Image via Complex Original
In sports, it's one thing to fight, but a whole other thing to bite. Sometimes, when another guy has been pushing you to the edge, you can't help but shove him away or throw a punch. We all know how those sorts of things can get out of hand (see: the Malice at the Palace) but, for the most part, these brawls are just a part of the game. Tensions boil over, simmer down, and then heat up again. We all move on. When biting gets thrown into the equation, though, things can get a little, well, weird. As we've seen with Mike Tyson, Marv Albert, and Luis Suarez, it's always a good idea to just keep your teeth to yourself. Today's the anniversary of Tyson's suspension from boxing by the Nevada State Athletic Commission as punishment for the Evander Holyfield biting incident in 1997. From the strangely sexual to the downright insane, we've got all the bases covered in our History of Biting in Sports.
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Conrad Dobler
Date: 1974
Punishment received: None
Back in the early days of the NFL, you could basically do anything short of killing a guy without worrying about whether you'd be fined or suspended. No one took advantage of that fact more than former offensive lineman Conrad Dobler, a notorious, cheap-shot artist who once made the cover of Sports Illustrated with the caption "Pro Football's Dirtiest Player." Though it isn't known exactly when he bit former Viking Doug Sutherland (Dobler's Cardinals played the Vikings twice that year), we at least know that it happened. That's because Dobler admitted to doing it in a 2000 interview with Esquire. Hey, at least he's honest.
Pedro Borbon
Date: 7/14/1974
Punishment received: None
The nickname "Dominican Dracula" should really tell you all you need to know about former Cincinnati Reds relief pitcher Pedro Borbon. This guy liked to fight, and when he was fighting, he was usually biting. During a bench-clearing brawl with the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1974, Borbon was going at it with Pittsburgh pitcher Daryl Patterson, pulling Paterson's hair and biting him on the back of the neck. After the fight, Patterson ended up having to get a tetanus shot. The next time the two teams played, Pittsburgh radio announcer Bob Prince introduced Borbon by saying that, "Dracula is on!" Unfortunately for Borbon, the nickname stuck.
Tree Rollins
Date: 4/24/1983
Punishment received: None
The NBA during the 1980s was a rough and tumble league, with teams like the "Bad Boy" Detroit Pistons and the Boston Celtics ruling the L thanks to their physical style of play. It was Danny Ainge of those same Celtics, though, who'd find himself on the receiving end of some dirty tactics. He and Atlanta Hawks center Tree Rollins got into a fight during Game 3 of the 1983 Eastern Conference Finals.
After being called a "sissy" by Ainge during the game, Rollins retaliated by delivering a hard elbow to Ainge's face. Ainge then tackled Rollins to the ground before the two were broken up by teammates and officials. In the skirmish, though, Rollins clamped down on Ainge's middle finger before he was pulled off of the Celtics guard. During his career, Tree was known as "The Intimidator," and it looks like he could back up that bark with a bite too.
Claude Lemieux
Date: 5/22/1986
Punishment received: None
Claude Lemieux is one of the most hated players of all time in the NHL, and incidents like this played a large part in earning him that distinction. During Game 4 of the 1986 Stanley Cup Finals, Lemieux dug into the finger of Calgary Flames forward Jim Peplinski, cutting all the way to the bone. Unfortunately, karma would play no role in the result that year, as Lemieux's Canadiens defeated the Flames to take the title. Peplinski said after the game, "I didn't know they allowed cannibalism in the NHL."
Johan Le Roux
Date: 7/23/1994
Punishment received: 18-month suspension
It's a bit of an understatement to say that rugby is a physical sport. The scrums, playing without pads—it certainly isn't a game for the faint of heart. That doesn't mean that the governing officials of the sport don't make an effort to keep their players in line, though. Never was this made more clear when South African prop, Johan Le Roux, was dealt an 18-month suspension (shortened from the original 20-month punishment) for biting the ear of All Blacks player, Sean Fitzpatrick. Le Roux wasn't exactly apologetic for the event, despite his punishment, saying that, "For an 18-month suspension, I feel I probably should've torn it off." Maybe they should've kept it at 20 months.
Marv Albert
Date: 2/12/1997
Punishment received: 12-month suspended sentence; fired from NBC for two years
In 1997, it was brought to the attention of the nation that then-NBC play-by-play man Marv Albert was a bit of biter between the sheets. The broadcasting legend had been accused of sexual harassment to varying degrees by two separate women. One of them even said that Albert told her to come into a hotel room when he was wearing nothing but women's underwear and a garter belt. Just try and imagine that scene without wanting to lose your lunch. How is anyone even able to work with him? You don't ever think about any of this, Reggie Miller? How about you, Mike Fratello? Nothing?
Mike Tyson
Date: 6/28/1997
Punishment received: Tyson was DQ'd from the fight, fined $3M, and suspended from boxing for a year and a half.
This is easily the most iconic episode when it comes to biting in sports, and it's arguably the pinnacle of all the insane moments that Mike Tyson was a part of during his time in the spotlight. Having been dealt only the second loss of his career by Evander Holyfield in their first bout, Tyson found himself in a similar position during their second fight. Feeling like Holyfield was intentionally head-butting him, Tyson craned his head into Holyfield's during the third round and began biting him, taking off a small chunk of his right ear. Amazingly, the fight wasn't stopped after this happened; it took further biting and abuse by Tyson in the next round for referee Mills lane to finally stop the bout and declare Holyfield the winner.
Iron Mike would never be the same after this fight, though you could make the argument that his career was already on the downturn. When Tyson was at the top of his game, he was one of the greatest heavyweights of all time, but when he couldn't simply stare down his opponent, his weaknesses became glaring. In fact, Tyson's former trainer Teddy Atlas was so aware of this that, before the bout, he predicted that Tyson would find a way to get deliberately disqualified so that he wouldn't have to suffer another official loss. Uncanny.
Francisco Gallardo
Date: 11/25/2001
Punishment received: Fined and suspended
Teammates are supposed to be close with one another, but we're going to go ahead and say that this qualifies as way, way too close. After his fellow Sevilla footballer Jose Antonio Reyes netted one against Valladolid, Francisco Gallardo decided that the appropriate celebration would be to bend down and bite on Reyes' junk. Because of course it is. Hard to know what Gallardo was thinking with this one, and the Royal Spanish Football Federation was similarly baffled. They reacted to the incident by fining and suspending Gallardo, saying that his behavior wasn't in line with the "sporting behavior and decorum" of La Liga's players. Yeah, we wouldn't think so either.
Peter Filandia
Date: 4/28/2002
Punishment received: 10-game suspension
You're never supposed to hit another man below the belt, and you are certainly not, under any circumstances, permitted to bite him there either. Apparently no one told this to Aussie rules football player, Peter Filandia, who bit down and punctured the testicles of Springvale's Chad Davis during a match in 2002. Yes, punctured. Does the punishment for something that serious seem a little light to anyone else? Tearing another guy's balls only gets you 10 games? Are you kidding? Forget a suspension: this guy should be kept 10 feet away from another man's crotch for the rest of his life. SMH.
Marc Savard
Date: 11/27/2003
Punishment received: One-game suspension
Though this incident occured with little controversy, it certainly wasn't forgotten when Bruins center Marc Savard was later accused of biting Flyers winger Daniel Carcillo during Game 2 of the 2010 Eastern Conference semifinals. In 2003, while playing for the now-defunct Atlanta Thrasers, Savard chewed on the glove of Maple Leafs winger Darcy Tucker, earning Savard a one-game suspension. The incident was cited later on in 2010 when Carcillo accused Savard of doing it again, but there was no wrongdoing to be found on Savard's part.
Jermain Defoe
Date: 10/22/2006
Punishment received: A yellow card
When you consider what has happened to Luis Suarez, Jermain Defoe should count himself as very lucky. He was only given a yellow card for sinking his teeth into Javier Mascherano's shoulder during a match between Defoe's Spurs and Mascherano's West Ham squad in 2006.
Perhaps the competitive fire of playing against his former team got the best of him, but, whatever it was, Defoe looks absolutely feral in this video. In response to the attack, though, an FA spokesman said that, "There won't be any further action taken against Jermain Defoe because we are not able to take any. If a referee deals with an incident, which he did, we are not allowed to retrospectively take disciplinary action in terms of upgrading or downgrading cards." You got off easy there, Jermain.
Jarkko Ruutu
Date: 1/6/2009
Punishment received: Two-game suspension
To be honest, two games might've been a little lenient for this one, given that it looks like Ruutu wants to make dinner out of Andrew Peters' glove here. With fighting being an accepted part of the sport, though, NHL officials are fairly lax when it comes to giving out any suspensions or fines related to physical confrontation. For what it's worth, Jarko claimed that, "He had his finger in my mouth, but I didn't bite him." Uhhh...yeah, sure, dude.
Luis Suarez
Date: 11/20/2010
Punishment received: Seven-game suspension
Widely known as one of the most reviled footballers in the world, Luis Suarez's first biting incident came during his time in the Netherlands, playing for the Dutch club Ajax. During a match between PSV Eindhoven, Suarez bit down on midfielder Otman Bakkal's shoulder while the two were arguing. The media had no trouble giving Suarez a hard time about it in the aftermath, with the popular Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf labelling him, "The Cannibal of Ajax." The match would prove to be Suarez's final appearance for the team, as he was sold to Liverpool while serving his suspension.
Alex Burrows
Date: 6/1/2011
Punishment received: None
In the heat of the battle, and at the highest stage of competition, things can get a little bit crazy sometimes. Perhaps their awareness of that fact is why the NHL opted not to punish Vancouver Canucks forward Alex Burrows for his alleged bite on Boston Bruins forward Patrice Bergeron's left index finger during Game 1 of the 2011 Stanley Cup Finals. It seems pretty hard to argue that Burrows didn't bite Bergeron here. Look at the way he pulls Bergeron's glove toward his mouth. If you didn't want to bite him, wouldn't you push it away?
Shirley Lewis
Date: 12/8/2011
Punishment received: Charges dismissed; Lewis was ordered to pay $623 in court fees
In 2011, Charlotte Bobcats center Al Jefferson, then with the Utah Jazz, was reportedly in a verbal argument with his girlfriend, Shirley Lewis. Things apparently got so heated that Lewis began attacking Jefferson, and ended up biting him on the back of the neck. What's even crazier about it is that Lewis is 5'7", and Jefferson is 6'10". Hard to know if she just had the hops to reach him on her own, or if she started out from an elevated surface and pounced on him like a cat jumping off a refrigerator. In any case, we'll refer Jefferson to the lyrics of none other than Mr. Shawn Carter if he's looking for any sympathizers: "Love, I don't get enough of it/All I get is these vampires and blood-suckers."
Timothy L. Forbes
Date: 3/9/2012
Punishment received: Three to four years in state prison
If you've ever felt like a bad parent, just comfort yourself with the fact that you (hopefully) haven't gotten as bad as Timothy L. Forbes. The former resident of Springfield, Mass. was sent to prison last year for biting an opposing coach's ear after his son's sixth grade basketball team lost. Again, we're talking about sixth grade basketball. Probably the greatest part of this whole story was that it occurred during a Catholic League basketball game. The Bat Dad has nothing on this guy.
Dylan Hartley
Date: 3/19/2012
Punishment received: Eight-week suspension
Dylan Hartley has something of a bad reputation among rugby fans, with incidents of eye-gouging, verbal abuse, and punching other players having earned him multiple suspensions throughout his 10-year career. In this instance, he was actually let off a little easy, given that the recommended length of any suspension concerning a biting incident in English rubgy is 12 weeks.
The episode took place during a Six Nations test between Hartley's English squad and Ireland, and wasn't actually noticed by the referee until the victim, Stephen Ferris, tattled to the official in protest by going up to him and presenting his bitten finger. The ref then kissed Ferris' booboo for him and sent Hartley away to a timeout.
Mikhail Grabovski
Date: 2/3/2013
Punishment received: None
In all fairness, Mikhail Grabovski claims that he bit Canandiens left wing Max Pacioretty in an act of self-defense. According to Grabovski, he was being choked by Pacioretty and felt that the only way to get Pacioretty off of him was to bite his arm. Take a look at the video and judge for yourself. His defense was believable enough and the NHL bought it, letting Grabovski off without any punishment.
Florence HS Baseball Players
Date: 3/22/2013
Punishment received: Four players suspended from the team; head coach stepped down from his position
Hazing, in one form or another, takes place in many levels of organized competition, with a long list of tasks and humiliations having made their way into sports lore over the years. This might be the first time we've heard of anyone biting a younger player, though. This past March, a group of older players on the Florence, N.J. high school baseball team were suspended for holding down and restraining freshmen members of the team and then biting them. Out of all the ways you could haze someone, why would biting be your go-to move? Honestly, that's just weird, guys. Whatever happened to a good ol' fashioned paddling?
Luis Suarez (The Sequel)
Date: 4/21/2013
Punishment received: 10-game suspension
Luis Suarez further sullied his already questionable reputation this past April with the second biting incident of his career. He chomped down on Branislav Ivanovic's arm during a match between Liverpool and Chelsea. No one doubts Suarez's talents, but unfortunately, his mouth has found numerous ways to create trouble for the oft-criticized, Uruguayan striker. Between his two biting attacks, and accusations of racial abuse, Suarez might be better off playing with a muzzle.