There's been a lot of talk about firework safety lately, what with the Fourth of July happening, and all this talk about firework safety reminded us of the time Mario Balotelli did not heed the rules of firework safety and shot some fireworks off in his bathroom and lit his house on fire.
Really.
From The Guardian:
Mario Balotelli's remarkable capacity for self-inflicted problems resurfaced on the eve of the Manchester derby when he had to escape from his burning house after a fire caused by letting off fireworks in the bathroom in the early hours of Saturday morning.
That, for those wondering, is not proper bathroom behavior. Or proper fireworks behavior. We're glad it happened, though, because what an amazing story. WHAT A MOMENT.
This was back in 2011 when Balotelli was still with Manchester City and, amazingly, his career has gotten even weirder. Balotelli is currently with Liverpool, who clearly don't want him and are looking to ship him out at the earliest possible date.
Even though his soccer career hasn't gone as planned, Balotelli can at least take comfort in not being the go-to athlete for fireworks jokes anymore, thanks to Jason Pierre-Paul blowing his hand up last summer.
(UPDATE: basketball player Nick Young is the winner of the 2016 Mario Balotelli Award for Athlete Firework Stupidity. Congrats!)
Contact The18 Staff Writer Sam Klomhaus at Klomhaus@The18.com or follow him on Twitter @SamKlomhaus