There Will Be Blood: Jerry Stackhouse Details Epic War Stories from NBA Career

All smiles and sporting a crisp suit-and-tie combination for his NBA studio work, Jerry Stackhouse didn't look like a guy with a history of violence when he joined ESPN's Dan Le Batard and Bomani Jones (and Papi) to discuss his reputation as the baddest old dude in the league.

But a quick trip down memory lane proved that beneath the polish and generally engaging demeanor was a man with a frighteningly short fuse.

"

Amazing Jerry stackhouse interview on highly questionable. He will fight you.

— Al Toby (@AlTobyYahoo) May 22, 2013"

Stackhouse, who has averaged 16.9 points per game during his 17-year career, has been hanging around for the past half-decade on the strength of his presence in the locker room. That's quite a change for a player who once called his own coach a "sucker" and wanted to fight him.

So far as we know, that was the only run-in with a coach. But Stack definitely got into it with more than one player in his younger days.

He threw a few haymakers at Jeff Hornacek, gave teammate Christian Laettner a black eye on a plane and even decked Allen Iverson when the two were playing together with the Philadelphia 76ers.

This guy has been so tough throughout his career that he's now inspiring some Chuck Norris-like comparisons:

"

Jerry Stackhouse doesn't make salads. He cooks them. RT @pflanns: The Stackhouse interview is so, so great: youtu.be/xJv4b6z8ZrU

— Kelly Dwyer (@KDonhoops) May 22, 2013"

The highlight of the interview was Stackhouse's recollection of perhaps his most infamous altercation, which involved Kirk Snyder, then of the Utah Jazz. Apparently, the two had been jawing during a game in 2005 and at some point, Snyder took a cheap shot at Stackhouse.

Instead of taking care of business then and there like he did with Hornacek years earlier, Stackhouse decided to wait in the tunnel after the game, seeking to sort things out away from the glare of the bright lights and TV cameras.

Nobody's totally sure what happened, but ancient Internet documents corroborate Stackhouse's position that it didn't end well for Snyder. That's all beside the point, though, as the very best part of the ESPN interview featured Stackhouse recounting the fallout of the fight, in which Snyder actually thanked him for the beating.

"He needed to bleed," Stack surmised, still smiling brightly in that suit and tie.

Whoa.

Something tells me that fellow talking heads won't be disagreeing with Stackhouse very often in his next career as an analyst. Although, it sure does seem that all of the violence hasn't swayed much of the media, which seems very much enamored with the smooth-talking beatdown artist:

"

This interview on @dlhq perfectly illustrates why I enjoyed covering @jerrystackhouse so much this season. Great guy: bit.ly/12Nv1Z2

— Tim Bontemps (@TimBontemps) May 22, 2013"

This is a guy who actually belted out the national anthem before a Brooklyn Nets playoff game earlier this postseason. So apparently, he's capable of both singing you to sleep and knocking you out cold.