People in Sports Revered in Death or Retirement Wo Were Jerks

Exactly. Give me good quotes and good color.

 

I didn't realize that two other Olympians who went to the school, but I did know that Hamm attended Lake Braddock. If I remember what I read about her correctly, she was only there for one year. That always stuck with me because she and I were born on the same day and I was a student at one of the neighboring high schools, though I don't remember hearing about her then. I do remember seeing Grant Hill play for South Lakes in a game at my high school that same year.

 

Most people I know who are shy turn out to be the most jugmental assholes in the world, but simply don’t have the courage of their convictions. Not all, but most.

 

My freshman year of college, my high school cross country teammate and I drove over to the Disney complex to watch the FootLocker Cross Country Championships.

We took my mom's shitty 1995 Ford Escort and my teammate, an interesting high school junior we lovingly called Mullet Mike, found an untouched loose cigarette in the crease of the seat.

Naturally, he thinks it would be funny to walk around a major cross country meet with a cigarette in his mouth. Naturally, he's right. We get a lot of double takes throughout the morning. And Michael Johnson -- there for some reason, honorary starter or paid Nike appearance or something -- says: "Is that thing lit?" ... shaking his head all the while.

So, that's my Michael Johnson story.

Good times.

 

I'd buy that for a lot of guys, but that doesn't explain the willingness to accept the perks of celebrity while playing for the Sox, or the post-career turn in a field that requires him to talk all the time.

 

Nomar had relatively little of the celebrity perks of being a Red Sox star in Boston. Didn't do commercials of note, few public appearances. Afterwards, maybe he just relaxed when his career was over and he got married. Also, and this is pure speculation, he had positive treatment for his obvious obsessive-compulsive disorder.

 

Do the Hartford whalers count? I see more people wearing whalers stuff living in the south now than I did when I was growing up about 45 minutes from their affiliate in Binghamton . There is a lot of nostalgia for a team that didn’t do much on the ice.

 

His OCD was so underplayed. "Look at the quirky shit he does between pitches!" I was like, "Watch this man's serious mental disorder on public display."

 

Jim Rice. Interviewed him at a celebrity golf tournament. Total dick.

 

Carl is all about Carl. Carl will talk animatedly to you all day about Carl. Carl is the smartest guy in his universe.
Michael is a pretty private guy. I don't know that he really likes to talk to anyone outside his social circle. He can definitely come off as a jerk, though.
Those two guys hate each other, though, I can tell you that.

 

Being a good interview has little to do with not being an asshole.

 

Bob Knight might've been the consistently best interview of my career.