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(#16) Travis Henry
- 37
The Fall: Despite being known as "Mr. Florida Football" in his high school and college football careers and making his way to a Pro Bowl in 2002, Travis Henry was never able to fully integrate himself into the world of professional football. Maybe that had something to do with the drug trafficking ring he was a part of.
What Happened After That: Life pretty much imploded for Henry after his arrest in 2008. He was fired from the NFL, and even after copping a plea deal, he still served three years in prison while paying a $4 million fine.
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(#4) Aaron Hernandez
- Dec. at 27
The Fall: Aaron Hernandez was a highly successful football player but ended up in jail for murder. In addition to being charged with a double homicide in 2012, a jury convicted Hernandez of the murder of Odin Lloyd in 2015. Lloyd was a semi-pro football player. Hernandez shot and killed Lloyd in an industrial park about one mile away from Hernandez's house.
What Happened After That: About 90 minutes after Hernandez was arrested, the Patriots cut him loose from their roster and a wave of endorsement deals crashed down around him. CytoSport, Puma, and EA Sports all dropped their endorsements, and the University of Florida removed Hernandez's name and likeness from various locations at its football facilities. For his crime, he was sentenced to life in prison.
On April 19, 2017, guards discovered Hernandez dead in his prison cell. Hernandez had hung himself from a bed sheet earlier in the morning.
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(#13) Ray Rice
- 32
The Fall: Before turning 30, this All-American athlete had already scored one Super Bowl win with the Baltimore Ravens and been invited to three Pro Bowls, but when a video of Rice dragging his then-fiancée Janay Palmer out of an elevator after knocking her out surfaced in 2014, everything went upside-down.
What Happened After That: The Ravens front office immediately issued a statement condemning Rice's actions after the video surfaced, and he was suspended from the first two games of the 2014 season. Afterwards, the Ravens fired Rice from the team and he sued the Ravens for terminating his employment weeks after the NFL levied a two-game suspension.
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(#8) Maria Sharapova
- 28
The Fall: After a 16-year professional tennis career that spawned multiple grand slam victories and grossed millions of dollars in prize money, this Russian tennis star admitted to failing a drug test at the 2016 Australian Open. She said that the drug, meldonium, had been prescribed by a family doctor for "several health issues." She also said she had been taking it for several years and was unaware that it had recently been banned by the International Tennis Federation.
What Happened After That: There was a huge negative reaction to Sharapova in the tennis world, with veteran players like John McEnroe refusing to support her. Nike and Tag Heuer cut ties with the player while Porsche suspended a planned ad campaign.
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(#22) Justin Gatlin
- 37
The Fall: This gold medalist in the 100-meter dash has tested positive for banned substances multiple times, but he somehow continues to be able to represent America in various races. The strangest doping story happened in 2007 when he blamed a masseuse for rubbing a testosterone creme onto his buttocks without his knowledge.
What Happened After That: Even though Gatlin keeps getting caught with wonky substances in his bloodstream, he always seems to work with the investigative committees to get to the bottom of each scandal. In 2006, he received a ban from racing for eight years, although after an appeal it was cut in half. Despite that silver lining, it's still believed that Gatlin gave up millions of dollars in endorsements by maintaining his career of doping.
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(#1) Lance Armstrong
- 47
The Fall: Lance Armstrong was the great American hope for cycling. No one had ever cycled quite like him, and when he overcame cancer to win all of the Tour de Frances, it was inspiring, not just for Americans, but for mankind. But in 2005, after his seventh Tour de France win, a report was released alleging that EPO (an endurance-enhancing drug) was found in Armstrong's blood all the way back in 1999. Armstrong fought this claim until 2012 when he kind of gave up and admitted that he was one of the cyclists leading the charge for doping.
What Happened After That: First, Armstrong lost his endorsements from Nike, then he was stripped of all seven Tour de France wins, and then the International Olympics Committee stripped him of the bronze medal he won at the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney. Following the loss of his medals and endorsements, Armstrong was slapped with a lawsuit by the Justice Department and he had to pay $10 million for what's called an “unparalleled pageant of international perjury, fraud, and conspiracy.”
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About This Tool
Sportsmanship is sacred to every athlete. But it seems that the rules of sportsmanship are only for athletes, their coaches, and even the national team they represent. Over the years, there is never a lack of disgraced athletes who regard sports as a cash cow and a way to create superstars and vicious competition. Prohibited drugs, sexual assault, violence, etc. are all kinds of scandals that have emerged in the sports world in recent years.
Compared with the way the business community treats scandals, sports stars are often punished severely when they are found to have violated the rules, ranging from a temporary suspension to the end of their career. The random tool collected the stories about random 22 disgraced athletes.
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