Ken Griffey Jr. not exactly thrilled during this interview

ESPN’s Linda Cohn may as well have a drill in her hand and rubber gloves on, because she basically had to pull Ken Griffey Jr.’s teeth out to get any response from him in this SportsCenter interview.

Griffey was representing Upper Deck (I’m sure they were ecstatic with his gregarious nature on the WWL), and apparently this was his 958th interview of the day — not that it’s even a valid excuse!

Hosts like Cohn probably aren’t thrilled to conduct product placement interviews like this, but it’s even worse when the subject is bordering on catatonic.

This is the worst athlete pitch interview since Matt Harvey’s disastrous Qualcomm call on The Dan Patrick Show. At least he apologized a day later.

UPDATE:
Apparently, later in the day, Griffey did apologize on Instagram and over the phone with Cohn for his behavior in the interview. On Instagram, he said he was feeling ill and he was fighting off a cough attack at the time.

Just got off phone w Ken Griffey Jr. He apologized sincerely for how he came across in @SportsCenter int. I accepted his apology.

— Linda Cohn (@lindacohn) March 5, 2014

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