What is the best athlete that go their career ruined by off the field issues?
- Thread starter HawkeyeInCentralIowa
- Start date
Former Twins/Angels player Lyman Bostock.
https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/b/bostoly01.shtml
https://www.sportscasting.com/the-m...tock-forced-changes-to-indiana-insanity-laws/
https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/b/bostoly01.shtml
https://www.sportscasting.com/the-m...tock-forced-changes-to-indiana-insanity-laws/
Alonzo Spellman. Travis the Roadrunner Williams...
GREEN BAY, Wis. —
Travis Williams, who wrestled with homelessness, poverty and alcohol after setting records as a kick returner with the Green Bay Packers, has died after a long illness. He was 45.
Williams, who attended Arizona State, died Sunday of heart failure in Martinez, Calif., near his hometown of Richmond. His daughter, Marla Williams, said her father also suffered from liver and kidney failure.
Williams, known as “the Roadrunner,” returned four kickoffs for touchdowns as a rookie with the Packers in 1967, setting an NFL record that still stands. He returned two in one game that season against the Cleveland Browns to tie a league record.
GREEN BAY, Wis. —
Travis Williams, who wrestled with homelessness, poverty and alcohol after setting records as a kick returner with the Green Bay Packers, has died after a long illness. He was 45.
Williams, who attended Arizona State, died Sunday of heart failure in Martinez, Calif., near his hometown of Richmond. His daughter, Marla Williams, said her father also suffered from liver and kidney failure.
Williams, known as “the Roadrunner,” returned four kickoffs for touchdowns as a rookie with the Packers in 1967, setting an NFL record that still stands. He returned two in one game that season against the Cleveland Browns to tie a league record.
Mike Trout is going to be a hall of famer with basically an entire career postseason goose egg because of the organization he's in.
There’s an argument for Tiger, but to go back to Page 1 of the thread, Len Bias could have been a megastar and never got to do anything because of the OD. We saw Tiger’s greatness, his off-course issues just shortened his window.
Brien Taylor. He was touted as the next Roger Clemens or Dwight Gooden as he had a blazing 100 mph fastball in high school. He unfortunately had a penchant for pugilism and got into one fight too many as after a couple of seasons in the minors he lost his stuff and never made it to The Show,
I’d argue his injuries did far more to affect his window than the off course stuff.
That’s also fair. He probably would have won some number of additional majors, but he was past his prime when the the off-course stuff happened for sure.
Maybe, if he stayed fully healthy for the length of his career, but he upped the game on his own. Competition was coming for him in ways not seen before. Jack was really the perfect career. You have to hit it out of the park to even sniff that level. Tiger was absolute dominance for close to a decade and he didn’t come close to Jack’s record.
Rick Ankiel
Had amazing talent, and was on his way to being a great starting pitcher for StL...and was absolutely miserable because he never, ever wanted to be a pitcher.
But oh man, that arm.
Had amazing talent, and was on his way to being a great starting pitcher for StL...and was absolutely miserable because he never, ever wanted to be a pitcher.
But oh man, that arm.
Dude just liked to break in places and watch women sleep. What’s the harm in that?
He was not Bo Jackson, but the 30 for 30 on him is really good. I believe it is titled the best that never was.
Not close? He’s four shy, and that’s after winning his last one after not winning a major for a decade after he had to basically rebuild his leg after winning the US Open against Rocco. Then his physical struggles began, his off-course issues piled on and it was a long road back.
To me, Tiger is the GOAT. Not just for his career success, but for how he changed the game.
He lost recognition in the form of the HOF, but his career was basically over as a player when he got the ban hammer for gambling.
Oh, I think Tiger is absolutely the GOAT. Totally different world than the world Jack played in. Tiger came in and changed the game and competed in a PGA with way more depth of talent than the one Jack competed in. That’s where I was going with Jack having the “perfect career”…he came along at the right time and dominated, but he didn’t dominate as great a field as Tiger did. I don’t think Tiger would have caught Jack without the injuries, but only because of the level of the competition and the number of younger players coming on.
The one caveat I’ll add is that there was definitely an intimidation factor that Tiger had. Without the injuries, maybe he holds that a little longer, but I still don’t think he would have caught Jack.
Yeah, I'm not sure having the MLB career record in a stat like hits qualifies as having their career ruined.
Honestly I thought that intimidation factor he has was the part most affected by the off-course stuff that came out. He’d so carefully kept his career and private life separate until then that all of the stuff that came out totally shattered that mystique. Combine that with all the tournaments he missed due to injury and we practically had an entire generation of golfers who never experienced him at his best.
That’s certainly a fair point. I do think his injuries were somewhat inevitable at some point - he had a TON of torque in his swing and his back and knees were not going to last forever….but I am very curious how things would have gone without his personal life falling apart for a couple years there. If he was only dealing with the physical injuries and recovery and not having his marriage fall apart very publicly and then the string of other personal issues.
I think he had one season, maybe two years after the initial survey where he actually won several events, just didn’t win any majors, not sure if that was before or after his marriage fell apart.
Yes, but he already got knocked out by Douglas before he ever went to prison. The prison term deprived Tyson of money and the public of many spectacles, but it didn't rob us of prime Tyson. We got to see his prime, and it was when he was about 21.
That's silly. He's close and has more tour wins. Plus, they didn't change courses to try to keep Jack from winning.
As I said in a follow-up post, I think Tiger is easily the GOAT. I just don’t think he was going to match Jack’s number of majors won due to the competition and, as you point out, people designing courses specifically to challenge him.
Impossible to say obviously and that’s what makes arguments like this so much fun. Between his win at the US Open to when he won again at the Masters, he went a decade in between wins.
If healthy I don’t think it’s a stretch to say he’d have gotten 4 more out of 40 attempts when fully healthy - not sure how many he did play, played hurt or just flat out missed due to injury in that stretch.
I think Tiger would have bested Jack if had just kept his nose to the grindstone and stayed away from white women of Scandinavian descent...
Page 4 and no mention of Josh Hamilton?
Guy was a Hall of Fame player when off drugs and alcohol.
Guy was a Hall of Fame player when off drugs and alcohol.
That’s also why this is a particularly interesting question framed up for a guy like Tiger. When his off-field issues came up, he was already having injury problems and general aging/injuries are outside the scope here. That’s also why, while he is the GOAT, I have a hard time saying that the off-field issues cost him Jack’s record. I think he was already trending in a way that was going to keep him short.
And yet, I can see the other side - that the breakdown of his marriage really led him off track and then his use of painkillers led to the car accident that really cemented his injuries, so there’s definitely an argument…..but I think his knees and back were already going to hold him short. He’d have gotten a couple more without the off-field stuff, but I think he’d have come up one or two short.
He won the US Open in 2008 (didn’t realize it was that long ago), and he was only 32, won the masters in 2019. Healthy Tiger gets there, but wouldn’t shock me if you were right and he ended up just short in the end, especially with all the guys that have emerged since 2008.
God knows the pressure would have been incredible at every Major if he got to 18.
Pretty much - 1988. Impressive demolitions arguably the only two notable opponents he beat in his career. Besides Spinks, he beat Larry Holmes earlier that year. At the time that was a joke of a fight, but Holmes later went on to beat strong contender Ray Mercer and go the distance in a competitive fight with Holyfield. Even forgetting all the greatness Holmes accomplished before the loss to Tyson, those two post-Tyson fights alone make him in my opinion Tyson's second most impressive victory. Niether Spinks nor Holmes were dominated like that by anyone else. In between them he knocked out Tony Tubbs, who wasn't a great fighter by any means, but was a tricky guy.
Outside 1988...phew. He not only didn't fight or beat the best of the era (Bowe, Moorer, Foreman v2), he didn't even fight the second tier, guys like Morrison, Mercer, Tim Witherspoon. MAYBE Razor Ruddock is close.
Outside 1988, he's basically the Loyola Marymount of heavyweights - the wins against over-matched opponents were spectacularly impressive and unique, but ultimately never good enough to prevail or even come close against very good opponents.
But 1988 is the resume, and its real strong, good enough to make him one of the 10-15 best heavyweights.
