Picking just one Tyson rant was hard, but this one be my favorite. In a post-fight interview, Tyson was asked a simple question, "Was this your shortest fight ever?" Tyson just went off on Lennox Lewis, who he was being positioned to fight soon: "Lennox is the conqueror? No I'm Alexander the conqueror ... My style is impetuous, my defense is impregnable, I'm just ferocious. I want your heart, I'm going to eat your children". Wow. Everyone knew Tyson was a little nutty by this point, but this was over the top even by his standards. Tyson would later lose the fight to Lewis.
Jim Rome is an ESPN talking head that likes to stir the pot, somewhat like Skip Bayless. In his interview with Jim Everett, Rome kept calling him "Chris Everett". Mr. Everett didn't appreciate this much, saying "I bet you don't say Chris again", To which Rome replied "I bet I do, Chris". Everett immediately got up up, flipped the interview table and pushed Rome to floor. I'm sure a lot of athletes have wanted to do this to Rome over the years.
Speaking of my buddy Skip Bayless, here he is. Unlike the Rome interview, Bayless was the one playing defense this time. Richard Sherman was unrelenting in his attack of Bayless. The interview went a few minutes with Sherman basically saying that whatever Bayless says doesn't matter because he's better at life than him. Meanwhile, poor Stephen A. Smith was stuck in the middle of the awkwardness.
I'm sure everyone remembers this classic, "We're not talking about a game, we're talking about practice". This Allen Iverson rant went a little less then two minutes. Iverson probably said the word practice about 832 times in that time span. My favorite part though was the followup question when Iverson was asked if practicing would help make his teammates better. To which Iverson responded ,"How in the he-- is me practicing going to help make my teammates better?" Great stuff.
After a big upset win the divisional playoff round against the rival New England Patriots, Bart Scott still had the adrenaline going. He would go on a rant about how nobody respected them and nobody believed. Sal Paolantonio said "good luck in Pittsburgh next week", and Scott replied very intensely, "Can't wait". This is why on-field interviews immediately following the game are great -- more adrenaline meansless filter.
During a blowout Monday Night loss, Derek Anderson was caught on camera having a chuckle with a teammate on the sideline. When asked about it in the postgame press conference, Anderson went nuts: "You think this funny? I'm not laughing, I take this bleep seriously". Oh Derek, at least you had one good year in Cleveland.
After a tough opening season loss in 1999, Keyshawn Johnson expressed his frustration in the offense before slamming both fists on the podium and storming out the door. Starting QB Vinny Testaverde tore his ACL in this game and was obviously lost for the season. In one fell swoop, the New York Jets went from a contender to basically having their season done for. Johnson knew this and just couldn't take it.
This one might be my favorite. After what could have been one of the worst quarterbacking performances of all time against the Kansas City Chiefs, young rookie Ryan Leaf flipped out on a reporter, saying "Knock it off!" He is without a doubt the biggest draft bust of all time.
Boxing champion Floyd Mayweather and commentator Larry Merchant don't really like each other. After a fight in which Merchant pretty much called Mayweather boring, the champ responded, "You never give me the respect I deserve. Larry Merchant knows nothing about boxing". A few fights later, they got into it again when Merchant said "If I were 50 years younger, I'd kick your ass." Can someone make a drug for that already?
During a sideline interview, legendary Jets quarterback Joe Namath told ESPN's Suzy Kolber that he wanted to kiss her twice. Kolber played it off beautifully. It was clear that Namath was having a good time before the interview -- perhaps too much of a good time knowing you're about to be on national television. I love what the MNF commentators said afterwards: "Joe's a happy guy, a really happy guy."
I'm sure Randy Moss said other stupid things before this, but him saying "I only play when I want to" is the one that stuck out to me. That mantra is just the epitome of Moss. He played up to his All-Star potential on good teams and totally packed it in on some not-so-good teams.
Over the years, people had come to expect a lot of crazy thing from Terrell Owens, but crying at interviews wasn't one of them. On the subject of teammate Tony Romo: "That's my teammate. That's my quarterback." It was kind of refreshing to see TO not be a jerk for a change.
Peyton Manning cursing like a sailor? Say it ain't so? It's true. Manning overheard teammate Jeff Saturday express frustration on why the team (Indianapolis Colts) didn't try running the ball more, Manning went over to Saturday and went nuts. I'm not sure I can do this one justice by explaining it. If you haven't seen it, then I suggest you look it up on Youtube.
Rafael Palmerio and a lot of other alleged juicers took to Capitol Hill to talk steroids with Congress. Mark McGwire didn't want to talk about the past. Sammy Sosa all of a sudden couldn't speak English. But nothing could top Palmerio emphatically pointing his finger and saying "I did not do steroids! Period." As we would come to find out, Palmerio might not have been all the way truthful with that statement. It was the finger pointing that did it. That was the equivalent of bluffing in poker by slamming your chips down when you make a bet.
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