd still be posting here 15 years later, I probably wouldn't have opened my tenure with that story.

I can't remember who it was on the beat (or here?), but someone talked about the "mushroom-shaped bruise" on my forehead for a long time after.

 

It's a threadjack, but following up on Steak's story, whatever Herschel gets paid to do those events, he's more than worth it. I took our son to the national championship game last month, and Herschel was at the Heisman House tent. He took a bunch of questions from fans and then shook hands for pictures. He could've just told football stories and everyone would've been happy, but he also talked to the kids in the audience about his emotional issues and the importance of getting help, as well as helping others stand up to bullies, all in a down-to-earth way. He also went above & beyond in talking to people in the handshake/picture assembly line. I think our son may have appreciated that as much as he did the game.

 

This makes me happy. I had his poster on my wall as a kid.

 

George Brett. Just about everyone within 100 miles of KC has a "Brett is an ass" story from an encounter.

On the opposite, I found two people often vilified in the press - Latrell Sprewell and Randy Moss - particular engaging and interesting to interview when I assumed they'd be awful.

On a media to media note, interviewed Costas a few years ago and he could not have been less interested in it. That was disappointing as I was a true fanboi - going back to the Costas Coast to Coast years from Runyon's.

 

That is both shocking and disappointing. He was a speaker at a Poynter workshop that I went to in St. Louis in 2002. I too listened to Costas Coast to Coast weekly and had written him a letter when I was a kid which he responded to with a postcard. I stuck around to speak with him after and he chatted with me for about five minutes and posed for a picture. I Showed him the postcard and he seemed touched that I still had it.

 

Costas is from my neck of the woods and i've heard that multiple times.

Brett definitely looks and sounds like an ass, but a friend of mine who grew up a Royals fan ended up drinking with him the night before the Hall of Fame ceremonies a few years ago and said he was great. Probably helped that Brett was in his element there.

 

If anyone's saying good things about Mike Mussina these days, he is a prime example of the thread title.

Might like him more soon, though. His son, a very good QB, just transferred to my D-II alma mater from FCS Lafayette.

 

I think George Brett is one of those guys who decides he's either to going to war with you or war against you. I've heard of both with him. Back in 2002, he chartered his own flight to Bumfuck, Wisconsin, to attend a charity dinner thrown by the brother of Mike Jirschele, then the manager of Triple-A Omaha. That's a long way to go for the brother of a guy working in your minor-league organization.

(Of the trip, Brett told me: "They gave me cheese and crackers everywhere I went. I didn't shit for a week." So I have no problem with him, either.)