Top 10 Most Controversial Athletes

[monkeyman576]

OJ Simpson
Pete Rose
Dennis Rodman
Mike Tyson
Michael Vick
Barry Bonds
Muhammad Ali
Shoeless Joe Jackson
Chris Benoit
Joe DiMaggio


I'm sure I missed some obvious people.

[cephasjames]

More than 10, but this could be a big list...

Ty Cobb
Floyd Mayweather
Terrell Owens
Randy Moss
Metta World Peace
Dennis Rodman
Jose Canseco
John Rocker
Lance Armstrong
Tonya Harding
Ray Rice
Alex Rodriguez
Ray Lewis
John McEnroe
Ben Johnson
Sammy Sosa
Mark McGwire
Antonio Brown

[Cobra Mgr]

Good topic. I'm going to narrow my definition of "controversial" to those who seem to have generated strong opinions from both sides of the fence.

1. Jackie Robinson
2. Muhammad Ali
3. OJ Simpson
4. Pete Rose
5. Lance Armstrong
6. Ty Cobb
7. Dennis Rodman
8. Terrell Owens
9. Martina Narvratilova
10. Serena Williams

Honorable mention: Dale Earnhardt, Michael Vick, Tiger Woods, John Daly, Mike Tyson ,Billie Jean King, Nancy Leiberman, Dion Sanders, Floyd Merriwhether, Ray Lewis, Maradona, Johnny Manziel, Michael Jordan

Top 10 Most Controversial Personality (Non-athlete)
1. Don King
2. George Steinbrenner
3. Roger Goodell
4. Marge Schott
5. Al Davis
6. Bobby Knight
7. Jerry Jones
8. Bill Belichek
9. Mark Cuban
10. Adolph Rupp

Honorable Mention: Larry Brown, Paul "Bear" Bryant, Charlie O'Finley, Rick Pitino, Jerry Tarkanian, John Thompson, Earl Weaver, Billy Martin, Lou Pinella, World WIde Wes

[Déjà Bru]

A very good topic. Each and every one of these names brings back memories; stories that either I have lived to experience or read about.

[Buster Cherry]

Colin Kaepernick
Billy Martin
Keyshawn Johnson
Chad Ochocinco
Roberto Duran
Sonny Liston
Denny McLain
Jim Bouton
Marcus Dupree
Albert Belle

Those are just a few that I can remember. Some aren't as well-remembered now as they were back in the days they were controversial.

[Cobra Mgr]

Originally Posted by Buster Cherry

Colin Kaepernick
Billy Martin
Keyshawn Johnson
Chad Ochocinco
Roberto Duran
Sonny Liston
Denny McLain
Jim Bouton
Marcus Dupree
Albert Belle

Those are just a few that I can remember. Some aren't as well-remembered now as they were back in the days they were controversial.

Geez! How'd I forget Kaepernick???????

[Reed]

Excellent topic. How about someone that didn't do anything wrong but beat a legend
Roger Maris
He wasn"t controversial but his accomplishment was.

[pilight]

Or Barry Bonds...

[BMW]

For the non-athletes, Charlie Finley, Bill Veeck and Chris von der Ahe.

All three have been considered for the Hall of Fame (Veeck is in). Finley and Veeck were well known for their outrageous experiments.

von der Ahe was probably less controversial, but he was a publicly bombastic personality. He was "der boss president" of the St. Louis Browns. He had a statue of himself erected outside Sportsman's Park. A lot of his interest in having a baseball team was as a mechanism to sell food and beer to the fans. Cap Anson suggested a championship series where winner took 100% of the gate receipts - von der Ahe accepted to everyone's surprise and then St. Louis won.

He's probably not as controversial as others, but he's a great part of 1800s baseball history, so I like to mention him when I can.

[Syd Thrift]

Has von der Ahe ever been seriously considered? He turned the area around Sportsman’s Park into an amusement park, which was definitely controversial at the time, but he lost his fortune and had to sell the team within a couple years of buying them. IIRC from his entry in the Baseball Hall of Shame series, he died broke. One should mention, too, that the Brown Stockings team he owned were the future Cardinals, not the team that relocated to Baltimore in the 1950s. Also, it was I believe his brother who founded the Von’s supermarket chain that is still owned by the von der Ahe family today.

For controversial figures around sports, let’s not forget:

Walter O’Malley
Clay Bennett, the Walter O’Malley of basketball
Jerry Krause, especially after this ESPN series
Steve Bartman
Marvin Miller
Peter Ueberroth

For athletes we should add:
Bill Laimbeer (I mean, less “controversial” and more “universally hated”, but still)
Charles Barkley (I love the guy but remember all the heat he took when he said he was not a role model?)
That ****ty white guy who is always on the Duke team and whose sole purpose seems to be to commit cheap fouls and flop around a lot (it’s a different player every couple of years but the role remains the same)

[BMW]

Originally Posted by Syd Thrift

Has von der Ahe ever been seriously considered? He turned the area around Sportsman’s Park into an amusement park, which was definitely controversial at the time, but he lost his fortune and had to sell the team within a couple years of buying them. IIRC from his entry in the Baseball Hall of Shame series, he died broke. One should mention, too, that the Brown Stockings team he owned were the future Cardinals, not the team that relocated to Baltimore in the 1950s. Also, it was I believe his brother who founded the Von’s supermarket chain that is still owned by the von der Ahe family today.

Controversial? He was in his time, if you put him in today's context, probably not. I admit - I like him as a historical figure so I just wanted to bring him up.

HOF wise, yes, he made the final ballot for the pre-integration HOF in 2016. From the HOF website, "Von der Ahe, owner of the original St. Louis Browns franchise from 1881 to 1899, is one of 10 finalists on this year’s Pre-Integration Committee ballot at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum." He got less than 4 votes, so he was in the also-rans at the end. Doc Adams came the closest to enshrinement (62.5%) but fell short.

Originally Posted by Syd Thrift

For athletes we should add:
Bill Laimbeer (I mean, less “controversial” and more “universally hated”, but still)

[Syd Thrift]

Haha, what does "less than 4" mean? 3?

[rudel.dietrich]

Just 10 more years and we can have men in armored suits playing basketball while the crowd throws weapons and mines out onto the court.

I cannot wait to gamble on that league.

[BMW]

Originally Posted by Syd Thrift

Haha, what does "less than 4" mean? 3?

The committees only release the votes for candidates that get certain threshold. Doc Adams got 10 votes (out of 16 possible), Bill Dahlen and Harry Stovey (first player to have 100+ homers) got 8 votes. All the others got 3 or less, but they don't say how many. Could be zero votes.

[TGH-Adfabre]

Jesse Owens
https://www.biography.com/news/jesse...-1936-olympics

Pictures... thousand words.

[thehef]

If Walter O'Malley, then surely Robert Moses...

Donald Sterling. Tom Wilson (Caps' enforcer... could probably add a bunch of hockey goons). Jimmy Johnson (the NFL guy, not the racer). Jerry Jones. John Calipari. Ray Carruth. Bud Selig.

[thehef]

Alcindor/Jabbar

[Syd Thrift]

Originally Posted by TGH-Adfabre

Jesse Owens
https://www.biography.com/news/jesse...-1936-olympics

Pictures... thousand words.

Along the lines of Jesse Owens, how about Joe Louis? When he faced Max Schmeling the Nazis in Germany made a big show of how Schmeling was going to prove out the master race, and how Schmeling had handed Louis his only loss, and so on. Louis proceeded to beat the crap out of Schmeling in a fight that was so lopsided, the Nazis shut off the broadcast in the 2nd round.

One should add that Louis and Schmeling were friendly in real life, but man, did Louis knock him around...

Actually, boxing has a bunch of pretty controversial fighters...

Victor Ortiz (quit on his stool in one fight, then viciously headbutted Mayweather and to my mind precipitated the supposed cheap shot by repeatedly trying to hug it out)
Antonio Margarito (for plastering his wraps, then getting caught and getting blasted by Sugar Shane Mosley)
Sugar Ray Robinson (was once tried for killing a man in the ring and in his defense he said “putting people in bad situations is my job”)
Sonny Liston (did his corner put crap on his gloves to try to blind Ali in their first fight?)
Ricardo Mayorga
Emanuel Augustus (Mayweather called him the toughest guy he ever fought but his career record was barely .500 in large part because he pissed off the judges with his fighting style, which was called the “drunken master” style due to its resemblance to the Jackie Chan movie)

[Buster Cherry]

Originally Posted by TGH-Adfabre

Jesse Owens
https://www.biography.com/news/jesse...-1936-olympics

Pictures... thousand words.

That picture is from the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City and the two athletes doing the black power salute are Tommie Smith and John Carlos.

[TGH-Adfabre]

Originally Posted by Buster Cherry

That picture is from the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City and the two athletes doing the black power salute are Tommie Smith and John Carlos.

The third guy is Australian, I forget his name.