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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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(#2) Ryan Lochte
- 34
The Fall: After once again winning all of the swimming medals at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio, Ryan Lochte and few other Olympians went out and... something happened? Lochte and his buddies told police and pretty much anyone else who would listen that they were robbed at gunpoint at a convenience store, but when footage of the "robbery" appeared, it just showed a blackout-drunk Lochte and company fighting with a security guard and breaking down a bathroom door.
What Happened After That: Lochte said that he was "110% sorry," but that didn't stop Speedo, Polo Ralph Lauren, Syneron Candela, and Airweave from removing Lochte from their sponsorship roster, costing him a lot of money.
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(#3) O. J. Simpson
- 68
The Fall: O.J. Simpson was one of the greatest all-time running backs in the NFL. He was a two-time All-American, a Heisman Trophy winner, a three-time player of the year, and he was voted the NFL's most valuable player in 1975. Outside of football, he acted in the Naked Gun series and he was a spokesman for Hertz Rent-A-Car, which featured Simpson in adds that said, "Go, Juice Go!" But in 1994, his estranged wife and her friend were found stabbed to death outside of her Brentwood home and Simpson was the primary suspect.
What Happened After That: First of all, Hertz dropped him like a sack of rocks, and then the trial of the century began. The trial went on for over a year, and in that time, the public's view of Simpson changed from a former star athlete to a controlling, lecherous husband. Even though Simpson was acquitted of the murder, he was still found to be liable in a civil case, and then a $1.44 million tax lien was placed on his assets. Somehow, this would be just the beginning of Simpson's legal troubles.
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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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(#5) Mark McGwire
- 55
The Fall: Mark McGwire is known for two things: setting the MLB record for single-season home runs with 70 homers in 1998, and following that up by publicly admitting to using performance-enhancing drugs for the majority of his career in 2010.
What Happened After That: Despite being in the middle of a league-wide doping scandal, McGwire never fully owned up to his drug intake. Even when he admitted to using steroids, he insisted that they were for healthy reasons rather than to increase his home run ability. No matter what the reason, there's always going to be an asterisk next to his home run record.
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(#6) Mike Tyson
- 52
The Fall: Throughout the '80s and early '90s, Mike Tyson was a monster in the ring with an unprecedented career that led to him being considered the undisputed heavyweight champion of the world after knocking out IBF Champion Michael Spinks in 91 seconds in 1988. But in 1991 Tyson was convicted of raping an 18-year-old girl in his hotel room and was sentenced to six years in prison and forced to register as a sex offender.
What Happened After That: The mid-'90s were filled with controversy for Tyson. After he was paroled from prison Tyson returned to boxing, and even though he was performing like usual, the audience wasn't as excited to see him work anymore. After a disastrous fight with Evander Holyfield where Tyson bit off his opponent's ear, his boxing license was revoked by the Nevada State Athletic Commission in a unanimous vote.
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(#7) Michael Vick
- 38
The Fall: Michael Vick was an all-star, rookie-of-the-year quarterback for the Atlanta Falcons who had already played in two Pro Bowls when he was busted for running a dog fighting ring with three other guys in 2007. Vick was brought up on charges that included RICO violations (basically, running a criminal organization) and dog fighting.
What Happened After That: After being found guilty, Vick was sentenced to 23 months in federal prison and forced to pay back $19.97 million to the Atlanta Falcons. Aside from that insane loss of money, Vick lost Nike's endorsement, and a public relations CEO noted that it would be unlikely for Vick to ever receive a major endorsement again. But his conviction didn't end his career; in fact, when he was released in 2009, he signed with the Philadelphia Eagles and has continued to play pro football ever since.
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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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(#9) Tiger Woods
- 43
The Fall: After running circles around the professional golf world for at least a decade, Tiger Woods's infidelity and "sex addiction" caught up with him in 2009 when stories of his extramarital affairs became front page news.
What Happened After That: Following a statement where Woods admitted to infidelity, most of his endorsements dried up and the shareholder loss caused by Woods's affairs was estimated to be between $5 billion and $12 billion.
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(#10) Tonya Harding
- 48
The Fall: Tonya Harding fought her way out of the pre-Portlandia white trash world of Oregon to become one of America's ambassadors of figure skating at the 1992 and 1994 Winter Olympics, and she was the first American to ever complete a triple axle. But then greed got the best of Harding and she and her then-husband, Jeff Gillooly, planned an attack against Harding's nemesis, Nancy Kerrigan. She and Gillooly paid a goon to break Kerrigan's leg, but instead he only managed to bruise her upper thigh.
What Happened After That: Harding's career went down the tubes almost immediately. She failed to medal at the '94 Winter Olympics and was pushed out of competitive skating. Rather than sulk forever about what could have been, Harding put herself out there in the way that only a disgraced figure skater can. She appeared in a Penthouse sex tape, started a band, got into professional wrestling, and even took up boxing on live television where she punched out Paula Jones.
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(#11) Oscar Pistorius
- 32
The Fall: Oscar Pistorius was one of the most inspirational sports stories ever. Before he was even 11 months old, both of his legs were amputated. Despite the impossibilities presented to him, he managed to run in both the Paralympic and Olympic games. But the higher the rise, the greater the fall, and on Valentine's Day in 2013, he shot and killed his girlfriend, South African model Reeva Steenkamp.
What Happened After That: Even though his defense claimed that he had an anxiety disorder and he thought Steenkamp was an intruder, Pistorius was found guilty and sentenced to the hospital wing at the Kgosi Mampuru II jail, where he'll be eligible for parole in 2019. On August 7th, 2016, Pistorius was rushed to a hospital after allegedly slitting his wrists.
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(#12) Roger Clemens
- 56
The Fall: Roger Clemens was somehow one of the best and most disgraced MLB players during his 20+ years as a pitcher. Not only did he take steroids and say that "[he] could care less about the rules," but he also admitted to using the painkiller Vioxx while playing, and having a decade-long affair with deceased country star Mindy McCready that began when she was 15. There was also that whole thing about how he actively tried to bean batters.
What Happened After That: Even if Clemens had never cheated on his wife or tried to hit anyone with a baseball, the steroid allegations would still have hung over him like a black cloud. Sports writers and analysts correctly assumed that he wouldn't be taking on any more endorsements, and while no one explicitly cut ties with the pitcher, most of his endorsements were allowed to lapse.
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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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(#14) Barry Bonds
- 54
The Fall: Bonds was a staple of '90s Major League Baseball. Not only was he a 14-time All-Star, he also won three Hank Aaron Awards and a bevy of other awards, but he was one of the players who was central to the steroid scandal that claimed the careers of Mark McGwire and Jose Canseco. In 2007, prosecutors indicted Bonds on perjury charges as well as obstruction of justice for lying to a federal grand jury.
What Happened After That: Even though Bonds was still knocking balls out of the park in 2007, he was curiously without many endorsements, which some analysts believe cost the player up to $7 million a year.
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(#15) Floyd Landis
- 43
The Fall: Landis is a Tour de France-winning cyclist who was caught doping in 2006 and stripped of his win.
What Happened After That: While Landis's cycling career isn't anything to write home about, his post-doping-allegation life became one of the most important pieces of professional cycling history in the 21st century. After being fired from his team and stripped of his wins, one of his best friends (who was essentially responsible for Landis transitioning from mountain biking to road racing) killed himself because of his knowledge of Landis's doping. Landis even said, "I'm not saying that's the reason he's dead, but without that, I don't see why he wouldn't still be here." Then, in 2010, he rolled over on everybody who was doping on the Postal Service's cycling team, including Lance Armstrong. Despite trying to return to cycling after the doping allegations were behind him, he was never able to find a team.
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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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(#17) Adrian Peterson
- 30
The Fall: When you're the sixth-fastest player in history to reach 8,000 rushing yards, it probably feels like the world can't touch you. But in 2014, photos were released of Adrian Peterson's 4-year-old son with what looked like slashes or heavy lesions across his legs. Peterson would later go to trial for child abuse when it was revealed that he beat his son with a tree branch on his back, buttocks, genitals, ankles, and legs.
What Happened After That: After the child abuse allegations surfaced, the NFL suspended Peterson until the 2015 season, and he lost endorsement deals from Nike and Castrol Motor Oil.
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(#18) Jason Giambi
- 48
The Fall: Jason Giambi began his storied career in the Moneyball era of the Oakland A's, but as time went on he succumbed to using performance enhancing steroids much like many other members of the MLB.
What Happened After That: After Giambi admitted to using steroids in 2007, he was dropped from lucrative endorsement campaigns by companies like Pepsi, Arm & Hammer, and Nike.
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(#19) Warren Sapp
- 43
The Fall: Even though Sapp is a Super Bowl champion with seven Pro Bowls under his belt, he still acts like a rookie when it comes to sportsmanship. But the NFL was okay with shenanigans as long as they were on the field. It's what he got up to after he was finished playing that got him into real trouble. Prior to the Super Bowl in 2010, Sapp was arrested for domestic battery, and five years later he was arrested for trying to solicit a prostitute.
What Happened After That: It's important to note that both times that Sapp got in trouble he was working for the NFL as a pre- and post-game analyst. So essentially anytime the NFL took Sapp somewhere, he would get crazy and beat someone up or try to hire a hooker. After the incident in 2015, the NFL finally gave up on Sapp and ended his contract.
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(#20) Pete Rose
- 77
The Fall: Pete Rose, or Charlie Hustle if you're nasty, is the all-time MLB leader in hits (4,256), games played (3,562), at-bats (14,053), singles (3,215), and outs (10,328). Under normal circumstances, there would be a statue of Rose on top of the MLB Hall of Fame, handing out hundred dollar bills. But because he admitted to betting on games that he played in, and on teams that he managed, the Baseball Hall of Fame voted to mark him as "permanently ineligible."
What Happened After That: Being ousted from Major League Baseball was just the beginning of a downward spiral for Rose, who was busted by the IRS for not reporting the money he made from signing autographs and from his winnings at horse races. In a silver lining, Rose was able to make a second career for himself as a member of the WWE, where he was routinely choke-slammed by Kane.
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(#21) Jon Jones
- 31
The Fall: Jon Jones is truly considered to be one of the best MMA fighters in the world, and as of August 2016, he holds the interim UFC Light Heavyweight Championship. But in 2014, he and a fighter named Daniel Cormier got into a huge fight during a press conference that was meant to promote a PPV, but ended up making everyone with the UFC look like a bone-headed jock.
What Happened After That: The Nevada Athletic Commission came down hard on everyone. Jones was fined $50,000 and given 40 hours of community service in Las Vegas. And then, to make things even weirder, Jones said that he lost his endorsement deal from Nike, but then in a conference call, he admitted that Nike just didn't want to move forward with MMA and that he didn't have anything to do with their decision. Although, there's probably something to be said for not wanting to work with a group of athletes who can't keep their composure throughout one measly press conference.
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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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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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