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[dramatic music playing]
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[music stops]
-[TV static] -[upbeat music playing]
[man] There's no such thing as the archetypal footballer.
There are the gifted, the powerful, the brave, the tricky,
and the sly.
And there are those who offer a combination of these things,
the hard men.
But what makes these men a breed apart?
What makes them kick?
Your guide to the men of grit and guile
is today's self-confessed creator of havoc, Vinnie Jones.
[crowd cheering]
One of the most colorful and controversial figures in football.
[commentator 1] That's inexcusable, frankly.
You'd be forgiven for thinking he was a professional delinquent.
Yeah, yeah, I was the punk rocker of football, weren't I?
[Vinnie Jones] See you after, you gobshite!
-See you after, you gobshite! -[crowd chanting]
The Scud missile of soccer, Mr. Vinnie Jones.
[commentator 2] Vinnie Jones, a volley…
It's in! Oh, we'll never hear the last of that!
[Jones] I never wanted to be an ordinary footballer.
He's a nice fella, but I wouldn't have him to me daughter's 17th birthday.
[Jones] I wanted to be somebody. Leave a mark.
[crowd cheers]
[reporter] You've got a reputation. Does that worry you?
Shouldn't worry me, should worry me opponents.
[TV host] Did you bring the game into disrepute more than you ought to?
I've been known to, Jon, from time to time.
[announcer] Vinnie Jones is taking on the Wolf!
[cheering]
I have to send you off.
[cheering and applause]
[music fades out]
[Jones] I had the perfect life, playing football.
[male pundit] Plenty calling for Vinnie Jones to be kicked out of the game.
And that came to an absolute car crash.
[man 1] This is suicidal!
[man 2] His exuberance has seen Jones sent off an incredible 12 times.
-Fuck! -[tense music playing]
[male pundit 1] Vinnie Jones is a man the tabloid press love to hate.
[reporter] Do you think you are the most hated man in football?
[male pundit 2] Is Vinnie Jones everything that's wrong with the English game?
I think my career's over.
The footballer Vinnie Jones has been found guilty…
Has been fined a record…
Laying a charge of misconduct against Wimbledon player Vinnie Jones.
What am I gonna do?
[music fades slowly]
If you're gonna go over the top of me, you've got to put me out the game.
Because I'm gonna be coming back for you.
[gun cocking]
[gunshot echoes]
[dramatic music playing]
[male commentator] It's the biggest occasion in English football.
The day the whole world watches,
as the mighty Liverpool take on the Crazy Gang of Wimbledon
in the FA Cup Final.
And there will be a lot of talk about Vinnie Jones.
Just 18 months ago, he was working on a building site,
and now he's in an FA Cup Final.
[male reporter] I hope they're watching this program and not listening to pop,
or their own record, or anything like that.
That's Vinnie Jones saying something back to me.
That's great, lads. Are you watching?
-[Jones] Yeah. -[reporter] Good lads.
What about the game?
What's your role going to be in it?
I'm not goalkeeper, I know that.
[players laughing]
I dunno. Just wait until what the boss tells me to do,
and then go out and do it. Normal game. Yeah.
The night before the game, we had a few beers,
we had a crack, had a laugh.
The locals were like,
"Are you the lot that are not playing tomorrow. The squad?"
"No, no, we're playing. Don't worry about that."
Yeah, we will.
[Jones] Just pure adrenaline we were going on. Pure adrenaline.
Ready for the game, you know?
[fanfare music plays]
[male pundit] He's already carved out a reputation as a fearsome competitor,
but can he be trusted on the world's biggest stage?
[Jones] We walk onto the pitch,
and I've gone, "Fucking hell."
[crowd cheering]
[Jones] The FA Cup was everything.
This is insane!
It's just such an emotional day.
I didn't think it would be, you know,
take over this much, just even walking out here.
I know the lads will be watching at home in Hemel and in Watford.
And it's just over…
you know, overcome.
[Jones] Hold on a minute.
How the fuck does a lad like me… get here?
[tape rewinding]
[dramatic music rises]
I grew up just outside Watford.
So I loved the countryside, shooting and fishing.
But if you cut me in half,
you would read football.
Football to me was everything on this planet.
[indistinct shouting]
Captain of Watford Boys.
Semi-pro at Wealdstone.
And we won the non-league FA Cup.
My day job is on the building site.
But,
all around Watford now, I was known as a good player.
Here we go. I quite fancy meself.
As it happened,
a mate of mine knew the Wimbledon manager at the time,
Dave Bassett.
I basically got my hands and knees…
"Give me a chance. Give me a chance."
[music fades]
The first time I met him, Vinnie was a Jack the lad
from Watford who thought he'd arrived, and he was quite lippy, to be fair.
He was tough. He was a competitor.
But he'd not followed the normal route
of being an academy player and everything else.
And I think if he'd gone to other clubs,
the managers would have told him to fuck off.
But in a way, Vinnie came to us at the right time.
Wimbledon is more immediately associated with tennis than soccer.
But amazingly, less than nine years after entering the Fourth Division
they're now in the First.
[tense music playing]
This is Plough Lane, Wimbledon's home ground
and by far the most humble stadium in the First Division.
[man] Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Wimbledon Football Club.
Wimbledon will be bottom of the attendance charts
in the First Division next season.
Wimbledon had just got into First Division, the now Premier League.
They were the minnows, fighting the mighty forces…
-Liverpool, Everton, Man United. -[crowd cheering]
[indistinct chatter]
We were't able to sign a load of players because we didn't have the money.
And so, even though Vinnie wasn't the finished article,
it was worth taking a risk.
[music fades]
Bassett went, "All right, son, um…
I'm going to sign you."
"I'll give you a year and a half contract. 150 pound a week."
"Um…
Now fuck off."
That was our contract talks.
Like the boys are saying, "You're in, you're in."
You know, I just couldn't believe it. And after, he named the squad and said,
"You're in the squad."
So I had to go down London and get a suit.
It was just unbelievable.
-Did you play the Barnes against us? -Yeah…
[Jones] Bassett always had an entourage of mates around him.
Vice presidents, and vice wankers, and complete wankers.
They were like,
[imitating Bassett's friends] "Harry, Harry, you fucking idiot!"
[laughs]
"He's a fucking hod carrier."
"You think you can turn a hod carrier into a Division One footballer?"
I'll never forget it.
I said, "Well, I haven't got a clue, to be quite honest,
but we need a bit of extra strength in midfield."
"If the worst comes to the worst, get him to do maintenance on the ground."
[ominous music playing]
[Jones] Yeah, me first game was an absolute disaster.
We lose, and I give a penalty away.
[Bassett] As he come off, he asked Syd Neal, who was our kitman,
"How am I doing, Syd?"
Syd said, "That's the worst debut I've ever seen in my life."
"Keep your shirt 'cause you're not going to get another one."
Now that could kill people.
But Vinnie told him to fuck off.
[Jones] We played Man United at home on the Saturday.
Alex Ferguson had just taken over.
Bryan Robson was the England captain.
The whole occasion was ridiculous. "What am I doing here?"
[indistinct chatter]
But you've got to crawl out of that greasy drainpipe.
You got to keep going.
You might just find that dry patch. Something might just happen.
Use that power. Get out there and win.
[players cheering]
[Jones] Lift it! No fucking prisoners!
It's now or never.
[upbeat music intensifies]
[commentator] Oh, incredible! It's a goal from Vince Jones!
He is making a name for himself early in his career.
[Jones] What do I do? I was just going mental.
Yeah! Come on!
I'd scored the winner.
In the boardroom, everyone was cheering.
And I said, "I'll bet you're glad I'm not a hod carrier now, ain't ya?"
[music fades]
[Bassett] Scored the goal, and the genie was out of the bottle.
But I told him that he was going to have to fit in
because Wimbledon was a unique club in those days.
[upbeat band music playing]
[male reporter] Wimbledon were hard at training today.
But this is not just any other training ground.
Our training ground was basically a public area,
and the clubhouse was a transport caf.
[reporter] Inside the pavilion, you can get a good, cooked breakfast,
a game of pool,
plus a chance to spot top-of-the-table soccer stars,
like John Fashanu,
who has to join the queue like anyone else.
["Lo Chiamavano Trinità" -Franco Micalizzi & Gianfranco Plenzio playing]
[Fashanu] When Vinnie first came to the training ground,
I said, "Who's this guy?"
"Who does he think he is?"
"He's walking in here like a gangster."
"I'm the boss here."
♪ He's the guy Who's the talk of the town ♪
♪ With the restless gun ♪
♪ Don't you bother to fool him around Keeps the varmints on the run… ♪
[Fashanu] We sit down, we talk,
and I see we have so much in common.
"You're a thug and hooligan. I'm a thug and a hooligan."
"So, snap. Where do we go from here, bro?"
-♪ When you've seen him use his gun ♪ -[music fades out]
[Jones] We are an odd couple on the surface.
Fash is street educated, worldly educated.
He was a businessman first and a footballer second.
[phone ringing]
Hello? Yeah.
Yeah, Isaiah. Yeah. Okay.
[Jones] And I always remember Fash saying to me,
"Don't be that player that plays 400 games,
and no one's ever heard of him."
[dramatic music playing]
"Be somebody."
"Leave a mark."
[crowd murmuring]
Now, I spoke to you yesterday about not being overawed with the game.
Just be nice and competitive, aggressive. And let's win the ******* game.
[cheering]
[Fashanu] I told Jonesy, "We're hooligans, thugs."
"If the ball wasn't there, you kick whatever else is there."
Very simple.
This is what your job is.
"The hatchet man."
[commentator] Jones has gone in really hard there.
I knew how to tackle and that because I'd come through the non-league ranks.
Right now. Let's go.
[commentator] That's Jones again.
Tempers are rising, revolving mostly around the Wimbledon number four.
[Jones] We were hated by the other players.
[commentator] Jones with a thunderous tackle.
I knew of players' wives that would beg their husbands to be careful
or not to play against us. [laughs]
Things like that!
[commentator] Jones going in strongly there.
And that provides a platform for the Dons.
[Fashanu] We won so many games because we just scared people.
[commentator] And it comes to Sanchez, who scores!
Vinnie got stronger, and he got stronger, and he got stronger.
And he became a real challenge to every single team.
[commentator] Opponents might not like him,
but Jones is fast becoming a cult hero for the Wimbledon fans.
-[camera clicks] -[music fades]
Wimbledon's antics mean that they're rarely out of the headlines.
To outsiders, this may just look like yobbish behavior.
But in fact, it's all part of a carefully calculated psychological strategy.
[Bassett] Left, right. Left, right. Left-- Look up!
[man] Vinnie! Come on, son.
[Jones] The core of Wimbledon at that time,
engraved on me and on my soul,
was this unique team spirit.
Call me your back-straight general, son.
Young, aggressive men,
foaming at the mouth with testosterone.
You cut him, you cut me. If you kill him, you've gotta kill me.
[cheering]
We were a brotherhood.
This gang, this posse, this band of mates.
[dramatic music playing]
[over PA] Ladies and gentlemen, we are making our final descent…
[Jones] We'd get pissed up together. We'd have a punch up.
Please, God, it didn't get in the papers and shit.
I'd go at two and get them out of the bar, so not too bad.
I'm looking for the culprit that's turned my room over.
My bed was on the balcony a few minutes ago.
Me clothes were all over the place.
But I've got suspects. They'll pay later.
Bassett used to instigate it all to get that camaraderie.
"Right, you against you. And bang, and let's have it."
[reporter] A lot of managers would ban a drink and ban a late night,
but Dave Bassett seems to almost encourage you to do that.
Yeah he's--
[shouting]
[laughing]
And that's how Wimbledon prepare.
People sort of ask me and say,
"God, what was it like managing Vinnie Jones?"
Easiest thing in the world.
The only time Vinnie might cause trouble
is when him and the lads go out for a night out,
and there might be a bit of a shemozzle along the line.
[dramatic music playing]
Well, the Crazy Gang did what it said on the tin.
They were a bunch of complete headcases, uh, led by Mr. Jones.
But there's something about Vinnie that was utterly compelling.
He was big. He was aggressive.
He was a character…
[camera clicking]
…and we in the newspaper game wanted to have people
like Vinnie on your front page because he sold papers.
-[music stops] -[phone ringing]
[Jones] This reporter from The Sun, he rung me up.
"I heard you had a tackle with Dalglish,
and you said, 'Do that again, Scotch git,
I'll rip your head off and shit in the hole.'"
Well, you know… Did I? I never said that.
[suspenseful music playing]
Kenny Dalglish is a legend.
Somebody I looked up to.
And to this day, I can't remember saying that.
But the reporter said, "I'm going to give you 250 quid."
-Fuck, that's two weeks wages. -[bell ringing]
That's a lot of money in them days…
When you was earning 150.
So I said, "All right, then."
[Bassett] He was talking bollocks,
and he had to be put in his place.
But he decided,
"I think if I go along, and I become one of the hardest men in football,
it's quite useful to supplement the income."
[Fashanu] I'd always say to Jonesy, "At the end of the day, cash is king."
I say it again.
Cash is king.
Never forget that.
If you haven't got cash, you ain't going to be a king.
Very simple.
[Jones] And the journalist said,
"You took the money. Now we own you."
And he's right.
Once you sell your soul to the devil,
you gotta dance for him.
-[music intensifies] -[crowd shouting]
But, we still had to do the business on the pitch.
[commentator] Up goes the kick from Dave Beasant,
and down it comes on Fairweather's head.
And Sayer is in here. And Sayer… Good stop.
Fashanu for Wimbledon.
-Goal! -[crowd cheering]
[energetic music playing]
[Jones] That first season, we finished sixth in the league.
We thought we were invincible.
[Fashanu] We've got confidence. We've got Vinnie Jones.
He's like Christmas Day every day. So we're going for it now.
[camera clicks]
[Jones] And that's the inner belief that you get
when you believe in the system, you believe in the manager.
Some of the players have now realized
that they can be First Division footballers.
They've shown the potential that I knew they had.
[Jones] I think we all owed him.
And we all bought into his way of winning.
[music fades]
At home, the big soccer story of the last 48 hours
has been Dave Bassett's decision to quit as manager of Wimbledon.
What? Ey?
[cheering and applause]
[male reporter 1] Dave Bassett's farewell to Wimbledon,
shared by the supporters who've watched Bassett and his team rise
from non-league football to sixth place in the First Division.
"You can't go to another club."
"We're all in this together!"
[male reporter 2] This evening, Elton John was at a reception
with his new Watford manager, Dave Bassett.
[Bassett] Vinnie was disappointed when I went to Watford.
He wanted somebody there for him… You with me?
…looking after him.
I've not got any relationship
that's close to what I've got with Bassett.
And I didn't have the confidence to think another manager would put me in the team.
[man 1] Bobby's here.
-[man 2] Okay. -[man 3] Happy?
[man 1] Nice and quiet, everyone, please.
[fan] Rubbish football, Gould. Rubbish!
[man 2] Just a second.
[dramatic music playing]
I said, "I'm not going to call you Vinnie."
"You're going to get called Vincent."
And he says, "You sure?" I said, "Yeah."
-[indistinct chatter] -[whistle blows]
[male reporter] Bobby Gould has taken the reins at Wimbledon,
but Dave Bassett will be a hard act to follow.
[Gould] What Dave Bassett had created, it was unique.
But people didn't like the way we played.
And we had to "lose" the tag of being naughty.
[Jones] The changeover of Bassett to Bobby Gould,
they were so different.
And he'd brought a couple of signings in
and put a couple of noses out of joint.
[indistinct shouting]
[Gould] I used to pull him to one side
and make sure that you're not stepping out of order.
"I want you to be a good player and people to take notice of you."
[commentator] Wise. Sanchez.
Falls to Jones!
[crowd cheering]
A silky moment from the hard man.
[Jones] Gouldy knew I could play, and I showed it.
[camera clicks]
But looking through Bobby Gould's eyes,
it was like having a load of kids in playschool.
-[siren wailing] -[upbeat music playing]
[cheering]
[commentator] Look at Vinnie Jones, playing close attention
to Paul Gascoigne here.
[Gould] We played against Newcastle,
and there was a certain Gascoigne in the team.
Everybody was talking about Gazza, you know, this wunderkind.
And he had this absolute fan base, and it was ridiculous.
[crowd cheers]
[commentator] This is turning into a real battle between these two.
[Jones] As I said before, life is about climbing that greasy pole.
You gotta make your mark.
You gotta seize the moment.
-[camera clicking] -[crowd groaning]
Let's have some of that.
And I think Gascoigne squealed.
And that was it.
Front page and back page.
[Morgan] I thought that picture of Vinnie and Gazza was fantastic.
And it made Vinnie a household name.
Albeit, because he grabbed Gazza's bollocks.
-Pull! -[gunshot]
Yidaho.
[reporter] Did you have him in your pocket?
I had him in the palm of my hand at one stage.
[both laugh]
That's it. That's all right. I'll just get my own back here!
I think it's the newspapers that do half of it.
I mean, I think people judged me too early, you know?
When I was roaring about, that's all I knew.
I'd only been in the game…
I've only been in the game now 18 months.
[Match of the Day theme tune playing]
I don't think any footballer ever forgets winning this little chap on my right.
[Jones] In them days, the FA Cup was the biggest competition in football.
It was absolutely massive.
A club like Wimbledon was never expected to win it.
[hip-hop music playing]
[Jones] But we really didn't give a fuck about anybody.
[crowd cheering]
[commentator] St. James's Park,
crackling with anticipation for an FA Cup fourth round tie
between Newcastle United and Wimbledon.
[announcer] Number four, Vince Jones…
[crowd booing]
[commentator] Boos for Vinnie Jones, but that will be music to his ears.
Jones, the shot is on for him, and it's a useful one too.
It was a cruel bounce for Jackson.
Fashanu!
[crowd cheering]
My word! He'll take a bow here.
I think Wimbledon showed the nation
that they can play entertaining, attacking football,
despite the things that have been said and written.
I don't think they'll be many tomorrow listening to the draw,
who'll want to go to Plough Lane.
[commentator] Wimbledon hosting Watford
in the FA Cup quarterfinals.
[crowd groans]
[commentator 2] Dear oh dear. Jones arrived in time for the replay.
Foul by Jones.
He's going to be booked.
Vinnie!
[commentator] Fashanu, he's got Gibson up with him,
but he finishes it on his own.
And Wimbledon are in the semi-finals for the first time
of the FA Cup.
This football club has no tradition,
and traditions are built on experiences like today.
Well, now for our second FA Cup semi-final
between Wimbledon and Luton Town.
[commentator] The Dons, now just one step away from Wembley.
I'm not sure anyone could have predicted this.
Jones, poised for another massive throw.
Cork… Oh yes!
It's little Wise.
[crowd cheering]
It's a magic moment for the club
who only five years ago came out of the Fourth Division.
What a fairy tale!
That takes Vinnie Jones to Wembley.
Now there's a thought to conjure with.
[Jones] Ever since I was a kid, the only dream that I've ever had
was to play at Wembley and win the FA Cup.
[music fades]
Now it's happening.
[male reporter 1] Good afternoon. Welcome to a glorious day
here at Wembley
for a real David and Goliath FA Cup Final.
Liverpool, searching for their second league and cup double in only two years,
cast of course, as Goliath.
And playing David, well, Wimbledon, the homely little club,
who in only ten years have defied logic by smashing their way
from non-league football to the First Division
and now here to Wembley.
[indistinct chanting]
[male reporter 2] The FA Cup Final is one of fascinating contrasts.
The current Liverpool line-up is arguably the greatest club we've seen.
As far as Wimbledon is concerned,
I mean, everybody wrote them off this morning in the papers.
They're saying that football needs to triumph and that Liverpool should win.
Well, the pressure's all on us.
We've got to go and win.4/1 on.
If I was a betting man, I wouldn't even have a go at that price.
But certainly if we play to our potential, then we've got a chance.
We're trying to find a Wimbledon supporter along the way.
-[laughing] -Can't seem to see any.
That's causing us concern for the kick-off.
[crowd cheering]
[Jones] We had to show
that we weren't intimidated by the big names, you know what I mean?
We got to smash them early. We had to set the precedent.
[male reporter 3] Steve McMahon had a marvelous season in midfield,
a key player today in the Liverpool side.
[Jones] If you shoot the general,
how's his troops going to react?
[reporter 4] Steve McMahon against Vinnie Jones,
that really whets the appetite.
Well, let's hope that we can do everyone justice.
I think everyone's looking forward to the confrontation.
None more so than meself.
[reporter 4] What about you? What about the game today?
Yeah…
There'll be plenty of that going on.
[somber music plays]
I'm gonna fucking smash McMahon.
[dramatic music playing]
[crowd cheering]
[announcer 1] Vinnie's got to be on his best behavior because…
The whole country, the world's looking at him.
[announcer 2] Well, he is what he is. He's a non-league player.
That means he's going to battle.
He's got no respect for anybody,
and he's going to make sure that he shows it this afternoon.
[Jones] Me and the lads planned the tackle beforehand.
Do it early.
The referee will not have the bollocks to send me off.
And that was the gamble.
[crowd shouting]
[commentator] Liverpool get us underway, attacking the goal to our right.
[Jones] The lads are looking at me like, "Go on, then."
And I could see it opening up.
[crowd cheering]
Bang!
Oh, fucking… I did get him.
[crowd booing]
[commentator 1] He really set about McMahon there,
and right under the eyes of the referee.
[tense music playing]
[Jones] I think we all started looking around,
and believing.
[crowd cheering]
[commentator 1] The ball might come to Houghton.
Is it there?
-No, it's not! Incredible… -[crowd groans]
Vinnie Jones puts it away!
[Jones] And the more that they sort of slumped,
the more bigger we got.
[commentator 2] And Wimbledon may well thrive on a free kick in this position.
-[commentator 1] And it's in there! -[crowd cheering]
Well, Sanchez has put Wimbledon ahead!
Yidaho! Yidaho!
[commentator 1] There goes the half-time whistle.
And in many ways a remarkable first half.
Have they gone some way
towards spoiling Liverpool's prospects of a second double?
Well, if football was predictable, we wouldn't bother to watch it.
[commentator 1] And Jones is going to get himself into trouble here.
Jones and McMahon.
When you're fighting for every scrap, it's hard.
[commentator 1] Here's Jones.
[Jones] Wembley's like a big sponge.
And it drains every ounce out of you.
[commentator 1] He might score here.
Penalty!
Goodyear on Aldridge.
And here we have high drama
because never has a penalty been missed in the FA Cup Final at Wembley.
It looks a really tough decision.
But what it does, it gives Aldridge, who's scored 11 times
from the penalty spot this season, and is 29,
the chance to bring Liverpool level.
-Saved brilliantly by Beasant! -[crowd cheering]
Amazing!
By my watch, there's still 20 seconds to go.
Barnes plays it in, Vinnie Jones gets it away.
Oh, the tension here!
He's checked with both linesmen.
-Sanchez missed a kick. -[whistle blows]
There is the final whistle!
The Crazy Gang have beaten the Culture Club.
And Vinnie Jones will not hang back on the celebrations.
-[camera clicks] -[cheering fades out]
My heart… heart exploded.
[cheering]
[commentator 1] It's a weird and wonderful world
if you come from Wimbledon.
They've won the FA Cup.
[Jones] You're the king of the world
at that moment.
[emphatic music playing]
And then I remember Gouldy getting us.
"Slow down. Slow down."
"When you get round to there, it's over."
"It's over."
[commentator 1] Vinnie Jones will be a hard man to control at this moment,
I'll tell you.
[crowd shouting]
Look at Vinnie Jones. [chuckles]
[Jones] I think my life really changed that day.
[music fades]
And it was like, "Wow, now we're somebody."
We was told it was going to be a battle for the midfield.
But there were another nine players out there, you know…
It's just a brilliant day. I'm just happy for the lads.
I hope the lads are watching in the pubs.
You've got one or two scars over here.
-His girlfriend gave him that. -Yeah, you should see the other boys.
[camera clicks]
[Jones] We've all got an ego.
Some of us, it's quite small.
Some of us, it's big.
Mine's fucking massive. He's a big bastard.
-[horns blaring] -[dramatic music playing]
After the Cup Final, the fucking thing was running riot
and getting bigger and bigger.
[blows raspberries]
You know what I mean?
[horns blaring]
Who didn't want to be famous?
I've won the FA Cup, mate, in front of a hundred thousand people.
Shall we talk about that?
[camera clicks]
[Fashanu] I said to Jonesy,
"Now you're somebody that everybody wants to see."
"People want to see what you're wearing."
[camera clicking]
"People want to see the car you drive."
"And now you've got this wonderful, strong reputation."
"This is what we want to see."
Put your hands over your private parts, and welcome Vinnie Jones!
-[applause] -[jazz music playing]
[Jones] The show at the time… The A-listers of Hollywood were on Wogan.
And I got invited on that on a Friday night.
That kind of blew my mind a little bit.
I've come up from being one of the lads into something
where people recognize me now when I walk down the street.
Which is something which even now, really, I'm still not understanding.
Would you say you had it tough coming up?
Yeah, I think it's a Cinderella story, you know.
-You've seen the film… -Cinderella is pushing it a bit…
[audience laughs]
Are you proud of that reputation as a hard man?
No, I don't think it's a question of being proud of it.
Footballers are not perfect,
and sometimes things get overheated and situations happen.
-[dramatic music playing] -[clapping]
[Fashanu] The next year, on the football pitch, things changed.
"We don't want to see you now tackling like any normal person."
"We want to see you starting at the neck, and finishing at the ankles."
"Because this is what we've heard you do, Jonesy."
"Oh, yes."
[commentator] This really could go either way.
Jones, with a lunge.
It's his reputation, isn't it? It's his reputation.
But he's got to know, "Don't step over that fence."
[commentator] Stevens and Fashanu…
Oh, and in goes Vinnie Jones!
And what on earth is he getting involved in that for?
[man] The tackle on Gary Stevens
ended with the Spurs man nursing a serious knee injury.
[pundit] It was a bit of a horrendous tackle.
And Vinnie does tackle late, you can't argue with that.
I never set out to hurt you, break your legs.
Not at all.
I was a tough player. Weren't a dirty player.
Fucking liked a tackle.
[commentator] Sharp…
And Vinnie Jones came back.
And that wasn't a very bright tackle.
And now, Jones and Ratcliffe squaring up.
Ratcliffe left holding his head…
but Jones, with a reputation that will always work against him,
he's off.
Vinnie Jones sent off.
That'll be the headlines in the papers tomorrow.
[Morgan] I mean, Vinnie was acting the big man now at Wimbledon.
And his violent behavior on the pitch was escalating.
Which we didn't care about. It was all great copy.
Vinnie, is it all right if I just ask you one or two questions? It won't be long.
What do you think about people saying that you should be banned from football?
Any opinion on that?
Suddenly the television camera is running after you.
You're not running after the television camera.
Is that as bad as the press made out? Here's your boss now.
-Who are you? -I'm from LWT.
We're just having a chat with Vinnie.
You're… you're not allowed to film here. This is private…
You're in this pantomime world, and you just want to come out of it.
You're being sucked into it. Being sucked in, sucked in,
and finally you just got to break out of it.
[commentator] The star attraction, villainous Vinnie Jones.
Or should that be vilified Vinnie?
His dismissal at Everton a week ago brought a wave of overreaction.
His fans' response today, predictable.
I don't want this anymore.
I want to be a footballer. I was a good player.
[crowd chanting]
[commentator] After another controversial season,
rumors are swirling
that Wimbledon's Vinnie Jones may be looking for a fresh start
with another club.
[reporter] Well, one man who might be able to give us some insight
is a gentleman who's guided the financial fortunes of Wimbledon,
the man who owns the club, Sam Hammam.
What's going to happen now? To Vinnie Jones and to the football club?
Vinnie Jones in our book is all right.
And I can't say that we stand behind him, or alongside of him.
I stand in front of him, and nobody's going to touch Vinnie Jones,
except me, when he's in the wrong.
I went to see Sam round his house,
and I said, "You've got to let me go, Sam."
He said, "Not in a million years."
[male producer] Why do you think he wanted to leave in that moment?
Well, to start with,
he probably was going to make ten times the money!
Look, one thing Vinnie loves…
Vinnie loves the old dosh. He loves dosh.
You put money… I tell you. He understands money.
He knows money, this guy.
And he must have just decided, there and then.
He said, "Jonesy, boy."
"If this happens, it happens now."
Well, Leeds came in.
He wanted to go to Leeds.
Of course, I…
I wanted him to stay. I mean, Vinnie is part of me.
-[camera clicks] -[somber music playing]
At that time, I thought, for Vinnie to be successful at another club…
Zero chance.
[jubilant music playing]
[male reporter] Sleeping giants Leeds United are bidding
to get back to the top of English football.
[Jones] Going to Leeds, there was so much hype.
Yes, the club had fallen into the Second Division,
but we were at the top end trying to win the league.
[indistinct shouting]
Come on! Put it up them. Early doors. Come on!
[Jones] I wanted to prove a few people wrong.
Show them that I was just more than the bad boy or a hard man, or whatever.
Let's play football. Let's play.
[commentator] In comes Vinnie Jones!
[crowd cheering]
Vinnie Jones…
It's a fabulous goal!
And the Elland Road faithful have got a new hero.
I didn't have to be an animal anymore.
It's a total different feeling.
And it's a total different confidence as a player.
You've not been sent off at Leeds, have you, once?
Been booked once.
Well, I mean, that's neither here nor there, is it? A booking…
[commentator] And now Jones arriving!
[crowd cheering]
There it is. That's it!
Leeds United, back in the big time.
They've won promotion to the top flight.
[singing]
[Jones] That season with Leeds was magnificent.
[singing indistinctly]
I thought I was a lifer.
But then, of course, it didn't last too long.
[music fades out]
We got promoted.
And then the manager, Howard Wilkinson, brought in some new players.
He'd left me out and left me out.
The Leeds fans going, "Vinnie, what's going on?" And I didn't know.
I don't handle rejection very well, you know?
And I was a wounded animal, and I was backed up against a wall.
And I leap before I look over the edge.
The region's best known and most controversial footballer, Vinnie Jones,
dramatically switched clubs today from Leeds United to their archrivals,
Sheffield United.
Now, is this the quickest foul in football?
[commentator] The referee blows.
One, two, three, and he's down.
Gazza is down!
Vinnie has Gazza down.
[Jones] I did a season at Sheffield United.
I'd done a year at Chelsea.
[commentator] Jones, lunging in!
And I think he's broken his own record for the fastest booking ever.
Totally a gun for hire. I was totally a gun for hire.
Just to check, you're still with Chelsea?
-Yeah. -You've been hopping around quickly.
You've been through a lot of teams recently.
Wanted to check you're still with the same one this morning.
[audience laughs]
[Jones] And I get a phone call from Chelsea.
"We've accepted an offer from Wimbledon."
"You can go and talk to them."
I was like, "Eh?"
[light guitar music playing]
[reporter 1] Since Vinnie was with Wimbledon,
they've moved out of Plough Lane, to discover the joys of ground sharing,
sold most of the original members of the Crazy Gang,
and been bottom of the Premier League.
[reporter 2] Joe Kinnear is now being given the job
of reviving the club's interests
and winning back the fans who have left them in their droves.
Money's been made available to me.
And so now I've just got to go out and get the players
where I think we need to improve the side, and go back again to what we're good at.
Joe needed to get some of the Crazy Gang back.
I was such a big character at the club
that I don't think they knew how to replace me.
I've got to come home. I've got to come back.
Former don, Vinnie Jones,
returned to Wimbledon from Chelsea today for 700,000 pounds,
three years after leaving the club
where he made his first marks in professional football.
[dramatic music playing]
[Fashanu] Great to have the madman back. We missed him, you know?
We've lost one or two points where we could…
If we had a bit more meat in the middle we'd have got good results.
I always wanted to see Vinnie coming back.
But equally at the same time,
I was actually cross with Vinnie because I felt that he abandoned us.
But when we were able to calm down,
we realized we were all goddamn friends.
You need people to be with you in the trenches when the going gets tough.
This is what Wimbledon's ethos was.
With Wimbledon, he was at home.
He just came back to his family.
The one-time bad boy of soccer returns to Wimbledon,
he says, an older and wiser player.
Right. An extract from my second spell at Wimbledon,
from the middle pages.
"Because of my reputation, any little thing I do in a game,
or even off the pitch, is going to make headlines."
"And I have to accept that."
"I know that I did some stupid things when I first came into the game."
"But I was young and naive."
"Wimbledon fans will be seeing a different player."
And then…
That was against Blackburn,
my home debut on my return.
And I think I lasted about 30 minutes and got sent off.
[crowd murmuring]
[commentator] Vinnie Jones seemed to lash out.
[tense music playing]
And Martin Bodenham, the referee, shows a red card to Vinnie Jones!
[crowd shouting]
I'm like, "Fuck me."
[commentator] What is it about Vinnie Jones and Wimbledon
that brings out the worst in him?
I was just going back to… being a caveman again.
[whistle blows]
"Well, this is easy enough. This is what I'm good at."
And that's what I keep getting asked to do.
[whistle blows]
[crowd groans]
[whistle blows]
You kind of get in the boat,
and you pick an oar up, and you start rowing, don't you?
[whistle blows]
[Jones] I got back into it.
[whistle blows]
We started winning.
[commentator] Goal by Jones.
[cheering]
It doesn't matter, as long as you win!
[interviewer] Have you changed as a person of late?
I don't know anyone that can change their character.
Can people change their characters?
How do you change your character? I'm not going to change my character.
[crowd chanting] Wimbledon! Wimbledon!
[Jones] They need someone to be controversial.
And I, you know, I go…
I go into things
like a bull in a china shop with my eyes closed a lot of times,
and it makes me controversial.
[mysterious music playing]
[Jones] I got a phone call from a TV producer.
"Do you want to do an interview for a video called Soccer's Hard Men?"
"We just want to talk about all these players, so-called 'hard men.'"
He said, "It'll take 20 minutes."
[narrator] Your guide to the men of grit and guile
is today's self-confessed creator of havoc,
Vinnie Jones.
[Jones] We'd been at the pub all day, and I'm pretty pissed.
And I'm young, and I'm honest,
and I don't give a fuck 'cause I want to get back to the pub.
So I told them a load of shit that I knew they wanted to hear.
One of the oldest ones in the book is,
you know, going up for the header with the elbow out,
giving your opponent a nice lump behind the ear.
Pick him up under the arms and grab the hairs under the arms.
They scream. You say, "Ref, it's him. It ain't me!"
They poke you in the eye when you're not looking,
or when the ball's up the field, center-half lays out the center-forward.
Grab them by the bollocks and just squeeze them by the bollocks.
Follow down with your studs on the back of his Achilles, down the calf.
That's always a nice one.
Okay, thanks a lot. Boom, boom.
That was it.
These sorts of things do happen, and it's no good saying they don't.
[Jones] I'd forgot about it.
Then all of a sudden,
the bomb goes off one day. Boom!
The Football Association is to consider laying a charge of misconduct
against the Wimbledon player Vinnie Jones,
for his part in a new video called Soccer's Hard Men.
[tense, dramatic music playing]
[reporter 1] Vinnie Jones, who earned the nickname Psycho,
has frequently fallen foul of football's disciplinary code.
This latest charge was caused by his talking
about football's dirty tricks.
A charge of misconduct looks more than possible.
A fine, or more likely suspension, could follow.
It's on the news. It's on the one o'clock BBC News.
Oh my God, it's like I was a fugitive on the run.
I think it's the video nasty that football could do without.
Any professional footballer needs to set the best possible example.
To try and show people how to do this sly, cynical fouling
and say you're proud of this because this is what you do,
is shocking for the game.
This sort of video and behavior is unacceptable.
[reporter 2] Wimbledon colleague, John Fashanu, organizing the statement…
The damage limitation exercise got underway.
I was very angry.
I was very pissed off.
Because that's my brother. That's my soulmate.
That's my very good friend.
Did they pick on Vinnie?
Very simple. Yes.
They're blowing it out of proportion, which we all know.
If you forget about that, he's been a good role model for kids.
I've said some things on there which have upset a lot of people.
You know, it's a very regrettable thing I've done.
Every hour it was getting worse and worse and worse.
The Wimbledon footballer Vinnie Jones
has been fined a record 20,000 pounds
for taking part in a video about dirty play.
Jones also received a six-month ban, suspended for three years,
at today's FA hearing, for bringing the game into disrepute.
And I started panicking.
[indistinct chatter]
I ain't got 20 grand for a start.
What am I gonna do?
[indistinct shouting]
[interviewer] What are we going to do, you think now, about your image, Vinnie?
Because this has cost you a lot of money, hasn't it?
-Yeah. -You are gonna turn over a new leaf now?
They've said they don't want to see you at the Football Association anymore.
They don't want to see you there at the disciplinary hearings.
[tape clicks]
Look, I'll tell you something…
People who make it to the top
mostly are naughty people.
They have a naughty streak.
[tape rewinding]
I don't know. You always have a bit of banter on the field
with the referees and with the other players.
Banter with the referees?
[audience laughs]
I used the other word in my video and got very severely dealt with.
[audience clapping]
[interviewer laughing]
[Hammam] He crossed a certain line,
and he got fined for it.
But it is true. All publicity is good publicity.
[dramatic music playing]
[Jones] The video was a piece of shit.
But everything's dramatized to draw viewers or to draw readers,
or whatever it is.
Makes you a bigger, bigger, bigger celebrity, don't it?
[Fashanu] Oh, he loved it. He loved the publicity!
The more people know you, the more money you make.
[music fades out]
I told Jonesy, "We're going for it."
I said, "I'm gonna make you a star."
[audience cheering]
[audience clapping]
I was already into television, doing Gladiators,
one of the biggest shows in the world.
So it's no wonder 14 million of you tuned in to watch this show.
I said, "Vinnie, you've got a great chance."
"You're a hard motherfucker. You're a hard guy."
"And you are good at being what you portray."
Will you please give a very warm welcome to Vinnie Jones!
[audience cheering]
[Fashanu] Come on, guys!
[Jones] All of a sudden, I was this celebrity hard man.
And I thought,
"This could be a great move for me here."
"Hold on a minute."
There's no two ways about it.
You really are the naughty boy of football, aren't you?
Well, I do like to bend the rules every now and then.
Sometimes it helps us to win,
and sometimes we don't get nothing out of it, just a lot of problems.
-You gonna stick to the rules tonight? -Probably not.
[audience laughing]
[male announcer 1] Contenders, ready!
[announcer 2] Here's our Vinnie.
That's a promising start! Throws the ball at Saracen.
[indistinct shouting]
[announcer 2] After winding the Gladiators up, I bet he doesn't score.
I've heard there's a little lad here called the Wolf Man.
[audience cheering]
I haven't seen him yet, I think he's hiding in the toilets.
[Fashanu laughing] Who fights Wolf Man?
Wolf Man eats people alive!
-[audience cheering] -[indistinct shouting]
[announcer 2] Hello? Where's Vinnie off to?
Vinnie Jones is taking on the Wolf!
[crowd shouting]
[Fashanu] I told Jonesy,
"Calm down, Jonesy. Hey, we're showbiz, man."
You scored three points.
[audience cheering]
Three?!
[Jones] Playing the tough guy, playing the villain…
Yeah, I played up to it. I enjoyed it.
Now, they was clapping and laughing along with me.
This is Vinnie, Vinnie…
With my Wooly Bully!
-[upbeat music playing] -[audience cheering]
Wooly bully.
[Morgan] Throughout his career, Vinnie had never really had the incentive to change.
♪ Yeah, dawg, yeah, dawg ♪
Britain loves a bad boy. Always has done, always will do.
There will be non-Wimbledon people who say, "That guy is just a thug."
What would you say to that?
Where's their addresses?
[audience laughing]
[commentator] Pulled back for Jones…
And Wimbledon are level!
Give us your hardest look in there.
Hardest look.
-[puppet] Ooh! -[presenter] Ah, ah!
[commentator] And Jones getting involved again.
He's at the center of everything today.
-Have you ever played a full game? -[audience laughs]
The thing is, see,
the smart people go into the showers early.
-That's when they're hot. -[audience laughs]
I had two businesses.
I had Vinnie Jones on the field and Vinnie Jones off the field.
Would you like to go into management, when you…
Yeah, sure. At Lloyds Bank or something like that.
[all laughing]
Yeah, I'd like to ask you for a loan!
[all laugh]
That side of it… became bigger than the football.
[dramatic music playing]
Even though football was becoming big business now.
[commentator] Two years after the launch of the Premier League,
football's revolution continues apace.
And while the big clubs are splashing the cash like never before,
the chasing pack are struggling to keep up.
[Hammam] The money was more, and the level far higher.
So we had to sign so many players.
I mean, we were reinventing a team.
[Fashanu] "Yeah, Jonesy, we're the gang members!"
That had now gone.
Because the truth was that there were some enormous changes.
[Jones] In the old days, after training,
you'd expect there to be two or three pints waiting for you, you know?
Give me the word, Fash.
Just give me the word.
[Jones] "No, that's not for us."
"We want to be in the gym after training, not down the pub."
We had our team photo,
and I said, "Let's all shave our heads, go skinhead."
Well, a lot of them didn't want to.
You know, and it's like, where's the team spirit in that?
They won't be laughing when they see me start serving.
Ace!
[Jones] And I thought it was an absolute load of bollocks.
And I wanted to get back to that era.
[man] Hey, Vinnie.
[Jones] The original Crazy Gang, you know.
[music fades]
[tense music playing]
[announcer] It's the biggest game of the lot. Our live FA Cup tie.
It's Wimbledon against the cup favorites, Manchester United.
Manchester United are favorites to win the lot this season,
but first they need to win today.
Our guest today, Bobby Gould, who won the cup with Wimbledon back in 1988.
The gulf between the two sides couldn't be greater.
How should they approach this task?
Only one man that will dictate that, and that's Vinnie Jones.
[upbeat music playing]
[Jones] I slept all right on Friday night, knowing I'm playing Man United,
because that's what you wanna be a footballer for.
No good shitting yourself because it's Man United.
It's like me with the Cup Final with McMahon.
I'm going to get a tackle in. Bang!
[player] Fucking get amongst it!
Get amongst it, eh?
[Jones] Who do you stop?
Keane. Or Cantona.
The bigger you are, the harder you'll fall.
[crowd cheering]
[commentator 1] Everybody's talking about Vinnie Jones and Eric Cantona today.
[commentator 2] But I think Vinnie Jones will make sure
that he doesn't get involved in any skirmishes
that might lead to him being booked or anything.
People have made a lot of Vinnie Jones, but he wants to be a good competitor.
[commentator 1] This is Giggs.
-Keane again. -[whistle blows]
And that was a bad challenge by Jones.
Fashanu didn't know where it was then either…
And that's a two-footed challenge by Fashanu.
I'm surprised the referee let that go.
And then Vinnie Jones reacts against Keane.
They get so wound up, these Wimbledon players.
[crowd shouting]
And another challenge by Vinnie Jones.
-[whistle blows] -Again, it's just not acceptable.
You can't do things like that on a football pitch.
Referees know about his reputation.
I believe he's saying to him,
"One more challenge like that, and you're off."
I just said, "Bollocks."
"This is the way it is."
Cantona, I'll have some of you, mate. You know what I mean? Let's go.
[commentator 1] Parker for United.
Cantona…
[whistle blows]
Bang! Take it like a man.
Bang!
[commentator 1] Deserves to be cautioned. It's a totally unacceptable challenge.
Now how does he react? That's what it was all about.
[commentator 2] Kanchelskis coming in. Elkin's header only goes to Cantona.
-[crowd cheering] -Glorious goal!
Two minutes before half-time, and what can you do about that?
Oof.
Hold on a minute.
[commentator 1] And that’s another.
[crowd cheering]
It’s two-nil.
[cheering fades out]
[hoarsely] Fuck!
Fuck!
[commentator 1] Irwin again, brilliant play. Brilliant from Irwin.
-What a magnificent goal that was! -[crowd cheering]
[Jones] That was when it started changing.
There's a gap now.
[interviewer] How long into today's game
did you think you were still in with a chance?
In the warm-up, I think. [laughs]
I think it was quite even in the warm-up.
And after that, it sort of went haywire.
Vinnie, he's got to grow up at some stage.
This is suicidal!
Vinnie, nobody wants to see it. Not even his ex-manager.
The whole concept of being a hard man was changing.
They didn't want us anymore.
They wanted to wash their hands,
you know, of us now, our type of football.
[crowd chanting]
[Jones] The fucking suits who ran the game wanted to get rid of me.
Definitely, I was the target.
[commentator] That is horribly late from Jones…
And Vinnie Jones sees red!
Whilst other aspects of the game change, Jones stays resolutely the same.
Referees have got to have more common sense.
Obviously, they're not allowed to have common sense, so…
It's only the game that's going to lose.
[female reporter] The scuffle between Liverpool's Stan Collymore
and Wimbledon's Andy Thorn
attracted a few more players into the fray,
including Wimbledon captain Vinnie Jones.
[TV host] Vinnie sent off again.
But why does he get involved in those things?
Well, because it's the nature of the man, I'm afraid.
Why is he getting involved?
He's giving the referee the opportunity to victimize him.
[interviewer] Do you think it's your reputation?
It's got to be something
because there was nine players, and I get sent off.
So, I won't try and split up anything anymore,
I know that much.
The misunderstood Vinnie Jones.
[clapping]
[Jones] I was born on this earth
to be a footballer.
Before you know it, you can become a cartoon character.
[crowd laughing]
But there's a stage that comes, and then you go,
"I can't do this anymore."
"I just want to play my football." You know?
[crowd cheering]
[commentator] It's the 10th time in his career
that Vinnie Jones has taken an early bath.
Too late, mate.
[crowd] Vinnie Jones is a wanker!
[Jones] And I hated it.
Enough.
-Vincent Jones was reckless today. -Fuck off.
-It's the nature of the man. -Fuck you.
[Gould] He's got to grow up at some stage.
This is suicidal!
It was an absolute load of bollocks.
[crowd exclaiming]
Fuck off.
[shouting]
[crowd exclaiming]
Fuck this.
Fuck the world.
[crowd] Let's all laugh at Vinnie! Let's all laugh at Vinnie! Na, na, na, na.
[music peaks and halts]
[Jones] And the way to drown it
was not going to see a psychologist or psychiatrist,
it was going to the pub.
Obviously, everybody knows that we're all off after here, and
we're going to cause major bollocks in Watford.
[pub chatter and music]
[Jones] Most of us have a drink, and now suddenly,
we think we're the funniest, we're the toughest,
we think we're the strongest, the tallest, and all that.
"Fuck it, have a drink. Yeah. Have a few more."
This is how I was thinking, with the booze.
Yeah, arrest me. Arrest me, son.
All right, I just… I'd just like…
I'd just like to welcome Dano to the party.
We just got… Fash knows. Fash… we talk the talk…
[Fashanu] You know, the Jones boy.
He could switch.
When he's nice, he's bloody nice.
When he switches…
Run.
[phone ringing]
[Morgan] When I became editor of the News of the World,
I thought, Vinnie Jones would be a perfect columnist for us.
'Cause he's a straight talker.
He's a big puncher, verbally. News of the World readers loved him.
[tense music playing]
I had a contract that was twice as much as my yearly salary playing football,
you know, for eight stories a year.
Bang, bang. Thanks very much.
[commentator] Well, Dublin's fair city has had some blustery weather,
some squally showers…
[Morgan] England were playing the Republic of Ireland, in Ireland.
So I've sent Vinnie over
to cover the match and report on what he saw.
[crowd shouting]
[commentator] There's, I'm afraid to say, a disturbance…
And then there was a riot.
A group called Combat 18, a very far right group of thugs.
And they were horrific scenes.
I thought, what an amazing story.
"What I witnessed at the stadium," by hard man Vinnie.
[phone dialing out]
But we couldn't get hold of him.
And we couldn't get hold of him all night long.
The next morning, I got a call saying, "We have a problem with Vinnie."
"What's the problem?" He said, "He didn't go to the game."
"What?"
[rewinding]
-[Irish music playing] -[cheering]
[Jones] We get to the hotel before the game,
and it's an absolute party.
You didn't even sort of walk in there. You got lifted off your feet, and sort of…
[sputters] You're in it.
I just thought, "Well, I can report on the game,
because I can sit in the bar and watch it, can't I?" [laughs]
"I don't have to be at the game."
[commentator] We're just hearing the announcement
that the game is abandoned.
When's the last time an international game gets abandoned? How's my luck?
I'm having a beer in the hotel.
Before you know it, now…
You're pretty pissed up.
And I'll be totally honest, I don't really know
what was said or what happened because of the booze.
[static crackles]
[Jones] And then the next minute,
I was front page, not the abandoned game.
[tense music playing]
[female reporter] Today's Mirror story is graphic in its description
of how he bit the nose of the reporter.
Fuck!
What have you done?
[reporter] The paper says it was an unprovoked attack.
He got very drunk, and he got into a fracas,
it was described to me, with a guy called Ted Oliver.
And he bit half his nose off.
[male reporter] Vinnie Jones apologized to his victim, but said it was a joke.
It's understandable that Ted is very mad about it.
He said his piece in the paper. Um.
And again, I can only apologize.
[male reporter] The FA says it will investigate the incident
and may take action.
But the Wimbledon chairman is backing his player.
Clearly, Vinnie has not meant any harm.
I could tell that this is not right.
The way he was talking and the way he was behaving.
The alcohol was doing something way out of order.
You know, it affected him much deeper, this one.
-[photographer] Morning, Vinnie. -Morning.
[Jones] Some psychologist or psychiatrist
wrote a big article about me and the Ted Oliver thing.
"Why do you need to keep doing this?"
It wasn't that culture at that time to get somebody to give you help.
And no one turns around and says,
"Let's take you to someone and talk this through."
So I go back to the booze again.
[Jones] I have got a tendency, I know,
that things always seem to go wrong when it's me.
You know, I've come out on the wrong end.
[Morgan] He knew he had dropped the ball.
-All right, chaps? -[man] All right.
I said, "Well, look, you're going to write a big mea culpa,
but I can't promise I'm not gonna fire you."
"Because it will depend how much hotter this gets."
Piers had to sack me, but he didn't tell me, which…
That hurt.
I didn't want to fire him. I loved Vinnie.
Personally, I loved him. Professionally, he was a brilliant columnist.
But I underestimated just how much it got to him.
[Jones] I was on the bed and was just curled up in the…
You know, in like, the baby position.
And I was just curled up like that. And I was like… [sputters]
"Enough."
"Can't keep doing this to people. Can't do it to the family."
So, I thought I'd go for a walk up the wood.
I took the gun.
Walked up the wood, and then…
[tense music playing]
All stupid things go through your head.
[reporter] Footballer Vinnie Jones has been found guilty…
[reporters talk indistinctly]
And the easiest thing to do was just to stop it right there and then.
That would have been it.
And then I…
[puffs] I sort of came round.
It's like being knocked out, I suppose, like in a boxing ring,
and you come round, and there's all the screaming,
the shouting, and it's all muffled and everything else, slow motion…
-And it goes… [whooshes] -[reporters stop]
And you’re kind of back.
And you go, "Right, fuck this."
Fucking get amongst it! Fucking winners, come on!
[commentator] Ardley, second attempt…
Jones!
He's taken that superbly! Wimbledon have the lead.
-Vinnie Jones cracked it past Lukic. -[crowd cheering]
Vinnie's a complex, emotional guy.
[crowd cheering]
But even when he crossed a line, like when he bit Ted Oliver,
the Vinnie Jones hard man show always rolled on.
You know, if you said, "What am I like as a person?"
I can only say to you,
I play football in a manner which I only know,
which my heart tells me to.
And when I'm not in the arena…
I'm just me. I just do what I want.
[crowd cheering]
[male host] If somebody wrote the history of Wimbledon Football Club,
what would they write about you?
[Jones] Hopefully, they'll say one of the great captains,
and a great leader, and typified
the name Wimbledon Football Club.
[crowd chanting]
So therefore, I would prefer to be a legend and not a myth.
[indistinct shouting]
[Jones] I was 32 or 33. Something like that.
And everybody knows football, it's not forever.
You know, it's kind of the old dinosaur,
in a kind of a new age bit, you know what I mean?
It fucks you up and these two rot heads don't know how to get the goals.
[Jones] A journalist once said to me, "When you finish,
you'll end up at fucking Wealdstone, you will."
Back to non-league, and that.
To this day, that stuck in my head.
And the worries of being nobody.
How am I going to earn this much money?
Doing what?
[phone ringing]
Hello?
Yeah, who is it?
[Jones] And then I got a phone call.
"Would you do a couple of days on this movie as a cameo role?"
What's this about you being a movie star or going into acting or something?
Yeah, I'm just keeping strings to my bow, you know.
There's a chance for me to be in a film.
-[host] Not a Noël Coward play? -No, it's about the East End of London.
It's called Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels.
Meet Big Chris, a serious caricature. Chris comes in the shape of Vinnie Jones.
[Ritchie] It's his personality I've always rather admired.
And I just like the baggage that he brings to the party.
I've seen him on the television
looking somewhat perturbed and aggravated sometimes,
and I think he looks very menacing when he wants to.
[suspenseful music playing]
You got something there for me, have you?
Come on. Chop, chop.
Smashing.
Guy saw what everybody else saw.
[man] Sound's rolling!
Let's say the football pitch is the stage. They saw this madman on the stage.
-[Ritchie] Action! -You got something there for me?
Come on.
Chop, chop.
[Ritchie] Cut.
[female reporter] He might not be Richard Gere, but co-stars are impressed.
Vinnie, I've had enough of Vinnie. I'll tell you why.
I've been working for ten years.
Vinnie walks on and is stealing everyone's lines.
He wants your bar.
And?
You want me to draw you a picture?
[music crescendoes and stops]
Now, I was with the writer yesterday.
He's saying to me, they think this film's going to be a blast.
It's gonna be the business.
-[interviewer] You'll be an actor? -Yeah.
Now, if that goes well,
then I could become a very rich lad.
If that goes well.
[majestic music playing]
[indistinct chatter]
[female reporter] The celebrity spotters have come to see a new type of star.
The footballer turned actor,
who is determined to make a name for himself in another field.
[emphatic music playing]
[Morgan] It turned out he had an absolutely brilliant aptitude
for looking like a villain on screen.
-I've got some bad news for you, John. -What the fuck?
Mind your language in front of the boy.
Jesus Christ!
That includes blasphemy as well.
And he had timing. He had acting chops…
You all right, mate?
Cheeky bastard!
And it was as big a surprise probably to him
as it was to everybody else.
[female reporter] Ewan, what did you think about the film?
I think it's a fucking brilliant… It's a brilliant film.
-[reporter] And Vinnie's performance? -Vinnie is really good in it!
He's really, really good in it. I'm, uh… pleasantly surprised.
[reporter] What was it like, the people in the cinema reacting to your film?
It was bigger than the normal Wimbledon crowd. Put it that way.
-[reporter] What did you think of Vinnie? -I love Jonesy. Sensational.
Better than I expected.
-[reporter] And the film? -And the film? Yeah, the film! Fantastic.
The movie was fantastic. It was great.
That was one of his first movies.
I forget what it was called now… One of the first ones.
Boy, when he started, he started with a bang.
In the first week of its release in Great Britain, it's taken £1.6 million!
[cheering and applause]
And it's British!
[cheering]
Oh my God.
It turns out to be the biggest British movie in years.
And we all came back… Most of us came back for Snatch.
And then they brought Brad Pitt on…
[female reporter] You get on well with Vinnie Jones?
He's a class act! He's original. You should be good to him.
[indistinct chatter]
You know, I found another tribe, um, and loved it.
You got the sports people
and people that write on a Monday morning about,
you know, "You beat Man United, yeah, but Wimbledon are crap."
I've had this constantly for 12 years.
Now, the other side of it is, you know,
the people that are involved with movies and that.
And, you know, they seem to like me.
Ultimately,
my football career is over.
I'm thinking of going to Hollywood! [laughs]
[dramatic music playing]
[Jonathan Ross] Vinnie Jones has just moved into the big league,
clinching a deal which will make him a Hollywood player.
I know I've got that screen presence.
And I had that presence on the football field.
I just transferred it to the movies, really.
When it's your scene, it's match day. It's three o'clock, you know?
Roll sound, action. Bang!
[grunting]
Thanks.
[Morgan] Vinnie was living the complete dream.
The great thing was he loved it.
He wanted it all.
[Jones] When you actually drive up to the house,
it don't look all that.
But when you come in, everybody goes, "Oh my God, what's going on here?"
Jack Nicholson's at the top of the road. Bruce Springsteen, Warren Beatty…
They're all there.
[Jones] I looked around and thought, "How did I get here?"
Because if you looked at the TV all them years ago,
you'd go, "This is insane!"
-[overlapping reporters] Vinnie Jones… -[shouts]
And I sit here now before you, and I still say it's fucking insane!
Fucking hell.
Over the years, look,
I've taken as many knocks as I've given.
But I've grabbed every opportunity that's come my way.
Be someone.
Make your mark.
I've made my mark.
[football crowd chanting]
[dramatic Western-style music playing]
[music fades out gradually]