Five sports heroes caught on camera for bad behaviour

Did Chris Gayle get off easy for his sleazy comments to Mel McLaughlin? While the debate rages on, check out other bad behaviour by sports heroes caught on camera.

Dwayne Bravo

Cricketer Chris Gayle has been fined $10,000 for his recent “We can have a drink after”, “don’t blush baby” lechy line to Channel Ten sports journalist Mel McLaughlin. Ian Chappell even called for a worldwide ban on Gayle for his inappropriate comments. But his fellow West Indies teammate Dwayne Bravo too came on to McLaughlin in 2014, sending this message across to her while she was commentating: “Beautiful Mel, I was lucky enough to meet her once in Sydney. I just want to say, ‘Hi’, and I can see she’s still looking beautiful.” Fellow commentator Ricky Ponting, who was on the panel with McLaughlin at the time, said, “That was slightly uncomfortable.”

(Image: BCCL)
Mike Tyson

In 2009, the bad boy of boxing faced jail time for punching a pap at the Los Angeles airport — the photographer fell to the ground and alleged he got a nasty gash on his head. In 2014, Tyson controlled his fists, but swore on camera at Canadian reporter Nathan Downer, who questioned him about his 1990s rape conviction. “You come across like a nice guy but you’re really a piece of s***,” Tyson told Downer. “ F*** you, that was a piece of s***.” Live television and Tyson? Not a good idea.

(Image: AP)
Maria Sharapova

While Chris Gayle has been criticized for disrespecting a journalist at her workplace, there is a social media comment over how a similar remark by tennis star Maria Sharapova slipped by. The tennis star seemed quite distracted by Aussie reporter Lachlan Wills’s “form” when he asked her a question on camera in 2014. “You have so much, like, good self-esteem when you speak. It’s really nice,” she said. “What was the question? I was just admiring your form (laughs).”

(Image: Reuters)
Diego Maradona

He’s had a rocky relationship with the press and paparazzi, that’s a fact. Diego Maradona fired an air rifle, striking journalists around his home in 1994, then in 2000, smashed a photographer’s car window. He then said, “If, in 1986, I said the goal against the English came from the ‘Hand of God’, today I announce this broken glass comes from the ‘Hand of Reason’.” There’s also a vid of him slapping an Argentinian journalist in 2014 for “winking” at his ex-wife Claudia Villafane. And in 2015, there was footage of him kicking photographers who mobbed him at, um, a ‘peace charity match’ in Columbia.

(Image: BCCL)
Joe Namath

His slurred words, “I want to kiss you” to ESPN’s Suzy Kolber in 2003 haunted him for years. Football quarterback Joe Namath revealed later that he had a deep drinking problem when he did the interview. So instead of commenting on the Jets game, Namath said that he “couldn’t care less” and just wanted “to kiss” Kolber, who laughed it off. Namath was penitent and apologised profusely. But in 2014, Broadway Joe was dubbed “creepy drunk uncle” when he planted a fat kiss on Fox reporter Kimberly Guilfoyle during a Superbowl live cast. Talk about a leopard and his spots.