KEY POINTS:
Poor old Wade McKinnon is hardly the first professional sportsman whose lack of saliva control has landed him in hot water.
If the Warriors are to be believed, McKinnon is merely a victim of circumstance. He was just unlucky that touch-judge Brett Suttor happened to be walking by
when he decided to free up some space in his mouth.
But McKinnon's chances of pulling off that unlikely defence when he faced the NRL judiciary wouldn't exactly have been helped by his reputation as one of professional sport's foremost practitioners of the noble art of dissent.
Last season McKinnon was suspended for two weeks for shoving referee Jason Robinson. And in a round-19 match he engaged in a running battle with referee Paul Simpkins that ended with the official losing the plot so completely he sent McKinnon off for simply standing next to Taniela Tuiaki at a play-the-ball.
As far as attacks on officials go, the fiery Warriors have so far been at the lower end of the scale. But if he keeps going the way he is, McKinnon may well earn himself a place in the gallery of shame that is
SuperSport's Top 10 attacks on officials.
1: Pride of the Veldt
Despite an obvious lack of conditioning, fatso mining supplies boss Pieter van Zyl somehow evaded no fewer than 419 security guards at Durban's Kings Park when he rushed on to the field and attacked Irish referee David McHugh during a 2002 Tri-Nations match.
Van Zyl was eventually carted off bleeding from a head wound after being punched and tackled to the ground by Richie McCaw but the attack left McHugh with a dislocated shoulder.
Boofhead Potchefstroom native Van Zyl was charged with assault with intention to cause grievous bodily harm but was eventually convicted only of assault and fined a paltry R10,000 ($1874).
He wasn't exactly repentant about his actions, either, saying: "The whole of the stadium was mal [angry] with him [the referee]. It's just that I decided to do something about it. Referees around the world think they are bigger than the game and they're not. Fans like me is what rugby is about."
2: The gob that enraged a nation
Supersport wasn't privy to all the nuances of Wade McKinnon's defence but it's doubtful he sank to the depths employed by former Baltimore Orioles baseballer Roberto Alomar, who in 1996 spat in the face of home plate umpire John Hirschbeck after a questionable third strike call.
Explaining his actions shortly after, Alomar said Hirschbeck had become "real bitter" after the death of his 8-year-old son. Alomar was castigated by a disgusted American public and received a five-game suspension. But the ban was delayed until the following season, allowing him to appear in the playoffs. Infuriated Major League umpires threatened to strike but a Philadelphia judge ordered them not to, ruling that it would violate their labour contract. Alomar later apologised to Hirschbeck and donated US$50,000 for research on the rare nerve disease that killed his son.
3: Avenging Angel
Cuban Angel Matos was winning his Beijing Olympic bronze medal taekwondo match against Kazakhstan's Arman Chilmanov 3-2 in the second round when he fell to the mat after copping a nasty blow.
When he failed to recover after the one minute injury recovery period, the 2000 gold medallist was disqualified by Swedish referee Chakir Chelbat.
Matos angrily questioned the call, pushed a judge and then kicked Chelbat in the head before spitting on the floor and being bundled away.
"It was an insult to the Olympic vision, to the spirit of taekwondo and for me, an insult to mankind," said Jin Suk Yang, general secretary of the World Taekwondo Federation.
Matos' coach said the match was fixed and accused the Kazakhs of offering him money to throw it.
Cuban president Fidel Castro expressed his "total solidarity" for both fighter and coach.
For a sport dubbed by some Taekwon Don't after a number of action-free contests, it sure was quite a ruckus.
4: Sod this for a lark, I'm off
Having travelled to Sierra Leone to witness the plight of children affected by war, Swedish insurance agent and part-time Red Cross ambassador Anders Frisk knowsplenty about the costs of human conflict.
The once highly-rated soccer referee also has first hand experience of dangerous missiles.
In 2004 he was forced to abandon a Champions League match between AS Roma and Dynamo Kiev after a direct hit from a lighter thrown from the stands as he walked off at halftime left him bleeding heavily from a facialwound.
UEFA awarded the match to Kiev 3-0 and ordered Roma to play its remaining two home fixtures in the group stage behind closed doors.
Just six months later Frisk retired suddenly after he and his family received death threats - believed to have come from Chelsea fans - following his controversial sending off of Didier Drogba in a Champions League match against Barcelona.
5: The referee strikes back
So much for "friendly" football matches. A, er, non-competition match between Hong Kong and Macau in 2000 took a distinctly unfriendly turn when referee Choi Kuok-kun reacted badly to having a ball kicked at him by winger Lee Kin-wo. Kuok-kun had already shown Lee a red card after he was sworn at following a disputed free-kick. But when Lee lashed out by drilling the referee in the shoulder with the ball, Kuok-kun rushed the player and rabbit-punched him several times in the back of the head, sparking a mass brawl broadcast live on Hong Kong television.
"That's the first time I've seen the referee strike a player," remarked a surprised Hong Kong coach Casemiro Mior, whose side won 1-0. Kuok-kun was later banned for life, while Lee was suspended for a year.
6: Poacher turned gamekeeper
Funny how time changes a man. Who'd have thought Clive Lloyd, the West Indian captain reviled in this country for standing idly by in 1980 when Michael Holding kicked the stumps out of the ground in Dunedin and who left Colin Croft in the attack even after he barged into umpire Fred Goodall in Christchurch, would eventually spend a good chunk of his golden years doling out behavioural admonishments as a match referee?
Well, Clive, for one.
"The transition from player to referee was not that difficult for me," Lloyd said at a function at the last World Cup to mark his retirement after 53 tests and 133 ODIs as a whip-cracker.
"I have always felt strongly about discipline in the game," he explained.
Not always, Clive, not always.
7: Alcock accused of lacking balls
"I gave him a shove, but it was hardly done with force. He took sideways steps then fell over in a rather strange way - like someone acting for a penalty."
That was how Italian hothead and devout Mussolini fan Paolo Di Canio described his attack on referee Paul Alcock after he was sent off following a handbags-at-dawn brawl between Sheffield Wednesday and Arsenal in 1998. Normally such accusations are immediately and equivocally dismissed by all and sundry. But the unconvincing nature of Alcock's newborn-foal impression created lingering suspicions that Paolo might just have been right.
The Premier League disagreed, banning him for 11 matches and fining him £10,000.
8: The eye of a storm
Even his Cleveland Browns teammates voted the 2m, 165kg Orlando Brown the dirtiest player in the NFL in 1998. And that was before he copped an indefinite suspension for pushing over referee Jeff Triplette. Brown was somewhat provoked, with Triplette having just thrown a penalty flag that struck the offensive tackle in the eye. Surgery failed to save his vision and he was unable to play for more than three years. His suspension was quickly revoked but nine months later his contract was cancelled.
"It was a blessing from God to get hit by that flag," Brown said, although he may have been referring to the US$25 million payout he received from the NFL.
In 2003 he resumed his career with the Baltimore Ravens, saying the eye injury had helped mellow him. "That flag has humbled me a little bit. I still play with an attitude, I still cuss - but I do a lot more thinking. Now I am not a crazed guy out there." Just half blind.
9: It started with a spit
Being suspended for spitting at a referee turned out to be the least of the problems facing Japanese soccer international Takehito Shigehara.
Last year Shigehara was banned for seven games after spitting at and abusing a J-League referee who had just booked him. Shigehara then smashed stadium equipment in a rage on his way back to the showers after the yellow card was replaced with a red. But that turned out to be pretty small beer for the midfield roamer, with police calling him in for questioning over an alleged 2001 underwear theft. The Kashiwa Reysol star is alleged to have gained entry to a woman's Kobe apartment and stolen several pairs of her underwear and a mobile phone.
10: Getting in the swing
It's the gold medal bout of the 1982 North American Boxing Champs. Canada's Willie DeWitt has Cuban Pedro Cardenas in a corner and is pounding him to within an inch of his life.
Referee Bert Lowes tries to end the fight but walks straight on to a desperate roundhouse from Cardenas and is knocked out cold. A replacement referee steps into the breach. When he breaks up a clinch, the disoriented Cardenas lashes out again, catching the official on the side of the head.
This time the ref keeps his feet and DeWitt finishes off Cardenas with a second round KO, much to the relief, presumably, of the third official.
