The biggest sports beefs of 2019

KAT and Joel Embiid scrapped when the Timberwolves played the Sixers in October. (Charles Barkley called it a “snugglefest.") Ben Simmons ended the fight by choking out KAT, though the NBA ruled he was “calming” Towns. But the real battle took place on Instagram later. Embiid called Towns a “cat,” Towns posted a photo of Embiid crying and then Embiid got profane with Towns. The rematch happens March 24 in Minnesota. 

The Browns-Steelers game was almost over when Myles Garrett drilled QB Mason Rudolph after a pass play. The two grappled on the ground. Rudolph tried to pull off Garrett’s helmet; Garrett succeeded in pulling off Rudolph’s and then bashed him over the head with it, before he was tackled by the Steelers offensive linemen and kicked in the head by Maurkice Pouncey. Pouncey got a three-game suspension, while Garrett got a $250,000 fine and an indefinite suspension. Appeals are in the works.

In Game 3 of their opening round playoff series, rookie Andrei Svechnikov dropped the gloves with Capitals star Alex Ovechkin. It didn’t go well for Svechnikov. He got knocked out of the game, but his Hurricanes rallied for a 5-0 victory and ultimately won the series in double overtime of Game 7. In the offseason, when Svechnikov was asked about his boxing training regimen, he said the best pound-for-pound boxer in the world was Ovi. 

Just after the World Series, Ken Rosenthal reported that the Astros had engaged in an elaborate system of sign stealing, thanks to a high-speed camera mounted in the outfield focused on the catcher’s signs. When the team thought an off-speed pitch was coming, it would communicate to the hitter through a decidedly low-tech method: banging on a trash can with a bat. In the Yankees series, the Astros used whistling. It’s not clear how baseball will punish Houston for the transgression.

After the Astros defeated the Yankees in the ALCS, the locker room celebration turned ugly. Assistant general manager Brandon Taubman looked toward female reporters, including Stephanie Apstein, wearing a purple bracelet for domestic violence awareness, and began shouting "I'm so f---ing glad we got Osuna!" – Robert Osuna, the closer the Astros traded for during his 75-game suspension for domestic violence. To compound their mistake, the Astros first denied the story and questioned the reporter’s credibility before GM Jeff Luhnow finally fired Taubman four days later. And then they lost the World Series.

Antonio Brown’s discontent with the Steelers started last season and boiled over in an argument with Ben Roethlisberger and then sitting out the final game of the season. He was unhappy with his quarterback, the playcalling and his contract all year. Brown even beefed with JuJu Smith-Schuster on Twitter after JuJu had the temerity to be voted team MVP for 2018. Eventually the Steelers traded Brown to the Raiders for a third- and fifth-round pick.

The Raiders immediately struggled with Antonio Brown, and thanks to their being on “Hard Knocks,” the whole world got to watch things fall apart. Brown arrived via hot air balloon but immediately went on the injured list with ghastly looking frostbitten feet from wearing improper footwear in a cryo tank. Then he wouldn’t wear the mandatory new helmet, trying to sneak in a counterfeit helmet at one point. He skipped walk-throughs, and the team fined him $54,000. After a confrontation with the GM, the fine was upped to $215,000. Finally, two days before the first game, the team released Brown and he immediately signed with the Patriots, which may have been his plan all along. He lasted 11 days with the Pats.

The first 12 games between the Reds and Pirates resulted in nine hit-by-pitches, 15 ejections and two bench-clearing brawls. Yasiel Puig and pitcher Amir Garrett were in two brawls, one happening minutes after Puig was traded off the team. During the last one, Amir Garrett tried to fight the entire Pirates team before he even threw a pitch. Even the managers fought! David Bell went after Clint Hurdle, who probably didn’t expect to celebrate his 62nd birthday by throwing down. The two teams have been brawling for years, and they’ll probably be on this list next year too. 

Many pitchers have been vocal about the seemingly juiced baseball that sparked a surge in home runs in 2019, but none of them took it out on the baseball itself like Trevor Bauer. Bauer has complainedl about the altered ball, and after a disastrous fifth inning featuring defensive miscues from many Indians, including Bauer himself, he fired the baseball over the center field fence. Given how that ball sailed, it probably was juiced. Three days later Bauer was traded to Cincinnati, where his calm demeanor will fit in perfectly.

The Sharks and Golden Knights have matched up in the last two seasons, with Las Vegas winning in the second round last year. This year Vegas was poised for another win, leading 3-0 in Game 7, before Cody Eakin crosschecked Joe Pavelski after a faceoff, dropping him to the ice where he lay bleeding. The Knights got a five-minute major penalty, during which the Sharks scored four goals and eventually won in overtime. The bad blood continued into the regular season, with the teams brawling at San Jose’s home opener this fall.

The Red River Shootout started early with some jawing in the tunnel and 30 minutes before the game, with both Texas and Oklahoma doing some pushing and shoving at midfield. The officials took the unprecedented step of calling an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty on every member of both teams, meaning a further unsportsmanlike flag would result in an ejection. There was only one ejection in the end, for targeting, as Oklahoma led all the way in a sportsmanlike 34-27 victory.

The great James Harden-Chris Paul experiment lasted only two years in Houston, after the two guards couldn’t get along. The two reportedly went two months without speaking, with Paul issuing a trade demand and Harden telling management it was “him or me” after the team lost to the Warriors. Despite Daryl Morey denying there were problems, he nonetheless dealt Paul and some future draft picks for Russell Westbrook come July, a move Harden strongly encouraged.

Rafael Nadal and Nick Kyrgios faced off at the Acapulco Open, a match that left Nadal fuming afterward, saying Kyrgios had “no respect.” It could have been Kyrgios’ exaggerated reactions to winners, a dispute over time-wasting in the third set or Kyrgios stealing a point with an audacious underarm serve. He seemed to enjoy the boos from the pro-Nadal crowd, raising a hand to his ear like a wrestler to encourage the booing. Kyrgios survived three match points to pull out the win, but Nadal won the rematch at Wimbledon, where even trick shots couldn’t save Kyrgios.

2019 was the year when Damian Lillard finally made the conference finals and celebrated with a summer full of rap battles. First he took on Kings rookie Marvin Bagley III (aka MB3FIVE). Bagley made fun of his signature shoes, then Dame D.O.L.L.A. hit back with “Was about to pass 'cause you still in Pampers, bruh, and I never seen Floyd spar with amateurs." Then he took on Shaq, telling him “"Shootin' need work like your free throws ... and Kobe won you them rings, though." Dame is taking on all comers, but considering their season so far, his next target may be Blazers GM Neil Olshey.

Drake’s role as an official ambassador to the Toronto Raptors and his informal role as pretend-coach on the sidelines often rubs people the wrong way. He exchanged barbs with Kevin Durant during the Finals (though it’s hard to beef when Drake has KD’s number tattooed on his body). But the ultimate feud came when he crossed the band Smash Mouth, who are All-Stars of social media beef. The band tweeted “Yo @drake When the ball is in-play sit the F*** down! That aint gonna fly in Oakland!” Drake didn’t respond, possibly because it’s not 1998 and he forgot who Smash Mouth was.

Brandel Chamblee seemingly had it out for Brooks Koepka once he learned that Koepka posed for ESPN’s The Body Issue. Chamblee thought that Koepka had been “reckless” in losing weight and questioned his toughness during the Masters (Koepka tied for second place). Koepka had the last laugh, tweeting a photo of Chamblee wearing a clown nose, winning his second straight PGA Championship and finishing the season ranked No. 1.

The New Orleans Saints were driving inside of two minutes during a tied NFC championship Game when Nickell Robey-Coleman leveled Tommylee Lewis with a wildly early, helmet-to-helmet hit. Somehow the referees missed it, and instead of running out the clock and winning on a chip shot field goal, the Saints had to give the ball back to the Rams with 1:41 left. That was enough time for a tying field goal, and the Rams won in OT on a 57-yard kick. It fueled conspiracy theories among Saints fans, who think the league has had it out for them since Bountygate. But the real victims are fans who now have to sit through countless replay reviews of pass interference calls now that the NFL made them reviewable.

Proving that there's no correlation between obscene wealth and socially acceptable behavior, a billionaire part-owner of the Warriors shoved Kyle Lowry when he landed in his courtside seats during Game 3 of the Finals. Mark Stevens didn't just make contact with Lowry, but he also said a bunch of vulgar things to him. With fans like Stevens cheering them on, it's no wonder that the Warriors lost all three of their home games during the NBA Finals. The NBA banned Stevens for a year and fined him $500,000, which should really sting, considering he's worth $2.3 billion. 

Coleen Rooney, wife of footballer Wayne Rooney, accused Rebekah Vardy, wife of Wayne's national team cohort Jamie Vardy, of leaking stories about her to the tabloids. Rooney had suspected Vardy of doing so and set a trap for her. She set her Instagram stories to private, allowing only one person to view them: Vardy. Then she put fake stories in her feed, including a story about her house being flooded and an absurd story about traveling to Mexico for "gender selection" treatment. Vardy's response was the same as everyone who gets caught in bad social media behavior: She said she was hacked. Of course, this story also ended up in the British tabloids, who called Rooney "Wagatha Christie."

The U.S. national team got a lot of criticism during the Women's World Cup in France. The team supposedly ran the score up too much on Thailand, winning 13-0. Players supposedly celebrated too much, like when Alex Morgan pretended to sip tea after a goal against England. Our president went after Megan Rapinoe  on Twitter. The English even complained about U.S. team officials making hotel reservations. Ultimately, it didn't matter what anyone said, as the USWNT shut everyone up by taking home the Cup.

In a cross-sport Denver beef, safety Su'a Cravens of the Broncos scrapped with Malik Beasley of the Nuggets in Beasley's apartment lobby. The beef was classic 2019, since the argument seemingly stemmed from a dispute over an Instagram model. Beasley called out Cravens, who showed up at his lobby and proceeded to beat down Beasley, as captured on video, before the fight was temporarily broken up and the two took things outside. Beasley lost in all respects, from getting taken to the ground to even making the decision to fight a football player in the first place. Cravens ultimately lost too, since he was cut by the Broncos in August and never found other NFL employment.

Jared Dudley and the Nets pulled off an upset in Game 1 of their opening round series, with Dudley holding Ben Simmons to just two points. Simmons exploded with a triple-double in the next game with Dudley on the bench, but between games, Dudley called Simmons "average." Simmons' response? "That's coming from Jared Dudley." Simmons shot 11-of-13 in Game 3 and mocked Dudley after he airballed a three. In Game Four, Dudley started a fight by shoving Joel Embiid in the back and was subsequently ejected, and the Sixers took the series 4-1. In the elimination game, Dudley did not score.

It didn't seem like much when Daryl Morey shared an image on Twitter which read, "Fight for freedom, Stand with Hong Kong." But it kicked off a weeks-long controversy with Chinese sponsors pulling out of deals with Houston, Rockets broadcasts banned, preseason games canceled and disappointing quotes from LeBron James. Morey apologized for his tweet and took a hiatus from social media, but now he's back doing what he loves most: lobbying for James Harden to win MVP.

Drew Doughty and Matthew Tkachuk have never gotten along, thanks to Tkachuk elbowing Doughty in the face during his rookie season. There is genuine dislike between them, with the two clashing every time they play each other, from slashes to big hits to fights. In their first meeting of the 2019-20 season, Tkachuk scored a late goal to tie the game, only to have Doughty score the game-winner. In their second meeting, Doughty took out Tkachuk with a low hit, sparking an extended dogpile/brawl. There are two more meetings to go this season, and we hope they don't end up killing each other.

The honeymoon didn't last long for Kyrie Irving in Boston. After his first year with the Celtics, expectations were high for Kyrie in Beantown, but he didn't like living in Boston, clashed with coach Brad Stevens and GM Danny Ainge as well as teammates Terry Rozier and Jaylen Brown. Maybe it was his imminent free agency, which created a similar rift with his new teammate Kevin Durant in Golden State. Or maybe it was the Boston media, which seems to delight in running players out of town and gets plenty of leaks from the front office, hence the slew of anti-Kyrie pieces that ran after the season – Danny Ainge isn't trading himself, after all. Kyrie seems happier in Brooklyn, and the Celtics seem content with Kemba Walker, though he'll surely be run out of town in a few years as well.