Ah yes. 2017. A time where media rules the world and almost nothing goes unseen and/or undocumented, even if shared among trusting parties. That sentiment held true even back in August of 2014, when the infamous Fappening occurred. An event where hundreds of personal phones were hacked and even more (of mostly NSFW) pictures were released to the Internet and spread out like wildfire.

The names of aforementioned hacked phones included celebrities like Arianna Grande, Nicki Minaj, Blake Lively, Jennifer Lawrence, Gabrielle Union, Kim Kardashian, Anna Kendrick, and of course… Justin Verlander.

Yes. Justin Verlander. The (at the time) 31-year-old pitching ace for the Detroit Tigers. This fucking dude.

Right in there with super models and smokin’ hot ebony sex symbols. Why you ask? Well. He was dating (and is currently engaged) to….

her. And I know you all know this but I didn’t think many would object to the visual reminder.

What’s interesting about this situation is it was ONLY Verlander’s phone that was hacked- not hers. So, when the hack came out, not only did photos of Kate Upton voluptuous figure hit the net, but so did Verlander’s Tiger dong along with (ffffffuuuuuuuucccckkkkk) photos of other females. So not only did he have to deal with the embarrassment of his girlfriend and pecker exposed to the masses, but he probably caught absolute hell from his then 22-year-old super-model girlfriend. Who I’m assuming was a HUGE bitch about it.

“Jussssttiiinn are you FUCKING kiddiiiiinngg me? Um. Ew.” ~ Kate Upton probably

This all happened on August 31st, 2014. The Tigers were in the heat of a Central Division race they were barely holding on to and desperately trying win a World Series before their quickly closing window slammed shut. (LOL)

Couple that with questions doubting Verlander’s ability to perform at his original Cy Young caliber level, and my man was dealing with some serious bullshit, on and off the field.

But in lieu of a pretty shitty situation, Verlander got in front of the issue before being ambushed with questions and dropped this fucking wisdom bomb on the media. (The following is from eonline.com)

“I’m not going to comment on my personal life,” Verlander said in the Tiger’s clubhouse before his team played the Cleveland Indians. “I never have, and I never plan on it. I keep my personal life personal.”

“The focus for me is on the Detroit Tigers. I don’t want to take any focus away from this team and what we’re trying to accomplish,” Verlander said. “We’re in the middle of a pennant race. We’re trying to win a pennant. And all of my focus currently is on doing whatever I can to help our team win our division.”

The 31-year-old athlete then said he would field reporters’ questions about baseball.

However, a reporter asked Verlander, “When you go to the mound, you’ve got to be able to block out everything else in your life. How have you learned to do that?” He replied, “I’ve always been able to do that. This is my life. Baseball is my life.” Asked if he’d be able to ignore the incident, he said, “You can use my quote that I said no comment, my personal life is my personal life and I’m focused on baseball.”

Fuckin’ mic drop. And from that moment it was never really spoken about again. The Tigers went on to win the AL Central for the 4th time in as many years. I don’t know if Verlander or his PR team deserves most the credit, but it seems athletes these days do not handle these kind of invasive personal situations with grace. They dig holes, they half ass apologize/come up with an excuse- HEY you did nothing wrong or even if you did who gives a shit don’t talk about it and just win your fucking division. You get paid millions to whip a baseball 60 feet 6 inches and make hitters miss, not justify why you got naked with your super model girlfriend and snapped some photos. Spectacular approach big dog.

It was literally never brought up again publicly during his career, until Verlander had an interview with Forbes in 2015 where he held strong in his silence stating:

“Obviously, it was tough,” he admits. “I still don’t talk about what happened. I grinded through it,” he continues. “Kate’s there a lot for me. And we’re just normal people. You know, normal relationship — believe it or not.”

Great work JV, keep silent and toss heat. And if anyone questions, just hit ’em with the Randy Marsh-