PAT Spillane has revealed he has been ‘threatened to be shot, killed or maimed,’ – for being a pundit.
The Kerry GAA star admitted people are not always fans of what he has to say, but it seems some people take it a step too far.
“I’ve been threatened to be killed, threatened to be shot, threatened to be maimed, threatened to have my house burnt down, I’ve had them all.”
On a personal level, he has even lost friends for saying what he thought was true.
Pat publicly slammed his former teammate Denis Ogie Moran when he was Kerry manager in the 1990s on the Sunday Game, calling for the county board to pick new selectors after another loss for the team.
And his comments didn’t go unnoticed by friends and former teammates.
“It was difficult because of being honest and calling something as I see it. I certainly lost close friends who weren’t happy with comments I said.
“Do I regret it? I regret having friendships sort of broken up. Was I incorrect on anything I said? No.’”
40 YEARS OF THE SUNDAY GAME
Spillane is one of many famous football and hurling faces who appear on a new documentary celebrating 40 years of the Sunday Game.
Launched in July 1979 with Jim Carney as the host, it has become a staple in sporting households for decades.
But Jim joked the early editions are nothing compared to the controversial chats on screens now.
“Looking back at it now, we were a bit uncool and a bit unsexy. I think we aired on the dull side really, despite the fact that we had a mad passion for the games we were talking about. It was all fairly understated, fairly low-key.”
Loved by fans across the country from every county, commentator Des Cahill said it shows the passion for the GAA.
“So many of us are invested in the GAA and part of the GAA.
“Messi is never going to live where I live, Con O Callaghan lives there. They are our local heroes and they are on the telly on Sunday night and that applies to every player, man or woman, who appears on the Sunday game. They’re local.”
Marty Morrissey agreed: “You pick any part of Ireland and there was a grá and an admiration for one of their own.
“Because they see them on television and then they can go down meet them, they get their autographs and you see so many players when the match is over, they stay on for an hour signing autographs. This is part of what they love, the sense of community.”
Anyone who has watched the Sunday Game will be able to hum the opening tune from memory, but for a short period of time, there was an outcry when RTE changed the classic theme tune.
MASSIVE OUTRY
Editor of Sunday Game, Glen Killane said: “The outcry was quite extraordinary, I think I had death threats, I had all sorts of people writing to me for months and months on end to say ‘Why the hell are you doing this?’ 100 per cent happy now to say I got that completely wrong.”
The special documentary features Joe Brolly, Marty Morrissey and Ger Loughnane as well as a host of former players including Tomas O’Se, Anna Geary and Donal Og O’Cusack, who revealed he once received a complaint because of his sexuality.
He told the show: “I think it was Des Cahill said to me one night that there was a complaint after coming in that you’re expressing your sexuality through your clothes and I thought that was fairly a random one.”
For four decades, the show has entertained GAA fans.
It started off showing just one match, hours after it had been played – the Munster final between Cork and Limerick.
In the 80s, it began to show live finals and semi-finals but after a decade on air, it expanded to show provincial qualifiers and games.
BREAKING NEW GROUND
The show broke ground by having a female commentator from the start, with Liz Howard on the panel.
She recalled: “I suppose it was ground-breaking in many ways but I didn’t think about it, being a woman.
“I grew up in a house that was very much into equality without the word ever being mentioned, it was implicit in everything we did as a family.”
Maurice Reidy added: “She knew what she was talking about and she had the ability to communicate that to the audience.
“She wasn’t there merely as a token woman, she was there because she had an opinion and the opinion was well informed. And she was happy and confident in doing it.”
And with panellists such as Aislinn Connolly and Anna Geary, as well as presenter Joanne Cantwell, Liz said they are as informed and respected as their male counterparts.
“I’m delighted to see the women involved in the Sunday Game. I think all of them who are there are very knowledgeable, they’re very good, they say their piece, but I still think it is a way to go to be honest with you.”
Connolly said: “What I love about the Sunday Game is that it brought exposure of camogie to the wider audience.
“An example of that is I work in a multinational here in Dublin and a lot of the time they wouldn’t know that I was playing or at a match and I’d come in on a Monday morning and they’d say ‘I saw your team on the Sunday Game, or I saw you scoring a point on the Sunday Game or that goal that girl scored on your team was amazing, but actually it was the Sunday Game that brought that exposure to the game.”
The most famous face of the Sunday Game has to be Michael Lyster, who presented the show for 35 years before retiring last year.
Hired when he was just 30 years old, he said he thought he would be lucky to “knock five years” out of the show.
“If you said to me back then you will be in that chair for 35 years, I would have said to you, ‘are you having a laugh?’”
The TV presenter became infamous for donning a variety of colourful jumpers on screen instead of the usual suits worn by pundits.
“It was very unusual for people to see a sport presenter or any presenter wearing casual gear.
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“So I then used to go out of my way to find unusual jumpers or colourful jumpers and it very much became a talking point, and if you like, it still does, all these years later, because people would say to me occasionally, what did you do with all the jumpers?”
He added: “I think everybody in Ireland recognises that the GAA is so much part of the fabric of Irish society.
“And what GAA means to people, either your club team or your county team or whatever. So to be involved in a big programme that brings that ot the people, it becomes part of that entire fabric itself.”
- Sunday Best: 40 Years of the Sunday Game airs Wednesday at RTE One at 9.35pm
