The better you are at a job, the easier it is to do at less than one hundred percent. Michael Jordan threw down thirty-eight points during game five of the NBA Finals in ’97 while he had the flu. Curt Schilling beat the Yankees in game six of the American League Championship Series in ’04 with his tendon bleeding, and apparently, Pat Sajak used to host Wheel Of Fortune drunk without viewers or his bosses noticing. The last of those three miraculous feats came out in an interview earlier this week, but since the breach in workplace protocol occurred decades ago, it’s doubtful anyone will make a fuss.
Speaking during a segment on Dan Le Batard Is Highly Questionable, Sajak outlined how Wheel Of Fortune tapings used to work. In the early days, there was a large break in between the morning and evening episodes. To kill time, he and Vanna White used to head across the street to a local restaurant where they’d load up on laughs and Margaritas. Sajak placed the average number consumed at “cuatro”, but he was quick to point out no one ever stepped in and told him to cut back. All of that is apparently in the past now though, not because he thinks boozing on the job is wrong but because he doubts he could handle his liquor well enough to make it through the tapings.
From his time as a disc jokey for the army in Vietnam to an amusing story about Jimmy Stewart, Sajak touches on a lot of other subjects in the interview, and I’d highly recommend checking it out below…
