It’s crazy what celebrities will admit on late night television.
Appearing on The Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon on Wednesday night, former New York Yankees star Derek Jeter participated in the segment called “True Confessions,” where the host and his two guests take turns telling one story from their life that the other two must ask questions about and then guess whether the story is true or false.
Tonight’s segment started with Jeter regaling Fallon and music star Rita Ora, but they wrongly agreed that he was lying.
The story that the baseball Hall of Famer had to explain was that he once wore a thong in front of thousands of people. Jimmy and Rita didn’t buy it and asked if it was his own line of underwear, figuring that he would only do such a thing to promote his own activewear. It should be noted that Jeter’s brand, called Greatness Wins, is fairly new.
No matter the questions they asked nor the answers Jeter gave, Fallon and Ora agreed that Derek was not telling the truth, but the former shortstop said that the story was indeed true. That’s when he offered a more complete explanation.
The ex-Yankee captain said that, in 2002, a teammate of his (whom he left unnamed) “always had a gold thong hanging from his locker.” The teammate told Jeter that he would wear it if he ever went through a bad streak and it would help him get a hit. He guaranteed that the golden thong magic would always work, but Jeter just thought he was crazy.
He then explained that in 2004 he was experiencing the worst offensive slump of his career and his teammate kept pointing to the thong, encouraging him each day to try it. Then, one day, a desperate Jeter caved in.
“Finally, I wore the thong but it wasn’t thong to skin, I had shorts on underneath. I put the thong on over the shorts.” What happened when he went to bat in his inaugural thong game? As Jeter quickly tells it, “First pitch – home run.”
As the segment continued with Fallon and Ora telling their respective stories, Jeter never revealed whether or not it was a one-day thong affair or if he kept his golden streak going for more games. However, he did add one tidbit that’s difficult to disagree with when he told Fallon his thoughts about the segment by saying, “I’m going to ultimately regret playing this game.”
