HERE AT THESCORE.IE we know our readers are too smart to be fooled by any April Fools’ Day joke.
Instead, we thought we’d bring you a list of some of our favourite sporting pranks of all time because they’re likely to be funnier anyway.
While not all of these are April Fools’ Day related, we still felt they were worthy of inclusion.
1. Kyle Orton signs his own helmet
Nowadays, Kyle Orton is known as a pretty terrible quarterback but back in 2005, he was a promising rookie plying his trade with the Chicago Bears.
One of his teammates asked him if he could sign a helmet for his family, as they were big fans of the youngster.
Orton was more than happy to oblige before realising, when he put his helmet on the next day at training, that he had signed his own.Needless to say, he wasn’t impressed.
2. Ken Griffey Jr. buys his boss a cow
After losing a bet to his manager about being able to hit three home runs in three pitches, Ken Griffey Jr. was supposed to buy Lou Piniella a steak.
Instead, he went one better by bringing a live cow into work:
3. Burnley pull the wool over everyone’s eyes
We can’t imagine the horror of playing in a woolen jersey but some Burnley fans were convinced they were real.
Sadly, these faux retro numbers were all part of the Clarets April Fools’ Day frolics.
YouTube Credit: nccartier
4. BBC Grandstand fight
In 1989, going viral applied to Ebola rather than some set up YouTube video.
However, that didn’t stop thousands of people flooding the BBC phone lines to complain about the shenanigans going on over Des Lynam’s right shoulder.
YouTube Credit: jwin71
5. DUCK! It’s Donncha O’Callaghan
When interviewed by the Rugby World website, the Munster and Ireland lock said his best practical joke was also his worst:
I suppose the best one was taking ducks into a Munster management meeting, but I had to clean up their mess afterwards so it was the best and the worst. It was funny for four or five minutes but two hours later when I was still cleaning up duck s**t, I’d had enough of it.
6. Pete Carroll has his own player arrested
Pete Carroll likes to pull pranks on everyone, but going as far as having your own player arrested is pretty special.
This is one April Fools’ Day joke Everson Griffen is unlikely to forget anytime soon.
YouTube Credit: PeteCarrollTV
7. Ian Rush crosses the Mersey
A favourite of every member TheScore.ie team, Shoot magazine sent shock-waves around the footballing world when they revealed in April 1989 that Ian Rush was to join Liverpool’s bitter rivals Everton.
This was, of course, in the days before Photoshop, so for all intents and purposes, the story look legitimate.
That was until you turned to page seven when the cruel hoax was revealed.
Is there anything we’ve missed? Have you seen any good sporting pranks? Let us know in the comments below.
