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Miguel Herrera Fired After Allegedly Punching Journalist and Challenging Him to a Fight

Miguel Herrera punched a Mexican journalist and challenged him to a fight at a Philadelphia airport.

Miguel Herrera, pictured above at some point along the way in morphing from Bruce Banner to the Incredible Hulk, reportedly punched a Mexican journalist in a Philadelphia airport and challenged him to a fight. And now, days after Herrera's side beat Jamaica 3-1 to win the Gold Cup, he has been fired as head coach of the Mexican National Team.

.@espnsutcliffe confirming Miguel Herrera is out as Mexico national team coach. https://t.co/1iAIoV45NX
— ESPN Tri (@ESPNFCtri) July 28, 2015

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That October playoff for a berth in the Confederations Cup matchup with the United States just got even more interesting.

Herrera saw TV Azteca's Christian Martinoli in line at a security checkpoint and evidently sucker-punched him in the neck. Martinoli has been critical of the Mexican national team of late, as has every other person in the world not carrying around whistles and color-coded cards, but Herrera (and his daughter) decided to take out his aggression on Martinoli.

El Tri looked nothing like a Gold Cup favorite through most of the tournament, and if not for some very questionable officiating, they would not have been in a position to return to form and soundly beat Jamaica in the Final. Herrera's job was already in question leading up to the Final and he threw away whatever goodwill may have been recovered with the win.

Martinoli spoke with AS Mexico and offered this account, which has been run through Google translate:

"I checked with Luis Garcia, I'm heading for safety, is reaching people of Mexican National Team and then tell Luis 'Get in front of me', I bowed my head to see the cell and that felt the blow to the neck.

"Luis I tried to calm, while the daughter pushed me and screamed that it was me in the security line threatened me, challenged me to death several times and said. 'So it will be every time I see you', Christian Martinoli said in an interview with AS Mexico.

Another source consulted by AS Mexico confirmed the events, "Miguel he called and said, 'Let's go down to the same terminal and go out to the street to fix it as it should be', as the daughter of louse also claimed him to Christian martinoli ".

So, basically, Herrera—who is the "louse" mentioned because that is the translation of his nickname "El Piojo"—punched him in the neck as he was looking down at his phone. It doesn't appear anyone was seriously injured in the altercation, but this is a pretty stupid thing to do. We'll never know if winning the Gold Cup would have saved his job.