Inside The Huskies

Ex-Husky Olin Kreutz Has Never Been Able to Harness His Temper, Loses Job

The former UW lineman has been in the headlines multiple times for his anger.
Dan Raley|
Ex-Husky Olin Kreutz Has Never Been Able to Harness His Temper, Loses Job
Ex-Husky Olin Kreutz Has Never Been Able to Harness His Temper, Loses Job

In this story:

Washington Huskies

Olin Kreutz, a man known to have a bad temper and no bounds, was fired from a Chicago sports media site this week after he allegedly assaulted a co-worker.

For the former All-America center from the University of Washington, this was the latest in a series of highly publicized run-ins involving him that go back a quarter of a century to his college days.

CHGO Sports accused Kreutz, who played 13 NFL seasons for the Chicago Bears and another for the New Orleans Saints, of "physically attacking" a colleague, later revealed to be podcast partner Adam Hoge, and it moved to terminate him. 

“On Monday morning, an incident occurred in which Olin Kreutz physically attacked a CHGO employee,” CHGO Sports said in a statement. “Effective immediately, Olin Kreutz is no longer with CHGO. Although we were shocked by the incident, we are thankful that the employee is OK. The health and safety of our employees is of the utmost importance and we will not tolerate any action that puts that in jeopardy.”

Citing sources, the Chicago Sun-Times reported that Kreutz grabbed the neck of Hoge at a staff meeting, enraged by a flippant remark. Hoge didn't require medical treatment or file a police report and was able to host his Bears podcast on Tuesday. 

Kreutz, 44, was not particularly apologetic over the incident and tweeted out an ominous Mike Tyson comment that once declared, "Social media made y'all way too comfortable with disrespecting people and not getting punched in the face for it."

In April 1996, Kreutz had his first public incident. He got into a spring practice dust-up with Husky defensive tackle Sekou Wiggs that carried over into the locker room. Approached by his teammate, the Hawaiian native threw a punch and broke Wiggs' jaw in two places.

Kreutz was suspended for the rest of spring practice and required to attend anger-management classes before he could rejoin Jim Lambright's team.

"I liked Sekou," Kreutz told the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. "When you throw a punch, especially at a friend, you never mean to. I learned to punch when I was young and I knew I was strong. You don't want to break a guy's jaw."

Nine years later, Kreutz, who would become a six-time Pro Bowl center, did it again with the Bears. One punch. Another teammate with a fractured jaw.

Following a team outing during the season at an FBI gun range, Kreutz and fellow Bears offensive lineman Fred Miller started roughhousing and antagonizing each other. This carried over to a drinking establishment, where the Chicago Tribune reported that Miller threw a drink in the Kreutz's face and got punched in return.

Miller responded by smacking his teammate in the head with an object, cutting Kreutz's head and requiring 13 stitches. He stood 6-foot-7 and weighed 320 pounds, which made him five inches taller and nearly 30 pounds heavier than Kreutz.

"Something just happened and it got out of hand," Kreutz said later. 

Both players were fined but not suspended, though Miller was unable to play the rest of the season. 

Kreutz retired from pro football in 2011 immediately following yet another hot-tempered altercation in New Orleans. He angrily got up to confront an expletive-spewing Aaron Kromer, the Saints offensive-line coach, and ended up throwing quarterback Drew Brees, who tried to intervene, up against a wall. 

The one-time Husky admitted to this previously undisclosed Saints incident as the reason for his abrupt departure in a radio interview four years ago.

Go to si.com/college/washington to read the latest Husky FanNation stories as soon as they’re published.

Not all stories are posted on the fan sites.

Find Husky FanNation on Facebook by searching: Husky Maven/Sports Illustrated

Follow Dan Raley of Husky FanNation on Twitter: @DanRaley1 and @HuskyMaven

Published
Dan Raley
DAN RALEY

Dan Raley has worked for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, as well as for MSN.com and Boeing, the latter as a global aerospace writer. His sportswriting career spans four decades and he's covered University of Washington football and basketball during much of that time. In a working capacity, he's been to the Super Bowl, the NBA Finals, the MLB playoffs, the Masters, the U.S. Open, the PGA Championship and countless Final Fours and bowl games.

Home/Husky Legends