Warren Sapp’s Legal Hassle “Inevitable”
February 12th, 2010
There are few better things to kick off a weekend for Joe (aside from perhaps a chance rendezvous with Rachel Watson) than to read an angry missive from the great Phil Mushnick.
The TV/radio critic and national moralist for the New York Post is scatter-shooting in his Friday morning column, taking aim at many including Nick Saban, David Stern, Bobby Bowden, Joey Porter and his mongrels, Jimmy Johnson, Boomer Esiason, Joe Theismann, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Bryant Gumbel while somehow managing to work in a reference to W.C. Fields of all people!
But Mushnick saves the most venom for former Bucs great Warren Sapp.
In the wake of Sapp being removed from the NFL Network for his arrest in Miami last week for domestic battery, Mushnick is gloating. He references a Howard Cosell quote as noting that Sapp’s run-in with the Miami cops was “inevitable.”
This past Sunday, the NFL Network, controlled by the NFL, removed analyst Warren Sapp from that morning’s Super Bowl pregame show because he had been arrested for domestic battery. Given that Sapp, as an NFL player, was among the all-time leaders in conduct violations, he seemed a play-with-fire choice to represent the NFL on its TV network.
Regardless, NFLN brought in as its guest/fill-in analyst current NFLer Joey Porter. Good pick. Three years ago, Porter was one of six arrested (he pleaded no contest) for beating another NFL player in a Las Vegas casino. In 2003, Porter was shot outside a Denver nightclub. Last season, he was suspended for a game by his coach. And, as Sapp did before him, Porter once ignited a pregame brawl.
First off, Sapp was removed on Saturday when the NFL Network learned Sapp was locked in a Miami-Dade County cage. Second — and this isn’t the first time Mushnick has referenced this — Joe would like to learn of this pre-game brawl Muchnick speaks of; specifically what game?
Just off the top of his head, Joe doesn’t believe Sapp was one of the most penalized players in the league as Mushnick often sites. Joe is of the belief that Kenyatta Walker was the source of more penalties in his days with the Bucs than Sapp.
Still, Mushnick’s offering is a good read and gets Joe in a weekend mood for a few bottles of cold Caybrew, and if dreams do come true, a dalliance with Rachel Watson.
February 12th, 2010 at 11:11 am
Joe, I think Phil is referring to the time when the Bucs were playing the Packers and Sapp danced through the Pack’s stretching line, causing a bit of a ruckus.
February 12th, 2010 at 11:16 am
Ted:
Was that the time Sapp also kicked over a pylon and was fined for that?
You may be right. If that’s what Mushnick is referring to, that’s hardly a brawl, barely a barroom argument. 🙂
February 12th, 2010 at 12:16 pm
That’s what I thought he was talking about. More like a brawl movement!
February 12th, 2010 at 4:59 pm
That was a Monday night game with the Steelers that Sapp danced through their warmups.
The skipping incidents
From Wikipedia:
During pre-game warm-ups of a December 23, 2002 Monday Night Football game at Raymond James Stadium, Warren skipped through the Pittsburgh Steelers. Steelers running back Jerome Bettis shoved Sapp, and this was followed by a heated argument between the two teams. Sapp was not fined for the incident, but it added to his controversial image. Sapp felt that he was made an example by the NFL by being fined for that first skipping incident. “That’s all this is about,” said Sapp. “In my nine years in this league, no one’s been fined for verbally abusing officials. It’s unprecedented.” The Buccaneers had been earlier ridiculed by Steelers’ Lee Flowers as being “paper champions.” Despite losing to the Steelers in that game, Sapp and the Buccaneers went on to win Super Bowl XXXVII five weeks later.
February 13th, 2010 at 12:14 am
I’m no big fan of Warren Sapp’s, but the New York Post is a joke The paper, owned by NewsCorp and Austrailian citizen and long time emulator of Homer Simpson’s boss, Rupert Murdock, never lets the facts get in the way of a good story. The paper and the company that owns it, are swimming in red ink.