Racist Sports Statements

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On this day, 38 years ago, one of baseball's all-time controversial figures was born. Yes, we're talking about none other than former Atlanta Braves and Cleveland Indians pitcher, John Rocker. A human firestorm of controversy, Rocker basically took a can full of gas and a handful of matches to his public image all the way back in 1999, when his remarkably off-the-cuff interview with Sports Illustrated essentially ostracized himself from civilized humanity by taking shots at homosexuals, women, and races of all types. It remains today as one of the most impressively unabashed expressions of racism and prejudice by any athlete ever.

Of course, Rocker certainly isn't the first figure in sports to use a racial slur or two. Over time, many major sports have accumulated a dirty laundry list of one racially-charged incident after the next. But to narrow them down a bit for you guys, we shortened that list to the 20 Most Racist Sports Statements of the Past 25 Years. From 1988 to the present, who put their foot in their mouth the worst? Don Imus, Fuzzy Zoeller, Rob Parker? You be the judge.

 

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Date: 10/24/2009
Quote: "He's out having a taco."
Who said it: Bob Griese

As the quarterback for the 1972 Miami Dolphins, and longtime color commentator for ABC and ESPN, Bob Griese has been established for years now as a man of football. So, maybe, it's best if he just sticks with that. Because when the topic of NASCAR came up during a 2009 telecast of a college football game between Minnesota and Ohio State, Griese couldn't avoid sticking his foot in his mouth.

After a graphic displaying the top five drivers in the sport flashed across the screen, Griese's broadcast booth partner, Chris Spielman, wondered why Colombian racer Juan Pablo Montoya wasn't on the list. Unbelievably, Griese responded by saying, "He's out having a taco." Nice one, Bob. For his remark, Griese served a one-game suspension.

 

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Date: 7/22/2012
Quote: "With so many Africans in Greece... the West Nile mosquitoes will at least eat homemade food!!!"
Who said it: Voula Papachristou

Twitter is a dangerous place for athletes, even low-profile ones. Greek track star, Voula Papachristou, learned that the hard way when she posted this so-called "joke" on her Twitter feed in July of 2012. Given the seriousness of West Nile disease, and the racial implications of the tweet, there was really nothing funny about this remark. The Greek Olympic Committee agreed. While she did apologize, Papachristou was dismissed from the team before she had a chance to compete in the Olympics that year.

 

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Date: 1991
Quote: Referred to Ajax winger, Bryan Roy, as a "short n*****" and Brazilian striker, Romario, as "that coffee bean of PSV."
Who said it: Fritz Korbach
Though he would later claim that he was just speaking in "football language," former Holland manager, Fritz Korbach was really just being flat-out bigoted when he spoke down about then-Ajax winger, Bryan Roy, and the former Brazilian superstar, Romario. It's not "football language," Fritz, it's just "being racist." Thankfully, Korbach was suspended a match for his remarks by Holland's governing sports body.

 

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Date: 1990
Quote: "We don't discriminate in every other area except blacks."
Who said it: Hall W. Thompson
Just read that quote again: "We don't discriminate in every other area except blacks." Amazingly, that probably made Hall W. Thompson—the founder and developer of Shoal Creek Golf and Country Club—think that he was still somehow in the right. With Shoal Creek hosting the 1990 PGA Championship, the quote came from Thompson when he was asked about the club's selective admission policies in the lead-up to event. Immediately after it was published, numerous civil rights groups promised that protests would be soon to follow. Sponsors for the event acted in solidarity by pulling out of the tournament, ultimately forcing Thompson and the club to relent on their racist rules.

 

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Date: 4/21/2004
Quote: "He's what is known in some schools as a fucking lazy thick ni****."
Who said it: Ron Atkinson
A legend in the booth for soccer fans, Ron Atkinson was forced to bow out of broadcasting in disgrace after he dropped this racist insult about French footballer, Marcel Desailly. Thinking his microphone was cut, Atkinson instead dropped an n-bomb for the whole world to hear, and was relieved of his duties shortly thereafter. Is there any worse way to go out than that?

 

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Date: 12/27/1999
Quote: "I'd retire first. 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...The biggest thing I don't like about New York are the foreigners. You can walk an entire block in Times Square and not hear anybody speaking English. Asians and Koreans and Vietnamese and Indians and Russians and Spanish people and everything up there. How the hell did they get in this country?"
Who said it: John Rocker
Rocker, Round 2. As we mentioned before, the interview that former Atlanta Braves pitcher, John Rocker, conducted with Sports Illustrated back in 1999 was a bit of a doozy. Most of the controversy was centered around the tirade Rocker launched against the city of New York, wherein he threw a prejudiced shot at nearly anyone he could. Like his comments against former teammate, Randall Simon, Rocker received no sort of punishment from either the MLB or the Braves.
However, Rocker became easily the biggest villain in all of baseball, and was regularly booed by fans everywhere when he and his Braves came to town. It's widely believed that this constant heckling ruined Rocker mentally. Just four years after saying his remarks about NYC, Rocker fell out of the game altogether due to a sharp decline in his performance.

 

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Date: 1/4/2008
Quote: "Lynch him in the back alley."
Who said it: Kelly Tilghman
Lynching is a practice with deeply violent ties to the black community, and is definitely not something you want to be casually throwing out as a joke when you're on live television. The Golf Channel's Kelly Tilghman had to find this out the hard way, though, when she used the term in jest during a PGA Tour telecast in January of 2008. After studio partner, Nick Faldo, joked that other golfers on the tour would have to "gang up" on Tiger Woods in order to keep up with him, Tilghman responded by saying that they should "lynch him in the back alley." Oof. Tilghman was suspended for two weeks for her remarks but Tiger has held no grudge against her since the statement.

 

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Racist Sports Statements