Hammer don't hurt 'em. He helps 'em negotiate NFL contracts!
When it comes to smart financial management, the first person you think of is Stanley Kirk Burrell, a.k.a. MC Hammer, who blew a fortune with wild spending and a 300-person entourage. So it makes perfect sense that when San Francisco 49ers rookie wide receiver holdout Michael Crabtree and his agent Eugene Parker finally came to terms with the team four games into the NFL season, they did so with the Parker's best pop rapper friend at their side. Can't hammer out a contract without a Hammer, right?
As odd as it all seems, it's not the first instance of the sports world experiencing Hammertime. Get a good stretch, throw on your genie pants and dancin' shoes, and revisit Hammer's most memorable sports moments...
HAMMER HOLDS THE WOOD
Year: 1980-81
Sports connection: An Oakland Athletics fan, young Hammer used to dance in the Oakland Coliseum parking lot for money in the '70s. A's team owner Charles O. Finley took a liking to him and made him the team's batboy (and a clubhouse spy). Hall of Famer Reggie Jackson claims to have given him the nickname "Hammer" because he looked like Hammerin' Hank Aaron (above right). See the resemblance? You do? What, so now all black people all look alike? Dick.
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HAMMER GOES LEGIT
Year: 1991
Sports connection: This 10-minute epic video for "Too Legit to Quit" features the Godfather of Soul James Brown sending dancing disciple Hammer out to do battle with the King of Pop Michael Jackson. It also has a plethora of athlete cameos from Jose Canseco, Isiah Thomas, Kirby Puckett, Jerry Rice, Ricky Henderson, Deion Sanders, Andre Rison, Chris Mullin, Roger Clemens, Ronnie Lott, Roger Craig, David Robinson, and even the Dallas Cowboys and Atlanta Falcons cheerleaders. We can only guess how many groupies were scored on during the filming of this classic.
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HAMMER HORSES AROUND
Year: 1991-1992
Sports connection: Like all little boys growing up in rough East Oakland, Hammer dreamed of racing Thoroughbred horses. So, when he got crazy paid, he opened the Oaktown Stable. He actually did well. Of his 19 racehorses, filly Lite Light won several Grade I stakes races, including the prestigious Kentucky Oaks, and his colt Dance Floor won the 1991 Grade II Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes, 1991 Breeders' Futurity Stakes, and 1992 Fountain of Youth Stakes, and finished third in the 1992 Kentucky Derby. And you thought the only connection Hammer had to horses was his banana hammock in the "Pumps and a Bump" video!
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HAMMER BUILDS HIS FIELDS OF DREAMS
Year: 1992
Sports connection: Hammer, who eventually had to declare bankruptcy, spent millions of dollars to equip his $20 million mansion/compound in Fremont, California with indoor and outdoor swimming pools, tennis courts, basketball courts, a baseball diamond, and a bowling alley. Perhaps he was a little too enthusiastic about sports?
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HAMMER PLAYS WITH THE GREEN BAY PACKERS
Year: 1996
Sports connection: Hammer played Ranger in Reggie's Prayer, a schlocky sports drama starring legendary Green Bay Packers defensive end and Christian zealot Reggie White as a retired football player who becomes a high school coach and helps a troubled youth. Check out Packers QB Brett Favre and coach Mike Holmgren making painful cameos as father-son janitors. Tool legit.
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HAMMER IS READY FOR SOME FOOTBALL
Year: 2008
Sports connection: Hammer performed his new single "I Got Gigs" in this ESPN Monday Night Football spot. Hundreds of thousands of people tuned in to watch pigskin that. Four people bought Hammer's latest album.
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HAMMER FLUSHES HIS FORTUNE DOWN THE SUPER BOWL
Year: 2009
Sports connection: Hammer and Ed McMahon, who'd both pissed away more money than we'll ever dream of, killed in this Cash4gold.com commercial that aired during Super Bowl XLIII. Go for the gold—and mail it away in a plastic baggie for quick cash to keep the bank agents off your ass!
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