Love Me/Hate Me: 10 Guys That Lost Our Affection Quickly
In sport's everyone is going to have support, and everyone is going to face adversity. It's what brings all athlete's together. Sports are unique like that. But sometimes, there's that special athlete that you love to hate, or hate to love.
Fans love to cheer him on, and haters love to boo him. He's the outlaw, and the hero.
Let's take a look at the top 10 guys who were loved, and then quickly fell off the map and lost our affection.
10. Terrell Owens
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Terrell Owens is a success story, to say the least. Out of Chatanooga, T.O. has bounced around the league, flaunting his talent and personality whenever he chooses.
Talk about a free spirit with good discipline. Isn't that an oxymoron? All I know is he will go down as one of the most entertaining athletes in all of professional sports.
Look at some of the highlights of his entertaining career outside of playing football: Get your popcorn ready. Dancing on the Dallas Cowboy star, the sharpie in the shoe, becoming a hit on VH1 and oh yeah, that's my teammate, that's my quarterback. What a ride it's been in the media limelight.
T.O. follows me on Twitter. Why? Because he knows I know where he'll end his hall of fame career...it's with a ring on a very special team. If you want to know where it is, you can ask me.
9. Brett Favre
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Brett Favre is the man. Or is Brett Favre the machine? How can you not love 297 consecutive starts in any sport, let alone football? The guy is Mr. Consistent.
Favre plays the game the way it should be played. Serious about his job, but does it in a carefree manner. Everyone makes mistakes, but if the good outweighs the bad, then keep groovin' to the music.
After nearly two decades of successful football in Green Bay as their starting quarterback, he left the team. With the team, he left his old ways.
He may or may not have violated team conduct in New York, and then took a job with a rival of the Green Bay Packers, Minnesota.
Will he retire? Will he not retire?
Do you hate him or do you love him?
8. LeBron James
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LeBron James was born in Akron, Ohio. He was drafted as a high school athlete into his hometown's professional team the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Was it a curse back then? Who knows.
All I can say is, he really teased the city of Cleveland with the thought of an NBA championship. LeBron gave fans some of the most exciting individual performances that they've ever seen in Cleveland. We loved him. He had it all...including hit television commercials where he played all four characters in a series called "The LeBrons" (if you can follow).
During his seven year stint, he made it onto the big stage one time. He couldn't beat Tim Duncan and the Spurs.
Nowadays, he still says he's the King of Akron, even though he stopped serving his people. In other words, he moved to a different team other than his hometown's to try and bring a championship to.
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7. Mark McGwire
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Mark McGwire was a hero to everybody who was a baseball fan. He put the city of St. Louis on the map.
On a side note, he was so big people would affiliate him with the Big Mac at McDonalds.
People fell in love with him. He broke Roger Maris' home run record in front of Maris' family. He hugged Maris' son right in front of him, knowing he was using supernatural strength.
Mark is a great guy, there's no denying that. He just happened to let his emotions get the best of him with the whole cheating on baseball thing. Touch pill to swallow? I think so.
6. Kobe Bryant
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Kobe was playing professional basketball at 18 years old.
A teenager...playing in Los Angeles for Magic's team. Boy did he turn into a superstar.
Five world championships, a world recognized athlete, but above all, a man who almost lost it all in an incident at a Colorado hotel.
Kobe lost a lot of fans the day he had to face the music involving him and a woman other than his wife. It was tough for all who paid attention to the issue.
Thankfully, he is still with his wife and raising a family, while continuing to play top notch basketball and looking to tie Jordan in rings.
Imagine if it didn't work out this way? Kobe behind bars and all?
5. Jose Canseco
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Jose Canseco was one half of the bash brothers.
He was a man who knew how to hit the ball out of the ballpark. He did it in exciting fashion too. He led a successful professional career that was soon looked at as one of the most dishonest careers in all of sports.
Canseco, however, was the pioneer for steroids. He admits it. He wrote a book about it (Juiced). He not only came out and was honest, but he was honest for a lot of other athletes too.
He changed the game for the worse. Or, did he provide us with some of the most exciting years in the history of the game?
Whatever your thought is on the matter, Canseco went from a rock star to a guy who had to figure out how to get all that back.
4. Roger Clemens
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You don't get the nickname "Rocket" without being some kind of profound athlete.
Clemens was truly one of the first in my lifetime to play for both New York and Boston (Damon's not legendary enough). From what I've heard, that's normally frowned upon. But guess what? He was Roger Clemens and he could do whatever he wanted. He was royalty to rival teams.
Now where is he? Facing time in federal prison because he not only cheated the game, but he cheated himself. He dug himself a deeper hole than he needed to.
Where he will end up, we don't know. All I have to say is only the true "Rocket" fans remain nowadays.
3. Barry Bonds
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The Barry Bonds coming into the Major Leagues already was a superstar.
Growing up watching his father Bobby Bonds, he knew everything it was to be a professional athlete. Barry gave San Francisco the time of their life watching him play. He was just as exciting at the plate as he was in the field.
Then he got older and took a different route. Bonds used steroids.
We don't know when it came into his life, all we know is he was a big part of the downfall to my generation of baseball. It was really a sad day when those home runs he hit in one season came with an asterisk next to them.
Maris and Ruth would've been furious about that. Oh yeah, and so would Henry Aaron.
2. Michael Vick
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Everyone wanted to be like Michael Vick.
After all, has there ever been someone who could run like Mike and throw like Mike in history at the quarterback position?
He didn't win any humongous NFL Super Bowl or anything like that, but the type of playmaker he was made him truly one of a kind.
He signed his name to the over 100 million dollar contract that Arthur Blank granted him. Then, and there's really no other way to put this, he got caught hosting dog fighting on his property.
Several years later, he's back on his feet playing football like he should be, but he is:
A man who was loved by all and now, no matter how epic his comeback is in football, will still have people out there that don't like him.
1. Tiger Woods
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Tiger was loved for years by fans of golf, sports and young men around the world. He was someone who handled pressure well, and was the best at what he did.
Unfortunately, no one's perfect and he messed up. Tiger messed up his marriage and over time, affected every aspect of his life...including golf.
Now he is slowly but surely getting back to the job he once dominated. He leads a low profile way of living and I'm sure he's working harder than anyone else at his craft.
Needless to say, the downfall of Tiger Woods (from a man who was so powerful he had his own Gatorade) was a sad day for a lot of America.
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