Keith Hernandez unleashes half-century-old grudge against ‘idiot’ youth football coach

The gloves were off the moment Keith Hernandez found out his talkback button was broken Monday night, with an old youth football coach receiving the brunt of his candor.

The full trio of Gary Cohen, Keith Hernandez and Ron Darling traveled to Georgia this week for what was supposed to be a crucial series between the New York Mets and Atlanta Braves. But with the Mets spending most of the season in last place, fans have resorted to tuning in to see if the booth says anything funny. Thankfully for them, Hernandez usually delivers.

During the sixth inning, Cohen noted Braves catcher Sean Murphy recently returned from a broken finger after hitting his hand on a bat while throwing the ball. Darling referred to it as a “quarterback’s injury,” which Hernandez immediately related to.

Keith Hernandez is holding on to a beef with his youth football coach all these years later 😭 pic.twitter.com/D8sv6LuaBp

— SNY Mets (@SNY_Mets) August 11, 2026

“Coach Bellinus. I’ll never forget him. That idiot,” Hernandez bluntly stated with purpose. The characterization set the rest of the booth into a fit of laughter, with Darling admitting he was expecting kind words for Hernandez’s former coach.

Hernandez went on to claim they ran a drill in which he was the quarterback, and the coach allowed the defensive ends to run into the backfield with no blockers.

“Buddy Papadakis, around 6-foot-3, he came in and he didn’t like me, and I hit my knuckle on his helmet and I broke my knuckle…Buddy was the defensive end. He’s just coming in hard. It was the stupidest drill; I always thought he was a little bit of a sadist, that Bellinus.”

If Hernandez was going to go off on a rant about youth sports, most people probably expected him to rant about it getting too soft. A stupid drill from coach Bellinus, which led to a broken knuckle, has him feeling a different kind of way.

Unfortunately, Buddy Papadakis doesn’t appear to be with us anymore to confirm whether he liked Hernandez or took satisfaction out of the broken knuckle. Hernandez doesn’t know whether his former football coach is still alive, but somebody will probably help find out soon. In the meantime, Hernandez’s youth baseball coaches should be on alert.