DJ Eberle is a student/athlete at Western New England University. He is an offensive tackle, built like his dad; a rugby Prop. Today he fills in for West Coast Craig, who is losing his house and children’s future in Vegas. Track him on Twitter @Ebstide52
HAVANA, CUBA – Nobody is perfect. Especially not Ozzie Guillen. Guillen is known for his off-field antics and his off-the-cuff comments towards the media about everything from throwing his players under the bus, to professing his love for Cuban President Fidel Castro. During a spring training Time Magazine interview Ozzie professed his love to the strongly disliked and highly controversial Cuban leader. Did he go too far? Where does this gaff rank with the rest of the media slip ups by coaches, managers, and players throughout sports history? Let’s find out!
#1 Gregg Williams: Saints v. 49ers Pre-Game Talk “We don’t f—ing apologize for how we play the game.” January 2012 – Gregg Williams is an idiot. And so are the rest of the members of the New Orleans Saints organization. I don’t know how they weren’t going to sneak past Roger Goodell on this one. Especially with having someone doing a documentary of their pregame speech by Williams for their playoff game against the 49ers last season. Williams directly notions targeting San Francisco players like running back Frank Gore and tight end Vernon Davis. The things that Williams says in his speech are unspeakable and are nothing I have ever heard in my 14 years of playing football. After hearing this speech Williams doesn’t deserve a job in sports anywhere. Disgusting.
#2 Ozzie Guillen: Time Magazine Interview “I love Fidel Castro.” March 2012 – As we mentioned above, Ozzie’s Crazy Train has derailed but one week into his new job as Manager of the Miami Marlins. His I HEART FIDEL profession leaves him standing alone in the head coaching/manager gaff category. All of the other bloopers and blunders I will list are not really offensive and worth losing one’s job, but Guillen’s certainly is. HAH! This is what I thought before I remembered how stupid Gregg Williams was. But still, Ozzie Guillen was meant to be the “Latin connection” for the Marlins to the Latin American population in Miami. Guillen was meant to be a positive figure and a good way to build a solid base with the Latin American community in Miami, that his comment in Time hurts him a lot. In Latin Americans eyes’ Castro is “their Hitler” according to ESPN‘s Dan Le Batard, who is Latin American decent. In Le Batard’s eyes this is the “…worst possible thing that Ozzie Guillen could have said given who fills the seats of that stadium.” It’ll be interesting to see how Guillen comes back from his comments and how he will be perceived by fans after his apology. Supposedly Guillen hasn’t been able to soundly sleep since his quote broke news.
#3 Allen Iverson: “Practice” April 2006 – “We talking about practice man. We ain’t talking about the game.” Allen Iverson used to be one of the most prolific scorers in the NBA. In 2006 his career took a bit of a turn for the worst. He had his press conference outburst about practice. No not about a game, practice (haha.) He showed up at tip-off for the final home game of the 2005-2006. He showed up 90 minutes late along side Chris Webber and both were not allowed to suite up. Ever since, his career numbers haven’t been the same, and he doesn’t even play in American anymore. It’s a shame because AI was one of my favorite players. Heck, I had the guy’s shoes.
#4 David Bennett: “What are you doing in here little kittycat?” September 2011 – Ummm what? David Bennett the head coach of Coastal Carolina really throws a wrench here for a press conference. I gotta admit, I’ve never seen something quite like this. This is nothing that will cost Bennett his job or anything like that. But is it really something that motivating for his players? Sure he’s trying to get the point across to his players to toughen up that they need to act more like dogs and not cats. But still, I mean this is just odd. It’s certainly something to laugh at and a way to bring publicity to his school.
#5 Jim Mora: November 2001 – “Playoffs!?” Former Indianapolis Colts head coach Jim Mora, made one of the most memorable sound bytes from a press conference ever! Jim Mora was asked whether or not he thought his team would make the playoffs after a November loss to the San Francisco 49ers which put his team in a 4-6 hole. Mora’s high pitched sound byte of “playoffs” has been used on a lot of big platforms, most notably a Coors Light commercial, which uses Mora’s press conference as the basis of the commercial. This is just one of those things you never forget.
That’s all for now. Feel free to offer your top moment in sports stupidity and please tune in tomorrow for our loose canon, Angry Ward.
