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JIM ROME:

I had been on the radio calling him Chris Evert. Mind you, this was not something I made up, it was something his teammates were doing behind his back. So I started doing it, and the next I know, he’s booked on the show. My feeling was, I can’t not say to a guy’s face what I’ve said about him on the radio. I’ve said it. I’m going to own it. And I’m going to say it to his face. Of course my problem was, I kept saying it to his face.

JIM EVERETT:

I start turning my chair because I’m so uncomfortable at the table. The interview starts, nothing is planned, and then he just starts calling me Chris, over and over. I warned him, and then I warned him again, and realized, “He ain’t gonna stop.” That’s when I went off. I’m like, “That’s too far.” I gave him the final warning—like, “take a station break,” whatever. I thought he would take the hint but he was so immature at the time, he said it again, and I just went off on him. I hit the table and I start going toward him. I think it shocked him, and he starts backing off. Well, the stage is about eighteen inches high. So as soon as he gets to the edge, he falls down off the stage and I’m like going at him, and he curls up like a little bunny. And that’s when you can’t see him on the camera. I’m not doing anything to a guy who’s down; he’s all covered up, in the fetal position. And that’s when all the camera guys and stuff come in and I’m just like, “Oh, my God.” I don’t ever do anything like that. This was just so unlike me but he put me in a position that—I think America can relate to it. It infuriates me when people say that was staged. Why would Jim Everett ever agree to that? No, it wasn’t. I’m not an actor. I am so not an actor.

MARK SHAPIRO:

No, it was not staged. On my child’s life, not a shred of truth to the idea it was staged. Not even a shred.

JIM EVERETT:

The next segment he came in on TV and said, “Yeah, I had the right to do that”—he kept going with this immature part. All I really wanted from Jim at some point in time is for him to say, “Hey, I’m sorry, I was wrong, went too far.” But he never did. When it went down, I got a ton of letters from kids in classrooms about standing up for your own rights, and someone doesn’t have a right to do that type of stuff. I had so much support.

JIM ROME:

The whole thing unraveled on me. That was something that got away from me. It was not a good thing. I’m not defending it in any way. This happened to me fifteen years ago and it always comes up and I have never once answered that question by saying, “You know what, that was a long time ago.” Are we gonna beat this dead horse forever? Because I kind of resent that when athletes do that. It’s part of who you are. You need to be accountable to it, responsible to it, and that’s why I am.

It’s like people always say, it’s kind of trite and it’s kind of clichéd, but you know who your friends are when that goes down. After it happened, I pulled aside Janet (who is now my wife, but wasn’t at the time) and Mark Shapiro and told them, “This is going to get so much worse before it gets any better. We gotta dig in. We need to grind this thing out.” I was a national punching bag. Katie Couric was talking about me, Saturday Night Live, I mean, everybody got in line to punch me in the mouth. And understandably so. But I should mention that ESPN didn’t rip me off the air. They didn’t fire me. They didn’t suspend me. They didn’t discipline me. They definitely stood by me.

JIM EVERETT:

There was a large U.S. corporation last year that wanted to use that film and they approached me and I’m like, “Yeah, go ahead, I’m good with it, let bygones be bygones, go ahead!” It was kind of good for what they were selling, and it would have been a good six-digit deal for Jim and for me. But he nixed it. And I’m like, “God! What’s the problem? Why not?” Well, clearly he’s recognized he does not come across well at all. It’s amazing his career survived it.

JIM ROME:

Here we are now fifteen years later and I hate to still be known for