The 20 Worst Athlete Post-Retirement Career Moves

Athletes are the envy of us all because they get the two things that the average human desires most: money and fame.

And they get it by doing something that most of us do for free.

So why do so many of them have to make fools of themselves after their careers are over?

Do they do it for attention? Do they just not know any better? Do they just want to make this list?

Whatever the reason, here's the 20 worst athlete post-retirement career moves. 

20. Tonya Harding, Boxing

It seems like every year Tonya Harding becomes more and more of a failure.

However, when she decided to take up boxing in 2003 it was the nail in the coffin. 

At that moment it was clear she had lost all credibility, and was just doing anything she could for money and fame. 

19. Elgin Baylor, Clippers VP

Elgin Baylor was a Hall of Fame basketball player for the Los Angeles Lakers, one of the most prestigious organizations in all of sports.

Fifteen years after his playing career ended, Baylor was named VP of Basketball Operations by the L.A. Clippers, one of the most lowly organizations in all of sports.

In his 22 years with the Clippers they managed a winning record just twice.

Not exactly a curtain call for a man who once scored 71 points in a game. 

18. Brett Favre, Unretiring

Plenty of athletes have struggled with retirement, but nobody else did it to the extreme of Brett Favre.

Favre's indecisiveness tarnished his reputation as one of the most beloved athletes of all time, and that's a damn shame. 

17. Carl Lewis, Singing the National Anthem

This video explains itself, so just watch it.

It may be the best 30 seconds of your life—or the worst.

16. Magic Johnson, the Magic Hour

Back in 1998, Magic Johnson attempted to get his Jay Leno on with his own late night talk show.

It was cancelled after eight weeks.

Nice move, Magic.

15. Brian Bosworth, Acting

After a failed career in football, Brian Bosworth decided to try his hand in acting.

Needless to say he was no Jim Brown.

He has yet to do anything relevant with his acting career, so I guess he's just trying to emulate his football career. 

14. Jim Bunning, Senator of Kentucky

Normally it would be a good thing if a former athlete were voted to Senate.

Unfortunately for former MLB pitcher Jim Bunning, he's made such a fool of himself as a senator that it's actually tarnished his reputation.

Bunning is widely considered one of America's worst senators. During his 2004 re-election campaign, Bunning said his Democratic opponent looked like one of Saddam Hussein's sons.

In April 2006, Time magazine named him one of America's five worst senators and dubbed him "The Underperformer."

13. Emmitt Smith and Joe Morgan, Announcing

Emmitt Smith and Joe Morgan are both all-time greats in their sports and are well respected.

But they were both awful, awful announcers (or analysts in Smith's case).

Smith was widely criticized for being inarticulate and was fired from ESPN's pregame show almost immediately after being hired.

Morgan was often criticized for holding grudges from his playing days and refusing to accept how the game had changed since he played. He also inspired firejoemorgan.com, one of the most popular sports blogs of the decade.

12. Mike Tyson, Pigeon Training

I really feel for Mike Tyson. I think he's one of the most misunderstood athletes of all time.

So when he made one of the greatest cameos in movie history in 2009's wildly popular The Hangover, I was glad to see him finally shedding his image as a strange, evil man.

Two years later he is now working on his own reality show about him and his pigeons. 

C'mon, Mike!

11. Jose Canseco, Selling out His Colleagues

By the time he had retired, most people already disliked Jose Canseco.

Now, everybody dislikes him.

Canseco proved himself as one of the biggest douches in the history of America by selling out all of his former colleagues as steroid users.

He ruined the lives of an incredible amount of men. It may have made him rich, but money can't buy you happiness, Jose.

10. Michael Jordan, Baseball

Not much explanation needed here—this would be like Albert Pujols deciding to try to go pro in basketball, or LeBron James trying his hand in football.

Just a stupid move by MJ, good thing he came to his senses before it was too late.

9. Ugueth Urbina, Attempting Murder

Ugueth Urbina was a decent MLB pitcher for 10 years, but the most noteworthy moment of his career happened after he retired.

In November of 2005, just a month after the final game of his career, Urbina attacked five farm workers (whom he had suspected of stealing a gun) on his property with a machete, and poured gasoline on them.

He was sentenced to 14 years and seven months in prison for attempted murder. 

That almost sounds like something you'd expect Dwight to do on The Office—the fact that somebody actually attacked his workers with a machete is almost hard to fathom. 

8. Denny McLain, Everything

Former two-time Cy Young-award-winning pitcher Denny McLain couldn't seem to do anything right after retiring.

He was a mess.

McLain gained weight, bringing himself all the way up to 330 pounds at one point.

At different points in his post-retired life he was imprisoned for drug trafficking, embezzlement, mail fraud, conspiracy in connection with the theft of $2.5 million and racketeering with historic gangster John Gotti Jr. 

He also once flew a wanted felon out of the country for $100,000.

7. Marion Jones, Everything

Here's another person who's become an absolute mess since their playing days ended.

Marion Jones was one of the first ever female athletes to become a millionaire.

But now, after going through grueling trials about both accusations of PED use and check fraud (both of which she at first denied), she's fallen hard and has gone bankrupt.

6. Scottie Pippen, Investing

Scottie Pippen earned $120 million throughout his Hall of Fame career. So, how did he manage to go broke?

The same way all rich people do: poor financial planning and investing.

For somebody to blow that much money, you know they really screwed up.

5. Lenny Dykstra, Everything

The story of what exactly happened to former Mets and Phillies outfielder Lenny Dykstra is quite complicated.

How he managed to put himself into bankruptcy is far too much to try to fit into one slide, so I'm going to toss it up to Vince Veneziani of Business Insider for those of you interested. 

4. Isiah Thomas, Becoming NBA Executive

Isiah Thomas was a great NBA player, but he was an awful, AWFUL executive.

Let's just take a look at some of the moves he made as Knicks GM:

He traded for the old, washed-up Jalen Rose and his $16.9 million contract, but then waived him eight months later so he could save $3 million.

He signed Jerome James to a five-year, $30 million contract. James went on to average about three points and one rebound per game in a Knicks uniform.

He traded Antonio McDyess, two first-round picks and money to the Suns for the two large contracts of Stephon Marbury and the past-his-prime Penny Hardaway.

When Penny Hardaway's contract was expiring and the Knicks could finally get some cap relief, they decided to swap him for another huge contract, past-his-prime player Steve Francis.

He made a ridiculous trade for Eddy Curry where he gave away three players, two unprotected first-round picks (No. 2 and No. 9 selection overall), and a second-round pick.

He instigated a brawl between his Knicks and the Denver Nuggets in 2006.

He sexually harassed a former team executive.

And, worst of all, he hired the man responsible for all this turmoil at the Garden as head coach—himself.

3. Roger Clemens, Barry Bonds and Mark McGwire: Denying PED Use

Plenty of baseball players have denied PED use after their retirement, but Roger Clemens, Mark McGwire and Barry Bonds headline the group.

McGwire has eventually admitted to it, but it was too little too late.

We all know they took steroids, they knew that we knew they took steroids, yet they continued to deny it, ruining all credibility.

Guess what guys? Andy Pettitte got caught, and he admitted it. We've gotten over it. Alex Rodriguez got caught, and he came clean. We've gotten over it (most of us at least.)

See the pattern? Those who tell the truth after getting caught don't lose all credibility.  

Denying steroids will forever keep Clemens, McGwire, Bonds and many more out of the Hall.

2. Lawrence Taylor, Everything

Always known as a hard-partying crazy guy off the field, Lawrence Taylor wasn't exactly a model citizen during his playing days.

But after retiring, it appeared L.T. was starting to get his act together. Slowly but surely, he was gaining our respect.

Then 2009 happened.

Taylor was arrested that year for fleeing the scene of an accident after hitting a car. Then, in 2010, he really screwed up.

L.T. allegedly paid a 16-year-old girl $300 to have sex with him.

That'll lose you a whole lot of credibility. 

1. O.J Simpson, What Do You Think?

I won't bore you by sitting here and telling you a story about O.J. Simpson that you've heard 100 times already.

We all know about the glove that wouldn't quite fit.

Instead, I'll tell you an interesting and humorous fact that you probably didn't know about him:

Simpson auditioned for the part that eventually went to Arnold Schwarzenegger in The Terminator, but he didn't get it because James Cameron thought "he was too lovable" to be taken seriously. 

Oh, how things change.