Athletes Who Were 'Just Joking'

Sometimes the things we say or the jokes we make are misunderstood or taken out of context. It’s why the expression “just joking” exists.

Other times, we use the expression in a manipulative attempt to excuse our mistakes.

In the world of sports, where thousands of athletes are interviewed daily, controversial statements circulate with impressive regularity.

And almost equally as often, athletes such as Miguel Cabrera, Vince Carter and Greg Jennings will revert to their favorite fallback, invoking the classic “I was just kidding” excuse with various degrees of success.

With this mind, then, we’ve decided explore 10 of our favorite “just kidding” sports moments.

In some instances, the central figure was probably just kidding. In others, they most likely were not. In each instance, we'll do our best to sift through the language and find the real truth.

The Incident: In September of 2008, San Diego State basketball star Lorrenzo Wade was accused of TV theft. The victim—a female college student who was actually home at the time—waited for Wade and his accomplice to leave her apartment before confronting them outside moments later. Yet, even with the woman’s precious electronics in their hands, the two somehow maintained their innocence.

The Justification: Wade told detectives that he entered the woman’s apartment to ask her to move her car and, in the end, was really only responsible for unplugging the TV anyway. When asked why they took the TV in the first place, Wade told detectives that he and his friend were simply “joking around.”

The Verdict: This story’s absurd—and rather unbelievable—on multiple levels.

For starters, if we are to believe Wade and accept that theft was never his intent, we also have to believe that he truly entered the stranger’s apartment to simply ask for her car to be moved. But who breaks into a stranger’s apartment for such a mundane reason? No one, that’s who.

Of course, Wade also claimed the whole “TV theft” thing was just one big misunderstanding—a practical joke gone bad, if you will. But who thinks stealing things from strangers is funny? Again. No one.

Finally, and just in case his other excuses didn’t play, Wade focused the blame on his partner, arguing that he was only responsible for unplugging the device.

Of course, that, too, is an absolutely terrible excuse, as it in no way absolves Wade. It’s like saying, “Yes, officer, I was with my friend in the stolen boat. I didn’t steal it, though, I just untied it from the dock and went for a ride.”

The Incident: After giving up a first-inning double to Derek Jeter in the 2014 All-Star Game—the last one in which the Hall of Fame Yankee would participate—Cardinal pitcher Adam Wainwright told reporters he threw over the plate intentionally, out of respect to Jeter.

“I was gonna give him a couple pipe shots. He deserved it,” Wainwright said. “I didn’t know he was gonna hit a double or I might have changed my mind.”

Of course, many were instantly infuriated by the thought of a pitcher trying less than fully in a game responsible for determining home-field advantage in the World Series.

The Justification: Inspired by the outcry, Wainwright quickly backed off his initial stance, telling Fox’s Erin Andrews that he was only joking.

“Sometimes my humor gets taken the wrong way,” Wainwright explained. “I hope people realize I’m not intentionally giving up hits out there. I know this game means something.”

The Verdict: Baseball has fought to make its All-Stare Game relevant for years, and that includes the 2003 decision to give home-field advantage in the World Series to the game’s winner.

The players, however, have adapted with mixed results. To this day, some no doubt try harder than others.

In the case of Wainwright, though, he had every reason to want to win, especially when you consider that he suits up for a team that has made the final series in two of the last three seasons.

With all that said, the truth is probably somewhere in the middle. Wainwright almost certainly cared about winning the game, but likely thought his team could do so even if he gave a guy like Jeter something to hit. After all, he admitted as much when he acknowledged that he would have pitched differently had he known a double was coming.

In the end, then, we believe Wainwright cared about winning, but also think he pitched softly to Jeter with the Yankee’s legacy in mind, understanding the two were not necessarily mutually exclusive.

The Incident: Speaking of Derek Jeter, apparently not everyone likes him quite as much as Adam Wainwright seems to.

In 2011, Baltimore Orioles manager Buck Showalter brought the hammer down on both Jeter and former Red Sox GM Theo Epstein.

According to Showalter, the Yankee shortstop is “always jumping back from balls just off the plate. I know how many calls that team gets." 

On the topic of the Red Sox, Showalter was equally critical:

I’d like to see how smart Theo Epstein is with the Tampa Bay payroll. You got Carl Crawford ’cause you paid more than anyone else, and that’s what makes you smarter? That’s why I like whipping their asses: It’s great, knowing those guys with the $205 million payroll are saying, ‘How the hell are they beating us?’

The Justification: When Showalter was asked about the comments at a later date, he brushed it off, arguing that he didn’t actually intend to insult either party.

"Maybe it is envy or something on my part," explained Showalter.

The Verdict: This incident is as clear as any we will explore. Showalter clearly intended to criticize Jeter and the Yankees as well as Epstein and the Red Sox. And, honestly, most of what he said was spot on.

To avoid controversy, Showalter explained his comments related to envy, when they were far more likely the product of resentment. And you can trust that plenty more in baseball feel exactly the same way.

The Incident: In the middle of the 2013 NBA season, word surfaced that Vince Carter of the Dallas Mavericks had referred to Dwight Howard—his former teammate in Orlando—as “the biggest crybaby” he knows.

The Justification: When asked about the in-game comments the very next day, Carter said the two were simply joking around.

"Everybody is blowing it out of proportion," Carter said. "First of all, we were just playing around joking. It was a joke because he said it to me first. And we were complaining about his three seconds [in the lane]. He was saying, stop crying. And I said, you're the biggest crybaby."

The Verdict: This one can go either way. We know Howard and Carter had a solid relationship when they played together in Orlando, even if Vinsanity played a major role in their team’s 2011 postseason loss to the Celtics. With that in mind, we buy part of what Carter is selling, that the criticism was more friendly banter than vindictive taunting.

With that said, Howard is in fact “the biggest crybaby” around, a truth that likely isn't lost on his former running mate. Therefore, it is hard to believe that Carter overtly told the truth and didn’t mean it at all.

The Incident: Concussions have become a hot topic and major source of controversy in the NFL over the past few years. As a result, no one was amused when quarterback Peyton Manning alluded to purposely tanking the league-mandated concussion test in 2011:

They have these new [brain] tests we have to take. Before the season, you have to look at 20 pictures and turn the paper over and then try to draw those 20 pictures. And they do it with words, too. Twenty words, you flip it over, and try to write those 20 words. Then, after a concussion, you take the same test and if you do worse than you did on the first test, you can’t play. So I just try to do badly on the first test.

The Justification: Manning is a media darling and PR savant, so quickly moved to justify his comments when criticism came his way.

“Not true; I wouldn’t do that,” he said. “I understand the seriousness of concussions. Our job was to be entertaining to the crowd. Got some laughs out of it, but it was really unfortunate.” 

The Verdict: It would be a gross mistake to underestimate an NFL player’s competitive drive, and many have done far worse in the name of hiding concussions.

Manning, however, is a different breed.

He’s aware enough to recognize an obvious flaw in the league’s method of testing, and he has a dry enough sense of humor to poke fun at it. He’s also smart enough to know that concussions are ultimately a very serious threat, which makes it hard for us to believe he’d intentionally put himself at even greater risk.

For those very specific reasons, we give Manning a pass.

The Incident: When Greg Jennings left Green Bay for Minnesota in 2013, Aaron Rodgers had some fun at his former teammate’s expense. When Rodgers was asked about losing Jennings at the Wisconsin Sports Awards last spring, he jokingly asked, “Who?”

Jennings, however, didn’t find the quip very funny:

For me, I’m such a team person, I’m going to defer to my teammates. I’m going to defer to the team, to the team, to the team. And I think when you reach a point where you’re not deferring any longer, it’s no longer really about the team.

Don’t get me wrong, ‘12’ is a great person. But when you hear all positives, all positives, all positives all the time, it’s hard for you to sit down when one of your teammates says, ‘Man, come on, you’ve got to hold yourself accountable for this.’ It’s hard for someone to see that now because all they’ve heard is I’m doing it the right way, I’m perfect. In actuality, we all have flaws.

The Justification: As soon as Jennings discovered that Rodgers, coach Mike McCarthy and many other Packers resented his comments, he quickly backtracked and claimed it was all a joke.

“I was just really razzing a little bit with Aaron, just knowing how he is and just going back and forth with some of the guys,” Jennings said. “It wasn’t meant to hurt anyone’s feelings. It was just really messing around initially and then everyone kind of blew it a little bit out of proportion.”

The Verdict: After the fact, Jennings might have actually felt bad about what he said with regard to his former teammates, but there’s very little chance he was truly joking in the moment.

His comments were not just critical; they were extremely specific and far too in-depth to come off as anything other than accusatory. Sure, Jennings may have regretted them, but he absolutely meant them.

The Incident: In early 2014, Kevin Durant decided he no longer wanted to be referred to as the “Slim Reaper.” Which raises the question: Who actually called him that?

Anyway, in exchange for Slim Reaper, Durant suggested to ESPN’s Bill Simmons that he instead be called “The Servant.”

The Justification: Upon hearing about Durant’s new proposed nickname, NBA fans worldwide were instantaneously mystified.

In response to the barrage of jokes and questions, Durant quickly reneged.

"I was just joking around with the Servant thing,” he explained.

The Verdict: If Durant was kidding, then he isn’t very funny.

More than likely, he was tired of Slim Reaper (which he admitted) and took it upon himself to make the change.

Of course, giving oneself a nickname and making it stick is an almost impossible task, as well as seriously frowned upon. And when that nickname is as terrible as "The Servant," then you’re really fighting a no-win kind of battle.

It took a few thousand disgruntled NBA fans to teach Durant this valuable lesson.

The Incident: In January of 2014, Vikings punter Chris Kluwe published an article on Deadspin. In it, Kluwe suggested that he was fired from the team for publicly supporting gay rights. He also accused special teams coach Mike Priefer of saying some pretty horrendous things, including the following statement:

“We should round up all the gays, send them to an island, and then nuke it until it glows.”

The Justification: Priefer initially denied the accusation, but a subsequent team-led investigation concluded that he had in fact made the inflammatory remarks.

With no other choice, Priefer eventually owned up to the homophobic assertion, but he justified it by suggesting it “was made in jest.”

The Verdict: The “I was just joking” excuse may work in some instances, but definitely not in this one. What Priefer said was as despicable as it was unfunny.

A fine line often separates the humorous from the inappropriate, but Priefer landed miles away from that line and on the wrong side of it.

The Incident: In a 2009 interview with Sports Illustrated, IndyCar racer Danica Patrick unabashedly condoned drug use. When asked if she would take performance-enhancing drugs if she knew she’d get away with it and that doing so would help her win the Indy 500, Patrick responded in rather surprising fashion:

Well, then it's not cheating, is it? If nobody finds out? It would be like finding a gray area. In motorsports, we work in the gray areas a lot. You're trying to find where the holes are in the rule book.

The Justification: As expected, Patrick dealt with all the ensuing criticism by blaming the statement on her own terrible sense of humor.

"It was just a bad joke," Patrick told USA Today.

The Verdict: There’s simply no way Patrick was “joking.” Nothing in her tone suggests otherwise. She even went so far as to suggest that racing is actually all about “finding gray areas.”

In a moment of unbridled honesty, the female driver clearly bit off more than she could chew.

And Patrick’s not the only competitive athlete who would cheat if they knew they could get away with it; sports are riddled with like-minded individuals.

It’s a scenario Patrick had likely considered numerous times even before the interview. What she should have considered, however, is how many she’d offend by supporting something as illegal and unpopular as performance-enhancing drugs.

The Incident: Before the Detroit Tigers were eliminated from the 2014 playoffs, Miguel Cabrera informed teammates of his plan to forgo the postseason bonus he was owed.

“I just want the ring,” Cabrera explained.

And when teammate Max Scherzer approached him with the paperwork that would allow him to collect his postseason check, Cabrera stayed true to his word.

“I’m not signing anything,” he told Scherzer.

Not surprisingly, Cabrera has since backed away from his promise and has plans to collect the playoff bonus after all.

The Justification: Though Cabrera hasn’t spoken publicly on the matter, reports from ESPN have suggested that the initial promise was nothing more than a joke (h/t The Detroit News).

The Verdict: Cabrera is an amazing athlete and was inspired by the prospect of leading his team to a title. So when winning a ring was still a possibility, he wanted to believe nothing else mattered.

It sounded good then, but it was really little more than talk. In truth, aspirations and reality rarely align.

So when the Baltimore Orioles swept his team from the playoffs, Cabrera suddenly didn’t feel quite so giving.

After all, money is actually much better than nothing.