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

Canes8387899101

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.

Hydrant

I struck out.

LandrysFedora

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.

AFLfan

When I was in high school I worked at a card shop owned by a guy who was also a boxing manager. He had James "The Heat" Kinchen and Jesus Salud in his stable. Those guys came into the store pretty frequently.

Jesus was a super nice guy. He was maybe a flyweight? I don't know exact weight categories, but he was not a large man. Anyway, there was one quiet day in the shop where it was just Jesus and I hanging out. I was a high school football player at the time, about 5' 10" and 210 lbs.

Anyway, I forget how it started, but we were joking around with each other and got into a slap match. I thought I was some sort of tough guy after Jesus let me connect once or twice. Then he unloaded what seemed like about 47 hits in maybe five seconds. He didn't hit me hard; just enough to show what he could have done if he had wanted to. I was blown away by his quickness and had a new respect for fighters of any size after that.

My son is going into his senior year of high school and is playing on a college box lacrosse team that is coached by several professionals currently in the NLL and PLL. They get into the scrimmages on occasion - Eli Gobrecht, Wes Berg, Cam Holding, Austin Staats and Tre LeClair.

dallasactuary

He wasn't a pro then, but I played football against Bobby Joe Edmonds (later of the Seahawks). Lined up opposite him on special teams and got knocked on my ass over and over again. I played against bigger guys than him, but Edmonds was the fastest and strongest player I ever had the misfortune of trying to block.

He had a very short pro career (also with the Seahawks plus the Lions), but I batted against Lou Brock, Jr. in Little League in the 2nd or 3rd grade. He threw scary fast, and struck me out 1-2-3 my first time up. But on my second try I hit a double; not my proudest moment since my eyes were closed I was so scared, but still, it was a double.

1951WheatiesPremium

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.

erikthredd

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 .

JoeBanzai

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!

russblake5

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.

thisistheshow

@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?

erikthredd

@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.