Bart’s Scott’s now immortal post-game interview with ESPN’s Sal Paolantonio was inspired by a surprising source.
Well, perhaps not that surprising if you thought enough about it. Scott was a huge Hulk Hogan fan growing up. Still is.
“To this day,” Scott’s mother told ESPNNewYork.com’s Ian O’Connor, “you can’t tell Bart that wrestling isn’t real.”
Scott says he admired how Hogan changed wrestling.
“It wasn’t the fact that Hulk Hogan was a wrestler,” Scott said. “What I took from it was that he was a trendsetter, no different from Ali or Babe Ruth.”
Manish Mehta of the New York Daily News says that it’s been Scott’s lifelong goal to meet Hogan. Well, O’Connor tracked down The Hulkster, who is now aware of Scott because of his post-game speech.
“I knew when Bart looked down the barrel of the camera he believed in himself and in what he was saying,” Hogan growled by phone. “And that makes him a real dangerous man.” (We don’t really know he growled, but it’s a safe bet, right?)
Hogan says the interview reminded him of one of his mid-80’s promos and that he could tell Scott watched wrestling. Heck, it may be a future career path for the declining linebacker.
“When his career’s over and he wants to make some real money, tell him to give me a call and we’ll break him in the right way,” Hogan said.
Two words come to mind: CAN’T WAIT!