Desmond Howard was one of the best receivers and kick returners in the nation when he played at Michigan in the late 1980s and early 90s. He won the Heisman Trophy in 1991 after scoring an incredible 23 touchdowns, 19 of which were catches. In the NFL, however, Howard was more of a return specialist. He played for five different teams in 11 seasons, caught 40 passes during his best year in 1994 and never caught more than 26 after that. His best NFL season was 1996 with Green Bay, when Howard led the NFL in return yards and returned a kick 99 yards for a touchdown against the Patriots in Super Bowl 31.
Because most of his NFL success came as a punt and kick returner, Skip Bayless recently labeled Howard “The Kick Returner.” Howard, who works with Skip at ESPN, was not pleased when he heard about the new nickname, so he decided to give Bayless a name of his own.
Came to my attn Skip Bayless can’t be bothered to remember my name, refers to me as “The Kick Returner”. Cool if I call him “The Charlatan”?
— Desmond Howard (@DesmondHoward) July 11, 2012
As Awful Announcing pointed out, a “charlatan” by definition is “a person who makes elaborate, fraudulent, and often voluble claims to skill or knowledge; a quack or fraud.” Burned.
Howard didn’t roast Skip quite like Mark Cuban torched him a few weeks ago, but he can only say so much about a coworker. Bayless is used to being tooled on and flipped off by his fellow ESPN employees and we all know he loves every second of it, so the talking head probably won’t be phased. Just don’t be surprised if the big wigs in Bristol force them to kiss and make up.
Photo credit: Matthew Emmons-US PRESSWIRE
