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Have you ever played against a professional athlete where they gave their full effort? How did it go

This question is for most of us, since there can't be too many professional athletes on this board. A couple weeks ago I had a mixed doubles league tennis match, and I was wondering who is this guy that I'm playing. I'm a 4.5 rated player, so I'm a good player. However the guy I was playing (Also a 4.5 player) never missed, had incredible touch, and was impossible to get any ball passed him at the net. Found out later I was playing professional hockey player Justin Williams, and his wife. My partner and I lost 6-1, 6-2. My partner and I played well, and a lot of the games went to deuce, so it wasn't as bad as the final score looks, but it is just like a pro athlete to come up big on all the key points. Any other amateurs have a story about playing a professional athlete that gave their full effort? Also, I did not know until after the match that we were playing Justin Williams. Cool guy, and hope to play another match in the future against them.

Comments

  • HydrantHydrant Posts: 7,773 ✭✭✭✭✭

    I struck out.

  • LandrysFedoraLandrysFedora Posts: 1,752 ✭✭✭✭✭

    I was a back up wide receiver in high school and in practice I went up against a guy named Malcolm Spence who was an absolute track and field beast who played football as well at both wr and cb. As a receiver I would beat him 7 out of 10 times. He went on to excel in college football and in the cfl, me not so much, I was a baseball guy. But I always have those memories.

  • 1951WheatiesPremium1951WheatiesPremium Posts: 6,225 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Growing up, I played against many good basketball players, including Ron Artest (Metta World Peace) and he’s was a beast from a young age.

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  • erikthredderikthredd Posts: 8,088 ✭✭✭✭✭

    I’m not sure this might qualify and it wasn’t even me that got into this scuffle but I’ll share it anyways because I got so much enjoyment out of it.

    Back around the mid 90’s my cousin and I are it this house party and we ended up playing cards with a bunch of different people that night including a guy that was a professional wrestler. It was nowhere on the level of WWE but he told us he traveled all around New England performing and that he loved doing it. He was a pretty big guy at roughly 6-3/6-4 and somewhere in the range of 230-260lbs yet my cousin,who is about 5-5 160lbs thought it was a good idea to embarrass this guy for half the night telling everyone how wrestling is all fake and anyone could do it.
    This guy explained to everyone what it was like,how much they had to workout to keep their body in peak shape and how almost all the guys he had worked with has dealt with some serious injuries in that profession. Yet my moron cousin couldn’t stop running his mouth.
    Eventually this guy just had enough, reached across the table and grabbed my cousin, pulled him to his side then gave him about four shots to the face and finished him off by picking him up and threw him at least 8’-10’ across the house.

    I gotta say watching it all was glorious and my only regret about that night was it would have been perfect had camera phones been around back then so I could have relived that moment with my knucklehead cousin over & over again lol .

  • JoeBanzaiJoeBanzai Posts: 11,171 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited July 17, 2021 6:01AM

    Played hockey with an ex Olympian and WHA player Frank Sanders. I wasn't a good player at all. Some of the other guys were good college players, including his son Jeremy.

    Even though Frank was by far the oldest guy out there his skating was so smooth, you noticed it immediately.

    I'll never forget the time he unloaded a hard shot. It missed the net, sounded like an explosion when the puck hit the boards!

    2013,14 and 15 Certificate Award Winner Harmon Killebrew Master Set and Master Topps Set
  • I played soccer on vacation with 2 ukraine internationals and 1 of them Tymoschuk took it crazy seriously. Rebrov was the other guy, national team manager I think, was more chill tho.

    Bernard Mendy, ex PSG and Liverpool I think, rocked up and had just been released so still in crazy shape. tough cover even taking it easy.

    So cool that they were so keen on playing even against a bunch of bums on their vacation.

  • thisistheshowthisistheshow Posts: 9,386 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @erikthredd said:
    I’m not sure this might qualify and it wasn’t even me that got into this scuffle but I’ll share it anyways because I got so much enjoyment out of it.

    Back around the mid 90’s my cousin and I are it this house party and we ended up playing cards with a bunch of different people that night including a guy that was a professional wrestler. It was nowhere on the level of WWE but he told us he traveled all around New England performing and that he loved doing it. He was a pretty big guy at roughly 6-3/6-4 and somewhere in the range of 230-260lbs yet my cousin,who is about 5-5 160lbs thought it was a good idea to embarrass this guy for half the night telling everyone how wrestling is all fake and anyone could do it.
    This guy explained to everyone what it was like,how much they had to workout to keep their body in peak shape and how almost all the guys he had worked with has dealt with some serious injuries in that profession. Yet my moron cousin couldn’t stop running his mouth.
    Eventually this guy just had enough, reached across the table and grabbed my cousin, pulled him to his side then gave him about four shots to the face and finished him off by picking him up and threw him at least 8’-10’ across the house.

    I gotta say watching it all was glorious and my only regret about that night was it would have been perfect had camera phones been around back then so I could have relived that moment with my knucklehead cousin over & over again lol .

    ........
    I'd be interested in hearing any follow-up details. Such as..... What did your cousin have to say after this happened? Was he still running his mouth, or did he have a change of tune?

  • erikthredderikthredd Posts: 8,088 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @thisistheshow said:

    @erikthredd said:
    I’m not sure this might qualify and it wasn’t even me that got into this scuffle but I’ll share it anyways because I got so much enjoyment out of it.

    Back around the mid 90’s my cousin and I are it this house party and we ended up playing cards with a bunch of different people that night including a guy that was a professional wrestler. It was nowhere on the level of WWE but he told us he traveled all around New England performing and that he loved doing it. He was a pretty big guy at roughly 6-3/6-4 and somewhere in the range of 230-260lbs yet my cousin,who is about 5-5 160lbs thought it was a good idea to embarrass this guy for half the night telling everyone how wrestling is all fake and anyone could do it.
    This guy explained to everyone what it was like,how much they had to workout to keep their body in peak shape and how almost all the guys he had worked with has dealt with some serious injuries in that profession. Yet my moron cousin couldn’t stop running his mouth.
    Eventually this guy just had enough, reached across the table and grabbed my cousin, pulled him to his side then gave him about four shots to the face and finished him off by picking him up and threw him at least 8’-10’ across the house.

    I gotta say watching it all was glorious and my only regret about that night was it would have been perfect had camera phones been around back then so I could have relived that moment with my knucklehead cousin over & over again lol .

    ........
    I'd be interested in hearing any follow-up details. Such as..... What did your cousin have to say after this happened? Was he still running his mouth, or did he have a change of tune?

    We ended up leaving right after. He complained that I didn't "have his back", like I was going to get my ass kicked for his big mouth lol. I've reminded him of this night numerous times over the years. B)

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