Top 10 Most Controversial Athletes

[dsvitak]

Originally Posted by kq76

Joe Dimaggio? What did he do? Was marrying Marilyn Monroe somehow controversial? Maybe their marriage was rocky, but from what I heard they had a great loving bond.

Jesus...Joe DiMaggio HAS to be on anyone's top ten BEST people in sports.

[GeoWar]

Where is Ty Cobb ? and Pete Rose ? Shoeless Joe Jackson ?
Those are in Baseball.
Controversial ???
Basketball - Hockey - Football - Soccer ????????
What about Tonya Harding ?

.

[GeoWar]

Originally Posted by dsvitak

Think about way society was constructed back in the day.

Mark McGwire had a BIG canister of Creatine in his locker. Visible to everyone, and something he never hid.

Why would he? It was LEGAL. The fact that andro-creatine is a precursor to anabolic steroids wasn't lost on anyone.

Every player in the major leagues could have had this same canister of this same - legal - substance, and used it, and became huge. Hell..a lot of them did. *cough*pujols*cough.

Creatine is available in High School locker and weight rooms today ...... HGH are available in food products . Cough medicine can cause you to test positive.
It is the game of baseball at a period of time.
.

[Déjà Bru]

Originally Posted by GeoWar

Where is Ty Cobb ? and Pete Rose ? Shoeless Joe Jackson ?
Those are in Baseball.
Controversial ???
Basketball - Hockey - Football - Soccer ????????
What about Tonya Harding ?

.

I think there has to be a period of time involved, an era in which a top 10 controversial athlete has occupied our attention and sparked debates.

To that end, then, Harding is definitely out. "Notorious" would be a better word for her. Everybody agrees that she did what she did and got what she deserved.

Cobb is not controversial. Great player, terrible man. No debate about him whatsoever. I would have loved to watch him play, but I would never have sought his autograph (for one thing, I would be afraid to approach him).

Jackson, too, is out although I am going to get negative feedback on that assessment. There really is no controversy about him in that, while it's generally accepted that he did not try to throw the 1919 World Series, he associated with those who did and who accepted the money. Painted with the same brush, he suffered the consequences.

But Pete Rose, and whether he should still be banned from baseball? On and on we go about him. The latest wrinkle, reviving debate, is baseball's embrace of gambling with a flimsy "bet wall" of participants betting on themselves in place. That's supposed to protect the integrity of the sport. Yeah.