Source: Icon Sports Wire / Getty
Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez’s bromance, or lack thereof, is legendary, but the two athletes have never spoken about it until now.
Derek Jeter Kept It Very Real About His Feelings Towards A-Rod
The shortstop and New York Yankees legend Derek Jeter knows exactly his bromance with his former teammate, now ESPN MLB analyst Alex Rodriguez fell apart. In his upcoming ESPN seven-part documentary The Captain, Jeter touches on that moment when he realized that Rodriguez was “not a true friend.”
Things began to sour between the retired MLB stars after Rodriguez told Esquire in a 2001 interview that Jeter was “blessed” to be on a stacked New York Yankees team. Rodriguez’s hating-ass comments came after he secured one of the richest deals in baseball at the time with the Texas Rangers.
“He’s never had to lead,” Rodriguez told the publication. “He doesn’t have to. He can just go and play and have fun and hit second.”
“I mean, you know, hitting second is totally different than hitting third or fourth in a lineup because you go into New York trying to stop Bernie [Williams] and [Paul] O’Neill and everybody. You never say, ‘Don’t let Derek beat you.’ That’s never your concern,” Rodriguez continued.
Derek Jeter, who was considered one of the Yankees’ best players at the time, took offense to A-Rod’s comments saying in the documentary that they “bothered me.”
“I’m very, very loyal,” Jeter said. “As a friend, I’m loyal. I just looked at it as ‘I wouldn’t have done it.”
Rodriguez admits in the documentary that he did apologize, and Jeter was willing to accept it. Still, the friendship was fractured further when A-Rod said in another interview, “there’s not one thing he does better than me.”
“He’s not a true friend, is how I felt,” Jeter added, “Because I wouldn’t do it to a friend.”
The Captain is going to be a must-watch.
Photo: Icon Sports Wire / Getty
