What athletes have you guys met before, and what was your perception of them afterwards?
Just off the top of my head, biggest assholes I've met:
Hanley Ramirez
Dan Marino - big , was kind of surprised but others warned me he was like that.
Tim Hardaway
Gary Sheffield
Bill Parcells (not a player, but the ultimate asshole).
Andre Reed
Good guys:
Cal Ripken Jr
Tony Gwynn - nicest (former) athlete you'll ever meet, imho
Jeff Conine
Zo (he was surprisingly cool...I thought Tim would be cool and Zo would be a but it was vice-versa).
Jim Kelly
Darryl Talley
Carlos Boozer (unexpected).
Chad Pennington
Caron Butler - met him in line at a Burger King in Coconut Grove, back when he played for the Heat
I'm forgetting a bunch...
I had like the coolest experience ever when I met Phil Simms, of course my friend said he was a complete asshole when he tried to get an autograph for his kid from him. Simms was eating dinner with his family at the time but still... I guess a lot of it depends on the mood they're in when you talk to them.
BB will weigh in on this thread. He's met a bunch of them IIRC.
I just said o to Simms and asked him his opinion on the game (Giants vs. Eagles) a few years ago, and we ended up talking for like a good 5-10 minutes.
I have met quite a few over the decades... by far, and not even close as far as 'good guys" go,was suprisingly Bad Boy Marty McSorley. By that I mean he is just a down to earth approachable nice guy that would spend hours with a fan simply talking family as if you were part of his.
Forgot a couple major ones:
A-Rod on 2 occasions - back when he was playing HS ball at Westminster...he was cool, had some personality. Met him another time on the sidelines of the 2000 Orange Bowl (the FSU-Oklahoma debacle of a game)...he wasn't an asshole, but he was vacant, personality-wise. Tiger Woods was the same (met him during that game as well).
I saw OJ Simpson regularly at either Dave and Busters in the Dolphin Mall, or at Corbett's Bar in Kendall. He was a pretty nice guy for a double murderer
Met Shaq back in 2003 when the Lakers and Spurs played in the WCF, the night Timmy got his MVP. Was like 2 a.m and was at IHop with some family visiting from Missouri, all of a sudden Shaqs big ass walks in and chunks the deuce to us (wearing our Spurs gear). We asked the waitress if she could ask him to take a picture after he was done eating with his friends from Cole HS (apparently they all get together when he comes back into town) he was surprisingly nice considering they had just lost a big game and we were a bunch of Spurs fans. Took pics, signed a newspaper, great guy. Hard for me to badmouth him since he was so damn cool
It would get so old to be pestered at every moment. Dinner with family would be one of those situations when fans should show some restraint. But on the flip side, you only get the opportunity here and there so it's a double edged sword.
wtf? where did you meet all these guys?What athletes have you guys met before, and what was your perception of them afterwards?
Just off the top of my head, biggest assholes I've met:
Hanley Ramirez
Dan Marino - big , was kind of surprised but others warned me he was like that.
Tim Hardaway
Gary Sheffield
Bill Parcells (not a player, but the ultimate asshole).
Andre Reed
Good guys:
Cal Ripken Jr
Tony Gwynn - nicest (former) athlete you'll ever meet, imho
Jeff Conine
Zo (he was surprisingly cool...I thought Tim would be cool and Zo would be a but it was vice-versa).
Jim Kelly
Darryl Talley
Carlos Boozer (unexpected).
Chad Pennington
Caron Butler - met him in line at a Burger King in Coconut Grove, back when he played for the Heat
I'm forgetting a bunch...
I've never actually met a professional athlete (not a lot of them in Lubbock crofl), gotten a lot of autographs from old Texas Rangers but that's about it.
Manu > good >>>> class
I have to say the Red Rocket was a nice guy too... unsurprisingly...
tbh, I guess the only one I could say is Michael Crabtree when he went to Tech.
Gigantic y asshole
Mugsy Bogues was cool as .
God bless McSorley and his illegal stick
I only met a few here in DC.
Terrell Davis- Really cool guy. I was working at a Sports Bar when he walked in. No one knew him and this was a year after he won Super Bowl MVP
Kwame Brown- Saw him at a local TGIF in Arlington VA, he was a week away from being traded to the Lakers for Caron Butler. I think he was with his agent. Again, no one was paying attention to him, but he looked like a nice guy.
Brendan Haywood- A real asshole. He has this air of sense of en lement when I saw him at Toys R Us. I think he bought PS2 or something.
Bobby Simmons-Saw the guy at a local bar. He was with a guy (probably his agent) and a white chick (early 40's. A Milf). Cool guy, he was smiling and nodding at everyone. Funny thing is no one porbably really knows him lol.
LaVar Arrington- Wicked cool. Me and my friends saw him at a local Restaurant, as he was passing by our table my friend hollered and Lavar stopped and chatted for a while. Before he left us, he told our server that he was going to pick up our tab ($45 lol).
Shawn Bradley- Tall, White and an Asshole. Saw him with his wife and their kid at a Marriott Hotel.
I caddied for Ryan Leaf a long time ago. Even a bigger than advertised.
AC Green is the coolest dude ever. Don't buy the virgin shtick though. I'm positive he was banging the out a couple bored housewives from the gym.
Charlie Weis was a huge f'ing bag when I met him while deployed. He was there with some other college coaches as a "See the troops" type of tour, and while I was waiting in line he was grumbling about how late it was. (It was roughly 2200 hrs.)
Then when I thanked him for the Pats SB wins and what he'd done to help, he kinda blew it off. I guess he wanted me to start sucking his popsicle over Notre Dame.
Really?
Hanley - met at Mansion (club) on South Beach. Prick.
Zo, Timmy, and Marino - Zo's Summer Groove, years ago
Ripken and Gwynn - HOF inductions in 07 (covered it as a stringer for a local newspaper).
Sheffield and Conine - We (me and my brother) met when we were kids at Joe Robbie Stadium...it was a meet-and-greet for a few thousand fans before a home game. Jeff was cool, Gary got pissed cause we took more than one picture
Reed and Talley - met them (as well as many others) along the edge of the front-row during pregame warm-ups in a Bills-Dolphins game years ago. Talley was a personal favorite (spiderman!), but Reed was very standoffish and refused autographs. I was a little kid so I took that as a slight.
Kelly - met him on the sidelines of a Canes game in 2002.
Boozer - met through a mutual friend during a party, the one I told you I was ghost-writing an AB for.
Pennington - pregame warmups, Bills-Dolphins game (2008)
It's rude to try and get an autograph while someone is out eating dinner with their family. Not surprised he got chewed out.
Most hockey players are cool as . I met McSorley, Jari Kurri, Luc Robitaille and a bunch of other Kings back in the day and they were all super nice.
Orel Hershiser on the other hand is a prick. And he's a poker player.
I didn't meet him, but I saw Brian Westbrook of Philly Eagles fame dropping $500 dollar bets on the tables in the Venetian.
I have met Shaun White and he is as goofy and laid back as he is on T.V. really nice guy. Someone mistakened him for Carrot Top as he was talking to us.
Since I was part of the skate scene in the 90's, I've met Eric Koston, Tony Hawk, Sal Barberi, Steve Caballero, Christian Hosoi, and only Koston came off as pretentious, but very cool people.
I went to school with Matt Leinart, Reggie Bush, and Lendale White. Met and saw only Lendale White and just said what's up.
Pete Rose wasn't all that the media and people make him out to. Actually, he looked down in the dumps when I saw him signing autographs in Vegas.
Biggest a-hole? Was probably...hmm meeting Milton Bradley (local Poly product)...not a surprise.
I heard A-Rod used to be cool with fans but got douchier as time went on probably because of steroids and how his relationship with the media changed.
Same with Bonds, he used to be bearable but became a giant asshole as he got older
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