Not Big Sam: Truth-bombs on the thorny issue of homosexuality in football
Twitter outlaw @TheBig_Sam talks gay. When I was seven years old, my father took me to the circus. On a warm summer’s evening, I watched in dumfounded awe as the finest performers Eastern Europe had...
View ArticleNot Big Sam: Let’s move on from Jessica Ennis and her magnificent bum and...
As the wicked, winter winds whipped violently through the streets of London Town, Nigel Havers and I sat cosily in my Yankee Candle-scented apartment on New Year’s Eve, discussing our favourite...
View ArticleAston Villa and Paul Lambert should learn from this tale of Pato Banton
Not Big Sam offers some advice for Paul Lambert in his Paddy Power Blog column as Aston Villa prepare for a home game against West Ham I know what you’ll all think. I know the derisive thoughts that...
View ArticleNot Big Sam: Rafa Benitez is my greatest nemesis, but here’s why I still feel...
Not Big Sam feels sorry for Rafa Benitez, but has a warning for the Chelsea manager ahead of West Ham’s Premier League trip to Stamford Bridge this weekend… As an adult man, I have been involved in...
View Article‘Not on my watch, fat chops’– Not Big Sam vows to crush Kim Jong-un at...
Not Big Sam on Wrestlemania XXIX for the Paddy Power Blog As I sat in my office on Thursday morning, my thoughts — though sprightly, and infused with my trademark synergy — travelled no further than...
View Article‘You can never surround yourself with too many French tarts’– Why Alan...
Twitter anarchist @TheBig_Sam recalls a sojourn to the French Riviera which is a warning for beleaguered Newcastle United… Last July, the League Managers’ Association treated some of Britain’s finest,...
View ArticleSir Alex? He’s got a heart bigger than Katy Perry’s forehead and saved my life
Some things are more important to recognise than a new contract of your own. @TheBig_Sam celebrates his great pal, Alex Ferguson… A blisteringly hot day in July 2011 and Big Sam is hiking around the...
View ArticleNot Big Sam: She looks like a hip Bundesliga manager but Judy Murray can turn...
Twitter outlaw and now Paddy Power Blog tennis correspondent @TheBig_Sam hails the influence of steely mothers… As a child, I always suspected that my mother hated me. My emotional landscape was...
View ArticleNot Big Sam’s Premier League preview: Like East 17 without Tony Mortimer,...
Back in the year 2000, I once attended a charity coffee morning hosted by Les Dennis. He was raising funds for Russ Abbott; he never said why. During the proceedings, I accidentally stumbled into the...
View ArticleNot Big Sam: Five players who will shine in the World Cup (before returning...
During the summer of 1990 I had become sexually involved with an alarmingly skinny, but still rather enchanting young woman called Arabella Smooth. The relationship was tempestuous, volatile and deeply...
View ArticleNot Big Sam: The night I fell in love with WWE
I can still remember that day as if it was yesterday. August 26, 1991. I was strolling around the plush surroundings of Midtown Manhattan in a daze. A wonderful, mesmerising daze. I’d never...
View ArticleNot Big Sam: How my Hammers slayed 11 sorry Brummies
Self-control. Big Sam has many devastating weapons in his arsenal – the brutal upper-body strength of 10 tigers, the sexual prowess of a Backstreet Boy, the lingering allure of his coquettish smile....
View ArticleNot Big Sam: Golf offers a feeling of hope you won’t find in Sunderland
You’ve seen the photo. You’ve probably got it on your bedroom wall, or on your desk at work. Not Big Sam and Sir Alex sitting resplendently, together, in a golf cart. Sitting. Smiling. Bonding. Caring...
View ArticleAsk Not Big Sam: Your problems answered on Downton Abbey, hot office girls,...
Step forward to my cauldron of wisdom When I was a teenager, my Uncle Charlie came to live with us for a while. He said it was because the communists were after him, but my friend Wesley LaForge said...
View ArticleNot Big Sam: Do I have good memories of Newcastle? There was one night with...
There’s no two ways about it. They hurt. Despite my stoic sensibilities, and my legendary ability to turn the tables on any attacker, the words spat at me by Mike Ashley, when he removed me as manager...
View ArticleNot Big Sam: How Stacy Keibler’s hoop helped me make peace with the WWE
It’s been fifteen years now. Fifteen years of pain. Fifteen years of fury. Fifteen years of disgust. On November 9, 1997, an event took place in Montreal, Canada, that changed Big Sam forever. An act...
View ArticleNot Big Sam: It’s too late for Andy Carroll but here’s my Christmas Party advice
Friday, 12th December, 2003. Not Big Sam sits quietly in a shadowy corner of the bar in the Holiday Inn Bolton Centre Hotel. He watches, he surveys, he analyses. His eyes widen in horror as he sees...
View ArticleNot Big Sam: You don’t have to go looking for trouble in Brazil; sometimes it...
The night was dark. Real dark. A blanket of black draped over everything in sight. A blanket blacker than tar. Blacker than Cheryl Cole’s match-list on Tinder. A welcome breeze floated over this hot...
View ArticleNot Big Sam: David Gold? Internet? Get me the Twitter, and get me it now!
I sat at the traffic lights, enveloped from the chaotic London streets by the sheer luxury of my Cool Volare Blue Fiat 500. With one hand gripping the vintage steering wheel and the other clasping the...
View ArticleNot Big Sam: Football predictions? Manchester City will flop in Europe like...
The toughest period throughout my 30-year friendship with Mike Oldfield was undoubtedly when he decided to communicate solely via the oboe. “Was Moonlight Shadow really about Des O’Connor?” I once...
View ArticleNot Big Sam: Give a little respect to Manchester United and Louis van Gaal? I...
“Respect is fine. Respect is good. Respect, however, should never stand in the way of your own dominance. Respect should offer no barrier from destruction. Sometimes, my friend, you simply have to...
View ArticleThe best of Not Big Sam on the Paddy Power Blog
July 2012: Oh, Woody The night I attended the WWE’s SummerSlam event at Madison Square Garden with my dear friend Woody Allen, and a shy little girl by the name of Soon-Yi. As an aside, Woody...
View ArticleNot Big Sam: What Dr Loom’s travelling freak show taught me about how I...
As a curious young buck growing up in the wilds of Dudley, my favourite travelling freak show was Dr Loom’s Caravan of Doom. Every summer, as June turned into July, my friewnds and I would wait...
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