Jan 7 – Jagoff of the Year Voting
ROGER GOODELL for the Ray Rice fiasco w/ a 2 game suspension, then the TMZ video, then indefinite suspension, denials they ever saw the video… incompetence and cover up 2nd Place Legarrette Blount for fight, DUI, Walkout, Release 3rd Place Mike Milbury (lifetime achievement) 4th Place Jameis Winston (shoplifting crablegs, sexual assault accusations, student union outburst) 5th place Pens Organization (Lemieux, Burkle, Morehouse)
Jan 14 – Ryan Suter, Minnesota Wild Dman, for his elbow to the head of Steve Downie as he skated by without the puck. Suter was suspended for two games for the incident. 2nd place was the Steelers for their handling of Dick LeBeau’s departure.
Jan 21 – Zac Rinaldo, for his hit to the back of Kris Letang along the boards, leaving his feet and hitting Letang in the numbers & driving his head into the glass. Tight race with Belichick the morning after DeflateGate was amplified to 11 of 12 footballs having been deflated during Patriots – Colts.
Jan 28 – Robert Kraft, Patriots owner, who demanded an apology from the NFL if their investigation doesn’t come up with conclusive proof they deflated footballs. Pats organization 2nd, Shady Brady 3rd, Belicheat 4th.
Feb 4 – Warren Sapp, after his arrest the morning after the Super Bowl for solicitation of a prostitute as well as a charge of assault. Sapp admitted the prostitution guilt and was fired by the NFL Network.
Feb 11 – Jackie Robinson West Little League WS team, adults administrator Michael Kelly and manager Darold Butler, who were stripped of their 2014 US title for cheating rules and assembling an all-star team from Chicago outside of their district boundaries.
Feb 18 – Penguins Players, for being too soft in trying to respond to Alex Ovechkin’s slash of Kris Letang’s ankle which sent Letang into the boards in the 3rd period of Pens – Caps III. Kunitz & Perron sort of confronted Ovie after the hit, but mostly Lapierre & Downie went after lesser players in an attempt to send a message. The Pens lost on a 5-on-3 PP goal against later in the period. Ovie finished 2nd in the voting.
Feb 25 – Keith Olberman, who was suspended by ESPN for a week after Olberman bashed Penn State students and alumni on Twitter for merely being PSU students and alum, calling them pathetic, dumb, and unethical. Also seemingly indirectly attacking the THON dance marathon cancer fund raiser which generated some 13Million.
Mar 4 – Rob Rossi, for Pens negativity & perceived bitterness toward the franchise.
Mar 11 – The Oklahoma Frat Sigma Alpha Epsilon for a racist chant on a bus caught on video, causing significant future athletes to decommitt. 2nd Jim Boeheim. 3rd Stephen A Smith for insinuating Chip Kelly made football moves based on race.
Mar 18 – NHL Officials, for not calling any penalties on New Jersey (v the Pens) 2 days after the Pens racked up 60+ PIM and mocked refs in a loss to Detroit. Perceived vendetta. Plus, it was the 10th time on the season the Pens had gotten 1 or 0 PPs.
Mar 25 – Jim Boeheim. After a near JOTW win on March 11, Boeheim locked up a title as he conducted a press conference on the morning of the NCAA Tournament to announce his retirement in 3 years and to scold the NCAA.
April 1 – The Philadelphia Flyers, just because they were in town and assuming they’d do something Jagoffian
April 8 – Mike Johnston, Penguins HC, as the teams was in death spiral L 10 of 13 and facing missing the playoffs
April 15 – Home plate Ump Mike Holbrook in the Pirates – Detroit Tuesday night game who ejected Clint Hurdle from the bench as he was commenting on balls / strikes on what showed to be an erratic strikezone throughout the game.
April 22 – Britt McHenry, ESPN reporter, for her caught-on-tape berating of a tow-truck company employee.
April 29 – Jim Rutherford, the week after the Pens were eliminated by the Rangers for admitting he made a mistake in trading Simon Despres to Anaheim in addition to other mis management including the team playing w/ 5 D down the stretch.
May 6 – The Mayweather – Pacquiao fight for being a boring letdown.
May 13 – Patriots Organization, as Tom Brady lawyered up to fight DeflateGate punishment that was handed down from the NFL after the Wells Report.
May 20 – The Russian Hockey Team at World Championships, who other than Malkin & Ovie didn’t stay to shake hands of the victorious Canadians.
May 27 – FIFA and Prez Sepp Bladder as 14 members were arrested for roles in a 20+ year elaborate scheme of bribery and kickbacks
June 3 – Flyers VP Bobby Clarke, who said on the 40th anniversary of the last Flyers’ Cup that at least his team hadn’t tanked to get players like Crosby & Malkin in order to win.
June 10 – Hope Solo, goalie, as the US Women’s National Soccer Team entered World Cup play w/ details of a year old domestic violence charge plus her hurling insults at arresting officers were released.
June 17 – The St. Louis Cardinals Organization, with details of Hack-Gate emerging
June 24 – Rapper P. Diddy, who allegedly attacked UCLA strength coach Sal Alosi with a kettle bell in his office. Diddy’s son is on the UCLA football team.
July 1 – Victor Martinez of the Detroit Tigers, who said he had no respect for the Pirates after getting plunked by Gerrit Cole. Martinez had previously doubled off Cole, and Marte had been hit earlier in the game.
July 8 – Peter Karmanos, owner of the Carolina Hurricanes, who took unsolicited shots at the Penguins and Jim Rutherford during a media gathering, taking jabs at their acquisition of Phil Kessell (relating it to Alex Semin), comparing Ron Francis to Rutherford’s awareness of finances, and talking about Pittsburgh’s draft picks which had been traded, & the owners who were selling before the cupboard was bare.
July 15 – Vic Carapazza, the home plate umpire in the previous weekend’s Saturday Pirates-Cardinals game, as Clint Hurdle and Francisco Cervelli were ejected after Carapazza incorrectly called a swing-and-miss from AJ Burnett a foul tip by batter Mark Reynolds. The next pitch went for a home-run. It was a quick ejection and Carapazza refused to speak to the media after the game.
July 22 – Rick Sofield, Pirates 3rd base coach, for sending Starling Marte home to be thrown out in Kansas City down 3-1 in the 9th inning with no outs on a Jung Ho Kang double over the head of CF Lorenzo Cain. It turned into a perfect relay throw to the plate and ran the Pirates out of the inning.
July 29 – Tom Brady, in a landslide as news of his broken cellphone hit the media as the NFL upheld his 4-game suspension. The NFL cited his further lack of cooperation in that Brady’s camp told the NFL he had destroyed his cellphone on or around the very day he was to be interviewed by Ted Wells for his report; this behavior by Brady’s camp to be “common practice”.
August 5 – The Penguins Organization for releasing Bob Grove, Steve Kolbe, and Brian Metzer. Narrow win over Neal Huntington for acquiring JA Happ.
August 12 – Neal Huntington, Pirates GM, after another shaky start from Jeff Locke (to the Cardinals) and only acquiring J.A. Happ at the trade deadline.
August 19 – PNC Park ‘Woo’ers’ after a particularly awful night of woo-ing during a late 15 inning game against Arizona, narrowly defeating in voting the South Snohomish Little League softball coach Fred Miller who had his players deliberately lose a game to eliminate the perceived best team in the tournament.
August 26 – The Steelers Organization, for signing Michael Vick.
Sept 2 – Martavis Bryant, in a landslide with news of his four game suspension for substance abuse policy violations. He reportedly failed four marijuana tests in 16 months.
Sept 9 – Two HS football players from San Antonio, Texas, Victor Rojas and Michael Moreno, who deliberately sandwiched a referee on the field after perhaps being told to retaliate by their coach Mack Breed or a series of perceived bad calls.
Sept 16 – Clint Hurdle, for his lineups and resting players during a pennant race, notably playing light-hitting Pedro Florimon at SS instead of Jung Ho Kang and Jordy Mercer during the second game of a doubleheader.
Sept 23 – Joe Maddon, Cubs Manager, for calling Jung Ho Kang’s season ending knee injury plantar fasciitis during a post-game media scrum.
Sept 30 – The Penguins Organization, for not sending Sidney Crosby to Johnstown for the Hockeyville, USA pre-season game broadcast by NBC Sports Network.
Oct 8 – Dolphins QB Ryan Tannehill, who reportedly insulted practice squad defensive players after they intercepted his passes during a walk through. “Enjoy your practice squad paycheck”
Oct 14 – Pirates first baseman Sean Rodriguez, for punching a Gatorade water cooler four times during the Pirates-Cubs wildcard game after he was grabbed by Cubs’ catcher David Ross during a team stare-down. Rodriguez said later he had to take his frustrations out on something.
Oct 21 – John Tortorella, just because he was hired by Columbus after an 0-7 start. It was a close, five-way tie for 2nd place in the voting with Antonio Brown (whining), Mike Tomlin (arrogance), Joe Torre (admitting he didn’t look at the Jung Ho Kang – Chris Coughlan play until the NY Mets had an incident w/ Chase Utley – Ruben Tejada), Rick Pitino & Louisville (a reported 20 sex recruiting parties on campus), and Chuck Pagano (for calling the worst trick play in NFL history).
Oct 28 – Greg Hardy, Dallas Cowboys DE, for his sideline blowup in his second game back from suspension for his domestic violence case. Hardy got into an emotional exchange with Dez Bryant and the Dallas special teams coach which included knocking the clipboard out of Rich Bisaccia’s hands. Later, Hardy gave a repeated “No comment, next question” exchange with the media at his locker. Second place went to Fox Sports and Joe Buck for their coverage of Game 1 of the World Series, sanctimoniously patting themselves on the back for not revealing that Edinson Volquez’s father had passed away until after Volquez left the game.