Aside from the Vinnie Jones grabbing Gazza's family jewels, my favourite football hard man story is more recent, and relates to an Evening With Razor Ruddock event where he was joined by Fabrice Muamba, the Bolton footballer who collapsed with a heart attack in the middle of a PL match.
Muamba spoke about what happened, and what had happened since to his life, and he received a warm round applause from the audience. Razor then rose and thanked both Muamba and the audience. He then went on to tell the audience that he too had had a heart attack during a game, but he had run it off!!!