Johnny Miller known as this prank the ‘biggest comeback’ he is ever seen

A lot will roll off Rocco Mediate‘s shoulders, together with one in all Johnny Miller‘s most notorious off-the-cuff feedback.

On the 2008 U.S. Open, the place Mediate famously battled 91 holes with an injured Tiger Woods, Miller discovered himself in scorching water (think about that!) for some candid remarks about Mediate throughout the broadcast.

Through the fourth spherical, Miller, then NBC’s lead analyst, mentioned that Mediate “appears to be like just like the man who cleans Tiger’s swimming pool,” later including, “Guys with the identify of ‘Rocco’ don’t get on the trophy, do they?”

The remark was seen as insensitive by some Italian-American teams, one in all which despatched a letter to then-NBC Sports activities chairman Dick Ebersol saying Miller’s remark “reinforces a demeaning and damaging stereotype about a complete ethnic group.”

How did Mediate, who was the visitor on this week’s episode of GOLF’s Subpar, take it? He didn’t appear to thoughts.

Mediate informed co-hosts Colt Knost and Drew Stoltz that when Miller known as him to apologize the identical day because the 19-hole playoff with Woods, Mediate was unbothered.

“He mentioned, ‘Let me inform you what I mentioned,’” Mediate recalled. “And I went, ‘Yeah, so?’ I mentioned, ‘I’m okay with this.’”

“He goes, ‘Yeah, however they’re yelling.’

“I mentioned, ‘I’ll care for it.’”

Later that yr, Mediate was slated to be honored because the Italian American Sportsman of the 12 months in New York Metropolis, however he gave the organizers an ultimatum in the event that they continued to push for punishment for Miller.

“I mentioned, ‘For those who guys do one factor, I ain’t coming — not that they’d have cared — however I’m not coming to the factor,’” Mediate informed Knost and Stoltz. “It’s not something in opposition to the Italians. Okay, that’s what they’re considering, proper? I mentioned, it’s not in opposition to us. It’s simply Johnny’s being Johnny. I’m okay with it.”

However Mediate nonetheless needed to have the final snigger.

Later that yr, Miller invited Mediate to his pro-scratch occasion in Utah and launched him at a gala earlier than the match. Earlier than the gala, Mediate requested somebody to go to the ironmongery store and get him PVC pipe, a pool web and a cleansing web, after which made certain Miller would introduce him final.

“I am going again and I pull my pants up, have my khakis on, pull them as much as my knees, the sneakers and socks off, take off my shirt, T-shirt on, wrap the black PVC pipe round my physique, take the web out,” Mediate mentioned.

As he walked out, the room burst into laughter, together with Miller.

“Johnny turns round and he goes, ‘Oh my God,” Mediate mentioned. “And I walked as much as the microphone and I mentioned, ‘You need to inform him, you need me to?’

“And he goes, that was the best comeback he’s ever seen.”

For extra from Mediate, together with what he realized from Arnold Palmer and tales from his U.S. Open duel with Woods, hearken to the total podcast right here or watch beneath.