New York Mets pitcher Noah Syndergaard made a cameo in Sunday’s Game of Thrones and that sparked a debate over athletes whose side hustle is acting. We use the term actor lightly, but nonetheless they were in a movie, which is more than we can say.
Don’t quit your day job,
The Last Night’s Game Team
Five of the best movie cameos by athletes
- Mike Tyson. The song In The Air Tonight will never be the same after the scene with renowned boxer Mike Tyson in The Hangover. Luckily for the wolf pack he didn’t bite anyone’s ear.
- Brett Farve. There was Something about Mary and Hall of Fame quarterback Brett Farve (NFL – National Football League) managed to figure that out and get the girl at the end. Kind of.
- Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Not many on this list had as pivotal of a role as NBA (National Basketball Association) legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in the 1980 classic comedy, Airplane. As co-captain Murdock, he spent the movie denying that he was actually a basketball player. And don’t call me Shirley.
- Ronda Rousey. The UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship) champion was the love interest of Turtle in the Entourage movie. Even though she quite literally kicked his butt in the gym, he was still smitten.
- Lance Armstrong. The cyclist gives a game changing motivational speech to Vince Vaughn’s character after quitting the team. Lance Armstrong’s speech in Dodgeball now seems a bit awkward after the doping scandal including, “Well, I guess if a person never quit when the going got tough, they wouldn't have anything to regret for the rest of their life.” We could think of a few other things he might regret.
Overtime
- Parents and school administrators are cringing this morning after UCLA quarterback Josh Rosen, who is one of the best in college football, made a bold statement in an interview. He said, "Look, football and school don't go together. They just don't. Trying to do both is like trying to do two full-time jobs." Before you cry, he also said he wants to get his MBA so he can own the world when he's done with football. Life goals.
Sideline stat
- The New England Patriots have outdone themselves. The Super Bowl champions are the first NFL team to purchase a plane for team travel. But wait there’s more. They bought a second plane as well because two planes are always better than one.
Coaches’ corner
- Yesterday, ESPNU transformed to ESPN8: “The Ocho” and it was incredible. “The Ocho” was originally featured in the movie Dodgeball (see above) and this real-life version lived up to expectations. The one-day channel featured seldom seen sports like the World Darts Championship (think boxing match fanfare and tension but with darts) and sports we’ve never heard of like kabaddi, which is a full contact team game of tag that originated in India.
