Peter Forsberg and the 10 Worst Comeback Attempts in Sports History

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It has to be the hardest thing in a professional athlete's life to admit that it's time to hang it up.

Imagine you're one of the very best at what you do. In fact, you're so good that you've been able to make a living at it. Not just any living, either. Your talents have made you tens—if not hundreds—of millions.

But you're past your prime, and people are saying that you've lost a step or two, that you aren't explosive anymore, or that you just can't do it like you used to.

They're just the media—what do they know, anyway?

It's just fans being fickle.

You've always had critics, and you've always answered the bell. Why should it be any different this time around?

For these athletes, the competitive spirit caused them to hang on a little longer than they maybe should have.

Eventually, they came (or will come) to the realization that it's time to call it a career. Painful as it is, these comeback attempts were as agonizing for fans as they were for the players themselves.

10. Michael Jordan

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We all know His Airness as one of the greatest players ever to step foot on a basketball court.

He was the face of the NBA in the 1990s, and he almost singlehandedly took the game to an entirely new level.

Jordan was a six-time NBA champion, five-time MVP, 10-time All-NBA First Team, 1985 All-NBA Second Team, 1988 Defensive Player of the Year, nine-time All-Defensive First Team, 1985 Rookie of the Year, 14-time All-Star, three-time All-Star MVP, one of 50 Greatest Players in NBA History and a two-time Olympic gold medalist.

He recorded 32,292 points (third all-time), 2,514 steals (second all-time), 6,672 rebounds and 5,633 assists in his career. 

Jordan ranks first all-time in NBA history in points per game (30.1), efficiency rating (27.9), usage percentage (33.3) and win shares per 48 minutes (.251).

His first comeback at age 31 went as scripted with Jordan leading the Bulls to NBA Championships in 1996, 1997 and 1998. 

Then, MJ made another comeback at age 38 with Washington in 2001. The sports fan in me loved to see Jordan on the court, but the purist in me hated seeing him in anything but red and black.

While he averaged over 20 points per game in both seasons with the Wizards, Jordan's production was down across the board, and the entire situation reeked of an aging icon clinging onto something that wasn't there and trying to relive the past.

True, MJ didn't crash and burn. But he was obviously a shell of his former self, and he left many of us wondering why he came back in the first place.

Instead of being inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2002, we all had to wait until 2009 to see Jordan take his place in Springfield.

9. Lance Armstrong

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Officially termed "Comeback 2.0," Lance Armstrong made his second comeback to competitive cycling in 2009.

He failed to win the 2009 Tour de France, with a respectable third-place finish.

However, the 2010 Tour de France was far less successful. After a strong start, a series of mishaps and crashes caused Armstrong to fall out of GC contention. He would finish in a very disappointing 23rd place in his final Tour de France race.

Although he has avoided being penalized, there have been a number of allegations of doping against Armstrong.

Perhaps there would have been less press given to these allegations if Armstrong would have stayed retired after 2005.

8. Roger Clemens

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Clean or not, loved or hated, Roger Clemens was one of the most dominating pitchers in the Major League.

Even though there was no formal retirement announcement by the Rocket, all indications were that he was retired following the USA's loss to Mexico in the 2006 WBC after three seasons in Houston.

So, even if it wasn't an official comeback after an official retirement, Clemens returned to the Yankees in 2007 at age 44.

He went 6-6 in 17 starts, and failed to record a winning season for just the third time in his 24-year career.

The 17 starts, 99 innings and 68 strikeouts were the fewest for Clemens in any season since 1985, his second year in the league.

After posting ERAs of 2.98, 1.87 and 2.30 with the Astros, Clemens' ERA rose to 4.18 in his final season in the Bronx.

On the bright side, Clemens banked $18.7 million of a pro-rated $28 million contract. Yes, that's over $1 million a start.

7. Deion Sanders

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Sanders spent two years in Baltimore after four years of retirement.

In those two seasons, Sanders played in 25 games, but only started in six of them.

He did pick off five passes and score a defensive touchdown, but he only recorded 34 tackles in those 25 games.

Prime Time looked more like a matinée feature.

6. Bjorn Borg

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Do you remember when professional tennis players used wooden racquets?

If you don't remember those days, just trust me. They did.

Bjorn Borg was one of those players, and he was the very best at his craft.

He was the top-ranked tennis player in the world during his prime, and he won 11 Grand Slam titles, including five consecutive Wimbledons and four consecutive French Opens.

He has the highest career all-surface winning percentage among all male players at 82.68 percent.

At only 26 years old, Borg retired from tennis in January of 1983, and he was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1987.

In the early 1990s, Borg attempted to make a comeback to professional tennis.

Bad idea.

For one, he used his old wooden racquets against the more modern style. Thus, he was essentially bringing a knife to a gunfight for lack of a better metaphor.

From 1991 to 1993, he lost 12 straight first-round matches to a regular "Who's Who of Professional Tennis"—Jordi Arrese, Andrei Medvedev, Chris Pridham, Goran Prpić, Lionel Roux, Nicklas Kulti, Olivier Delaître, Thomas Hogstedt, Wayne Ferreira, Alexander Volkov, Jaime Oncins and Joao Cunha-Silva.

Ten years after his initial retirement, Borg retired from the ATP Tour again.

He would play on the Champions Tour, but he used modern equipment.

5. Evander Holyfield

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Admittedly, I could write an entire slideshow of the worst comebacks in sports, include 10 boxers, and be completely justified in doing so.

That's because if a fight doesn't go well for a fighter on the comeback trail, it usually goes really, really badly.

And unlike Jordan, Clemens, Armstrong or Borg, a boxer is going to be bruised, bloodied and absolutely embarrassed.

Enter Evander Holyfield.

Although the official comeback began in 2006 with a fight against Jeremy Bates (22-16-1), we really have to go back to 2002 to get the whole picture here.

Coming off a win against Hasim Rahman, Holyfield would lose three straight fights to Chris Byrd, James Toney and Larry Donald from December 2002 to November 2004.

Following the Donald fight, Holyfield was banned from boxing in New York by the New York State Athletic Commission due to diminishing skills, even though he had passed a battery of tests (Rocky Balboa anyone?).

In his "comeback," Evander is 5-2 with a no contest in his last fight.

Somehow, Holyfield is the WBF Heavyweight Champion, and it seems as though the WBF Heavyweight Championship is as relevant as the WWE Championship or that organization's World Heavyweight Championship.

The reality is, Francis Botha, who Holyfield beat to win the WBF title is 42 himself. Maybe the WBF should have a Legends Championship like TNA.

The fact that Holyfield is still hanging on and that he has a belt around his waist proves that boxing is indeed a dying sport.

4. Sugar Ray Leonard

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Although he didn't fight a lot compared to other fighters, Leonard was a dominant boxer in the 1970s and 1980s, going 35-2-1 with 25 knockouts prior to his last comeback attempt in 1996 at the age of 40.

His first opponent after a six-year hiatus from the sport was Hector Camacho, who was 62-3-1 at the time of the fight.

Voted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame prior to the fight, Leonard and Camacho fought in Atlantic City on March 1, 1997. For two rounds, Leonard held his own, but Camacho took the fight over in the next three rounds.

Leonard was knocked down in the sixth round. He got to his feet, but was unable to fend off the quicker Camacho. The fight was stopped in the sixth round with Leonard being punished on the ropes.

He lost via TKO for the first time in his career.

That would be the last bout of his career, and the lasting image is of an old, tired fighter being dominated by a younger, faster, stronger opponent.

3. Peter Forsberg

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Forsberg ranks 10th all-time in points per game and fourth in assists per game. He is also a five-time All-Star.

However, he failed to play in 70 games each of his last four seasons in the NHL prior to the 2011 comeback attempt, playing in only nine games in 2007. 

After two seasons with the MODO, Forsberg attempted to make a comeback to the NHL this season with Colorado.

Appearing in just two games for the Avalanche, Forsberg failed to score a point in 35 minutes of playing time and ended up with a minus-4 plus/minus rating.

After another failed attempt to revive his career, Forsberg announced his retirement from hockey, citing the fact that he was not able to defend himself on the ice.

This was just no good on all accounts.

2. Jose Canseco

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After his MLB career, Canseco played on the independent circuit and attempted to make it back to the Majors a handful of times.

Then, there was his involvement in the crackdown on steroids in Major League Baseball, and that's when the circus act began.

Okay, the MMA thing was bad enough, but this is just too much.

It's really nothing but a lame stunt, but I think Jose thinks he can really do this.

Canseco has hired an agent in an attempt to get a deal done to play ball in Korea or Japan. Allen Iverson to Turkey, anyone?

Here is what his agent, Nello Gamberdino, had to say about the situation:

"The main obstacle that I’ve had to get over as his agent is when you initially throw his name out there, people think it’s a joke. We’re trying to make it clear that, no, he’s not doing this as a publicity stunt; he’s doing this because he wants to play, he loves baseball, and he still feels he can contribute as a player"

A joke, really? I wonder why they'd think such an outlandish thing.

Forgive me if I don't buy that this isn't a publicity stunt and that he can contribute as a player.

Have you seen the guy lately? Do they let players juice in Japan?

If this actually happens, it will get a nice little run for one news cycle, and that's about it.

1. Brett Favre

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Comeback No. 1 ended in disappointment in New York with the Jets struggling down the stretch with Favre under center. He threw for 3,472 yards, 22 touchdowns and 22 interceptions while leading the Jets to a 9-7 record in 2008.

In 2009, Favre retired, un-retired and signed with the Vikings. Saga aside, Favre had a remarkable season—aberration or not.

Leading the vikings to a 13-3 record and an NFC North Championship, Favre completed a career-high 68.4 percent of his passes and threw for 4,202 yards, 33 touchdowns and only seven interceptions. He also had a career-high 107.2 passer rating.

However, he was battered and bruised against the Saints in the NFC Championship game, and thus began the annual speculation as to his playing status for 2010.

We all know how Ed Werder was his shadow for the entire offseason, how three teammates flew down to Mississippi to bring him to Minnesota, how he and Brad Childress feuded all season, and how his streak ended at 297 regular season games.

More than that, Favre looked his age. He passed for just 2,509 yards, 11 touchdowns and 19 interceptions while registering a career-low 69.9 passer rating.

There is nothing good that can be taken from last season as far as Favre or the Vikings are concerned.

The only positive thing that can be said is that it is over.