5 Classic Sports Meltdowns

Although there have been many cases of stressed-out coaches and players, I’ve compiled a list of five that I found to be most interesting examples of what happens when one is feeling overwhelmed in the world of sports:

1. Jim Mora, Indianapolis Colts head coach: Making one of my favorite sound bites ever, Mora constantly made ridiculous statements to the press out of frustration for his team’s losing ways. This tirade that gave the world “Playoffs?” happened on November 25, 2001 after a 40-21 loss to the San Francisco 49ers…how times have changed…

2. Joe Namath in the Suzy Kolber incident: This gem of an appearance by the former NFL star happened on December 20, 2003 during a nationally-televised Saturday night game. The obviously hammered Namath famously told Kolber that he wanted to kiss her and did not care about the team. Fortunately, this brought his alcoholism to the forefront and he did go into rehab and apologize to Kolber and the world for his actions.

3. Tommy Lasorda…many times! I can’t even put up the link in good conscience to any of Tommy’s tirades. Let’s just say that he regularly treated the press to four-letter-words and his honest opinion. He remains one of my favorite sports personalities on the planet but really needed effective ways to manage stress when he was the Los Angeles Dodgers skipper.

4. George Brett and the Pine Tar Incident: On July 24, 1983, George Brett completely lost his cool when a home run was called back due to the amount of pine tar he had on his bat. At the time, only 18 inches of the bat was allowed to be covered and his was apparently covered more. In the end, baseball ruled that the bat should have been removed and not the home run so the tantrum was unnecessary…

5. Bob Knight and the world! Like Lasorda, it’s hard to pick one incident with him. We have chair throwing, player choking, and press bashing just to name a few. Most interesting is that he is now an analyst on ESPN. Hopefully they have security on hand…