COMPETITIVE PEOPLE GET involved in sport and sportpeople get involved in debate. So when a good debate gets going (and is caught on camera) sparks are gonna fly.
Now most of the spikiest encounters with athletes, or an athlete turned pundit, will come during or directly after their competition, but if you sit them down and poke and prod them just enough… well, see for yourself.
Mike Tyson v Dermot Murnaghan
If I was Dermot Murnaghan, I’d have stopped once Mike Tyson told me “you’re irritating me”, but this channel has 24-hours to fill.
YouTube credit: camotecat
Brian Clough v Don Revie
If only they made television like this in the Premier League era. Imagine Jose Mourinho and Avram Grant going on the Jonathan Ross show to air their dirt linen. While you’re watching, what kind of snazzy get up has Gary Lineker got on?
TouTube credit: steakandsid
Eamon Dunphy v Liam Brady
We tried (honestly we tried) to make this list without Eamon Dunphy, but the man is TV gold. Here he is uttering the immortal words, “you’ve jumped over the fence baby!” Hard to believe now, but there was a time when Arsene Wenger got criticised quite a lot.
YouTube credit: rayfoleyshow
Liam Brady v Bill O’Herlihy
Dunphy makes a cameo appearance in this one too, but he is merely a second fiddle to Brady. Again seen visciously defending a former colleague, Brady decimates dear old Bill for a swipe at Giovanni Trapattoni’s style of football. In fact, the words hadn’t even left O’Herlihy’s mouth when Chippy got all ‘don’t even go there’.
YouTube credit: downwiththatsortofthing
Joe Brolly v Tony Davis
More from the wonderful world of Irish television now as Tony Davis takes offence at Joe Brolly’s jibes at Cork.
“It’s not my fault”, sniped Brolly, “that yis haven’t beat Kerry in a big game in Croke Park. That’s a private thing.”
YouTube credit: paulwhl
Jim Rome v Jim Everett
Not so much a panel discussion this, more of a one-on-one chat turned nasty. ESPN pundit Jim Rome draws the ire of Jim Everett, an NFL quarterback, by continually calling him Chris – Chris Evert was a star of womens tennis from 1972 to 1989. Everett could only be pushed so far before he ended the debate, and the coffee table.
YouTube credit: Firebird7478
