People in Sports Revered in Death or Retirement Wo Were Jerks

I don't care at all if athletes are womanizers. I love women, too! What bothers me, in the cases of Woods and Jordan, say, is the idea that they're role models. They aren't. It's the hypocrisy I don't like.

 

Jordan's 2009 Hall of Fame speech, in which he ungraciously called out everyone who had ever slighted him, was what finally let everyone know the MJ you don't see in the commercials or in carefully curated videos from his playing days.

 

Is he complex? We say that because of his talent. If he were an accountant we would just call him a jerk.

 

Doerr and Pesky were saints to those associated with baseball in this neck of the woods (Doerr retired out here, Pesky is from Portland and visited a lot). They would do literally anything, speak at Little League, American Legion banquets, etc. Doerr sponsored a kids tournament and handed out trophies every year., etc. I interviewed him once and he was wonderful. Dale Murphy isn't in their class yet, but he still is held in high regard in PDX, as is native son Mickey Lolich.

I was lucky enough to cover Mike Riley teams for many years. None nicer, anywhere.

 

This thread appears each year during spring training. Is anyone today really surprised when famous people turn out to be people?

 

I was among a bunch of writers from our college paper who got into a Boomer charity event right after his disastrous last season with the Jets and he was a free agent. I got into the scrum afterward and could barely wait to ask a question. Alas, I kind of asked a dumb question, something about how the Jets would do next season after a rough season. He brushed me off with something along the lines of "As you may know, I'm a free agent, so I'm not the best person to ask about the Jets." Fine. I was young and stupid (as opposed to now), he could have been nicer to an obvious noobie at a charity event, but it was a dumb question.

Many many years later, I was talking to local celebs about the closing of Nassau Coliseum and went to some Boomer-headed charity event. Get him in the scrum afterward, ask him about his Coliseum memories and he tells me he's a Rangers fan. No shit Sherlock, anyone with a pulse knows that. He did give me something, but he also confirmed my collegiate first impression was correct.

I've also heard he's quite the ladies man, despite being married. And if you remember the Sports Illustrated piece about his son, it noted Boomer doesn't usually go to his football games. Your kid has cystic fibrosis, you work in NYC and you don't go to the football games on Long Island?

 

He pretends to be a man of the people on his radio show—notwithstanding his comments about NARPs—but really just comes off as fake and obnoxious. Typical Long Island d-bag.

Famously feuded with Michaels in the MNF booth and in a battle between the two I’ll always side with Al.

 

HEY. I'll fight you over this broad generalization at the mall, you fuck!

As for the Al Michaels skirmish, Al fights with everyone and is an even bigger better-known dick, so on that one I side with Boomer.

 

Society is a smoking crater in the ground b/c a less successful MJ occupies the White House.

 

Don't have this on first-hand account, but always heard Rollie Massimino was a class A prick (opposite the demeanor he tried to portray, which seems like the point of the thread). I can confirm, though, that Bob Feller was a crotchety old man.

 

Doerr married a woman from there and lived there during the offseason.