# Most popular athlete who was a jerk **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [December 15, 2009, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-popular-athlete-who-was-a-jerk/521357 "2009-12-15T14:34:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![gonzomax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e8c25b/32.png) [@gonzomax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gonzomax)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2009, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-popular-athlete-who-was-a-jerk/521357/41 "2009-12-15T21:57:27Z")
> [@Theodore\_Striker](#): > > A second for Pete Rose, he defines the term “self serving ass” well. He is still beloved by a lot of folks in Cincinnati who know him only as the hustling hometown boy who made something of himself and was hard done by the man. Anyone who has met him in any other setting than an autograph signing will tell you he has the class of a hairy boar. When he played a game in Detroit my wife and son had an encounter with him. They call him Pete the Jerk. ---
**Author:** ![gonzomax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e8c25b/32.png) [@gonzomax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gonzomax)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2009, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-popular-athlete-who-was-a-jerk/521357/42 "2009-12-15T21:59:12Z")
> [@Gray\_Ghost](#): > > My favorite George Best story is the following: > Take the example of George Best, the famous soccer player who at the ignominious end of his brilliant football career was forced to sell himself to the highest bidder among provincial teams of the world. One time, after a season with the San Jose Earthquakes, Best hit the Las Vegas casinos and walked away with considerable cash. > > A bellboy answering Best’s call for room service was saddened to see him lying in his hotel bed in a sea of banknotes surrounded by empty champagne bottles and accompanied by a naked Miss World candidate. The bellboy asked with a heavy heart: “Oh George, where did it all go wrong?” > > My experience could not have been more different. When I worked at a golf resort in the mid-90’s I had the pleasure of driving Mr. Stewart to his room after his round. We got to chatting and he ended up giving me a brief putting lesson. He seemed a thorough nice guy, as were most of the PGA Tour golfers I’d met. I believe I met him after his public conversion to evangelical Christianity, so he may have been a jerk before he found Christ. Never did meet Tiger, Mickelson, or Daly. > > In the years I worked in hospitality, the vast majority of athletes and celebrities I met were nice people, just trying to get from one engagement to the next. > > Their hangers-on and staff, on the other hand… > > A name I haven’t seen yet in this thread that I think may meet the OP’s criteria, is Lance Armstrong. Beloved and admired by fans—including me—for his cycling and charity work, and yet my third and fourth-hand understanding from talking to people in Austin is that he is a complete jerk. I’ve never met him, nor can the people I’ve talked to explain exactly why he’s supposed to be such a bad guy, but there you go. Perhaps his focus and dedication comes off to those people as arrogance? Paine changed later on. He became pretty nice. It took a while for the players and volunteers to trust him. ---
**Author:** ![villa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/bc79bd/32.png) [@villa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/villa)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2009, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-popular-athlete-who-was-a-jerk/521357/43 "2009-12-15T22:02:32Z")
Phil Mickelson is adored by fans, and distinctly disliked by golf professionals. His nickname on the tour is supposedly FIGJAM, standing for Fuck I’m Great, Just Ask Me. ---
**Author:** ![NDP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ndp/32/55_2.png) [@NDP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NDP)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2009, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-popular-athlete-who-was-a-jerk/521357/44 "2009-12-15T23:19:47Z")
> [@Stink Fish Pot](#): > > Roger Clemens really defined this, didn’t he? Everyone liked Clemens (except Mike Piazza) until the steroid fiasco on Capitol Hill. Not really. Long before the steroid fiasco and the Piazza incident, Clemens had the reputation for having a short fuse. That was one reason why despite his on-filed success he never became as marketable figure for MLB as, for example, Derek Jeter. Also, Boston Red Sox fans place Roger Clemens is in the same category as Judas and Benedict Arnold after allegedly dogging it during his last few seasons in Boston and signing with the hated Yankees a few years later. ---
**Author:** ![StusBlues](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dc4da7/32.png) [@StusBlues](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StusBlues)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2009, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-popular-athlete-who-was-a-jerk/521357/45 "2009-12-15T23:32:34Z")
> [@Stink Fish Pot](#): > > Steve Carlton of the Phillies was not a very nice guy off the field, and never spoke to reporters. Great pitcher, though. I don’t know how he was with fans, but I never heard anyone say anything nice about him off the field. I met him at a charity event a few years ago. Seemed as civil as anyone, and he was indeed donating his time. I’d suspect he may have a form of Asperger’s were he not so physically gifted. He’s very socially awkward, yet very evenhanded. I’ve never really gotten the jerk vibe from him–more the “leave me alone” thing. ---
**Author:** ![pravnik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8edcca/32.png) [@pravnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pravnik)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2009, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-popular-athlete-who-was-a-jerk/521357/46 "2009-12-16T00:26:21Z")
> [@Ravenman](#): > > I’ve heard that George Foreman is nothing better than a thug with a great PR sense, but I don’t follow boxing very closely. He certainly was in his youth, by his own admission. He grew up so poor in Houston’s 5th Ward that he’d go to school hungry and find an empty greasy paper bag on the way so he could pretend that he’d already eaten his lunch. Growing up in hunger and poverty made him angry and mean as hell so that he took to brawling, and by age 14 he was mugging and robbing as well. In his early career he wasn’t the beloved “Big George” he is now; he was a scary, firebreathing mankiller from the streets. Age and wealth have supposedly softened him into a pretty nice guy now. ---
**Author:** ![FoieGrasIsEvil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foiegrasisevil/32/16638_2.png) [@FoieGrasIsEvil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FoieGrasIsEvil)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2009, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-popular-athlete-who-was-a-jerk/521357/47 "2009-12-16T03:35:38Z")
> [@pravnik](#): > > He certainly was in his youth, by his own admission. He grew up so poor in Houston’s 5th Ward that he’d go to school hungry and find an empty greasy paper bag on the way so he could pretend that he’d already eaten his lunch. Growing up in hunger and poverty made him angry and mean as hell so that he took to brawling, and by age 14 he was mugging and robbing as well. In his early career he wasn’t the beloved “Big George” he is now; he was a scary, firebreathing mankiller from the streets. Age and wealth have supposedly softened him into a pretty nice guy now. Ah, hence the grill that bears his name. Full circle and all that. Nice. ---
**Author:** ![Manduck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/manduck/32/256_2.png) [@Manduck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Manduck)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2009, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-popular-athlete-who-was-a-jerk/521357/48 "2009-12-16T04:11:22Z")
> [@spoke-](#): > > How about **Pete Rose**? He was always sort of a jerk, but people still loved him for the way he hustled. I don’t think people did love him that much. I don’t think I’ve heard any player be booed as loudly and as often as Rose was, except maybe Reggie Jackson. ---
**Author:** ![pravnik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8edcca/32.png) [@pravnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pravnik)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2009, 4:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-popular-athlete-who-was-a-jerk/521357/49 "2009-12-16T04:52:31Z")
> [@FoieGrasIsEvil](#): > > Ah, hence the grill that bears his name. Full circle and all that. Nice. Seriously. A lot of that bio was from an NPR interview where they were asking him about how he felt about his grill being a tool for the homeless to cook for themselves, and he was touched and inspired to tell his interviewers about how much that meant to him because of his experiences growing up hungry and deeply angry as a child. It’s odd to hear - I guess you don’t realize that a child could actually grow up in the U.S missing most of their meals for the day in elementary school, but that’s what happpened. It was really, really sad to hear him talking about growing up missing meals and hungry and full of hatred. The interview is on NPR if anyone wants to search. ---
**Author:** ![FoieGrasIsEvil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foiegrasisevil/32/16638_2.png) [@FoieGrasIsEvil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FoieGrasIsEvil)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2009, 5:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-popular-athlete-who-was-a-jerk/521357/50 "2009-12-16T05:29:22Z")
> [@pravnik](#): > > Seriously. A lot of that bio was from an NPR interview where they were asking him about how he felt about his grill being a tool for the homeless to cook for themselves, and he was touched and inspired to tell his interviewers about how much that meant to him because of his experiences growing up hungry and deeply angry as a child. It’s odd to hear - I guess you don’t realize that a child could actually grow up in the U.S missing most of their meals for the day in elementary school, but that’s what happpened. It was really, really sad to hear him talking about growing up missing meals and hungry and full of hatred. The interview is on NPR if anyone wants to search. I believe you, I just find it odd and sort of amusing that he would turn his rage into a multimillion dollar enterprise selling indoor grills. I recall the commercials, I don’t think he was marketing the grill to the needy. I do have to say though that short of a real outside kind of grill, those things were pretty versatile for cooking indoors. ---
**Author:** ![FoieGrasIsEvil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foiegrasisevil/32/16638_2.png) [@FoieGrasIsEvil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FoieGrasIsEvil)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2009, 5:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-popular-athlete-who-was-a-jerk/521357/51 "2009-12-16T05:32:03Z")
> [@Manduck](#): > > I don’t think people did love him that much. I don’t think I’ve heard any player be booed as loudly and as often as Rose was, except maybe Reggie Jackson. I believe as a transplanted outsider Cincinnatian looking inside lo these hoary 20 years that more and more people are less and less overwhelmed by the legend of Pete Rose and more and more aware of the douchebaggery that is now his legacy. 'Course, the Reds being a joke for about 20 years has something to do with that too, along with Marge Schott, etcetera. That guy is an unrepentant asshole. Fuck him. ---
**Author:** ![pravnik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8edcca/32.png) [@pravnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pravnik)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2009, 5:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-popular-athlete-who-was-a-jerk/521357/52 "2009-12-16T05:53:37Z")
> [@FoieGrasIsEvil](#): > > I believe you, I just find it odd and sort of amusing that he would turn his rage into a multimillion dollar enterprise selling indoor grills. I recall the commercials, I don’t think he was marketing the grill to the needy. I do have to say though that short of a real outside kind of grill, those things were pretty versatile for cooking indoors. Absolutely - don’t get me wrong, I’m not excusing anything Foreman has ever done, I’m just passing the story along. The man and the grill are what they are. ---
**Author:** ![Xema](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/9de053/32.png) [@Xema](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Xema)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2009, 6:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-popular-athlete-who-was-a-jerk/521357/53 "2009-12-16T06:17:06Z")
> [@gonzomax](#): > > I heard Palmer was cranking like Tiger during his younger days. I wouldn’t know. But I met him a couple of years ago and I can tell you he does a fine impersonation of a friendly, humble, all-around classy guy. ---
**Author:** ![Dinsdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/97f17d/32.png) [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2009, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-popular-athlete-who-was-a-jerk/521357/54 "2009-12-16T14:24:44Z")
At some point after the Rumble in the Jungle, didn’t GF find God and become a minister of some kind? But back at the time, he was considered little more than an illiterate violent thug with superhuman punching power. Folk were concerned that he would seriously injure Ali. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2009, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-popular-athlete-who-was-a-jerk/521357/55 "2009-12-16T14:34:38Z")
Tiger Woods definitely had the cleanest image and therefore fell the hardest. ---
**Author:** ![Moriarty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moriarty/32/49_2.png) [@Moriarty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moriarty)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2009, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-popular-athlete-who-was-a-jerk/521357/56 "2009-12-16T16:20:59Z")
> [@astorian](#): > > There have always been athletes and celebs who were wrongly perceived as nice guys, even though they were really jerks (Kirby Puckett)… I’m not familiar with such information…you can count me among those who always heard that Puckett was a good guy. Please elaborate. ---
**Author:** ![Yorikke](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yorikke/32/4335_2.png) [@Yorikke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yorikke)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2009, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-popular-athlete-who-was-a-jerk/521357/57 "2009-12-16T17:54:28Z")
> [@Tom\_Scud](#): > > I’m now trying to imagine an overachieving Barry Bonds. Does not compute. Yeah, just one man in baseball can’t simply WILL his team to a title. They throw the ball, he hits it, period. Maybe makes a catch or two. What’s a brother gonna do other than that, to make his team win? But yeah, a prick. Even here in SF, people think he’s a prick, just our prick. Joe ---
**Author:** ![Yorikke](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yorikke/32/4335_2.png) [@Yorikke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yorikke)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2009, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-popular-athlete-who-was-a-jerk/521357/58 "2009-12-16T17:58:55Z")
> [@Atomicktom](#): > > I’m not familiar with such information…you can count me among those who always heard that Puckett was a good guy. Please elaborate. [Scroll down to “controversy.”](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kirby_Puckett) Maybe there’s more, but this is what I remember being prickish. Joe ---
**Author:** ![Jim\_s\_Son](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19adc/32.png) [@Jim\_s\_Son](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jim_s_Son)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2009, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-popular-athlete-who-was-a-jerk/521357/59 "2009-12-16T18:35:29Z")
Bobby Hull is his playing days was loved as a guy who would delay the team bus so he could sign autographs yet was a wife-beater at home (which was not made public). ---
**Author:** ![cmkeller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmkeller/32/118_2.png) [@cmkeller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmkeller)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2009, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-popular-athlete-who-was-a-jerk/521357/60 "2009-12-16T20:41:37Z")
Manduck: > [@](#): > > except maybe Reggie Jackson. Interesting, I recall Reggie being so beloved that even after he left the Yankees, he was cheered as a visitor in Yankee Stadium. But maybe he was booed in cities where he never played for the home team? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-popular-athlete-who-was-a-jerk/521357.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-popular-athlete-who-was-a-jerk/521357.md?page=4)