February 27, 2010: Chelsea Football Club play Manchester City Football Club, at Stamford Bridge in West London, Chelsea's home stadium. Before the game, the opposing teams lined up to shake hands. But Man City's left back, Wayne Bridge, refused to shake the hand of Chelsea's Captain, centreback John Terry.
There were priors.
Wayne Michael Bridge was born on August 5, 1980 in Southampton, Hampshire, England. Few English soccer players have been so wronged and had so few people in power stand up for them. Well, few white ones, anyway.
At age 18, he was already starting at left back for hometown team Southampton F.C.. In 2002, he was named to the Premier League Team of the Year. In 2003, he was signed by Chelsea. In 2004, his late goal knocked North London's Arsenal F.C. out of the UEFA Champions League in the Quarterfinal, essentially starting a run of success for them that hasn't ended.
In 2005, he helped Chelsea win the Premier League. But he was loaned to another West London team, Fulham F.C., for the 2005-06 season, missing out on another Premier League winners' medal. In 2007, he helped them achieve a rare domestic cup "double," winning the FA Cup and the League Cup.
But when Chelsea signed Ashley Cole away from Arsenal, they gave him Bridge's starting position. Cole also took Bridge's starting place on the England national team. Moving him to left midfield didn't help, and the 2006 World Cup was his last tournament for the country.
John George Terry was born on December 7, 1980, in Barking, East London. He started playing in the youth system of local side West Ham United, but at 14 was sold to Chelsea. He made his first team debut in 1998, and by 2001, he had become a starter and a star.
But he had also begun to reveal himself as perhaps the worst human being in the League. On September 12, he and teammate Frank Lampard were drinking in the bar of a hotel near Heathrow Airport, where some Americans were stranded after the previous day's terrorists attacks. They taunted the Americans, and word of it reached the media. They were fined 2 weeks' wages.
Four months later, he and 2 other players were charged with assault and affray after a confrontation with a nightclub bouncer. Terry was banned from selection for the England team for the duration of the case, though he was ultimately cleared of all charges. In 2009, he was investigated by Chelsea and the FA for allegedly taking money from an undercover reporter for a private tour of Chelsea's training ground. Again, this star for the England national team was cleared.
In 2003, Chelsea were bought by Roman Abramovich, a Russian energy mogul and politician. He spent huge amounts of money to buy players from all over the world, and he didn't care how his players behaved, on or off the pitch. Chelsea became a team of dirty tacklers and divers for penalties. But because they were led by England team players Terry and Lampard, officials looked the other way at what should have been yellow-card and even red-card offenses.
They began winning major trophies, and Terry was hailed with a banner at Stamford Bridge that survived his tenure there, calling him, "CAPTAIN, LEADER, LEGEND," even though he was never more than an average defender, and, while never accused of dirty play on the pitch, benefited from that of his teammates.
In 2010, it was revealed that John Terry had had an affair with Bridge's girlfriend, French model Vanessa Perroncel. Terry should have been the one to pay child support for Wayne and Vanessa's son, Jayden, but Wayne was made to pay.
Wayne Bridge and Vanessa Perroncel
Bridge was sold to Manchester City, and, in their next game against Chelsea, famously refused to shake Terry's hand during pregame introductions. City, too, had been bought by an energy billionaire, and were on the rise, and won the game, 4-2. But Chelsea went on to win both the Premier League title and the FA Cup, the combination known in England as "The Double."
Things continued to go badly for Bridge. City reduced his appearances, so he didn't get winner's medals for their 2011 FA Cup and 2012 Premier League wins. He retired in 2014, and is on the professional poker circuit. He is now married to Frankie Sandford, of the pop group The Saturdays, and they now have 2 sons.
Meanwhile, despite his many indiscretions, Terry is still beloved in England, especially among Chelsea fans. He had been stripped of the England captaincy over the Bridge scandal, but was reinstated in 2011. Later that year, he was caught using racist language toward Anton Ferdinand, black a player for another West London team, Queens Park Rangers. Prior to the next game between them, Anton followed Bridge's lead, and refused to shake Terry's hand.
Ironically, the reason Terry had been reinstated as England Captain was because of an injury to his replacement, Anton's brother, Rio Ferdinand of Manchester United. Terry went on trial for the racist language, and, although he was acquitted, he was again stripped of the England captaincy. He settled that matter by retiring from international competition.
Terry retired from all competition in 2018, having won 5 Premier League titles, 5 FA Cups, 3 League Cups, the UEFA Champions League in 2012, and the UEFA Europa League in 2013 -- but, like every other player for the England national team since 1996, no tournaments with them, proving that, when faced with officials not from England, it wasn't so easy. He has since retired to Chelsea with their coaching staff.
John's wife Toni has stayed with him through everything. Vanessa Perroncel has never married.
*
February 27, 2010 was a Saturday. Elsewhere in English football, Arsenal defeated Stoke City, 3-1 at the Britannia Stadium (now the bet365 Stadium) in Stoke-on-Trent, in Staffordshire in the West Midlands. Arsenal scored 2 goals in stoppage time to win, because Stoke were down to 10 men. This was because their Captain, Ryan Shawcross, had purposely broken the leg of Arsenal midfielder Aaron Ramsey. I have a separate entry for this event. Ramsey was out for a year, but did recover to become one of the best players in the world, and helped Arsenal win more trophies over the next few years than Stoke have won in their entire history.
Baseball and American-style football were out of season. The NHL was on a break, so that its players who had been selected for the Winter Olympics in Vancouver could play in them.
There were 7 games in the NBA:
* The New York Knicks lost to the Memphis Grizzlies, 120-109 at Madison Square Garden.
* The New Jersey Nets beat the Boston Celtics, 104-96 at the TD Garden in Boston.
* The Milwaukee Bucks beat the Miami Heat, 94-71 at the American Airlines Arena (now the Kaseya Center) in Miami.
* The Indiana Pacers beat the Chicago Bulls, 100-90 at the Conseco Fieldhouse (now the Gainbridge Fieldhouse) in Indianapolis.
* The Portland Trail Blazers beat the Minnesota Timberwolves, 110-91 at the Target Center in Minneapolis.
* The Utah Jazz beat the Houston Rockets, 133-110 at the Delta Center (then the EnergySolutions Arena) in Salt Lake City, Utah. Deron Williams led all scorers on the day with 35 points.
* And the Golden State Warriors beat the Detroit Pistons, 95-88 at the Oakland Coliseum Arena (then named the Oracle Arena).
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