10 Athletes Who Have to Save Their Careers in 2016
The career of a professional athlete can be over in an instant.
A football player who suffers a torn ACL because of a wrong step during practice may never be the same. Every Major League Baseball pitcher is an injured shoulder away from potentially having to step away from the game. Fate can be cruel, which has proved to be true in the sports world time after time, each and every year.
Some athletes, however, are lucky enough to receive second chances. These individuals are, in certain instances, easy to cheer for, because we as a society love comeback stories. That is true even for an athlete who has been his own worst enemy in one way or another.
It is not a secret that quarterback Robert Griffin III was not beloved among everybody within the locker room of the Washington Redskins during the final years of his tenure with the club. The former phenom known as RG3 has been given a chance to save his career in Cleveland with the Browns.
Former Cleveland Browns QB Johnny Manziel is a different case. What Manziel can be as a NFL player may never be known if Manziel does not conquer the personal issues that resulted in his departure from Cleveland. 2016 could, all things considered, be a pivotal year more for Manziel the person than for Manziel the pro athlete.
Not every comeback story has a happy ending. Odds are that at least one of the athletes featured in this piece will fall flat in 2016 before ultimately becoming a "Where are they now?" bit of sports trivia. All we know for sure as of the end of March is that the next eight months could make or break the careers of each of the following athletes.
No pressure.
Derrick Rose
1 of 10
Any discussions about Derrick Rose being the man to lead the Chicago Bulls to a National Basketball Association championship have been replaced with talk that the Bulls could shop Rose and other members of the roster this coming summer.
It has been five years since Rose was physically capable of earning Most Valuable Player honors. Since that time, Rose has suffered multiple serious knee injuries that have sidelined him for significant amounts of time. Rose's name is no longer mentioned in MVP conversations, as the likes of Stephen Curry and Kawhi Leonard have leapfrogged ahead of him.
Steve Rosenbloom of the Chicago Tribune believes that the time has come for the Bulls to press the figurative reset button and try to trade Rose and maybe even Jimmy Butler this summer. "A change would do you good," sang Sheryl Crow roughly two decades ago, and that could be true for both Rose and the Bulls.
Those of us who cannot see into the future cannot say for sure that Rose will be able to remain healthy for an entire NBA season. Assuming that the Bulls will be sellers a few months down the road, at least one franchise will have to take a chance that Rose will be able to contribute for more than a handful of months.
By the end of December, Rose could be a franchise player for a different NBA team, or he could just be a guy who used to be great and is but a shell of his former self.
We shall see.
Johnny Manziel
2 of 10
Maybe Johnny Manziel doesn't want to play in the NFL. Perhaps Manziel is just fine living off the millions of dollars that he gained from two years of service with the Cleveland Browns and the fame that he earned with his on-field play at Texas A&M and his off-field lifestyle. We may never again see Manziel perform in a meaningful professional game.
Kevin Sumlin, Manziel's college coach, recently talked about what Manziel needs to do in 2016 if the former "Johnny Football" wants to find a different NFL home this year, per Matt Young of the Houston Chronicle:
""Pro football is a job," Sumlin said. "I know from his competitive nature he loves the game. Without a doubt, there's a lot of things going on in his life that if he's serious about playing professional football he's got to change. Whatever that perception is has become reality for him, and he's got to look that in the eye and say, 'Alright, here's the situation. Here's what people think. What are the issues right now?' He's got to address those. He's a great competitor, and when he was here he loved the game of football, he loved to practice, he loved to play the game. That's got to translate in his actions in the clubhouse or with his team. The perception that he doesn't care, he's got to deal with that, and the only way to deal with that is to show up and work at it every day."
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Those of us who do not personally know Manziel can only speculate about his alleged issues whenever a new story about his partying ways goes public via TMZ or some other source. At the very least, though, it seems as if Manziel could do a better job of showing the desire to put in the necessary work to be a competent NFL quarterback.
Holly Holm
3 of 10
Those who were around and were sports fans when Buster Douglas knocked Mike Tyson out in 1990 are familiar with Douglas' story. Douglas was a no-name fighter before he notched one of the biggest upsets in the history of heavyweight boxing. The fame and fortune went to his head, Douglas was dominated by Evander Holyfield in his one and only title defense and he never again competed in a high-profile contest.
Former Ultimate Fighting Championship bantamweight champion Holly Holm needs to do whatever possible to avoid going down that same route.
It would be understandable if Holm felt a little sorry for herself right now. Holm went from being an unknown fighter among those who are not diehard UFC fans to one of the biggest names in all of mixed martial arts after she defeated the previously unbeaten Ronda Rousey last November.
Rousey was unable and/or unwilling to commit to a date for a rematch that would have been worth millions of dollars for the UFC and for both fighters, and thus Holm scheduled a title defense versus Miesha Tate for March 2016.
Tate choked Holm out in the fifth round of that encounter.
Holm is now the odd woman out. Tate will defend her championship versus Rousey later this year if Rousey is committed to returning to the Octagon. Cris Cyborg will make her UFC debut in May and could be next in line for a title fight if she wins that match. Holm, meanwhile, could be left without a seat when the music stops.
Holm will fight again in 2016 if she wants. That fight probably won't involve either Tate or Rousey. A loss against a currently unnamed opponent could take her out of the title picture for good.
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Josh Hamilton
4 of 10
Josh Hamilton could have been the face of big league baseball for a decade at least.
In in his prime, he was a mainstay in the MLB All-Star Game and a player capable of winning the MVP award. We know that Hamilton has also been involved with a battle against drug and alcohol addiction since the early days of his career, and that war will leave fans and perhaps even Hamilton wondering what could have been for such a promising young athlete.
Addiction, a disease for which there is no absolute cure, is not the only concern for Hamilton as the start of the 2016 MLB season approaches. The 34-year-old is expected to be sidelined because of a knee injury up through the end of April. Evan Grant of SportsDay explained in a piece that was published last week:
"And (Hamilton) had yet another cortisone injection, he revealed, to the back of the knee on March 14 in Arlington. That's in addition to the injection of stem cells he received and a cortisone injection during a visit to the Andrews Sports Medicine clinic in late February. While Hamilton said he felt improvement in the joint area, he was still complaining of lack of function in the back part of the knee two weeks later, which is what led to the second injection.
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A fully healthy Hamilton could be a candidate for Comeback Player of the Year honors. Will Hamilton's knee flare up during the hot summer months? Will he re-injure his shoulder on a swing of the bat during the grueling MLB campaign?
The answers to these questions will impact the life of Hamilton's career past 2016.
Carmelo Anthony
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Some may be surprised to see Carmelo Anthony on the list. Anthony will be just 32 later this spring. As long as he does not suffer a serious injury at some point, he should be able to continue playing in the NBA through the end of the decade.
Saving a career does not necessarily mean prolonging it. For Anthony, saving his career in 2016 will mean putting himself in a position where he can win a championship, if that is his top goal at this point of his career.
The New York Knicks aren't winning a championship with Anthony on the roster. It isn't happening. The Knicks don't have the available cap space to build a roster that can defeat a Cleveland Cavaliers team that has LeBron James, Kevin Love and Kyrie Irving in a playoff series. James is not leaving Cleveland to take a pay cut and play for the Knicks in 2016.
Anybody with any real knowledge of the situation can see that Anthony and the Knicks need to part ways.
Anthony is now sick and tired of having to talk about where he will be playing past this season. Fred Kerber of the New York Post recently wrote about this following a New York loss to Cleveland:
"LeBron James was in town. James had just scored a triple-double. The Knicks had just lost for the 44th time in 74 games.
So the question went to Carmelo Anthony.
Would you be willing to waive the no-trade clause if it meant playing with LeBron in Cleveland?
“I don’t want to talk about that man, I’d rather not talk about a no-trade clause after losing,” said Anthony, after the Knicks were throttled, 107-93, at the Garden by the East’s No. 1 team. “I don’t want to talk about that no more this season to be honest with you.”
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Anthony has had a fine NBA career. He has made a fortune playing in the league and will make millions upon millions of dollars if he remains with the Knicks. To save his NBA championship dreams, though, Anthony needs to see the writing on the wall and leave the Knicks this coming summer.
Jon Jones
6 of 10
The sun rising in the east and setting in the west. Death. Taxes. UFC competitor Jon Jones making headlines for regrettable reasons.
You can set your watch to all of them.
Jones became the youngest champion in UFC history when he won the light heavyweight championship back in 2011. Only 23 years old at the time, Jones seemed to have the goods to be one of the greatest professional fighters in the history of MMA.
Jones has also been unable to avoid controversy. The most significant incident as it pertains to his career occurred in April 2015 when he was arrested on hit-and-run charges following an automobile accident. While Jones is set to face Daniel Cormier for the light heavyweight championship next month, he is again in trouble with the law as March concludes.
TMZ reported the story on March 29:
"Jon Jones was booked in New Mexico for violating his probation moments ago -- and posed for a brand new mug shot after turning himself in ... TMZ Sports has learned.
We're told a judge had issued a warrant for the UFC star's arrest for violating the terms of his probation after he was cited for drag racing in Albuquerque last week.
Jones was sentenced to probation last year after being convicted in a hit and run case in which the UFC star crashed into a pregnant woman's car and then ran from the scene on foot.
One of the terms of Jones' probation was to not get into any trouble with the law -- and the judge felt the drag racing citation qualified as a violation.
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Whether or not this latest arrest will affect Jones' immediate UFC future, it would nevertheless not be a stretch to say that the former champion needs to make smarter life choices.
We have some advice:
- Download Uber and Lyft, Jon, and use those services on a daily basis from now on.
- Do not even think of doing anything that might break any law. Use crosswalks when you make journeys across streets; we're serious.
- Pass every drug test given to you with flying colors.
Jones does not have to win his next fight to have a career in UFC past 2016. He is still a big name and will draw eyes and money whenever he fights. UFC boss Dana White may have no other choice than to rethink Jones' status with the company, though, if Jones cannot stay out of trouble for longer than several months.
Mark Sanchez
7 of 10
The life and times of quarterback Mark Sanchez read like the events of an opera or Greek tragedy.
Sanchez was selected with the fifth overall pick of the 2009 NFL draft by the New York Jets. The young man referred to by some Gang Green supporters as "The Sanchize" helped the Jets play in back-to-back conference championship games, and Sanchez even outperformed Tom Brady in a postseason contest against the New England Patriots.
The marriage between Sanchez and then-New York head coach Rex Ryan never seemed to be on solid ground. That relationship ended when Sanchez suffered a shoulder injury during a preseason game against the New York Giants in August 2013. Sanchez then failed to cement himself as the starting QB of the Philadelphia Eagles while with the club for two seasons.
Even joining the reigning Super Bowl champions is not necessarily a plus for Sanchez. Sanchez joins a Denver Broncos team that just had Peyton Manning, a living legend of the NFL and a future member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, lead it to a championship. Denver head coach Gary Kubiak is not committing to naming Sanchez his starting QB for the 2016 campaign, per Mark Maske of the Washington Post:
"“Whoever we bring in, it’s about competition,” Kubiak said. “We’re not gonna give anybody a job. … We’ve got a good football team. So whoever comes in and plays that position for us is gonna have to earn it. And we feel like that’s across the board for our team. Obviously it’s gonna be a new face for us. I think our players will be excited, whoever we’ve got in there. If they’re busting their tail and proving every day they can be the guy for our football team, I think our players will rally around him just like they did around Brock last year when Brock played the seven games he played in. Like I said, [it’s] another challenge to work through.”
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Concerns about salary-cap space will not prevent the Broncos from taking a QB in the 2016 draft. The possibility exists that a rookie could impress Kubiak enough to take the starting gig from Sanchez. Were that to happen, Sanchez could find himself as a backup for more than just the upcoming season.
Yasiel Puig
8 of 10
Who could have imagined back in the fall of 2013 that Yasiel Puig would make such a list less than three years later?
Puig was every bit as good as advertised during his rookie campaign with the Los Angeles Dodgers. He batted .319, had a .925 OPS and drove home 42 RBI in 2013. The sky was the limit for the future star.
2015 could not have gone much worse for Puig. Lingering hamstring injuries resulted in Puig playing in only 79 games. Puig hit only .255 during the regular season and was largely an afterthought come October.
As Aamer Ishrati of Dodgers Way explained, Puig's health and lack of production were only part of the problem:
"Those of you who have read Molly Knight’s excellent book The Best Team Money Can Buy, which came out last July, you’ll remember some of the negative revelations that were made about Puig’s character; including the story about a barely-avoided physical confrontation with Zack Greinke. If that wasn’t enough to indicate a schism between Puig and his fellow teammates, Scott Van Slyke‘s father Andy later went on record stating that Clayton Kershaw had asked the front office to trade the young Cuban outfielder. While these isolated reports are not enough to label him as a universally despised figure in the clubhouse, where there is smoke, there is usually at least a little bit of fire.
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Baseball has a long history of teams putting up with talented players who were also headaches. Albert Belle was rarely pleasant while slugging home runs for the Cleveland Indians, but he was also a key component to those Cleveland teams that competed for titles.
You can be sure that some within the New York Mets don't love that slugger Yoenis Cespedes goes golfing on game days, but Cespedes was also a gem for the Mets in 2015.
When you compare his stats to those of other outfielders, Puig is just a guy, and the Dodgers may decide later this year that the 25-year-old is not worth the trouble.
What happens to Puig if Los Angeles gives up on him? Some team would take a chance of him, of course, but the damage to Puig's career may have already been done in that case.
Ishrati put it best when he stated that the only thing for sure about Puig is that nothing is certain:
"With Yasiel Puig, literally anything could go wrong. At any time. Or it could go right. Who knows? I would hardly be surprised if he walked up to the plate with a lightsaber and started slicing balls in half. That’s part of what makes him such an exciting talent.
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Cris Cyborg
9 of 10
When will Cris "Cyborg" Justino and Ronda Rousey battle it out inside of the cage? It is the question that MMA fans around the world have been asking for years.
When Cyborg signed with the UFC in 2015, it was seemingly only a matter of time before the two fought for Rousey's championship.
That is no longer the case.
First, there is zero guarantee that Rousey will ever fight again. Rousey has options outside of the UFC. The former champion has already earned multiple movie roles and has appeared at WrestleMania. Perhaps Rousey could follow in the footsteps of former UFC champion Brock Lesnar and sign for World Wrestling Entertainment.
At the other end of the equation is Cyborg, a woman who is an unproven commodity in the UFC. Cyborg, a champion for the Invicta promotion, is set to make her UFC debut in May. That will be a 140-pound catchweight fight.
Can Cyborg prove that she can get down to 135 pounds in order to compete in the UFC as a bantamweight? Will a woman who failed a drug test several years ago (h/t MMAJunkie.com) pass tests while signed by the UFC? Will Cyborg win in the UFC?
Each of these questions must be answered before Cyborg has any chance of fighting Rousey or competing for a UFC title.
The UFC women's division is already popular. Any fight involving Rousey, Miesha Tate or Holly Holm will do good business for the company. Cyborg is a luxury, not a must for UFC. One loss, one instance of missing weight for a fight or one failed drug test could be enough for the UFC to move on from Cyborg.
Robert Griffin III
10 of 10
The past is the past. What's done is done.
Robert Griffin III cannot go back in time and redo things as a member of the Washington Redskins. Perhaps Griffin was not the best of teammates while with the Redskins. Maybe the multiple injuries that have sidelined Griffin during his career are the main reason he and the Redskins parted ways earlier this year.
None of that matters anymore. Griffin has been given a chance to resurrect his NFL career with the Cleveland Browns.
One thing working in Griffin's favor is that quarterback guru Hue Jackson is currently serving as head coach of the Browns. Jackson could be the ideal coach to turn Griffin back into a winner.
The negative, as those who follow the NFL know, is that Cleveland has been where QBs have gone to die since the Browns returned to the NFL back in 1999.
The Browns will take a quarterback at some point during the 2016 NFL draft. They may do so with the second overall pick. They may do so later in the draft. Jackson could decide that he wants to draft multiple QBs.
Cleveland has zero ties to Griffin past 2016. Griffin's two-year contract with the Browns is essentially a one-year "show me" deal, one the Browns can move on from next winter without suffering a massive financial blow, according to Spotrac.
What happens over the next eight months could determine how we remember Griffin years and even decades from now. Can Griffin stay healthy? Has he been humbled by what happened in Washington to the point that he will be a true leader in the locker room and on the field? Will he win?
Griffin isn't leading the Browns to the Super Bowl this coming season. Winning games will be only part of the rehabilitation of RG3. Silencing critics and ending perceptions that he is injury-prone and a diva are musts if he is to have a meaningful career in the NFL past 2016.
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