Lists With Chris: Ranking famous quitters in sports 10-10-24

Lists With Chris: Ranking famous quitters in sports 10-10-24

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:05):
Who are the five greatest athletes of all time? Who's
the worst player to ever deliver an iconic sports moment?
Who's the least athletic looking athlete in history. It's time
to rank the best and the worst that sports has
to offer. Let's dive in to lists with Chris.

Speaker 2 (00:27):
Here we go with my good buddies, Chris Beckham and
Craig Stevenson. We do it every week, list with Chris,
and I am fired up about the list this week
because I'm fired up about the topic and that is
you guys don't have to sign off on this. This
is just Randy Kennedy. I'm tired of quitters, including the
guy who just quit the Alabama football team, Jaheim Otis

(00:48):
and Barry Alexander who quit the USC football team mid season.
Christian Leary, the UNLV quarterback quit the team. So this
week's category is surprising, shocking, or noteworthy quitters or he
could just be somebody who retired. It could be kinder
and gentler. It doesn't have to be negative in all cases.
Sometimes it's just somebody quit for a good reason, or

(01:10):
you know, they decided they wanted to go live at
their beach house. Whatever it is. So we're doing list
with Chris with quitters or retirees. That's what we're doing.

Speaker 3 (01:19):
Chris.

Speaker 2 (01:19):
You start us off as always what you got.

Speaker 3 (01:22):
Yeah, Barry Alexander has a special place in the Georgian's hearts.

Speaker 2 (01:26):
I guarantee, I guarantee he may come back and play
for Georgia.

Speaker 3 (01:29):
You never know, Well he could, he could, he could.
I doubt it, but he could. But now I've an
old school on he's just because this is this is
more of the kinder, gentler quitting, but still shocking at
the time. Sandy Kopak, who twelve years of the Dodgers,
but if he started was eighteen, so he's only thirty
or thirty thirty thirty one way when he retired and

(01:50):
a lot of people say, well, you have the head arthorised. Yeah.
He also just had a season with a one to
seven three ERA and you know, when you say these
sets now, it just seems to blow your mind. Back
then it wasn't that big of a deal. But he
also just had twenty seven complete games in one year,
which sports so obviously he was still I mean, he
just wanted to say young and the you know, MVP,

(02:12):
so I mean he was still at the top of
his game. He did have authritis and and that was
the reason he just had to retire early. But just
the fact that he was still so so good at
the time, it was pretty shocking for sure.

Speaker 4 (02:23):
Yeah, I think they There has been speculations since then
that he possibly needed well, you know, could have extended
his career with Tommy John surgery. Had it existed at
the time, they would have been able to fix it,
you know, and maybe he'd have missed a year and
come back. But obviously that didn't exist at the time,
or it would have been called Sandy Kopek surgery exactly.

Speaker 3 (02:43):
You can't call it that.

Speaker 4 (02:44):
Yeah, yeah, all right after the nineteen ninety nine NFL season,
Bill Parcell stepped down from his job as head coach
in New York Jets and was succeeded by longtime assistant
Bill Belichick, who had been with the leveland Brownson was
a you know, obviously a well regarded assistant the NFL
for a long time. He was head coached for one day.

(03:07):
He had an introductory press conference, but then the Patriots
decided that they wanted to to hire him, and they did,
and Bill Belichick tendered his resignation on a napkin. The
full text of the letter is I resign as HC

(03:27):
of the NYJ and then as Bill Belichick underneath. So
evidently a cocktail napkin is a binding contract. Yeah, so
he is no longer h C of the NYJ. And
of course, now that you know Robert Sala was fired
this week, the speculation he could one day be the

(03:49):
future at HC of the NYJ.

Speaker 2 (03:53):
Well, if I was writing up that contract, if he
got the job, I guarantee that would be in there.
We're gonna be for me and year to be the
eighth sea of the NYJ.

Speaker 3 (04:05):
On Great's next album.

Speaker 2 (04:06):
I'm telling you right now, oh man, that that is
good stuff. You know, when I was a young man,
I was I was not very learned, as we have
found out on the list with Chris, but I didn't
know any foreign language except I only knew two words,
and they were courtesy of Roberto Duran No moss. That's
the only that's the only Spanish I knew, which obviously
he was in the middle of a boxing match and

(04:27):
decided I don't want any more of this, and he
went with the old no Moss, and so Roberto Duran.
He may have come back later, but he did, but
he definitely quit in the middle of a fight. So
Roberto Duran, Chris.

Speaker 3 (04:41):
Yeah, go back to two thousand and two, and it
shock everybody because we hadn't seen this before. Whenever Pat
Tillman decided to retire, he had of course nine eleven
and a half two thousand and one, and he played
the rest of that season. But then after that he decided,
you know, he was really affected by it and decided
to leave. The age of twenty five too ended in
the military, and of course we didn't set into that

(05:02):
was before the Afghanistan and was killed at the friendly
fire in two thousand and four. But you know, obviously,
back during World War Two whatever, a lot of players,
you know, quit, most came back or I guess I
don't know what a percentage was, but to serve their country.
They lost some of the best years maybe their career.
But in this day and age, it is almost unheard of.
And the money that he turned down, and Pat Tillman

(05:22):
turned out a huge contract to have decided no, I'm
going to do this and said obviously that it ends
like you did, but extremely unusual for this day and age.

Speaker 2 (05:31):
Yep, for sure. Great.

Speaker 4 (05:35):
Yeah. We talked about at the top of the of
the segment about players opting out of the season. Well,
the trend in this in college ports really started with
bowl games. Two notable players at the end of the
twenty sixteen season, Stanford's Christian McCaffery and the LSU's Leonard Fournette,

(05:56):
both opted out of their bowl games, and it's become
a regular thing now, much to Randy's chagrin, among others.

Speaker 3 (06:02):
He was trying to fire me up.

Speaker 4 (06:03):
Yeah, can you tell me the trivia time. Can you
tell me which two bowl games they opted out of
McCaffrey and for Nette.

Speaker 2 (06:12):
Okay, so I think McCaffrey they were supposed to play
in Texas somewhere. Am I right about that?

Speaker 4 (06:17):
That is correct?

Speaker 2 (06:18):
So it was like the.

Speaker 4 (06:19):
Yeah, the Sun Bowl Son Sun Bowl against North Carolina?

Speaker 2 (06:22):
Okay, all right, I'm one for one. Burnettnette Burnett, he
played for l s U. I'll say they were supposed
to go play in uh in North Carolina. No, No,
I don't know.

Speaker 3 (06:34):
You're in correct.

Speaker 4 (06:35):
The Citrus Bowl against Little Citrus.

Speaker 2 (06:40):
Okay, well that's one for two, one for two, yeah, yeah,
you get me. Fried up about that. I don't I
don't like that at all.

Speaker 3 (06:45):
I don't know and become common. Now, okay, if you
haven't go to the bowl game, but then I'm gonna
be on your.

Speaker 2 (06:51):
Sideline, boy, and then this I'll do a sideline interview
where we talk about what a great character you are
because you're down there cheering on your team mates.

Speaker 4 (07:00):
Oh oh, you know that was we remember? You know
Major F. White, now the head coach South Alabama, when
he was at Houston defensive lineman who had opted out
of the season but was still hanging around. I'm trying
to remember the guy's names. Pretty good player in the NFL.

Speaker 2 (07:14):
Oliver right, Uh yeah, yeah. He wanted to wear one
of those big puffy coats and Major told him, no,
the players wear those big warm coats. You don't wear
a big warm coat. That's what that was about. I
love that way to go, Major, I remember that. That was.
That was awesomeness. That was awesome. I got a clip
for you here. This was uh, this was a long

(07:35):
time ago, but this was a very very very famous retirement.

Speaker 5 (07:39):
Today, I consider myself the luckiest man.

Speaker 3 (07:44):
On the face of the ag.

Speaker 2 (07:49):
When you're looking around wouldn't you consider.

Speaker 3 (07:52):
It, Ziba.

Speaker 5 (07:55):
To associates yourself with such a time looking as it's
standing in uniform in this ball plot today, that i
might have been given a bad grade, but I've got
an awful light to lift for thank you.

Speaker 2 (08:16):
There you go. Of course, huh that's lou Gereg with
his famous speech. And it makes you feel bad about
if you ever, like, you know, you go to subway
and they forget to put mustard on your sandwich, like,
come on, be like Louke Gereg. He found the good
and everything. Of course he had to retire because of
you know, he got Luker's disease. So there you go.

Speaker 4 (08:35):
You're not referring to him as a quitter. Let's just
make sure.

Speaker 2 (08:38):
Oh no, he just retired. He's a he's an outstanding
man who retired, had to retire, but he faith. That
was you know, among all these do we do, that
may be the most famous one. You know, back in
the day when baseball was was the be all end all.
So all right, Chris, we're doing either retirees or quitters.
What you got in the world of sports?

Speaker 3 (08:56):
Uh, well, this was both and strange. Seventy three Talladega
five hundred Latin ninety. Bobby Isaac, who was a Hall
of Famer in NASCAR, was in the lead, on the
leading the race, pulls into the pits, get out of
his car. He's quit, uh so and never race again.
So earlier in the race there was a wreck and

(09:17):
a guy won the race named Larry Smith died, and
Bobby Isaac said in an interview later on that there
were he heard voices in his head. They said, I
heard the voice tell me to part this thing, and
that's exactly what I did middle of the race leading Talladega.
I'm done so to say that's shocking out. You know.
Bobby Isaac is not you know, Richard Betty, but I

(09:39):
mean he was a very good NASPI racist time until
he heard that voice and this voice said you pull
him toot three and there you believe me.

Speaker 2 (09:46):
I remember I had Bobby Isaac in a in a
Parlay so, yeah, I remember that.

Speaker 4 (09:52):
I don't know that I've ever heard that story. That's
very strange.

Speaker 2 (09:55):
That's because you don't bet Parlay's good friend.

Speaker 3 (09:57):
Evidently.

Speaker 2 (09:59):
Yeah, I'm kidding, all right, Greg, what you get.

Speaker 4 (10:04):
Yeah, this is a person that is revered in the
world of college football, and people tend to forget or
just maybe let it slide that Steve Spurrier quit on
his team in the middle of the season when he
was South Carolina October twenty, twenty fifteen.

Speaker 3 (10:21):
He just quit.

Speaker 4 (10:22):
He said, look, I'm just I'm just not into the
city Moore.

Speaker 3 (10:25):
I'm done.

Speaker 4 (10:26):
And there he went, still the winning his coach ever
in South Carolina, And so I guess he's been forgiven.
But you know, I think a lesser coach would not
be forgiven for such an exit. And that's obviously the
last time he ever coached, other than his brief tenure
in the American or or the what is it called

(10:48):
the AAF whatever, that is the Alliance of American Football,
you know, where they went seven to one with Orlando
and tried to collect the championship trophy. And I guess
the league quit on him. But anyway, yes, er quick
right in the middle of the year.

Speaker 2 (11:02):
I do remember that. Yeah, I can't reach these guys anymore.
I think he said at plus, I want to play
some golf. Yeah, that's a good one. I'll take you
back to nineteen hundred and ninety four, the NBA playoffs,
the Chicago Bulls and the New York Knicks, and uh,
the end of the game, the Bulls get in the
huddle and Phil Jackson says, all right, I got a

(11:23):
good play right here. We're gonna give it to Tony
Kuk coach, the rookie, and Scotty Pippen said, uh, I'll
make it. But it wasn't like Hoosiers because they didn't
redesign to play and Scotty Pippen's off with then yell
go ahead, and uh, of course Ku coach made the
shot and won the game. And Pippin's like, well, I
don't care. I'm not going in to let him shoot
the winning shot right there. So Scotty Pippen ninety four

(11:45):
NBA playoffs.

Speaker 3 (11:47):
It was a big one. Uh. Jim Brown one of
the best running backs in then for history, and during
the six Agains just dominated. As we talked about I
think a couple of weeks ago, but he was thirty
years old and just come off from nineteen sixty five
season where he was the MVP of the league, and
he was had started filming movies. He was in the
Dirty Dozen and that summer and filming, as it is

(12:10):
wont to do, sometimes ran long and he was going
to miss some training camp and so uh, the owner
of the Cleveland Browns art modeles said, listen, you gotta
a choice of Hollywood or the NFL. If you're not
here on time, you gonna be suspended one hundred dollars
a day. And Jim Brown said, well, I tell you
what I'm gonna do. I'm just gonna quit. How about
that and said he wanted something in a press conference,
saying he wanted something with more mental stimulation that football

(12:33):
gave him. So from MVP to filming with Lee Marvin
and the Dirt Dozen, Jim.

Speaker 2 (12:39):
Brown, Craig, how do you assess his acting skills?

Speaker 4 (12:44):
I thought he was okay, Yeah, he was pretty good.
Uh not the worst actor of all time, not the best,
but yeah, that was.

Speaker 2 (12:49):
Fine, Ciscle and Craig. We're going to next, yep.

Speaker 4 (12:55):
I was kind of surprised. I would go to goodness.

Speaker 2 (13:00):
Chris, you know, because he was the guy who brought
it up, so I wanted to get your input out it.

Speaker 3 (13:03):
Yeah, that was that was allod review. Greig.

Speaker 2 (13:05):
He was.

Speaker 4 (13:07):
Yeah, I mean he wasn't as good at not as
good an actor as he was a football player. And
I wouldn't say he was you know, hoo shore or anything.

Speaker 2 (13:14):
Wow, Grag's like back with more after this from Jiffy Pop.

Speaker 4 (13:19):
Yeahright, Well, we've we've we've mentioned a lot of people retiring,
you know, in the middle of the season or at
the end of the season or what have you. But
the only person I know of that retired in the
middle of a game was Bonte Davis, back for the
Buffalo Bills in twenty eighteen. Took himself out of the

(13:40):
game at halftime and never came back. And he said
afterward that this is not the way I saw my
football career ending. But today on the field, it really
hit me, hit me hard. I shouldn't be out there anymore.

Speaker 3 (13:55):
So he was done.

Speaker 4 (13:56):
He went right in the middle of the here and
it was only taking game of a year too, so
but yeah, he was done and never went back to football.
Interestingly enough, he died fairly recently back in April, was
found dead in his home, and to my knowledge, there
has never been in the you know, reason given for

(14:17):
his death is just kind of mysterious. But he was
like thirty five. But yeah, Monte Davis quit right in
the middle of the game.

Speaker 2 (14:22):
That's a good call. I'll piggyback on that and say
the retirement slash striped teas of Antonio Brown. Remember he
quit in the middle of a game and was taking
off all his clothes on the way to the locker
room as he quit on the way to You know,
that guy had lots of problems, but the most famous
one probably was when he was taking off every pad
and every piece of clothing on the way to the

(14:43):
locker room when he got mad in the middle of
a game. So I'll go with him, Chris, what you got,
we're doing famous quittings or retirements that shocked you, or
just we're very noteworthy. What you got?

Speaker 3 (14:54):
Well, this was not famous, but it was absolutely strange.
So Carlos Rowa was a gold He played soccer professionally
and he played for a Spanish team name called my Lorca,
and he got famous in soccer circles in the nineteen
ninety eight World Cup when he had just a tremendous
showing and became famous. And so Manchester United was going

(15:17):
to offer me ten million dollar salary to come play
for them in nineteen ninety nine. So Carlos Rowa said, nope,
I quit. And the reason was the Carlos Rowa was
a devout Seventh Day Adventist, and he said, here comes
the New Millennium. It's the end of days and we're
all about to be dead. Wow. So he moved to

(15:38):
a mountain village in Spain and lived in complete, almost
complete isolation, just his family for six months, waiting on
waiting on the new Millennium. Didn't work out like he thought,
you know, he returned to his village, said he was
not a sore loser, even though he had abandoned this sport.
He said the experience changed him and now he went

(16:01):
back to playing soccer. However, he would no longer play
on Saturdays, which is for the Seventh Day Adventist there
wholy day. And so he had a mist a lot
of matches and that didn't help things. But yeah, he
gave it all up because the year two tables coming
and he thought that was going to be it.

Speaker 2 (16:17):
Ad Meyer's commitment, right, I mean you can't yeah, I
can't fault the man for being that committed. But a
little miscalculation there, yep.

Speaker 4 (16:27):
Chris mentioned Pat Tillman earlier, and obviously, you know, during
the World War two year it was a lot more
common for for athletes to join the military, and of
course a lot of them were drafted as well, but
I was the most famous enlistment with Bob Feller. On
December seventh, nineteen forty one, he was driving from his
father's home in Iowa back to Cleveland, where he was

(16:49):
going to sign his contract for the nineteen forty two season.
Heard on the radio that the US had been bombed,
Pearl Harbor had been bombed, turned around, drove back to Iowa,
and the next day enlisted in the Navy and was gone,
obviously for the rest of the war. Served on the
USS Alabama, as we know, came back to Mobile a

(17:09):
few times to uh, you know, for events there, and
uh lived to be alone. Lived a long time into
his nineties. Said he never regretted, you know, missing that
big chunk of his career, even though it probably cost
him three hundred wins and you know, maybe some championship opportunities.
But was a very proud veteran.

Speaker 2 (17:29):
The US Navy thank him for his service. And Craig
he was he was cantankerous, right, Oh.

Speaker 4 (17:34):
Yeah, yeah, he's the one that said that he didn't
think that Willie made his catches was all that great
kind of hot dog in it.

Speaker 2 (17:46):
Oh, you can believe that. But let's keep that one
to ourselves.

Speaker 4 (17:50):
You know.

Speaker 2 (17:52):
Yeah, that's not that's not good. Yeah, but you know,
thank him for a service. He did a great thing there.
But I've heard he was famously tankerus for sure. I'm
gonna go. Uh, I'm gonna go to twenty twenty. So
just a few years ago, I think we were all
introduced to the word the twisties. Someone Biles at the

(18:12):
Tokyo Olympics. She has to quit in the middle of
it because she got the twisties, which means when you're
in the air and you're spinning around, whether you're doing
a floor exercise or the vault or whatever, and you
get in the air and you're like, whoa boy, I
don't know where the floor is, and you kind of
get dizzy and twisted and you get the twisties. It
happens in gymnastics. And she got that and just said, look,

(18:34):
I can't I can't compete. It's dangerous. And so she
quit in the middle of the Tokyo twenty twenty Olympics.
And you know that, Sony Lee ended up being the
gold medalist for the all around. Eventually Auburn gymnasts, so
she came back. Someone Biles is the greatest again now,
but for a while there she had to quit because
of the twisties, which I'd never heard that word before.

(18:55):
All right, Doug Chris, you are next up. We are
doing athletes who famously quit or tired.

Speaker 3 (19:01):
It's so weird that I was never affected by the twisties. Yeah, ironic, Yeah,
but this again certainly strange at the time. Nineteen eighty
three was the official retirement for be on Boord, although
he really he didn't play many matched after eighty one,
when he he won the French Open and uh was
second at Wilbledon and the US Opened only twenty six

(19:22):
when he retired with eleven major titles, which was second
all time at the time. They just said, you know,
I can't, I can't give a hundred percent of my
heart's not in it anymore. It just wasn't done. But
it was still very shocking because he was obviously, you know,
he thought the best ever at that time, and there
was a lot of reasons to say that. Now came
back in ninety one. I didn't like when he came

(19:42):
back to because of his hair and boy, I just
it wasn't a say it was And he wasn't back
for long. He Uh, I don't think he I don't
think you want tournament after he came back, but he
was backed for a couple of years. But uh, but yeah,
twenty six and again he had tennis players seem to
start younger and don't last quite as long. But it
was still very shocking when he stepped in and he
tried to come.

Speaker 2 (20:02):
Back and play with an old timey racket that he
used to play with when everybody else had moved on.
That was that was not going to work for him. Yeah,
I had him for sure, Greg. What you got?

Speaker 4 (20:13):
This is another related to Mobile. One of the more
famous sports personalities in Mobile history, Eddy's Stinky. For one
game in nineteen seventy seven, managed the Texas Rangers. He
left the South Alabama coaching staff after seven years. Managed
the Rangers for one game in June of seventy seven,

(20:35):
ten to eight win over the Twins, and quit the
next day and came back to Mobile. And I actually
wrote a story about this a few years ago and
talked to his son and a few other people that
were directly involved. And you know, it was kind of
disputed whether or not he you know, claimed he was homesick.
I think his father was ill at the time, and

(20:56):
you know, he just didn't want to be on the
road anymore. But you know, some other people stayd that
he'd been out of baseball professional baseball for a few years,
about ten years at that point, and did not relate
to the modern athlete. And he went into the clubhouse
and saw the players with their gold chains and hair
dryers and all that kind of stuff, and decided he
was going to get the heck out of there. So again,

(21:18):
it depends on how you talked to what actually happened.
But he managed the Rangers for one game.

Speaker 3 (21:26):
Give it at least a week, idy, I mean got
it one day.

Speaker 2 (21:29):
Yeah, well, yeah, he didn't want to do it. It sounds
like something I do. Oh I got nothing against a
gold chain or a hair dryer, but that sounds like
something I'd be like, you know, I don't know, put
up with this. Here's a clip right here of you
guys certainly remember where you were when you heard about
this retirement. And this guy did come back when we

(21:50):
certainly never thought there was a chance of this when
we heard this announcement.

Speaker 3 (21:55):
Because of.

Speaker 6 (21:59):
HIV by is that I have attained I will have
to retire from the Lakers today. I just want to
make clear first of all, that I do not have
the age disease, because I know a lot of you
I can want to know that.

Speaker 3 (22:15):
But a HIV.

Speaker 2 (22:16):
Virus magic Johnson man. That was a big, big, big
story at the time, and of course the underlying thing
there is we thought, oh, it's a death sentence, that
he's not going to be alive in a month, you know,
and now he's still going strong.

Speaker 4 (22:31):
Two things about that one, it was such an awkward
press conference he used the word attained, I know, like
it was something he had been trying to get his
entire life, which a weird choice of work. But I
also remember it tells you what a different time it was.
He went on the Arsenio Hall Show a couple of
days later to talk about it and said, by the way,

(22:53):
I'm not gay, and the crowd cheered. It just shows
you what a weird time, you know, differ time it
was back then.

Speaker 2 (23:01):
I do, I do remember that for sure. I think
that you mentioned about using the word obtained. I think
it's the only time I've ever seen Magic Johnson nervous,
So he clearly was like, didn't have that word picked out.
You know, you could tell he was kind of struggling
for exactly how he was going to phrase it, and
so you know, I give him a pass on that one,
you know, but it was a it was a very

(23:22):
weird word to use, that's for sure. All Right, Chris,
You're next up famous retirements or people just quit what
you got.

Speaker 3 (23:30):
Yeah, So this one was just maybe strange to me
because I like, it's got a lot. But Matt Luke,
who was the in this was at Georgia as the
offensive line coach in twenty twenty one and they Georgia
just won the national championship. I mean, is the height
the programs? You know Arguy ever been obviously and of
course he was you know, head coach at ole Miss
and then came and was Georgia and then in February

(23:53):
of the twenty two there following the twenty twenty one championship,
he said, you know, almost fill more time with family.
Matt Luce, young guy, uh players loving Terry Smart took
to talk about the career. I mean, it was staly
no problem that he was trying to get away from
He just wanted to retire to in town of his family,
and that's what he did. I just thought, but that's strange.
You just don't see it anymore of somebody his age.
And I really thought Matt Looke would be a coach

(24:14):
somewhere again. I mean, he wouldn't great at old Missy.
He's as good as you know most people not name
Lane Kiffing that this don't miss and me. He wasn't terrible,
but city's way. But yeah, and he quit it quit
for two years until this year where he's now back
the office line coach at Clemson. So I guess a
couple of years with the kids, as he says, love
to be coaching. So yeah, but it was just it

(24:34):
was just third because he was so well liked. They're
so young and everything.

Speaker 4 (24:39):
I remember when that happened. I think part of it
it was it came out after the fact that he
was one of the first guys that really the new
calendar was transfer portal and you know, all that came
into being where he pretty much had to work three
hundred and sixty five days a year. He just decided, look,
I'm out of here. I don't need it anymore, And
of course he had buyout money from his time at
Old Mess that probably helped him make the decision a

(25:00):
little bit easier.

Speaker 2 (25:01):
The problem is, I'm gonna quit to spend more time
with family. Well, now, you can never go on a
week long bender with your buddies to Vegas, you know,
because somebody's gonna see you. But hey, where the kids
that You're like, like, I'm not gonna be with the
kids all the time. I still get to go to
Vegas or you know, Rio or something. But now now
if you go to your buddy to Rio, then that's
gonna be like, oh boy, he should be coaching the dogs.

Speaker 3 (25:23):
You know, it could be a chip a Vegas friendn't
have to be a bender.

Speaker 2 (25:27):
Well, okay, just to Vegas to see Roberto Duran fight
or whatever it is.

Speaker 3 (25:31):
You know.

Speaker 2 (25:34):
Yeah, you just can't do it. You can't do it.
You gotta spend time with family. Craig, You're next up.

Speaker 4 (25:39):
Yeah. Dana Altman is one of the most decorated college
basketball made a Final Four with Oregon and of course
before that, had a very good run at Creighton, but
very briefly in two thousand and seven, he was to
be head coach at Arkansas. Uh for a little bit
over one day, I believe, And come to find out

(26:02):
he did not know what he was getting into and
fay a little.

Speaker 2 (26:06):
I'm not gonna take a chance how much he knows
about the whole call.

Speaker 3 (26:08):
We know what happened.

Speaker 1 (26:09):
Let's go it.

Speaker 6 (26:14):
Hey say.

Speaker 2 (26:21):
Hey, sorry, hey, sy raise it back.

Speaker 3 (26:30):
He me go, I'm not sure.

Speaker 2 (26:36):
My friends and normal Hallwood like to see me do that.

Speaker 4 (26:39):
But yeah, he was not comfortable calling the hog.

Speaker 2 (26:44):
Drim I love that, and uh, pretty quickly he was like, yeah,
I won't be doing that. I will not do that. Yeah,
that was that was a good famous one, There's no
doubt about it. How about how about Barry Sanders thirty
one years old, at the absolute top of the game,

(27:05):
top of the sport. I think he just got to
the point where he was like, look, I play for
the lines. We aren't gonna win. What am I doing here?
So he walked away and everybody kept thinking, well, he's
not gonna be gone for long, He's coming back, But no,
he was not. Barry Sanders thirty one years old, top
of the sport and just walked away.

Speaker 4 (27:23):
It was kind of almost like he thought maybe it
was a holdout situation, but he and that was he
kind of left right at the time where it would
be the most damage to the Lions too, because it
was like rightboard season basically, Chris.

Speaker 3 (27:38):
Yeah, yeah, And you can't do an interview with Barry
Sanders now eitherwhere would have somebody asking that's the one
question there. But it must have been kind of an
epidemic with the Lions because years later, Megatron Calvin Johnson,
same thing, thirty years old. I mean, played had a
great year, just said I can't give a hundred percent anymore.
Although I think it's kind of long of Barry Sanders.

(28:02):
He just didn't think the lines were every really going
to be a winner, and he was tired to get
beat up. But I mean he is. I don't think
Calvin Johnson is thought of as highly as you know
he should be because he was just unbelievable. Only fight
nine years. He's now in the Hall of Fame. But yeah,
the same thing. You good help, nothing wrong, just I'm
tired of his detort line.

Speaker 4 (28:25):
Arguably the greatest third baseball of all time, Mike Schmidt.
He retired abruptly as well. May eighth, nineteen eighty nine.
He played his last game for the Philadelphia Phillies and
the next day retired after eighteen seasons, hitting two oh three.
At the time, he had had shoulder surgery of the
year before, and oddly enough, he was still voted in

(28:48):
as the starting third baseman in the All Star Game,
but he chose not to participate in the game. He
did come to the game in uniform and was introduced
with the rest of the players, but he did not play.
So but yeah, he retired right in the middle of
the season.

Speaker 2 (29:01):
You know, whether you're talking about sports or anything else,
it's hard to imagine you can have a seven year
career or yeah, seven year career and still retired at
the age of twenty six. And that's true of the
youngest player in NBA history. Andrew Bynum retired at twenty six. Now,
he had some knee situations, but he got to the

(29:23):
NBA he was eighteen years and six days old, I think,
so he was barely old enough to play in the league.
And then he was gone by the time he was
twenty six and had played seven years. So you know,
he's probably still comfortable with his retirement from the NBA.
Andrew Byam Chris what you got.

Speaker 3 (29:42):
Yeah, another great baseball player in one time Philly, like
Mike Smith. But John Cruck retired in the middle of
a game. He was in his tenth year. He's played
for the White Sox. He got a single off Scott Ericson,
who was pitching for the Baltimore World at the time.
And of course Puck had terrible knees. But I mean
he was three o eight. I mean, he was not
like he was, you know, not any good anymore. But

(30:04):
he hobbled down the first They say, how about a
pitch runner over here? And they said you about He
walked and dug out, walked out, got the start left.
That was it he wanted. They said he wanted one
more hits, and that's what he asked. They okay, and
he's I mean, Kruk was a great hitter, and but
he had I mean, he had famously not really taken
care of himself during his career. But yeah, just got

(30:25):
his hit, got pitch runner and probably went to the
Hearties or something. He was gone out with dorm.

Speaker 4 (30:34):
Uh. Twenty fourteen in the NFL, Chris Bortland made the
NFL All Rookie team with the San Francisco forty nine
ers and retired after that season. He said he was
afraid of long term damage to his health due to
concussions and had trauma and retired after one season. He
ended up having to return most of his signing bonus

(30:56):
that had not already been paid out yet, and uh,
you know, uh just decided to step down at the time.
I think it probably helped his decision that he came
from money, you know. I think his father was pretty
with some kind of you know, hedge, fun guy or
something like that, so that probably helped him decide to
retire as young as he did. But he walked away

(31:17):
at age twenty four and never went back.

Speaker 2 (31:20):
As a Raiders fan as a kid. I would just
like to say that Lyn Swan retired at the age
of thirty because he was scared of Jack Tate him
in Lester Hayes. I'll just say that. But thirty years old,
and you know, he every year when they'd play the Raiders,
he'd have some nagging injury where he couldn't play, and
then eventually he's like, I'm just done. I'm not playing
those guys there. They cheap shot me every play. I'm

(31:41):
not I'm not doing it. Anymore. So there you go,
Lynce one, Chris, what you got?

Speaker 3 (31:48):
How about the tale of Tua Papua Topa Pua, who
was from Tongka played with the Cleveland Drafts by the
Cleveland Browns Great Athlete. One day in practice a teammate
stepped on the foot and crushed arch. That hurts, and
so so Tala said that he uh, he went and
looked up at the heavens and to ask what his

(32:09):
real calling was. I've never had a boy speak to
me heavens. I'm missing something. Anyway, Papua did, and he
said the boys told him to move forward, go to
New York and sing pretty specific from the voice for above.
But so he retired from football and he moved to
New York and for a few years he worked at
a restaurant across from the Metropolitan Opera. I mean, you

(32:30):
can't just walk into the met and say, hey, I'm
gonna here to sing. But but finally somebody heard him
and got him an audition and got him into Juilliard
and today he is a tenor singing opera professionally. Come on, yeah,
I'm kidning.

Speaker 2 (32:47):
I didn't see that's how that was going to go. Yeah,
I thought he was gonna be like that dude you
talked about that soccer player and had to move to
a mountain and had to figure out, you know what, honey,
we need to move back and play a game. Is
this isn't working out? It worked out for him.

Speaker 3 (33:00):
I took back and asked that voice, who's like the
third race in Aqueduct? I mean, come on, that was
all over.

Speaker 2 (33:06):
I did not see that coming, that it was going
to turn out that way. I like it. I like
it all right, Greig.

Speaker 4 (33:15):
June of two thousand and seven, after winning his second
straight national championship at the University of Florida, Billy Donovan
stepped down to become head coach of the NBA's Orlando Magic.
A week later, he was replaced by Billy Donovan, who
resigned as head coach and went back to Florida, coached
another eight years, and then of course went back to

(33:35):
the NBA with Oklahoma City first and now as coach
of the Chicago Bulls. But yeah, briefly he was inad
coaching the Orlando Magic.

Speaker 2 (33:43):
Do you remember this guy who retired from the NBA
at twenty seven years old, Royce White, who was such
a great player at Iowa State. So he gets drafted
by the Houston Rockets, but he had all sorts of
I don't say this in a negative way whatsoever, but
he had a lot of mental health issues and he
was upfront about that with the team. He's like, look
sometime like I'm not gonna be able to fly, you know,

(34:04):
because I've got these I've got these issues. And they
were like, well, you know, we fly to games. And
it became a big controversy, and finally at twenty seven,
Royce White was just like, you know what, I'm done
with it, and he retired. And people were like, oh,
he's not that serious about that.

Speaker 4 (34:18):
Yes he is.

Speaker 2 (34:19):
He's he's serious about his mental health. And so Royce
White twenty seven retires from the NBA after being a
beast at Iowa State at the college level. That's who
I got, Chris Who? What you got?

Speaker 3 (34:31):
I'll go with. I think you can make a case
the greatest women's basketball player of all time? Maya Moore
who who? She sat down the season she said she
was going to focus on family all the year a lot,
but then she someone said out another year and misty
Olympics to focus on her criminal justice advocacy, which she
was very beginning to and she didn't play for four years.

(34:52):
And then she said, they're gonna have Good Morning America
Tuesday morning Maya Moore with a big announcement, and everybody's
old Maya Moore's coming back. She's only announcement. She said,
I'm officially retired. I'm like, we played four years, but
I mean I mean Maya More. I mean he was
native Georgia and great Utahon and then I mean several

(35:14):
time MVP. I mean she was as good as you
get and certainly ended her career for what she felt
like a good reasons. And I certainly recall but very early.

Speaker 4 (35:23):
Yeah, a lot of people we mentioned, Barry Sanders, Calvin Johnson,
Jim Brown that retired when they were still great players.
But maybe the ultimate retiring on top would be John Elway,
who could still play. You know, he was old, but
he could still play and had won two consecutive Super

(35:44):
Bowls for the Denver Broncos when he retired at the
end of the nineteen ninety eight season. And you know,
could he have come back and gone to our third one? Maybe,
but he decided to go ahead and right out on
top at the time, he was also the winningest NFL
quarterback in history. Now he's been by Tom Brady and
several others. But you know, you don't get out, you

(36:04):
don't go out much more. On top to John Elwood, I'm.

Speaker 2 (36:08):
Gonna give you a guy who decided to walk away
instead of continuing to play and making it into the
Pro Football Hall of Fame. Andrew Luck retired at the
age of twenty nine. He had a whole bunch of injuries.
And you know, look, he's probably smart for doing it.
He's a rich guy. You know, he's doing great work
in the community, Stanford grad and all.

Speaker 3 (36:27):
That.

Speaker 2 (36:27):
Probably the right decision, but in terms of like your
football legacy, very much the wrong decision. I mean, he's
not going into the Hall of Fame, and he almost
certainly was headed to a Hall of Fame career before
he very surprisingly said I'm retiring and no, I'm not
ever coming back. And now we've learned to believe him.
He's not ever coming back, Andrew Luck. So there you go, Chris,

(36:50):
You got anything else?

Speaker 3 (36:50):
Good? Yeah? Real quick? I wanted who did I think
is almost exactly like Andrew Love's story, And that's Robert
Smith running back with the Vikings. He was twenty eight.
I mean, they said, you know, he's walked way and
he just said, I want to you know, being good
helped the rest of my life. And again, but because
he left so much money on the table, and again
I think would have been a Hall of Fame robbers.
This was a great running back. And they said, you know,

(37:11):
he probably gave up forty billion dollars by quitting. When
he did, he said, hey, I'm fine with it. And
I mean he's made a lot of money obviously, but
but yeah, still, I mean he was only twenty eight,
just like Andrew look outstanding back but just said yep,
I'm not gonna do it anymore and walk away.

Speaker 2 (37:24):
Yep. Anything else you went to throw in Craig, Yeah.

Speaker 4 (37:28):
George Pott in nineteen seventy seven, he was no longer
heavyweight champion, but he fought Jimmy Young in Puerto Rico
in nineteen seventy seven and after the fight had a
really bad health incident. He had exhaustion and heat stroke
and you know, believed at that point that he was
going to die. And over the course of this he
kind of had a religious awakening. He became a born

(37:49):
a good Christian and for the next decade was an
ordained minister, you know, preaching even on the street corners
and at kind of little front churches around his hometown
of Houston. And of course he did come back in
nineteen eighty seven and you know, eventually became Mabeway champion
in the world. But he you know, kind of stepped
down when he was still fairly young and probably could

(38:10):
you know, would have had a chance to regain the
title as a uh, you know, in his thirties.

Speaker 2 (38:14):
Yeah, I'll finish up by saying we shouldn't have been
surprised because he was certainly of retirement age. But Nick
Saban walking away from Alabama, it was still very shocking
when kind of out of the blue Nick Saban said
I'm done with this, so I'll give you can wait.

Speaker 4 (38:28):
Well, he quit the Dolphins too.

Speaker 2 (38:29):
You could only say that, oh, this is true.

Speaker 4 (38:31):
Did we mention the Michael Jordan retiring twice? I don't
guess we did.

Speaker 2 (38:35):
No, we did, all right, that's the winner then.

Speaker 3 (38:39):
But also also that we told the inside story of
when Rendy, when you found out about Nick Saban, when hey,
we're going to do this today.

Speaker 2 (38:47):
And yeah, yeah, yeah, I had. I was about two
minutes I was on here. I was about two minutes
away from from from Justin Ferguson from the Auburn Observer
coming on to talk about Auburn's back up defensive tackle
a text real quick like, yeah, we're probably put that off.

Speaker 4 (39:05):
Yeah, because I think the news broke it. Uh, the
news broke it like four oh five or something like that. Yeah,
it was right like you said, right in the middle
of the show.

Speaker 2 (39:15):
Yes, that's absolutely true. All right. Here I got is
the winner? Famous quitters or retirees. Uh, who y'all got?
I mean Michael Jordan's pretty good that, I mean that
was shocking.

Speaker 4 (39:28):
Yeah, that was Jim Brown. Yeah, Jim Brown retiring to
become an actor. You know, that's another good one.

Speaker 2 (39:34):
But I'm gonna go with I'm gonna go with Magic Johnson.
I'm gonna go with Magic Johnson.

Speaker 3 (39:39):
Yeah, yeah, because everything was so new about it.

Speaker 2 (39:41):
Yeah, if you were, if you were alive thirty years ago,
you remember Magic Johnson for sure, for sure.

Speaker 4 (39:48):
And it was right before the season started to that's another, uh,
another one.

Speaker 2 (39:52):
Let's call that the winner. Let's get make it be
Magic Johnson, very famous sudden retirement from Magic Johnson, even
though he came back later. We never saw that coming.
All right, guys, great job, appreciate you guys. Coming on,
Chris Beckham, Craig Stevenson. Let's do it again next week.

Speaker 3 (40:04):
All right.

Speaker 2 (40:07):
Lists for Chris every week here on Sports Talk ninety
nine five