Athletes who did not speak to the media

[Steak Snabler]

Greg Lloyd stopped talking to the local media in Pittsburgh for a while. He would still talk to the national guys, but he made a fuss of telling everybody he wasn't talking to the local media any more because he had been misquoted.

The sad part is he was right. He was misquoted by a guy from one of the local newspapers. I wish I could say that it was an uncharacteristic error, but that particular reporter was one of the worst reporters and people I've ever met in the business.

Greg Lloyd is the only athlete I have ever covered who looked at me like he wanted to kill me. Not for anything I said or wrote. Just because.

I used to get the same vibe from (former Panthers, Saints and Colts LB) Andre Royal when I covered him in college. Just a menacing, menacing guy.

 

[Andy Friedlander]

Greg Lloyd stopped talking to the local media in Pittsburgh for a while. He would still talk to the national guys, but he made a fuss of telling everybody he wasn't talking to the local media any more because he had been misquoted.

The sad part is he was right. He was misquoted by a guy from one of the local newspapers. I wish I could say that it was an uncharacteristic error, but that particular reporter was one of the worst reporters and people I've ever met in the business.

Greg Lloyd is the only athlete I have ever covered who looked at me like he wanted to kill me. Not for anything I said or wrote. Just because.

I used to get the same vibe from (former Panthers, Saints and Colts LB) Andre Royal when I covered him in college. Just a menacing, menacing guy.

Really? I covered the Panthers in their first season and Royal was great to deal with. I did a feature on the team's three designated special teams maniacs -- he was one of them -- and he couldn't have been more fun. He had a great time describing the chaos that is kick coverage, and talked at length about the competition the three of them had for the team lead in ST tackles. In fact, all three of those guys -- Paul Butcher and Chad Cota were the others -- were great talkers.

 

[Steak Snabler]

Greg Lloyd stopped talking to the local media in Pittsburgh for a while. He would still talk to the national guys, but he made a fuss of telling everybody he wasn't talking to the local media any more because he had been misquoted.

The sad part is he was right. He was misquoted by a guy from one of the local newspapers. I wish I could say that it was an uncharacteristic error, but that particular reporter was one of the worst reporters and people I've ever met in the business.

Greg Lloyd is the only athlete I have ever covered who looked at me like he wanted to kill me. Not for anything I said or wrote. Just because.

I used to get the same vibe from (former Panthers, Saints and Colts LB) Andre Royal when I covered him in college. Just a menacing, menacing guy.

Really? I covered the Panthers in their first season and Royal was great to deal with. I did a feature on the team's three designated special teams maniacs -- he was one of them -- and he couldn't have been more fun. He had a great time describing the chaos that is kick coverage, and talked at length about the competition the three of them had for the team lead in ST tackles. In fact, all three of those guys -- Paul Butcher and Chad Cota were the others -- were great talkers.

He might have quit drinking by then.

 

[TheSportsPredictor]

Greg Lloyd stopped talking to the local media in Pittsburgh for a while. He would still talk to the national guys, but he made a fuss of telling everybody he wasn't talking to the local media any more because he had been misquoted.

The sad part is he was right. He was misquoted by a guy from one of the local newspapers. I wish I could say that it was an uncharacteristic error, but that particular reporter was one of the worst reporters and people I've ever met in the business.

Greg Lloyd is the only athlete I have ever covered who looked at me like he wanted to kill me. Not for anything I said or wrote. Just because.

Greg Lloyd came to my little podunk town in Ohio once as a "celebrity waiter" when he was the Steelers' United Way guy. This is an Ohio River town 45 minutes from Pittsburgh, big Steelers territory.

I was assigned to write about the event and I went up there for like the last half-hour. When I got there Greg Lloyd was sitting at a table all by himself, no one near him. Place wasn't all that busy, but still you would think there would be some attention. I went up to the table, sat down, introduced myself, asked him a few questions mostly inane stuff about the upcoming game. After about 3 minutes I knew he was getting pissed. I don't know all what happened at the restaurant. I asked him how he became the United Way guy. He said something along the lines of Mr. Rooney chose him, and when the boss tells you to go do something, you do it.

That was it for me. I left. Passed Mrs. Lloyd and their little boy, who had been at the mall to see the eye doctor. (Can't remember how I learned that detail.) Needless to say, he was a scary man.

Also saw him almost attack some guy in a charity basketball game. Of course, this local tough guy was banging on Lloyd the entire game and trying to prove how much a man he was, but still.

 

[Frank_Ridgeway]

RE: Steve Carlton in the thread-starter. That was pretty much a dickhead team, including Larry Bowa and Mike Schmidt and manager Dallas Green. There was at least a brief period (in either the 1979, 1980 or 1981 seasons) when really no one was talking except Pete Rose (who was great every time) and Green (such a monumental asshole that I avoided dealing with him after the first interview). It was so bad that I saw Nino Espinoza talking to a reporter, so I quickly headed over. But he shooed me away -- he would talk only in Spanish, to the guy from the Spanish-language paper. They were the visiting clubhouse, though, so it was abundantly easy to just shrug and say fork those people. I was glad I was not a Philly-area beat writer.

 

[mrbio]

Lefty Carlton was at a boxing show in Atlantic City this summer, Paul Williams vs. Erislandy Lara. He spoke with us briefly about his love for boxing and that he was a big Joe Frazier fan. But wouldn't go on the record for an official interview. Pretty nice guy.

 

[Mizzougrad96]

RE: Steve Carlton in the thread-starter. That was pretty much a dickhead team, including Larry Bowa and Mike Schmidt and manager Dallas Green. There was at least a brief period (in either the 1979, 1980 or 1981 seasons) when really no one was talking except Pete Rose (who was great every time) and Green (such a monumental asshole that I avoided dealing with him after the first interview). It was so bad that I saw Nino Espinoza talking to a reporter, so I quickly headed over. But he shooed me away -- he would talk only in Spanish, to the guy from the Spanish-language paper. They were the visiting clubhouse, though, so it was abundantly easy to just shrug and say fork those people. I was glad I was not a Philly-area beat writer.

I thought I had heard that Schmidt became less of a deck later in his career.

I had also heard that Rose was almost always great to deal with when he was playing.

A longtime baseball writer I worked with told me the holy trinity of miserable bastards to deal with were Jim Rice, Steve Carlton and Albert Belle.

I asked him who was the worst and he said, "My instinct is to say Belle, but that's only because it was more recent. They all deserve to go to the same level of heck."

That made me laugh...

 

[lantaur]

Curtis Pride was a decent player on some very bad William and Mary basketball teams. He was the only person of color on one of them, causing one writer to use the line, "Curtis and the Caucasians," when writing about the Tribe.

His basketball coach did not like him playing baseball.

"My point guard," he said once, "is not going to get a lot better when he's off hitting .136 in rookie ball."

I think history shows Mr. Pride made the right choice in playing baseball.

If memory serves correct, Pride also played soccer at William & Mary. The things your brain pops back up out of nowhere.

 

[TheSportsPredictor]

RE: Steve Carlton in the thread-starter. That was pretty much a dickhead team, including Larry Bowa and Mike Schmidt and manager Dallas Green. There was at least a brief period (in either the 1979, 1980 or 1981 seasons) when really no one was talking except Pete Rose (who was great every time) and Green (such a monumental asshole that I avoided dealing with him after the first interview). It was so bad that I saw Nino Espinoza talking to a reporter, so I quickly headed over. But he shooed me away -- he would talk only in Spanish, to the guy from the Spanish-language paper. They were the visiting clubhouse, though, so it was abundantly easy to just shrug and say fork those people. I was glad I was not a Philly-area beat writer.

I thought I had heard that Schmidt became less of a deck later in his career.

I had also heard that Rose was almost always great to deal with when he was playing.

A longtime baseball writer I worked with told me the holy trinity of miserable bastards to deal with were Jim Rice, Steve Carlton and Albert Belle.

I asked him who was the worst and he said, "My instinct is to say Belle, but that's only because it was more recent. They all deserve to go to the same level of heck."

That made me laugh...

I went into the White Sox locker room once when Albert Belle was the only one in there. I just felt the anger.

 

[Mizzougrad96]

As the story goes, Belle once took a notebook away from a reporter, threw it into the toilet and proceeded to go to the bathroom on it.

 

[mrbio]

Belle once grabbed a reporter's tape recorder and ate it in one bite.

 

[Moderator1]

Curtis Pride was a decent player on some very bad William and Mary basketball teams. He was the only person of color on one of them, causing one writer to use the line, "Curtis and the Caucasians," when writing about the Tribe.

His basketball coach did not like him playing baseball.

"My point guard," he said once, "is not going to get a lot better when he's off hitting .136 in rookie ball."

I think history shows Mr. Pride made the right choice in playing baseball.

If memory serves correct, Pride also played soccer at William & Mary. The things your brain pops back up out of nowhere.

I don't think he played at Wm. and Mary, but he was quite good. Was on one of the US Junior teams that played in an event in China. He told me once his goal was to play international soccer, collegiate basketball and major league baseball. He hit that trifecta.