Misconduct | A sporting moment that makes you laugh

Every week, journalists from Sports de The Press answer a question with pleasure, and also a little insolence

Miguel Bujold

The name given to the game in question makes it even more comical: the butt smoke. Mark Sanchez had a few respectable seasons with the New York Jets, even leading them to the American Conference Championship Game two years in a row, in 2009 and 2010. But he will also be remembered for this game. It was in November 2012. The Americans were digesting their Thanksgiving turkey when Sanchez made history on prime time… The quarterback wanted to get the ball back to his running back before realizing that he was no longer behind him. Sanchez then ran straight ahead for possession but slammed into the behind of his lineman Brandon Moore. Sanchez fell on his back, losing the ball which the Patriots recovered to score an easy touchdown in a landslide 49-19 win. If you have never seen the butt smoke, I urge you to do so without delay. It will definitely put a smile on your face.

Katherine Harvey Pinard

Two moments come to mind. Obviously, I cannot ignore the spat between Bob Hartley and Patrice Brisebois in the Montreal-Quebec Series, presented on TVA in 2010. Do I need to tell you about it? “Your Stanley Cup ring, it doesn’t bother me,” Hartley shouts at Brisebois, who replies, “Who are you? What have you done in life? I was 15 at the time, and it still makes me laugh to this day. A moment of anthology. There’s also that moment involving a ballboy at the 2016 Barcelona tournament that has a knack for making me smile. After recovering a ball, the young man hurries to return to his post, but loses his footing and – solidly – ​​collides with the wall. He hits his head and the sound of contact echoes through the stadium, but he gets up and pretends nothing has happened. Spaniard Nicolás Almagro slowly turns around to see what has happened before getting into position to serve. We see the young man in the back who holds back laughter. It’s such a banal situation, but it’s been around the web. All kinds of montages have been created with this video.

Richard Labbe

Not easy to answer that one. In general, what makes me laugh is when coaches lose control, especially at a press conference, and in this list, the first two places are held by Jim Mora and Michel Therrien. To this day, I think I watch with great pleasure the conference of Therrien, who shoots down all but one of his Pittsburgh Penguins players (Max Talbot), at least 300 times a year. But I would say that I see Mora’s 301 times a year. Really, there’s nothing that can beat the former Indianapolis Colts coach, who is coming back from an obviously hard-to-swallow loss, and is simply being asked by a reporter if he still believes to the chances of his club in view of the playoffs. It’s not complicated: I burst out laughing every time I hear: “PLAYOFFS??? And I don’t think I’ll ever get bored.

Guillaume Lefrancois

Laughter is sometimes contagious. In the good years of The end of the world is at 7 a.m., Paul Houde could make us cry with laughter at home by losing control, even if we didn’t always understand, at least at the time, what amused him so much. On February 26, 2012, it was Alain Vigneault who made the hockey world laugh, right in the middle of a game for his then team, the Canucks, in Dallas. The trigger: Stars forward Vern Fiddler who, after arguing with defenseman Kevin Bieksa, walks past the Canucks bench and imitates Bieksa’s angry look. What begins with an amused laugh from Vigneault practically ends in tears, with the head coach even using his notepad to hide his face. In interview with the Courier Post, in 2019, Vigneault recalled being tired, with the Canucks playing their fifth game in a week on the road. “Sometimes people around you laugh, and it makes you laugh. I just lost control, I couldn’t take it anymore. This scene resurfaced last year, when Bieksa, now an analyst at Sportsnet, subtly placed a photo of Fiddler on the shelf behind him during an intervention during Hockey Night in Canada.

Simon Olivier Lorange

It is not given to everyone to be an actor or actress. Even the best-known stars, graduates of the best theater schools, would like to delete from their CVs a few roles that have more or less highlighted them. However, there is a safe bet in the world of sport: almost all athletes are bad actors, especially when they are used in commercials. The face is tense, the text is jerky. We recognize all the naturalness and ease of a deer staring at the headlights of a car rushing towards him. Sometimes it’s so bad it’s funny – and I love it. At a time when he was not yet a multimillionaire, Mario Lemieux was promoting Snickers bars in Quebec: the best hockey player in history did not threaten the career of any actor, believe me. However, there are exceptions. In the movies, LeBron James was actually skilled in comedy Trainwreck. And Alex Ovechkin, in a recent insurance ad, did quite frankly. In short, bad or less bad, we win every time. And we laugh.

Nicholas Richard

Referees are usually the most hated characters in the sports world. However, one name is an exception to the rule: Wes McCauley. Undoubtedly the most spectacular referee of the XXI^and century… and the funniest. Whether in his exaggerated movements, his exuberant signals, his theatrical announcements or his discussions with the players on the ice, McCauley has already managed to put a smile on the face of all hockey fans at least once. An unparalleled phenomenon. Whenever Wes McCauley is on duty for a game, we know that stoppage time is likely to be more entertaining than the game. A referee with a sharp sense of spectacle and murderous repartee. Remember when he told Brad Marchand at the All-Star Game that he wanted to impose a penalty on him just to become the most applauded person of the evening. Or when he chased, without valid reason, the two center players during the first face-off of a Flames-Senators duel so that the brothers Matthew and Brady Tkachuk (wingers) could face each other. A sole referee who is already one of the legends of his sport.

Alexander Pratt

Players who have completely lost track of the match. Like the time former Expos outfielder Larry Walker grabbed a candle and passed the ball to a child. The problem ? There was only one out…and a runner on base. After realizing his mistake, Walker returned to the child, and asked for the ball again. Almost 30 years later, I’m still laughing!

Jean-Francois Teotonio

There is nothing that sows chaos – and hilarity – as much as an animal that disrupts the course of a sports game. The confusion of the cat, the squirrel, the rabbit or even the kangaroo is often matched only by its total refusal to be caught. This hunt gives rise to tasty moments of sports analysis from the commentators, who can not help but describe the action, hilarious. One of my favorite animal-sport moments: the black cat interrupting the Monday Night NFL game between the Cowboys and the Giants in November 2019…a week after Halloween. After his “touch”, the commentators had highlighted his excellent “lateral movement”. The curse of the black cat had even operated for weeks: teams with feline nicknames (Lions, Bengals, Panthers and Jaguars) had lost 14 games after he made his appearance.