The Professional Sports Hall of Shame

[SirFozzie]

Got this idea from a discussion on reddit's NBA forum. If you had the ability to induct people into the Hall of Shame, who would be there?

(It's a lifetime achievement thing, so while Isiah Thomas the GM would definitely be there, his play ON the court would keep him out) The ideal player candidate would be a bust on the field and a yutz off the field. Owner/GM wise it's more open)

If I had a ballot for this hall of shame...

Basketball:

Ted Stepien: Any time they make a rule to prevent folks from running a team into the ground and name it after you, you're likely a candidate.

Donald Sterling: Bad owner, bad views.

"Fast Eddie" Johnson:Eddie Johnson (basketball, born 1955) - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eddie_Johnson_(basketball,_born_1955)) Flamed out, drug addition, sentenced to life in prison for sex crimes. died in prison (got this one from the NBA discussion. Probably could put 5-10 guys from the cocaine era of the NBA here)


Football:

Ryan Leaf

JaMarcus Russell

Hockey:

Marty McSorley

Ulf Samuelsson (my one protest pick. Fuck him.)

Baseball: (my first impression was to throw Pete Rose in here, but he gets by with the Isiah Thomas rule. Steinbrenner had a tendency to be a yutz, but the Yankees won a lot under his ownership, so.. *shrug*)

Marge Schott



Who's on your ballot?

[NobodyHere]

Art Schlicter? Former NFL 4th overall pick with paltry on field performance and gambling problems off the field.

[Atocep]

Stepien shared some of Sterlings views so he's a lock

[panerd]

Rae Curruth

[SirFozzie]

Rae Curruth

Oh yeah. First Ballot.

[Atocep]

Aaron Hernandez

Dan Snyder

[Lathum]

Zack Wilson is on the cusp.

[molson]

I haven't listened to much of it but there's a "Crime in Sports" podcast that is pretty hilarious. Deep dives into all of these guys and their exploits.

Last year for my birthday a friend (who is always trying to get me to listen to that podcast) got me a framed collection of autographed baseball cards of various criminal athletes. Like 30 of them. It's pretty amazing. I'm always trying to decide whether I should hang it up at work.

[NobodyHere]

Looks like we have a new candidate:

Ex-NFL Player Kidnapped Man, ‘Forced’ Him to Withdraw Money From ATM: Police (https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/ex-nfl-player-kidnapped-man-forced-him-to-withdraw-money-from-atm-police/ar-AA16rAEP?cvid=88dd65d046884b9fa2b43b40cd663a4b)

[JonInMiddleGA]

First name that came to my mind was Mike Vick.

Whomever is "credited" with the NASCAR "Chase" feels worthy to me.

I'll just omit the glaringly obvious group that came to mind second, it's a "hall" not a warehouse.

[bhlloy]

McSorely doesn’t belong IMO. Long career as an enforcer including being a solid enough player to play on the same line protecting the greatest ever to play the game in an era where everyone was trying to take his head off. One awful moment where he lost his mind which you can’t condone. Not aware of any major issues off the ice I know of and seems to be a family man?

Now if you are talking about moment of madness on the ice that drew an assault charge and resulted in bringing the game into dispute Bertuzzi fits way more IMO. By all accounts a total asshole off the ice, even if he was a better player. Recent DUI charge and his kid is a douche too.

[flere-imsaho]

Every other owner of a soccer/football club worldwide probably qualifies.

[Solecismic]

I see I didn't read the item fully. Harder than it seems. Maybe Delmon Young. Brian Bosworth comes to mind as a high NFL draft pick who roided out of the game. Sean Avery from the NHL. Josh Jackson is a recent example from the NBA (had a connection to Michigan - not as a player, so his name came up a bit).

[stevew]

Lawrence Phillips

[Brian Swartz]

The Ford Family.

[Swaggs]

I've actually enjoyed listening to interviews with Ryan Leaf over the past few years. He was pretty entertaining and seemed to have developed some good insight, but then I saw he got in trouble again in 2020 for domestic battery.


Also, may I present the board with OJ Simpson? Are his playing and media careers enough to overcome admission?

[BYU 14]

Zack Wilson is on the cusp.

For illegally hunting Cougars?

[Ksyrup]

I saw this earlier today and immediately thought of this thread.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">It appears we’ve located the corner of the bar to avoid … <a href="https://t.co/imE1O1zUeL">pic.twitter.com/imE1O1zUeL</a></p>&mdash; Super 70s Sports (@Super70sSports) <a href="https://twitter.com/Super70sSports/status/1616558398585163823?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 20, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>