In light of Fabio Capello’s shock resignation from the England job we’ve decided to bring you our top five resignation shockers.
Bill Belichick
To resign like Bill Belichick takes courage – a giant sack of courage. For those of you who haven’t a clue who Bill Belichick is, he is currently the head coach for the New England Patriots – you know, the American football team? Anyway, for a brief time in back in 2000 he was the head coach of the New York Jets. “Brief”, meaning that he lasted barely a day. When Bill was being introduced as the Jet’s head coach to the media, he turned the joyful proceedings into a shock resignation announcement and quit the head coach role right there, right then. Some man.
‘Babs’ Keating
Michael Keating, or ‘Babs’ as we all know him, was a star hurler for Tipperary back in the day but most of us only remember him from his days in charge of Galway, Tipp and Laois. However, it was his shock exit from coaching Offaly back in 1998 that we’re interested in here. In a post-match interview following a defeat to Kilkenny, Keating blasted his player’s performance and described the team as “sheep in a heap”. He left the county and was replaced by Michael Bond, who proceeded to lead Offaly to the All-Ireland that year.
Jonathan Schwarz
When it’s time to leave your job you should (probably) hand in a notice so that you leave on good (ish) terms. Alternatively, you could do what Jonathan Schwarz did and tell the world that you quit before you tell your boss. Jonathan used Twitter to announce his resignation as the CEO of the massive US tech firm Sun Microsystems. His tweet read: “Today’s my last day at Sun. I’ll miss it. Seems only fitting to end on a #haiku. Financial crisis/Stalled too many customers/CEO no more.” Jonathan would forever be known as the “Twitter quitter”.
In case you’re wondering, a haiku is a type of Japanese poem. You learn something new everyday.
Steven Slater
Steven Slater is the ultimate unsung hero for people who work on the frontline of customer service. Steven was once a flight attendant for an airline called JetBlue. However, one day, after hearing a passenger’s “snide remark” for the last time, Steven lost it and began shouting profanities into the aircraft’s intercom before ‘resigning’. He resigned by stealing some booze from the food cart, opening the emergency exit and sliding to the tarmac on the plane’s inflatable slide. He was later arrested.
David Mellor
David Mellor resigned from British politics after it was found out that he had accepted free holidays from two important Middle Eastern officials. However, it was the lead up to his resignation that was interesting. In July 1992, Mellor was involved in a ‘kiss and tell’ scandal with the actress Antonia de Sancha. It was reported that Mellor had asked to make love to De Sancha while wearing a Chelsea kit and that De Sancha had sucked Mellor’s toes. As the tabloids at the time said, “he went from toe job, to no job”. We wonder if he did it in the away kit? Playing away? Oh, forget it.
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