The Top 10 Trash Talkers In Sports

Most of us cringe when we hear an athlete make a remark that we know is not appropriate. Everyone has experienced a slip of the tongue at some point, but most of us don’t make that slip when there are 27 channels broadcasting. Athletes are an emotional bunch and, quite often, someone puts his foot in his mouth by making an offensive statement. The athletes on this top 10 list of big mouths in sports not only had big mouths, but what came out of them was morally repugnant.

Number 10
Shannon Sharpe
Sterling’s little brother retired as arguably the best tight end in the history of the NFL. Sharpe has eight Pro Bowls and three Super Bowl rings to his credit, and finished with 10,060 receiving yards. Sharpe’s hands made him a great player, but his mouth made him a star.

From the start of his stint as a broadcaster with CBS, he has run his mouth about almost everyone. He called Plaxico Burress “Plexiglas” and he was particularly brutal on Baltimore QB Kyle Boller when he said, “You do have your teammates behind you… and that’s only because they have to be,” and “I’ve got a better chance of winning the Kentucky Derby on the back of a donkey than they have of winning the Super Bowl with Kyle Boller.”

Brutal sound bite: NFL Films captured Sharpe with quite possibly the funniest and most degrading, if you are a Patriots fan, quote ever uttered on a sideline: “Mr. President, call in the National Guard! Send as many men as you can spare! Because we are killing the Patriots! They need emergency help!

Number 9
Jim McMahon
The No. 5 overall pick in the 1982 NFL Draft had a memorable, if not prolific, career as the Chicago Bears quarterback, leading them to victory in Super Bowl XX. McMahon excelled as a roll-out passer and a field general, but his excellence at putting his foot in his mouth had no equal. McMahon had a well-known feud with former NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle regarding the messages on the headbands that he wore on the sidelines during games. The former BYU star, along with the rest of the Bears, inexplicably ran their mouths during the recording of the “Super Bowl Shuffle.” Jim also alienated an entire continent when referring to Europe: “The people don’t take baths and they don’t speak English. No golf courses; no room service. Who needs it?”

Brutal sound bite: McMahon amazingly held nothing back during a particular press conference and took a shot at his own team’s ownership when he said, “Who do I think the Bears should draft? I think the Bears should draft a new owner.”

Number 8
John Rocker
John Rocker had pretty good pitching statistics in his six-year career (3.5 with the Atlanta Braves): 88 saves with a career ERA of 3.42. Unless you don’t pay attention to baseball or have been living under a rock, you undoubtedly know about Rocker’s history of offensive prattle. Rocker has offended a wide range of groups, including blacks, Asians, homosexuals, women, and New Yorkers. He once called teammate Randall Simon a “fat monkey.” His words were so offensive to some toward the end of his most volatile years, that he needed security escorts to exit stadiums.

Brutal sound bite: Rocker’s most controversial comments stemmed from his road trips to New York. His thoughts on New York were quoted in Sports Illustrated: “It’s the most hectic, nerve-racking city. Imagine having to take the 7 Train to the ballpark, looking like you’re riding through Beirut next to some kid with purple hair, next to some queer with AIDS, right next to some dude who just got out of jail for the fourth time, right next to some 20-year-old mom with four kids. It’s depressing.” Not surprisingly, the New York fans threw batteries at him during a game.

Number 7
Bode Miller
Bode Miller burst onto the ski scene in 1996. His performance at the 2002 Winter Olympics earned him two silver medals, took several more medals at the 2003 and 2005 World Championships, and is credited with establishing parabolic-style skis to the masses. He is well-known throughout the skiing community for his reckless style, often taking big chances during an event to attempt to win or reduce his finishing time, but his mouth is well-known to a larger audience. On 60 Minutes, Miller said that skiing wasted was akin to driving under the influence of alcohol. He has also accused Barry Bonds and Lance Armstrong, among others, as knowingly using performance-enhancing substances. So controversial were his blase comments regarding Olympic spirit, that Bob Costas surmised that Miller might actually get what he wanted after the 2006 Olympic Winter Games — which was to be forgotten.

Brutal sound bite: Miller’s apathy toward his fame and sport were on full display when he concluded to the world: “Fame is almost a poison. I couldn’t care less; in fact I lived better when I was a nobody.” If nothing else, Miller can alienate a nation steeped in patriotism.

Number 6
Jose Canseco
Part of the “Bash Brothers” during the late ‘80s and early ‘90s along with Mark McGwire, Canseco slugged 462 career home runs and drove in 1,407 RBIs in his 17-year career. Canseco also became baseball’s first-ever 40-40 man in 1988 and took home the AL MVP that same year. The former Oakland Athletics player was a controversial figure during his tenure, but it is doubtful he would make this list without his antics after his major-league career. Particularly his tell-all book, Juiced: Wild Times, Rampant ‘Roids, Smash Hits & How Baseball Got Big in which he implicated several former and current players and teammates for using anabolic steroids while playing.

Brutal sound bite: On 60 Minutes, Canseco dropped a bombshell and reiterated what was documented in his book. He personally injected Mark McGwire and introduced Jason Giambi to his drug use. These statements alone invoked a sense of betrayal in the hearts of baseball fans.

Number 5
Jeremy Roenick
Roenick has played for four different teams during his career, and briefly showed his offensive prowess in the NHL as he tallied 107 points in the 1992-93 and 1993-94 seasons. Roenick has also displayed his prowess as someone who speaks his mind, and often gets in trouble for it. After scoring on Patrick Roy he said, “I’d like to know where Patrick was in Game 3, probably up trying to get his jock out of the rafters.” He also claimed that he was being blackballed by USA Hockey for not being included on the 2006 Olympic team.

Brutal sound bite: The former Blackhawk shunned hockey fans in a response to criticism that some had considered the 2005 NHL lockout to be because of the spoiled players. Roenick said: “We’re going to try to make it better for everybody, period, end of subject. And if you don’t realize that, then don’t come. We don’t want you at the rink, we don’t want you in the stadium, we don’t want you to watch hockey… I say personally, to everybody who called us ’spoiled,’ you guys are just jealous.”

Number 4
Terrell Owens
If you evaluate Owens strictly based on statistics, you would have to consider him one of the best wide receivers playing in the NFL today. In his first 10 years, he amassed 11,189 receiving yards and 108 touchdowns with the 49ers, Eagles and Cowboys. The problem is that Owens brings much more to the table than his football skills. T.O. is arguably the most outspoken NFL player and has talked his way out of two teams by slandering his teammates. He implicated Donovan McNabb as the cause of the Eagles’ loss in Super Bowl XXXIX because the star QB got tired.

He also implied that blacks were more skilled in football with the comments: “You have a white guy as an announcer and sportscaster. Me, I’m black. I do it and I’ve already done some stuff in the past. We’re more expressive than the white guys. You look at the skill players. We’re the ones that get into the end zone. We get in the end zone more than they do.” Owens has also bashed any team that has not thrown him the ball as often as he liked.

Brutal sound bite: Owens reached his insult apex when he lashed out at former teammate and 49ers QB Jeff Garcia in Playboy magazine, suggesting that he was a homosexual. When confronted about the statement later, Owens declared, “Like my boy tells me; if it looks like a rat and smells like a rat, by golly, it is a rat.”

Number 3
Mark Cuban
The Mavericks’ owner is a great rags-to-riches story: He sold an internet radio company to Yahoo for $5.04 billion, purchased the flailing NBA team and turned it into a winner in part because of his bottomless wallet. This story also makes it convenient for Cuban to speak his mind in front of millions of people as he sees fit, much to the chagrin of NBA Commissioner David Stern.

Cuban has said: “I’m reborn. It’s not Mark Cuban, the benefactor. It’s Mark Cuban, David Stern disciple.” As of 2006, Cuban has been fined more than $1.6 million for his comments, he has attempted to start a channel on Sirius and he runs his own blog. Cuban once said that the NBA’s head of officials, Ed T. Rush “wouldn’t be able to manage a Dairy Queen.”

Brutal sound bite: Cuban literally crossed the line when he rushed the court during the 2006 NBA Finals and, after his Mavericks lost, went on a tirade, telling Stern and a table of officiators a few expletives that, “[expletive] you! [expletive] you! Your league is rigged!” Predictably, he was fined a $250,000.

Number 2
John McEnroe
McEnroe’s name is synonymous with tennis. McEnroe was inducted into the Tennis Hall of Fame in 1999 and was widely considered one of the best players ever to pick up a racket. He holds 77 singles titles. Unfortunately for John, his name is also synonymous with a “loud mouth.” SuperBrat repeatedly got into trouble on the court with his profanity and argumentative nature with linesmen, and he was nearly kicked out of Wimbeldon in 1981 for cursing at the tournament referee and calling Ted James, the umpire, the “pits of the world.”

Brutal sound bite: Most of what McEnroe spewed is not fit for print, but his most cringe-worthy tirade came in that same 1981 Wimbledon stint. During his match with Bjorn Borg, McEnroe argued against a linesman call and began with his famous phrase, “You cannot be serious… ” and ended with a string of profanity that is speculated to have cost him the match.

Number 1
Charles Barkley
Barkley had a prolific career in the NBA. Sir Charles was the NBA MVP in 1993, was named to the 50 Greatest Players in NBA History, and he was elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2006. His tenacity on the court was undeniable, but he was equally tenacious when he opened his mouth, particularly after his playing days were finished.

The former player for the Suns and Rockets has never curbed or diluted his comments to be politically correct. He once lamented about throwing Rick Rielly through a plateglass window, and was quoted as saying, “The Republicans are full of it,” and “The Democrats are less full of it.” He even regretted throwing a man through a window at a restaurant in Orlando because he wasn’t on a “higher floor.” He also attempted to alienate, well, everyone by saying, “I don’t care what people think. People are stupid.”

Brutal sound bite: Barkley shocked a nation when he appeared in a Nike ad and inexcusably uttered, “I am not a role model.” The firestorm that ensued was unprecedented.

Honorable mention
Muhammad Ali
You can’t have a list of big mouths without mentioning the ultimate one. Ali does not share the same characteristics as the others on this list, but he is included because of his unparalleled brashness. Ali was a tireless self-promoter, and claimed that his boxing style was to “float like a butterfly, sting like a bee.” Ali had countless memorable and brash quotes, the most famous of which is part of his self-promotion: “I am the greatest!” and he was right!

Trash talkers
Some athletes quietly go about their business, while the ones on this list have been anything but quiet. It’s commonplace to hear athletes do some talking, but the ones on this list seem to constantly cross the line and set themselves up for the wrong kind of media attention. If nothing else, the outlandish remarks made by these athletes make for some excellent debate.

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