The 50 Most Boring Athletes

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When you think of athletes, what personality traits come to mind?

Cocky? Arrogant? Funny? Possibly even a little aggressive?

How about boring?

Even having some of the greatest athletic skills in the world can’t make all athletes the most interesting people in the world.

Here is a list of 50 of the most boring athletes.

No. 50: Peyton Manning

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Every once in a while, Peyton Manning has a funny or interesting moment, but off the field, for the most part, he's just a strait-laced, quiet guy. These traits don't provide much entertainment for the fans.

No. 49: Michael Jordan

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No, Michael Jordan is obviously not on this list for his playing abilities.

Jordan made the list because of his lack of a personality off the court. It's possible that he went his entire career without giving a single good, deep and actually interesting quote.

Also, just look at his commercials now. Everyone else in the commercial is pretty entertaining, and he just kind of stands there doing nothing.

No. 48: Dwyane Wade

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He may be part of the “Big Three,” but among himself, LeBron James and Chris Bosh, Dwyane Wade is definitely the most boring of the trio.

While he’s still a great player and an all-around good guy, he’s just too quiet and faded into the background a bit before the three actually hit the court together.

No. 47: Eli Manning

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Yes, he won a Super Bowl, and yes, he’s a good quarterback, but he has a plain personality coupled with a very safe approach to playing the game, which makes him one of the least entertaining people to watch in the NFL.

No. 46: Lamar Odom

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He may honestly be one of the nicest professional athletes of all time, but he's just so nice and causes so few problems that sometimes he becomes kind of easy to forget.

That is until you see him playing on the court again.

No. 45: Derek Jeter

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He may have recently earned his 3,000th hit, but off the field, especially during interviews and press conferences, he's boring enough to make people forget why they were listening to him speak in the first place.

No. 44: Joey Votto

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The guy is just too nice.

Not that being nice isn’t a refreshing change in sports, but it really doesn’t add anything to his press conferences or interviews the way a little edge and maybe a little bit of energy can with some of the other players.

No. 43: Scottie Pippen

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Great player, but his voice is so monotone, and his speeches are so boring and slow.

Even his Hall of Fame speech was hard to watch because it was just that boring.

No. 42: Floyd Mayweather Jr.

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Outside the ring, this guy is a hoot, always getting into trouble and trash-talking his opponents.

Inside the ring, though, he's only marginally fun to watch.

No. 41: Barry Sanders

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A football legend, Barry Sanders only makes this list because his off-field personality is enough to put anyone to sleep.

He even announced his retirement in one of the most boring ways ever: by faxing a letter of intent to the Wichita Eagle newspaper.

No. 40: Roy Halladay

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Another athlete on this list whose consistency makes him a boring athlete. 

Every time he comes out to pitch, you know exactly how everything is going to go down, which takes a lot of the excitement and suspense out of the game.

Shockingly, however, he did put out a commercial earlier this year that was kind of funny, but still also kind of boring.

No. 39: Lionel Messi

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He may be one of the best soccer players in the world, but Lionel Messi has the personality of a brick wall.

No. 38: Kris Humphries

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Did he just marry into reality TV royalty?

Yep, but just by watching him on that show, or even following him on Twitter, it's obvious he's not the most interesting man in the world.

No. 37: Sidney Crosby

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This may be the PR team’s favorite player ever.

He may be a tough, aggressive player on the ice, but every interview he gives seems like he is just spouting exactly what his PR team told him to say. No more, no less.

It would be great to see him get a little feistier off the ice in interviews and show off that personality he has on the ice.

No. 36: Joe Sakic

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A decent NHL player, Joe Sakic just didn't seem to have a handle on making great quotes about his performances or about anything in general.

All of his quotes seemed to be generic and lacking in depth, not adding much more information than what fans and reporters already know about the game.

An example of this is a quote from a 2001 game in which he told reporters, “You just want to make sure you try and score and not embarrass yourself out there.”

No. 35: Candace Parker

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She's an amazing athlete, but she happens to play for one of the most boring sports leagues in the world: the WNBA.

On top of playing in a pretty boring league, she isn't all that interesting off the court either. She's another one of those athletes who doesn't add much more than what was already known in the analysis of a game.

No. 34: Georges St. Pierre

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Georges St. Pierre has become increasingly boring with each defense of his title.

It seems like he's doing just the bare minimum to keep his title and not fighting to his full ability, which has made it less and less exciting to watch him fight.

No. 33: Mia Hamm

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Other than being one of the best female soccer players of all time, her interviews and appearances never really wowed the crowds.

Not that she completely blends in, but she doesn't stand out as much as she could.

No. 32: Eric Lindros

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His fiery on-ice persona just doesn't seem to translate off the ice. He is possibly the most boring hockey player to hear speak in an interview or press conference.

No. 31: Roger Federer

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He may be good at what he does, but the repetitive way he plays his game is so monotonous that it's hard to get excited about watching one of his matches.

No. 30: Rafael Palmeiro

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He may have had really great talent on the baseball field, but he never looked like he was having any fun doing it or that he wanted to be on the field, so it became boring to watch him play.

No. 29: Tim Tebow

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For as much hype and criticism as he gets, the guy really isn't all that entertaining or interesting to hear talk about football—or anything else, for that matter—off the field.

On the field is obviously a different story.

No. 28: Steve Mason

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A goalie for the Columbus Blue Jackets, he was really exciting to watch his first year in the NHL but has since lost his first year's luck and has become just another OK goalie in the league.

No. 27: Grant Hill

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He may be one of the oldest guys in the league today, but like some of the other athletes on this list, he doesn't add a whole lot of depth or analysis after or during games.

Good player, but not the most memorable personality in the NBA.

No. 26: Mariano Rivera

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Possibly the least expressive pitcher in the history of the MLB.

Known as one of the great closers, he uses pretty much the same formula every game to strike out the last of his team’s opponents, making it very predictable what he’s going to do next.

No. 25: Ken Shamrock

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This is one of the few cases where the guy isn't totally boring outside the ring, but inside he isn't the most entertaining fighter to watch.

In fact, he's pretty boring to watch.

No. 24: Jimmie Johnson

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This guy gives some of the most snooze-inducing interviews of any major athlete of all time.

Check out this example of just how boring he really is in interviews.

On top of saying all the right things and not going too in-depth with anything, "he's impossible to hate, which ironically makes him tough to love," according to the guys over at Yahoo! Sports.

No. 23: Nick Lidstrom

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One of the safest players in the NHL.

He had the skill and ability to win the Norris Trophy seven times, but watching him play didn’t provide any of the excitement that other players in the league bring to every game, like fistfights or risky shots.

Yes, it worked for him, but it was kind of boring and predictable.

No. 22: Tony Gwynn

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Baseball legend turned analyst, his commentary isn't all that exciting, which makes watching any game he's doing a bore to watch.

No. 21: Curt Schilling

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This guy lacks some serious charisma skills. It felt like reporters were pulling teeth when they interviewed him.

No. 20: Lennox Lewis

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He has a monotone voice, even when he's speaking passionately about something. And he always seemed to have very wordy, long-winded answers to questions.

No. 19: Michael Phelps

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Was it super exciting watching Michael Phelps win eight gold medals in 2008?

Yes, but other than that one stellar performance, he hasn't really made much more of a splash, and in interviews, he is so dry that most people can't concentrate on what he's actually saying.

No. 18: Cal Ripken Jr.

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Ripken may have the record for playing in the most consecutive games, but his style of play was really predictable.

“He’s kind of like that jerk at your job who doesn’t do a single thing of importance while he’s at work, but he shows up even when he’s sick, so people think he’s the best.”—TheSmokingJacket.com

No. 17: Jeff Gordon

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Another professional athlete who says all the right things and moves very carefully so as not to anger anyone who is potentially a customer of any of his sponsors.

No. 16: Shaun Alexander

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This soft-spoken football player is sometimes easy to forget.

His personality didn't stand out against some of the more outspoken players in the NFL, and his inability to really shine both on and off the field sometimes overshadowed his playing abilities.

No. 15: David Duval

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A player who only needs to be seen once to explain why so many people find watching golf on TV to be so incredibly boring.

He always just looks so bored with the whole situation, which in turn makes him boring to watch.

No. 14: Greg Maddux

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Like many of the other athletes on this list, he may have the skill and ability to play his sport well, but he does it in such a boring way that few people notice just how great he can be.

Yahoo! Sports even said this about the former pitcher: "he's about as ferocious as a hound dog asleep on a porch. He'll strike your butt out, but you just might doze through it."

No. 13: Pete Sampras

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His skills on the court made him one talented player, but his quiet, monotone personality made it easy for tennis fans to forget about him.

Sports Illustrated even dubbed him “Boring Pete” for his lack of a sparkling personality.

No. 12: Anna Kournikova

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She's been ranked by Fox Sports as the ninth-most boring athlete in the world, and her interviews prove it.

Other than being a skilled tennis player and model, she doesn't have a whole lot else to draw attention to herself.

No. 11: Tom Glavine

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Did he have the skills to make him interesting to watch on the field?

You bet, but off the field is a whole other story.

It's been said that he has the personality of a robot: dry, to the point and beyond sleep-inducingly boring.

No. 10: Vijay Singh

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Many people feel that if this guy makes it into the finals of a tournament, they can't even watch because he is not only boring to hear, but boring to watch as well.

No. 9: Yao Ming

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There was so much hype and excitement when this giant joined the NBA.

However, after having to sit out for so long due to so many injuries, it stopped being fun to watch him play, if he got to play at all.

No. 8: Emmitt Smith

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If you needed someone to carry the ball consistently every play, you needed to look no further than Emmitt Smith.

While that may sound exciting, almost every play he ever completed during his NFL career consisted of moving the ball maybe three to four yards before making the next down.

TheSmokingJacket.com had this to say about this boring running back’s career: “Someday our kids will ask us about Emmitt Smith, the greatest running back who statistically ever lived, and we’ll point 10-12 feet in front of us and tell them there was no one better at going from here to there than him.”

No. 7: Tiger Woods

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Now some people may disagree with Tiger Woods being on this list, especially after he was caught cheating on his wife with so many different women.

But if you actually listen to him in interviews or watch him in any kind of commercial, you’re bound to start drifting off after only hearing him speak a couple of words.

No. 6: Bernie Williams

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He may have been a great ballplayer, but he was super into jazz, which is boring in itself.

He was also the most soft-spoken and least outgoing of his teammates during his time with the Yankees.

No. 5: Brad Johnson

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Here is yet another athlete who had tons of talent but wasn't all that exciting to watch or listen to because he never seemed to get excited about anything.

Johnson was even pretty monotone when his team won.

No. 4: Kurt Warner

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His super clean image and overly nice personality make it kind of easy to forget about him.

Even his Twitter account can put fans to sleep.

No. 3: John Stockton

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He still holds the title for most assists in the NBA, but other than that he didn’t do anything to make his game any more exciting.

Not many people pay much attention to assists, and his simple and safe playing style made him a bore to watch.

No. 2: Marvin Harrison

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During his run in the NFL, he always seemed to be the awkward, quiet one on his teams that everyone seemed to forget about.

Not only did he not do very many interviews—and if he did, they weren't all that informative or interesting—but he would also sit a bit away from the rest of his team on the sidelines.

No. 1: Tim Duncan

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Despite having back-to-back MVP titles, being the first overall pick in the ’97 draft and becoming Rookie of the Year in his career, this guy had one of the most boring and forgettable personalities in all of sports.

As Sports Illustrated put it, “Duncan is good. Real good. But, all in all, we’d rather have Shaq over for dinner.”