Athletes/Celebs You've Met

i thought it might be interesting to see who has met some atheletes or celebs, and what they thought of them. I used to play basketball with jay williams of Duke, then chicago bulls. He was one of the nicest guys i’ve ever played with, and was real down to earth. His motorcycle injury was a real shame, b/c he honestly was one of the few modest guys in the NBA.

On the other hand, i remember after a nyk orlando magic basketball game at the garden, my dad got me down to the court after the game was over for my birthday to try and get horace grants autograph(he was the player being interviewed). He comes up to me, i ask him and hold up my pen and paper, and he puts his hand on my shoulder and goes “no” and walks away. haha what a dbag.

I’ve spent a fair bit of time around people on the pro tennis circuit. Most of them are pretty cool people.

John McEnroe was the coolest celeb I have ever met.

There is only one that I have met that I would say is a complete tool.

  • Lleyton Hewitt

That isn’t exactly going to surprise anyone.

Pierce Brosnan, Eric Clapton, Ozzy…All were very cool and low key, Brosnan in particular was very down to earth…

Paula Abdul: She stopped into one of the fitness centers my company runs in Philly to get a massage, and was totally wasted. She was cursing at everybody, passed out during her massage, then woke up and accused the female masseuse of molesting her. Good times.

Jennifer Love Hewitt: Ran into her on the streets of NYC. Was actually by herself, and was as sweet as can be. Whatever guy catches her should count his blessings.

Pro Wrestlers Batista, Chris Benoit, Val Venis. Met the first 2 in a gym at PSU during the weekend they had a show there, and met Val Venis in a Denny’s after said show. All were very cool.

I’ve met a bunch of pro NFL’ers and coaches through my football experience, but they’re not all that exciting.

I’ve been “fortunate/lucky” enough to meet quite a few celebrities over the years. I met most of them through a family friend who was a wrestling promoter w/ ties to the WWF(E), WCW, NWA, AWA, ECW etc…

As a teen I got to train w/ the Ultimate Warrior at a local Gold’s gym. Awesome guy, very intense, and liked to talk about himself in the 3rd person. Kept getting “pissed” at me for calling him the Dingo Warrior.

I rented a beach cottage from Bob Backlund (spl?) who was extremely nice, yet a wee bit eccentric. Had a GORGEOUS mid 60’s vette convertible too.

Jimmy “Super Fly” Snuka was AWESOME and a built like a comic book character. Not as “big” as I thought he would be, but still jacked.

I met the Macho Man in Philly while he was in town to promote his RAP album. He was really cool and I’m not quite sure if the Macho Man thing is an act or if it’s just him. He was HILARIOUS, almost convinced him to go out drinking w/ me and the fellas but he had promotional shit to do.

Goldberg came into the gym I worked at, and the front desk woman wouldn’t let him in because he didn’t have an ID. Best part is he’s wearing a WCW shirt, jacked out of his mind, and got dropped off by a LIMO. You’d think she might realize he’s not the ordinary joe. The owner’s explained to her who he was and all was well and good. VERY nice guy and trained like an ANIMAL.

I met Sgt. Slaughter as a teen and got to carry the American flag in front of him when he came to our school to give a speech. Extremely nice guy w/ a camouflage limo to boot.

Jack London, a former Mr. Universe, used to train at a local Gold’s and gave me a lot of tips, tricks, advice etc on the lifting game. Never seen someone so strong on every lift. Great sense of humor and down to earth.

The only “celebrities/athletes” that I’ve met who have been pricks are Marcus Camby, Donyell Marshall, and Donny Marshall.

I’ve met a few more here and there, but I’m sure I’ve bore y’all enough already.

Keifer Sutherland, Super Bowl weekend in San Diego, 1998. Cool dude, leaned up on a rental van and smoked mostly.

Tom Lampkin, one of those catchers that had about two cups of coffee in the show, partied with him one night after a Dodgers/Padres game. Dude had forearms like logs.

Some of the ESPN Sunday Morning Crew Jaws, Stewart Scott, Tom Jackson (his hands are the size of my head), Steve Young.

Emmit Smith
Marcus Allen
Jim Kelly
Sean Salisbury (punk)

Probably the one famous person I crapped my pants over was meeting Bo Schembechler when I was like a sophomore in high school. Man was like the President, God, and the Pope all wrapped into one.

If you want to see celebs/athletes, just go to a Superbowl and wander around, they’re all over the place.

B.

Let’s see:

Met Triple H over dinner in Los Angeles in Louises Trattoria on Larchmont and Beverly…all I could say to myself is “DAMN, that is one BIG mofo.”

Kenny G came into an old job of mine (in college). I was a desk clerk at tennis courts and he skipped out on paying the bill.

Probably there are more, but I can’t recall at the moment.

Oh yeah:

Also used to play paintball with Ricky Shroeder almost every weekend.

Met/shot Todd Bridges (Willis from “Diffrent strokes”) as well as Tom Hanks at paintball too (I worked weekends at the field, so I was always there).

Monica Brant came through our Gold’s once. I somehow missed her. I still have the scars from the tanto i used that night. I’ve seen Emmit Smoth, and a few of the other Cowboys out and about, usually at the club. They were pretty cool, and they watched us break for a little bit.

I’ve actually had the priveledge of training with Jason Beck a few times since he lives near me. For those who do not know him he has been the USAPL national champion in the 220 lb class for the past 2 years. He has a pretty good shot at winning the world championship this year. One of the coolest guys I know.

I met Johnny Knoxville briefly on my night off at a bar where I work. I was drinking so I don’t remember much about it. lol.

I met Jim Lachey from the Washington Redskins when I was about 10 or 11 years old. I remember he had to turn sideways and crouch to get through a doorway. I wasn’t really into football or sports in general at the time but it realy left an impression because I had never seen anyone of that size.

  • Ronnie Coleman This was in 2001(This was the coolest one because I was crossing Tennesse Street in Tallahasse Florida and I saw this mass of a man coming my way… so I say to my friend “That isn’t who I think it is, is it?” My friend says “Yep, that’s him.”… He was crossing the street with Vicki Gates coming from the bar.

So me and my friend met them both, shook their hands and talked to Ronnie for about 5 minutes and ignored Vicki because I didn’t realize who she was until I saw her & Ronnie working out in my gym the next night.

I saw Jay Cutler in the bar I was at that night and he was all flared out standing in the corner by himself… it was pretty funny, everyone was afraid to go near him. So I went up to him and just started talking shop and he was kind of being a dick and just thought he was above strangers talking to him.

Ronnie was a really nice guy though and Vicki looked hot, she was wearing a dress and Ronnie was all dressed up nice too.

  • Jay Cutler
  • Vicki Gates
  • Hulk Hogan
  • Kurt Angle
  • Sebastian Janikowski
  • Peter Warrick
  • Warrick Dunn
  • Ricky Carmichael
  • Jean Claude Van Damn
  • Corey Feldman
  • Dave Mustaine
  • Kelly Monaco
  • Kelly Slater

…probably a couple more, but I can’t think of them right now.

Add Arnold Schwarzenegger & Alissa Milano to this list for people in the future I intend to meet.

A bunch of old college and pro football coaches–Spike Dykes, Bobby Knight, Jack Pardee.

My sister used to babysit Drew Brees at our house.

In 1999 Ryan Leaf threw a wadded up napkin at me in the Kit Kat Klub after I told him “you can take the boy out of the trailer park, but you can’t take the trailer park out of the boy.” Security came and gave him his own table and all the Olive Garden waitresses I had been hitting on went with him. Skanks.

Gary Gaines (Friday Night Lights) used to coach with my dad.

My friends and I used to sit in the lobby bar of the Marriot on the RiverWalk in San Antonio and bother the visiting NBA teams coming into town. Jump on the elevator and ask them if they played basketball because they are really tall. Or ask them if they are that team that the Globetrotters kick the shit out of everynight.

Met Drew Pearson in the mall. Wasn’t sure if it was him, and jokingly said he was too small to be Pearson. He went, “Bam” and laid his Superbowl ring on the counter.

[quote]Man O’ War wrote:
I’ve spent a fair bit of time around people on the pro tennis circuit. Most of them are pretty cool people.

John McEnroe was the coolest celeb I have ever met.

There is only one that I have met that I would say is a complete tool.

  • Lleyton Hewitt

That isn’t exactly going to surprise anyone.
[/quote]

Not surprises about Hewitt, he’s pretty much dis-liked by everyone on the tour. Great player, too bad he’s such an ass. Have you met the X Man?! Xaiver Malisse?? I got to say a hi to him a few yrs. back. What a badass he is! Also, he gets the most beautiful women, he has LOTS of them too. Hahaha.

Played pickup ball against Starks, Doc Rivers, Doug “Bitch” Christie.

See Herb Williams and Starks every week.

Met Tiger (and pretty much the rest of the PGA), Canseco and his brother Ozzie, Dave Winfield, George Foster.

Met Bill Murray the other night at a strip club. That was fun!

Lennox Lewis

Prior to going to the '88 Olympics. He gave me an autographed signed Lennox Lewis '88. He was very polite and down to earth. I told him then that I think he could be Heavy weight champ in the near future. He shook my hand, gave me a big smile and said “Watch me.” He was called out by one of his publicists to talk with a local T.V. crew and held up the “one minute” hand sign, turned to me and said “Anything else before I go?” I told him to kick ass, he shook my hand again and said “I will” and left. Even when the day was done he saw me leave and gave a wave, real decent guy.

When I was a little kid ( mid 80’s ) I met one of the Smother Brothers or however you spell it. He was the dark haired one. This was at Boars Head In in NC. I annoyed the hell out of him too! Hahaha

Red Holzman - famous bball coach

Bill Cartright - Played pro bball, my dad kicked his ass in some shooting games. There were a ton of people watching. Not that he was know for his shot & back then he didn’t have the funky shot that he later devloped.

Brooks Robinson - super nice guy.

The one pro baseball player that went 36-6 back in the 60’s. Ahhh. Denny Mclaine. He was cool.

Bob Feller - super nice guy.

Eddie Fialoia or it’s spelled something like that. Famous freestyle BMX rider back in the 80’s.

I got to meet Tracey Nelson back in 97’ She was very cool, we talked about her dad of course since I’m a huge fan of his. Super nice person. Very pretty too!

George Foster, use to play at the tennis club I worked at in Vero Bch. Fl. Super cool guy, very big dude, very funny, great athlete!

Took a 1 hr. pitching lesson with Dick Mills in AZ. He pitched a few seasons with the Red Sox. Nice guy.

Bucky Dent, met him at his baseball school in Delray Bch. Nice guy.

Arturo Gatti, met him back in 2003, he & his trainer were renting a house accross from my parents, now were friends. Awesome guys! Got some autograph boxing shoes, pics. & got to take pics with him. Also got to watch him train at the local gym ( got to watch him throw up in a towel after running super fast for over 40 mins. on the treadmill! AMAZING!

And my dad & I got to watch him spar about 3-5 times. Also befriended Buddy Mcgirth, super nice guy, would see him at the local clubs with 1 or 2 big women. :-))

Also met pro boxer Ricky Quiles, SUPER COOL GUY, talked w/ my dad & I for a long time. Super nice & one hell of a badass boxer. Very quick! He’s a lightwt. And, he’s like 35-36, but looks like he’s 24.

People I would really like to meet,

Jack Lalanne
Patricia Bragg, her dad was Paul Bragg.
Roger Clemens

I wish I had a more sports oriented chance encounter story.

During high school my girlfriend was the homecoming queen/lead girl in the school play chick. It kind of pissed me off that in some of the plays she was in required he to be a bit “chummy” with the lead guys. The guys were theater geeks so I was just pissed she spent so much time working with them. So on a lark, I tried out for a play to spend more time with her (which pissed of my track coach) I ended up getting the lead. It was MASH and I was Hawkeye. Radar was played by none other than Phillip Seymour Hoffman (just won the award for best actor playing Capote and was the bad guy in Mission Impossible III) He was a year behind me. Good guy then, good guy now.

God I could shoot myself for doing it because my girlfriend talked me into doing Pirates of Penzance. How embarrassing is that?! I looked good in tights though.

Paul Newman. Met him a few times at various car races. Nicest guy on the planet. It was raining a bit and he invited us under his trailer until it stopped.

I’ve met and have autographs from a few of hartford whalers and wolfpack guys:

Kevin Dineen
Brendan Shanahan
Glen Wesley
P.J. Stock

I’ve met some known actors and movie industry people through the few SXSW festivals I went to in past years. Most of them probably wouldnt ring a bell, but the most entertaining was Lloyd Kaufman of Troma, the tiniest guys in person were Cheech Marin and Dennis Hopper, the nicest guy with kinda creepy overly soft hands was “The Hedgehog” Ron Jeremy (guy loves his fans and getting attention), a nice guy I couldnt seem to get away from one year was Wayne Coyne of The Flaming Lips, screenwriter Tim McCanlies is high-strung but talkative (he was the guy writing the Iron Man movie for a while and had a part of Iron Giant), and writer/director David Goyer (Blade movies and show, Batman Begins, Dark City) was a total trip considering he’s highly animated, has sleeve tattoos, and every other word out of his mouth was ‘f*ck’ or some variation. He totally didn’t fit with my preconceived image of the guy behind some of the best comic book movies to date.

Other than that, when I was a kid I met Kerry von Eric once as he passed through our town and asked us for directions. I can remember him having massive hands. But then, I was much smaller. And Emmit Smith is a nice guy. I’ve chatted with writer Neil Gaiman and he’s nice and as entertaining as his stories. So is writer John Steakley, writer of Armor and Vampire$.