Hooters and Athletes: Temptation and Trouble That Might Make You Want to Stay Home!
7 Athletes And A Middle School Coach That Found The Hooters Bar & Grill Chain Bad For Their Image
Hot women in skimpy outfits serving up hot wings and booze while you watch sports, what could go wrong?
Well, for some of these boozehounds, they have found the temptations of Hooters just a little too irresistible for their own good.
Randall Burbach
The most recent person involved in sports to find himself in a Hooters-related mini-scandal is a middle school football coach named Randall Burbach. He coined a great idea to hold his Oregon Middle School’s postseason banquet at the local Hooters restaurant. Although the shamed football coach could have kept his job just by relocating the event at the request of parents and school staff, the lure of Hooters was too strong and eventually, Burbach would be fired for not giving in to the relocation idea.
Greg Oden
Shortly before the high school coach incident, Miami Heat’s Center Greg Oden’s picture was taken at a Miami Hooters while he watched his team play in Toronto. The reason he was not with his team is he claimed to be too injured to travel. But after a picture of him at Hooters was posted all over the Internet, he proved to be too injured to travel, but not too injured to hang out on a barstool at the famed bar and grille.
John Daly
Golfer John Daly made his mark on the Hooters no-no list in a number of incidents. Daly has reportedly been a fixture in the Hooters hospitality tents at PGA events where he has been known to kick back more than just a few. There is even one instance where his coach dropped him as a pupil because of his unwillingness to take the game seriously.
After a rain delay in 2008 and what one can only imagine was one too many in the hospitality Hooters tent, he hired Jon Gruden, coach of the Tampa Bay Bucs to be his caddy for the rest of the round. Not a normal move for a sober professional golfer.
But Daly’s most memorable Hooters mishap was about seven months after his 2008 antics in the Hooters tent. At a North Carolina Hooters, Daly passed out in his car and was eventually picked up by the Winston-Salem, N.C. police and taken to jail for the night. His mug shot became a hot item for the media making him a laughing stock for weeks to come.
Alex Rodriguez
Alex Rodriguez is known to show up time-to-time at Hooters for a bite to eat. That wouldn’t be much of a problem except his poor tipping habits found him a spot in the media doghouse more than once. TMZ Deadspin wrote this about A-Rod along with a picture of him and his receipt, “This is what rock bottom looks like.” But that’s not all for A-Rod, TMZ also claims to have inside sources at Hooters that say Jose Canseco accused him of constantly hitting on his ex-wife during his many visits to the restaurant.
Jose Canseco and Darren Daulton
Jose Canseco and Darren Daulton, both major leaguers, were married to Hooters girls, and both of them went through high-profile divorces. Canseco’s ex, Jessica Sekely, has written a tell-all book about what it was like being married to an ex-ballplayer, needless to say, it wasn’t all glamorous.
Chipper Jones
Another ex-ball player who managed to drag his good name through the mud due to Hooters is Chipper Jones. He has admitted to having a kid out-of-wedlock with a waitress. This is said to have somewhat destroyed the clean-cut image he has held for many years.
Maybe it’s safe to say as a sports figure in the athletic community, you should steer clear of the seemingly harmless Hooters bar and grille and get your fix of wings, beer, and sports at home.
© 2018 Brian D Hensley