Unless you are Bill Belichick, you can usually get along with sports reporters. Every once in a while, though, football players can’t take one more sports media member pressing their buttons, and they snap. Here are three of the most epic showdowns in football history:

1. The Tale of Two Jims

In one of my favorite football player and sports reporter tangles, Jim Everett sacks Jim Rome, and this time it wasn’t a phantom one.

Jim Rome thought he would try to act like a big boy, talking meanly to former Los Angeles Rams Jim Everett in a 1994 interview. Rome has the creativity of a black-and-white paint-by-color art piece and made a sexist joke to mock Everett. The sports reporter called the QB “Chris Evert,” one of the most talented female tennis players of all time.

Apparently, dropping to avoid a sack that never happened means that Everett is a “girly” player. I bet Rome asked a 5th grader for help on that particular piece of humor.

If a 6’5′, over 200-pound former football player were to stare me down and tell me not to call him an unappreciated nickname, you wouldn’t be hearing a peep out of me. But Jim Rome isn’t as smart as the average person, so he said it to Everett’s face again.

At that point, Everett was out of his seat in a flash, and he helped introduce Jim Rome to the floorboards in the interview room.

As if Rome didn’t look enough like the kind of person that he was, he sealed the deal on that when he wouldn’t allow a company to make the scene a commercial, even though Jim Everett signed off on it.

If you can’t take it, don’t dish it.

2. Sports Reporter Tim McCarver Gets It From Deion Sanders

The conflict between Deion Sanders and sports reporter Tim McCarver is so silly it’s almost hard to take seriously. How did McCarver stand around long enough to get doused with ice water four separate times? Who does that? I digress.

Tim McCarver was a sports reporter from yesteryear who focused on baseball. He was mad at Deion for attempting to play an NFL and MLB game on the same day—both baseball as an Atlanta Brave and football as an Atlanta Falcon. Sanders didn’t make it into the baseball game, but he showed up on time and was available to play.

McCarver got mad at Sanders for trying to double dip, and he made that quite clear. After winning the 1992 playoff series, Sanders had some residual feelings about the matter.

Deion had less to say and more to do, dousing McCarver with the four separate buckets of water while the angry sports reporter commented about what a man Sanders was.

A terrible comeback for an embarrassing event. The cool, calm, collected nature of Deion throughout the whole conflict made the kerfuffle even more surreal.

Sanders has never been one for sports reporters foolishness.

3. Marshawn Lynch Vs. Sports Reporters

This (to me) far more reflects the emotional reregulation some sports reporters experienced and less about Marshawn Lynch.

As one of the most unprecedented talents on the field and in entertainment, Marshawn Lynch has gifted and continues to gift us with masterpieces that make him a generational talent.

Lynch wasn’t much for speaking with the sports media. He didn’t love sports reporters, but he was required to speak with them, or he would get fined or worse. This would make a mortal man succumb to the desires of the NFL and dish out deets to the sports reporters each week. But no one would accuse Marshawn of being one of those.

So instead of responding to questions, Marshawn Lynch would respond with his infamous phrase “I’m just here so I won’t get fined” to every question. An answer most of us would give on a Monday morning at our 9–5s if we were being honest.

This infuriated sports reporters everywhere. Bart Hubbuch of the New York Post called Lynch stupid and illiterate. Reporter Marcus Hayes called into question Marshawn’s professionalism and adulting skills. Journalist Ed Sherman called all sports writers to action, telling them to avoid buying skittles. No thanks, Ed. I’ll eat my skittles while I’m writing this, if I feel like it.

St. Paul’s Pioneer Press’s Brian Murphy veered way out of his lane when he said that Marshawn and everyone else who was employed by the NFL would be working for minimum wage if it weren’t for sports media. Bri, buddy, let’s talk about this one.

jim everett vs sports reporter

Brian, meet Jim. He has a special way of sacking… I mean talking to sports reporters (Stephen Dunn /Allsport).

The NFL work force is one of the best educated groups of people ever. The majority of the men are college graduates. How would that set them up for a future minimum-wage job? Or is there something else the majority of football players have in common that would make you say that out of ignorance? I think we both know what I mean by that, and it’s not a positive reflection of your personal character.

Marshawn Lynch is the GOAT, and don’t you forget it!

Love a good historical gem? Me too! Check out my other football history articles (and more) here.